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shadowkatSo someone attempted to rank the Buffy episodes, all 144 of them. Go read and disagree at will, I certainly did, although I admittedly didn't post any comments - just did it in my head or here on my own lj : http://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/ranking-every-episode-of-buffy-the-vampire-slayer?bftw
The link basically proves something I've long suspected - these types of games tell people more about the people playing the game than about the show. Actually reviews in general tend to. For example? If a music reviewer scoffs or derides music that is not "classical" or "opera", you begin to think the person is a bit snooty and needs to lighten up and get out more. While a reviewer who only likes Katy Perry songs...comes across as...you fill in the blank. In short, we don't learn anything about the music - and just react to the reviewer's tastes.
Also, if the reviewer/ranker isn't careful they can turn you (the reader of the review) against a piece of music, a book, a movie or a tv series they adore - making you, the reader, despise it - having never ever seen it. (This sort of happened briefly for me in regards to Breaking Bad. People, in particular television critics, were so "obnoxious" in their adoration of it - stating it was BETTER than everything else, it was hard to like it. BB tended to bring out the asshole in their viewers/fans. Not sure why. 50 Shades of Grey had a similar effect, as did Twilight. Hype is not always a good thing.) It's weird when it happens. The opposite can happen as well - a reviewer will deride or rip apart a book or tv series - and in the process turn you on to it or make you so curious about it - you have to see it or read it. (See 50 Shades of Grey. It actually falls into both categories!) In short, reviewing is an odd occupation. Why we pay people to do it, I've no clue. Before the internet, it sort of made sense - because not everyone could post their opinion. You had to get a paper or magazine to employ you to post one. Now, however, why bother paying them? Do people like Robert Bianco, Alan Sepinwall, Owen Glieberman, Ken Tucker, etc...really need to be paid for just writing their opinions? Are their opinions any more relevant or interesting than those who aren't being paid?
Eh, I don't know. Sorry for the tangent. Distracting self from work-related stress.
Anywho..admittedly it's been a while since I've watched Buffy (last time was in 2009), and my tastes may have changed, since my obsession has definitely disappeared. That said, there are some headscratching moments on this person's list.
First off - I may be in the minority here? But I thought Beer Bad was a whole lot funnier than Gone, which felt sort of silly in places. And I'd certainly rank Smashed higher than Older and Far Away, Gone, and Doublemeat Palace. The ranker clearly despised Riley, yet for some reason did not rank As You Were third from last. Also they have an odd fondness for the First Evil and Amends.
Also...Chosen. Did Chosen make you cry? I didn't cry. My mother didn't cry. The guy I watched it with didn't cry. And we've been known to cry at Hallmark commercials...and Grey's Anatomy episodes. Yet, this ranker - saw it as a top episode and adored it, and it made them cry.
Clearly the ranker is a Faith, Spike and to a degree Angel fan. Also a Giles fan. Not so much a Xander or for that matter Riley fan (although to be fair neither got great episodes).
They did not like S4, S7, and S6. But adored S1 - Nightmares, Out of Sight Out of Mind, Witch are all ranked highly (yes, go figure) as is Doomed (which blew my mind). Although kudos that they admitted the rocket launcher tackle in HIM is comedy gold (it is). But seriously All the Way ranked higher than Never Leave Me, Beneath Me, and Smashed???
And dear lord, Family...? They stated that this was a good examination of how badly men treat women???? Oh dear. (Family is one big huge cliche after another, and preachy as all get out.) And they hated the Pack???
So, yes, some headscratching moments.
I'll do an abbreviated listing off the top of my head, because seriously 144 episodes takes way too much time. Also upon reading the below - keep in mind everything I said in the above half of the post...
Bottom ten:
Family (yes, the stereotypical redneck white trash family who is into the bible - Whedon your upper class prejudices are showing), Amends (it's magic Christmas snow...and sigh, the First EVIL! When this show was cheesy, it was REALLY cheesy), As You Were (here it's GI Joe and GI Jane but with less personality, return to save the day and teach everyone morality lessons), Teacher's Pet, I Robot You Jane, Go Fish, Wrecked (magic as crack - complete with crack den leader with a yen for molesting young women), Older and Far Away (pacing issues), Where the Wild Things Are (has similar issues to Family - apparently stereotypical bible thumping backwards fundamentalists are a recurring villain trope for Whedon series - found them in Firefly as well. Annoying. Not even the great Giles/Spike/Anya/Xander scenes could save it.), Some Assembly Required (too cheesy for words and Frankenstein for some reason is harder to pull off than it looks).
[Doomed is saved by the scenes with Spike, Willow and Xander - you just have to ignore the plot and Buffy/Riley. Beer Bad is saved by SMG's ability for comic timing and Xander/Giles who were hilarious in the episode.]
