Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a pretty bad teen horror comedy that is notable for two reasons. Obviously, it led to the much better and more successful television series and media franchise with the same title. Also, it stars some surprisingly talented actors, and features an abnormally large number of people in bit parts who would later go on to reasonably big careers. There's a pre-multiple-Oscar-wins Hilary Swank as a vapid high schooler, a pre-being-more-famous-than-he-should-be David Arquette as a punk-turned-vampire, and even a pre-Good-Will-Hunting Ben Affleck as a basketball player with one line. There's an early Stephen Root performance as a school administrator, and Thomas Jane apparently played someone named Zeph. Paul Reubens and Rutger Hauer play powerful vampires, Luke Perry found time to play a deadbeat who finds himself thrust into the sidekick/love interest role while he wasn't filming 90210, and Donald Sutherland is Merrick, a Watcher like Giles who is immortal for some reason. Star Kristy Swanson is practically the least currently famous person in the cast.

But anyway, I'm getting away from the movie, which was not very good. The script is credited to Joss Whedon, and while apparently several changes were made, I read the comic that was based on the same script, and a whole lot of it is the same, particularly the dialogue. The fact that the film is so amazingly unfunny despite using a lot of the same lines as the decent comic further proves something that was revealed in Alien Resurrection - as fun as Whedon's dialogue can be, in the hands of the wrong director and cast, it can be disastrous. Without the right attitude, it comes off pretty awkwardly, much more like somebody reading a script than talking. With the right talent it shines, but otherwise it can be bad. Buffy is the only character shared between the movie and show, and Swanson's interpretation just doesn't work. She's a pretty blond, but that's pretty much the extent of her similarity to Sarah Michelle Gellar's version. Buffy begins the series as a fairly normal teenage girl, but there's always that snarky undercurrent that kept her interesting right from the start, and the Buffy here is just too much the stereotypical popular high school student. Reading the comic in the show's voice showed how the material could have worked fine, but they just go another way with it that fails.

And with the dialogue failing so badly, a lot of the comedy gets shifted to the physical side of the movie, which just doesn't work either. There's a certain cheesiness to the martial arts action on the show, with some obvious stunt doubling and overly elaborate movement for simple results, but the tone makes it seem like an old action movie rather than a big joke, which is what it is here. There's hardly any real fighting at all - Buffy does some flips and hand springs and a limited bag of tricks, but any time there's actual physical scuffling it's just incompetent. Reubens' character was probably supposed to be intimidating, but it doesn't work because he's god damn Pee Wee Herman, and the best we get out of him is a weird piece of anti-comedy where he is apparently killed by repeatedly fails to actually die. Hauer's character's evilness is also told more than it's really shown, and the role is a major waste of his innate menace as an actor. And the changes made to Merrick and what the Watchers are for the movie add up to a whole lot of nothing.

I watched it because I wanted to see the background of what causes Buffy to move to Sunnydale and let the series begin, but some cuts to the script remove a couple pivotal events anyway, and the few people besides Buffy who are mentioned in the series that appear aren't really the same characters, so it doesn't serve that purpose well. It was pretty much just a waste of my time, even if the movie was shorter than a two-part episode of the show. There are no real likable characters, it's not funny, it's not scary, it's not exciting. And it's not capable of building an ironic cult following because something that was actually good grew out of it. All it can be now is a curio for fans of the series. Without Fran Rubel Kuzui the Buffy franchise probably wouldn't exist, and she deserves some credit for that. But the film she actually made was poor.

Characters of the Decade: Part 2

The first list was pretty heavy on animation, but this one mixes up the media a bit more and also features humans who aren't white males.

J. Jonah Jameson
J.K. Simmons - Spider-Man series


"Meat! I'll send you a nice box of Christmas meat. It's the best I can do, get out of here."

