Buffy review for Help; thoughts on MDs
Oct. 17th, 2002 10:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynSpoiler warnings for Buffy of 10/15, episode 7.4
So, thoughts about Buffy episode 7.4, Help.
Which I can’t quite make. Just when I start a little review page, I get something I can’t figure out what I think. There were definite plusses in this ep, but... overall, I was left just baffled once again by Buffy’s behavior. I realize that, like Same Time, Same Place, this was written and filmed before the reshot and rewritten ending to Beneath You, so we’re suffering for lack of emotion from Buffy. But in all the speechifying about helping people, not once does she seem capable of extending that to Spike.
I know, the attempted rape, yadda yadda. Which was always a crappy, bad plot device that I’ve never bought into, however canonical it might be. I never thought Buffy bought into it all that much, either. Everyone keeps saying, give her time, she’ll come around to being kind to Spike considering his condition. But at the end, she goes into her office, after all that talk about helping people, and she couldn’t, what, go to the basement instead to thank Spike for saving her life? Or just, if she can’t stand the contact with him, leaving him some food or something like that? I can understand her saying she makes it worse and leaving; that I get. I’m not sure I get the eye rolling and the frustration that accompany it, though, when she can see he’s clearly in great pain.
I know she never asked for him to get a soul, and it’s a lot for her to take. And she’s not very open about her feelings. I’m just not sure that the theme of the episode, helping, is making her look good when she’s not helping someone who desperately needs it. It’s hard for me to watch because I adore Buffy. She’s my absolute favorite hero on TV. But after the second half of last season and the stuttering quality of this, I’m just... all I can do is hope that Cassie is right and that someday, she’ll tell Spike.
I’m in the camp that those words probably mean forgiveness, rather than simply love. I think it can mean a love, eventually, but I think Cassie’s vision is that Buffy will let Spike heal. That was one of the parts I really loved about the episode. And Spike’s confused reaction. Cassie was a wonderful character -- despite the maudlin teenage poetry (come on! admit it! You did it too!), she had a luminous quality about her that made *me* want to be friends with her, too.
I loved Willow’s line to Xander, “I’m over you now, sweetie” and the remark about Doogie Howser fanfic -- they’re making fanfic jokes! on Buffy! Other jokes fell a bit flat (hard to believe this was the writer of Tabula Rasa) like the blue clam cult thing -- man, that was bad. The pacing was a little strange -- the scene where we’re waiting and waiting and then... yes! She finally spills the coffee on her white top, just like we knew she would. That kind of draggy setup is frustrating with a show like this.
The scenes with Cassie’s father were a waste of space, and offensive. That was nearly criminal on their part — not only do I not understand how they’re getting the access to such records, but to accuse him when there’s been no history of violence against Cassie, was an insult to the audience. And it hit my humiliation squick big time, something that I’ve hardly ever had happen on Buffy -- I can’t stand it when characters do something hideously embarrassing like that. With that and the confrontation with the student, I felt like Buffy was veering into some absurd territory they can’t come back from. The whole counselor setup is tough enough to swallow, but once we’ve got it down, don’t throw more on it and make us choke.
However, that was heavily mitigated by the heartbreaking scene with Willow at Tara’s grave. And I loved the little nod at reminding us that yes, Willow is Jewish, but having her put the stones on the headstone. Her understated reactions and the finality of it were just beautiful and made me all misty.
This was mostly a throwaway episode, though, I think, to get us where we need to go. I can hope that Buffy will begin to help Spike heal so that she can heal herself. If she doesn’t, it will make the themes in this ep a joke, and make her efforts to become a better person and live again far less successful.
And on to MDs...
This was the show I was most excited about for fall. William Fichtner, who I find incredibly attractive in an odd sort of way with his googly eyes and long face (I always like the odd-looking guys), and John Hannah, who’s adorable and can read poetry better than anyone else around (I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t gobsmacked by his reading of Auden in Four Weddings and a Funeral) together in a medical drama (love those med dramas!). Well, golly, what a disappointment.
