Be Excellent To Each Other

Dollhouse has some great episodes and some filler episodes.

The great episodes are really great - the filler episodes are very dull.

From memory they also go in little batches with filler episode after filler episode - so if you pick up in the middle of a poor part then its often a long way to the next good bit.

The network meddled around with the entire first season -- they made Whedon retool the first four (maybe it's six, I can't remember) episodes to make them "of the week" type things. Horrible ones. The terrible sexy backup dancer/detective episode, the man: the deadliest game episode. GAH. It's about halfway through the first season when what Whedon really wanted to happen started happening, and then it gets pretty good.

Fox really messed around with the show; they put it in the Friday night deathslot, wouldn't air the original pilot, demanded more "sexy" stories out of it even though Whedon was trying to tell a story about human slavery, and forced a redesign of the first half of the first season. I'm pretty sure that they only gave it that second season to keep Whedonites from going apeshit. Like, "We extended the show by twelve episodes! They'll never notice that we fucked it over like we did Firefly!" Clever ruse, Fox.

Xander consistently makes me want to peel my own face off. I felt like Whedon so desperately wanted an everyman in the show that he created the lowest common denominator of a human.



During his occasional funny moments, we are laughing at him and not with him. It's amazing how much I love this show given my loathing of about half it's main characters.

I'm a big, dumb guy. I'm good at being big and dumb. I'm bad at communicating and resentful of all the men in Buffy's life, but it's okay because I'm a big, dumb guy. I say things that aren't terribly funny and then do a horribly off-putting grin that I filched from Scooby Doo. Da da da da da! I'm Xander!

Imagine a world where Xander was played by (a somewhat younger) Nathan Fillion, though.

pics or shens

Oh my.

That could work.

I love Buffy and would marry SMG if I wasn't already.

Angel is ok, but I've only watched up to the end of S1.

The first season was good. Mostly.

The second season was bollocks but that wasn't really Whedon's fault I guess.

Just the theme tune to Angel sends shivers up me.

Never sat down and watched it for any length of episodes though, which is a shame.

I have never seen an episode of Buffy, or Angel. I don't know what Dollhouse is.

Have I missed anything?

Nah, they're by that pathetic hack Joss Whedon. Couldn't write his way out of a paper bag with a razor sharp biro.

Aw. I like Xander.

Bizarrely for the reasons you mainly cited.

I like how Fox executives started giving interviews acknowledging that cancelling Firefly was a major mistake. And then went and fucked around with Dollhouse anyway.

Imagine if it had been HBO's Firefly?

Hell's bells Mimi, sort it out!

It's a great tv show with brilliantly written characters, great humour and some tense bits as well as emotion. I don't think it got the attention it deserved because of the daft sounding name and because people think it's all about vampires but it's really not. Highly reccommend

I used to pour scorn all over Buffy, as it was gay. But then.....



I only watched it occasionally, well I can't remember very much of it, I loved Giles though.

By an odd conincidence, I've also started watching Buffy from the start and I'm just about to finish season 1. I have seen it before in passing, but didn't watch properly which is odd, because I'm the right age. Unfortunately, this makes me feel so incredibly old ecause they all look so *young*. ffs, Willow looks about 12.

There's some great episodes towards the end of the season, but it does take a while to get going. I suspect that the 'saved by the bell'-ness tends to pass as time goes on.

Are you me?


From what others have told me, Buffy is a show about going to high school that just happens to involve vampires.

Yeah, it is. A large number of the major plot points involve the supernatural events metaphorically standing in for normal teenage growing-up issues. You'll know them when you see them.

Don't read this, Grim...:

Buffy is the best thing ever. The show, not the character, natch. I really don't think the show went as downhill as some people claimed, indeed the vast majority of my favourite stuff comes from season five onwards.

Also - everyone complaining about Dawn are big meanies

Miss Calendar.

I suspect these two points are linked. You fucking nutbar.

No!!! She really did ruin latter-day Buffy for me.

