Arbitrar Of Quality
2006-09-01 05:17:18 UTC
A reminder: Please avoid spoilers for later episodes in these review
threads.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Season Six, Episode 21: "Grave"
(or "I'm above/Over you I'm standing above/Claiming unconditional
love/Above")
Writer: David Fury
Director: James A. Contner
As I pull myself out of the pit of staring at the computer screen,
facing the bright sunrise of taking a break from posting reviews, I'm
not quite sure if things should be this way. But they seem right.
"Grave" is unexpected for me; it didn't seem like the direction
things were going, although it makes some sense in retrospect. The
"obvious" way things were going was towards something like "Two
To Go," with an ending five minutes later. That was the standard big
confrontation, so the story was now free to go somewhere else for the
second half of the finale. Between Buffy saving herself but not really
the world, Willow's recovery, and the open-endedness, I'm not quite
sure yet what to make of it all. All of these things threw me a
little, and I think I'm coming to terms with them now. But not sure.
The one thing I can be sure of is the profound disappointment that came
from seeing that the DVD included a commentary from David and James
Contner, and realizing that this would be the first BTVS finale not to
be written and directed by the series creator, who was I guess off
creating another series. It lets me understand some of the abandonment
that fans must have felt at the time. Granted, the rest of the staff
have handled themselves very well this year, coming up with the second
or third best season of _Buffy_ thus far. And granted, I wouldn't
trade _Firefly_ for anything else on TV, not even more Joss involvement
in his other shows. But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, a
little bit. It caused me to panic and flip through the episode book
just to reassure myself that Joss would at least still write the series
finale.
What's Giles been up to? I miss the glasses; wonder what's up
there? Hopefully it's a magic thing rather than an
alternative-corrective thing, so that he can get back to giving a good
name to bespectacled heroes in future appearances. The intermittent
magic fights between him and Willow tend to crackle, and it's an
impressively natural reincorporation of a character who's spent
twelve consecutive episodes off-screen. The scene in which he and
Buffy break down laughing while recounting the deeply hilarious events
of S6 works for me, and I don't really know why. Maybe seeing Buffy
talk about sleeping with Spike with only a minimum of shame or
hesitation, followed by the laughter, feels healing, maybe more so than
the end of the episode. As it turns out, Rupert's benefactors are
"The Coven," and his powers have a purpose which he doesn't
mention because, well, it's in the script. The revelation there is a
bit surprising because of manipulative rather than good writing -
I'd expected that he'd meant to deliver some kind of sabotage, then
was thrown a little when he acted as if Willow draining him was an
unexpected development.
Speaking of that, one place in which the execution falls somewhat flat
is after Willow takes a hit off Giles's power. Hannigan's delivery
on "whoa, head rush" is (appropriately) classic Willow, but the
rest of the scene is forced to have her try to tell and not show so the
audience can follow what she's going through. And since she's
tripping or whatever, she has to do... it... one... word... at...
a... time... while the director hooks the camera up to a vibrator. I
can tell right now that I'm going to find this part excruciating
during re-watches. The idea behind it does raise a few interesting
points. One thing that seems to be going on in the background is magic
as almost a living thing with inherent qualities. Or, more accurately,
different types of magic bring out different aspects of what was inside
the spellcaster all along. I noticed that Willow didn't entirely go
from Dark to Evil until after absorbing Rack last episode. This time,
as soon as she takes in the powers that Giles has borrowed, she's all
about compassion for others' pain, and trying to "fix" it.
Willow trying to use magic to make things better always works out so
well, too. Actually the fact that she doesn't end up killing any
innocent people means that things worked out better than anyone had any
right to hope, so...
Things I've learned: the only way to dodge a glowing ball of fire is
to have someone shove you a few inches. Otherwise, you're powerless
to escape. That lesson certainly ought to be inapplicable elsewhere in
life.
Nothing much to say about it, but I like the Xander/Dawn exchange, as
tempers fray and people talk about the things that they kinda wanted to
reveal anyway.
The stuff in the titular grave also has some very worthwhile ideas that
suffer some in execution. Take, for example, Buffy running to help
Dawn, only to find that she's doing quite well for herself with the
sword-swingin'. Nice thought, but, uh, "what? You think I never
watched you?" Now, generally speaking, one does not learn
swordsmanship by watching, and someone with no training who's not a
supernatural creature could not pull that off. One of the more blatant
examples of the show's sometimes unfortunate tendency to go for the
symbolism at the expense of the literal story. Well, the whole
sequence is that way. Another example is the way the two of them start
to get attacked, then things pause long enough for Buffy to very
deliberately ask for help in a mini-speech, and then the monsters are
ready to fight again once they have the script's okay. Also, the
rising-from-the-grave imagery could stand a little less bluntness.
