(This is slightly revised essay from the one posted on Buffy Cross and Stake and All Things Philosophical Boards. )
It’s all about having expectations, and then letting go of them.
I’ve been thinking a lot about Season 7 Btvs. A season that I felt started out with a great deal of potential then sort of lost it’s way half-way through, never quite living up to what it promised. This isn’t overly surprising when you realize it is after all an hour television series with a relatively low budget and on commercial television – also at the mercy of a) network censors and producers and b) commercial sponsors. Sopranos and Six Feet Under have no clue how good they have it.
Before I begin – I re-watched all of S7 on tape recently. I watched it from beginning to end within a three week time period. I watched the last six episodes in with three days. The last four in four hours. So my opinions below are not based on frustrations of gaps between episodes or waiting for new ones, or commercials. Nor did my opinion of the season change much after re-watching.
First off? I think the writers were probably trying to do the episodic/stand-alone combo like they’d always done. And they more or less did just that, at least for the first half of the season. The second half? It was all arc. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just the arc felt a little choppy in places. Bear with me as I attempt to explain this in some coherent manner. The themes and plots didn’t quite fit the characters’ emotional states or arcs in S7, I often felt as some posters have stated that the characters were being forced to serve the story as opposed to the story serving or naturally arising from the characters. It was almost as if Whedon and his writers were intent on conveying a specific message by the end of the series and had to manipulate their characters into conveying it. The message seemed almost more important than the characters or even the story being told, and as result the plot at times felt a little heavy handed, as did some of the metaphors. It also seemed a tad disjointed or choppy in places.
I. The TV Grind
Whedon has stated in numerous interviews what a grind it is putting out a tv show week after week and he's not wrong. Tough job. And exhausting. But Whedon was doing three tv shows, all three he'd written the main arc for. Also he had a new baby. So needless to say he was spread thin, bad thing to happen for the head of a tv show. Also his co-executive head writer of Btvs was on maternity leave and looking at other projects. Keep that in mind as you think about S7.
A little primer on television production, serial vs. episodic formats, and what I think the writers were attempting to accomplish this season from reading their interviews. (Most of this information has been grabbed from assorted interviews I’ve read, documentaries I’ve seen and conversations with people in the know – can’t remember the references unfortunately, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. ;-) )
Marking this section so you can skip it and head to the critical analysis if you wish. ;-)
TV as many of you know is a tough business. And depending on the TV show, it can either be great or horrible or a combo of both for the writer. If the show is a drama, hour-long format and appears usually at night, then it is probably controlled by writers. The writers produce, occasionally direct, and often create the show. Actors are slaves who do whatever the writers want. Yes, directors are involved – but they are trained to do what the writers want and are on Joss’ payroll. He doesn’t like them? They are gone.
Fox and Kuzuis may own the copyright to Btvs, but Joss Whedon retained creative control – what this means is that Whedon controls who edits, directs, writes, acts in, and produces individual episodes. He controls how the plot arcs develop, which characters are featured, and how the scenes are written and filmed. And unlike Firefly – which Fox kept interfering with – he was pretty much left to his own devices on Btvs and Ats. Oh they would make suggestions here and there, but overall – it was Whedon’s enterprise.
And as Adam Busch stated at the Moonlight Rising Convention, Whedon and Company are watching the actors performances, they called him back to re-do a scene just for one line that they did not like. David Solomon – ME’s main director was an editor on Welcome to The Hellmouth and has been one of Joss’ main directors since Season 2 What’s My Line, his first fully directed episode. He listens to the writers. All of this puts a heck of a lot of pressure on the writer who has about a weekend if that to hammer out a 42 page script, then 7 days to see it shot. If they go over? Scenes get cut and it is up to the writer to decide which scenes. Some writers like David Fury – will grab another writer to help him if he has to do it in a short period of time. Fury prefers 8 day writing schedule and occasionally you can get that if you get the assignment prior to the shooting of the previous episode. (see Fury’s interview at City of Angels).
Btvs unlike some shows is loosely plotted. Whedon does not plan out every episode, plot arc or character prior to the first episode of each season. What he does is figure out the general theme and general plot arc of the season – the main character’s emotional arc and where he wants everyone to end up. For instance he knew at the end of Season 5 that he wanted to spread the power of the slayer to all the other potentials and that Spike would go after a soul and get more or less redeemed. What he did not know was the specifics. This is very different from the writer of Bablyon 5 which outlined most everything in advance. (According to Joss Whedon in his interviews – he doesn’t plot out Btvs as thoroughly as Bablyon 5 was..) The writer of Bablyon 5 knew every character arc and plot arc five years ahead of time, with a few exceptions here and there. The writer of Bablyon 5 – figured out the entire A plot for each year before it filmed. The B/C plots are left looser. Bablyon 5 was probably the tightest plotted serial show on TV, but keep in mind tv as a medium cannot be as tightly plotted as a novel. So when I say Bablyon 5 is tightly plotted – I mean more tightly plotted than the other shows. According to Drew Goddard – the entire plot of Btvs is not plotted in advance, just the general A plot line is, the B plots are left open. They knew FE was the big bad and that Buffy was going to spread her power and Spike would die. But that was it. Everything else was left open.
There are three types of dramatic television show formats. (These don’t include documentaries and reality shows.)
1. Episodic: This is the stand-a-lone tv format. Plot and theme usually come first here, with character development a distant third. We only see the characters develop and evolve to the extent that it enriches the plot or theme. Most situation comedies fit in this format. Episodic tv shows can be seen in any order, doesn’t matter. That’s their main strength – and networks love these babies because of that strength. Makes them a syndication goldmine. And the money is often in the syndication. Examples of episodic tv shows include: Law and Order, Happy Days, Twilight Zone and other Anthology series. (Star Trek and Voyager are examples of episodic tv shows that have more developed characters that actually change. Btw – just b/c it’s episodic does not mean characters won’t evolve and change – they can, but it is not a necessity of the format.)
