If you were disliking the creative direction Buffy had been headed in of late, you could almost view this episode as a week where the writers gave up, coming up with a script where the Scooby Gang literally stand around in a house wondering why they can't do anything. While Older and Far Away doesn't work on any particularly deeper level (I guess you could strain that it's a metaphor for early-twenties lethargy, but that's sort of a stretch), it's fine as a standalone mystery. It does grind all the high-strung emotion and devastation of Dead Things to a severe halt, but I guess the show couldn't throw even more angst at us right now.Dawn is the star of the episode, for all the wrong reasons. As well as bringing back that immortal catchphrase, it's largely the point where she becomes entirely obnoxious, taking away any shading she may have had at the early stages of this klepto arc. A problem I have with this episode is that I'm still not sure how the writers want us to react to Dawn's behavior. She's ridiculously argumentative and petulant, bringing everything round to her and making everyone's comments somehow a reflection on how they see her. So you literally get folks talking about needing to head to work in the morning, followed by Dawn whining that they're only saying that because they can't stand being stuck around her for much longer. Gah. But are we supposed to feel bad for her? Or are we supposed to see her as an annoying toddler who needs to sit her shrieky ass down? It's confusing.
Spike and Buffy are on a whole separate page to the pummel-happy streak they blazed through last episode. It felt a little jarring, but I don't think I could take any more sadomasochism. I still really love Tara being so close to Buffy, and I liked her little asides to Spike, him all freaked out by how eerily prescient she was being.
Besides a couple of amusing character moments, the rest of the hour is pretty routine. And the 'demon attacks followed by dissolve into the walls' thing got old real fast. Sophie and Buffy's date both seemed a little unnecessary, too -- like cannon fodder only without the mortal wounds. Eh. The episode achieves some interesting levels when everybody's secrets get exposed due to the absence of some kind of distraction -- but that entire theme was done far more successfully earlier this year with the musical. With that in mind, Older and Far Away sometimes feels a little tired. It's not a necessarily bad episode, just kind of 'there'. C+
Credits
Guest stars Kali Rocha (Halfrek); Ryan Browning (Richard); Amber Benson (Tara Maclay)
Writer Drew Z. Greenberg Director Michael Gershman
I'm so with you on the Dawn stuff here. She's just so petulant and narrow minded. You said it yourself, that its so confusing to actually grasp what the writers wanted us to feel. Somehow, I think we'res supposed to show some bit of sympathy, but its pretty hard when the person in question is a shrieking moran.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. She's completely nuts here. Not in a 'bratty kid sister' way, but in a 'sociopathic, delusional crazy-person' kind of way.
ReplyDeleteDawn is pretty crazy but she's seen some pretty crazy things, I think it's a pretty fair depiction, especially for her age and the obscured perception is something very typical of distress. I think you are supposed to see her behaviour as obnoxious but understand it also, both, just simple. Not saying I don't get startled when she shrieks either, I'm just a bit more lenient with younger sisters.. Plus Dawn is particularly pampered (which is understandable) but to have loads of attention and then go to not very much is bound to make her feel insecure, people can learn about responsibilty and sacrifice at different times and she hasn't yet. It's fairly interesting as a test for Buffy too.
ReplyDeleteTara is like a soothing balm!
I definitely feel bad for her, and how rough her recent life has been, with the Key, and then Joyce's death and even Giles' departure... but it's still horrible to watch, in my opinion. I feel like they could have depicted her understandable angst in a less melodramatic, shrieky way.
ReplyDeleteThen again, she is a teenager...
he thing I will say on Dawn's behalf (especially because I don't dislike the direction S6 took. This is an understandably dark year and a lot of things just make sense to me but that divulgense (don't think that's even a word but just ...you know) will take this comment to a whole other place. Anyways looking back I completely understand her in a way I was never capable of when initially watching the show.
