Besides, I just finished rewatching Buffy Season Five, and man did I enjoy it. A lot of my issues really floated away, and watched in rapid succession, it hung together well.
If you get a chance, victor, I'd love to hear how you thought it played out better. I always suspected it might if watched in rapid succession - I thank half the mid-season slump/pacing issues were as much as a result of waiting between episodes (especially when there were hiatuses) as anything in the episodes themselves.
I'm also curious if you found Spiral redeemed on re-watch.
If you get a chance, victor, I'd love to hear how you thought it played out better. I always suspected it might if watched in rapid succession - I thank half the mid-season slump/pacing issues were as much as a result of waiting between episodes (especially when there were hiatuses) as anything in the episodes themselves.
I always figured that was part of our dissatisfaction in later years--the long breaks between new episodes. And I found my f2f people (not a good sample, just a handful) who weren't part of online fandom were more satisfied with the show. I've always figured that might be due to not having the time to pick it apart, in between. I know we've had conversations before in the Buffy thread, about how when you're reading an overall good book, and you hit a less satisfying section, it's not like you have to stay there for weeks. You read through it, and get back to the story that is, overall, pretty good.
S5 works waaay better on the rewatch. Especially cos Riley (wh, incidentally, does Zach on the OC remind me of Riley? Hmm) is gone very early on.
Zach is like old school Riley, while he was still geeky and stuff.
When there was still some hope for Riley.
I realize in retrospect, that it wasn't Riley going dark and getting suckjobs, being a whiny git, and blaming it all on Buffy that got my back up about season 5 Riley - it was that somehow Buffy seemed to agree with the blame, and I could never parse if the writers believed that as well, or they just thought that's what Buffy thought.
If, in INTO THE WOODS, she'd just told Riley to piss off, or if they had made it clear that she chased after him because she wanted a little closure ala Angel in THE YOKO FACTOR (i.e., it's over but I don't want to leave it like this), I'd have been OK with a lot of what they did with Riley.
Granted, I still would have preferred him staying geeky grad student, even with initiative upgrade, to him being a whingey ass. But I could have handled whingey ass if I didn't keep getting the idea he was somehow supposed to be justified in his behavior.
Granted, I still would have preferred him staying geeky grad student, even with initiative upgrade
Yes, not least because the geeky grad student had a certain charm.
Yes, not least because the geeky grad student had a certain charm.
They still had a few flashes of this in season 5, all though mainly the "do experiments on them" line in THE REPLACEMENT.
Which also, coincidentally or not, had the "she doesn't love me" and "they're not recycling" lines as well. Riley's last hurrah.
Also unreasonably fond of "No sir, no more chick pit for you."
Also "Cow Me" and "You throw like a girl". Great days.
I've been watching S5, too, and am finding it better on rewatch in some ways. The thing that struck me was just how angry Buffy is for a good part of S5. And, I'm talking about pre-The Body, and even pre-Riley leaving. She's just so angry and bitter. I think that's where my dislike for the season has remained. Glory/Ben don't even bug as much as they did the first time. Well, Glory still bugs some, but not as bad.