2. Serial: This is the arc TV format. Characters/Plot/Theme are first and foremost here. The plot usually springs from the characters emotional arcs in a serial. In episodic the characters serve the plot. In serial the plot serves the characters. Good serials such as Babylon 5 will have the characters emotional arc and the plot entwined. And both will be detailed. This show is an examples of more tightly plotted serial – where extensive season long outlines are made prior to the show’s first episode. (There is no such thing as perfectly plotted TV show, the medium itself sort of sets itself against this, you have way too many things that can go wrong, ie. casting changes, actors leaving or quitting, contractual disputes, network censorship, budget problems and of course the ever-constant threat of cancellation – so when I say tightly plotted – I mean “more” tightly plotted than most shows..) Soap operas are examples of the form at its worst – where the emotional arcs of characters overwhelm plot. Soap operas also tend to be more loosely plotted, no complete plot outline so much as complete character outlines. The actor or the chemistry between actors will often overtake the whole plot structure in a soap opera. The pro of doing serial is once you hook a core audience they’ll drop everything to watch and will come in droves – example is well Dallas and Dynasty. The con is if you don’t hook them, you lose them forever, since the plot is far too serialized for them to come in at the middle, Bablyon 5 might be a good example. Serials demand a lot from the television watcher – commitment, either to tape or to watch once a week – some viewers hate that. They want to just watch whenever, they don’t want to plan their life around something unless it really moves them. Also extremely hard to show re-runs or put in syndication – big problem that since the money’s in syndication. There’s a reason we don’t see these types of shows in syndicated release very often – you can’t show them out of order. Also if they are really expensive and serials? Well you can’t make up the production cost in syndication or re-runs. Makes them an expensive gamble all the way around. If I was a network exec – I’d be very cautious about committing to the serial (even though as a viewer I happen to prefer them.)
3. Serial and Episodic: The combo. This is the best of both worlds. The B plot line is episodic while the A is serial. The characters grow and change and develop, but you don’t have to necessarily watch all the episodes to figure out what is happening. There are stand-alones and arcs. The arcs are usually more character than plot, since plots tend to be more on the episodic level. The A plot comes from the characters. The B plot from a theme or idea which reflects on them but isn’t essential to them. Sometimes you’ll get a 4 episode arc which deals with just the A plot. Examples of this form are ER, NYPDBlue, CSI, The Practice, West Wing, Gilmore Girls, Smallville. These babies are great b/c you have the best of two worlds – you get stand-alones to show as reruns and out of order, and you get arcs. You can hook both the audience that prefers the serial and the audience that prefers the episodic. And do syndication. Also note these babies are at the top of the ratings. (* ER even though it appears to be more serialized, it still has episodic stand-alones which you can watch without seeing any other episodes. Also it has been doing very well in syndication. ER at any rate is at the serial end of the continuum and CSI is on the episodic end of the combo continuum. CSI really tends to fit more along the lines of Law & Order, except there is a B plot that is serialized or comes from characters. Law & Order doesn’t really have the B plot, it’s all episodic. Same with Murder She Wrote – no true serial arc underneath. CSI on the other hand definitely does – Grishom’s deathness, Marg Helgenberger’s problems with her ex in one season, Jorja Fox’s relationship with the prosecutor who murdered her abusive husband – these all became arcs, but are relegated to B status. ER in contrast takes the character plots and makes them A plots and the individual patients and makes them B plots. Both are combos, one just emphasizes episodic over serial and one serial over episodic in the plot structure. So CSI does better in reruns than ER for this reason. And you’ll have viewers that prefer one over the other also for this reason.)
As you can see from the above examples: Doing the combo isn’t easy – because you have to be aware of the A plot and B/C plot and their connection to each other as well as the emotional character arcs which drive the narrative. You also have to decide if you want your show to be more episodic like say CSI or more serial like ER. If you lose one of the balls, you can lose the whole momentum of the season and the audience. In some cases – the writers will excel at the stand-alones and the individual character arcs in the stand-alones but fall flat when it comes to the season arc. Every episode that can be seen as a stand-alone and watched outside of the arc – is extremely strong, while the episodes dealing with the main arc or plot going throughout the season may end up being weak. The opposite can also occur, where the stand-alones are crap and don’t make sense, but the central arc is really strong. The best case scenario is to have both and the way to have both is to build the plots from the characters or from themes relating to the emotional arc and development of the characters. I think most people will agree that the best stories and jokes are those that develop directly from the characters and aren’t in spite of or at the expense of the characters.
Example of a season that had strong stand-alone episodes and a strong central plot arc: Season 3 Btvs. We had the Mayor/Faith plot arc at the center, with some great character stand-alones, which fed into the theme of SG dealing with authority, shadow selves, and graduation. As a result – most fans of the series probably rank S3 at the top, also and more importantly the ratings for the overall series were the highest in S3. Now this had nothing to do with who the characters were – it had to do with tightly plotted central arc and well plotted stand-alones, which came from emotional core of the characters. Each story dealt with the characters emotional relationships to each other and how they felt about themselves. Yet at the same time, you could also technically watch S3 without having seen the prior two seasons. The action wasn’t so predicated on plot developments that occurred in previous seasons that new viewers couldn’t jump in. The only plot development that was really based on past seasons was the B/A relationship which was explained fairly quickly and was not the A plot but rather relegated to a more manageable C/B plot, as were all the love relationships in that season. The A plot was the authority/graduation theme and F/Mayor.
