BUFFY 4.12 ‘A NEW MAN’

A short promo for this episode.

WRITER: Jane Espenson

DIRECTOR: Michael Gershman

WHAT’S THE SITCH?

While the gang are all moving on in their lives with new college careers and/or new relationships taking up their time, poor Giles is feeling ignored, left out, forgotten. Buffy hardly calls on him anymore and has completely failed to mention the fact that she’s dating Riley and that Riley is part of The Initiative, an organisation Giles knows nothing about as he never got told by Buffy that the commandos he’s been investigating are in fact a secret government demon hunting outfit based beneath Sunnydale U. Giles is understandably annoyed at this, hearing it for the first time by accident from Willow. Later, an encounter with old nemesis Ethan Rayne leads Giles and his once-upon-a-time friend to go for a few beers, allowing Giles to drown his sorrows…only to wake up the next morning having been turned in to a huge, ugly Fyarl demon by dastardly Ethan. Naturally the ex-watcher seeks out the gang to help him. But they can’t understand his demon-speak and think he’s the rampaging monster who’s kidnapped the real Giles. Amazingly only Spike can understand him. And so, for cash, the mercenary vamp agrees to help Giles track down Ethan Rayne and reverse the spell, to hopefully return Giles to his old human self.

WHAT’S THE SITCH BENEATH THE SITCH?

Giles is unintentionally sidelined, forgotten, ignored. Plus he also gets castigated by Professor Walsh who suggests that Buffy has lacked a strong father figure in her life, lacking discipline. And to top it all off, nasty ol’ Ethan Rayne gets him drunk and turns him in to a demon, hoping that an unwitting Buffy will then slay her former watcher. Becoming the demon personifies what Giles is feeling: old, angry, and not recognised by the gang anymore.

WHO’S GIVING US THE WIGGINS THIS WEEK?

Ethan Rayne, The Initiative (kinda)

WHY IT ROCKS

A strong theme. Jane Espenson’s script is right on the mark. It’s meaningful, character driven and very funny indeed.

It’s the Giles and Spike show. For a significant portion of this episode Giles (albeit in demon form) teams up with Spike to find Ethan Rayne. The two together make a great odd couple team – bickering like a couple of old women. One might be evil but the pair share a certain unspoken bond what with being English an’ all.

A car chase. Yep, we get the first Buffy car chase as the Initiative pursue Spike and Demon Giles in Giles’s knacked out old car with Spike driving. It’s kinda small scale but quite cool and mostly played for laughs with Spike having trouble finding the gears.

Scaring Professor Walsh. The simply genius moment where Giles, in his demon form, makes Spike stop the car just so he can run out and scare Professor Walsh, then casually hops back in to the car feeling a little happier with life.

Robin Sachs. Yep, he’s back as chaos worshipping sorcerer/Giles nemesis Ethan Rayne. And he’s great. The scene with the pair of old mystics and one time friends getting drunk over a few pints is most amusing. While Giles is sharing his troubles, Ethan is busy trying to drunkenly pick up the waitress. It’s funny and is also a useful plot point for later on.

Tony Head. This is Giles’s episode. And Tony Head steps up to the mark. He really sells the tired, hurt, world weary Giles. And when he becomes a giant scary demon encased head to toe in prosthetics and creepy ram horns (great make-up BTW) he is obviously having a ball. His violent clumsiness is great as is his desperate attempts to make himself understood by the gang. But it’s the scaring Professor Walsh moment that is complete and utter genius.

That crappy Citroen finally gets totalled. Get a proper car Giles.

WHY IT SUCKS

It takes a while until Giles actually turns in to a demon.

Xander and co. don’t exactly do a proper search of Giles’s home before coming to the conclusion he isn’t there and that he’s been kidnapped/eaten by a demon.

The resolution is cute but pretty unbelievable. We’re expected to believe that Buffy stops at the last moment from killing Demon Giles by recognising the look of disappointment in his eyes. Huh?

IT’S BUFFTASTIC

Demon Giles taking time out of hunting for Ethan to give Maggie Walsh a well deserved scare. Priceless.

