TNMC
This site’s design is only visible in a graphical browser that supports web standards, but its content is accessible to any browser or Internet device.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Hello? Vampire. I'm supposed to be treading on the dark side. What's your excuse? -- Spike
Episode 6.09, "Smashed"
Directed by Turi Meyer
Written by Drew Z Greenberg
This show is killing me. It really is. The year so far has had one of the best hours of TV I've ever seen, but it's also had some pretty mediocre ones (for this show, at least), and some really, really bad individual scenes. (Don't get me started on last week's shark again.) I firmly believe that it's impossible to judge a season while you're in the middle of it, but this year has been a really uneven. And now the episodes themselves are getting uneven.
I'll save the bad news for the end. The good news is that, for the most part, this was a really fun, clever, and thoughtful episode, with major advancement of the themes for this season (the Repercussions of Resurrection and Willow flirting with Dark Magic) but enough story and humor to satisfy a brand-new viewer.
More good news - the Nerds are back! And with just enough screen-time to prevent them from being annoying. The scene with Andrew and Jonathan trying to hang out with Spike was priceless, and I loved the opening scene with the three of them breaking into a museum. Aside from the ever-hilarious dialog, it's a great illustration of the differences between them. Andrew and Jonathan are living in a fantasy, lacking any grounding in reality - and considering that their reality is Sunnydale, that's pretty fantastical. Their world is populated by science fiction, genre movies, genre TV, RPGs, science fiction, action figures, and science fiction. What's missing from their world are consequences. Everything is a game - why walk up to a museum display case when you can hang from the ceiling like Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible?" (I doubt they've ever heard of "Topkapi.") So what if you're more likely to get caught - it's cool!
Warren is different, though. Just as geekish as the other two, he's also pretty mean. (But in a fun way.) It's debatable whether either Andrew or Jonathan have ever even kissed a girl. Warren on the other hand had a full-fledged girlfriend (last season), but lost her because he had an "affair" (snicker) with someone he could order around. This year he casually revealed Buffy's address to a demon bent on killing her, subjected an old man to a dangerous freeze ray, and made fun of his own fellow Superdork when Jonathan was injured. He's not repulsive looking, he's certainly smart enough to get a real job and get out of his mother's basement, and with his technical smarts he should be pulling in major bucks by now. But instead he's deliberately hanging out with the socially handicapped so that he can have someone to boss around.
Meanwhile on As the Hellmouth Turns, Willow is in serious denial about her breakup with Tara. While Tara refuses to go into details (such as "Well, first my girlfriend tried to brainwash me with magic..."), Willow tries to act like there's nothing wrong, and that "little things got blown out of proportion." Unfortunately, instead of being left alone to deal with Tara's absence, Willow suddenly remembers how to change Amy back into a human. (I've played the tape back again and again, and I swear it sounds like "Chokey-fu, nonnee-fu..." Bibbity Bobbity Boo?) So now instead of a loving companion who let's her know when she's getting out of control, Willow has a partner in magic who doesn't understand why that's a problem.
(Amy? A little back-story for those who weren't watching three years ago: Amy was a fellow student at Sunnydale High whose mother was a powerful witch - in both the literal and metaphorical sense. Mom has been out of the picture since season one, but Amy took up the family business, and was much more advanced in magical practice than Willow, until, while trying to make an escape from a particularly nasty situation, resorted to turning herself into a rat. Alas, without leaving de-ratting instructions. She's been living in a cage in Willow's bedroom ever since.)
Speaking of getting out of control, speaking of denial - remember Buffy and Spike's kiss in the musical? Remember the massive face-sucking they were doing at the end of last week? Buffy declares them "Bad kissing decisions," meaningless, driving Spike (at last!) to the violence that makes him, well, him. Vampire, remember? Evil? And in finally returning to what he knows best, he figures out something pretty twisted and scary about Buffy as well.
Now, here's the Bad News: The last five minutes. You may want to stop reading before I spoil it for you. Not as in "Spoiler Warning! Plot secrets ahead!" No, as in, "For crying out loud, what a stupid way to spoil a good episode."
Some people object to Buffy and Spike as a couple on principal (he's evil; she fights evil), but that wasn't what I objected to. Nor do I think that Spike has been completely neutered - he's acted like it at times, but his scene in the alley with that frightened woman should have erased any doubt that he's still a killer. What ruined the entire show for me was the ham-handed, hit-you-over-the-head-with-the-melodrama, utter-impressed-with-itself way that they showed Buffy and Spike finally going at it. (Anyone else here have Moonlighting flashbacks?) I honestly started laughing at the sheer pretentiousness. Yes, yes, Buffy's attraction to Spike is a result of a dark passion, having nothing to do with affection or love. Paraphrasing Miss Summers herself from a few years ago, when she didn't take herself so seriously - All right, I get it. You're attracted to evil.
Did you have to destroy a house?
Episode rating: 6. It was an eight up until the last 5 minutes.
And I too have seen every episode of Dr. Who. So?
What do you think? Talk about it on the Forums