Top ten:
1)Once More with Feeling, 2) the Body, 3)Hush, 4)Becoming, 5)Restless, 6) Fool for Love, 7)Lies My Parents Told Me (although I agree with the ranker that Robin Wood's character didn't work - his vendetta seemed a bit long in the tooth and too late.), 8) Conversations with Dead People, 9)Beneath Me (and yes I liked the whole episode so sue me - the ranked hated the first part with the Sluggoth demon - and yet they thought Family was innovative?)/ Selfless (tied), 10) Dopplegangland
The link basically proves something I've long suspected - these types of games tell people more about the people playing the game than about the show. Actually reviews in general tend to. For example? If a music reviewer scoffs or derides music that is not "classical" or "opera", you begin to think the person is a bit snooty and needs to lighten up and get out more. While a reviewer who only likes Katy Perry songs...comes across as...you fill in the blank. In short, we don't learn anything about the music - and just react to the reviewer's tastes.
Also, if the reviewer/ranker isn't careful they can turn you (the reader of the review) against a piece of music, a book, a movie or a tv series they adore - making you, the reader, despise it - having never ever seen it. (This sort of happened briefly for me in regards to Breaking Bad. People, in particular television critics, were so "obnoxious" in their adoration of it - stating it was BETTER than everything else, it was hard to like it. BB tended to bring out the asshole in their viewers/fans. Not sure why. 50 Shades of Grey had a similar effect, as did Twilight. Hype is not always a good thing.) It's weird when it happens. The opposite can happen as well - a reviewer will deride or rip apart a book or tv series - and in the process turn you on to it or make you so curious about it - you have to see it or read it. (See 50 Shades of Grey. It actually falls into both categories!) In short, reviewing is an odd occupation. Why we pay people to do it, I've no clue. Before the internet, it sort of made sense - because not everyone could post their opinion. You had to get a paper or magazine to employ you to post one. Now, however, why bother paying them? Do people like Robert Bianco, Alan Sepinwall, Owen Glieberman, Ken Tucker, etc...really need to be paid for just writing their opinions? Are their opinions any more relevant or interesting than those who aren't being paid?
Eh, I don't know. Sorry for the tangent. Distracting self from work-related stress.
Anywho..admittedly it's been a while since I've watched Buffy (last time was in 2009), and my tastes may have changed, since my obsession has definitely disappeared. That said, there are some headscratching moments on this person's list.
First off - I may be in the minority here? But I thought Beer Bad was a whole lot funnier than Gone, which felt sort of silly in places. And I'd certainly rank Smashed higher than Older and Far Away, Gone, and Doublemeat Palace. The ranker clearly despised Riley, yet for some reason did not rank As You Were third from last. Also they have an odd fondness for the First Evil and Amends.
Also...Chosen. Did Chosen make you cry? I didn't cry. My mother didn't cry. The guy I watched it with didn't cry. And we've been known to cry at Hallmark commercials...and Grey's Anatomy episodes. Yet, this ranker - saw it as a top episode and adored it, and it made them cry.
Clearly the ranker is a Faith, Spike and to a degree Angel fan. Also a Giles fan. Not so much a Xander or for that matter Riley fan (although to be fair neither got great episodes).
They did not like S4, S7, and S6. But adored S1 - Nightmares, Out of Sight Out of Mind, Witch are all ranked highly (yes, go figure) as is Doomed (which blew my mind). Although kudos that they admitted the rocket launcher tackle in HIM is comedy gold (it is). But seriously All the Way ranked higher than Never Leave Me, Beneath Me, and Smashed???
And dear lord, Family...? They stated that this was a good examination of how badly men treat women???? Oh dear. (Family is one big huge cliche after another, and preachy as all get out.) And they hated the Pack???
So, yes, some headscratching moments.
I'll do an abbreviated listing off the top of my head, because seriously 144 episodes takes way too much time. Also upon reading the below - keep in mind everything I said in the above half of the post...
Bottom ten:
Family (yes, the stereotypical redneck white trash family who is into the bible - Whedon your upper class prejudices are showing), Amends (it's magic Christmas snow...and sigh, the First EVIL! When this show was cheesy, it was REALLY cheesy), As You Were (here it's GI Joe and GI Jane but with less personality, return to save the day and teach everyone morality lessons), Teacher's Pet, I Robot You Jane, Go Fish, Wrecked (magic as crack - complete with crack den leader with a yen for molesting young women), Older and Far Away (pacing issues), Where the Wild Things Are (has similar issues to Family - apparently stereotypical bible thumping backwards fundamentalists are a recurring villain trope for Whedon series - found them in Firefly as well. Annoying. Not even the great Giles/Spike/Anya/Xander scenes could save it.), Some Assembly Required (too cheesy for words and Frankenstein for some reason is harder to pull off than it looks).
