An unusual season premiere, sure, but one that is admittedly a lot of fun. The entire Dracula storyline feels as if its arrived a couple of seasons late, being an example of the perfect distortion of popular culture that the show regularly explored in seasons one and two. Unsurprisingly, Dracula's appearance is treated with just as much humor and disdain as we expect from this show, Buffy's immediate reaction to his arrival a gleeful 'get out!', while the script bashes us over the head with some of the count's more ridiculous 'showy gypsy stuff'.It's a lightweight but fun standalone story, enlivened by his funny/sexual interaction with Buffy, Spike and Anya's reminiscing of their time with him, Giles' encounter with his brides, and Xander becoming Lestat's butt-monkey.
But the most interesting aspect to Buffy vs. Dracula occurs with its references to Restless, and the setting up for what we can already assume will be a rough and personal year for Buffy. She's becoming less of a girl and more of a hunter, and has become eager to discover who she is as a slayer. It's an intriguing subplot, strengthened by the story importance given to Giles, a character who at this point runs the risk of becoming redundant as a character.
Finally, there's Buffy's sister. Huhza! Wha? It's a ridiculously daring concept, dropping in this entirely random character who we're forced to believe was there the entire time. I can't imagine the crazy reaction to it when this first aired. In retrospect, you can tell something is a little 'off', though, even during this episode. There's Joyce telling Buffy that she'll have to get to used to being home alone again, and then there's Little Sister Summers...
Buffy vs. Dracula does just an 'okay' job at setting up the season, but on its own it's a ridiculously funny episode, with a bunch of notable dialogue and knowing humor. "I think the thrall has gone out of our relationship". B-
Credits
Guest stars Rudolf Martin (Dracula); Michelle Trachtenberg (Dawn Summers); Amber Benson (Tara Maclay); Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers)
Writer Marti Noxon Director David Solomon
I've always loved this premiere. Although many find it very weak, I'm glad to see you enjoyed it too. It gives me that wonderfully cozy feeling and I love all the various scenes of Buffy doing simple slaying in the cemetery. Plus, the interplays between everyone as you mentioned was just so amusing!
ReplyDeleteOne nitpick, I hate how obvious even more-so than most episodes is SMG's stunt double in the final fight! One thing that allows annoyed me about this show! At least Jennifer Garner and to a lesser extent Jessica Alba actually did a lot of their stunts. SMG would barely do anything!
Anyways, great review. Can't wait to enjoy your season 5 reviews coming up!
I don't get the hate either. Buffy never had great season premieres, anyway. And I thought this one, along with The Freshman and Lessons, were the only ones that were pretty great.
ReplyDeleteThe stunts thing is annoying, I agree. I think it was made more obvious due to SMG's weight plummeting around this time, with the stunt double being really stacked and muscular. But, then again, I'm not a huge fight sequence fan in general, so it never totally threw me out.
B- for sure! It was good but obviously not splendid. I just found it to be a bit too chalky. I know they weren't taking things seriously but the bespelling element was a bit fast paced and annoying especially when Buffy was going to and throw when she was at the castle. I think they could have thrown in a little joke for Xander to make it a bit less stilted, something where he was more aware of what was going on but I guess that came later with the butt monkey statement.
ReplyDeleteThey did manage to slot everyone in nicely, I think it's easy to take for granted Spike's random appearances but they always feel quite natural don't they? Now I'm thinking about it it was pretty good at refreshing interest in Spike's history, even though I already enjoy him (and Anya in a weird way- she's weird!) but I think you make a good point about the random appearance of her sister, the timing in this episode was weird- like when Riley just suddenly decided to rip Buffy's scarf off lol He didn't know anything about Dracula and now all of sudden he's using the word 'thrall', maybe it was an attempt to make him more scooby like!
Dracula was really good though and Xander's silly sparkly Hawaiian shirt was brilliant!
They're very good with the titles aren't they? Like you said about Buffy becoming more hunter like- Dracula basically means Vampire and now she's against them all in her own complex way. (Go Giles, Go Buffy! Go them all!)