Monday, February 20, 2012

Buffy: Once More, with Feeling (6.7)

One of the worst things I've ever seen was last year's Grey's Anatomy musical episode, in which weepy lesbian spirits sang Snow Patrol while watching themselves being operated on. It was just one of the most ludicrous, embarrassing and illogical things I've had the displeasure of watching; a perfect example of over-ambitious TV writers who think it'd be fun for characters to randomly burst into song. You see a similar mode of thinking on Glee, where kids randomly start performing some awful Katy Perry track that has nothing to do with the character's current predicaments. I'm obviously bringing all this up because Once More, with Feeling could have so easily been a collection of random scenes where characters began to sing Top 40 hits. Xander could have sung Mr. Cellophane, Anya maybe Material Girl. Buffy, with her recent death woes, could introduce a self-referential angle to an old Lesley Gore tune. It could have been so very silly.

But, bizarrely, Once More, with Feeling is one of the greatest television experiences I've ever had. It's the episode I've probably watched the most -- as much a glorious tribute to 1930's Technicolor wonder as it is a radical exploration into the collective psyches of the Scooby Gang. Each song is catchy and beautifully written, as well as breathtakingly insightful. It's so insanely creative and watchable, Joss Whedon cementing his stunning talents with a fifty-minute masterpiece of epic musical proportions.

Going Through the Motions
One of the major themes that runs through the musical is how sad each song is from a lyrical stand-point, no matter how chipper and catchy the melodies are. This opening number is all about Buffy's inner sadness, how she's no longer the Buffy of old but a walking zombie of sorts, trying to find some new form of meaning in her life but struggling to be 'alive'. It's a strong track, and I love the demons dancing along with Buffy and the great inter-cut dialogue of both 'she's not even half the girl she -- ow!' and later 'will I stay this way forever/sleepwalk through my life's endeavor/how can I repay? - / - whatever'.

I've Got a Theory/Bunnies
It's a typical research scene put to lyrics, but full of little moments of wonder, like Tara's little jazz hands and the 'midgets' line. Similarly, Anya's rock anthem about her sworn nemesis is one of the highlights of the episode, the matter-of-fact lyrics ('What's with all the carrots?') fitting so beautifully with her character.

Under Your Spell
Following on from the sadness versus musical angle, this is probably the saddest song of the episode. Amber Benson's voice is gorgeous, and the over-the-top happiness of Tara celebrating her love for Willow is so hauntingly undermined by the fact that Tara is literally under her spell. The thought that all of this joy is contrived via magic is so depressing. It's also important to note how ridiculously dirty this song is, which makes the memory of my thirteen year-old self playing the soundtrack CD around the house suddenly mortifying. "You make me commmme-plete". Gah. Sorry, Mom.

I'll Never Tell
A hilarious Fred and Ginger tribute with so many genius lyrics, from the penis line to Anya's casual interruptions to the knowing wink at how insane this entire story is: "Look at me, I'm dancing crazy!" Like Under Your Spell, it's a pop track with a sad undercurrent -- Xander and Anya covering up how they really feel about their engagement through elaborate lying and faking their way through things, hoping to miraculously break out of their respective funks sometime before the big day. Emma Caulfield's voice is so great here, too. I feel like she didn't get enough praise for her part.

Rest in Peace
This is a classic depiction of Spike's challenging emotions, that go against his vampire nature as well as what should be his vamp-slayer relationship with Buffy. It compliments Going Through the Motions in a lot of ways, too, with Spike noticing that Buffy wants to misbehave, almost referencing Buffy's own prior lyrics about formerly being 'righteous' but now 'wavering'. James Marsters has some incredible rock pipes, and I love the staging for this song, from the crypt to the graveyard to the destruction of the late-night funeral. I also love Sarah Michelle Gellar's silent work here, especially that great part where she stands up all alert in Spike's crypt as he begins to throw things around. Great pop video acting, SMG!

What You Feel
Not as arresting because it's a Broadway trained guest star's song, but this works. The choreography is impressive, and I love Dawn's dialogue where she's trying to convince him how icky their whole arrangement is.