It's that typical surly young 'un role where she does the same things over and over;


sulk and moan about stuff that doesn't matter.
not listen to advice, sneak out, come a cropper at the hands of some vamp.
say hurtful stuff to people who are looking out for her.


she added nothing to the show apart from a sort of angry tension but given that her character had no depth or backstory, we had no reason to care.

see also: Connor from Angel, that fucking annoying lad from the V remake and every kid ever in anything probably.

Literally and intentionally, too, which was a bit odd.

Also, the stupid emo kid from Final Fantasy XIII. I hope he dies (don't know yet).

I think the whole teenagery thing does work for me, but it probably works better when you are actually a teenager.

Mrs AE is watching Buffy on her computer as I type this, there are some fine looking women in that programme!

In particular, as I looked over, Buffy was wearing a pair of pants that highlighted her amazingly nice arse.

Also, Willow.

I'm sure it works on many other levels but I've never watched an episode, and Mrs AE is wearing headphones, so I can only comment on what I can see from here.

(The 60-DVD (!!) complete X-Files boxset should be arriving from hmv.com tomorrow, we're going to see if we can get into that (neither of us watched it when it was the hot thing in the 90s so we've never seen a single episode), which will mean big telly and 5:1 sound, although I guess the programme was only ever recorded in stereo and uses that sub-VHS filmstock that American shows in the 90s seemed to get by with...... £60 from hmv at the moment, by the way, which is a pound per disc!.

Also, Gillian Anderson.)

Yay Cordilia and Xander!

Hah!

I loved buffy and angel (have all the boxed sets natch) Faith is awesome but my brother ruined Anya for me by naming his child after her.

He's going to have a rough time at school.

Anyanka? I see.

I so wish this wasn't true

What really makes it tragic is that he has never watched buffy so whenever you point out how fucking ridiculous her name is he insists that it's "an irish name" and that "we call her Anya for short after stef's grandma" Oh fucking really, here look at this website, DVD, magazine, book that all prove that your drunk wife (now on a hour and a half supervised visitation a week) is full of shit and lied to you. In fact dear brother of mine, your child is named after a god damn fictional vengeance demon. (in actual fact it suits the little hell child)
"En-ya" is the Irish pronunciation not An-ya you fucking retard.
/vent.

Alright, but dear Christ am I glad you have nothing to do with me or my children. Seriously, what the fuck?

Rant gets a 900 bananas from me

(I wouldn't understand)

I swear on the Internet so I can be all british and nice in real life. Actual conversation goes " you know there is a buffy character called Anyanka?" "she's named after her Irish great grandma" "oh really, well that's nice are you sure?"

A quick Google suggests that Anya is an alternative spelling of 'Áine', which is indeed an Irish name.

It's going to take a bloody long time think of a name if you can't use one that's been on TV.

Agamemn....wait.

Anyanka. "Anya for short."

Personally I think there are are three things to consider when naming a child

1. Are you obviously naming your child after a film/TV character? (check)
2. Will it have a unfortunate rhyme (Anyanka, wanker, check. Also it actually rhymes with her surname as well, her sister will be known at school as "heron")
3. Could a girl's real name double up as a stripper/porn star name. (check)

Look who's talking!

for some reason i had mixed this up with xenia the warrior princess

i worry now that i might be lesbian

FTFY

Xander is upsetting Cordelia. He must die by my hand!

Ha - the episode where all the girls fall in love with Xander is fucking hilarious

I remember that one. Reminded me of an episode of Round the Twist though.

ah, i had to translate Sapppho in my greek exams, lovely poems.. my greek teacher felt a bit uncomfortable with them which was funny..

To Andromeda

That country girl has witched your wishes,
all dressed up in her country clothes
and she hasn't got the sense
to hitch her rags above her ankles.

and so this thread went from american tv series via childs names to classical poetry.. win!

This is officially my New Favorite Episode - it's genuinely funny, it's got the Buffy wearing just a raincoat and talking dirty, and the bit where Angel drags Xander out of the window is proper good - and Drucilla saves him!

Close second is the "Innocence" episode, where Angel goes back to being evil right after fucking the Buffy for the first time, and the things he said just destroy her. Evil Angel is much better than emo Angel.

I fear it may be putting me to far into touch with my seventeen year old American feminine side, but I'm really liking Buffy so far.

What a horrifying image.