Honestly, this was the most exciting thing to see be brought to life in the first Spider-Man movie. Has there been a better comic relief character in the last decade of action movies? I can't think of one. Simmons has a unique asshole charisma that he can make work for seemingly any character, and this was the first time a lot of the world got to see it. While I don't think they quite nailed Peter Parker's personality, the personification of his most consistent detractor went off without a hitch.

Omar Little
Michael K. Williams - The Wire


"I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It's all in the game though, right?"

I could name wonderful characters from this show all day if I wanted. Omar isn't necessarily my favorite, but he certainly tends to stick out more than the others. In the world where everyone seems to have an affiliation, he's pretty much out there on his own besides a revolving door of accomplices, playing the dangerous game of robbing criminals. A sort of perverse modern day Robin Hood who keeps it all for himself. While the majority of the show's cast is great because it seems so real, Marlo is great because he's a legend in his own time. Nothing quite clears the streets of Baltimore like hearing the call "Omar comin'!"

Yorick Brown
Y: The Last Man


"In the words of Thomas Jefferson... that's bullshit."

Being the last man on Earth is a large weight to carry, and luckily Yorick's up to the task. It's definitely an unusual situation for a person to be in, and he manages with the right combination of heroism and hopelessness to make him a definite protagonist but still very vulnerable and in need of the health. He makes his share of mistakes, but through the whole story he never loses his sense of humor or humanity. And while I wasn't a big fan of the epilogue, the conclusion of his personal journey was pretty perfect.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds
Nathan Fillion - Firefly franchise


"May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one."

Another case where I could almost name anyone in the cast and justify putting them here, but as the leader of the crew Mal always stuck out. A true outlaw smuggler with a heart of gold in the tradition of Han Solo, Mal is perhaps an even better version. He does what it takes to get by, with lethal force if necessary, but in the end has what's ultimately good always on his mind. He's a bit inconsistent, sticking with his principles in some cases but running if it makes sense in others. But that's part of what makes him likable. He's unpredictable, funny, and a pleasure to watch command a ship.

Brock Samson
Patrick Warburton - The Venture Bros.


"Hank, seriously. When I get my license back I'm allowed to kill you."

It speaks to the show's quality that the recent half season was still totally great even with Brock being elsewhere for most of the episodes, but he's definitely the most fun character to see do his thing. He's the ultimate death machine, a badass with an actual license to kill and unending willingness to use it. But even when he's not on a rampage he's a lot of fun. His familial relationship with his unorthodox family, unexpected extracurricular interests, and uncommon understanding of the insane cartoon world he lives in are all big parts to the character and how he stays interesting beyond going on murder sprees.

Caleb
Nathan Fillion - Buffy the Vampire Slayer


"What can I say? I work in mysterious ways. Also some fairly straightforward ones."

And here's Fillion again already, fresh off Firefly's cancellation. I could watch him in almost anything, with his unending supply of sarcastic nice guy charisma. But this is the only time I've seen him play a true villain, and damn if he isn't good at that too. Caleb doesn't have a ton of screen time, but he's probably my favorite bad guy in a series that prided itself on strong antagonists. With a single push of a finger (well, thumb) he secured his place in infamy, and there's just something about his religious background, rampant misogyny and disarming accent that make him a lot more terrifying than any vampire or demon Joss Whedon could conjure.

George Oscar Bluth
Will Arnett - Arrested Development


"No, Michael, that's not my trick. It's my illusion!"

Arrested Development is basically the definition of a great ensemble comedy cast, but GOB was basically in a league of his own. I'm sort of getting the feeling at this point that this is the only character Arnett actually plays, but damn if it isn't an entertaining one, and it works all the better here with his unusual interests, perspective, and motives. The show was absolutely littered with transcendent moments, and GOB had more than his fair share.

Oh Dae-su
Choi Min-sik - Oldboy


"Anyone here with an AB blood type, raise your hand."

