>SUPERVERBOSE

Early in my Buffy-watching project, I swore off both DVD extras and Television Without Pity recaps, because they were just way too spoiler-laden. Now that I've finished watching all episodes of Buffy and Angel, I'm (slowly!) going back through the whole saga, reading the recaps and watching the extras.

I just finished season three of Buffy for the second time, and am amazed anew. What a marvelous achievement. It's just such great television, and this time through I found myself appreciating a couple of things that had passed me by the first time:

( Here begin the spoilers )

Oh, it's a sad, sad day. It's now official: I've seen every episode of every Joss Whedon show. I suppose it's a happy day, really -- it's been a very satisfying journey since the day I saw Serenity (October 1, 2005, as it happens.) Still, I can't help feeling a little grief at the fact that I'll never watch another new episode of Buffy or Angel.

Well, at least I had a good sendoff. I was quite pleased with this season of Angel. Like season 7 of Buffy, the show found its feet again after a dreary and depressing previous season. It was both funny and thrilling, with a solid premise that was low on the endless angst and high on the superheroics of old. Not only that, it had a lovely elegiac quality, bringing back moments and characters from previous seasons like some kind of victory lap, or maybe a greatest hits album.

( Do I even have to start with how spoiled you all are? )

And thus it ends. But hey: only 74 days to Dollhouse!

( The spoily kind )

Re: Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

I love, love, love it.

Love Neil Patrick Harris. Love Nathan Fillion. Now have crush on Felicia Day. Ridiculously in love with Joss Whedon.

Love the funny. Love the songs. I love, love, love it all. I am filled with love for it.

Season three of Angel had a great arc, and a cliffhanger ending. Season four resolved the cliffhanger well enough and managed a couple of strong episodes, only to descend into a disappointing spiral, full of bewildering choices, shredded continuity, and the same kind of personal disintegration that characterized season 6 of Buffy. As a whole, these episodes had less humor and fewer highs than ever before. The show recovered some ground for the final third of its season, luckily, and wound up in a head-scratcher of an ending that certainly piques my interest in the beginning of season 5.

( Turgid, supernatural spoilers within )

Season 6 of Buffy was all about degradation -- the characters debased themselves, their relationships disintegrated, and the Big Bad herself was a nightmare version of Buffy's beloved friend. Season 7, on the other hand, exudes synthesis and uplift. "I have so much strength, I'm giving it away," says Buffy, and strength is what we see, both within and without her. Friendships mend, and it's once again the strength of Buffy's team that allows them to fight the forces arrayed against her. The routine of Good vs. Evil battling it out in Sunnydale has become a bit worn by now, and consequently this season can't quite reach the peaks of the show's extraordinary middle period (seasons 2-4.) Nevertheless, I was really happy with season 7. It was a satisfying and well-executed end to a terrific journey.

( And now, all the spoilery specifics )

The Buffyverse Watching Project is going on hold for a while.

My sister's boyfriend is a comedy writer (sequitur coming soon...), or at least he's been an aspiring comedy writer. He graduated from Harvard and worked on the Lampoon there, so he knows a lot of people in the biz, but has been trying unsuccessfully to break in himself for a couple of years. Then, last month, he learned he'd gotten a job as a writer for The Office! This is super exciting, not only because I'm very happy he's landed a job, but because it seems to be one of the best things on TV right now. I haven't been watching it, but (and here comes that sequitur I promised) I'm going to start this fall, so my summer project is to get caught up on the seasons I missed. I have several friends who watch it, and I'm looking forward to being able to participate in their conversations.

Amid the depressing degeneration that characterized season 6 of Buffy, it was a pleasure to watch season 3 of Angel. It didn't grip me the way that some previous seasons of Buffy have, but it was solid, enjoyable television, with lots of good surprises and dramatic twisty turns. Strangely, though, it wasn't the main plot that I found most compelling, but rather the thematic unity that draws together some of the season's most important events aside from the main plot.

