I finally scored a decent DVD player the other day. I did have a Voxson T172 but I got my money back b/c there was no feasible way to disable macrovision. I then bought a Magnavox MDVD-100 from Kmart (only $178) and used a CDR to flash the firmware to turn off macrovision and add a custom-made Buffy background. (The picture signal is much clearer if I run it through my VCR than the RF Modulator I also had to buy [and take back for a full refund from Dick Smith's].)

So now I've been buying Buffy DVDs to catch up on all the episodes I've missed (and which Channel 7 haven't repeated). So far I've bought the Season 1 box set and Season 2 Part 2 box set. I should have them all in the next couple of months.

I've watched a lot of TV in my time but no other show has ever made me cry -- either with joy, or sadness -- as much as Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- and I'm not the least bit ashamed to admit that. Damn you, Joss Whedon.

I also picked up the "Once More With Feeling" soundtrack CD a few weeks ago. On first listening I hated it. I felt the only worthwhile things about the release was the Chris Beck scores for "Restless", "Hush" and "The Gift". However, this was due to having heard the MP3s ripped straight from the actual episode.

Now that some time has passed and I've refrained from listening to any versions of the songs for a few weeks, I've reassessed how I feel about the CD. I understood that they had to make some changes to the songs for the CD but that didn't mean I had to like what they did. I still don't like some of those changes but now I can accept them and thus ignore them, more readily. If you haven't got it yet, it is well worth the money.

I'm sure I've seen Joss namecheck Dark City as an influence on "Hush" in at least one interview.

It depends on the version of "Chess." Most of the rewrites done by productions sacrifice the narrative, but there are some that are very good, and one or two that make it into a compelling but less predictable story.

The "Dark City" resemblance might not have been intentional. Though I like the idea of Joss trying to recreate the eerie manners of the Cenobites.

It seemed that they were working from classic nightmare fuel - the inability to scream, inability to escape by running, the relatively slow way they killed their victims - people have a couple minutes of absolute terror before their hearts were ripped out.

I'm sure I've seen Joss namecheck Dark City as an influence on "Hush" in at least one interview.

Me too. In one of the print interviews around the episode. He ticked it off with Nosferatau and Mr. Burns.

I'm not saying it wasn't an influence, but it's interesting that he didn't mention it on the commentary. Or is it -- I mean those commentaries tend to sound offhand and casual and ad hoc; are they really? Do people just sit down in front of the video and chat, or do they make notes and do fifty-three takes because they fluffed a line and weren't casual-sounding enough.

Now that's what I want from my DVD extras. I want yet another version with the out-takes from the director's commentary...

Too much coffee.

Worth noting though that Dark City is yet another on the list of Cool Films Made In Sydney. I was telling my sister that the Matrix and the Star Wars movies were made here and she had no idea.

do they make notes and do fifty-three takes because they fluffed a line and weren't casual-sounding enough.

God, I hope not. There was one commentary in the BtVS S2 set, maybe Greenwalt's(?), where it seemed like he hadn't even bothered to watch the episode before going in front of the mic.

Well, and imagine if, an hour into [continuous] commentary, the talker fell out of his chair and knocked over the microphone. Would they make him start over??

I think they just mike up the talker[s], sit them in a theatre, and run the movie.

I'm sure some people are meticulous and do retakes. I've been known to take two or three runs at recording just a voice mail, and only one person is going to listen to that.

(I went back and edited this post two times, which reinforces my point.)

Whether Joss cited Dark City as an influence or not, it played its part. As did every other movie, or tv show, that had some villainous, shaved-headed dude dressed in black. There is something inherently dangerous/malevolent about that look.