Standing/Standing-Under Your Spell Reprise
I can't help but get weepy over this. It's about a father figure realizing he's not doing the best for his kid, and I guess that kind of resonated with me. Anthony Stewart Head's voice is so strong, and you can totally feel Giles' inner trauma as he tries to figure out his next move. It's also fitting that Buffy completely failed to notice that Giles just broke into song, once again reflecting how she's been taking him for granted lately. But what I find completely gorgeous is when Tara joins in the song, she and Giles singing over each other. It's one of the saddest scenes in the episode, as both characters gaze over at their lost loved ones, who have no idea how much pain they're both in.

Walk Through the Fire
It's the big group number, and I don't know how anybody doesn't get pumped up by this. Again, it's about Buffy being lost in the world, and how feelings that she once had don't seem to be there anymore. She may be resurrected, but she's certainly not 'alive'. She walks into battle unafraid of what's to come, as she's almost so unhappy that any badness can't possibly be worse than what she's going through in this dimension. The parts of the song where the Scoobies all sing over each other are glorious, and the badass proclamation of 'the point of no return' followed by the fire-trucks racing past is just so freakin' awesome!!!

Something to Sing About/Where Do We Go from Here
On a purely superficial level, I adore Giles' asking Anya and Tara to back-up Buffy's performance, and Sarah's dancing is incredible. Similarly, the big dance number at the end is so wonderfully corny, and I love that Spike recognizes it and quickly skedaddles. It's a song all about pain, and the harsh truths that Buffy has been hiding for a while. That's pretty much the theme of the episode, with everybody's secrets only coming out when they're experiencing the effects of a magic spell.

I hate to sound ridiculous, but this episode works on literally every level. The way each song is tailored to each character and their individual story arcs this year is genius, and you can totally see all the effort and rehearsal put into this hour. Even outside of the songs, there are some wonderful lines of dialogue: "I gave birth to a pterodactyl"/"Oh my god, did it sing?"; "One more verse of our little ditty and I would have been reaching for a gas can"; "I was able to examine the body while the police were taking witness arias"; "I love a good entrance"/"How are you with death scenes?"; "I'm a hair's breadth away from investigating bunnies at this point"; "I'm just worried this whole session's gonna turn into some training montage from an '80s movie"; "Clearly our number was a retro pastiche that's never going to be a breakaway pop hit". Couple all this with the romantic culmination of five years-worth of Buffy and Spike's sexual tension (before the horror settles in, naturally), and the old-Hollywood glory of it all is achingly beautiful.

Once More, with Feeling is a stunning masterpiece that ranks high in the finest Buffy episodes. Actually, it's one of the finest episodes in television history, a remarkably confident and breezy sing-a-long extravaganza with a ton of inner meaning and depth. Genius. A+

Credits
Guest stars Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles); Hinton Battle (Sweet); Amber Benson (Tara Maclay)
Writer Joss Whedon Director Joss Whedon

12 comments:

  1. I watched Buffy for the first time this year, knowing (of course, being a person alive in this world) that the musical episode was coming... And I just couldn't imagine how in the world they would do that. But OBVIOUSLY, Buffy is a show where they can experiment with form because the demons can make it happen (of course, thinking of Hush here too). Amazing episode, and one that can't be touched by modern Grey's Anatomy shoehorn-in-some-songs crap. And I was surprised how awesome the songs are!

    One of my favorite lines (just for my ears) is when Giles sings "Is my slayer too far gone to care"... because his voice is hot there =)

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  2. Loved your review Max. The funny thing is, Shonda Rimes of Grey's Anatomy is a HUGE Buffy fan and her goal was to make a musical of the same quality. Obviously, she failed miserably as the Greys hour was utterly atrocious!

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  3. I've never seen Grey's attempt at a musical episode, and I don't want to either.

    Great review as always. I specifically loved your comment about singing along to Under Your Spell, which is an issue I also fell prey too, embarrassing isn't even the half of it.

    I don't see how any other series could have copied this, though the talk of an Ugly Betty musical didn't fill me with dread when rumors were flying around a few years ago. Its such a colorful and vibrant show so it would translate well.

