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Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Watched "I Only Have Eyes For You' with the boy tonight. Always one of my favourite episodes from S2, I love the way it explores Buffy's guilt and sorrow and anger, and how it feels to be in the grip of helpless, hopeless, wrong love, how much you want it to come right. Sad old romantic that I am :rolleyes: :facepalm:
 
May Kasahara said:
Watched "I Only Have Eyes For You' with the boy tonight. Always one of my favourite episodes from S2, I love the way it explores Buffy's guilt and sorrow and anger, and how it feels to be in the grip of helpless, hopeless, wrong love, how much you want it to come right. Sad old romantic that I am :rolleyes: :facepalm:
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Ooh. Love that episode too. Next up for me then.

Funny how a show about vampires can be such comfort viewing.
 
There are so many lessons in how to write and execute quality television that were never really fully learnt by other shows. I always tell people I think it’s the best TV show made. God help them if they mock because they then get an enumerated list of reasons why.
 
Ax^ said:
tis getting sucked into this as its still better than whats been show on telly these days
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This won't get me any "likes" on a Buffy thread but I loved Buffy, it was great in its time and very influential but there have been quite a few show since which I'd regard as better. One thing which let Buffy down is Network televisions need for seasons which last for something around 24 episodes, so there were a lot of filler episodes. I far prefer the current model of streaming and premium channels of having seasons be as long as they need to be, which is anything between 6 and 13 episodes. I wouldn't like to live in a world where Buffy is as great as TV ever got, there are plenty of great shows out there if you have a look around. A recent show in the same genre as Buffy, I thought the Watchmen tv series was extraordinary.
 
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Reno said:
This won't get me any "likes" on a Buffy thread but I loved Buffy, it was great in its time and very influential but there have been quite a few show since which I'd regard as better. One thing which let Buffy down is Network televisions need for seasons which last for something around 24 episodes, so there were a lot of filler episodes. I far prefer the current model of streaming and premium channels of having seasons be as long as they need to be, which is anything between 6 and 13 episodes. I wouldn't like to live in a world where Buffy is as great as TV ever got, there are plenty of great shows out there if you have a look around. A recent show in the same genre as Buffy, I thought the Watchmen tv series was extraordinary.
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I saw the Watchmen movie without knowing anything about the comics. I though the intro was great but the movie really wasn't. (I also had no idea what was going on which didn't help.) It's kinda put me off the whole Watchmen thing to be honest,
 
Sue said:
I saw the Watchmen movie without knowing anything about the comics. I though the intro was great but the movie really wasn't. (I also had no idea what was going on which didn't help.) It's kinda put me off the whole Watchmen thing to be honest,
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The movie is shite, it's Zach Snyder FFS ! :D

The series is fucking amazing and hugely ambitious in dealing with the USA's history of racism. It's really not what you would think it is. It also ignores the film by being a direct sequel to the original Alan Moore graphic novel instead, making a major incident from the book but which the film left out, central to the plot. It feels like a bit of a fuck-you to the film. Admittedly having read the comic helps, but the Wikipedia synopsis will do if you can't be bothered. I think it's the best film or tv superhero media ever created but then the book was already a highly critical deconstruction of superheroes. Snyder appeared to dutifully shoot the book almost panel by panel without a clue what it was about.
 
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Movies that include horror elements are among my go-to comfort movies too, but lots of people have found it strange that I list Terminator 1 as my number one comfort movie.

Sue said:
Oh God. Jenny, Angel, the roses, Giles. 😭
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Giles is definitely one of the reasons Buffy is so good. A well-developed character with an interesting backstory that's mostly just hinted at rather than laid out in detail (that's one of the things the show in general does well), and acted to absolute perfection.

It's one of the reasons that it really stands out when there is a bad actor in the series - Kendra, for example; the accent was not the only problem. And Drusilla never really convinced me in her role.
 
scifisam said:
Movies that include horror elements are among my go-to comfort movies too, but lots of people have found it strange that I list Terminator 1 as my number one comfort movie.

Giles is definitely one of the reasons Buffy is so good. A well-developed character with an interesting backstory that's mostly just hinted at rather than laid out in detail (that's one of the things the show in general does well), and acted to absolute perfection.

It's one of the reasons that it really stands out when there is a bad actor in the series - Kendra, for example; the accent was not the only problem. And Drusilla never really convinced me in her role.
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Love and unrequited love and requited love and loss and sacrifice. Sigh. I also love Victorian novels.
 
Reno said:
I'm pretty sure you are far from the only on. Great movie, what's not to like ? :)
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When I was a student, some friends who lived near me had a video player. The only videos they had were Terminator 2 and Withnail and I. I must've seen them both 50 times but never in sequence and never sober (and I certainly hadn't seen Terminator at that point.) I was pleasantly surprised when I actually watched Terminator and Terminator 2 properly...

ETA I realise that really dates me, videos being expensive and a video player being rare but hey, it's Urban so...
 
Sue said:
When I was a student, some friends who lived near me had a video player. The only videos they had were Terminator 2 and Withnail and I. I must've seen them both 50 times but never in sequence and never sober (and I certainly hadn't seen Terminator at that point.) I was pleasantly surprised when I actually watched Terminator and Terminator 2 properly...

