Season 5 Frustations (rant/spoilers) by Arcadia

BUFFYVERSE

Season 5 Frustations (rant/spoilers)

POSTED BY: ARCADIA
UPDATED: Friday, September 8, 2006 05:39
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Thursday, September 7, 2006 6:10 PM

Season Five Frustrations

Season Five has always been one of my favorite season’s of Buffy. I love Glory, she’s great. I love Anya and Tara. I really love Dawn. I continue to be amazed by all the emotionally highs and lows the characters, and especially Buffy, are put through this season. The Joyce plot line… wow! Plus, being an older sister, seeing Buffy and Dawn just really gets to me (in a good way, often tear-jerking).

But there are so many little things about this season that annoy me! “Shadow” and “Listening to Fear” have amazingly powerful emotional arcs for Buffy and Dawn – but the monsters of the week? An alien and a giant snake? I like the function of these demons, especially the alien queller demon, but… an alien and a giant snake? Okay, the snake would have been fine, except that the effects were horrible. I guess the alien kind of mirrors how alien mental illness can feel, but they just didn’t spend enough time on it for it to work at all.

And then there’s “Spiral”, aka the episode that nearly killed the season. I understand what it wanted to do, that the writers wants to show just how frightened Buffy was by making her run, that they needed to put her in a position to have Dawn snatched so she could go catatonic… but it just didn’t work. I mean, how likely is it that the Scooby gang would follow her so blindly? Running, even in the context, didn’t seem like a Buffy thing to do. Or maybe it was the way she ran, so blindly. She knows better at this point in her life. We know she knows better. And yet… *shrug*

I remember really loving “Weight of the World” when it aired, but rewatching it… it just felt lacking. I liked Buffy’s fixation on the moment she “killed” her sister, but it seemed to me that Willow saying “well, you need to snap out of it” was just too cliché and a bit insensitive. I understand getting Buffy back was uber-necessary, but it could have been handled better. Or never done at all.

“The Gift” was amazing, how it all came together, Buffy’s sacrifice. I kinda wish I could have seen Buffy actually give her speech, instead of the voice over, but…. Also, curing Tara seemed a bit too easy. I love Tara, and that was one of the things that made “Tough Love” so amazing. Maybe this was just mean to show how powerful Willow’s becoming? But it didn’t quite work.

Oh season five… why do you have these little annoyances that plague me so, why?

edit: okay. just rewatched "The Gift" and I don't mind the Willow thing quite as much as I though.

Arcadia (aka Greyfable and/or Katie)
www.stillflying.net -- picking up Firefly were Joss left off. We will hold 'til he gets back.

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Friday, September 8, 2006 5:09 AM

CHRISISALL

So many rants; so little time....

I never bought that the key had to be Dawn, because of the whole soul thing; they made this ball of energy a person, with extensive memories and feelings, but they forgot to show the scene where the Monks went to the local Souls-R-Us?!?!
And if Dawn was patterened after (or part of- whatever) Buffy, why no physical resemblance at all?

I had the same problem with Glory that I had with Angellus in S2, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?? She took SO long to do her stuff, and wasn't smart enough to know when she needed a recharge? The actress was phenominal, but the bad was weak IMO.

Riley's leaving was too calculated- his hang up on Buffy needing a bad in her boy was good, but going to a vamp crack-house was plain stupid, and Riley wasn't the stupid kind; I wish that break-up had been handled as realistically as Joyce's death was...

Tara's limited mental functions act bored me.

Buffy's whole retreat into a catatonic thing was lame all the way around, she wouldn't leave her friends in danger.

The Gift was excellent, but not so much because of the plot or writing, Joss' direction was impeccable.

All in all, Fool For Love, The Body and The Gift saved an otherwise hokey, weak season, just like Harsh Light Of Day, Hush, Primal, Restless and Faith's eps saved the otherwise hokey S4 (Adam was STUPID, STUPID, STUPID)- IMHO.
( But, as you can see, I liked 4 better than 5 )

6 & 7 were vast improvements!

Dark reviewer Chrisisall

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Friday, September 8, 2006 5:30 AM

REGINAROADIE

Actually, the "Spiral" episode never bothered me. I mean, when you're going up against a God, then making a retreat to come up with a better battle strategy would seem the logical conclusion, which is something they should have remembered in season 7.

But the main reason I liked the ep was that you got to see them on the road and all the humor involved. Like Giles' dead-pan reply to Spike pulling up in a really bad RV, Xander being car-sick, Anya saying "Are we there yet?" and after Buffy and Dawn's tender moment, an axe (or something else, I forget), going through the wall and Buffy replying "OK, that was your fault."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
"There's only one "Return" ok, and it ain't "of the King", it's "of the Jedi."

"Maybe we should start calling your friend 'Padme' because he loves 'Mannequin Skywalker' so much, Right? (imitating robot) Danger...danger...my name is Anakin...my shitty acting is ruining saga."

Excerpt of internet teaser for CLERKS 2.

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Friday, September 8, 2006 5:39 AM

CHRISISALL

Quote:
Originally posted by reginaroadie:

But the main reason I liked the ep was that you got to see them on the road and all the humor involved. Like Giles' dead-pan reply to Spike pulling up in a really bad RV, Xander being car-sick, Anya saying "Are we there yet?" and after Buffy and Dawn's tender moment, an axe (or something else, I forget), going through the wall and Buffy replying "OK, that was your fault."

Yeah, there was all that, and Spike getting the arrow in the shoulder ("Bloody Hell"), lots of great moments there, but now another rant:

How did those guys smuggle that much sheer weight in armour into the U.S.? And weapons? AND HORSES??
(Okay, maybe the horses were 'aquired' here...)

Pickey nit Chrisisall

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