It is odd seeing Buffy not be the final hero of the day. Since S6 has
been the most insular of all so far, maybe it's to be expected that
the internal issues would be more important for her. Or maybe it's
just time for someone else to step up. Xander certainly does that,
with that kind of insane fearlessness that only he can manage. I think
Brendon is as impressive as his character is on his half of the scene,
totally convincing me that Xander is capable of this kind of
unflinching emotion. He's the heart of the group, and it's easy to
forget that role given the rarity of those special times when his
physical courage matches with knowing when to use it - not as
outlandish as Anya would maybe like to think, though. The second of
the three strange things I mentioned in the intro is that Willow could
in fact be stopped or redeemed this way. Especially given that we've
seen her collapse crying once already this year, and given that any
scene like this is going to pale next to FxF... well, I can see why
some viewers might have a problem with it, or think the show goes too
easy on her, or is too melodramatic. That's because I kinda feel like
I "should" too, but I don't. I don't know if it's the power
of context, writing, or acting, but this part has the sheer force of
something on its side. One has to wonder how strong her "spark of
humanity" was: it does seem either convenient or not-coincidental
that she would suggest that "you're going to stop me by telling me
you love me?" Kinda handing Xander the key to do exactly that.
Say what you will about Xander as a "best friend," but he seems to
take attempts to kill him remarkably well, as a general rule.
Meanwhile, Buffy also breaks down in (happier) tears and asks Dawn to
forgive her for not putting together the theme of Season Six until the
finale. I dunno. The distinction between living in the world and
avoiding it is worth making, and in principle I'm in favor of it, but
the scene seems overwrought. Why do these epiphanies always have to be
so talky and full of wrenching sobs and hugs and such? I'm naturally
more likely to buy into tragedy than triumph, just cuz I'm all
cynical and stuff. But I do think this plays out awkwardly, especially
on the heels of the equally melodramatic but much-fewer-wasted-words
X/W exchange. This makes it hard for me to properly appreciate the
Montage O' Healing And Sunrise.
Finally, the show ends with Spike being restored to what he was. Or
not, since he just got his soul back without any mention of humanity,
and he's never been a souled vampire before. And of course, these
last few episodes have been all faux-clever in the word choice, with
still another deliberate misdirect. I really was expecting his story
to cross paths with the others again. That's part of what I mean
when I talk about the open-ended finale, more so than the end of any
other season (even "Primeval"/"Restless," taken together,
brought us to more of a stopping point). Buffy may have finally
emerged from Hell, but Willow is not exactly Normal Again, Anya still
has to figure out where she wants to be in the world, and Spike clearly
has a lot of story left to tell. I think the explanation for this
feeling is that BTVS always tends to finish off its villain and its
"main plot" at the end of the year, but leave the character arcs in
flux. Well, it's the same approach here, except that the villains
that aren't Willow and Spike have been such a minor part of the S6
story that there's very little "main plot" that's separable
from the character development.
See y'all in a little bit. And closing things on a flippant note,
who's this Tahr-rah person that Giles keeps going on about?
So...
One-sentence summary: Seems to mostly work, but it's hard to be sure;
my rating is tentative.
AOQ rating: Good
[Season Six ratings:
1) "Bargaining" - Decent
2) "After Life" - Good
3) "Flooded" - Decent
4) "Life Serial" - Good
5) "All The Way" - Good
6) "Once More, With Feeling" - Excellent
7) "Tabula Rasa" - Good
8) "Smashed" - Decent
9) "Wrecked" - Good
10) "Gone" - Decent
11) "Doublemeat Palace" - Decent
12) "Dead Things" - Good
13) "Older And Far Away" - Good
14) "As You Were" - Decent
15) "Hell's Bells" - Weak
16) "Normal Again" - Excellent
17) "Entropy" - Decent
18) "Seeing Red" - Good
19) "Villains" - Good
20) "Two To Go" - Excellent
21) "Grave" - Good]
BY THE NUMBERS
[Note: "Bargaining" is counted twice]
_Buffy The Vampire Slayer_ Season Six
Bad - 0
Weak - 1
Decent - 8
Good - 10
Excellent - 3
Average rating: 3.68 ["Good minus"] (Decent=3)
Quality Percentage [% of episodes ranking Good or higher]: 62%
_Buffy The Vampire Slayer_ so far
Bad - 2
Weak - 10
Decent - 39
Good - 51
Excellent - 20
Ratings by season:
S1: Mean = 3.67, 50% quality
S2: Mean = 3.55, 64% quality
S3: Mean= 3.86, 68% quality
S4: Mean= 3.5, 55% quality
S5: Mean = 3.55, 50% quality
S6: Mean = 3.68, 62% quality
Series so far: Mean = 3.63, 58% quality
threads.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Season Six, Episode 21: "Grave"
(or "I'm above/Over you I'm standing above/Claiming unconditional
love/Above")
Writer: David Fury
Director: James A. Contner
As I pull myself out of the pit of staring at the computer screen,
facing the bright sunrise of taking a break from posting reviews, I'm
not quite sure if things should be this way. But they seem right.
