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shadowkat1. Book Trivia...doing the Never Ending Book Quiz on Good Reads has made me realize that I remember a lot more useless trivia from Kurt Vonnegurt's books than I thought possible.
The annoying thing? I keep screwing up on questions I definitely know the answer to, so my score isn't accurate. Example? I know who wrote Jane Eyre dammit. Not to mention Chronicles of Narnia.
2. Buffy...ten years later, or close enough..which were my favorite or memorable episodes, most memorable or the one's I considered the best might be a better listing, don't rightly know. At any rate, I've read various top ten lists lately regarding Buffy and I don't agree with any of them. So doing my own list of the best episodes. Note, stating best, not favorite, not emotionally pleasing, but best written, filmed, acted, and structured. Episodes that I think made Buffy amongst of the best television serials of the 20th and 21st Centuries and worthy of all of the scholary attention it has gotten. These are the episodes that should be taught in film schools and provided to snobby new viewers.
The 10 Best Buffy Episodes or Ground-Breaking Episodes of All Time or the Critically Speaking Best Episodes of the Series (note not necessarily emotional favorites) : These are the Episodes that blew me away based on how they told the story or narrative structure. Each of the following episodes is notable for doing something that I hadn't seen done on tv or trying something new and different. They are episodes that I want to or have written meta on.
1. The Body - Buffy discovers her mother dead in her living room and the Scooby gang deals with the Big Bad they can't fight - mortality. Notable for the lack of a musical score, amongst the only episodes of the series that didn't have one and utilized silence. Also notable for emphasis on negative space as a metaphor for death.
2. Once More With Feeling - one of the gang inadvertently summons a demon that casts a spell on the town of Sunnydale, where everyone sings what they are feeling or their deepest fears and emotions. The episode stands out not for its plot, but for the irrevante meta on musicals, where the fourth wall is broken, and Xander looks at the camera and wonders if he's in an actual musical and if so, why is everyone breaking out in song.
Best line? Xander to the Camera: "Move it along...nothing to see hear." Best comedic bit, the show's two executive producers and writers bursting out in song about "getting a parking ticket" and "getting the mustard out". This episode announced that the series had launched itself into Eugene Ignesto territory...or surrealism. The fourth wall no longer existed, the characters had become somewhat self-aware and were beginning to question the narrative.
3. HUSH - fairy tale demons come to Sunnydale and remove the town's ability to talk, in order to attack people at night and rip their hearts out - they are hunting eight. Notable for two things - the narrative use of the fairy tale structure, not any known fairy tales per se, but the structure of the fairy tale as a horror motif, and for the use of silence - no dialogue, only action. Dialogue only written. For most of the episode the actors do not speak. Also it may well contain the most frightening monsters the series has ever done.
4. Restless - the team falls asleep after defeating the monsterous Adam and The Initiative by joining forces and summoning the First Slayer. Enraged by their audacity, the First Slayer invades their dreams in an attempt to punish or slaughter them. A twisty take on Nightmare on Elm Street - being killed through one's dreams, except here the dream demon is a mythological character that lies at the center or core of the series. Notable for its use of stream-of-consciousness story-telling narration within the boundaries of a network television show. A bit like watching someone else's fever dream or drug induced hallucination. This episode is also notable in how most of the items depicted within it are used or referenced in later episodes - so that they relate back to it in various ways.
An episode that is understood best, after you've seen the entire series. If you have the ability to understand or decode the various metaphors and images related within it, you will most likely be able to predict what will happen later.
5. Fool for Love - notable for the use of unreliable narrator and flashback. During the episode, Buffy seeks Spike's help in understanding the mythological relationship between slayers and vampires and why some slayers get killed and others don't. Spike during the episode creates both mythologies, redefining himself and Buffy in the process. It's similar in some respects to Superstar and Storyteller, except in this episode the character is aware of what he is doing, and a bit more clever about it. It's not clear by the end, how much Spike told Buffy and how much he didn't. OR what he told her.
