Buffy and Angel
Jul. 12th, 2013 12:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pen_gruntWe just finished watching the complete Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series.
I think I preferred the earlier seasons to the later seasons. There were none I actively disliked, but having Buffy be mopey all the dang time toward the end was really tiresome. I understand WHY her character was that way and it made sense from a storytelling perspective, but it was just things like the camera lingering too long on a pout or too many tortured gazes into the distance that tried my patience and decreased sympathy.
I also generally disliked the way they handled the Buffy/Spike relationship. It could have been really interesting, but they had to make it tortured ALL THE TIME in every which way. It felt like a cheap re-hash of the Buffy/Angel relationship...which was never too terribly interesting to me in the first place. It could have been more satisfying--and it was toward the end--but it felt like too little too late.
It was totally great to see a young(er) Felicia Day in the final season, though.
Other points:
--The Dawn storyline made for some weird non-continuities. I.e. Willow and Zander reminiscing about her much younger years when Buffy only moved to Sunnydale in late H.S., so they wouldn't have remembered Dawn's early-early years. Buffy's dad's story also took a weird turn from minimially-involved-good-guy-dad to schlub who ran off to Spain and wouldn't even keep in touch.
--Dawn didn't annoy me as much as I've read she annoyed other people. She was an annoying teenager. There was a touch too much revisiting the "you don't even think I'm real" thing all the time, but it would also be a big-deal thing in a teen's life. So.
--Willow! The switch to totally-gay-now-not-at-all-turned-on-by-guys was a bit...strange...considering the chemistry of Willow and Oz. I guess nuanced portrayals of sexuality weren't the late-90s/early 00s' strong suit. Other things surrounding this were handled strangely--like an inequity of physical affection in the Willow/Tara relationship vs. other straight relationships. But I guess that's definitely sign-of-the-times kinds of stuff. Overall, though, Willow is just awesome.
--I'm glad I got to watch everything all at once, but it would have been cool to get to talk about things as they were happening. Because my watching of Buffy was spotty the first time around, I had been spoiled on some major things. I don't mind, actually, but I wonder how the experience would have been different as a first-time viewer without foreknowledge.
And now we start going through Angel. Which should be interesting since Angel wasn't exactly my favorite character on Buffy. (Broody. There is only so much broody and tortured I can take in a character on screen because in order to be broody and tortured in TV land they have to be broody and tortured All.The.Time. and I just can't even with that.)
After the first episode, though, he doesn't seem AS tormented (which is saying something since he spends the opening getting drunk and whining about Buffy) so we shall see.
D and I had a ritual of air-drumming along to the Buffy opening and closing. We half-heartedly air-violined to the Angel opening but it just wasn't the same. :)
I think I preferred the earlier seasons to the later seasons. There were none I actively disliked, but having Buffy be mopey all the dang time toward the end was really tiresome. I understand WHY her character was that way and it made sense from a storytelling perspective, but it was just things like the camera lingering too long on a pout or too many tortured gazes into the distance that tried my patience and decreased sympathy.
I also generally disliked the way they handled the Buffy/Spike relationship. It could have been really interesting, but they had to make it tortured ALL THE TIME in every which way. It felt like a cheap re-hash of the Buffy/Angel relationship...which was never too terribly interesting to me in the first place. It could have been more satisfying--and it was toward the end--but it felt like too little too late.
It was totally great to see a young(er) Felicia Day in the final season, though.
Other points:
--The Dawn storyline made for some weird non-continuities. I.e. Willow and Zander reminiscing about her much younger years when Buffy only moved to Sunnydale in late H.S., so they wouldn't have remembered Dawn's early-early years. Buffy's dad's story also took a weird turn from minimially-involved-good-guy-dad to schlub who ran off to Spain and wouldn't even keep in touch.
--Dawn didn't annoy me as much as I've read she annoyed other people. She was an annoying teenager. There was a touch too much revisiting the "you don't even think I'm real" thing all the time, but it would also be a big-deal thing in a teen's life. So.
--Willow! The switch to totally-gay-now-not-at-all-turned-on-by-guys was a bit...strange...considering the chemistry of Willow and Oz. I guess nuanced portrayals of sexuality weren't the late-90s/early 00s' strong suit. Other things surrounding this were handled strangely--like an inequity of physical affection in the Willow/Tara relationship vs. other straight relationships. But I guess that's definitely sign-of-the-times kinds of stuff. Overall, though, Willow is just awesome.
--I'm glad I got to watch everything all at once, but it would have been cool to get to talk about things as they were happening. Because my watching of Buffy was spotty the first time around, I had been spoiled on some major things. I don't mind, actually, but I wonder how the experience would have been different as a first-time viewer without foreknowledge.
And now we start going through Angel. Which should be interesting since Angel wasn't exactly my favorite character on Buffy. (Broody. There is only so much broody and tortured I can take in a character on screen because in order to be broody and tortured in TV land they have to be broody and tortured All.The.Time. and I just can't even with that.)
After the first episode, though, he doesn't seem AS tormented (which is saying something since he spends the opening getting drunk and whining about Buffy) so we shall see.
D and I had a ritual of air-drumming along to the Buffy opening and closing. We half-heartedly air-violined to the Angel opening but it just wasn't the same. :)