"Grave" is unexpected for me; it didn't seem like the direction
things were going, although it makes some sense in retrospect. The
"obvious" way things were going was towards something like "Two
To Go," with an ending five minutes later. That was the standard big
confrontation, so the story was now free to go somewhere else for the
second half of the finale. Between Buffy saving herself but not really
the world, Willow's recovery, and the open-endedness, I'm not quite
sure yet what to make of it all. All of these things threw me a
little, and I think I'm coming to terms with them now. But not sure.
The one thing I can be sure of is the profound disappointment that came
from seeing that the DVD included a commentary from David and James
Contner, and realizing that this would be the first BTVS finale not to
be written and directed by the series creator, who was I guess off
creating another series. It lets me understand some of the abandonment
that fans must have felt at the time. Granted, the rest of the staff
have handled themselves very well this year, coming up with the second
or third best season of _Buffy_ thus far. And granted, I wouldn't
trade _Firefly_ for anything else on TV, not even more Joss involvement
in his other shows. But that doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, a
little bit. It caused me to panic and flip through the episode book
just to reassure myself that Joss would at least still write the series
finale.
What's Giles been up to? I miss the glasses; wonder what's up
there? Hopefully it's a magic thing rather than an
alternative-corrective thing, so that he can get back to giving a good
name to bespectacled heroes in future appearances. The intermittent
magic fights between him and Willow tend to crackle, and it's an
impressively natural reincorporation of a character who's spent
twelve consecutive episodes off-screen. The scene in which he and
Buffy break down laughing while recounting the deeply hilarious events
of S6 works for me, and I don't really know why. Maybe seeing Buffy
talk about sleeping with Spike with only a minimum of shame or
hesitation, followed by the laughter, feels healing, maybe more so than
the end of the episode. As it turns out, Rupert's benefactors are
"The Coven," and his powers have a purpose which he doesn't
mention because, well, it's in the script. The revelation there is a
bit surprising because of manipulative rather than good writing -
I'd expected that he'd meant to deliver some kind of sabotage, then
was thrown a little when he acted as if Willow draining him was an
unexpected development.
Speaking of that, one place in which the execution falls somewhat flat
is after Willow takes a hit off Giles's power. Hannigan's delivery
on "whoa, head rush" is (appropriately) classic Willow, but the
rest of the scene is forced to have her try to tell and not show so the
audience can follow what she's going through. And since she's
tripping or whatever, she has to do... it... one... word... at...
a... time... while the director hooks the camera up to a vibrator. I
can tell right now that I'm going to find this part excruciating
during re-watches. The idea behind it does raise a few interesting
points. One thing that seems to be going on in the background is magic
as almost a living thing with inherent qualities. Or, more accurately,
different types of magic bring out different aspects of what was inside
the spellcaster all along. I noticed that Willow didn't entirely go
from Dark to Evil until after absorbing Rack last episode. This time,
as soon as she takes in the powers that Giles has borrowed, she's all
about compassion for others' pain, and trying to "fix" it.
Willow trying to use magic to make things better always works out so
well, too. Actually the fact that she doesn't end up killing any
innocent people means that things worked out better than anyone had any
right to hope, so...
Things I've learned: the only way to dodge a glowing ball of fire is
to have someone shove you a few inches. Otherwise, you're powerless
to escape. That lesson certainly ought to be inapplicable elsewhere in
life.
Nothing much to say about it, but I like the Xander/Dawn exchange, as
tempers fray and people talk about the things that they kinda wanted to
reveal anyway.
The stuff in the titular grave also has some very worthwhile ideas that
suffer some in execution. Take, for example, Buffy running to help
Dawn, only to find that she's doing quite well for herself with the
sword-swingin'. Nice thought, but, uh, "what? You think I never
watched you?" Now, generally speaking, one does not learn
swordsmanship by watching, and someone with no training who's not a
supernatural creature could not pull that off. One of the more blatant
examples of the show's sometimes unfortunate tendency to go for the
symbolism at the expense of the literal story. Well, the whole
sequence is that way. Another example is the way the two of them start
to get attacked, then things pause long enough for Buffy to very
deliberately ask for help in a mini-speech, and then the monsters are
ready to fight again once they have the script's okay. Also, the
rising-from-the-grave imagery could stand a little less bluntness.