[Doomed is saved by the scenes with Spike, Willow and Xander - you just have to ignore the plot and Buffy/Riley. Beer Bad is saved by SMG's ability for comic timing and Xander/Giles who were hilarious in the episode.]
Top ten:
1)Once More with Feeling, 2) the Body, 3)Hush, 4)Becoming, 5)Restless, 6) Fool for Love, 7)Lies My Parents Told Me (although I agree with the ranker that Robin Wood's character didn't work - his vendetta seemed a bit long in the tooth and too late.), 8) Conversations with Dead People, 9)Beneath Me (and yes I liked the whole episode so sue me - the ranked hated the first part with the Sluggoth demon - and yet they thought Family was innovative?)/ Selfless (tied), 10) Dopplegangland
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no subject
Date: 2013-11-17 06:46 am (UTC)"What have we learned?"
"Beer foamy."
"Just so we're clear on that."
the unpleasantly shallow pop-feminist double standard of "it is unforgivable for a man ever to strike a women no matter what the circumstances, but life-threatening violence by women against men for disproportionate provocation is hilarious".
You're not wrong...given that Joss is a shallow pop-feminist at best (and that's arguable), it's not surprising. But then again Xander being responsible for the deaths of ten people (offscreen) in OMWF is arguably much worse and it's the same thing - violence played for laughs, which occurs quite a lot on the series. (the death of the coach in Go Fish is the same idea.) So I'm not really fussed about it here.
What I find puzzling is the fact that Parker gets "disproportionate" punishment here, and is definitely written as a one-dimensional jerk; while Riley commits far more egregious acts in cheating on buffy (his girlfriend of nearly a year) with vamp whores while he and Buffy are in a committed relationship, lying to her and the SG, not showing up for patrols etc, - and the upshot from the writers is that SHE drove him away and he's rewarded with an apology from her in S6 because he's - such a swell guy? Talk about disproportionate.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-17 05:09 pm (UTC)Oh yeah. It wasn't just movies of the week - it was the ABC Afterschool Specials (basically movies with a moral theme aimed at teen audience, at 3pm - which aired in the 1970s and 1980s in the US on ABC - a direct result of the Children's Television ACT - passed in the 1970s, which required the networks to provide more children's programming in the early evening and afternoon hours.) Most of them were about substance abuse.
In the 1970s through the 1990s, the situation comedies loved to do it. Family Ties had an episode about alcoholism as did Blossum, Cheers (yes, CHEERS!), Night Court, The Cosby Show...it became a joke. These were often advertised as "tonight, there will be 'very special' Blossum episode" - then after the episode was over, cast members would do a PSA with phone numbers listed below on how you could get help if you or a family member were having this problem. They still do it - actually with daytime soap operas.
The Buffy writers loved to poke fun at the "very special episode" or that "very special Blossum episode". (Wrecked, Beer Bad, the whole Willow arc - was meant to make fun of that trope. Sometimes it was successful, mostly not.)
You're not wrong...given that Joss is a shallow pop-feminist at best (and that's arguable), it's not surprising.
It's a problem with most male television writers and screen-writers who are raised in Hollywood. He's pretty much a product of his environment.
That said, to be fair to Whedon and his ilk - Hollywood has never known how to handle feminism or racism for that matter, nor has pop culture in general - not as long as they believe the key or favored demo is white men between the ages of 18-45 - who advertisers believe pay the high dollar amounts (ie. car commercials).
When your cultural product is funded primarily by "advertising" dollars or is "profit based" - it tends to be a little warped. In short if your goal is to sell a BMW - you aren't going to piss off the people who would buy that BMW too badly, you are going to pander to them. This unfortunately has warped our culture and society.
The tv show, book, movie, etc that is popular is not the cause, but the symptom - it's showing us what is wrong here.
So the worship of Riley makes sense if you think about it within that context. He's Mr. GI Joe, portrayed by a former college basketball star, from Middle-America. In some respects - how Riley is portrayed and how the characters react to him is a critique of our need to worship military soliders and war heroes. We ignore their flaws, because hey they protected us from the evil guys. But you can't exactly come out and say that and still sell BMWs.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-18 06:59 am (UTC)That's the program I was trying to remember, thanks!
Hollywood has never known how to handle feminism or racism for that matter, nor has pop culture in general - not as long as they believe the key or favored demo is white men between the ages of 18-45 - who advertisers believe pay the high dollar amounts (ie. car commercials).
True, sadly enough.