Buffy Season Two Episode Fifteen

"I mean, three days of the month I'm not much fun to be around, either."

Werewolf episode. Was much lighter than the last episode, perhaps by design. I figured out both surprises before they were revealed (identity of werewolf in the woods and secret of big bruiser Larry in the locker room); I guess these were pretty well telegraphed. I mean, who was left unaccounted for whom the People for the Ethical Treatment of Werewolves would end up being concerned about?

Anyway, thought "Oh no" at the start when I saw this was about werewolves, and had an even bigger "Oh no" when the story began hitting us with analogies between a guy going werewolf and the way boys change on you (you know, they're hot and they're cold, they're yes and they're no, they're in and they're out, they're up and they're down and change their minds like a girl changes clothes and, er, I'd better quit before I get into any more trouble). But the episode ended up being so loose and human and funny about this that it at least got by. My turning point was when Buffy and Giles were out hunting werewolves on Lovers' Lane and Giles suggests they "might knock on a few windows and ask if anyone's seen anything yet."

Buffy: "Giles, no one's seen anything."

Giles (light dawning in his mind): "Oh, yes, no, of course not. No. Yes."

Another Year In America October 29, 2009

"Fireflies" at number one. Ack. Or shrug. Top three tracks ("Fireflies," "Whatcha Say," "Down") are mediocre sugar goo, number four ("Party In The USA") at least tries something and is in your face with the rawness of Miley, though it took a bootleg Miley-Biggie mashup to make this sound really good, and number five ("Run This Town") is dull for the luminaries involved, but fortunately Rihanna puts on the dark sorrow voice she uses so well. "Paparazzi" at six is a definite grabber that genuinely engages with Sounds And What They Do, even if GaGa never seems to quite know what she's on about. (To be fair, the boring sugar pop at one-two-three also engages Sound; problem is that it settles for one good element and has nothing worth adding from there.) Number seven ("Meet Me Halfway") has its own engagement with Sound, though not engaging me as much as the last couple of BEP hits did. Number eight ("3") is more sugar slime but this one successfully gets under my skin, number nine ("I Gotta Feeling") is ol' Sound-engaging BEP hangin' around, and on number ten ("Sweet Dreams") an awesome pro wrestles with Sound and self, even if she's still something of a cipher.

So while the top of the ten is pop and r&b sweetening itself to death, there is creativity jiggling just underneath. July through October has been the worst Top 40 of the decade, but not altogether dire.

( Ke$ha )

( Usher )

( Glee Cast )

( Gucci Mane )

Romantic '00s rap star makes note of his dissimilarity to '50s heart-throb

Girls be complainin' you keep me boomin'
But girls like that wanna listen to Pat Boone (Ehh... oh yeah, there's
something about you...)
You's a college girl, but that don't stop you from doin'
Come and see the Dogg in a hood near you-in (Oh-hooo!)
--Snoop Dogg "Beautiful"

Buffy Season Two Episode Sixteen: It's one thing to guess and it's one thing to know

"All you ever do is what everyone else does just so you can say you did it first."

I wonder if Cordelia's closing monologue was written before the rest, and then the question for the scriptwriters was "How do we get here?"

They pull off the near impossible, which is to do an episode that borders on total farce but keep it just serious enough in the right places so that when warmth and emotional risk are called for, what we see really is warmth and emotional risk.

It's the love potion number nine episode (well, witchcraft gone awry, but you know what I mean).

Crucial ongoing trope in the series: someone offers to date or sleep with someone who's been longing for just that offer from just that person, but the other person turns down the offer because in the circumstances the dating or sex won't mean the love that he or she wants it to mean.

As Dave's said, the leap in quality in the middle of this season comes when the show starts to ride on pure character; there's now a surer sense of character, so that analogies etc. become believable. In the first Amy/witchcraft episode back in Season One the dangerous witchcraft was basically something from outside the main characters, external evil that they had to deal with. And the mother-living-through-her-daughter idea was thrown at us as an idea. This time what happens isn't an idea - at least not an idea I'd be able to state: Xander thinking he wants something, getting something else that every man would supposedly want, this getting twisted into horrifying parody and farce, and as a result of this brouhaha he finds that getting what he truly wants has nothing to do with his efforts. Both of these - the effort and the getting - come from his personality. (And the rest is under the cut.)

( Cordelia watch )

( Joyce watch )