I’m still amazed that this ever got on TV, let alone attracted two relatively successful actors who seem able to make smarter choices than this. Hackneyed plots, broadly drawn characters (the naïve new doctor who cares, the evil, shallow HMO guy, the administrator who only cares about money, the MASH-type rebellious doctors who care for their patients and struggle against evil... arg), and lame guest roles, this show has turned out to be monumentally disappointing.
And I will be heartbroken to see it go — and it’s near the chopping block, so it will. Because... for the first time in years, here’s a show with adult male characters with a cool slashy vibe, instead of teenagers or young Gen Xers. Even when I *was* a teen, I still liked the more adult characters, and both of these guys are slightly older, world-weary, bitter but fun-loving, and they just have that lived-in quality I like so much. And there’s an intensely slashy vibe here, one of the first I’ve seen in a long time on the big three networks, and for that reason I’m willing to wade through the crap of the stories and cheeseball lines.
Within the first episode, after barely getting to know each other over the course of a day, they end up on the roof of the hospital together, just sitting, because Fichtner’s character has been going through divorce trauma, and Hannah comes up to join him and talk and then asks if he can just sit with him. They perch on the edge way up high, and just sit. In a subsequent ep, they hold hands after Hannah’s lost his new girlfriend. (And case in point of terrible plots -- just as he i tells her he loves her, there’s a horrible accident near the hospital as a car plows through a crowd at a bus stop, and Hannah finds -- of course! His girlfriend! And she ends up brain dead! And it’s shot in herky-jerky shaky cam style with super high-contrast lensing, and the camera’s undercranked for that cool Gladiator-style effect! For no reason!)
Last night they went on a terrible misadventure trying to get said girlfriend’s transplantable heart to Las Vegas. Now, unbelievably corny and stupid as it turned out to be, there was serious slashy stuff here. In any other show, slashfans would have been jumping up and down screaming at the level of slashiness. I love seeing two adult males, both of whom I find terribly attractive, being like this. But the show won’t survive, because it’s terrible, and it’s really letting them down, and we’ll be deprived of a potentially wonderful pairing. I can’t even rec this show to people, it’s so bad, but the slashy adult guys... I wish they could take both of them and transport them into another show and let them be all slashy. Sigh.
So, thoughts about Buffy episode 7.4, Help.
Which I can’t quite make. Just when I start a little review page, I get something I can’t figure out what I think. There were definite plusses in this ep, but... overall, I was left just baffled once again by Buffy’s behavior. I realize that, like Same Time, Same Place, this was written and filmed before the reshot and rewritten ending to Beneath You, so we’re suffering for lack of emotion from Buffy. But in all the speechifying about helping people, not once does she seem capable of extending that to Spike.
I know, the attempted rape, yadda yadda. Which was always a crappy, bad plot device that I’ve never bought into, however canonical it might be. I never thought Buffy bought into it all that much, either. Everyone keeps saying, give her time, she’ll come around to being kind to Spike considering his condition. But at the end, she goes into her office, after all that talk about helping people, and she couldn’t, what, go to the basement instead to thank Spike for saving her life? Or just, if she can’t stand the contact with him, leaving him some food or something like that? I can understand her saying she makes it worse and leaving; that I get. I’m not sure I get the eye rolling and the frustration that accompany it, though, when she can see he’s clearly in great pain.
I know she never asked for him to get a soul, and it’s a lot for her to take. And she’s not very open about her feelings. I’m just not sure that the theme of the episode, helping, is making her look good when she’s not helping someone who desperately needs it. It’s hard for me to watch because I adore Buffy. She’s my absolute favorite hero on TV. But after the second half of last season and the stuttering quality of this, I’m just... all I can do is hope that Cassie is right and that someday, she’ll tell Spike.
I’m in the camp that those words probably mean forgiveness, rather than simply love. I think it can mean a love, eventually, but I think Cassie’s vision is that Buffy will let Spike heal. That was one of the parts I really loved about the episode. And Spike’s confused reaction. Cassie was a wonderful character -- despite the maudlin teenage poetry (come on! admit it! You did it too!), she had a luminous quality about her that made *me* want to be friends with her, too.