6. Conversations with Dead People - various characters undergo spooky visitations associated with the season's Big Bad, the First Evil, each visitation provides insight into the character and their own fatal weakness. Notable for its tight and rather innovative narrative structure. Set up as an anthology of four interconnecting stories, where each character and story is notably cut off from the others. Held together by the fact that each character is "alone" and vulnerable, cut off from the rest for various reasons. It starts with a song written by the creator of the series which not only sets the tone but also states what the episode is about and where it is going. The first image is the music. And then the title of the episode and the date. Each segment is differently filmed, lit, and written by a different writer. The song bookends the episode. We get it at the front and the end of it. This episode also pushes the action forward, the plot, and the character arcs - and tells us what the season is about. While at the same time, it forces the audience to question what is on screen. In each visitation - the characters are told a lie embedded in a truth. So they make the mistake of believing the lie, because of the truth that is wrapped around it. The trick is figuring out what the lie is. Won the Hugo that year - most likely for the reasons I stated above - the seamless structure.
7. Lies My Parents Told Me - Giles and Wood conspire to kill Spike, using the Trigger to do so. During the episode Spike and Wood's relationships with their mother's are addressed, as are Wood and Buffy's relationships with their adoptive father's. Wood is the connection between the two stories...his far from stellar relationship with his mother and surrogate father...inform Spike and Buffy's. And we are left wondering what the lies were to all three characters and what were the truths. Similar to Fool For Love, in some respects the companion piece although not quite as deftly structured. It too features unreliable narration. And lies wrapped within truths. Except a song pushes the action. At the end of the episode it's not quite clear who is right or wrong. Or just.
8. Selfless - Similar to Fool for Love. This is another character piece, utilizing flashbacks. It too features a character who redefines herself through violent acts. It's more reliable than the other two and clearer in some respects. Features a musical number in the center of it, dialect, and antiquing of the film montage.
9. Normal Again - Buffy is infected by a demon set on her by the evil Trio. The demon's venom gives her hallucinations that make her believe she is a patient in a psychiatric ward, suffering from schizophrenia, and Sunnydale, vampires, demons, etc do not exist, that she made them up. Not an old idea, this was done in St. Elsewhere several years prior. But it is once again interesting on a structural narrative level and contains at its center an unreliable pov/narrator. Which world is real. We aren't any more certain than Buffy. The world of the psychiatric world is filmed in Black and White undertones, while the world of BTVS is in bright color.
10. Storyteller, The Zeppo and Superstar - which I admittedly did not like at the time and cringe during but together all comment on the narrative and do so from the perspective of the characters that in many ways represent the creator of the narrative. The short/nerdy writer who is creating a story about a female super-hero who would never be interested in him. A familiar trope that has been done countless times before, but when you look at these three episodes separately and together - there is bits of structural brilliance within them.
In Storyteller - Andrew narrates his own story, in it he is an observer, not a participant and not guilty. Buffy flips it on him. She pulls him out of his comfy armchair and forces him to participate. Forces him to face what he did and to stop hiding behind the guise of stories. The story=teller is an unreliable narrator, joking, and making light of the proceedings, claiming its not real, the violence none of it is real, so no reason to get upset. Buffy faces her story-teller and screams it is real. And fights back. The episode utilizes various narrative tricks - to pull the viewer inside Andrew's head - and depicts in the process ways the fans have romanticized the narrative or the writer's have. It is a meta-narration on fandom.
The Zeppo - is similar to Storyteller, except in this case Xander, one of the main characters, feels inadequate, so we are placed firmly in his perspective. It becomes in some respects the fan's Marty Stu tale - where a fan or writer inserts himself or herself into the story and does amazing things. Xander has sex with the hot bad girl slayer,
who initiates it with him, he kills zombies, he deactivates a bomb...he's basically the nerd version of James Bond by way of Marlon Brando. He also makes fun of his friends romance and their sturm and drang. The story parodies itself, yet it appears to be self-aware of it at the time.
Superstar - Jonathan takes Xander's desires a bit further by concocting a spell, where he steals Buffy's Power and becomes the hero. One problem, he must pay a price, there's a monster that exists along with him, that is the source of his power. If the monster dies, Buffy gets her powers back and Jonathan loses his. The plot itself isn't that interesting.