If you watch this movie again, Oh Dae-su isn't even recognizable in the first scene as some drunk at a police station. 15 years alone in a room will change anybody, but Min-sik totally sold hit in his complete transformation into who he'll be for the rest of the movie. The thing that drew me to finally seeing it was a particular action scene, but that's not really what the character's about. It's about what unbelievable circumstances can do to a man, but how at his core there's still the same guy who can still be hurt, no matter how hard his exterior's gotten. And while his final decision is somewhat mortifying, in a way I can't blame him.

Colonel Saul Tigh
Michael Hogan - Battlestar Galactica


"So take your piety and your moralizing and your high minded principles and stick them some place safe... I've got a war to fight."

Tigh is an interesting case, as a pretty good character who didn't become great until circumstances forced him to. He was always an entertaining cranky old guy with a strong sense of duty and a bit of a drinking problem, but when he's thrust into the position of leading a resistance movement by any means necessary, he really starts to shine. Ugliness is what makes pretty much any of the Battlestar characters interesting, and his decisions under stress are as hideous as they come. Of course he changes quite a bit in another way later, and it just adds to his depth as he just tries to come to grips with it all. Most of the show's cast is sort of hard to like, but Tigh was actually easy in a strange sort of way.

Illyria
Amy Acker - Angel


"I wish to do more violence."

Illyria's here half because of the character, and half because it was so mind blowing to see cute, neurotic Acker transform into the embodiment of pure, sentient power. It's really a surprising amount of range, and she pulls it off without a hitch. It's definitely a good character too, one of the few in the whole setting to subvert the normal expectations for the appearance of what's basically a newly awakened, vengeful god. One of the greatest shames in the show's cancellation is not seeing more of her. I guess I could read the comics, but it won't be the same without Acker's performance.

Al Swearengen
Ian McShane - Deadwood


"I wouldn't trust a man who wouldn't try to steal a little."

If you look up "tour de force" in the dictionary, you'll see a definition that accurately describes what Ian McShane did for three years on Deadwood. The show was more theatrical than cinematic in the stateliness and brilliance of its dialogue, and nobody presented it as well as he did. I think I would watch a show that was just him giving speeches to an empty room. That wasn't all there was to the character either, as he was equal parts hilarious and terrifying as he fought for control of the town he helped build. Absolute dynamite the entire time.

Brick Tamland
Steve Carell - Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy


"Yeah, there were horses, and a man on fire, and I killed a guy with a trident."

One of the few supporting appearances in a comedy that basically stole the whole film and launched a career. Carell was funny on The Daily Show and The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Office certainly helped, but I think Anchorman is when people everywhere thought to themselves, "Man, this guy's funny." Honestly, of all the movie's funny bits, Bricks are pretty base and low brow, but still humorous and important to the continuing development of what's considered funny in mass popular culture.

Continued tomorrow.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 7

Buffy's final season had a similar dark tone to the last couple, though thankfully it had a strong storyline to keep it afloat like the fifth as opposed to just being sort of aimlessly depressing like the sixth. I really liked it, though still not as much as or for quite the same reasons as the show's first few years. It's not that the show doesn't have a strong mix of humor in with the horror and action; it's still quite funny in places. It's just that earlier on there was a sense of fun to the whole proceedings, as Buffy and her friends could still be kids growing up in between apocalyptic fights to save the world. Once Buffy had to stop attending classes that feeling was replaced with another of dread and constant duty that weighed a little too heavily on everybody. It doesn't mean the show was inherently worse, just different.

There's really a shift in the paradigm that leads into what I know about the comics that continue the story, as the time of the Watchers comes to an end and the potential future slayers are introduced. Buffy has to take more of a leadership role, and you can see how things are affecting her life and the others more than they should be for someone in their early twenties. I'm not sure about the villains this time. Nathan Fillion was quite excellent and actually pretty scary in his big role near the end, but the main bad guy didn't have the presence they probably should have, literally and figuratively. It's kind of hard to effectively convey the destruction of the first evil entity when they don't have a form to be destroyed. Still, the conclusion was a suitably climactic and exciting finale for a long running show like this. One more season of Angel and then it's on to reading the comics.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 6

