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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 18:55:58 GMT -5
Black Sash. I don't see how that pilot could ever work. Who could get the name straight?
You know, Nan, with a little luck you could even pick up a new JW show to review.
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 18:56:52 GMT -5
I like to reply to posts with my name in the title, so I can see my name more on the board. (egocentric, much?)
Seriously, though, I think one of us could email Ms. Rhys, eplain briefly who we are (and where to find us) and tell her we have inducted "Lydia" as an honorary member. I do think though that Vlad will need to fill out Lydia's survey for her and file a disclaimer if he posts it on the website lest someone else take it seriously. Then her essay could be listed (if Ms. Rhys allows the link.) Maybe that's too much real world work.
I just got a kick out the essay format.
Still a lively discussion going on at the ep board. Funny how the Angel board winds down much more quickly. Is it less agressive posters or just less to say about the episodes?
Edited By Sue P at 4/1/2003 10:25:00 PM.
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:00:58 GMT -5
Part two of the magic of BTVS acting and chemistry..and a little self indulgent analysis 4/1/2003 Rob Sorenson
Nan was oh so right. That last post rambled. Proof positive that essays are not the Robster's cup of tea. Ugh, I just referred to myself in the third person. I should delete that. Crap, I'm rambling again. I now bring you back to the regularly scheduled post.
If I had the talent to do an episode analysis, I'd want to take a crack at Entropy, followed by Seeing Red. Episodes 18 and 19 of Season 6 change everything.
The acting is simply breathtaking in both. As I said before, James brings out more emotion in Emma than anyone else has, save Nick in Into The Woods and Hell's Bells.
The final confrontation in front of the Magic Box in Entropy brings more depth and complexity than we'll get in five years of other shows.
The intensity of this scene makes me shiver just thinking about it. Just as James brought Emma to new heights inside the Magic Box (suddenly seeing unintended symbolism there), Nick does the same in their extraordinary confrontation after his rather clumsy, possibly halfhearted attempt to kill Spike. Anya lets Xander have it, and God knows he has it coming. Still, no one deserves the emotional one-two punch he was about to receive.
When Spike brings the emotional hammer down on Xander for a second time in a 15 minute span, Nick and Sarah share a look that still gives me chills...Jeez, was that good. For one remarkable moment, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is terrified of the scared little boy who inhabits Xander Harris's body. She begged Tara not to forgive her; now we'll find out what Buffy is really made of. Xander is capable of accomodating that wish and she knows it. This all comes across in one look between two seriously gifted actors.
Seeing Red is the morning after episode, and it features opposite ends of the spectrum. While Willow and Tara are reaffirming their feelings in blissful happiness, Buffy, Xander and Spike are in agony. How they choose to assuage their pain establishes the fundamental differences between them.
The scene between Buffy and Xander in his apartment is brilliant from front to back. In the beginning Xander can't even look Buffy in the eye. The maturity of it, however, is striking in comparison to Buffy/Xander confrontations of the past. No one screams; no one threatens to physically hurt the other. Most importantly, no one backs down.
When Xander doesn't let Buffy off the hook, she finds the maturity to be brutally honest with him, telling him (correctly) that who she has sex with is not his business.
This cuts him deeply. He cuts back, telling her that it used to be. Buffy can feel the loss, but refuses to back down or apologize. She is, now and forever, an adult. She came to fight for his friendship without swinging a punch. This is the most obvious display of Xander's importance to Buffy that the show has ever given us.
Xander doesn't give up easily, of course. Their debate about Spike's worthiness make points in both directions. Neither is totally right or wrong.
Ambiguity. Welcome to adulthood.
Go back and watch that scene tomorrow, S'cubies. This is the start of the four episode arc where Buffy and Xander are forced to formally grow up as the closest member of their unique little family unravels. Nick and Sarah are both beyond belief. A perfect example of two really good actors inspiring one another right in front of us.
Buffy needed someone to get in her face so she could respond; once this happened her response enabled her to find the strength to close a bleak chapter in her life (or so she thought). To slightly paraphrase Joss, Xander may not have given her what she wanted (that'd be Willow, Tara, and Dawn's job in this instance) but what she needed. That wasn't Xand's conscious intent, but he provides it nonetheless. It's why she needs him in her life.
We move on to the Summers master bathroom. An emotionally exhausted Buffy is about to run into an overwrought Spike, and his own unique growing up process is about to be introduced by performing a reprehensible act. I'm not going to rehash the dialogue, though it was riveting. It's the physical action and reaction of Sarah and James that elevate the scene to classic status.
Once the deeply uncomfortable (for me, at least) sequence is completed by Buffy recovering from her combination of panic and disbelief by remembering who and what she is, the transcendant moment occurs.
Once the deeply uncomfortable (for me, at least) sequence is completed by Buffy recovering from her combination of panic and disbelief by remembering who and what she is, the transcendant moment occurs.
Spike looks at the stricken and wounded woman he loves. He has just treated her in the most despicable fashion possible, and decides then and there William needs to reassert control somehow. The humanity that has never totally left him steps forward.
We only fully understand this in retrospect, of course; but the look on Spike's face when Buffy is sickened and horrified with him says everything....absolutely everything. Geniuses, both of them.
Finally, there is the tender moment between Buffy and Xander at the end. Perhaps for the first time, he completely acknowledges his tunnel vision regarding her, and in doing so he reaches out like a drowning man, telling her he can't live without his two closest friends; his only real family.