Example of a season with strong stand-alone episodes and an incredibly weak central plot arc: Season 4 Btvs. We had the Adam/Walsh/Initiative arc, which through no fault of the writers fell apart when Lindsey Crouse bailed. There was also an Oz/Willow/Tara/Veruca arc that had to be abandoned as well when Seth Green bailed. Actors can affect the show after all. The central arc was confusing, muddled and somewhat cheesy to most viewers, but there were several stand-alones that had zip to do with it or vaguely referenced it that were kick-ass. These stand-alone episodes pulled in new viewers to the show, enabling it to be renewed for another season and scored high in the syndication market. One of the stand-alone’s even got nominated for an Emmy: HUSH.
Example of a season with strong central arc but weak stand-alones: Season 2 Btvs.
This season had the strongest central arc ever – rich, full of passion. But the stand-alones were weak and often make it to many fan’s worst of lists. It’s telling that ratings spiked when the episodes that dwelt on central arc were shown and dipped during stand-alones. But the central arc brought in viewers.
Part of the problem I had with S7 was a feeling that once the writers jumped away from the episodic/serial combo the story got a bit confusing plot wise and choppy.
By Bring on The Night, possibly even before that episode – the story almost became a complete serial – not a combo at all. Even the stand-a-lone episodes, like Storyteller, Lies My Parents Told Me, Killer in Me, First Date, Potential – felt like parts of the serial – Storyteller really made no sense to anyone who hadn’t been watching Btvs for a while. And it was filled with flashbacks. LMPTM? Unlike Fool For Love which you could show to a first time viewer without too much preamble, LMPTM really required some experience with the show to understand it. Another problem with LMPTM that Fool For Love didn’t have? LMPTM never really got resolved on screen. After Fool For Love – we see the repercussions of Riley’s decision to blow up the vamps and his frustration, Buffy’s session with Spike and how allowing him to actually comfort her – changes their relationship somewhat, and Giles sense that he isn’t really helping Buffy. In LMPTM – Buffy shuts Giles out, Spike gets rid of the trigger, and Giles and Wood try to kill Spike – while this is mentioned in later episodes, it feels unresolved somehow. OR less resolved than Fool for Love did. It’s not that they don’t refer to the events in the previous episode, they do, it’s just they don’t resolve or wrap them up or even really make sense of them, they just refer to them. Another example is the trigger. Spike’s trigger is a big deal until well Get it Done, and Buffy sort of drops the whole thing, it jumps up again in LMPTM. I’ve never understood why Buffy stopped worrying about it. Or Willow/Amy/Warren – Amy never shows up again – completely dropped. In previous seasons, her character was usually wrapped up a little neater, here she’s been regulated to plot device. Now the chip was dealt with a little better, except it confused the heck out of the audience all season long – we weren’t sure he had it, it was working, it wasn’t working, and then all of sudden in one episode it starts giving him pain. It’s a choppiness or lack of smooth flow between episodes and plot. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what was causing this – except that when I rewatch episodes on FX and rewatch this season – I feel it, this sense that the episodes don’t quite flow together as well. Now part of this is due to the grind of doing a television series. TV shows are notorious for getting choppy plot wise. For the best scenes often being the unwritten ones that appear off camera – just due to the time and episode constraints if nothing else. So this may just be a complaint I have with the medium more than with the show. OTOH – previous seasons did flow together better and had a far less choppy feel to them, we could easily track the characters arcs from one episode to the next.
II. Inconsistencies and Misuse of Characters to serve Plot or Further a Theme
This is the only season of Btvs in which I felt as if the characters themselves were confused. There were points in episodes in which I had the odd sensation that a character was looking up at the Writers and saying: “explain why I want to do this again? Because I’m sort of confused here. And tell me again what the heck this thing is you’re giving me? And why the heck would I ever in a million years do that? Seems awfully stupid to me.” While the writer stubbornly shakes his or her head says: “Hey! Who’s the writer here, you or me? You do what I tell you to do. End of story. No arguments.”
The poor character is left sputtering and defenseless.
Trust me as a writer – you ignore what your characters say at your own peril. And this season I got the odd feeling, more of an itch, there was a huge disagreement going on between the characters and the writers. Not so much out of character moments…just moments that did not come logically from the characters themselves. Almost as if the characters were being used as pawns to push forward the plot.
The only two characters arcs that appeared to logically work for me this season were: Andrew and Spike. And to be honest, I’m on the fence about whether they really pulled off the Spike arc. The actor pulled it off, but did the writers? Not so sure. So I’d have to say only Andrew’s arc seemed to logically work on BOTH narrative and metaphorical levels. Spikes? (shrug)
A. The Disconnected Lead
The character whose arc may have hurt the show the most this season, causing a sort of malaise and type of black hole in the middle of the season – I think, ironically enough, was the central character: Buffy. Before I explain why – I’d like to say – I agree whole-heartedly with the view that “we are Buffy”. Buffy is the central pov. It is her story. We are supposed to see the whole thing through her eyes. Which is a wonderful concept and one used in many tv shows, La Femme Nikita, Alias, Dawson’s Creek, even Xena used this construct. And it can work well as a story-telling device, except for one minor thing: Make damn sure the central character is someone the viewer wants to identify with and wants to be inside. She must be accessible to the viewer as a character. The viewer must know what she is thinking and feeling. The viewer must feel like they are Buffy. If this did not work for you? Uh oh. If it did? Great.
