1. Bliss, as Buffy and Xander make up and embrace.
2. Dread, as Warren appears, toting a gun.
3. Grief, and/or anguish, as a stray bullet from Warren’s gun penetrates Tara’s chest, and her blood sprays all over Willow’s face — mere hours after they got back together.
4. I don’t know what — expectance, perhaps, or vengefulness — as Willow cries “Noooo!”, before her eyes turn red.
All these emotions, in what seemed like half a minute, but had to be at least one. No other tv show, no movie, no book, has ever given me something even resembling this. Sure, I’ve seen sadder — or at least as sad — things otherwhere. I’ve felt more dread and more vengeful before. And I’ve experienced stronger bliss. But nothing else has ever driven all these emotions home in so quick a succession, and with so much effect. The only thing that’s come even close to delivering as many and as strong emotions, is “Not Fade Away”.
I feel like idolating. And, weirdly enough, I don’t feel bad at all for having spent the last night before an exam on this, no matter how lacking my preparations are.
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Also, in the last day orso, I’ve watched “Once More With Feeling” thrice. Okay, once with Master Whedon’s comments and twice with the original dialogue and song, but still. And it doesn’t get any less good.
And neither does hearing Master mentioning all these musical guys he’s inspired by; or explaining how this scene or that was inspired by this or that composer; or hearing him say, during the Willow-Tara scene in Joyce’s old bedroom, that “This is pornography, and nothing I can say will make you think otherwise.”
30. May 2007 @ 21:50 ( Permalink )
Good luck tomorrow!
And what makes it so incredibly hard to watch is the sudden reality of it, the brutal real-life element of a misaimed gunshot in a world for demons and witches. I think, anyway.
Still, though, it can’t compete with “A Hole in the World”. It can’t compete with “The Body”. Nothing can compete with those two.
31. May 2007 @ 01:07 ( Permalink )
No, it can’t. Obviously. I mean, as much as I love Tara, and as much as I hate to see what her death does to Willow and Dawn, in particular, she can’t really compete with Fred. And where “Seeing Red” is a relatively mediocre episode in a Buffyverse context, seen as a whole (although a good one, or even a very good one in a broader, more general perspective), “The Body” is undoubtedly a piece of television art.
Also, I feel rather stupid for crediting only Master Whedon for this, when it was in fact written by Steven S. DeKnight and directed by Michael Gershman. So kudos to them, too.
2. June 2007 @ 18:45 ( Permalink )
And to Alyson Hannigan. 90% of that scene is on her face.
I think “The Body” is Whedon’s own favourite ep, by the way. Or, the one he’s the most proud of or somesuch.
2. June 2007 @ 20:36 ( Permalink )