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Buffy season 4
Aug. 5th, 2015 02:55 pmI have now finished watching season 4.
... I'm trying to have any thoughts about anything after A New Man, but I get far more worked up about them dragging Ethan away (they had no right! the military have no right to arrest people! what crime would they even accuse him of? Where's his lawyer! When was his trial! How do team good guy live with themselves about being so smug when he's being taken for 'rehabilitation'?) than I do about... most other things, possibly including much of real life. *sheepish*
So I try to muster any thought about anything else, and keep circling back.
New Moon Rising, compared to A New Man, makes me super annoyed. Oz actually and for real attacks someone, so everyone is willing to commit treason, piss off the soldiers, throw the rest of their lives away, to go get Oz back. Because friendship. And I like Oz, and I'd really like to just be cheering them on. But, well, Ethan. Fixes Giles' little demon problem, warns them about 314 which turns out to be Adam and the location of the secret demon triborg manufacturing lab, and for his sins gets dragged away and locked up while people make smug self satisfied faces.
... I kind of really want to smite Riley when he does that. But then he does indeed get pretty thoroughly smote.
Oz needs hugs though. He gets bit, he does his best to make himself safe, he finds out he's screwed himself over instead and he can only cope if he doesn't care. Ouch.
Also, Oz so cute, very bad when bad happens to him.
Capturing people and keeping them until they're determined to be a threat?
All this Initiative stuff looks much worse after the Guantanamo bay stuff. ... after. Wiki reckons "As of June 2015, 116 detainees remain at Guantanamo." From what I've read some of those are people they've decided are not in fact a threat, they're just... keeping them anyway. I really prefer it when my far fetched demons TV is a little more unrealistic.
I mean you can read it as metaphor for racial profiling and shit with not much stretch, but with the military thing, it just looks...
I have nothing new to say about shit everyone agrees is awful. Not going there, depressed enough.
So, metaphors: first three seasons, high school is hell. Fourth season, girls go off to college, guys spend a year feeling and pretty much being useless. Then the Yoko Factor and Spike's little speech about college making them grow apart. So that's the college year metaphor? Little weak.
The spell where it takes all of their good qualities, that Xander thought of more or less, not subtle, but pretty satisfying.
The whole military thing though, with Xander wavering between fake military guy and thinking of going to be actual military, and Riley there being the good soldier and then 'anarchist'... I still don't know what they were doing with that, or why it was to do with Buffy. I mean, it's her show, if there's going to be a military theme it kind of ought to be something to do with her. And she had her history of being given orders and then saying she graduated. So... something should connect those up.
The year seems very about guy issues. Like, the guys are the ones having issues. Buffy just has practical problems, which is a whole other thing and doesn't drive the plot so much.
Riley has arc. Challenges and problems and making big life changing decisions. A lot of arc.
But we're not watching the Riley show so really I'm wondering how this is about Buffy.
Willow has the Oz-then-Tara thing. But that had to be so subtext behind the magic. Annoyance. Cool in its way though.
I like Willow less this time around though, because noticing the misuse of magic thing and her arrogance towards other magic users right from the start.
I've been mentioning a lot not liking people, and I've been harsh to Xander. Partly that's because it has been a while since I rewatched like this and I'm surprising myself with how my perspective changed. They seem way more teenage and unlikeable than I remember. Since I remember them from being rather a lot nearer their age... guess it's only a surprise to me. So that's why I keep writing it down, it's like, what's with these people, not growing up when they're in reruns. :eyeroll:
Watching Buffy but not Angel makes Angel turning up just really, really random. And creepier. Like, Buffy has this whole life going on, and her ex turns up to beat up her new boyfriend? Got to say, Angel's issues? Not just the soul thing.
Riley is just a seething mass of jealousy and violence at several points too, but still.
The both of them need to grow up.
The Scoobies joining voluntarily and because they care about each other vs Adam and his creations being made by involuntary joining, people forced together by orders, hierarchy telling them who they should care about and trying to turn them into weapons... interesting stuff.
Kind of weaker when the First Slayer turns up to object? Like, the voluntary-involuntary comparison goes poof because there's this one spirit in there whether she likes it or not.
I like how Buffy is like yeah, no, waking up now.
I do not like how the First Slayer is described as animal and beast and then cast as a black woman with initially no voice, who gets told off by a white girl. Blergh.
BtVS has race issues.
... duh.
It bothers me in layers and I kind of have to set things aside as they come up if I'm going to stick around and enjoy watching more.
