That Attempted Rape
There's been a little flurry of posts about that bathroom scene in Seeing Red lately so maybe it's time I shared how I came to Buffy.
I'd heard the series was quite good and rumors said in the Summer of 2002 that Buffy was about to end after the upcoming seventh season. I had never watched an episode; most of the time the show was on I hadn't owned a television.
We received a present of a TV and VCR (VCRs are an antique video-recording device, like the horse-drawn buggy of DVDs). It was for an upcoming child we were planning so we were going to keep it. I tuned in the station that showed syndicated reruns and regular episodes one Tuesday night.
The first episode was New Moon Rising. A nice Oz and Tara story with corrupt military types and strong, sexy Buffy and bisexual coming-out Willow. I liked it.
But the next episode was Seeing Red. It was being rebroadcast as part of the regular run leading up to the Season 7 premiere. SR is a pretty episode and I liked it fine. Spike seemed to be involved with Buffy in some way that didn't make initial sense and she was obviously tangled up emotionally with him even though he was a vampire. Tara and Willow were very pretty. I wasn't sure just who Dawn was. It was intriguing.
Then there was that scene in the bathroom. I just didn't get it. Spike seemed to have gone Jeckel-and-Hyde, which might just be a vampire thing for all I knew. I didn't like it but I could suspend disbelief if I had to. It was Buffy who betrayed me. She laid back and took it like a victim, scared and helpless. But most of all she panicked and lost focus completely. And then after the commercial she did it again. It lasted a long time. That wasn't much like the Buffy I was already getting to know. Even if she were really helpless she wouldn't have been like that.
I felt like I had been betrayed by the show. In just two hours I already had a sense that I was being manipulated with a classic helpless victim terror scene that didn't fit in the character of the show or the players. I knew there was some kind of agenda at play for the producers that was more important than the story. At the time I had no idea what the agenda was and I was completely unbiased for or against any of the characters or storylines.
I just didn't like the way Joss and Marti had chosen to abuse my trust.
So I didn't watch any more of the show. It wasn't until I got my Firefly DVDs at the end of 2004 that I decided to give Joss another chance. Firefly was amazing and wonderful and strangled in its crib. I wanted another dose so I borrowed Season One of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
BtVS was amazing. There was no mandate to stick to any outside agenda; characters could die, good guys could do bad things, the world could be really unfair and nobody might care, real demonology might get mixed into show mythology, teenagers could make bad life choices and continue mitigating the consequences without cumuppence. It was fantastic and I loved it.
And this time I understood part of the agenda Marti and Joss were following in S6. In the end Spike's character arc was bent to protect the preexisting investment in Angel's character arc and Buffy had to pay. If Spike knew about that, he'd have a real fit.
I'd heard the series was quite good and rumors said in the Summer of 2002 that Buffy was about to end after the upcoming seventh season. I had never watched an episode; most of the time the show was on I hadn't owned a television.
We received a present of a TV and VCR (VCRs are an antique video-recording device, like the horse-drawn buggy of DVDs). It was for an upcoming child we were planning so we were going to keep it. I tuned in the station that showed syndicated reruns and regular episodes one Tuesday night.
The first episode was New Moon Rising. A nice Oz and Tara story with corrupt military types and strong, sexy Buffy and bisexual coming-out Willow. I liked it.
But the next episode was Seeing Red. It was being rebroadcast as part of the regular run leading up to the Season 7 premiere. SR is a pretty episode and I liked it fine. Spike seemed to be involved with Buffy in some way that didn't make initial sense and she was obviously tangled up emotionally with him even though he was a vampire. Tara and Willow were very pretty. I wasn't sure just who Dawn was. It was intriguing.
Then there was that scene in the bathroom. I just didn't get it. Spike seemed to have gone Jeckel-and-Hyde, which might just be a vampire thing for all I knew. I didn't like it but I could suspend disbelief if I had to. It was Buffy who betrayed me. She laid back and took it like a victim, scared and helpless. But most of all she panicked and lost focus completely. And then after the commercial she did it again. It lasted a long time. That wasn't much like the Buffy I was already getting to know. Even if she were really helpless she wouldn't have been like that.
I felt like I had been betrayed by the show. In just two hours I already had a sense that I was being manipulated with a classic helpless victim terror scene that didn't fit in the character of the show or the players. I knew there was some kind of agenda at play for the producers that was more important than the story. At the time I had no idea what the agenda was and I was completely unbiased for or against any of the characters or storylines.
I just didn't like the way Joss and Marti had chosen to abuse my trust.
So I didn't watch any more of the show. It wasn't until I got my Firefly DVDs at the end of 2004 that I decided to give Joss another chance. Firefly was amazing and wonderful and strangled in its crib. I wanted another dose so I borrowed Season One of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
BtVS was amazing. There was no mandate to stick to any outside agenda; characters could die, good guys could do bad things, the world could be really unfair and nobody might care, real demonology might get mixed into show mythology, teenagers could make bad life choices and continue mitigating the consequences without cumuppence. It was fantastic and I loved it.
And this time I understood part of the agenda Marti and Joss were following in S6. In the end Spike's character arc was bent to protect the preexisting investment in Angel's character arc and Buffy had to pay. If Spike knew about that, he'd have a real fit.