Reviews

Just finished my second viewing of season five after originally watching about two years ago. And I'm still a little blubbery. I recently got into Buffy, which was harder for me to break into because of a few factors. Whedon shows tend to be a little thin first seasons and then dense later, and I am not a fan of high school shows and movies. I'm no sexist and not afraid of girls, but I don't know. I feared the aspects of pining over boys and I worried the horror aspects would be light weight. Long story short, I got over it. And loved it (at least from season 3 on...I skipped seasons 1 and 2 of Buffy).

And anyway, I think Angel season five is Whedon's real gem in TV. It has everything he does well and a person could even start there without having to look back.

Only thing about Angel being canceled here is that I wonder if SUCH A GOOD ending could have buttoned such a strong and consistent season otherwise. I mourned the ending of the series the closer the finale came. And frankly in my own fantasy I struggle whether I would choose Angel to have a sixth season or to have Lost season one to have been as good as it was because of the writers it inherited from Angel (David Fury and Drew Goddard probably only wrote for Lost because of Angel's premature end...David Fury is the guy who wrote the most amazing episodes in Lost's first season and Goddard became a big deal on that show).

Obviously the height of Angel season five is Wes' and Fred's, then Illyrina's love story, which is so genuine and sweet turned tragic. Wes is such a good character and so finely developed over the years it's hard to put into words how much I admire what the actor and the writers crafted. Itself a shame Wesley isn't more recognized. Amy Acker's work probably would have itself been more appreciated had she been allowed to develop Illyrina in another season. She is herself a stellar actor and quite frankly breathlessly beautiful. And she uses it like an instrument, never flaunting it or overselling it, in fact usually tastefully doing the opposite, until when she wants you to notice you're like, oh, yes, Fred is gorgeous.

this is one of the better classic Moonlighting episodes. I sorta wish the prostitute character been developed more in other episodes. I happened to see on IMDb this actress died back in 2010 of some sort of blood disease, too bad. I only remember her being in John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness in 1987, which I expect she probably got because of this episode. Moonlighting was that popular and trendsetting at that time where something like that could happen. After all, Bruce Willis did get DIE HARD, which even with Moonlighting being popular on TV still blows my mind.

Anyway, I mostly wanted to respond to the above review trying to differentiate Addison from Bruce Willis. If you like Addison, then you like Bruce Willis. Addison wasn't written like this, Bruce didn't get into character. If you watch the pilot and see what the show was by the end of season 1, you know Moonlighting was built around Bruce Willis and his wild man persona. A persona he talks about having developed in high school to deal with his shyness and sorta skated on all the way into Hollywood (which is probably why it took so long after Moonlighting for him to shake it).

I don't understand what the motivation is to say you like Addison and not Willis anyway. Sounds like you're holding onto preconceptions from tabloids or something. Preconceptions probably have no logical right having anyway.

I wish Bruce knew how to lighten up again. He is getting that Harrison Ford thing where you almost want to see someone put a mirror under his nose to make sure he's still with us.

OK, so what exactly do people have against this episode?

While I agree season 7 in general is weak compared to Buffy at its height (say season 3 through 6 maybe, but especially 3), I think episodes like Get It Done is an example where season 7 shines. My reason being that Buffy is always best when it's about character, not so much the Big Bad stuff. It's more about how characters "deal."

And how characters deal is what this episode is all about.

Of particular interest (and what doesn't seem get much notice in these reviews) is Spike having to face through Principal Wood the tragic outcome, face of grief and revenge, from survivor of one of vampire Spike's "greatest achievements." Something that Whedon must have been setting up ever since we first saw the flashback in the subway where we see how Spike got his leather coat.

On its own, this makes the tension of this episode worth it all by itself.

I don't understand the level of negativity in some of these other reviews towards Buffy as a series in general. But I agree about two things.

1. Buffy season 7, at least up to this point, is terrible. Season 6 was shaky but ultimately redeemed. And I wasn't crazy about the execution of the military Frankenstein arc in season 4, particularly with the largely one note soldier boyfriend who miraculously made David Boreanaz come edgy and exotic in contrast (though I like both actors, just the characters seemed to have been designed to never threaten Buffy's spotlight which is understandable). Season 5's "big bad" was pretty great. that season competes with Faith heavy season 3 as the series' best....after that all the best stuff ended up on Angel.

2. Help is an utterly sickening episode. A total anomaly in the series, and almost a prototype for everything n high school that made me cringe back in the day. I mean, really. the guest star goes to Buffy with a problem she could hardly get any more melodramatic about building up, then says, oh, nothing, forget it. I can't tell you. Less a cry for help and more like a plea for attention. there's a difference. the episode seems to have been written by somebody who wore band aids for affect and confuses that with people who really struggled with things in their teen years beyond boredom and not being as popular as they'd like.