It is odd seeing Buffy not be the final hero of the day. Since S6 has
been the most insular of all so far, maybe it's to be expected that
the internal issues would be more important for her. Or maybe it's
just time for someone else to step up. Xander certainly does that,
with that kind of insane fearlessness that only he can manage. I think
Brendon is as impressive as his character is on his half of the scene,
totally convincing me that Xander is capable of this kind of
unflinching emotion. He's the heart of the group, and it's easy to
forget that role given the rarity of those special times when his
physical courage matches with knowing when to use it - not as
outlandish as Anya would maybe like to think, though. The second of
the three strange things I mentioned in the intro is that Willow could
in fact be stopped or redeemed this way. Especially given that we've
seen her collapse crying once already this year, and given that any
scene like this is going to pale next to FxF... well, I can see why
some viewers might have a problem with it, or think the show goes too
easy on her, or is too melodramatic. That's because I kinda feel like
I "should" too, but I don't. I don't know if it's the power
of context, writing, or acting, but this part has the sheer force of
something on its side. One has to wonder how strong her "spark of
humanity" was: it does seem either convenient or not-coincidental
that she would suggest that "you're going to stop me by telling me
you love me?" Kinda handing Xander the key to do exactly that.
Say what you will about Xander as a "best friend," but he seems to
take attempts to kill him remarkably well, as a general rule.
Meanwhile, Buffy also breaks down in (happier) tears and asks Dawn to
forgive her for not putting together the theme of Season Six until the
finale. I dunno. The distinction between living in the world and
avoiding it is worth making, and in principle I'm in favor of it, but
the scene seems overwrought. Why do these epiphanies always have to be
so talky and full of wrenching sobs and hugs and such? I'm naturally
more likely to buy into tragedy than triumph, just cuz I'm all
cynical and stuff. But I do think this plays out awkwardly, especially
on the heels of the equally melodramatic but much-fewer-wasted-words
X/W exchange. This makes it hard for me to properly appreciate the
Montage O' Healing And Sunrise.
Finally, the show ends with Spike being restored to what he was. Or
not, since he just got his soul back without any mention of humanity,
and he's never been a souled vampire before. And of course, these
last few episodes have been all faux-clever in the word choice, with
still another deliberate misdirect. I really was expecting his story
to cross paths with the others again. That's part of what I mean
when I talk about the open-ended finale, more so than the end of any
other season (even "Primeval"/"Restless," taken together,
brought us to more of a stopping point). Buffy may have finally
emerged from Hell, but Willow is not exactly Normal Again, Anya still
has to figure out where she wants to be in the world, and Spike clearly
has a lot of story left to tell. I think the explanation for this
feeling is that BTVS always tends to finish off its villain and its
"main plot" at the end of the year, but leave the character arcs in
flux. Well, it's the same approach here, except that the villains
that aren't Willow and Spike have been such a minor part of the S6
story that there's very little "main plot" that's separable
from the character development.
See y'all in a little bit. And closing things on a flippant note,
who's this Tahr-rah person that Giles keeps going on about?
So...
One-sentence summary: Seems to mostly work, but it's hard to be sure;
my rating is tentative.
AOQ rating: Good
[Season Six ratings:
1) "Bargaining" - Decent
2) "After Life" - Good
3) "Flooded" - Decent
4) "Life Serial" - Good
5) "All The Way" - Good
6) "Once More, With Feeling" - Excellent
7) "Tabula Rasa" - Good
8) "Smashed" - Decent
9) "Wrecked" - Good
10) "Gone" - Decent
11) "Doublemeat Palace" - Decent
12) "Dead Things" - Good
13) "Older And Far Away" - Good
14) "As You Were" - Decent
15) "Hell's Bells" - Weak
16) "Normal Again" - Excellent
17) "Entropy" - Decent
18) "Seeing Red" - Good
19) "Villains" - Good
20) "Two To Go" - Excellent
21) "Grave" - Good]
BY THE NUMBERS
[Note: "Bargaining" is counted twice]
_Buffy The Vampire Slayer_ Season Six
Bad - 0
Weak - 1
Decent - 8
Good - 10
Excellent - 3
Average rating: 3.68 ["Good minus"] (Decent=3)
Quality Percentage [% of episodes ranking Good or higher]: 62%
_Buffy The Vampire Slayer_ so far
Bad - 2
Weak - 10
Decent - 39
Good - 51
Excellent - 20
Ratings by season:
S1: Mean = 3.67, 50% quality
S2: Mean = 3.55, 64% quality
S3: Mean= 3.86, 68% quality
S4: Mean= 3.5, 55% quality
S5: Mean = 3.55, 50% quality
S6: Mean = 3.68, 62% quality
Series so far: Mean = 3.63, 58% quality