Re: A revelation: Buffy sucks.

Oh mean, xfreek, you are gonna get so much hell from
this group. Did you sign up just to hate on the show?
You can do that on IMDb message boards and get a much
larger audience. (But if you hate the show...what, you
loved it, bought the whole thing, then whoop de doo,
now I hate it...?)

By the way, I don't agree, but I suppose everyone is
entitled to their own opinion...

--- xfreek <[email protected]> wrote:

> 
> Hear me out. It's typical that the "Buffy sucks"
> people have seen 
> nary an episode, or maybe like one or two. I have
> the entire series 
> on DVD, but only after repeated viewings did I
> realize how much this 
> show truly blows ass, and for very specific reasons:
> 
> a.) Buffy's character is a horrible conception -
> Obviously, a 
> character has to be flawed in order to fascinate us,
> but strangely 
> many of her flaws are championed by the show. Often,
> she's a whiny, 
> deluded ho who only has herself in mind, and
> according to Joss and 
> Co., such a selfish agenda is enough to justify her
> grating 
> whininess. A fine example is in "Dead Man's Party,"
> when she 
> continues to get all defensive (and even threatens
> to run away 
> again!) after her friends and family don't shower
> her with 
> accolades...even though she's the one that ditched
> them for three 
> months with nary a phone call. Such selfishness
> pervades throughout 
> the cast, from her, to Xander, to Dawn, etc. At
> least Cordy and Anya 
> were funny in their selfish ways. The majority of
> the Scoobies just 
> came off as having a horrible lack of compassion for
> anyone but 
> themselves.
> 
> b.) The "wit" - Alright, in my opinion, truly witty
> writing must 1.) 
> keep true to the drama/seriousness of the situation,
> 2.) be 
> something that the character would plausibly say.
> The problem 
> with "Buffy"'s supposed wit is that characters often
> find themselves 
> saying things that Joss or Marti or the Drews might
> say, but never 
> the characters themselves (either because of the
> situation they're 
> in or simply because of who they are). Example: In
> "Selfless," 
> Willow's on the phone with Buffy informing her of a
> massive 
> slaughter with the victims' hearts ripped out.
> "Ripped out?" Buffy 
> says, gravely. Then, upbeat: "Hey, did you get into
> that class you 
> wanted?" Haha, yeah, I get it. Good for a laugh, but
> boy does that 
> not make a whole lot of dramatic sense. Furthermore,
> Buffy's 
> constantly shilling out literature/pop
> culture/sci-fi geek 
> references, but - at least in the way they've come
> to define her 
> character - I really don't see her sitting down to a
> comfy "Star 
> Trek" marathon. The only characters who come off as
> remotely real in 
> their wit would be Willow, Giles, Andrew, Cordy, and
> Anya. Which 
> seems like a lot of people, but not when Buffy and
> Xander (ugh) are 
> constantly shoved to the wit forefront.
> 
> c.) Visually unthrilling - The camerawork blows.
> Often, it remains 
> static, in one place, as if all they had on hand was
> a tripod. The 
> editing blows. "Buffy" is a prime offender for
> random, unmotivated 
> cutting, and it nearly ruined the great musical
> episode; 
> check "Going Through the Motions" for some
> fantastically awkward 
> editing choices (ironically, during this scene on
> the DVD, Joss 
> discusses in his commentary the importance of fluid
> editing in a 
> musical! Ha, whoops). The production design blows.
> The show 
> constantly utilizes cheapy alleys and warehouses for
> climactic 
> showdowns. Spike/Drusilla's lair, Glory's tower,
> etc. The show's low 
> budget isn't necessarily an excuse. You can do a lot
> with a little; 
> the "Law & Order" series are great examples of how
> simplicity rocks. 
> I guess it might seem a little cinematically shallow
> that I'm 
> bitching about how boring the show looks, but you've
> gotta be 
> visually interesting if you're using a visual
> medium. That's why 
> you're a film/TV show and not a book.
> 
> d.) If the show were a person, it would masturbate
> 24/7 - Man, I 
> have never seen a show more obsessed with itself.
> Don't get me 
> wrong; I love all those neat references they throw
> back to previous 
> episodes. ("Let's see how you handle having an
> identical twin." "I 
> think I handled it just fine!") But the way the show
> treats its 
> characters, it's as if no one else in the world
> exists/matters. 
> Yeah, there were certainly six or so apocalypses,
> but it was always 
> Buffy's well-being ultimately at stake, not, oh say,
> the lives of 
> the six billion people she was tasked with saving;
> they were merely 
> a plot device, a catalyst for Buffy's angst. Just
> one example: She 
> blows up the Judge among a throng of screaming
> mallrats, and then 
> the gang just goes home saying, "Mission
> accomplished!" What.
> 
> e.) Glorious, wonderful plot holes - A fan on the
> Season 7 DVD doc 
> gloats, "Buffy is the one show that doesn't treat
> its audience like 
> idiots." Ha! How do you explain the following?: 
> 
> - Buffy dies for three months, yet no new slayer is
> resurrected. I 
> suppose a new one wouldn't be resurrected until
> Faith died, but in 
> that case wouldn't the Council either try to spring
> her from prison 
> so she can fight the demons, or simply kill her? I
> do remember that 
> the the Scoobies wanted to keep Buffy's death hidden
> from everyone 
> (including the Council), but why would Giles even
> allow it? He 
> obviously wanted Buffy to stay dead. However, I
> think it was such a 
> big plot point that I was just missing something
> obvious. 
> 
> - Vamps have no breath, and yet the First subjects
> Spike to drowning 
> torture, vamps are often seen smoking, etc. etc.
> 
> - Wait...so there's serious, supernatural evil all
> over the world 
> (China, New York, a hellmouth in Cleveland)...and
> yet the powers 
> that be only task a single teenage girl to the task
> of fending it 
> off? So you decrease the vampire population in one
> city, for your 
> entire lifetime; how exactly is this keeping the
> balance of good and 
> evil in check? Also, Buffy and Co. must find it
> extremely lucky that 
> evil keeps coming to Sunnydale. Imagine how much
> Buffy would whine 
> if they had to travel to one of the aforementioned,
> far away places 
> to defeat any of the Big Bads...
> 
> 
> 
> Alright, I tried to justify all these qualms in the
> past by saying 
> it's a fantasy, comic-booky show, but when the
> writers claim to have 
> a higher agenda of playing toward emotional reality,
> then that 
> justification no longer works.
> 
> I guess it's a tad curious that I'd have the entire
> series on DVD 
> and yet be this upset with it. It's because there's
> also a lot here 
> that made the show unique and fun to watch, even
> when things got 
> stupid. More than anything, I love all the themes
> that Joss loves to 
> explore; Season Seven's ripe with them. ("Same Time,
> Same 
> Place," "Conversations with Dead People," "The
> Killer in 
> Me," "Storyteller," and of course, "Chosen," all
> very fascinating.) 
> 
=== message truncated ===



		
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