I'm all for episodes that stand on their own. But this doesn't. And it seemed to think it was speaking to "issues." At the end the gang sit around at home sharing a cry and Dawn implores to know the meaning of it all. the girl died of a heart malfunction. She knows Spike's and Buffy's thoughts intimately but can't tell her parents are hiding something from her? And oh yeah, the way Buffy barges in on the father accusing him of beating his daughter because he has a booze issue, to which the daughter is like thanks for trying (still not helping the Scoobies and they still jump through her hoops). What? I've never felt this series had its own head so far its own ass before. Baffling.

I'd like to rent the DVDs if there are any commentaries here. I feel like I want an explanation for the level of badness achieved here. ha-ha.

I really dig the show in general. And I was mourning being so close to the end. But now suddenly I'm thinking Whedon did himself and everybody a favor by ending this thing when he did.

While I agree that for a season finale this episode is remarkably anti-climatic in a way I can't put my finger on, it remains a fairly strong piece.

I understand the reactions other fans have towards this this, which is far from saying I agree. Buffy fans tend to be emotionally entitled, like most teenagers so it is no surprise. Should Willow be aloud to rampage through a town and kill anybody connected to her killer? While the post 9/11 parallel is eye rolling, it ends up being fair question here. Yes, you want to see Willow go all Carrie and burn the petty nerds in a righteous fire. Some of the fans want that because it's romantic. true love, soul mates, etc. the problem is while losing tara will change Willow, her massacre will poison her soul AND taint her memory of tara. No, Buffy isn't the real world and it IS about fantasy, sure. But it is also meant to ring true about our humanity. And what the show chooses does moreso than if they allowed Willow to go all Frank Castle and then....I don't know. Such a bad idea I can't even imagine what.

And no, Spike isn't trying to get his chip out. Do you guys really watch the show? It's his soul. I assume his chip no longer valid if he isn't a vampire or demon.

I think the stuff that normally would have made for season finale happened in the episodes preceding here and was all sorta drawn out.

What I REALLY dug about this season was the Big Bad, the three nerds, mostly Warren. I doubt Buffy as a show ever dealt with darker material than with that guy. What makes him so much worse than other Bads is that he had a soul, he's human. And he *chose* his evils, not like other Bads who behave as they do because, well, they vampires or demons. I have to admit I haven't loathed characters this much in a LONG time. Especially since they were just these petty nerd types who wanted to force acceptance out of others rather than earn a place. Rather than be worthy of love. Scenes where Warren's black heart comes out is some of the most creepy, loathsome moments I've seen on a TV show.

This gun fight looked like it was filmed in EXACTLY the same location as True Romance. I have no doubt. And the way it was blocked, right down to the f'n feathers filtering in the air, was a total recreation of the beats in True Romance.

However, I found almost EVERY SCENE in the film was designed this way. That is an iconic set piece in much better films bring used being stripped and repurposed in budget available. For example, anybody think of HEAT with its play on the personal lives and comparison between cop and robber?

Please understand that I by no means think this makes it a bad movie. In fact, it was quite enjoyable at some points. I just enjoyed it a lot less when I realized what was happening.

And at some point, I said to myself "T.I." must be a producer on this movie because his utterly improbable character comes out of nowhere and this polished, awesome bank robbery team just lets greed overrule their PROFESSIONAL instincts? No. No way. At some point the film, you could see decisions were made just to serve egos or simply because it might be "Awesome" or stylish. I hated that.

I recommend ARMORED (Matt Dillons plays a bad guy in this movie) for anybody interested in a similar movie at similar budget but which was MUCH, MUCH better.

I only watched this movie becauseI liked ARMORED and thought it might be a nasty little gem like that. Then I saw Stephen King, who I admire, had a brain fart and put this on his end of 2010 best of list. Was it that bad this year? He didn't have INCEPTION on there, but he had this?

Many of the actors are very good and they're here to have a good time, like the audience. At times, it is a fun flick to take in like candy, and I think younger people who don't cringe when Paul Walker talks about "trippin'" and saying "a'ight" without irony.

This was a very strong episode with Doggett coming into his own and us Mulder fans finding some pay offs for sticking around. Mostly I mean to respond to another review on here who insinuates the show is being inconsistent with character behavior. Doggett still feels like a guest and he's letting Mulder, in a sense, show him what it takes to run the X Files. I don't know that Doggett would be a huge NASCAR fan. I have a feeling that was a shorthand way of emphasizing the difference between Doggett and Mulder. I didn't find the Super Soldier thing particularly confusing. It's just part of the usual X Files deal that is always drawn out, a bit to the show's detriment, in my opinion. But I am very surprised that how strong the show remained long after I stopped watching back in the day.

I feel the X Files is difficult to stick with on a one episode per week regimen, 22 eps per season. That's a hell of a lot to ask of a viewer. I am uniquely available to watch these days. It is a wonderful show. I don't need to tell anybody reading, I'm sure.