DIALOGUE TO DIE FOR

Buffy (introducing Giles to Riley): “Giles was the librarian at my high school.”
Riley: “Ah, I've seen the library. It's gone downhill since you left.”

Buffy (about her surprise party): “Of course, you could smash in all my toes with a hammer and it would still be the bestest Buffy birthday bash in a big long while.”

Walsh: “So, the Slayer.”
Buffy: “Yeah, that's me.”
Walsh: “We thought you were a myth.”
Buffy: “Well, you were myth-taken.”

Giles: “What am I? I'm an unemployed librarian with a tendency to get knocked on the head.”

Ethan: “I've really got to learn to just do the damage and get out of town. It's the stay and gloat — gets me every time.”

Giles (about Ethan): “You have to help me find him. He must undo this, and then he needs a good being killed.”
Spike: “And I'm supposed to do this just out of the evilness of my heart?”

AND ANOTHER THING

In an online chat, Jane Espenson said about Spike after he crashed the car: "That was cut... for time. In fact, he got out of the car injured and he said 'I can kill demons. I can crash cars. Things are looking up!' It’s too bad this got cut. It was a nice moment. And now you know..."

HOW MANY STAKES?

Demon Head. 4 (out of 5)

Karl Pilkington Vs. Organ Donation

I've been catching the odd episode of HBO's The Ricky Gervais Show over the past couple of weeks.

I was never a huge fan of Gervais or The Office and stumbled on this by complete accident. Basically Gervais, Stephen Merchant and thier friend and colleague, the spectacularly odd (and slightly dense) Karl Pilkington sit around a table and discuss various topics, usually focussing in on Karl's attitudes and ideas about life, the universe and everything. The conversations are then animated in a Hanna Barbera style.

And bloody funny it is too.

It is Pilkington who makes the show. His low key, slightly drowsy, dopey delivery is hilarious, as are the many strange, offbeat anecdotes and ill conceived thoughts on the world he comes out with. What makes it doubly funny is Gervais and Merchant poking vicious holes in almost everything he comes out with using nothing more than common sense and logic. The funniest one I saw was when Karl is explaining why he didn't tick the box for eyes on an organ donor form but ticked the boxes for everything else. It is pure insane genius covering everything from ghostly rectal exams to meteorite strikes. Watch it below. I was laughing so hard I couldn't breath the first time I saw it. Karl is fab.

Buffy: 3.13 ‘The Zeppo’

Some of Christophe Beck’s great score for this ep. The piece is entitled ‘Dead Guys with Bombs’.

Writer: Dan Vebber
Director: James Whitmore Jr

What's the sitch?

The evil and all-powerful Sisterhood of the Jhe is on its way to Sunnydale to unleash powerful magics in order to open the Hellmouth and send the world in to a seemingly unstoppable apocalypse. Giles is truly scared, while Buffy and Angel are convinced they are about to spend their last night on Earth. Meanwhile Xander is having a crisis of confidence and identity. Cordy, still enjoying torturing him due to his cheating on her with Willow, has pointed out how utterly useless he is to the Scoobies; he’s the one who keeps on having to be saved; the one with no power or knowledge. He’s basically the useless fifth wheel who goes and gets the donuts when the rest are researching and preparing for battle. He’s “The Zeppo” Cordy points out, referring to Herbert “Zeppo” Marx, the oft overlooked Marx Brother who usually played the straight man to his more famous brothers. Determined not to be that guy, Xander borrows his Uncle Rory’s flashy car in order to be “car guy.” But all too quickly he gets involved in his own crazy adventure which sees the Xan man getting embroiled with the local psycho bully, Jack, and his plans to raise from the dead his group of thug buddies, make a bomb, and go blow up the school. On the way through this rollercoaster night, Xander saves Faith from a demon attack…and then goes and loses his virginity to her in her motel room before being rather unceremoniously thrown out by the nonchalant slayer straight after she's had her way with him. Shell-shocked by his brief yet intense time with Faith, Xander must still man up and go on and stop Jack and his buddies from blowing up the school. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the school building (and totally unaware of the explosive zombie plot going on in the basement) Buffy, Angel, and Giles are in an apocalyptic battle to the death as the Hellmouth opens…

What's the sitch beneath the sitch?