( It's about the spoilers, bro. )

And now, season six of Buffy, in which the characters I've come to know and love begin to morph into weird, unpleasant versions of themselves, or else disappear altogether. This unsettling trend was somewhat remedied by the end of the season, but once that end had come, enough bad things had happened that the Buffyverse appeals to me less than it did when the season began. Still, even if the season was a net loss, there were still plenty of wonderful moments to be had. In particular, there was one shining episode which joins the all-time hall of fame.

( The usual spoilery list of details )

Loved it loved it LOVED IT! That one joins the Hall Of Fame. It ended too soon.

The soundtrack is now on my Amazon wish list.

This season of Angel is all over the road, veering from the very very dark into the very very kooky, sometimes quite abruptly. It's also pretty inconsistent in terms of structure, starting with a long arc and ending with a short one, and stringing a few individual pearls between the two. Still, I found a lot to enjoy at both ends of the spectrum.

( Look inside for buckets o' spoilers )

Another season of slayage is through, and the subplots have finally come to eclipse the main plot. This year's Big Bad was bigger and, well, worse. On the other hand, several of the smaller stories that wove through this season were riveting, and resulted in some of the best scenes and episodes ever.

( Here be spoilers, including one for Serenity )

Angel comments will follow just as soon as I can get them written up.

( spoiler guard )

Buffy started out as a horror riff with elements of superhero drama thrown in, but it seems to me that Angel announces itself as a superhero drama with a horror theme. Since I'm a big fan of superheroics, this sits quite well with me. Also, Angel himself is much more tolerable when he's not a supporting player in Buffy's life. For one thing, he actually breaks a smile every so often. He's still often annoyingly mopey ("Broody McForehead", I'm told they call him over at Television Without Pity, and that's about right), but Cordelia does a nice job of lightening the tone. The metaphorical underpinnings of the show don't really hold up to those in Buffy, since "city life" is a much broader target than "high school/college", but I still enjoyed it.

( We spoil the spoilerless. )

It's another season in Sunnydale, and while season 4 doesn't quite manage to match or exceed the heights reached by season 3, it's still a solid bunch of shows with some amazing standouts thrown in. Unfortunately, there are also a few really terrible and/or irritating moments, too, which is a first. Oh well, at least they didn't show up for three whole seasons, and are still pretty rare in this one.

( On to the spoiler-laden comments! )

Up next: comments on Angel Season 1, which I watched concurrently with Buffy Season 4.

This was easily my favorite season yet of Buffy. It's rather amazing to me that it wasn't the work of just one writer, given how tightly the whole thing hangs together. Each episode tells a satisfying story on its own, but the season as a whole is an incredible story, with dramatic peaks and valleys, great surprises, and tons of character development for almost everybody. It feels fuller than the last two seasons put together, which is quite an achievement. So many connections, so much depth, such a smooth flow from one episode into the next. Awesome.

So, the short review is: I loved it. ( The longer and much more spoiler-filled review follows. )

So I've finished watching the Season Two DVDs of Buffy. Overall, I loved them. I thought the shows in this season were a huge leap over season one. There was more emotional depth, wonderfully engaging story arcs with real impact on the characters, great snappy dialogue, and some excellent acting, especially from Sarah Michelle Gellar. Further scattered thoughts below:

( I'm Spoiler Boy )

Just watched the premiere of season two.

HOLY CRAP! It was awesome! I thought it was WAY better than anything from season one, and I liked season one just fine. The characters just took a quantum leap, especially Buffy. And I was very impressed with Sarah Michelle Gellar -- the script asked her to do much more complex, emotional work, and she knocked it out of the park. WOW.

I think I'm going to love this.

I'm one of those people who never watched an episode of Buffy while it was on. I knew it was supposed to be good, and I had many friends who were fervent fans, but I just didn't have more time to set aside for TV. Then I saw Serenity, loved it, bought the Firefly DVDs, loved them, read Astonishing X-Men, liked it a lot, and long after all his shows have been cancelled, I am now a disciple in the cult of Whedon. Let's hear it for the advent of full-season DVD collections, which allow me to systematically catch up on what I've missed. I finished watching season one of Buffy, and here are a few offhand observations:
( Spoilers ahoy )
On the whole, I enjoyed it a lot. On to season 2!