Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Seasons Six through "Eight")

[Jeff of Earth-J]

This is a continuation of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer thread I started over on the “old board” last April. Alan and Mike convinced me that the show’s move from the WB to the UPN and the start of season six is a logical time to move this discussion to the board’s new home. For those of you who might be new to the discussion, I am in the process of watching this series, start to finish, for the first time. I don’t provide much in the way of recap because I’m working under the assumption that most of you reading this thread have at least a passing familiarity with the series. The ground rules of this discussion are simple: I can (and will) spoil anything I want to, but you can’t spoil anything I haven’t seen yet. Ready? Okay, let’s begin.

SEASON SIX: EPISODES 1/2: “BARGAINING—PARTS 1/2”

I actually don’t have much to say about the two-part season opener. Most of it was spent resetting Buffy’s apparent death at the end of season five. Shouldn’t her death have triggered a new Slayer to have been called up? Judging from the opening credits it looks as if Giles is going to be out of the cast on a permanent (or at least semi-permanent) basis. I’m really enjoying the development of the “relationship” between Buffy and Spike thoughout last season and into this one. Apparently even vampires are subject to classical conditioning!

[Ana Canino-Fluit (Anacoqui- mod)]

Nope... Buffy's death doesn't trigger a new slayer because...she has already died before and it only a one time trigger. So her death at the hands of the Master triggered Kendra...and Kendra's death triggered Faith... so unless Faith expires no new Slayer will be triggered which makes the Mayor's perversion of Faith more meaningful.

I am glad that despite your vampire aversion you are enjoying the Buffy and Spike interactions.

[KSwolf]

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.

[Figserello]

KSwolf said:

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.

Bit spoilery, even that.

Jeff knows practically nothing about BTVS and is enjoying the unpredictablity of the Whedon-magic, so even reports on Giles' future comings and goings are still giving him a shape of things to come.

As OP Jeff stated: The ground rules of this discussion are simple: I can (and will) spoil anything I want to, but you can’t spoil anything I haven’t seen yet.

[Alan M.]

Eh, I think Tony Head's not being in the opening credits and appearing as "special guest star" or whatever in the ep credits was enough to tell Jeff that Giles' role was reduced to "recurring character rather than a full-fledged regular." I call KS safe from having spoiled anything. :)

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Yeah, it's cool, KS. Thanks for looking out for me, though, Figs!

SEASON SIX: EPISODE 3: “AFTER LIFE”

I like horror movies but I haven’t seen one in, oh… how long have I been married now?... eight years or so. Tracy loves vampires and such but, oddly to my way of thinking, hates horror movies. I found this out the hard way a few Octobers ago while grocery shopping. We were making our way down the seasonal/novelties aisle when I took a plastic “Scream” mask from its hook, held it in from of my face and said, “Boo!” I thought she was going to have a stroke! I have never even seen the “Scream” films, but in college she had to be “desensitized” after seeing one. (I don’t know exactly what that means, either.) So last night we’re watching the episode and it gets to the scene in which “Buffy” terrorizes Willow and Tara in their bed.

“Pause it.”

“What’s the matter?”

“I’d’ve peed the sheets.”

“You didn’t pee the couch, did you?”

“No, go ahead.”

Then it got to the scene in which Anya began terrorizing Xander and Tracy, well… “seized up” is about the best way to describe it. Her hands shot up to her face and although she was unable to speak, but I immediately knew something out of the ordinary was wrong. She had tears of absolute terror on her face and it was a while before we could continue. This was not “The Empty Child” or “Hush” terror in which she was creeped out and laughed about it later. She was terrified!

I get up an hour before she does and I often go to bed earlier. I tried to last night but she wouldn’t let me. I had to sit up with her for a while, and when we did go to bed she insisted on moving the night light from the hallway into the bedroom, “just for tonight.” Then I had to hold her until she fell asleep… all because of an image that was on screen for maybe two seconds!

And that revelation at the end! That’s major! And it’s telling that she confided the truth only to Spike.

"I am glad that despite your vampire aversion you are enjoying the Buffy and Spike interactions."

The Spike/Buffy relationship is unique. Spike's a great character, there's no denying that. He not only replaced The Master as the "big bad" early on, but he later usurped Angel's place as the series' "bad boy".

[Ana Canino-Fluit (Anacoqui- mod)]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

And that revelation at the end! That’s major! And it’s telling that she confided the truth only to Spike.

/div>

It is! And you know that whole resurrection, with consequences and the fact that Buffy is so damaged by it, is why Whedon is awesome. You don't do cheap resurrections...you just don't.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

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.

[Doc Beechler (mod-MD)]

Jeff of Earth-J said:

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...

[Chris Fluit]

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.

Yeah, I have that with Elizabeth Rohm. She's in the first season of Angel, but I mostly remember her from her later stint on Law & Order.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

Doc Beechler said:

I'm not sure the point of How I Met Your Mother is really HIMYM...

Eh.

[Jeff of Earth-J]

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.

[Ana Canino-Fluit (Anacoqui- mod)]

I love Kitten Poker!

Jeff of Earth-J said:

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.