No real big underlying metaphor here as this is basically a Xander comedy episode which also looks at his role in the gang and in the show and gives him a chance to shine. He’s not “The Zeppo”, he’s not “car guy,” he’s a whole lot more. Basically, Xander is us. He’s just a normal everyday guy, kinda geeky and not especially talented or gifted at anything…at least not until he discovers carpentry. But what he certainly is is brave, perceptive, and loyal. Xander is the heart of the group. He’s the glue that keeps things together. He’s the guy who sees what's really going on with people when they are far too busy with the big epic apocalypse stuff, and then helps them deal.

Who's giving us the wiggins this week?

Psycho Jack and his zombie buddies, and The Sisterhood of the Jhe (kinda).

Why it rocks

Nicholas Brendon. It’s a Xander comedy episode. Which means Nicky Brendon gets to go full-on funny. And he is so, so good at that. This is simply one of the funniest episodes in all of Buffy…and that’s saying something.

The script. Dan Vebber’s hilarious and beautifully constructed script has Buffy the Vampire Slayer doing Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. In the same way that Stoppard’s comic play has its two titular characters, being two minor characters from Hamlet, take centre stage while the epic events of Shakespeare’s play form the backdrop, so the same happens here. Xander’s adventure is the 'A' story, while Buffy and co. battling the apocalypse with all the destruction, blood, fights and high emotion that entails (especially between Buffy and Angel) is reduced to being just a sub-plot. It all comes together wonderfully at the end as Xander battles alone to stop crazy Jack and defuse the bomb in the school basement while at the same time Buffy and co upstairs are fighting for their lives to save the world from the creatures released from the now opened Hellmouth.

Xander and ‘Katie’

Xander and Faith – especially the look on Xander’s face as he’s pushed out of her motel room door after the event.

The showdown. The brilliantly edited/cross-cut end sequence, which is played out like a horror version of a French farce…culminating in psycho Jack’s sudden and unexpected demise in the jaws of a wolfed out Oz.

Why it sucks

The Hellmouth monsters still look rubbish.

Oz’s werewolf costume also still looks rubbish.

Jack says that he couldn't raise his dead friends earlier because he "had to wait 8 months for the stars to align," but he died three weeks ago and his "grandpappy" raised him the same night.

It's Buftastic

Xander, feeling out of his depth in trying to stop Jack, goes to find Buffy to ask for her help…only to walk in on her and Angel in the midst of a tearful and hilariously overwrought moment as they prepare for their demise in the face of the imminent apocalypse and declaring their love for each other. Seeing he’s picked a bad moment, Xander apologises and quickly retreats, leaving the pair to their apocalyptic melodrama.

Dialogue to die for

Xander: “What do I have?”
Oz: “An exciting new obsession. Which I feel makes you very special.”
Xander: “Now with the mocking.”

Jack: "You wanna be startin' something?"
Xander: "What? Starting something? Like that Michael Jackson song, right? That was a lot of fun, huh? 'Too high to get over, yeah, yeah.' Remember that fun song?"

Xander: "Is it hard to play guitar?"
Oz: "Not the way I play it."

Xander (referring to his car): "It's my thing."
Willow: "Your thing?"
Xander: "My thing!"
Buffy: "Is this a penis metaphor?"

Buffy: “And, you know, with the pain and the death, maybe you shouldn't be leaping into the fray like that. Maybe you should be... fray-adjacent.”

Xander: “Yeah, great knife. Although I think it may technically be a sword.”
Jack: “She's called Katie.”
Xander: “You gave it a girl's name. How very serial killer of you.”

Jack: “I like you.”
Xander: “Yay?”

And another thing

As in the previous episode ‘Helpless’ the main bad guy here was played by a regular cast member from the defunct 1996 vampire series Kindred: The Embraced. Coincidence or not?

How many stakes?