ReplyDeleteIt's very easy to become fed up with Dawn's behavior but the one most important thing to remember is that she is a teenager (arguably your most self-centered years) who technically was not even part of this world before a year ago. But again she is a TEENAGER
The thing your suppose to understand about Dawn here is that she still has deep rooted guilt about the reason she even exists. She lost her mother and her sister(she actually watched her sister sacrifice herself) both in the same year, got her sister back, but she didn't actually get her sister back. Giles has left, and now she is surrounded by a bunch of psuedo-adults who are consumed with life problems and event she cannot begin to understand as a teenager. She can't wrap her mind around why Buffy isn't happy here, so she takes it the only way she can because after all if she didn't exist Buffy would not have died and subsequently would not have been ripped from . heaven. And this is my own theory that I'm not entirely sure makes sense, but she might also think if Buffy loved her enough to have died for her why doesn't she love her enough to spend time with her. Also she doesn't understand the pressing money issue they face as most teenagers don't.
Now with Giles gone and Buffy wrapped up in personal ,almost inconceivable (to dawn) issues, Dawn is lacking a serious adult figure of guidance and care. Not matter what teens say, they crave that and need that. The next logical place to look for it was her last season's safe haven Willow and Tara but that was shot to hell with Willow's magical problems (causing her to lose trust in her) and Tara needing space from Willow who lives at the Summer's residence thus taking her away from Dawn. Now she doesn't even have that outsider connection she had with Tara. Also it's not necessarily their responsibility to look after Dawn and with no one knowing what Buffy is going through, no one realizes the obvious affect it's having on Dawn long enough to step in and give Buffy a much needed reality check.
Bringing us to Xander and Anya who are creating their own family and they used to make time for her but now they don't and honestly even though it makes little sense for her to feel any bitterness towards this, Dawn is already at a loss so she chalks that up to no one wanting to be around her or understand her, because they are all going through things she couldn't possibly understand, but no one is talking to her about it. No one is making any effort to help her understand and people often forget that the teens aren't just going to understand adult problems without proper guidance. You can't just isolate her and expect her to just get it. (tbc...)
(continued..)
ReplyDeleteSo she over reacts. That's what teens do. Is the opposite of "I don't get my way so I runaway" mentality. It's the result of experiencing great loss. Loss of a mom, of a sister, of a sister who is present, of the only adult guidance since joyce, of her trust in willow, of her connection to tara as a result of Willow's actions , of the attention of her crush to a woman she never even liked or understood, and even Spike was wrapped up in his destructive relationship with Buffy to be the guy she could count on to be there for her when she felt no one else was. She is understandably confusing loss with abandonment and is tired of losing people/being abandoned.
Now tell me exactly how you expect a teenage girl who was created only a year ago no less is supposed to reasonably react to all of this loss in the absence of the emotional support she clearly needs. Tell me, how would 15 year old you react? Keep in mind that she is the last born child, the baby who up until last year was showered with affection reserved for a parents last born child. Teenagers are melodramatic and irrational and cringy and they over-complicate everything and some how manage to make a lot of problems "me-problems" when they don't need to be. Michelle had such a hard job that I now admire her resolve because she had the job of playing a character everyone was bound to hate due to the pettiness of her issues. Ppl where more times than not going to view her problems as ridiculous and hard to watch because of their juvenile nature especially when paralled with the "adult" problems the other characters were facing. I may be giving the episode more credit than it deserves but that's how I've come to embrace Dawn's character development. I don't think its fair to judge her against her in "Real Me" or whatever S5 E2 is called because that Dawn is not aware that she has not always been apart of this world. That Dawn is not burdened with her true nature. Anyways that's all lol. Umm sorry for any typos I'm typing this on my phone. Also I mean all of this respectfully of course and am in no way shooting down your opinion. I totally understand Dawn frustration. If I wrote this even a few years ago I would totally agree with you.
***It's the inverse of "I don't get my way, so I'm running away"
ReplyDelete