From: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org (stillpt-digest) To: stillpt-digest@smoe.org Subject: stillpt-digest V2 #213 Reply-To: stillpt@smoe.org Sender: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-stillpt-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk stillpt-digest Sunday, November 12 2000 Volume 02 : Number 213 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: b/family [Micole Sudberg ] Re: b/family ["Berni Phillips" ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 01:44:27 -0500 From: Micole Sudberg Subject: Re: b/family At 11:56 PM 11/10/00 -0500, Donald G. Keller wrote: >Is "Family" the title of the episode? I've discovered I can't access >the official web page with my antiquated equipment, so I will have >to depend on others to keep me posted on the titles. (What's the >=Angel= one, anyone?) Yes. And the ANGEL title is "Guise Will Be Guise". They've had better. >The burning question this week, of course, is how we feel about the >solution to the Tara situation. Meredith's vote is negative; so was >my daughter's (I believe Deirdre's word was "lame"). David seems >more in the middle, and I think I am, too, though I can quite >understand where it could seem to have arrived with a dull thud. I'm with Meredith and Deirdre on this one. I haven't been so disappointed with a Joss-written episode since "Amends", and for much the same reasons. It is not kind to smack your fans in the head with a sledgehammer. Writers should refrain. The ANGEL episode was slightly better, but suffered from being the second hour in a row where a father tried to control his daughter with emotional blackmail. Unfortunate scheduling there. "Family" ... Just in case you haven't noticed one of our key themes, we're going to draw it in big letters on the blackboard and underline it three times. Plus poor white trash stereotypes. Three guest actors, none of whom could manage the same accent as the others, and even the Brad Pitt knock-off gave up on the attempt at Southern eventually. I wish he hadn't bothered to begin with, and I wish that Cousin Beth hadn't tried to imitate Tara's breathiness at the start either. It didn't work very well. And the Tara/Willow sweetness was just over the top, although I did sort of like the floating dance at the end. >I can't remember any situation in the show that =did= have so >mundane an explanation, so in that sense it's something "new." But I >can't blame anybody for finding it unsatisfying. I strongly suspect Joyce's illness is mundane. On reflection, I think this may be one of the reasons why the Tara explanation fell so flat. >Many good things about the episode, in any case. Meredith has >mentioned some that I might have, including those having to do with >Spike, and with "Useful Member of Society" Anya. I'll add here >one line of Anya's I didn't catch until a third time through the >episode, during the fight scene where she says, "I've been injured >this month already!" Also, I was amused that the final verdict on Tara's >peculiar "insect reflection" joke being not funny came from Anya, Mistress >of Comedy. Spike was tremendously amusing, as was the cleverly choreographed sexual frustration fight-scene. I hope they don't overplay this. I really adore that not-funny joke. It's such a geeky thing to do. >Little clue-type stuff. Notice how Tara and the kitten keep being >linked symbolically? No idea what that means. Also the fact that the >hospital intern, speaking chess-wise, is a piece being kept >ostentatiously on the board (and note the continuation of the crazy >people motif). I was also intrigued to notice on rewatching that I so hoped he was going to get killed off. I can't say why, but he really irritates me. >Very fine scene between Buffy and Giles near the beginning. (Interesting >commentary on fatherhood in this episode; note the contrast between >Buffy's absentee father and Tara's domineering father.) But I think Buffy >and Giles are doing the wrong thing: in this universe of discourse, "let's >not tell anyone else" is almost =always= a recipe for disaster; look at >what happened when Tara tried to keep everyone ignorant of her supposed >demon nature, just for one example. And note that Buffy almost immediately >ran into a problem with Riley when she wigged out being overprotective of >Dawn. (Loved Dawn's "the source of my gladness" line.) Yes. And they haven't even tried to come up with a logical explanation for why the gang shouldn't know about Dawn -- how exactly does not knowing she's a target make *anyone* any safer? It just means they don't know what to protect against. I'm particularly squicked by their not telling Joyce. Though I like how they're working in the false memory stuff. >So Riley's been going to Willy's! (And where's Willy, by the way?) Did we Wasn't that Willy looking sour and tending bar? >all notice who his drinking buddy was? I recognized her just before she >said her name: she was the random bystander Vampire Willow bit as a >demonstration in "Doppelgangland." And how did Riley know she was a >vampire? Just because she was in the bar? I didn't catch that. Good continuity. :) >Speaking of macho...nice bit where horseplaying Riley and Xander jump to >attention (military reference intentional) when Buffy threatens them. > >Kind of an odd scenario, where the first we hear about Buffy moving >into--what, a new dorm room?