I pretty much am enjoying watching. Season 4 is not best. Has good points, but is not best.
... I'm trying to have any thoughts about anything after A New Man, but I get far more worked up about them dragging Ethan away (they had no right! the military have no right to arrest people! what crime would they even accuse him of? Where's his lawyer! When was his trial! How do team good guy live with themselves about being so smug when he's being taken for 'rehabilitation'?) than I do about... most other things, possibly including much of real life. *sheepish*
So I try to muster any thought about anything else, and keep circling back.
New Moon Rising, compared to A New Man, makes me super annoyed. Oz actually and for real attacks someone, so everyone is willing to commit treason, piss off the soldiers, throw the rest of their lives away, to go get Oz back. Because friendship. And I like Oz, and I'd really like to just be cheering them on. But, well, Ethan. Fixes Giles' little demon problem, warns them about 314 which turns out to be Adam and the location of the secret demon triborg manufacturing lab, and for his sins gets dragged away and locked up while people make smug self satisfied faces.
... I kind of really want to smite Riley when he does that. But then he does indeed get pretty thoroughly smote.
Oz needs hugs though. He gets bit, he does his best to make himself safe, he finds out he's screwed himself over instead and he can only cope if he doesn't care. Ouch.
Also, Oz so cute, very bad when bad happens to him.
Capturing people and keeping them until they're determined to be a threat?
All this Initiative stuff looks much worse after the Guantanamo bay stuff. ... after. Wiki reckons "As of June 2015, 116 detainees remain at Guantanamo." From what I've read some of those are people they've decided are not in fact a threat, they're just... keeping them anyway. I really prefer it when my far fetched demons TV is a little more unrealistic.
I mean you can read it as metaphor for racial profiling and shit with not much stretch, but with the military thing, it just looks...
I have nothing new to say about shit everyone agrees is awful. Not going there, depressed enough.
So, metaphors: first three seasons, high school is hell. Fourth season, girls go off to college, guys spend a year feeling and pretty much being useless. Then the Yoko Factor and Spike's little speech about college making them grow apart. So that's the college year metaphor? Little weak.
The spell where it takes all of their good qualities, that Xander thought of more or less, not subtle, but pretty satisfying.
The whole military thing though, with Xander wavering between fake military guy and thinking of going to be actual military, and Riley there being the good soldier and then 'anarchist'... I still don't know what they were doing with that, or why it was to do with Buffy. I mean, it's her show, if there's going to be a military theme it kind of ought to be something to do with her. And she had her history of being given orders and then saying she graduated. So... something should connect those up.
The year seems very about guy issues. Like, the guys are the ones having issues. Buffy just has practical problems, which is a whole other thing and doesn't drive the plot so much.
Riley has arc. Challenges and problems and making big life changing decisions. A lot of arc.
But we're not watching the Riley show so really I'm wondering how this is about Buffy.
Willow has the Oz-then-Tara thing. But that had to be so subtext behind the magic. Annoyance. Cool in its way though.
I like Willow less this time around though, because noticing the misuse of magic thing and her arrogance towards other magic users right from the start.
I've been mentioning a lot not liking people, and I've been harsh to Xander. Partly that's because it has been a while since I rewatched like this and I'm surprising myself with how my perspective changed. They seem way more teenage and unlikeable than I remember. Since I remember them from being rather a lot nearer their age... guess it's only a surprise to me. So that's why I keep writing it down, it's like, what's with these people, not growing up when they're in reruns. :eyeroll:
Watching Buffy but not Angel makes Angel turning up just really, really random. And creepier. Like, Buffy has this whole life going on, and her ex turns up to beat up her new boyfriend? Got to say, Angel's issues? Not just the soul thing.
Riley is just a seething mass of jealousy and violence at several points too, but still.
The both of them need to grow up.
The Scoobies joining voluntarily and because they care about each other vs Adam and his creations being made by involuntary joining, people forced together by orders, hierarchy telling them who they should care about and trying to turn them into weapons... interesting stuff.
Kind of weaker when the First Slayer turns up to object? Like, the voluntary-involuntary comparison goes poof because there's this one spirit in there whether she likes it or not.
I like how Buffy is like yeah, no, waking up now.
I do not like how the First Slayer is described as animal and beast and then cast as a black woman with initially no voice, who gets told off by a white girl. Blergh.
BtVS has race issues.
... duh.
It bothers me in layers and I kind of have to set things aside as they come up if I'm going to stick around and enjoy watching more.
I pretty much am enjoying watching. Season 4 is not best. Has good points, but is not best.