I loved Willow’s line to Xander, “I’m over you now, sweetie” and the remark about Doogie Howser fanfic -- they’re making fanfic jokes! on Buffy! Other jokes fell a bit flat (hard to believe this was the writer of Tabula Rasa) like the blue clam cult thing -- man, that was bad. The pacing was a little strange -- the scene where we’re waiting and waiting and then... yes! She finally spills the coffee on her white top, just like we knew she would. That kind of draggy setup is frustrating with a show like this.
The scenes with Cassie’s father were a waste of space, and offensive. That was nearly criminal on their part — not only do I not understand how they’re getting the access to such records, but to accuse him when there’s been no history of violence against Cassie, was an insult to the audience. And it hit my humiliation squick big time, something that I’ve hardly ever had happen on Buffy -- I can’t stand it when characters do something hideously embarrassing like that. With that and the confrontation with the student, I felt like Buffy was veering into some absurd territory they can’t come back from. The whole counselor setup is tough enough to swallow, but once we’ve got it down, don’t throw more on it and make us choke.
However, that was heavily mitigated by the heartbreaking scene with Willow at Tara’s grave. And I loved the little nod at reminding us that yes, Willow is Jewish, but having her put the stones on the headstone. Her understated reactions and the finality of it were just beautiful and made me all misty.
This was mostly a throwaway episode, though, I think, to get us where we need to go. I can hope that Buffy will begin to help Spike heal so that she can heal herself. If she doesn’t, it will make the themes in this ep a joke, and make her efforts to become a better person and live again far less successful.
And on to MDs...
This was the show I was most excited about for fall. William Fichtner, who I find incredibly attractive in an odd sort of way with his googly eyes and long face (I always like the odd-looking guys), and John Hannah, who’s adorable and can read poetry better than anyone else around (I’ve never met anyone who wasn’t gobsmacked by his reading of Auden in Four Weddings and a Funeral) together in a medical drama (love those med dramas!). Well, golly, what a disappointment.
I’m still amazed that this ever got on TV, let alone attracted two relatively successful actors who seem able to make smarter choices than this. Hackneyed plots, broadly drawn characters (the naïve new doctor who cares, the evil, shallow HMO guy, the administrator who only cares about money, the MASH-type rebellious doctors who care for their patients and struggle against evil... arg), and lame guest roles, this show has turned out to be monumentally disappointing.
And I will be heartbroken to see it go — and it’s near the chopping block, so it will. Because... for the first time in years, here’s a show with adult male characters with a cool slashy vibe, instead of teenagers or young Gen Xers. Even when I *was* a teen, I still liked the more adult characters, and both of these guys are slightly older, world-weary, bitter but fun-loving, and they just have that lived-in quality I like so much. And there’s an intensely slashy vibe here, one of the first I’ve seen in a long time on the big three networks, and for that reason I’m willing to wade through the crap of the stories and cheeseball lines.
Within the first episode, after barely getting to know each other over the course of a day, they end up on the roof of the hospital together, just sitting, because Fichtner’s character has been going through divorce trauma, and Hannah comes up to join him and talk and then asks if he can just sit with him. They perch on the edge way up high, and just sit. In a subsequent ep, they hold hands after Hannah’s lost his new girlfriend. (And case in point of terrible plots -- just as he i tells her he loves her, there’s a horrible accident near the hospital as a car plows through a crowd at a bus stop, and Hannah finds -- of course! His girlfriend! And she ends up brain dead! And it’s shot in herky-jerky shaky cam style with super high-contrast lensing, and the camera’s undercranked for that cool Gladiator-style effect! For no reason!)
Last night they went on a terrible misadventure trying to get said girlfriend’s transplantable heart to Las Vegas. Now, unbelievably corny and stupid as it turned out to be, there was serious slashy stuff here. In any other show, slashfans would have been jumping up and down screaming at the level of slashiness. I love seeing two adult males, both of whom I find terribly attractive, being like this. But the show won’t survive, because it’s terrible, and it’s really letting them down, and we’ll be deprived of a potentially wonderful pairing. I can’t even rec this show to people, it’s so bad, but the slashy adult guys... I wish they could take both of them and transport them into another show and let them be all slashy. Sigh.
