(no subject)

[vaznetti]

You know, I wasn't planning on writing anything about the Buffy finale. But I think that this episode did what a lot of people were hoping--it took a season that appeared to have lost focus and pulled it all together at the end. It satisfied me on a number of fronts. Not all the i's were crossed and not all the t's were dotted (I know, I know) but they did good. In the end, the show was true to itself, and so were the characters. At least, I thought so.

Also, FX showed the first episode this evening, so I was filled with love for the whole of the show. I've watched it for seven seasons, and it was all time well-spent.

As for 24, I have this to say.

I take back everything negative I said about Michelle and Tony at the beginning of the season. Tony had one of the best scenes of the hour, and that little half-smile, lip-biting thing he did at the very end was just about the cutest thing I've ever seen. Let this be my palinode.

OK, OK, I know a lot of other things happened in the hour. Especially in the first 45 minutes and last three minutes. I saw it, and it was good. And thanks to the people on 24, who could identify the woman at the end as Mandy. Apparently, her breasts made an impression on some viewers all the way back in Season 1.


Of course, you can all guess what I really wanted to see in this last hour. Well, maybe next year.

Comments

Willow

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

What I don't understand is -- Willow can bring people back from the dead, and do this mighty thing she did this episode, but she can't put Xander's eye back? What gives.

Re: Willow

[vaznetti]

I figure that "putting Xander's eye back" is like "bringing Tara back to life"--so even though Caleb was kind of supernatural, he wasn't supernatural enough for her to undo what he'd done. There's a big "middle ground" of stuff that has to do with free will and human action that Willow can't affect.

[k2daisy.livejournal.com]

Okay, I succumbed to your will, and I watched some of 24 last night. Missed the lip-biting, but damn...you were right. That Tony is rather watchable. No one else made that much of an impression on me, but Tony...*sigh*

Damn you!

[vaznetti]

Tony has really grown on me over the course of the show. I think I might need a new Tony icon.

The show itself must have been almost incomprehensible, though--weren't you all "who are these people? what are they doing?"

[k2daisy.livejournal.com]

Well, I've read enough LJ reviews that I had a semi-decent idea of what was going on. Mainly, I just paid attention to the Palmer's-wife-and-Kiefer stuff, because that was more spelled-out in the ep than some of the other subplots (like all those blonde women - I had no idea who any of them were so I ignored them). And then I watched Tony and tried to figure out what he was doing. *g*

And I kept my eye out for Nina, but alas...

[vaznetti]

And I kept my eye out for Nina, but alas...

Sniffle. Where is my Nina? I'm thinking that she should end up on the yacht with Max (the evil German guy). Or in custody, being interrogated by Jack, a lot.

[k2daisy.livejournal.com]

Maybe she and Skinner are somewhere far away, plotting against those Evil Writers Who Leave Them Unaccounted For During The Finale.

[vaznetti]

I still like the idea that she's hanging out at the beach with Sydney Bristow and maybe Samantha Mulder, too, having an extended vacation. With pool boys.

[cardoon.livejournal.com]

It was the first episode of Buffy that I'd watched from beginning to end in over a year. I feel the same way, this episode revived the love...made me sad, too, that it couldn't have been this poignant all along.

I read in a NYTimes interview of Whedon that he let the actors "inform" the characters--Tony Head's hipness, Hannigan's sexiness, SMG's intelligence [sic], and how a hero would be estranged from the pack just as a star would be estranged from an ensemble. Well, that last "informing" was poisonous for a long, long time, blech. Buffy was a more personal hero (for me, anyway) when she was integrated in an ensemble. And I still found her the most likeable when she was playing against Angel. [Exit Angel.]

[Exit BtVS]

And Vaznetti, we need to give Jack's ticker a few days to recover first, okay? (Just a guess.)

[vaznetti]

Buffy was a more personal hero (for me, anyway) when she was integrated in an ensemble.

And what I loved about the way this ending was that Buffy's special aloneness was completely negated. She lost track of how important it was for her to be part of a circle of friends over the last few seasons (and to be honest, I thought that that was in character. I didn't like it, but I understood it), and then at the end she got it back--I loved all the echoes of the first episodes here.

"Poignant" is a good word, I think.

Re:

[cardoon.livejournal.com]

My DH, who often is more feminist than me, was too repelled by the bad-relationship sex theme last season to keep watching. As he holds the remote, I lost the momentum to keep rooting for the character through all its journeys. A couple of WEEKS of the show with this tone might make it up to me. But then I would miss it when it ended, and that would hurt, and it's easier to say goodbye to a relationship that's already over, right?

I seem to recall that you were a Kiefer fan back in the "Young Buns" era. Still so?

Dream

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

Ok, so... I had this totally psycho dream last night, about you guys, and I'm going to have to write my own entry just to describe it.

Meanwhile, I also just have to wonder: Why didn't they wait for Willow to do the spell before opening the seal? :)

Re: Hold your horses

[cardoon.livejournal.com]

I was wondering the same thing. Come on, gals! The point of taking the initiative is to put the fight on your own terms!

[vaznetti]

I seem to recall that you were a Kiefer fan back in the "Young Buns" era. Still so?

The really nice thing about 24 is that I don't have to be quite so embarrassed about that, now. Because he did grow up to be cute, in that homicidal maniac way I like in a TV character. Deeply, deeply hot.