But the structure and framework - is. Or how it is told. We enter the lie. Jonathan's well-constructed fabrication. And the fabrication takes over the structure of the show as well - so that Jonathan appears in the credits. He makes the show about him. It's again a meta-fiction on fanfiction or the fans need to insert themselves into a story or become the lead of it. It's also a meta on the writer who does much the same thing. The structure itself is a lie, but you get small clues throughout depicting how it is lie. As do the characters who slowly figure it out. They remain themselves, yet are changed by Jonathan's lie. It shows how a lie infects everything around it.
Honorable Mentions:
* I Only Have Eyes For You - the flip of male/female gender roles - where Buffy is posessed by the violent male ghost and Angelus by the non-violent female ghost and victim.
A bit too sappy and over-the-top, venturing on the campy. Also uneven in places. Hence the reason not in the top ten. But notable do to the gender flip.
* The Wish - the dystopian alternative - done a lot on tv, hence the reason it did not make the list. Notable for how it plays with the concept of It's a Wonderful Life. Although not sure it sheds anything new on the topic.
*Dopplegangland - more interesting than the Wish, in how it plays with the idea of identity. Who is Willow? And don't we all have evil within us? The first time duality is played with in the series.
* Innocence - a nice character piece but I'm not sure it really adds anything new and in hindsight seems to a bit over-the-top. The good boyfriend becomes evil after he sleeps with his one true love, Buffy, due to an ancient gypsy curse. A play on the fairy tale, where the curse is broken with sex or true love's kiss, here it is as well - except breaking the curse makes him evil - takes away his soul. Cursed he has a soul. Without the Curse - he's free.
In some respects, Passion, is the better episode, for it's structure - set up around voice-over narrative device - the voice over being the villain explaining his own actions and why he's doing what he is doing. Again there's a sense of unreliable narrator here. Also the set-up, the central characters of this piece aren't who you think. They are Giles and Angel. And Angel's actions aren't really about Buffy here...so much as they are about Giles and his own father. It's also a deft commentary on how women fit within the male horror narrative - as pawns or victims.
*Dead Things - in how it played with the concept of consent and abusive relationships. Again, we have the unreliable narrative device. We can't quite trust Buffy's pov. We aren't sure what is real inside it. The use of sex in the episode is to heighten Buffy's confused state. She's almost drugged by it. And then the odd juxtaposition of sexual abuse of Katrina with the Buffy/Spike relationship. Katrina is also drugged - but magically and deliberately by the Trio to be their slave and perform sex acts. When she comes to, she rants, and is summarily killed by Warren - who in turn sets up Buffy to take the fall for it. Warren attempts to write Buffy's story, so does Spike when he tries to hide the body, ineffectively, and stop Buffy from turning herself in for it. (Note when Spike does this - he believes Buffy accidentally killed Katerina while fighting the crazy demons who affected a human's perceptions of time). Both attempt to circumvent Buffy's choices and make them for her, they attempt to control her - just as the Trio attempted to control Katrina. Buffy hating herself, beats up Spike in a brutal manner - the most brutal we've ever seen in this series. Then at the end confesses to Tara, wondering why she allows this. Odd episode. Not an easy one to watch. And uneven in places. But definitely innovative.
* Tabula Rasa - where all the characters lose their memories due to a spell Tara concocts to make Buffy and Tara forget. It utilizes unreliable narration as well - except here, the audience knows more than the characters. Discusses how names create identity,
or what identity is, who are we. A nice companion piece to Who Are You - although a bit more interesting in its scope, if sloppier written.
3. In other Buffy news...or for the Whedon fans out there. Although I'm guessing they already know this. ABC has optioned Whedon's in-development TV series "Nick Fury's Shield", which he's co-writing with his brother Jed and his sister-in-law. Whedon will write the pilot and direct it. (I've mixed feelings. I think I've finally burned out on this specific genre. So while Whedon's writing fascinates me or it did in the past, the whole comic book genre...not so much any longer. But I'll most likely check it out.)
The annoying thing? I keep screwing up on questions I definitely know the answer to, so my score isn't accurate. Example? I know who wrote Jane Eyre dammit. Not to mention Chronicles of Narnia.