Up until S7, this character really did engage me, I enjoyed her, I felt for her, she moved me. My heart ached for her. I understood her motivations and where she was coming from and she never bored me. I was Buffy. Yeah I may have identified more with Willow and Spike and Xander at times, but I was Buffy when I watched the show. This season? She just didn’t engage me. I felt disconnected from her. I did not know what she felt nor did I care. And I wasn’t alone. A few posters blame Spike for fans’ attitudes towards Buffy, but truth is Buffy was actually the most interesting and sympathetic when she was with Spike in the later episodes. Her scenes with all the other characters seemed somewhat disconnected and aloof. Almost as if she was uncomfortable being around them and as a viewer, so was I.
I don’t believe this is the character or the actress’s fault – I think this is the fault of the story the character found herself plopped in the middle of. For some reason the writers were interested in telling a story about how “Slayers are alone” and how in order not to be alone “you must share the power” and how being aloof and the leader isn’t such a great thing – which is interesting story to tell on one level and very good message, but not necessarily great to watch. Think about it? How often did we see Buffy Smile? (Twice?) Her best moments? Few and far between: the last scene with Willow in Same Time Same Place, the church scenes with Spike in Beneath You, the basement scene in Sleeper & NLM, very end of Showtime, with Spike again in Touched and last scene with the scythe, End of Days, Chosen, the scenes with Faith in End of Days, and maybe one or two with Xander: End of Days, Lessons. Most of the time she was speechifying, looking conflicted, or being “the law”. To have the focus of the story appear aloof and emotionally detached to the audience is a risky thing. Especially when the story seems to either be in her pov or concentrate more on her than anyone else. Yes, I know it’s ALL ABOUT BUFFY…but Angel is a series that is called ANGEL, and yet, we had lots of character development for characters outside of him such as Gwen, Wes, Gunn, Fred, Connor…also if you’re going to make it all about one character – keep that character and her inter-relationships engaging, even Buffy seemed bored with her relationships. The only relationship that she seemed really engaged in was Spike and that appeared to be because she wasn’t sure what she felt about him or what to do with him. I’m still on the fence about what she felt about Spike. And yes, I know that was deliberate – she had to distance herself – and they dealt with that a little in Touched, but it took too long to do it. When Buffy’s not connected and not engaged – the audience is not connected and not engaged – that’s the risk the writers took and it’s a huge thing to ask of a television audience that has to deal with reruns and commercials and can flip channels at the drop of a hat.
B. Characters that got the shaft because they didn’t fit the “central slayer” plot.
Anya – after the ground-breaking, wonderful Selfless where Anya finally comes to terms with herself, Anya seemed to regress into S4 Anya, who just wanted to have sex and was obsessed with her hair, every other episode she’s asking people if there’s something wrong with her hair. The writers themselves admit that they lost the character after Selfless – they just did not know what to do with her. This astonishes me – since they planted all these interesting plot threads:
1.) The Spike/Anya relationship and how Anya saw Spike’s soul in Beneath You. Also how the two are paralleled in Selfless – with Spike talking to Buffy in the basement about his sins and Anya dealing with hers and them both handling the idea of guilt and humanity.
2.) Willow/Anya relationship – which also deals with vengeance. Willow after all took Anya’s power in Grave and Anya felt Willow’s need for vengeance. Also it is Willow who calls D’Hoffryn to save Anya.
3.) The Halfrek/Spike/Anya references from S6.
4.) Anya/D’Hoffryn and the demons being sent after her.
5.) Anya/Giles and the warmth and caring and chemistry between these two. Two people who have been through a lot and know a lot and aren’t sure what the heck to do with their lives. The audience caught the chemistry, the characters did, but the writers said ewww. Heck one of the best things in Showtime was the interaction between Giles and Anya
And before someone states – but sk, it’s not the Anya show, it’s the Buffy show – how about:
6.) Anya/Buffy – Anya figuring out her identity and how to deal with power and Buffy struggling with the same thing. They seemed to deal with this a little in both Selfless and the beginning of Him, but dropped it after that point.
Now – when you get a character like Anya dropped into your lap with all these great angles to play – you don’t ignore her. You don’t push her to the sidelines. And you certainly don’t let her regress to S4. I can’t believe any writer worth their salt would lose this character – she’s a gift from the gods. I bet poor Anya was wondering the same thing. I honestly think she was one of the characters looking up at the god-like writers wondering what the heck she was doing in most of the scenes. I certainly was.
Also if you don’t want to pursue the character? Maybe you should just write her out – have her go off like Oz did and discover herself – right after Selfless. I never understood why she hung around. Cordelia in Season 3, made more sense, she was still in high school and of course she’d be around. But Anya? If she wasn’t close to Buffy and the Gang? Why not leave town? And if she was close – why not explore that more? No one seemed overly upset when she died.
Giles. Ah Giles. My favorite character up until Bring on The Night – where the writers seemed more interested in playing a practical joke on the audience than in engaging in true character development. Drew Greenberg admits in an interview in Buffy Magazine #8 that they purposefully pretended Giles was the FE to play with the audience. A point that ASH reiterates at the Moonlight Rising Convention, and RKK, Jane E, and Drew mention in the Succubus Interview. Did anyone buy that Giles was FE? I was actually disappointed he wasn’t the FE or an agent of the FE and I figured that out in Showtime – it was pretty obvious.
