This was another misfire. It has some interesting ideas, but there's a lot of stupidity on offer here. The show is feeling awful fragmented at this point, too. We have the Summers medical drama. Spike makes cameos and crushes on Buffy. Riley gets bitten a lot. And the other Scoobies are in research-and-pursue-demon mode. I originally adored Buffy's fifth season, but the story arcs recently haven't totally worked for me. There are some strong concepts, but it doesn't feel like the show is running with them just yet.The entire Queller demon was way too X-Files gooey. I loved the idea of the moon and the madness it was believed to 'radiate', but it just looked kind of dumb whenever the Queller was crawling around on ceilings or riding Joyce. Even more so when you're aware of the actress playing it and realize that Buffy's being molested by a dwarf in a rubber suit. Similarly, the Scooby Gang didn't do a whole lot of useful this week. They were pretty much drifting aimlessly through the story. I guess with a cast this big there needs to be some weeks when they don't get a whole lot to do, but I'm tired of folks like Willow and Giles getting filler lines.
Joyce's random bouts of madness were played too broadly, in my opinion. Maybe if we had a larger build-up to it, but it felt like it was written in to purely serve the demon story. And that sucked. Elsewhere, I'm ready for Riley to go away now. The Initiative never worked for me, and I don't like seeing it all over again.
The only moment that I loved was that final scene between Buffy and Joyce, with Joyce acknowledging that Dawn isn't her child, but that she feels compelled to protect her like a daughter. It was a painful scene, beautifully performed by Sarah and Kristine Sutherland. The human aspect to the Dawn story, so far, has been far more successful than the Glory/mad folk antics. Or maybe because it's been the one truthful concept in a bunch of underwhelming episodes lately. C-
Credits
Guest stars Charlie Weber (Ben); Nick Chinlund (Major Ellis); Kevin Weisman (Dreg); Randy Thompson (Dr. Kriegel); Amber Benson (Tara Maclay); Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers)
Writer Rebecca Rand Kirshner Director David Solomon
I agree with you on this. The Queller was kind of laughable, so maybe a darker more serious demonic force would have changed it a little.
ReplyDeleteI never got the jump from normal to crazy Joyce took either. It didn't feel built-up at all, and like you said just seemed to serve this story.
I love that final scene too though. Very moving. Kristine is one of those underrated supporting actors that I always remember.