willow-related stories
Posted Jun 3rd 2009 5:01PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Animation, Celebrities, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Reality-Free, The Big Bang Theory
OK, so she turned evil and veiny and almost destroyed the world after someone murdered her hot lesbian lover. But at heart, Willow Rosenberg was always a computer-hacking, research-loving nerd.
The
Buffy the Vampire Slayer character landed at number one on Topless Robot's list of
"Pop Culture's 10 Greatest Nerds." I was surprised by the pick at first, but I can't think of a better choice to top the list. Willow was a great character, and will probably always be actor Alyson Hannigan's best role (sorry,
HIMYM fans, but it's true).
Continue reading Buffy's Willow tops list of pop culture's greatest nerds
Posted May 2nd 2009 10:10AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
Last week, I devoted my first
Jane After Dark column to my
top five Buffy moments. I was thrilled to read all the responses, both here on
TV Squad and at
Whedonesque, where the post was picked up. Fans of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer are a passionate bunch!
This week, I thought it would be fun to delve into my favorite Buffy hookups. One that didn't make the list but holds a special place in my heart is Giles and Joyce. It was a fleeting moment, but one that was fun and would have made for great storytelling had it continued.
But who to pair Buffy up with -- Spike, Angel or Riley? What about Spike and Drusilla? And while Willow and Tara had a special love affair, there's a lot to be said for Willow and Oz. And what of Xander? Sure, he and Anya had a fun romance, but his hookups with Cordelia and even Faith were intense in their own way.
Oh the choices! Read on for my thoughts, and please add your own in the comments below.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: Top five Buffy hookups
Posted Apr 25th 2009 11:02AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: TV Royalty, TV on DVD, OpEd, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
I'm starting a new column here on
TV Squad called "Jane After Dark." Some of you know I work the "night shift" here at the Squad, editing and scheduling posts into the wee hours. I'm a big multi-tasker, so I also use those hours to get caught up on all the great shows I've missed along the way.
Over the past year, I've watched some really cool shows, including
Six Feet Under,
The Sopranos,
Moonlight,
Weeds,
Entourage,
Gossip Girl, and many others. So I thought it would be fun to write about my After Dark musings, and I hope you'll chime in with your own thoughts about whatever I'm watching.
I just finished
Joss Whedon's magnificent
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I loved so many things about the show. No one could look as stylish as Buffy as she slayed those vampires. Angel and Spike were both hot in their own way. The love between Willow and Tara was sweet and gentle, but also powerful. And the characters continued to grow and evolve throughout the series. By the last episode, you really felt like you knew these characters and had grown right along with them.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: Top five Buffy moments
Posted Aug 25th 2008 8:03AM by Debra McDuffee
Filed under: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Reality-Free
Picture this: back-to-back episodes of
Buffy the Vampire Slayer and
Angel for over twelve hours; raffles, games and prizes; a
miniature diorama of The Magic Box, authentically detailed and ready to be auctioned off.
Sound like an outrageously fun event? To me, too, but it gets even better. All of the money raised at the Slay-a-thon, an annual event in Chicago, goes to the Make a Wish Foundation, to help sick kids live their dreams while they still can.
You know what I say about it, but what would the Scooby Gang say about the painstakingly detailed diorama of The Magic Box?
Continue reading Slay-a-thon pleases Buffy fans and raises money
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.
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