2. Buffy...ten years later, or close enough..which were my favorite or memorable episodes, most memorable or the one's I considered the best might be a better listing, don't rightly know. At any rate, I've read various top ten lists lately regarding Buffy and I don't agree with any of them. So doing my own list of the best episodes. Note, stating best, not favorite, not emotionally pleasing, but best written, filmed, acted, and structured. Episodes that I think made Buffy amongst of the best television serials of the 20th and 21st Centuries and worthy of all of the scholary attention it has gotten. These are the episodes that should be taught in film schools and provided to snobby new viewers.
The 10 Best Buffy Episodes or Ground-Breaking Episodes of All Time or the Critically Speaking Best Episodes of the Series (note not necessarily emotional favorites) : These are the Episodes that blew me away based on how they told the story or narrative structure. Each of the following episodes is notable for doing something that I hadn't seen done on tv or trying something new and different. They are episodes that I want to or have written meta on.
1. The Body - Buffy discovers her mother dead in her living room and the Scooby gang deals with the Big Bad they can't fight - mortality. Notable for the lack of a musical score, amongst the only episodes of the series that didn't have one and utilized silence. Also notable for emphasis on negative space as a metaphor for death.
2. Once More With Feeling - one of the gang inadvertently summons a demon that casts a spell on the town of Sunnydale, where everyone sings what they are feeling or their deepest fears and emotions. The episode stands out not for its plot, but for the irrevante meta on musicals, where the fourth wall is broken, and Xander looks at the camera and wonders if he's in an actual musical and if so, why is everyone breaking out in song.
Best line? Xander to the Camera: "Move it along...nothing to see hear." Best comedic bit, the show's two executive producers and writers bursting out in song about "getting a parking ticket" and "getting the mustard out". This episode announced that the series had launched itself into Eugene Ignesto territory...or surrealism. The fourth wall no longer existed, the characters had become somewhat self-aware and were beginning to question the narrative.
3. HUSH - fairy tale demons come to Sunnydale and remove the town's ability to talk, in order to attack people at night and rip their hearts out - they are hunting eight. Notable for two things - the narrative use of the fairy tale structure, not any known fairy tales per se, but the structure of the fairy tale as a horror motif, and for the use of silence - no dialogue, only action. Dialogue only written. For most of the episode the actors do not speak. Also it may well contain the most frightening monsters the series has ever done.
4. Restless - the team falls asleep after defeating the monsterous Adam and The Initiative by joining forces and summoning the First Slayer. Enraged by their audacity, the First Slayer invades their dreams in an attempt to punish or slaughter them. A twisty take on Nightmare on Elm Street - being killed through one's dreams, except here the dream demon is a mythological character that lies at the center or core of the series. Notable for its use of stream-of-consciousness story-telling narration within the boundaries of a network television show. A bit like watching someone else's fever dream or drug induced hallucination. This episode is also notable in how most of the items depicted within it are used or referenced in later episodes - so that they relate back to it in various ways.
An episode that is understood best, after you've seen the entire series. If you have the ability to understand or decode the various metaphors and images related within it, you will most likely be able to predict what will happen later.
5. Fool for Love - notable for the use of unreliable narrator and flashback. During the episode, Buffy seeks Spike's help in understanding the mythological relationship between slayers and vampires and why some slayers get killed and others don't. Spike during the episode creates both mythologies, redefining himself and Buffy in the process. It's similar in some respects to Superstar and Storyteller, except in this episode the character is aware of what he is doing, and a bit more clever about it. It's not clear by the end, how much Spike told Buffy and how much he didn't. OR what he told her.
6. Conversations with Dead People - various characters undergo spooky visitations associated with the season's Big Bad, the First Evil, each visitation provides insight into the character and their own fatal weakness. Notable for its tight and rather innovative narrative structure. Set up as an anthology of four interconnecting stories, where each character and story is notably cut off from the others. Held together by the fact that each character is "alone" and vulnerable, cut off from the rest for various reasons. It starts with a song written by the creator of the series which not only sets the tone but also states what the episode is about and where it is going. The first image is the music. And then the title of the episode and the date. Each segment is differently filmed, lit, and written by a different writer. The song bookends the episode. We get it at the front and the end of it. This episode also pushes the action forward, the plot, and the character arcs - and tells us what the season is about. While at the same time, it forces the audience to question what is on screen. In each visitation - the characters are told a lie embedded in a truth. So they make the mistake of believing the lie, because of the truth that is wrapped around it. The trick is figuring out what the lie is. Won the Hugo that year - most likely for the reasons I stated above - the seamless structure.
