Buffy Season One Episode Eight

[koganbot]

15th-century demon inhabits world's online computers, but Willow comes to doubt his capacity to love. Meanwhile, librarian's first name revealed to be Rupert.

(One of the better episodes so far. I'd been a little disappointed in the Angel episode, since previously the caring, shyness, confusion of the incipient Angel-Buffy relationship had been given us in touching little hints; full-on as a story of love and loss, it was normal TV heartbreak. But in this demon-computer episode, Buffy gets to be the breezy girl who, behind the breeze, is observing and trying to see into her friend Willow. The show does a good job with the two computer nerdboys, one fighting internally to remain his awkward self, the other gaining a sense of presence as the demon endows him with purpose.

Buffy, after almost being electrocuted in the shower: "Tell me the truth: how's my hair?"

As usual, though, the action at the climax isn't as interesting as the psychology that led up to it.)

Comments

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the climactic fights are rarely anything terribly thrilling. The main exception that leaps to mind is at the end of season 2 which, as you will see if you continue (the show really does get a lot better over the next two seasons in particular), has much more to do with the meaning and what is at stake than the action itself.

[koganbot]

I was suspecting that the show would get better. I don't think Whedon hit the ground running with a conception of who the characters really were. It was something he figured out as the series went along.

To use two dissimilar examples, in the Buster Keaton movies, Buster plays social dunces who achieve grace and purpose through physical action; in the Magnum P.I. TV series, week in and week out the main characters overcome their pettiness and incompleteness by being forced to confront danger (often thereby acting on each other's behalf). Nothing close to that meaningful is happening in Buffy action sequences yet, though there was one quick comic moment in the heat of battle where Xander slugs someone in the face and knocks him out, surprising Xander himself - he says "Hey! I got to hit someone!" indicating that, like wow, maybe he can be an action hero too.

I would be astounded and shocked - pleasantly - if Buffy gets anywhere near the quality of Keaton or Magnum.

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Can't say I was a fan of Magnum (apart from the moustache, obviously). There have been very few performers in screen history to match Keaton. I wouldn't wish to compare to either of them, but the characters' relationships and growth is central to the series throughout. Overcoming selfishness is key at the end of this series, and the idea of them all being incomplete but in some senses complementary is all over it - key at the end of season 4, for instance.

Season 1, despite the overarching Master plot, is much more episodic than any of the others, much more monster-of-the-week. The character stuff accumulates, and is more foregrounded as it goes on.

[koganbot]

SPOILER: Did think this episode missed the opportunity to explore Willow's heart and mind. One problem is that there was really no way to make Malcolm as the scriptwriters conceived him be the sort of entity - even via email and chat, pretending to be a cute boy who lived upstate - whom Willow would actually trust and fall for. She's too perceptive. They got around this by showing little of the online communication between the two, and none where he wins her trust and love. They only show some later interchanges that cause her to disbelieve.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

yes, i think this ep rather undersells willow's emotional intelligence, in order to establish a useful (but for a girl atypical) in-group craft-skill for her (= computers), and then have a bit of fun with the perils that come with such skills (a recurrent idea that will be far more deeply explored in

the basic plot-idea feels a bit left over from five or even ten years previously: nerd possessed by the spirit of dungeons and dragons...

[koganbot]

What this ep did best was Buffy's and Xander's reactions to Willow and her reaction to Buffy's reaction: Buffy knowing that Willow is a neophyte when it comes to romance, and that what's being built up in a few days online is tenuous, but Willow retorting in effect, don't I get to be the romantic lead? And Buffy thinking, well, she's got a point. And then Xander expressing his misgivings over what's coming over Willow in his typical ironic way, "Yeah, color in the cheeks, bounce in the step... it's not healthy!" And then Buffy telling him he's jealous. Xander, "I'm not interested in Willow like that." "Yeah, but you got used to being the belle of the ball." And everybody - Gellar, Brendon, scriptwriters - pitch these things just right: banter on top, concern working its way up through the banter. And good unobtrusive use of movement: Xander starting to walk away from Buffy in mock upset that no one wants to go with him to the club, a buzzer ringing and student motion in the background, his walk away becoming his and Buffy's walking together and continuing to talk, their stopping and facing each other as they express more worry over what Willow might be in for, but none of this done so obviously that we halt our own flowing with the story to say "Oh, see how they've stood still and looked at each other in order to show us that they feel concern."

[(Anonymous)]

i always thought this was one of the lamer episodes (along with the john ritter episode and the ventriloquist's dummy one, though iirc the latter wins me over by the end), but since it's in s01 i haven't rescreened it much. i guess i thought the fusion of technology and demon-mythology stuff seemed ham-handed?


j.