Buffy's penultimate season was also its weakest so far. The series took a darker turn the previous year, and this one continued the trend, although without the sense of direction that kept season five from seeming worse than it did. The show grabbed me originally because it had a great sense of fun despite the morbid things that often happened, and it was always funny and enjoyable even if not every single joke landed. Season five was forgivable for being more serious because the main plot was pretty darn strong, whereas season six is less so because the main plot isn't. The primary villains were mostly entertaining as they were pretty much the only thing that wasn't constantly depressing, although by the end one was just pissing me off more than should be necessary and they were just a diversion from the actual final conflict, which really turned out pretty strong.

There were some good traditional Buffy episodes scattered around, but in general there was just sort of a directionless, sour malaise about the whole thing that made it a lot less fun to watch. None of the characters were unjustified in their lashing out and depression, it just didn't make for exciting viewing. I've heard that Whedon's attentions were focused more on developing Firefly while this season was being schemed up and his absence led to the drop in quality, which is as good a reason as any. I didn't hate watching it, I was just a little bummed by the experience. The musical episode was a little blunt in how it just spelled out all the crap that's weighing the different characters down, but it was still a really cool thing to do once in a long running series, and an episode where Buffy's not sure which world she's seeing is real was one of the more chilling and interesting in the whole series, but these highlights were just a bit too few and far between. I really hope the final season can recover and deliver a nice ending, even though thanks to the comic, it's not really an ending at all.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 5

To be honest, I wasn't sure about this season at first, and at times it got fairly cringe-worthy. It's not really as funny as it was before, and almost all of the real-life aspects were taken over by the almost pervasive sadness that bubbles out of the main plot. Still, the quality of that main plot and how it culminates makes this one of the strongest seasons in the show's run. If you only like the show for the cheesy action and laughs it might not be your bag, but it definitely shows a lot of growth in a few years of airing.

It starts out strangely, with Buffy taking on Dracula himself for an episode. That's just a diversion before the story thread that causes everything afterward is thrown to the viewer pretty exquisitely, the mysterious appearance of a character everyone seems to know but the audience is clueless about. They've pulled this sort of thing before when Johnathan went from forgotten recurring background character to adored center of the universe, but it wasn't quite like this. It's a strange tangent at first, but it evolves into the core of the season and becomes the source of a lot of drama and emotionally charged moments. Buffy's mom sees a resurgence in the size of her part after almost disappearing in the fourth season, providing another source of dreary storytelling. There's also some new directions for Spike's character that I didn't really care for too, and for a while I wasn't sold on much of what was happening. But it really came together in the last third or so in possibly the show's best buildup and conclusion. I know that some of the ramifications aren't lasting, but it was still very well-done serial storytelling that had the desired effect.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 4

The fourth season of Buffy had some stand-alone episodes among the very best the show's had so far, though it didn't feel quite as strong overall as it did previously. I'm still interested in the characters for the most part, though some of their problems weren't as good and the main story arc was... I don't want to say silly, because the show's always had a sense of humor about what it is. I guess it was just hokey in comparison to the last couple seasons. One character who did improve was Spike, who's always more entertaining when he's not antagonizing the heroes, and he couldn't for the bulk of the duration here. Someone who I definitely thought took a step back was Giles, who is still and will forever be awesome, but he's just slightly less awesome when the show goes out of it's way to let you know he's awesome.

