wAug 2, 2009


Buffy, Season 2 [rewatch]

I think that I've been reading new books/manga/etc. and watching new TV shows steadily for a couple of years now. And this is weird behavior for me, as my tendency throughout life in general has usually been to reread my favorite books obsessively.

I don't remember what initiated it, but last week I started re-watching the second season of Buffy, and I finished the re-watch today.

I'll put my spoilers behind a cut - it was just last year that I was watching this show for the first time myself!

Spoilers through the end of Season 2.


Characters
I had forgotten how much I love Oz. But right after I fell in love with him again, I realized that he actually doesn't appear in many episodes in season 2! This is sad to me.

It's still refreshing watching Cordelia. I shallowly wonder if I love her a lot more on Buffy just because I think she looks awful with short hair?? Watching Cordelia on Buffy makes me hate Angel the Series more.

I'm hating Xander a lot more than I did the first time around. I find a lot of his sexual comments to Buffy really inappropriate considering that she's made her refusal absolutely clear, and I frequently find him more self-centered than Cordelia. His actions in Becoming, Part 2 are particularly atrocious to me, with him purposely not telling Buffy that Willow was trying to re-soul Angel. I kind of hate that this is never brought up by either Willow or Buffy in season 3 in a "Dude, you suck at life" kind of way. He is never punished by the other characters for his actions. I guess Buffy would never know that Willow delegated the sharing of this information to Xander unless Willow herself told her, but it seems surprising to me that nobody would ever discuss what happened during season 3, especially once Angel came back.

His refusal to forgive Angel for his actions as Angelus (namely killing Jenny Calendar) are also pretty weird - out of all the characters, he was probably the least close with Ms. Calendar. While yelling at Buffy for "forgetting about Ms. Calendar so she can be with her boyfriend," he is in reality using Ms. Calendar's death as a way for punishing Buffy, yet again, for not reciprocating his romantic feelings.

While I'm liking Xander less, I'm liking Willow more. She is just....adorable. She points to her pouty lip; "Resolve face."

Episodes
Buffy killing Angel in "Becoming, Part 2" still made me cry.

My favorite episodes are Innocence, Passion, I Only Have Eyes for You, and Becoming Parts 1 and 2. Apparently I'm a big fan of rapid plot development combined with epic, dripping angst.

I hated the episode "Ted" the first time I watched it, but I found it delightfully hilarious this time around. My favorite scene is Buffy, Joyce, and Ted sitting at the dinner table, with Buffy looking ready to scream. Ted asks Buffy how she would react if her mother married Ted, and Buffy says in deadpan, "I'd kill myself."

Other
Overall, I'd forgotten how much of a horror show this used to be. By the last couple of seasons, the characters have become so jaded that it's almost amazing to watch them be legitimately afraid of vampires, werewolves, etc.

I do like the first two seasons of Buffy a lot. But I do like watching characters post-trauamatic experiences, and I like the jadedness that Buffy gets after having to kill re-souled Angel.


Lastly: I was rereading my old entries about Angel the series to see if it was a bad as I remember it being, and I am mildly ashamed by how much squee there is. I think my favorite part is how much I loved Wesley for screaming at Faith to shut up so that he could stab a heroin addict in the shoulder. I might be disturbed, but people make TV shows just for me! It's awesome.

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scribbled mystickeeper at 1:29 PM
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