She responds by telling him she loves him, showing tenderness and forgiveness for his harsh words, not long after she was practically attacked by a man with whom she'd shared great physical intimacy.
The Buffy I love so much appears for the first time all season. Reestablishing close relations with Xander was step one in her reclamation of her purpose in this life.
All that she ever needed to do was be honest and face her friends from the beginning...something no one in the Jossverse does easily.
At the end, the joy of rediscovery between Willow and Tara is forever destroyed at almost the precise moment Buffy and Xander reaffirm their feelings. It's come full circle as Willow begins her descent into someone less than human while Buffy takes her first full step out of the grave. A terrible beauty of an episode.
Rob Sorenson
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:02:24 GMT -5
ScoopMe pays nothing. One does it for the good company and the interesting conversations.
Oh, and Kim said (before we knew one another quite as well as we don't now), that it would look good on my resume. I told her I thought my resume could pretty much take care of itself, no problem.
Nan
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:03:42 GMT -5
Terrific post, Rob! You ought to start doing Xander appreciation essays formally, the way Spring is doing Spike. I know: it's the whole bloody series! But there are certain Xander-centric episodes (The Zeppo) and certain Xander-Buffy and Xander-Willow and Xander-whoever turning points that would shine the brighter for the appreciative floodlight of your saying what's important about them. You could choose the most important ones and not tackle them except one at a time, as many or as few as you chose. Just give each one its due moment and center stage.
I'm not kidding!
And rambling is also a style statement. It gets the job done, which is really all that's important.
Go for it, big guy!
Nan Dibble
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:05:00 GMT -5
I appreciate the kind words. I was merely dabbling; this is Spring's territory. I was just visiting for a little bit. The episodes I wrote about are special to me because I get a strong feeling that any further meaningful interaction between Buffy and Xander is over. It makes me sad when I dwell on it. It drove me to write that particular post.
Rob Sorenson
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:05:47 GMT -5
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:06:54 GMT -5
I thought you said you couldn't do essays and reviews. Reading this post was reliving my first viewing of these painful and powerful episodes.
Thank you so much. It was exquisite!
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:07:42 GMT -5
I'm with Nan. Rob, even if you don't do the entire series, Xander-centric essay/reviews would be a wonderful addition to our rapidly growing collection of analyses.
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:15:39 GMT -5
Yeah, Lee, I finally gave up posting on the ep board for the last ep because I just didn't know how to respond to people who seemed to be watching a different show. Spike hadn't taken any responsibility for his crimes or shown any remorse? Huh? I tried, as did some others, to dispute this . . . but you know it is NOT, for the most part,the Spike-fans whose arguments are clouded by emotion.
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:16:30 GMT -5
Robert says: "I appreciate the kind words. I was merely dabbling; this is Spring's territory."
Speaking of which, I rewatched The Zeppo last night, since FX wasn't showing Buffy. I hope to do an analysis this weekend. What a fun episode - but a very tricky one to try to analyze.
Robert, you should consider an essay for our essay section . . . maybe about Xander's loves, or his overall place in the group . . . or his relationship with Spike . . . whatever strikes your fancy.
Edited By Spring Summers at 4/2/2003 8:47:00 AM.
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:17:20 GMT -5
Nan -
Your Black Sash review was very well done, and the ScoopMe Powers-that-be must have definitely agreed to offer you "6 Feet Under." I don't get HBO either and have never watched it, but I know it is popular and highly acclaimed. So though you are not taking them up on it, congrats on the honor of getting the offer (I am not surprised!).
It would be so great if there was a JM spinoff and you reviewed
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:18:00 GMT -5
Nan - no money, bummer.
Isn't that the way it goes, those things that would be the most fun pay little to no money. The story of my life.
OR... You have so much fun doing it for little money, somebody else thinks they need to have the job, and they end up making more at it than you did and they do less. Do I sound bitter?? Naaaah.
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:21:15 GMT -5
Congratulations again, Nan. To be offered the position of regular reviewer for Six Feet Under is honor indeed. Too bad you had to decline. It's my mom's favorite show. As a matter of fact when I told here that I have a *posting group* about Buffy she asked me to find her one about Six Feet Under and I only just (finally) sent her the link the other day. I've only seen a few episodes myself when my folks tacked them on to tapes they'd made for me of The Sopranos (I don't get premium stations either) but it's a clever, very well written show with plenty of depth, one that would have been worthy of your insight and biting wit. But I've no doubt that ScoopMe will find a show for you that you can take on. Maybe one of their existing reviewers will want to transfer over to Six Feet Under and a different spot will open up for you. You're gonna be great!
deborah
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Post by Dalton on Jul 7, 2003 19:21:57 GMT -5
Rob - Seriously, you have to do an analysis of "The Zeppo" and other Xander-focused shows. That post about "Seeing Red" almost made me cry.(OK, I did tear up - damn you for making me cry at work!  Now my co-workers think I'm crying about this stupid discovery I'm working on) It was so amazingly insightful - let me repeat, you must think about doing some analyses!! Nan - congratulations on being offered the post of review for Six Feet Under! Too bad you can't do it but something else will come up. I mean, how on earth could ScoopMe! not use your biting wit and thoughtful analysis to review a show! They would be fools, fools I tell you! Vlad, check your email. I responded to your email about the birthday list. -L Edited By Lee Hollins at 4/2/2003 9:52:00 AM. |
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Now my co-workers think I'm crying about this stupid discovery I'm working on) It was so amazingly insightful - let me repeat, you must think about doing some analyses!!