Funny Xander slays all before him. 4.5 (out of 5)

The wisdom of Kenzi

Canada's current hit supernatural fantasy TV show Lost Girl is a pretty so so affair - kinda like Charmed but with more sex and skin. However Ksenia Solo as heroine Bo's streetwise sidekick Kenzi is great and single handidly makes it worth watching. Just give her her own show already. And it's not just me who thinks she's great either. Ksenia has a supporting role in Darren Aronofski's upcoming movie Black Swan alongside Natalie Portman.

In the meantime here's some of Kenzi's highlights...

The Life, Death and Life of Georgia 'George' Lass

As well as my current Buffy rewatch I'm also in the midst of rewatching another all time fave show of mine: DEAD LIKE ME.

A blackly humourous look at life and everything after, DEAD LIKE ME follows the adventures of recently deceased Georgia 'George' Lass (Ellen Muth) a smart, cynical, sarcastic college drop out from Seattle killed aged just eighteen by a falling toilet seat from the space station Mir. Newly dead, George soon discovers she is destined to stay on earth as part of a small and motley team of grim reapers led by gruff but kindly Rube (Mandy Patinkin). Also in the reap team with George are eternally angry meter maid Roxy (Jasmine Guy), feckless drug and booze addled Mason (Callum Blue) and beautiful blond 1930’s starlet Daisy (Laura Harris). Our gang of reapers are charged with taking the souls of all those in and around Seattle who are about to die in accidental circumstances with only a name, location and an ETD (estimated time of death) provided on a post-it note from Rube. This leads to the reapers witnessing many bizarre, blackly funny and contrived deaths that would give the Final Destination films a run for their money.

Trying to come to terms with her new un-life and the depressing new job that comes with it, a job from which she can't quit, on Rube's orders George also has to stay away from her surviving family - mother Joy (Cynthia Stevenson), father Clancy (Greg Kean) and little sister Reggie (Britt McKillip). Unfortunately the Lass family are in the midst of falling apart after George's loss. George, though dismissive of her family before her death and now given a new face so as to be unrecognizable to those she once knew, finds staying away from them impossible which leads to many an angry run-in with Rube. As the series goes on, being newly undead and doing her new reaping job, George slowly comes to terms with her new existence and learns truths about her family, people in general and life as a whole, truths that slowly wake her up from her former cynical, self obsessed and nihilistic attitude, allowing her to finally start living her life…even after her death.

I love this show. It’s one of my all time faves despite only running for two short seasons and one so-so spin off movie released last year to DVD. The writing is blackly funny, deeply sarcastic yet also sweetly insightful. The characters are all vivid and utterly brilliant. Even the supporting characters are all really well drawn and allowed to shine, my favourite being Delores Herbig ("...as in her big brown eyes") George's eccentric cat loving boss at the Happy Time agency where George works part-time (seeing as how reapers don’t get paid for reaping so must still earn a crust to survive).

Because DEAD LIKE ME was a cable show the language and general attitude (including drugs, booze and sex) is expressed fairly freely. The F bomb is dropped on a regular basis but only to show how most people really speak i.e. it is not gratuitous just appropriate when used in anger or sarcasm or frustration.

Some great lines:

George: This is where I felt it the first time. The universe was cocking the fuck-with-me gun.

George: Life sucks, and then you die. And then it still sucks.

George: Yuck! This juice tastes like ass, here you try it!
Mason: No, thanks. I'm trying to stay off of the ass juice for now.

Rube: [to George] You're a constipator, Peanut. You disturb my shit, and that's annoying.

Mason [after being handed a self evaluation]: I need more drugs.

And possibly the funniest scene in the whole series from episode 1.4 ‘Reapercussions’...

Roxy: [to Mason who’s curled up on a bench at the diner and looking out the window] What's wrong with you?
[Mason blinks in her direction, eyes bloodshot]
Roxy: Are you stoned?
Mason: [looking very pale and sickly] I've got illegals in my bottom...
[referring to the bag of cocaine that broke in his rectum at the airport]
Roxy: [looking at Mason shaking her head] Why do you do this to yourself?
Mason: [whimpering] I don't know.