--is when she immediately moves out of it >again. It makes sense that she would decide she needed to be at home, but >it's peculiar that this was the first mention of it. Nice visual echo of Faith and Buffy folding sheets when Dawn and Buffy fold up the blanket. >The crux of the episode, of course, is the demon attack and the aftermath >with Tara's family. Most interesting was the fact that Buffy has "demon >radar," that she knew the demons were there even though she couldn't see >them (and was able to fight them to a standstill). And note that she >couldn't see Spike, either. I didn't think it was "demon radar", i.e., a supernatural sense -- I thought she could hear them. Tara's spell blinded her; it didn't deafen her. And she asked all the others to be quiet when she was trying to deal with the attackers. >It was quite typical that it was Spike who figured it all out; he's really >sharp. Very amusing moment when he punched Tara. > >Also amusing to see the "two little girls" (Buffy and Dawn) standing up to >Tara's father ("she's a hair-puller"); they've really got the sister act >(conflict =and= togetherness) down well. They do. Michelle Tractenberg continues to amaze me. She's doing an excellent job at portraying someone who is not at all Buffy, but nevertheless shares several key traits and mannerisms. And Dawn is being written very well -- her utter tactlessness is terrific. >The way the scene worked out =was= a little too swift and a little too >pat; especially the quick-change emotional switch Buffy went >through. She's right: Tara's spell nearly got the whole lot of them >killed, and Buffy had every reason to be pissed about it. So it did seem a >little strange that she so quickly stood up for Tara against her family. I can see her standing up for Tara's right to make her own decisions despite being pissed; what I disliked was that support becoming forgiveness so easily. And I don't like the sort of rush to enfold Tara into the "family". I rather liked the earlier scenes, where Xander and Buffy were both trying to work out their relationship to her -- I've seldom seen the problem of how to handle your friends' lovers, when everyone has good intentions but no one quite feels an emotional connection to each other, addressed on TV, and the way BUFFY's been trying to cover this with both Tara and Riley has been interesting, and has made a good contrast to the handling of Oz and Cordelia in similar situations in past seasons. >Looks like good stuff next week in the big 2-Hour Event. Except for those >who find the flashbacks tiresome. I find them schlocky, generally. But I'll hold out hope till I actually see the episodes. - --m. - -- "There's trees in the desert since you moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones."--Joss Whedon, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 11 Nov 2000 14:09:53 -0800 From: "Berni Phillips" Subject: Re: b/family From: "Donald G. Keller" > > On reflection I have a certain admiration for the solution, simply because > of its consistency. It plays fair with all the clues: Tara's stuttering > under stress, backing down from confrontation, her weird hesitation > talking about her mother, and especially the motivation for sabotaging the > demon-scrying spell. Yes, that's what I thought as well. > There is, though, still a mystery about Tara's mother, notice. Tara's > father's line is "...when your mother..." and cuts himself > off. So we =don't= know if she's dead, run off like Tara, or what. > Maybe it will prove to be unimportant, but it's still something we don't > know about Tara's past. This, too, was probably deliberate. Tara mentioned her mother had been a witch. I would not be surprised to learn she had committed suicide. Or perhaps she's been institutionalized. > Little clue-type stuff. Notice how Tara and the kitten keep being > linked symbolically? No idea what that means. Yes, I noticed that, too. In fact, the only time they seem to show the kitten is for something that appears to be symbolic. I supposed this may be addressed later, if important, much as the