Saturday, April 23, 2016

UC Hellmouth

Buffy S4E1

Hopping onto Buffy-blogging at season 4. So, the gang has graduated, blown up high school, and averted the apocalypse at least a couple times.

Willow: Very excited to be in college. Has new hair. Is cute.


Oz: Still Willow’s boyfriend. Still terminally laid-back.


Xander: Tried to take a road trip to see America, ended up stuck in Oxnard. Poor Xander.

Giles: Unemployed due to blowing up the high school library. No longer technically a Watcher, either.



Buffy: Not handling change very well.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

"I Will Remember You"

Angel S1E8


For the Angel/Buffy fans. What are they called, anyway? Spuffy rolls off the tongue, but what is this, Bufgel*? I’m not going to google it on my work computer, that is for sure**.

*sounds like the tiger balm version of muscle milk
**that was the correct decision. However, buffyandangelcouples.wikia.com tells me that it is “Bangel” which seems a little mean considering how little they actually get to bang.

Anyway, Buffy visits Angel to tell him off for skulking around Sunnydale (“Pangs”), but while fighting a demon together it turns Angel into a human. Well, that’s cool, he thinks. Human souls are much more durable than vampire ones, so he and Buffy can have tons of sex. But as he adjusts to human vulnerabilities he feels guilty that The Powers that Be probably didn’t bring him back from hell so he could eat peanut butter chocolate ice cream in bed.



Sunday, April 3, 2016

I think it, I say it.

Angel S1E4-7

Yet another blonde woman is in peril from a dangerous stalker in “I Fall to Pieces”. His methods are supernatural but otherwise he’s distressingly mundane. Kind of an interesting counterpoint to the Buffy S3 episode “Beauty and the Beasts” where the abusive boyfriend turns bad via chemistry/magic - here the stalker was already abusive, he just happens to use detachable body parts to get what he wants. Also, very creepy.

“Rm w/a Vu” or “In which Cordelia gets a new apartment, completely loses her security deposit but finds herself.” I am so, so glad Cordelia got to be on this show. By the end of Buffy S3 it seemed like she was often just around to justify her place in the opening credits and letting her do things here is very exciting.

More Kate Lockley in “Sense and Sensitivity.” Because police brutality is funny when it’s a lady! I mean, I like Rani in Mardaani, I liked Bhavani, I cheered when they beat people up. I don’t know if I feel less sympathetic because Kate’s motivations are less noble, or if it’s just that my sympathy plummets when the cop's in blue instead of khaki.

On the other hand, Angel wears his hawaiian shirt disguise, which is the best.



“Bachelor Party”

There has to be a gif somewhere of Doyle trying to fight while wheeling around trapped in a box, because that’s hilarious. The episode is interesting because so far the only “good” demons are exceptions - Angel, Doyle, that annoying guy from Buffy S2, Anya (kind of), but here we have a whole family of demons who aren’t evil. Who are in fact, quite normal. Except not. Except kind of. So it’s a cool way to play with the introduction, because first KenRichard is the bumbling ex’s-new-partner who is distressingly normal, especially in comparison to Doyle. Then we find out he’s a demon and feel vindicated, even though the sequence is a little too neat to be true. So yeah, he’s a demon, but a good guy from a normal family, and Doyle’s ex-wife isn’t in trouble at all. Now it’s just awkward until KenRichard tries to eat Doyle’s brains and Angel has to save someone for real. It’s all a great farce, and yet still manages to leave us with “well, okay, these guys wanted to eat our protagonist’s brains, but demons still seem like reasonable people”.