Tags:
Giles isn't gone for good, but his role has been reduced significantly. From this point on, he's only a recurring character rather than a full-fledged regular.
Originally, his departure was supposed to lead to his own spinoff series called Ripper which would have been taped in the UK and co-produced by the BBC. Unfortunately, negotians broke down between "The Beeb" and 20th Century Fox and the show never got off the ground.
And that revelation at the end! That’s major! And it’s telling that she confided the truth only to Spike.
/div>
Last night Tracy asked me how many people on the board made fun of her for being so scared and I had to scold her, “You know better than that!”
SEASON SIX: EPISODE 4: “FLOODED”
I was pleased to see “special guest star” Anthony Stewart Head back so soon as Giles, but who I really didn’t expect to see (ever again, really) was Danny Strong as Jonathan… which leads me into today’s tangent. Oftentimes when an actor is well known for two or more roles on different shows, it is the one the viewer sees first that makes an impression. In other words, one tends to think of a certain actor as that character, not necessarily the one the actor played first, but the one the viewer saw first. That’s not necessarily the way it works for me regarding the Buffy cast.
JAMES MARSTERS: I first saw Marsters as Brainiac on Smallville. Tracy informed me that he used to play “Spike” on Buffy (and I’m sure I read that on this board, too), but that didn’t mean anything to me at the time. Spike’s bleach blond look initially came to me as something of a shock, but now I have trouble picturing him any other way. Tracy and I have seen every episode of Smallville, and although we’ve never seen any episode more than once, we’ve bought up the seasons on DVD when we found then used or on sale, so we’ll be ready to re-watch the entire series whenever the mood strikes. Marsters never impressed me too much in the role of Braniac, but I’ll be paying closer attention to his performance the next time around.
ALYSON HANNIGAN: We watched most of the first two seasons of How I Met Your Mother (until it became obvious that if they ever actually revealed the mother’s identity the show would be over), and again, Tracy informed me that “Lily” used to be “Willow” on Buffy. When I first started watching Buffy season one it was kind of weird seeing Hannigan eight or so years younger and looked it. I thought at the time I would always think of her as Lily, but at this point I can barely remember her in that role.
DANNY STRONG: I first encountered Strong as Doyle on The Gilmore Girls. Actually I still think of him in that role, but Jonathan’s growing on me. Both are supporting roles, but that of Doyle is the stronger of the two.
MARY McCORMACK: I’d like to talk about the differences in McCormack’s roles in The West Wing and In Plain Sight, but she wasn’t in BtVS.
Because today’s topic is supposed to be “Flooded” I suppose I should say something about the episode. My favorite scene was when Giles lit into Willow for tampering with forces beyond her control… and Willow’s response to him.
I'm not sure the point of How I Met Your Mother is really HIMYM...
SEASON SIX: EPISODE 5: “LIFE SERIAL”
“This is the season that a lot of the hardcore fans started turning on the show.”
I’m almost a third of the way in to season six and I keep waiting for it to “jump the shark” (or rather, for the episode “hardcore fans” might have perceived that it did) and it hasn’t happened yet (as far as I am concerned). As a matter of fact (well, opinion, I guess), “Life Serial” is one of those rare episodes which stands out as an immediate favorite of mine. Tracy’s sister raves to her about the sit-com Big Bang Theory: “Oh, Jeff ought to watch it! It’s all about comics books and geek culture!” No… no it’s not. We watched one episode. It has more to do with what… I dunno, “straights”… think geek culture is than it has to do with geek culture itself. My sister-in-law wouldn’t get half the jokes from this episode, I’m sure. The only other look at true geek culture I’ve ever seen on TV is certain scenes with Hiro and Ando on Heroes. I’m not so sure how interested I would have been in a “Ripper” spin-off series, but if Whedon had spun the “geek squad” off into their own show, I would have watched every week!
Lots and lots of laughs this episode: the vampire saying “blood and peaches” (which reminded me for some reason of “apple-grass” from Doctor Who), kitten poker, the Death Star, James Bond films, and Jonathon’s “magic bone” to name a few. Seriously funny stuff! BtVS has the ability to swing back and forth between the deadly serious and the hilariously funny, often in the same episode. In this episode, the “serious” came when Giles loaned the money to Buffy to relieve her of the financial burdens caused by her mother’s illness and death. Apparently there was an Angel crossover between episodes four and five. It occurs to me that the design of various demons on Buffy is more inventive than innumerable alien species on various Star Trek series over the years.
I guess that’s about all I have to say for today.