7. Lies My Parents Told Me - Giles and Wood conspire to kill Spike, using the Trigger to do so. During the episode Spike and Wood's relationships with their mother's are addressed, as are Wood and Buffy's relationships with their adoptive father's. Wood is the connection between the two stories...his far from stellar relationship with his mother and surrogate father...inform Spike and Buffy's. And we are left wondering what the lies were to all three characters and what were the truths. Similar to Fool For Love, in some respects the companion piece although not quite as deftly structured. It too features unreliable narration. And lies wrapped within truths. Except a song pushes the action. At the end of the episode it's not quite clear who is right or wrong. Or just.
8. Selfless - Similar to Fool for Love. This is another character piece, utilizing flashbacks. It too features a character who redefines herself through violent acts. It's more reliable than the other two and clearer in some respects. Features a musical number in the center of it, dialect, and antiquing of the film montage.
9. Normal Again - Buffy is infected by a demon set on her by the evil Trio. The demon's venom gives her hallucinations that make her believe she is a patient in a psychiatric ward, suffering from schizophrenia, and Sunnydale, vampires, demons, etc do not exist, that she made them up. Not an old idea, this was done in St. Elsewhere several years prior. But it is once again interesting on a structural narrative level and contains at its center an unreliable pov/narrator. Which world is real. We aren't any more certain than Buffy. The world of the psychiatric world is filmed in Black and White undertones, while the world of BTVS is in bright color.
10. Storyteller, The Zeppo and Superstar - which I admittedly did not like at the time and cringe during but together all comment on the narrative and do so from the perspective of the characters that in many ways represent the creator of the narrative. The short/nerdy writer who is creating a story about a female super-hero who would never be interested in him. A familiar trope that has been done countless times before, but when you look at these three episodes separately and together - there is bits of structural brilliance within them.
In Storyteller - Andrew narrates his own story, in it he is an observer, not a participant and not guilty. Buffy flips it on him. She pulls him out of his comfy armchair and forces him to participate. Forces him to face what he did and to stop hiding behind the guise of stories. The story=teller is an unreliable narrator, joking, and making light of the proceedings, claiming its not real, the violence none of it is real, so no reason to get upset. Buffy faces her story-teller and screams it is real. And fights back. The episode utilizes various narrative tricks - to pull the viewer inside Andrew's head - and depicts in the process ways the fans have romanticized the narrative or the writer's have. It is a meta-narration on fandom.
The Zeppo - is similar to Storyteller, except in this case Xander, one of the main characters, feels inadequate, so we are placed firmly in his perspective. It becomes in some respects the fan's Marty Stu tale - where a fan or writer inserts himself or herself into the story and does amazing things. Xander has sex with the hot bad girl slayer,
who initiates it with him, he kills zombies, he deactivates a bomb...he's basically the nerd version of James Bond by way of Marlon Brando. He also makes fun of his friends romance and their sturm and drang. The story parodies itself, yet it appears to be self-aware of it at the time.
Superstar - Jonathan takes Xander's desires a bit further by concocting a spell, where he steals Buffy's Power and becomes the hero. One problem, he must pay a price, there's a monster that exists along with him, that is the source of his power. If the monster dies, Buffy gets her powers back and Jonathan loses his. The plot itself isn't that interesting.
But the structure and framework - is. Or how it is told. We enter the lie. Jonathan's well-constructed fabrication. And the fabrication takes over the structure of the show as well - so that Jonathan appears in the credits. He makes the show about him. It's again a meta-fiction on fanfiction or the fans need to insert themselves into a story or become the lead of it. It's also a meta on the writer who does much the same thing. The structure itself is a lie, but you get small clues throughout depicting how it is lie. As do the characters who slowly figure it out. They remain themselves, yet are changed by Jonathan's lie. It shows how a lie infects everything around it.
Honorable Mentions:
* I Only Have Eyes For You - the flip of male/female gender roles - where Buffy is posessed by the violent male ghost and Angelus by the non-violent female ghost and victim.