DEAD LIKE ME was created by Bryan Fuller who used to work on STAR TREK: VOYAGER and also created the short lived WONDERFALLS and the excellent PUSHING DAISIES. Fuller seems to have a knack for creating weird, quirky, off beat TV about the nature of life and death and life. But with DEAD LIKE ME he actually walked away after only the first four or five episodes due to rather robust creative differences with the studio leaving the show in the capable hands of producer John Masius. I’d love to know what direction Fuller wanted to go in that the studio didn’t because the remaining episodes of DLM as written and filmed seemed to me to be just right.

Bottom line: If you haven’t seen DEAD LIKE ME and you enjoy quality quirky material with great characters and great writing, I urge you to give it a go.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 1, Episode 3 'Witch'

Writer: Dana Reston
Director: Stephen Cragg


What's the sitch?
Buffy is looking to expand her interests at Sunnydale High. First stop is trying out for the cheer leading squad, something she used to do in her last school. Unfortunately her fellow cheerleader wannabes are being injured by an unseen force. One bursts in to flame, another goes blind and then Buffy herself becomes mystically poisoned. Giles suspects witchcraft – black magic. But who would want to hurt cheerleaders and why? The gang sets out to identify and then stop the supposed witch, whoever he or she may be, before Buffy succumbs to the dark magic that's rapidly killing her.

What's the sitch beneath the sitch?
The first non-vampire story, Witch is also the first episode of Buffy to use genuine honest to god metaphor for the trials and tribulations of teenage life. It's domineering parent syndrome with a vile mother insanely jealous of her daughter's youth who uses dark magic to relive her own youth though her rather clutzy teen offspring.

Who's giving us the wiggins this week?
The witch of course. And a cute black cat that makes Giles (and us) jump. “Nice...kitty...” he murmurs, getting over the shock.

Why it rocks
1. Metaphor. Like I said, it's the first time the series uses the supernatural as a metaphor to highlight teen troubles. And it does it in a fun, creepy and clever way.

2. A Buffy hug. Buffy is really sweet in this episode as she tries to befriend poor Amy.

3. Creepiness. Witchcraft is presented in a cosily familiar way with a cauldron and a spell book and...um...a familiar (the cute black cat that freaks Giles). So far so Harry Potter. But the episode also manages to make witchcraft properly creepy. Witness Amy's mum's attic room where she does her spells. Those dolls are icky. Plus the poor girl in school who loses her mouth. And Amy's mum's final horrible fate which is something that amusingly continues in to next season with Oz saying how the statue's eyes seem to follow you around the room. Heh.

4. Xander loves Buffy. Xander fretting over asking Buffy out is charming and funny with the audience cheering him on and hoping for the best. His present to her is cute but is mostly there as a plot point.

Why it sucks
Nobody seems to question Giles hanging around with students quite as much as he does. Nowadays he'd be put on a list.

Does anyone else ever use the library? What are the school paying Giles for? Actually this turns in to a knowing and running gag later on in the show.

Again with Giles; the poor guy gets knocked out in the first of many head traumas to come. This is one cliché I hate in TV land.

It's Buftastic
Buffy does her rendition of the Village People song Macho Man. Buffy dances in to her kitchen wearing her cheerleader outfit singing, “Macho macho maaan. I want to be...a macho man.” Seeing her mum making fresh orange juice, she bounces up to her and says, “Oh, hey, juice.” This never fails to make me laugh. Perfectly timed, perfectly silly, perfectly Buffy.

Dialogue to die for
Xander: “I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away.”

And another thing
We see Giles' car for the first time – the knacked out old Citroen.

Amy (Elizabeth Anne Allen) becomes a recurring character but is doomed to turn in to a rat for three years and live in a cage with Willow before finally being restored to human in season six. She is also one of the main villains in the season 8 comic book continuation.

How many stakes?
Plunge three and a half in and watch it dust. 3.5 (out of 5)

The Best of Spike

I found a couple of truly great tribute vids on YouTube to my favourite ever TV character. One of the best gags to be seen on a TV show is featured in part 2. "Out. For. A. Walk. (pause) Bitch." Heh!

Part 1 - I wanna be sedated

Part 2 - Dancing with myself


So how come James Marsters isn't a bigger star?