    OK, I'm rambling. Again, great review.

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  4. The Grey's musical wasn't that terrible! Y'know, when they weren't singing. It is just a shame that what could've been such a tense, involving hour of tv was used for a musical no one really wanted to see. There were two brief, great scenes though - Meredith feeling guilty, and Arizona at Callie's bedside (Capshaw is an underrated, great actress). But, yeah...Grey's usually does well when it breaks from formula (the documentary, the episode with the changing perspectives from season six), but the musical wasn't great. Oh, I've just ranted about Grey's...

    Anyway, great review! I'm not normally a fan of musicals, but this is definitely tied as my favourite (along with south park the movie). I'm not sure how Joss managed to make such an arc heavy episode work as both a standalone piece of entertainment, and as an episode of Buffy. Then again, Hush could probably be viewed in the same way. It really is amazing tv, and the look of pain on Willow's face after Buffy's revelation stands out as my favourite non-singy moment. The truth angle really helped bring everything out into the open in the best way, and, to be honest, there isn't one thing about the entire episode I'd criticise. Definitely the best episode of the UPN years, with Conversations with Dead People a close second (for me, anyway).

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  5. I stopped watching Grey's years ago, so I didn't have any kind of emotional attachment to the stories when I tuned in for the musical, so a lot of it was pretty lost on me. But the songs themselves were just randomly pushed in, and performed in this melodramatic, earnest way that was just ridiculously lame. And, like Nad mentioned, Shonda Rhimes probably did it as some kind of tribute but... no, Shonda.

    Agreed about Conversations with Dead People, too, but a couple of season seven episodes are personal favorites for me, like Selfless and Help etc.

    Thanks everybody!

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  6. what a bag of jellybeans.... bizarre but ultimately spectacular.

    I have to say I found it very up and down, I'm left feeling a little bit queasy! I disagree with Anya's voice... thought it was pretty hard to take! Her dancing impressed me more, as well as Dawn's and Tara's voice is beautiful- I liked her song the most but the surely the words are less risqué than in juxtaposition of her literally rising up when Willow disappears out of the frame?! quite shocking! haha

    The only trouble was that I kept being dragged around because to me, at times it did get a bit drawn out (I feel so bad saying that..) but then right around the corner something amazing would happen like Buffy breaking through flourishing vampire dust to sing her ending note (early on in episode but it has to be mentioned!) or the random street cleaners dancing behind them (nice!).. well there were loads of amazing moments- I just wish the 'rhythm' was kept up a bit more, the whole thing was brilliantly clever but a pastiche is a pastiche and there's only so much weird musical music I can take after a while- saying that though, I know that when I rewatch the whole series I'll look forward to this one!

    (also the dance demon's make up was really intriguing- thought it was clever how his chin looked like a tongue! very classic costumery!)

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  7. That's an interesting point of view. I definitely think total love for the episode can only really come when you have an appreciation for musicals. You mentioned 'weird musical music', so I'm assuming you're not into grand, Broadway-style spectacle singing. But I've always sort of liked that, and the old MGM warbling. It all absolutely worked for me.

    And they were great villains, I agree. I'm only assuming they were actually made of wood, but they really did look like puppets.

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  8. That's not true I do like musicals! Cat's don't dance, the King and I! lol
    I like a few here and there...
    It is weird music to me, loads of key changes and elongated phrasing! It was more that I felt I didn't get enough time to breathe because they had to fit so many songs into the episode but to a proper musical lover perhaps that's heaven. You're probably right.

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  9. Ah, I get it. I've always kind of liked the weird phrasing though, with words running onto the next line. I'm trying to think of an example but my mind is blank, but hopefully you'll get what I mean.

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  10. Mulan? 'I'm nev-ver gon-na catch my-breath!' 'Say good-bye to thoose who kneew mee' 'Boy was-I-a foool in schoool for cut-ting gymmm!'..

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    1. haha I realise noooww that you're talking about the phrasing in Buffy!
      Neverless, hopefully you enjoyed a little Mulan interlude...

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  11. Hah! There's never any problem with a Mulan interlude.

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