Spike: Perhaps part of the Spike problem (that being the division between people, myself included, who at the start of S6 thought a redemptive love storyline was coming, and people, the show writers included (I think), who saw him a creepy stalker) is that the show's POV shifted on Spike at some point during Season 5.
Usually we're in Buffy's POV - slay all vampires, except for Angel. Spike, as we see in Crush, is a "sick miserable vampire that I should have dusted a long time ago."
But sometime after this, as Spike tries to be good for her, the POV on Spike shifts a little. Spike sees himself as a good guy, he loves her, he's tryign to do good even though he doesn't have a soul. And in Season 6, when Buffy comes to him, leans on him, confides in him, I think a lot of people lost track of exactly who was thinking of Spike as the good guy. We should have been seeing Buffy's POV - monster, but hey, at least I'm feeling
something
- but instead we're seeing Spike's POV - what a good guy, he loves her, he's trying to change for her. It has fairy tale overtones (Beauty and the Beast-ish) and would be sweet... except that it seems Spike is inexplicably still evil, a message Mutant Enemy never really drove home until Seeing Red's attempted rape, which was utterly horrifying, and doubly so if you saw Spike as a good guy.
Now, I can look back and say, oh, I see what they were getting at - Spike was the creepy stalker the whole time, Buffy was using him - but at the time it wasn't so clear. As others have pointed out, that "bad guy" thing was not clear until partway through 6. And then there's the Buffy issue - after Smashed, I was convinced she loved him - because look at how bereft she was after Parker used her in S4. Our Girl Buffy would not sleep with someone she didn't care about. Little did I know... Our Girl Buffy had left the building and we were watching an older, sadder slayer. :(
That's my same issue with Willow's magic... now I look back and say, oh I see what they were getting at. But that doesn't help the fact that while it was airing week-by-week, I didn't get it. Good call, DavidS (Hec, right? I'm learning) on the distinction between Willow's usual magic and what Rack offered; however, that was certainly not made clear at the time.
Polter-Cow - the Trio? Loved them. It was a great story - the comic relief that I never expected to go dark, and when it did, it was terribly scary. A great set-up, with Andrew being sucked into Warren's plans and Jonathan trying to get out of his sphere of influence, too late. I wish there'd been more of them.
Polter-Cow - the Trio? Loved them. It was a great story
I also liked the psychoanalytic excuse for them in "Normal Again," that they were three nerdy guys instead of vampires or demons or gods. Then again, I love pretty much all the psychoanalytic excuses in "Normal Again." The bit where she "woke up" after dying in "The Gift" was particularly clever.
The grey area of demons goes back way before Clem, though, MM. It comes in somewhere in S4,
Earlier. Even if Whistler (S2) is a special case, there is the "not a deadly threat to humanity" bookseller of S3
God only knows how. I mean, they had all of S5 to watch people's reactions to him, and to the idea of his Love For Buffy; they didn't notice people were investing and rooting for the couple?
I suspect they didn't quite grasp the degree.
This brings up something I've been trying to get my head around - is it inevitable that the creators/writers of a show will lose their ability to gauge audience response at some point? Joss & Co. were (or at least seemed) able to correctly foresee general response to their storylines and manipulate (in a good way!) viewers accordingly up through Season 4 on Buffy and in both Seasons 1-2 AND 4-5 on Angel, but lost touch from 5 onward on the parent show and in Season 3 when the original exec producing team had been on the spin-off for several years. That it happened in different years on the different shows tells me that Joss alone was not at fault, as does Jeff Bell coming in and sparking a renaissance. But at some point after a certain period spent working, the crew seems unable to forsee—or even to recognize as they're occurring—missteps such as the woobification of Spike, the magic crack storyline, Angel/Cordy, or the fact that Wesley was much better paired with Lilah than with Fred. We've seen this effect on numerous other shows (Chris Carter, I'm lookin' at you!), and the fact that the best collective of television writers I've ever seen were not immune makes me think this might be something universal and unavoidable, except by bringing in an infusion of new blood with different styles and approaches.
And then there are Andrew and Jonathan, who willfully follow him. It was interesting, and a bit disturbing, to see them agree to these morally depraved plans about making women their love slaves. And Andrew slowly grows to accept Warren's evil ways, whereas Jonathan begins to realize this isn't what he signed up for.
Even though I don't like S6, I will say that "Dead Things" was probably the most disturbing BtVS episode ever for me (and I mean that in a good way). To watch these "harmless" guys turn into rapists without realizing it? Scarier than any monster they ever had on that show.
But at some point after a certain period spent working, the crew seems unable to forsee—or even to recognize as they're occurring—missteps such as the woobification of Spike, the magic crack storyline, Angel/Cordy, or the fact that Wesley was much better paired with Lilah than with Fred.
To a point, sure. It's the 100th monkey rule, in reverse. The longer a show goes on, the more chances they'll have to screw something up, the more chances outside forces like networks will screw something up, the more chances that an actor bailing or other event will have the whole team off balance, and the more chance that a bunch of folks sitting around in an office will think something sounds great and then not realize that, well, they were wrong until they're kind of committed to it... ie, it's on the fricking screen and they can hear the sound of fans groaning in the distance.
And, of course, there's always the fact that writers working on a long-running show are often a bit disconnected, as they spend most of their time, well, writing the show. And, on the positive side, there's also the fact that, on a show like BtVS, they'll keep trying to push themselves in unexpected directions. Sometimes, this works well, but it leaves you more room for egg on your face.
Good call, DavidS (Hec, right?
Yep. Welcome aboard, btw.
I wonder about that too, Matt. Though by all indications ME staff have always taken the pulse of the fans by reading the boards. You can see them pulling back from the magic crack storyline and Angel/Cordy after fans reacted negatively.
One thing about Spike's portrayal in S5/S6 - there were deep splits among the writing staff about how bad Spike really was, with Fury famously against Spike being redeemed without a soul. This is often seen as Spike-hatin' by Fury, but I think it's just as much an investment in the canon of the show to that point. That the whole moral framework of the show depended on having a clear bright line there.
Well, not Lorne's variety of Pylean specifically, but the Groosalug is living proof that humans and at least some of the residents of Pylea can interbreed.
Okay, humans and Pylean humans. Not necessarily humans and the greens guys. Although we do know that some demons can interbreed with humans, like Doyle's parents for example.