Anyway, the main thing that's going on is Buffy and Willow arrive at their college, and before long realize that there's a secret government facility beneath it that's the base for a military project called The Initiative, and some people they've met and grown to like happen to be part of it. There's a bit of conflict as we're not sure what everyone's true motivations are and eventually the main villain presents itself, an interesting if goofy experiment gone wrong. It's hard to say what exactly made it weaker than earlier stories, other than it simply was. Still though, the season is worth watching for those standout episodes. Both of the early holiday-themed ones, the dream-sequence heavy finale and especially "Hush" are all fantastic hours of television. We're reaching the point where maybe Whedon's being stretched a little thin thanks to Angel and eventually Firefly, but Buffy's still a very watchable series.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 3

The third season is an important one, as it's end marks the split where some of the cast continues on in Sunnydale, and some move to Los Angeles for the Angel spin-off. It's pivotal for most of the characters too, as it's the last year of high school before everyone can move on, and they have to make decisions about their future. Buffy's desires are at odds with her destiny and blah blah blah she keeps fighting monsters. Willow is transforming from genius bookworm into genius bookworm that can do some magic, Xander's still occassionally funny but irritating whenever stuff's actually happening, and Giles cements himself as possibly my favorite character, although I suspect his role will be diminishing soon if not immediately.

The story this time is about the town's mayor, who has been hinted in the past as being more aware of the town's supernatural troubles than he led on, but to this point has been unseen. He's fairly friendly and non-serious for a major villain, and although that isn't exactly a unique idea, it's executed well enough. There's also Faith, a new slayer in town who appeared after the death of the other slayer at the end of the second season, who was summoned because of a glitch in the logic at the end of the first season. She has some problems. Besides the main story, there are a few other pretty entertaining tangents like an alternate universe where the sidekicks are bad guys. There's also an especially good one surprisingly focusing on Xander, where a pretty dramatic event requiring all the other main characters' attentions happens mostly offscreen while he gets into some trouble before anonymously saving the day. I've decided to watch Angel's first season next, so I can alternate between the shows until I finally finish.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 2

It's hard to say how exactly it happened, but the second season ended up seeming noticeably better than the first. The characters just grow on you and you end up caring about what happens more than before. It helps that it was ten episodes longer than the first run, giving them more opportunity to set up a strong story arc and pull it off. My favorite episodes are still the ones where the whole status quo is flipped on its head for a while, because it's always fun to see how the cast changes for a bit, but the main story worked better this time and actually made the one-offs seem a bit more out of place. The show still has a strong emphasis on humor, but the plot is more dramatic instead of campy.

The focus is on the relationship between Buffy and Angel, and it what appears to be typical Whedon fashion things go less that favorably in that area leading to the true threat after the mildly interesting vampires Spike and Drusilla antagonize the good guys for the first half. Buffy's not the only one who gets close to somebody with pretty much every main cast member hooking up with someone. Some of it doesn't seem totally realistic, but the huge expansion of that aspect really pushes the characters forward and helps the series grow. Even Xander's more likable, even if his constant wisecracks still wear on you pretty often. I'm already almost halfway through the next season, and I'm sure I'll be watching pretty heavily until I'm done with the series. It's pretty good!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 1

Dollhouse's thus far very mediocre run on FOX has left me wanting something a little more fun from Joss Whedon, and the first three seasons of his first show being available on Hulu seemed like a good way to get that. The key to enjoying Buffy is to not take it too seriously, because it's often goofy as hell. It's clearly intentionally humorous, although I'm not sure if the special effects are part of that. They're a bit rough at times, although it's hard to say if they were actually good for 1997. Some of Buffy's stunt work has to be intentionally silly though, because otherwise, yeesh.

The first season's pretty short, and has a pretty good balance between (often silly) one-off episodes and a more central story arc involving an ancient vampire and his attempts to return to the earth's surface and unleash the fury of hell and all that. It does a nice job of setting up the world of Buffy and Angel and introducing the characters, although I ended up liking some more than others. For example, Giles is a really likable mentor-type while Xander is tolerable but more annoying than funny and can easily be summed up with a single, non-flattering facial expression. Buffy herself is played well enough by Sarah Michelle Gellar, although I can't say I find her delivery of sarcastic witticisms during tense moments to come close to, I don't know, Nathan Fillion's in Firefly. In general, the first season was a solid enough mix of humor, action and horror (mostly humor) to justify my continued watching of further episodes.