Giles became more of a metaphor for Buffy’s struggle with authority than a character after awhile. Seemingly disjointed and out of touch. Disconnected just like Buffy. Great metaphor but hard to follow. Another example of sacrificing character development for plot and theme and metaphor. We saw less and less of things from his pov and most of the time had no idea where he was coming from or what purpose he had outside of bringing more potentials on to the scene. This character felt lost most of this season. Instead of exploring Giles reaction to Spike gaining a soul, Anya giving up being a vengeance demon, Xander’s maturity, we spent our time on Giles placing pressure on Buffy, having hissy fits, plotting with Wood, and looking bewildered. Giles also seemed to have many out of character moments – the joke about the girls in Killer in Me, the plotting with Wood in LMPTM (on the fence whether this was out of character or not since I can see Giles wanting to kill Spike, but it certainly seemed odd for Giles to put Wood in danger like that, Giles knows how dangerous Spike is), the choosing of Faith over Buffy in Empty Places, the not helping of Buffy with the ubervamp in BoTN. Also Giles in Lessons – NLM was very likable and interesting in his brief blurbs even caring, the one who shows up in BoTN – Chosen seems completely different somehow. And therein lay my biggest problem with Giles – we see one Giles in Lessons-NLM and completely different Giles in BoTN through Touched. With just a glimmer of the old Giles in End of Days/Chosen. Yes, I can buy the idea that what happened in England with the Watcher’s Council really shook him up, but it felt almost too awkward somehow, particularly after the wonderful job they’d done with him in previous seasons.
Xander. After HIM, Xander seemed to disappear gradually from the scene, which is odd, since he was in most of the episodes and scenes and had the third most lines this season. (Someone over on Angel’s Soul board counted all the lines per character per episode and did a tabulation.) I remember people wondering why Xander/Anya weren’t in CwDP – thinking maybe they had a greater purpose. No. They weren’t there because the writers didn’t know what to do with them. Xander’s purpose in S7 was to deliver inspiring speeches and occasional jokes and to rebuild the window. He was Buffy’s moral support. The other problem with Xander is he was inconsistent. One episode he’s calling Spike an out-of-control serial killer, the next he won’t say a word against him (no, Anya’s doing that, god knows why, felt very out of character for Anya to do it at this point in time, S5 sure, but not now) and it’s Xander who figures out what’s wrong with Spike and is sympathetic, while Dawn/Willow/Anya are anything but. Decided this was because Xander roomed with Spike. Although no real development there. Other inconsistencies: Buffy is close to Xander – joined at the hip – up to Showtime, then suddenly not so much. No reason given for why. Yes, I agree you don’t stay close to your friends after high school, I certainly didn’t, but Buffy has stayed close to her high school friends – they are the only friends she has. Buffy also is shown extremely close to Xander and Dawn in Lessons. We don’t get a repeat of that until End of Days – and it sort of comes out of nowhere after all of the disconnection in the previous episodes, to the point it jarred. And somehow I can’t imagine Xander harming Dawn with chloroform – a highly dangerous substance that could have put her in a coma or Dawn harming Xander with an electronic stun gun to the neck as he’s driving 30 miles per hour down a highway in the middle of the night, sounds sort of suicidal to me. Xander loses an eye in Dirty Girls – which leads to lots of tacky eye jokes, but nothing else – except possibly Xander and Willow backing the potentials in kicking Buffy out in Empty Places. (Which for some reason still feels oddly problematic and contrived.) Xander and Anya have sex twice – but don’t appear to be any closer, it seems to be a retread of S4, which ignores all the progress both characters have made. When Anya dies – Xander seems actually okay. Not torn up. Just quiet. Of course I guess we were shifting into the happy moment. Xander never speaks to Faith that we see – yet they had a relationship of sorts and he seems to accept Faith as the new leader without batting an eye – very weird, considering his past experiences with Faith. Spike/Xander – could have explored their unresolved conflict more – they had them living together. Might have explained Xander’s responses to Spike in later episodes. And uhm the fact Xander brought Spike along to help figure out the jacket in Him didn’t make a lot of sense without a little back-up. Xander goes from hating Spike, to just tolerating him, to suddenly having him tag-a-long? Instead of focusing so heavily on the jacket sub-plot in Him, I sort of wish they’d given us a bit more on the characters – might have helped in the episodes that followed.
I’m disappointed that the writers gave up on Xander as quickly as they did. That instead of examining the characters’ issues a bit more – say with the FE visiting him as either Jesse, or better yet killing Xander’s Dad and having the FE visit him that way, they instead did a replay of Teacher’s Pet with guest star Ashanti and poked out his eye.
And the odd thing? Xander actually had more lines than Spike in S7.
Willow. Entering this season – I was excited to see what they’d do with Willow. Not so much as it turns out. Willow had maybe three or four key episodes: Killer in Me, STSP, CwDP and Selfless. Of the three the strongest was ironically enough, Selfless. She was a place-setter in many episodes, veering from S2 Willow to S5 to S6 Willow. Missed opportunities?
1.Willow/Anya – this was set up beautifully in both Selfless and STSP – but was dropped by NLM. She began making odd jokes about Anya – whom she had appeared to be growing close to and identifying with in earlier episodes. Willow by NLM seemed to regress to s4 Willow.
2.Willow/Spike – another interesting possibility that was referred to in STSP but never built on. The writers went out of their way to keep Willow and Spike far apart. Odd since they both had the redemption thing in common.
3.Willow/Xander – outside of a couple of episodes: Empty Places, Selfless, Him, and a few tid-bits in others – we didn’t get much of these two together. Why?
4.Willow/Giles – limited to Lessons, Beneath You, End of Days and Chosen. After a strong start in Lessons and BY, they seemed to be dropped. I would have liked to see the Killer in Me done with Giles or some of the other core characters?
5. Willow/Faith – neither in Angel or Btvs did we ever get these two former enemies reconciliation. The fact that Willow chose Faith in Empty Places also seemed odd. Willow hated Faith. Willow and Dawn – also skimmed over, we never saw these two characters together except briefly in Sleeper and maybe a tid-bit in Help. The only relationship that we saw really explored with Willow was with new-comer Kennedy, a character that was introduced in the 10th episode and seemed to be inserted in the story as Willow’s girlfriend.
