Back to the beginning (of BtVS)...
Internet connectivity broke at my house Sunday night. Everyone else had already gone to bed. What was a night-owl to do?
Naturally, I broke out my rainy day (or net-free) Buffy DVD stash, literally--they were still in wraps because I'd never not have Netflix at my fingertips. (It really was an "in case of emergency" kind of deal.) Ended up watching the very first two episodes ("Welcome to the Hellmouth" and "The Harvest"). I can't remember the last time I rewatched Season One. Like many people, I hold the belief that the show picks up in Season Two.
Some random thoughts below. (Warning #1: Contains a plethora of hyphenated adjectival phrases. I use hyphens. Hyphens are cool. Warning #2: Includes "unfavorable" views on Angel.)
1) There's a lot of overacting, as if everyone's doing Nicholas Cage impressions that are unfortunately...right on target. Exaggerated body language, lines delivered in exasperation, and an overall nervous energy as a poor substitute for drama. I can't tell if it's just that the episodes have aged poorly, or what. I don't recall having this reaction the first time.
2) Angel's creepy. If you know me, the disclaimer that I ship Spuffy is probably unnecessary. But, teenage me reacted to Angel in a completely different manner. The tall, dark, handsome, older, mysterious-and-slightly-stalkerish, knowledgeable-but-not-entirely-forthcoming, vaguely-helpful-and-very-much-misleading thing really, really worked on me then. In an omg-he's-so-hot-I-must-know-everything-about-him-or-I-would-die kind of way, I'm embarrassed to admit.
This time, though, with Angel's true identity and complete history in mind, I find him entirely cheesy and jerkish and needlessly melodramatic. First, chasing a Slayer newly in town, on her own, down a dead-end alley at night is probably not the best way to make a first impression. If you mean to help, that is. Because you're not playing fair and you're not giving it to her straight. If your goal is to pique her interest and keep her guessing (and thinking of you), then congratulations for top marks! Your intentions will be interpreted as ambivalent at best.
And tossing her (a girl/the Slayer you just met) some jewelry that's reasonably-lavish-but-not-overly-so for a first meeting (assuming it's silver and not, you know, platinum) and kind-of-useful-as-defense-against-vampires-but-only-at-extremely-close-range, but very-useful-as-a-tangible-focus-of-a-girlish-crush comes across as more self-serving than anything else, in retrospect. It's not like the Slayer wouldn't have known about crosses as defense against vampires. But the jewelry part creates an immediate bond between strangers, and puts her in his debt. And the cross part shows her up and puts her in her place, even, in a "I'm prepared and you're so not" kind of way. One part helpful, two parts condescending.
So of course it annoys me to remember/see Buffy wear the cross for the rest of the two episodes (with even more in future episodes). Sigh. I'll deal.
And the whole only-answering-questions-I-want-to-answer thing that Angel does so well is just...ugh! A romantic male hero should not be...someone who clearly holds back and patronizes his romantic partner. I know there's no romantic relationship yet, but it's building up to that, and the early interactions between Angel and Buffy are on such unequal ground, with him holding all the cards, that I find the whole thing distasteful. It's dishonest. It's manipulative. It's passive aggressive. It's unattractive.
3) Giles is awesome! I was really looking forward to Giles' introduction and of course it doesn't disappoint. His eagerness vs. Buffy's desire to quit. The disconnect between his expectations of the Slayer's attitude and dedication towards slaying and the reality that is Buffy is so shocking to him that I want to give him a hug and say, "It's going to be all right. Just you wait." Or maybe it's just Tony Head('s acting). It's hard to tell.
4) I know Willow's supposed to have blossomed in later seasons, but I really like this early-season geeky Willow. So innocent, yet courageous. I wanted to applaud her standing up to Cordelia on Buffy's behalf (where Willow tricks Cordelia into deleting her finished coursework from the computer--revenge of the nerds!).
4) Ah, Principal Flutie. You know, I kind of missed him, by the time the Principal Snider episodes aired. He's not really all that bad. Ineffectual, maybe, stuffy, resistant to change, a bureaucrat (as a broken educational system sometimes encourages in its staff), but his heart is in the right place, I think. I don't think he specifically targets Buffy the way Snider does.
5) In "The Harvest", when the Master establishes Luke as his Vessel by allowing Luke to drink his (the Master's) blood, there's this exchange:
THE MASTER
My blood runs with yours. My soul is your
province.
LUKE
My body is your instrument.
THE MASTER
On this most hallowed night, we are as one. Luke
is the Vessel. Every soul he takes shall feed me.
Their souls will grant me the power to free
myself. Tonight I will walk the Earth... and the
stars themselves will hide.
...where the Master refers to his soul, of all things, even though he's soulless. And he makes it sound like access to his soul may be gained by drinking his blood. The ritual is probably a relevant part, but still. Blood linked to soul? How did I miss that before? And the Master appears to claim that he feeds on souls, not just on blood. Is that supposed to be literal or metaphorical? Later, when Giles explains the link between the Vessel and the Master, he does not use the word "soul". Is the Master just being poetic, using the word "soul" as a stand-in for "life"? He does say, "the stars themselves will hide", which is lovely villainspeak, and anthropomorphistic too. OTOH, the distinction between body and soul seems a rather important one, between two things an old vampire like the Master would be unlikely to equate, especially during a ritual. Interesting detail, or a writer slip-up?
6) Last thought: Everyone's so...young. Has it really been almost twenty years? Sigh.
