Posts with tag Willow
Posted Jun 28th 2008 1:08PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: OpEd, Retro Squad, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Standout Episodes, Episode Reviews
Do not adjust your web browser. You are now entering the Retro Squad, where we are reviewing past episodes of classic TV shows.
(S04E10) Well, it was a close call, with the top three candidates separated by two votes or less. So while I almost got to experience the
Buffy musical experience with "Once More With Feeling," or the fifth season episode "The Body," it was instead the silent episode "Hush" that came out on top. Now, understand that this is by no means an intention to say that the entire series can be fully appreciated by one episode. In fact, I have every intention of watching the whole thing. Maybe I'll even give you guys season-by-season updates as I go along.
What I did learn from this is even several years after it's end,
Buffy and
Angel fans are as passionate today as they are about their favorite shows when they were on the air. And it makes me even more depressed at the poor treatment Whedon's other television masterpiece
Firefly got at the hands of FOX. Maybe if it had been on UPN or The WB, it would have had a chance to develop as Whedon envisioned. But to the matter at hand. How does someone who's never seen a single episode of
Buffy or
Angel take an experience like "Hush?"
Continue reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hush
Posted Jun 25th 2008 2:30PM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: OpEd, Retro Squad, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Yesterday, we delved into
seasons one through four of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's birthday episodes. Let's just say you really, really don't want to celebrate Buffy's birthday with her, as catastrophe, drama, and heartache are always center stage.
Season Five, episode 13, "Blood Ties"Buffy's 20th birthday goes no better than the previous ones. "Blood Ties" is all about how Buffy and Dawn share the same blood, "Summers blood," even though Dawn was created by monks to be The Key. Yes, it was a somewhat syrupy solution to Dawn's incessant whining in this episode, but it is so important for the resolution to the season, and the defeat of Glory, the Big Bad (Buffy can die instead of Dawn to save the world. Again.).
Continue reading Buffy's not-so-happy birthdays (part two)
Posted Jun 24th 2008 3:06PM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Retro Squad, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free
Poor
Buffy. You'd think that with a life-threatening job like Vampire Slayer, she'd at least get a break once a year, on her birthday. No such luck for Buffy, but great luck for the viewers; we get really meaningful episodes, with significance to both the story arc and insight to the characters' motivations. Buffy's birthday episodes have been some of the strongest of the series.
Season OneThese is no birthday episode in season one, since the series began as a mid-season replacement.
Season Two, episode 13, "Surprise"In this episode, the Scooby Gang throws a surprise party for Buffy, but that is only one minor surprise in an episode filled with significant surprises. We learn that
Jenny Calendar is actually "Janna of the Kalderash Gypsies" and that her people were the ones who cursed Angel's soul. Oz gets his surprise when he finds out that vampires are real and that Buffy is the Slayer.
Continue reading Buffy's not-so-happy birthdays (part one) - VIDEO
Posted Oct 11th 2007 11:01AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Episode Reviews
(S08I07) This issue starts out with the longest - and perhaps first - foray into flashback territory for this "season." I guess I could have gone through my well overplayed DVDs and checked the
referred-to episode for accuracy, but it seemed pretty dead-on to me.
Y'know, I love Giles and all, and I especially appreciate that he's a presence in this series, but I'm not really digging how cookie-cutter he seems, particularly in these last two issues. Is it just me or does he drink tea and clean his spectacles way too (stereotypically) often?
Continue reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer: No Future For You, Part II
Posted Nov 22nd 2006 4:09PM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Remember the
Buffy comic book - the one that's supposed to pick up with season eight, where the series left off?
The project was announced nearly a year ago. An October 2006 release was promised. That promise went unfulfilled, and with all of Joss Whedon's
Wonder Woman,
Astonishing X-Men and
Goners-related business taking precedent, the smart money put the comic on the back burner - as in, not to be seen any time soon.
Well, guess what,
Buffy fans? New details have emerged.
Entertainment Weekly has the scoop on the Scooby gang's post-Sunnydale doings. First up, a new release date.
Dark Horse is aiming for a March 07 debut. Second, nothing much has changed in terms of the comic's initial premise. The series will act as
Buffy's eighth season. Sunnydale is gone. Buffy and Dawn are in Rome. She's dating, fighting evil and making sense of a world full of girls newly-endowed with Slayer power.
Continue reading More Buffy season eight comic details
Posted Jul 17th 2006 11:12PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Retro Squad, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
(S01E08) I've caught season one of
Buffy a few times, between the reruns shown on TV and the DVD set I own. For some reason, when I started watching this episode, I was taken aback at how things were starting; Jenny Calendar was introduced this soon? And she's not a new teacher? Wait, I'm missing something here, right?
Continue reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I, Robot... You, Jane
Posted Jul 3rd 2006 11:03AM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Retro Squad, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
(S01E06) This was an exchange between my wife and I last night:
Me: "Hey, we've gotta watch another
Buffy tonight."
Wife: "Oh yeah, that's right. Which episode is it again?"
Me: "Um ... Oh yeah -- the one with the hyenas."
Wife: "Oooh ... ugh."
That pretty much sums up this episode. In fact, later this year, when I list my bottom five
Buffy episodes of all time, I'm pretty sure 'The Pack' will be on it.
Continue reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Pack
Posted Apr 11th 2006 11:36AM by Ryan j Budke
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, CBS, OpEd, How I Met Your Mother
(S01E018) What'd I tell you -- Robin's evil; she was only making a
booty call. So all of you people that had theories along the lines of "Maybe Victoria went over to Robin's to
surprise Ted" or "Robin just wants to talk to Ted," I only have one thing to say to you -- nyah nyah
nyah! This episode hurt though, and since so many comparisons are drawn between this and
Friends, this will remind many people of "The One with The Break." The entire show had a
different pacing, and since we already know that Robin and Ted don't end up together, we knew this couldn't end well.
On with the show!
Continue reading How I Met Your Mother: Nothing good happens after 2 A.M.
The Cheers episode Ken Levine's still writing in his head
Giveaway Tuesday: Fastlane - The Complete Series
Giveaway Monday: The X-Files: Revelations on DVD