And most important of all – since it is after all Buffy’s show not Willow’s:
5.Willow/Buffy – outside of STSP (end of ), Selfless (sort of) Sleeper, a little in NLM…and small tid-bits here and there such as Get it Done. Not so much. They seemed distant somehow. Any conversations they had, were shown off stage or done very quickly. Yes, I know this was to emphasize Buffy’s distance from the other characters and how the slayer is all alone, but how come I got the whole the slayer is all alone theme in previous seasons, yet still saw quite a bit of the rest of the cast?
Another interesting tid-bit, next to Buffy? Willow had the most lines per episode and was in the most episodes.
Dawn – at the beginning of the year, we were convinced it would be all about Dawn and the Scrappy Gang. Not so much. Outside of a few episodes here and there, Dawn really wasn’t explored. Joss Whedon admits in interviews that she got gypped due to the whole slayer story arc. Her biggest episodes were towards the beginning of the season. Best moments? Help, Lessons, Him, STSP, CwDP, Potential, Empty Places, End of Days. Dawn/Willow – nothing much at all here, which is odd considering how Willow used to be a parent to Dawn and tried to kill Dawn, also the whole Tara connection. Dawn/Anya – nope, nothing except for a few odd scenes in Never Leave Me and BoTN. Dawn/Buffy – best in the beginning of the year, very little after that…the scene in Empty Places? Okay, but didn’t make a lot of sense considering Dawn didn’t know Faith and had plenty of reason to not trust her. Faith/Dawn – not really explored, missed opportunity considering how much the two characters had in common. We got a little bonding in the Bronze – but that was with all the potentials, not just Dawn. Dawn/Andrew – way too much time spent on this with no real clear goal in mind. In fact Andrew seemed to serve the same needs in developing Dawn as Kennedy seemed to with Willow. Except no romance. Heck Andrew seemed to get the most time with each regular character. Dawn/Xander – most here and probably two of Dawn’s best scenes. Dawn/Giles – zip. Also odd. Dawn/Spike – two scenes, both lack-luster and never developed past it. Did Dawn ever forgive Spike? Doesn’t appear to matter. Beneath You and LMPTM were the only two they appeared to interact, at all. After the strong D/S relationship built up in S5 and S6, the writers seemed to decide to do away with even the suggestion of any in S7. The two characters avoided each other, much like Willow/Spike did. The reason? The writers were freaked by the on-screen chemistry between the actors.
Spike – oh I know everyone thinks he had the best arc. I disagree. Andrew did. But I’ll get to that shortly. Spike’s arc disappointed me. It started out pretty good with Lessons – NLM, then Spike got lost. It became all about the physical torture of half-naked Spike. BoTN – Showtime : the FE tortures Spike for no clear reason and while at the time I thought – oh this is leading somewhere, now having seen the whole season twice? Didn’t really appear to. Why didn’t the FE just trigger him again and send him off on a feeding frenzy? Why waste time having the uber-vamp torture him? Was this supposed to redeem him somehow? He was tortured far worse by Glory in S5 after all. Actually Glory’s torture made more sense. Then when Spike came back – still no redemptive speeches or even exploration into what was happening with him. Oh we got him helping Buffy train the Potentials – which showed he could still be helpful. But seemed very subdued. Killer-in-Me – the writers quick solution to how do we get rid of the pesky chip. Wish they’d thought of involving Willow in that solution – be more interesting than revisiting the Initiative, especially with Willow terrified of using her power. Actually that would have been a way to get both characters to deal with their past sins and where those sins come from. Spike/Anya – now we could have had some interesting character development here – but no, instead we just get Anya hitting on him and Spike saying no – which I guess was meant to demonstrate how much he’d changed and how little Anya had. Spike/Xander – another missed opportunity. They were roommates. We got more stuff on that score in S4, why not now? Could have furthered both characters arcs and gave us more info on Xander. Spike/Willow – see the Willow section above. Spike/Buffy – this was limited to seeing just how much chemistry these two had without ever touching or kissing each other. They had maybe three or four useful conversations in BY, NLM, Touched, End of Days, and maybe Chosen. Spike was obviously still being used metaphorically as her foil or shadow. And Buffy clearly had no clue how to deal with him, which did not always cast her in the best light. Spike/Giles – yet another missed opportunity. These two are the flip side of each other and the whole vamp getting a soul thing was a fascinating opportunity to explore Giles’ prejudices and what it really meant to the Buffyverse. It was also an opportunity to explain to the audience once and for all what ME meant by a soul. Did they do it? Nooo. Instead all we got was Buffy’s mantra: “But he has a soul now!” every time anyone questioned Spike. I would have preferred that we saw more of what that meant, more showing, less telling. Oh I saw glimmers, the actor did a very good job of playing Spike differently from previous seasons, less overly emotional, less demanding, less snarky, kinder, quieter, more adult. But…the repeated mantra did begin to sound like Cordy’s mantra : “But he has a car!” Maybe that was the point? So that the last scene where his soul literally takes out the hellmouth would have more resonance? Spike/Dawn – zip outside of the scene in BY. Most interaction of characters with Spike were: Buffy, Wood and Andrew. Yep, the new characters got the most interaction.
My biggest difficulty with the Spike arc – was it became a straight redemption tale, which is okay in of itself, but most of the redemption I saw was in how the actor managed to reign in his reactions to other characters – small teeny little moments – which I only noticed b/c I was looking for them. The actor did a good job in my humble opinion. The writers?
