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...