A bit too sappy and over-the-top, venturing on the campy. Also uneven in places. Hence the reason not in the top ten. But notable do to the gender flip.
* The Wish - the dystopian alternative - done a lot on tv, hence the reason it did not make the list. Notable for how it plays with the concept of It's a Wonderful Life. Although not sure it sheds anything new on the topic.
*Dopplegangland - more interesting than the Wish, in how it plays with the idea of identity. Who is Willow? And don't we all have evil within us? The first time duality is played with in the series.
* Innocence - a nice character piece but I'm not sure it really adds anything new and in hindsight seems to a bit over-the-top. The good boyfriend becomes evil after he sleeps with his one true love, Buffy, due to an ancient gypsy curse. A play on the fairy tale, where the curse is broken with sex or true love's kiss, here it is as well - except breaking the curse makes him evil - takes away his soul. Cursed he has a soul. Without the Curse - he's free.
In some respects, Passion, is the better episode, for it's structure - set up around voice-over narrative device - the voice over being the villain explaining his own actions and why he's doing what he is doing. Again there's a sense of unreliable narrator here. Also the set-up, the central characters of this piece aren't who you think. They are Giles and Angel. And Angel's actions aren't really about Buffy here...so much as they are about Giles and his own father. It's also a deft commentary on how women fit within the male horror narrative - as pawns or victims.
*Dead Things - in how it played with the concept of consent and abusive relationships. Again, we have the unreliable narrative device. We can't quite trust Buffy's pov. We aren't sure what is real inside it. The use of sex in the episode is to heighten Buffy's confused state. She's almost drugged by it. And then the odd juxtaposition of sexual abuse of Katrina with the Buffy/Spike relationship. Katrina is also drugged - but magically and deliberately by the Trio to be their slave and perform sex acts. When she comes to, she rants, and is summarily killed by Warren - who in turn sets up Buffy to take the fall for it. Warren attempts to write Buffy's story, so does Spike when he tries to hide the body, ineffectively, and stop Buffy from turning herself in for it. (Note when Spike does this - he believes Buffy accidentally killed Katerina while fighting the crazy demons who affected a human's perceptions of time). Both attempt to circumvent Buffy's choices and make them for her, they attempt to control her - just as the Trio attempted to control Katrina. Buffy hating herself, beats up Spike in a brutal manner - the most brutal we've ever seen in this series. Then at the end confesses to Tara, wondering why she allows this. Odd episode. Not an easy one to watch. And uneven in places. But definitely innovative.
* Tabula Rasa - where all the characters lose their memories due to a spell Tara concocts to make Buffy and Tara forget. It utilizes unreliable narration as well - except here, the audience knows more than the characters. Discusses how names create identity,
or what identity is, who are we. A nice companion piece to Who Are You - although a bit more interesting in its scope, if sloppier written.
3. In other Buffy news...or for the Whedon fans out there. Although I'm guessing they already know this. ABC has optioned Whedon's in-development TV series "Nick Fury's Shield", which he's co-writing with his brother Jed and his sister-in-law. Whedon will write the pilot and direct it. (I've mixed feelings. I think I've finally burned out on this specific genre. So while Whedon's writing fascinates me or it did in the past, the whole comic book genre...not so much any longer. But I'll most likely check it out.)
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Date: 2012-09-02 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-09-02 01:50 am (UTC)What works beautifully in Lie to Me is the set-up and the end. There's also humor. But it quite campy in places. And structurally it could be neater.
I adore the scene where Angel, Xander and Willow wander about the goth
vamp groupies lair...and Whedon satirizes vampire fans. A nice meta moment, but it is also a bit too "wink-wink" or "obvious".
And Ford as a villain is perfect, foreshadowing for Buffy's bad taste in male romantic partners. She had on a crush on him, he was older, she romanticized him - but he's cursed with a mortal ailment and chooses vampirism over her - causing her to have no choice but to kill him. (In a nutshell what she has to do with Angelus). But he's also a bit too one-dimensional, Andrew is better drawn.
It's a great episode and in some respects more enjoyable than the Zeppo, but like Innocence...not as good as Passion in its structure or for that matter Storyteller and Lies. It's too melodramatic, too tween, not deft enough of a touch.