How to put this so it makes sense? Okay…I did not have problems with Spike’s scene with Wood in LMPTM per se, …I did however have difficulty with the use of Nikki’s jacket – the writers spent an awful lot of time with that jacket. We get the whole HIM episode about a magic jacket. In Get it Done – Spike goes after the jacket. We are told repeatedly that he took it from Nikki. But does he ever get rid of it? Nope. Instead the whole jacket thing appears to be dropped. Even the actor playing the role had problems with Spike picking up that jacket again. I have fanwanked this a bit – here’s my theory: I think the jacket was meant to symbolize Spike’s acceptance of his own dark power –and the fact that power is supposed to come from within. The jacket – external, the amulet – internal. The jacket – the demon/killer/warrior and the amulet – the soul/champion/warrior. So maybe what they were attempting was to use the jacket to symbolize what Spike believed his power to be – the dark external killer instinct, when in fact, his true power lay inside him the whole time – his soul.
Something about Nikki’s jacket being the source of Spike’s power just grates – maybe because the idea was stolen from a noir comic by Frank Miller called Sin City? Or maybe because, I’m wondering why the writers decided not to have Spike show remorse for killing slayers? My theory is that ME believes slayers are warriors and warriors don’t feel remorse for killing another warrior in battle – linking to Spike’s line to Buffy in Touched and Buffy’s to Faith in End of Days – there are casualties in war. There shouldn’t be remorse for that, only honor. They died honorably in battle. That’s how the game is played. And while I see and understand that message? It’s a morale message that at this point in time I’m just a little uncomfortable with, probably just the pacifist in me. At any rate, I was disappointed we didn’t explore Spike’s conflicted feelings over killing slayers a bit more than we did. The other problem I had with Spike’s redemption – was that in order to be redeemed he had to sacrifice himself. Sort of goes against my whole view of redemption – it seems so easy, so pat, so cliché. I liked how he died, but at the same time, I didn’t.
C. Too Many Characters
The biggest problem with S7 character wise was the introduction of numerous peripheral characters. Unlike previous seasons which had maybe one or two peripheral characters that were introduced to highlight the relationships of the regular principal characters but did not overtake the storyline: See season 3 as the best example of this, S7’s peripherals seemed to be the story or the focus of it.
1. It’s ALL ABOUT ANDREW
In my memory there are only two seasons that had entire episodes dedicated to a peripheral character: S4 and S7. Those episodes are Superstar and Storyteller and are written by the same writer, Jane Espenson. The difference between them is that Jonathan was a recurring character since S1, and Superstar was the only episode he was in in S4. Andrew – was practically in almost every episode from CwDP onwards. He was the one character who got to have scenes with every regular. He got the most productive scenes and the best lines (well depending on your pov). His story line and redemptive arc was the most detailed and advanced. We learned the most about his likes and desires. A fanboy’s wet dream - The writers adored him. They let him ad-lib lines because he cracked them up. He’s the only actor on BTVS that has gotten away with ad-libs according to interviews. This character started out a killer, began to realize his wicked ways, and slowly gradually found his redemption. And he was developed this year often at the expense of other long-term characters.
If you liked the character of Andrew and his arc, and according to what I read online, lots of people did, – you probably enjoyed S7 far more than I did. Objectively? He did have the best and most logical arc of the season. And the one arc that had zip to do with the heroine. Buffy really didn’t interact with Andrew that much. Perhaps Andrew was meant as Buffy’s foil in S7.
2. Introduction of One too Many Characters
Even David Fury admits in interviews that the show got way too crowded in S7. Yep. We had over 50 potentials by the end of the season and we had no clue who they were. At least I think 50, it was hard to keep track. Did anyone truly care about them? Did we care if they lived or died? How many did die? Does anyone know? They became almost interchangeable. Kennedy stood out because of Willow. Rona stood out because she complained the most. Molly stood out for the horrible accent. Amanda for the creaky voice and her pseudo relationship with Dawn. Vi for the floppy hat. Outside of that? I couldn’t tell them apart most of the time. They seemed to crowd out the other characters. I noticed the difference in BoTN. Prior to BoTN, we had episodes where all the regulars had lines and were focused on. After BoTN it got defused.
The show after a while felt like it was about how to house and deal with potential slayers. And it didn’t have to be that way. The potentials could have given us more insight into what a slayer truly is and the whole process. They could have had scenes with the potentials and Spike, or the SIT’s and Giles. It just felt at one point as if the writers got overwhelmed with all these additional characters, just as the characters appeared to be overwhelmed.
Now don’t get me wrong, I think the potentials acted realistically. They were like 15 year old girls. And Buffy’s way of dealing with them, equally realistic. This was the risk the writers took in introducing them – they brought in a bunch of characters not intending for us to like or get to know them. How we reacted to them was intentional. Risky move. Not sure it helped the story, the other characters, or moved the plot though.
3. The incorporeal Villain known as The FE
Ah the opportunities missed with the FE. Why not have the FE interact more with other characters? Like Anya? Willow? Xander? Giles? Dawn? We could have had the FE appear to Anya as Halfrek. Or to Spike as Cecily. Or To Willow as Cassie and Warren and possibly Buffy? Why didn’t the FE appear to other characters, besides Spike, as Buffy? Wouldn’t that be a perfect way to cause them to distrust her? What about Joyce?
Or as Jenny to Giles? OR even the Mayor, The Master, Angelus, Glory, Adam…Prof Walsh?? And why just to Spike and Andrew…most of the time? It would have been great to see the FE as Ben or even Jenny in LMPTM.
I got the feeling from the interviews that the writers didn’t know what to do with the FE.
And that’s a shame. It could have been the most interesting villain ever. It certainly started out that way in Amends, Lessons, CwDP, Sleeper…but it started to fizzle. The best FE was probably Buffy. But the writers didn’t think Buffy vs. Buffy would work with the female empowerment theme, so they went with the male uber-vamps and Caleb.
