Episodes I love: This Year’s Girl, Restless
Episodes I like: A New Man, Who Are You, The Yoko Factor
Episodes that are okay: New Moon Rising, Superstar
Episodes I will never watch again unless forced to: The I in Team, Goodbye Iowa, Where the Wild Things Are, Primeval
I think his dreaded speech in “Into the Woods” makes us all forget that, early on in the B/R relationship, Xander doesn’t seem to care for Riley at all. He attacks Riley verbally after Maggie tries to have Buffy killed, and in “This Year’s Girl,” when Riley says going undercover is the least he can do, Xander snarkily replies, “You’re right – it is the least you can do.” I think he starts to change his mind around “The Yoko Factor.” He looks at Riley, who is not able to hold a candle to Angel (in Buffy’s eyes, anyway), and feels empathetic. I’m of the opinion that Xander has been over Buffy for a long time, but at this point is still not over her initial *rejection* of him, especially when she rejected him because she preferred Angel, whom he hates. So he starts to warm up to Riley because he seems them as being in the same boat. Obviously, they’re not, as Xander reacting to Buffy’s rejection in “Prophecy Girl” makes me want to give him a big squishy hug, and Riley’s reaction to Buffy’s rejection in “Doomed” makes me want to punch him in the face.
Alyson Hannigan has a serious bronchitis problem. It’s not just in the W/T scenes either; she sounds congested all the time except in “The Yoko Factor” fight. Speaking of TYF, I’d say that Buffy and Willow are the two who are the two and Xander’s the other one, not that he’s made any more of an effort to see them as they have to see him.
It occurs to me why I so preferred Xander/Cordelia and Willow/Oz to Xander/Anya and Willow/Tara. Cordelia and Oz, though devoted to their partners and to the Scooby cause, had friends and interests outside of them. Anya is all wrapped up in Xander, and Tara doesn’t seem to have *any* friends outside of Willow – which seems like it can be fairly common for a lonely freshman away from her controlling home for the first time, but does she ever have a life outside of Willow when they’re together?
I don’t think Eliza Dushku is the most skilled or gifted actress out there, but she’s just full of energy and charisma and adds a much-needed electrical shock to a tepid season. I do love Fatih’s interpretation of events, that Buffy abandoned the people that “really matter” (meaning her) and that she didn’t deserve what happened. Oh, Faith, honey, you may not have deserved Buffy turning you into Angel food, but you definitely had something coming to you. I do feel for the girl; even in her murderous revenge state she still deep down wants to be Buffy’s BFF.
I feel ill-equipped to comment further on “Restless,” but it’s still brilliant.
The arc in season 4 is SO much better set-up than the “arc” in season 3. The Initiative story isn’t revealed right away but slowly developed from the very first episode, with major and minor revelations and changes dropped here and there, all to come to a conclusion that makes sense. In fact, I think Adam is the only Big Bad who has a good reason for not wanting to kill Buffy, aside from “I’m so strong and this little girl will never defeat me!”: she’s a key element in his plan and she’s simply more useful alive to him than dead. Compare that to the Mayor, whose idea of a great battle strategy is to have Faith attempt to take out Angel instead of Buffy. BUT, and this is a BIG but – who would you rather watch, the Mayor and Faith, or Adam and Riley? Which season has prettier lighting and setting – season 4 or season 3? Honestly, I’m convinced that season 3 gets the rep as the best season ever half because of its gorgeous lighting. I can think of at least eight season 4 episodes that I either LOATHE or don’t enjoy enough to rewatch, and only four I really like. With season 3, I can only think of two episodes I dislike and I wouldn’t classify either as BAD episodes. S3 is not my favorite season – it ranks fourth or maybe even fifth – because there’s arc-y stuff that ENRAGES me, but there’s still a HUGE gap between it and S4 for me.
In my version of S4, Buffy dates an Initiative soldier who is not Riley and their relationship is largely in the background, and her arc involves choosing to go undercover at the Initiative, scoping it out, and eventually deciding to bring it down from the inside once she sees what the operation is like, and she gets help from her boyfriend who is not so attached to the military and just looks at it as a job. This causes much conflict, though, because Xander joined the Initiative early on and felt like the military was giving him a real purpose that he was missing, and Buffy and Xander’s friendship is threatened by this whole thing. Willow is caught in the middle in a big way, and tries to avoid picking sides by distracting herself with a hot rebound fling with Percy. Meanwhile, she also helps Riley pursue Buffy, who is about to ask her out until he sees Willow with Percy, and realizes Willow is the one he really loves. Fortunately for him, the Percy fling runs its course after half a season of hot sexy fun, and he wins Willow’s heart after saving Oz from the Initiative. The resolution is similar, except the Scoobs have to save Xander from the Initiative, and they manage to do this in time to perform the enjoining spell to defeat Adam – they can’t do the spell without him, after all.
I think I agree with
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blixie: Spike and Giles are the only reason to watch S4.- Mood:
contemplative
Comments
While I understand you're apprehension about the quality of S5, I am remembering why I was able to stick out S5 and completely disengage from S4: the Buffy arc, in that there actaully IS one and it's moving and important and kind of epic.
That there is also a great Spike arc is only a bonus. And I find myself liking episodes I previously disliked like I Was Made to Love You, and Family/Shadow are entirely more watchable to me than Goodbye Iowa and The I in Team or Doomed or The Freshman or WTWTA.
I am looking forward to seeing Buffy's super-pretty hair in S5 (while nearly everyone else looks like shit), and watching Buffy and Spike's arcs play out. It seems like in S5 the writers wanted us to focus mostly on Buffy, Spike, Riley, and Dawn, and I'm THRILLED about the first two and my teeth are already itching thinking about the last two.
Episodes I like: A New Man, Who Are You
I have historically preferred This Year's Girl to Who Are You, but when I watched them last week, I had the reverse reaction. I still really enjoy all of Faith's scenes in TYG, but there was way more B/R mushiness than I remembered, and my threshold for that seems to be at an all-time low for this rewatch. WAY had less Riley, and I do get a kick out of SMG's bad girl act.
I agree that the arc in S4 is set up so much better than in S3 while still somehow managing to be a somewhat boring arc, but even with my huge Riley issues, I do actually enjoy S4 more. There's only the three Riley-centric episodes, Doomed, The I in Team, and Goodbye Iowa, that I find tedious to watch. Aside from those, I enjoy almost every ep in S4 to some extent. Except for Superstar, which I find really boring except for a few funny lines and the S/B scene. I guess that's my unpopular S4 opinion, heh.
The Initiative arc would have had so much more resonance if Xander had been in the Initiative. It would have made sense for the character, and given the audience a real investment in the arc.
But even aside from that, I find the season largely boring as a whole. The Freshman & THLoD both bore me to tears even with a few interesting things happening in it - its pacing is just tepid. Living Conditions is amusing enough but not one that I ever rewatch. Beer Bad I find unbearably slow in parts...and the list goes on.
It's also the worst in terms of Xander. A lot of Xander fans hate his treatment in S5-7, but I think it's actually worse in S4. He's downright embarrassing in most of the episodes and has nothing to do. In S5...well, he still has nothing to do, but at least gets to be successful at a worthwhile job and there aren't endless jokes about how pathetic he is.