I got tired of seeing my name at the top of this page. I thought about something new. I toyed for ten seconds with “play the man” but that is far too pretentious and would obligate me to focus on the theological controversy. I know that topic already dominates but such a title would make it official and prolong it.
So I went back to “once more, with feeling.” I don’t know that I want to be committed to pop tv references, but once more appeals to me as a blogging truism (first you live it then you blog it). So I’m going with it for now…
And again, without committing myself, here’s a snip for you enjoyment. It’s Anya in “selfless” and it would take quite a bit of explaining to describe what an ingenious scene this is. The seventh season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was at once the worst (maybe second to the sixth season of BtVS) and yet had some of the best episodes ever.
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Doesn’t it immediately jump from there to current-Anya covered in blood? I forget. I guess I could just pull out the DVDs. “Selfless” is an incredible episode. It made me cry. Just watching that clip, knowing about the rest of the episode almost made me cry. 🙁 Oh, but my favorite thing about the lyrics of the song? “I’m good with math”–when math was the subject she was failing in “Doppelgangland”! In-joke, or Joss mistake? You decide.
But I’d still vote for S7 as the worst season ever…mostly because it took what could have been a great season (the first half was actually very good) and totally fouled it up with a second half that didn’t make any sense at all. And also, I actually liked most of S6.
I thought her math was about the cash register, but I long forgot dopplegangland. It flashes back to Anya apparently dead from Buffy’s sword. But not.
Everything you say about Selfless is true (except I never cry for TV being manly and all that) but I really liked realizing how well it all fit in with the S6 episode, “Once More With Feeling.”
But after that I thought S6 just got too R-rated and weird. I simply couldn’t understand Buffy’s mindset, even with the trauma of expulsion from “heaven.” Part of it is also just projected Chivalry. The humanization of Spike made S5 the best episode of all for me. Spike’s Pinnochio saga was everything to me. It went into serious reverse. Spike had warned Buffy that she wouldn’t last if she were separated from her friends, and then he goes and does everything to alienate her further. It just bothered me. (Likewise, I wasn’t real happy with the ensouled Spike of Angel S5….).
Dookie, and I had just gotten around to changing your blog title on my blogroll!
I’m sorry! I’m just too fickle at blogging.
And of course I mean “dookie” in the decretal, not the covenantal, sense.
(Or would that be “excretal”?)
Season 6 was really dark…and I have to admit that a lot of my liking of it based on individual episodes rather than the arc. OMWF, Tabula Rasa, Dead Things, Normal Again, Seeing Red, plus I found Gone and Life Serial because I like the random funny ones. Tabula Rasa and Normal Again both hit, like, my top ten episodes of all time.
I’m a little reluctant to bring in extra-textual considerations, but I really think that one reason Spike went so dark is that S5 spawned so many Buffy/Spike ‘shippers online who were totally convinced that Spike was sweet and cuddly, and Joss kept taking Spike darker and darker in S6 to try to show that Spike is still an EVIL VAMPIRE. Unfortunately, the Spuffys didn’t get it, even with the attempted rape (“but, Buffy treated him so mean, and he wasn’t really trying to rape her, b/c Spike is sweet and cuddly!”).
Personally, I like the David Lee Roth references.
I changed it back, too. It’s okay; I liked the old name.