OT: Why I Really Hope Faith: The Spin-Off Isn’t Made

Why I Really Hope Faith:  The Spin-Off Isn't Made

With the cancelling of Tru Calling, the chances of Faith: The Spin 
Off are increased.  You'd have thought that as a male chauvinist who 
enjoyed watching Eliza's ass in her tight leather pants and a writer 
who loves using the amazing char as a central figure in the majority 
of the fics he's written, you'd think that I'd like the idea of the 
spin-off.

Wrong.

Why?

Two reasons.

1.  Joss Whedon

Credit where credit's due, BtVS was an amazing phenomenon that 
started off a whole trend of female hero programs – Alias, Charmed, 
and Dark Angel to name just three.   He is also a staggeringly good 
dialogue writer.  So why do I think he's such a problem?

A)	Long-term execution.  The first three series of Buffy are 
exceptional, but the last four are, dialogue aside not of the same 
quality.  Poor characterisation, lack of attention to detail, awful 
villains (Glory aside), and a lack of originality plagued the last 
four years.  JW's best work was the high school years, when the 
series diverged into two with the spin-off of Angel, the secondary 
show in my opinion became the superior one, suggesting that perhaps 
David Greenwhalt was the better director, this opinion is reinforced 
that the one season Joss was in charge of Angel (S5) was the worse.  
Joss is a wonderful ideas man, but his execution…

B)  Joss' ego.  By the time the series finished, his major stars 
(Alyson, Sarah, Michelle) were all alienated from him because of his 
behaviour and Spike obsession.  Don't believe me?  Which actress 
(bearing in mind, neither Michelle nor Alyson were even working 
regularly) took up his offers to guest in Angel S5?

C)  Joss' petulance.  Bear in mind, Joss' temper tantrums with Angel 
was cancelled (after he spent time trumpeting that Spike would add a 
Nielsen point it actually dropped half) or his temper tantrums when 
Firefly was cancelled, or his arrogant statements about studio 
executives being too narrow-minded to understand his vision for 
changing Batman's origins.  Or his debasing of Buffy in S7 when SMG 
refused to re-sign for S8.  This debasing of Buffy even continued in 
Angel S5 with the completely pointless Immortal storyline.  Perhaps 
he knew the story was ending and didn't want another person to take 
control, which reeks of a kid that doesn't want other children to 
play with his toys so he breaks them.  Eliza turned him down in 
2003, if he got her under contract; can you imagine what he'd do to 
Faith?

2.Spike.  Given Joss' Spike obsession, the series would have to `co-
star' Spike.  
Leaving aside the fact that Spike and Faith have nothing in common, 
have no shared history, or reason to be together, let's look at the 
last two seasons of Buffy.  Not only was Buffy and the other chars 
sidelined in Joss' Mary Stuing of the man he wish he'd been (`cause 
rape is cool kids), but a supposedly strong female role model ended 
up taking back her abusive boyfriend.  But hey, at least we had 
plenty of long lingering shirtless shots of JM to please Joss and 
Marti, for a series was supposedly about women…..

Even more disturbing is the fact that Faith's stellar return in 
Season 4 of Angel was completely ignored.  Somehow, in the two hour 
car journey from LA to Sunnydale she turned into a 2d version of 
herself.  Perhaps it's the influence of leaving Greenwhalt's 
territory and entering Whedon-land.

Instead of Faith being the cool, witty char she was, who didn't take 
crap from anyone, she'd be turned into an unrecognisable simpering 
weak at the knees groupie for Spike.  Why do I think that?  Because 
Spike circa S6 & S7 is a Mary Stu for Joss who wishes he was a bad 
boy that all the women couldn't resist and Marti Noxon can't 
envisage any woman shaking her head and seeing through Spike's 
bullshit bravado act.

For Eliza to star in a series where she's the title character but is 
in reality nothing more than a vehicle for Joss and Marti's 
obsession with James Marsters is a huge mistake.  When the season 
inevitably bombs like Buffy S6 and S7 did, Eliza and not James will 
get the blame.  If Joss wants a Spike series he should have the 
stones to sell a series on Spike's name.  But wait, he's tried and 
failed because TV executives are too be smart to be interested.  So 
he's trying to use Eliza for it.

I like Eliza, she's talented, beautiful, and seems to be a genuinely 
nice person.  I hope the girl's too smart for Joss' bs.  She's 
already said if Tru hadn't come along she's probably gone back to 
school.  I hope she doesn't, but if it's a choice between that or 
seeing her misused like she was in S7, I know what I'd chose.

Unless Greenwhalt directs and produces, and Spike is banished to no-
where, with Faith given a new Watcher and maybe a couple of younger 
Slayers to mentor with occasional cameos from Giles, Xander, and 
Willow, then all bets are off.  But if it's going to be Faith the 
Vampire groupie…  I can't stop Joss from making Faith: The Series.  
But I won't watch Joss urinate on Faith, a strong, redemptive char, 
by having Spike leash her and change her amazing char for the 
worse.  And I'd urge you to do the same. 






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