Dreamwidth crosspost. Reply or view the
comments there.
Naturally, I broke out my rainy day (or net-free) Buffy DVD stash, literally--they were still in wraps because I'd never not have Netflix at my fingertips. (It really was an "in case of emergency" kind of deal.) Ended up watching the very first two episodes ("Welcome to the Hellmouth" and "The Harvest"). I can't remember the last time I rewatched Season One. Like many people, I hold the belief that the show picks up in Season Two.
Some random thoughts below. (Warning #1: Contains a plethora of hyphenated adjectival phrases. I use hyphens. Hyphens are cool. Warning #2: Includes "unfavorable" views on Angel.)
1) There's a lot of overacting, as if everyone's doing Nicholas Cage impressions that are unfortunately...right on target. Exaggerated body language, lines delivered in exasperation, and an overall nervous energy as a poor substitute for drama. I can't tell if it's just that the episodes have aged poorly, or what. I don't recall having this reaction the first time.
2) Angel's creepy. If you know me, the disclaimer that I ship Spuffy is probably unnecessary. But, teenage me reacted to Angel in a completely different manner. The tall, dark, handsome, older, mysterious-and-slightly-stalkerish, knowledgeable-but-not-entirely-forthcoming, vaguely-helpful-and-very-much-misleading thing really, really worked on me then. In an omg-he's-so-hot-I-must-know-everything-about-him-or-I-would-die kind of way, I'm embarrassed to admit.
This time, though, with Angel's true identity and complete history in mind, I find him entirely cheesy and jerkish and needlessly melodramatic. First, chasing a Slayer newly in town, on her own, down a dead-end alley at night is probably not the best way to make a first impression. If you mean to help, that is. Because you're not playing fair and you're not giving it to her straight. If your goal is to pique her interest and keep her guessing (and thinking of you), then congratulations for top marks! Your intentions will be interpreted as ambivalent at best.
And tossing her (a girl/the Slayer you just met) some jewelry that's reasonably-lavish-but-not-overly-so for a first meeting (assuming it's silver and not, you know, platinum) and kind-of-useful-as-defense-against-vampires-but-only-at-extremely-close-range, but very-useful-as-a-tangible-focus-of-a-girlish-crush comes across as more self-serving than anything else, in retrospect. It's not like the Slayer wouldn't have known about crosses as defense against vampires. But the jewelry part creates an immediate bond between strangers, and puts her in his debt. And the cross part shows her up and puts her in her place, even, in a "I'm prepared and you're so not" kind of way. One part helpful, two parts condescending.
So of course it annoys me to remember/see Buffy wear the cross for the rest of the two episodes (with even more in future episodes). Sigh. I'll deal.
And the whole only-answering-questions-I-want-to-answer thing that Angel does so well is just...ugh! A romantic male hero should not be...someone who clearly holds back and patronizes his romantic partner. I know there's no romantic relationship yet, but it's building up to that, and the early interactions between Angel and Buffy are on such unequal ground, with him holding all the cards, that I find the whole thing distasteful. It's dishonest. It's manipulative. It's passive aggressive. It's unattractive.
3) Giles is awesome! I was really looking forward to Giles' introduction and of course it doesn't disappoint. His eagerness vs. Buffy's desire to quit. The disconnect between his expectations of the Slayer's attitude and dedication towards slaying and the reality that is Buffy is so shocking to him that I want to give him a hug and say, "It's going to be all right. Just you wait." Or maybe it's just Tony Head('s acting). It's hard to tell.
4) I know Willow's supposed to have blossomed in later seasons, but I really like this early-season geeky Willow. So innocent, yet courageous. I wanted to applaud her standing up to Cordelia on Buffy's behalf (where Willow tricks Cordelia into deleting her finished coursework from the computer--revenge of the nerds!).
4) Ah, Principal Flutie. You know, I kind of missed him, by the time the Principal Snider episodes aired. He's not really all that bad. Ineffectual, maybe, stuffy, resistant to change, a bureaucrat (as a broken educational system sometimes encourages in its staff), but his heart is in the right place, I think. I don't think he specifically targets Buffy the way Snider does.
5) In "The Harvest", when the Master establishes Luke as his Vessel by allowing Luke to drink his (the Master's) blood, there's this exchange:
THE MASTER
My blood runs with yours. My soul is your
province.
LUKE
My body is your instrument.
THE MASTER
On this most hallowed night, we are as one. Luke
is the Vessel. Every soul he takes shall feed me.
Their souls will grant me the power to free
myself. Tonight I will walk the Earth... and the
stars themselves will hide.
...where the Master refers to his soul, of all things, even though he's soulless. And he makes it sound like access to his soul may be gained by drinking his blood. The ritual is probably a relevant part, but still. Blood linked to soul? How did I miss that before? And the Master appears to claim that he feeds on souls, not just on blood. Is that supposed to be literal or metaphorical? Later, when Giles explains the link between the Vessel and the Master, he does not use the word "soul". Is the Master just being poetic, using the word "soul" as a stand-in for "life"? He does say, "the stars themselves will hide", which is lovely villainspeak, and anthropomorphistic too. OTOH, the distinction between body and soul seems a rather important one, between two things an old vampire like the Master would be unlikely to equate, especially during a ritual. Interesting detail, or a writer slip-up?
6) Last thought: Everyone's so...young. Has it really been almost twenty years? Sigh.
Dreamwidth crosspost. Reply or view the
comments there.