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.
No, no. The Groosalug had "cow blood", implying that he, himself, was half-human half-Pylean. So some sort of non-cow
Pylean could interbreed with the humans, else there would be no Groo.
See, I think you've got it totally arse-about-face. The problems start when ME started
trying
to second-guess. Somewhere in Buffy S4, and in Angel S3, they started pandering. The fans like Spike. The fans like flashbacks. The fans like the big arcs. Hey! Let's bring darla back!
I thought the Groosulag was meant to be a kind of mutant wasn't he? When he was doing the whole "look at my big manly mis-shapen arms, the foul turn of my grotesque mouth, the beastly hue of my glinting eyes" and all that.
See, I think you've got it totally arse-about-face. The problems start when ME started trying to second-guess. Somewhere in Buffy S4, and in Angel S3, they started pandering. The fans like Spike. The fans like flashbacks. The fans like the big arcs. Hey! Let's bring darla back!
I'm don't think that's it. They already had gone the big angst route in season 2, and liked it. There's only so many ways you can do that without just piling on new characters, so I think retro-fitting was what they thought they had to do.
I am curious what they decided when, though. I know I've heard intimations that Mr. Trick was supposed to be more important season 3 than he turned out to be, due to actor issues (non-specific, but that's what I read), not unlike Lindsey Crouse wanting out of 4. So was Faith always going to go bad, or was that something that grew out of the character? Was the mayor always going to be the ultimate big bad (even though on the gut level it was Faith who was the ultimate big bad for Buffy) so prominently?
Well, the pattern (medium bad in first part of the season, shocking Big Bad in the second) was established in S2 and continued (arguably) to S6 (Spike/Angelus, Trick/Faith, Initiative/Adam, Glory/Buggerthatdoesn't work, Trio/Willow). But yeah, that's an interesting question - they'd been establishing the Mayor as a force in S2, so I guess he was always going to be a player, but it's hard to see what other function Faith could have performed. Which is not meant to sound as porny as it does.
