Friday, July 8, 2016

A world without shrimp

Buffy S4E17 - E22

“Superstar”

Something nice and light after all the Faith stuff. We begin in a Sunnydale championed by hero Jonathan, writer, movie star, popular with the ladies, and way better at slaying vampires than Buffy. Jonathan paraphernalia is everywhere, as even Tara and Willow tape pictures of him to their wall.

His spell unravels, though, and the world returns to the way it was. Jonathan is again alone and inconsequential. In this season, he’s not even the butt of jokes. I think this is the only episode he appears in.

“Where the Wild Things Are”

Buffy and Riley have so much sex that they awaken disturbing spirits of the frat house during a party. Sunnydale frat houses are bad, bad news. I don’t think anything good ever happens in one during the entire run of Buffy. Anyway, this is a very dumb premise, but the episode’s not too bad.

Tuesday, July 5, 2016

Did you get to the part where you're evil?

Angel S1E20 - E22

“War Zone”

Gunn! We’re introduced to his scrappy band of vampire fighters, trying to survive in a tough neighborhood.

“Blind Date”

Ostensibly, this is about an assassin hired by Wolfram and Hart - a blind woman, trained by monks to see beyond the visible spectrum. This makes her very dangerous and also really easy to get acquitted of murder charges. But it’s a Lindsey episode, and I really, really like Lindsey. I mean, I don’t like Lindsey, but he’s a morally ambiguous asshole and a great foil for Angel. Especially when he wants help.


Faith, the vampire slayer

Buffy S4E15 - E16 and Angel S1E18 - E19

This is a really powerful set of episodes, and I think a satisfying closure to Faith’s arc from last season.

“This Year’s Girl”

To be honest, the lack of fallout Buffy took for attempted murder of a human was pretty disturbing. And I’m not really sure that’s really resolved. This episode opens with a dream sequence that gives Buffy the opportunity to face her actions, though, at least a little bit.




So Faith wakes up from her coma and lashes out at Buffy, her friends and her mother. But the Mayor has left Faith a gift to let her finally take down Buffy for good.