At any rate…after a while the FE’s taunting seemed without bite.
4. Caleb – creepy character, but also way too cliché for it’s own good. It’s almost as if ME came up with the character at the last minute. (Actually according to Drew Greenberg at Succubus Club, they sort of did. They’d been playing around with Buffy fighting Buffy at the end but realized it wouldn’t work and grabbed Caleb instead). I would have preferred a less stereotypical character, less obvious. Someone at slayage.com suggest Hank Summers as a possibility, I love that idea.
III. Plot gaps and holes
This season was doing pretty well to start out. No clear plot holes. Lots of suspense. And the arc? Took off at a gallop with Conversations With Dead People. Then suddenly everything slammed to a halt with Showtime.
1. D’Hoffryn sending demons after Anya every once and a while – didn’t make a lot of sense, except as a means of keeping Anya under the protection of the SG.
2. Bejoxer’s Eye – this seemed to leap out of nowhere. Was never really explained. And was quickly dropped, never to be referred to again.
3. The telepathy between Willow/Xander and Buffy in Showtime which oddly enough is started by Buffy. Why isn’t it used again? Why doesn’t Buffy use it to communicate to her friends in Empty Places or Dirty Girls or Potential or Chosen? Why is this the only time?
4. The slayer’s emergency kit that conveintly appeared in Wood’s possession. Never mentioned by anyone prior to this. And making me wonder how truly ineffectual these Watcher’s really are.
5. The Scythe – which also came out of nowhere in the last 50 minutes of the season. And is never clearly explained. Yet seems to solve the heroine’s dilemma quite nicely along with the writer’s. Way too convienent.
6. The Amulet – another plot device that comes out of nowhere and from another show no less, and is never clearly explained – yet seems to save the day. I still have no clue what this thing really did. They may or may not tell us in Angel S5.
Uhm, you work for stuff like the scythe and the amulet in stories – it doesn’t drop in at the last minute and solve all your problems. Whole adventure movies are structured around searches for these devices. In previous seasons – the tools were introduced in earlier episodes, the Trolls Hammer, the Dagon Sphere, the BuffyBot, the blood – all done much much earlier in s5. In S7, we get the Scythe introduced at the end of the 20th episode of the season and the amulet in the 22nd or last one.
7. The Guardian – cool idea, why wasn’t she introduced much earlier? Or explained more clearly?
8. The Tomb where the Guardian is found. If this Tomb is so secretive – why can everyone easily find it? We have Caleb, Angel, and Spike all follow Buffy into it without any problem. Also if it can easily be found, why hasn’t anyone found it before now? How big is Sunnydale?
9. Dawn’s ability to translate Turkish and Summarian at will. Apparently the monks gave Dawn some gifts we weren’t aware of. Who is Dawn? What is the key? Was this ever going to be broached again? Felt like it in Potential when the power went through her. But seemed to be dropped.
10. Spike’s soul – never explained how he got that or why the Lurker just gave it to him. (Okay maybe that is just my personal pet peeve ;-) )
11. Who made the talisman in Lessons? Spike?
Okay that’s all I can come up with right now and this post is getting way too long and I’m sure there’s quite a few people who are sick of the criticisms by now anyway.
I don’t want to give you all the impression I didn’t like S7 or hated it, I did like it well enough. I did not love it. It felt off to me. By the same token? It also felt very ambitious. The writers took several interesting risks this season, several of which just did not pay off at least for me. And I admit a great deal of my problem with s7 is I went into it with such high expectations. I expected too much and some of my speculations were more interesting that what I saw on screen – which is always a danger.
Regarding the theme? Overall, I liked the idea of spreading the power, sharing it with everyone. I also liked how Anya and Spike died – risking their lives, after living 100s of years without caring about humans, actually risking their lives for humans and doing it without anything in return. Spike’s mature acknowledgment that Buffy did not really love him and being okay with that was in a way moving.
But … the power wasn’t shared with everyone. Not all women got it. Just selected women, people who were chosen by fate. And that’s the portion of the message that grates at me. Also it’s only women. They aren’t integrating the male energy. Or dealing with it. They are rising above it. It’s this odd feeling of elitism and women are better that seems to overshadow the theme. Even though I think Spike’s death was supposed to counter the women are powerful message – with a powerful one about the purification of masculine energy or something like that. Not sure. Feels off somehow.
The fact that the two people who died were both the outsiders – the ones who were never fully accepted by the group, also nagged at me. As it also bugged me that these two did not appear to mourned. Oh Buffy seemed to have tears in her eyes. But no one else did. This seemed to oddly enough add to that feeling of elitism.
Also, I felt Spike was the one who transcended beyond forms at the end of the season and passed into the light, not Buffy. Buffy felt still unbaked.
I doubt this feeling was intended by Joss Whedon. And I’m sure I’m reading more into it than I should, I don’t know. Maybe part of my problem with it is as one critic put it – how ME executed the theme? The nature was fine, but something got twisted or lost in the execution.
Well, if you made it this far? Thanks for reading. Hope I didn’t offend anyone, also hope that this came off neutral and logical as opposed to snarky. Can't tell. I remember how annoyed I got last year with all the criticism of S6, until of course I joined in. Remember – this is just my perspective on the season, I’m aware there’s more than one, and those perceptions/opinions are as valid as mine. Heck if you want, you can read my positive take (see archives, May, Chosen and other individual episode reviews), thought I’d share the negative one as well.
Take it and run. And please don't hurt me. Sometimes it's far scarier and harder to write criticism than it is to write positive reviews. Or at least it is for me.
;-) SK