new intern will be. > So Riley's been going to Willy's! (And where's Willy, by the way?) Did we > all notice who his drinking buddy was? I recognized her just before she > said her name: she was the random bystander Vampire Willow bit as a > demonstration in "Doppelgangland." And how did Riley know she was a > vampire? Just because she was in the bar? Well, she was in the bar and never appeared to notice anything unusual (such as the clientele). That's a dead give away that she's not human herself. Most women, I think, would quickly exit the place rather than try to pick up a cute guy. > And what's the deal with Willow and Tara? Are they rooming together? Or > was Willow just staying over that one night? The fact that later on Willow > says she'll see Tara in the morning to fill her in seems to indicate > Willow is living elsewhere; but earlier she expects Buffy to call > "them" if she had found something, indicating that Buffy would know to > look for Willow there. Conflicting evidence. You're right, this is unclear. One of Xander's comments when moving out Buffy's things from the dorm room was about how much space she had. We didn't see Willow's things there, and they had been rooming together before. If Willow isn't rooming with Buffy, she's most likely rooming with Tara and not just spending most of her time there. > Here's the mystery. There was some mention of her being someone "not to be > named," and in this episode she talks about "my name is a holy name," but > in this week's =TV Guide= she's referred to as Glory. Don't know what to > make of that. I think she's a fallen angel, perhaps Lucifer or a top-ranking minion. (Not to be confused, of course, with Harmony's minions. I still love the thought of Harmony having minions.) > It was quite typical that it was Spike who figured it all out; he's really > sharp. Very amusing moment when he punched Tara. Yes. I was wondering why it had taken so long for someone to ask what kind of demon Tara was. We, the audience, know that people can be half-demon (e.g., Doyle) and not be evil. > Also amusing to see the "two little girls" (Buffy and Dawn) standing up to > Tara's father ("she's a hair-puller"); they've really got the sister act > (conflict =and= togetherness) down well. I loved the "hair-puller" line. And we know that Dawn really looks up to Tara, too. > The way the scene worked out =was= a little too swift and a little too > pat; especially the quick-change emotional switch Buffy went > through. She's right: Tara's spell nearly got the whole lot of them > killed, and Buffy had every reason to be pissed about it. So it did seem a > little strange that she so quickly stood up for Tara against her family. I attribute this to Buffy's impulsiveness combined with her ability to make snap decisions and wanting to present a united front to outsiders. We've seen what happens when the Scooby gang is divided. They're stronger together than apart, and if she wants/needs Willow, Tara is part of the package now. > What this may speak to, actually, is the strong influence that Willow has > over the rest of the "family." It was she who took charge of the > situation, calling Tara's misdemeanor a "mistake," and controlling the > conversation so that the decision was pitched to Tara; I doubt that Tara > would have been able to stand up for herself without that assist. So it > may simply be that Buffy has enough respect for, and loyalty to, Willow > and what is important to her, to back her up in that particular > situation. Will Buffy have something to say to Tara later? Wouldn't > surprise me. Again, one of the fine moments, I thought, was when Tara's father told Willow, "It's not your decision," and Willow answered "I know that." I like the way Hannigan delivered the line and the focus that she/Willow was able to keep on the important issue, not letting Tara be bullied into leaving with her family against her will. > =Angel= continues to move along well, too, I think. The thing that struck > me was that Wesley did a really good job standing in for Angel, the > humiliation of being discovered aside, and as David pointed out that gives > him a shot of confidence. Well, he was actually competant for a change instead of falling over things. I love the way Dawn interacts with Buffy's friends so I want to see more of this. We know she has a crush on Xander. Will she try to break him and Anya up? Will she spend more time with Willow and Tara and pick up a few more things than her mother would like? (I can see her aping their clothes and make-up and taking it to a junior high extreme.) I think the actress is a fine addition to the cast. Berni ------------------------------ End of stillpt-digest V2 #213 *****************************