ETA I realise that really dates me, videos being expensive and a video player being rare but hey, it's Urban so...
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It must have been the 90s, and I don't think video players were rare then, but students having them (or even a TV) was. I don't think that's changed, TBH. Students spend too much time actually having a life, the bastards.
 
Reno said:
This won't get me any "likes" on a Buffy thread but I loved Buffy, it was great in its time and very influential but there have been quite a few show since which I'd regard as better. One thing which let Buffy down is Network televisions need for seasons which last for something around 24 episodes, so there were a lot of filler episodes. I far prefer the current model of streaming and premium channels of having seasons be as long as they need to be, which is anything between 6 and 13 episodes. I wouldn't like to live in a world where Buffy is as great as TV ever got, there are plenty of great shows out there if you have a look around. A recent show in the same genre as Buffy, I thought the Watchmen tv series was extraordinary.
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ah come on we live in the world were the Wire was the high point of TV

but aye some good stuff on streaming services

;)
 
scifisam said:
It must have been the 90s, and I don't think video players were rare then, but students having them (or even a TV) was. I don't think that's changed, TBH. Students spend too much time actually having a life, the bastards.
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Yeah, I was a student 1990-94 so....
 
Sue said:
When I was a student, some friends who lived near me had a video player. The only videos they had were Terminator 2 and Withnail and I. I must've seen them both 50 times but never in sequence and never sober (and I certainly hadn't seen Terminator at that point.) I was pleasantly surprised when I actually watched Terminator and Terminator 2 properly...

ETA I realise that really dates me, videos being expensive and a video player being rare but hey, it's Urban so...
Click to expand...
scifisam said:
It must have been the 90s, and I don't think video players were rare then, but students having them (or even a TV) was. I don't think that's changed, TBH. Students spend too much time actually having a life, the bastards.
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Having always been a film nerd, I of course had a VHS player and I was a poor student then. It was a Ferguson Videostar, I got it second hand and it wasn't very expensive. Most households had one in the 80s/90s and there was a video rental store on every corner, so most people rented tapes. The films I wanted to keep, I taped off the telly, careful to hit Pause during the ad-breaks.

4D564D1B-8419-4097-B940-D6A963E0123E.jpeg
 
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Reno said:
I remember buying

Having always been a film nerd, I of course had a VHS player and I was a poor student then. It was a Ferguson Videostar, I got it second hand and it wasn't very expensive. Most households had one in the 80s/90s and there was a video rental store on every corner, so most people rented tapes. The films I wanted to keep, I taped of the telly, careful to hit Pause during the ad-breaks.

View attachment 226648
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Oh yes, most or at least many people definitely had video recorders. But I was a student 94-97 (undergrad, anyway) and those of us who lived in halls or shared houses very rarely had TVs, let alone videos. There wasn't enough space for a CRT TV, often the signal was shit, and we were out all the time anyway, studying, working or partying. When we had to watch a video for a course it was all round to squish into the room of the one person who did have one. Our families pretty much all had VCRs at home, but we didn't.

At home I not only had a VCR, but two (both got for practically nothing), and we had free Sky TV from a dodgy installer my stepdad knew, so that I could pirate videos or record movies from Sky and sell them at school. Wouldn't have been able to sell them if most people didn't have a VCR. But uni was different.
 
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Reno said:
This won't get me any "likes" on a Buffy thread but I loved Buffy, it was great in its time and very influential but there have been quite a few show since which I'd regard as better. One thing which let Buffy down is Network televisions need for seasons which last for something around 24 episodes, so there were a lot of filler episodes. I far prefer the current model of streaming and premium channels of having seasons be as long as they need to be, which is anything between 6 and 13 episodes. I wouldn't like to live in a world where Buffy is as great as TV ever got, there are plenty of great shows out there if you have a look around. A recent show in the same genre as Buffy, I thought the Watchmen tv series was extraordinary.
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you are kind of right, but also kind of not really comparing apples with apples. Developing a series over 144 episodes is very different to telling one story over 12 or 17. I might well still prefer rewatching all of The Prisoner to doing the same with Buffy, and taking a simple percentage of episodes, it would definitely win out. But for that depth of storytelling, alongside all the drama, comedy, blah blah blah, it has to be the Buffster.

tldr - they only save the world once in Watchmen, anyone can do that.
 
I honestly can't think of any filler episodes in Buffy. There are a couple in season 7 that I can't be bothered rewatching, but they still don't seem like nobody was just filling in the hours.
 
scifisam said:
I honestly can't think of any filler episodes in Buffy. There are a couple in season 7 that I can't be bothered rewatching, but they still don't seem like nobody was just filling in the hours.
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Him. Suppose we needed a bit of a break, but it is completely unnecessary.
 
Anyway, we finished it tonight. Again.

There are problems with the last couple of episodes, bits definitely needed expanding, although another entire episode would have had way too much padding. But it is a damned fine conclusion: the only way to win is to not play their game and make your own. Which also has the benefit of tieing in with my developing thesis on why The Wish is not only perfectly consistent, but a key episode in the dialectical reality of the Buffyverse.

It is a tad sad and pathetic, I am a grown man. But, when we saw Anya....... my lip was wobbling. I held it back, but when Andrew - Andrew - delivered his final line to Xander, I went. Damn him, the dork was right. She was incredible.
 
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