This is absolute monkey shit. For the first time in the history of the series, a Buffy episode spectacularly fails on almost every level. Beer Bad is pretty much universally reviled, and for good reason. While hours like I, Robot - You, Jane and Go Fish could at least be interpreted as decent ideas that just didn't work in execution, Beer Bad is one of those extremely rare Buffy episodes that make you really wonder what the hell the writers were thinking.Before I address the cavemen, it didn't feel in character for Buffy to be moping around after Parker. Yes, he's an asshole. Yes, he screwed her over. But in what universe does Buffy Summers take all that on board and still want the guy? This is a situation that would make her angry, bitter and resentful. Not still head-over-heels for him. Yeesh. I refuse to believe this was my Buffy.
Elsewhere, Willow's jealousy over that pouty Veruca girl comes entirely out of left-field. I understand that the writers had to rapidly speed this story up for behind-the-scenes reasons, but it feels inauthentic for Willow to become so jealous so quickly. Considering Oz was just looking at the girl and admiring her artistry, it feels like a ball of contrivance. They're too strong a couple to be split apart so rapidly.
The cavemen story was stupid-as-hell. Not only does the episode force Sarah Michelle Gellar to embarrassingly crawl around and grunt for twenty whole minutes, it does the unthinkable thing in making the whole story mindnumbingly boring. The pacing is way off during the last half, with the cavemen attacks going on a whole lot longer than they needed to, and the closer being the least thrilling fire-rescue in the world. Ever.
An embarrassing exercise in ugly moralizing, patronizing 'life lessons' and bad hairstyling, the one highlight in Beer Bad (and I'm using that term loosely) is cave-Buffy hitting Parker over the head with a piece of wood, twice. But that really isn't worth basing a whole episode around. And where's Giles? He's on-screen for practically three minutes! Worst. Episode. Ever. F
Credits
Guest stars Marc Blucas (Riley Finn); Adam Kaufman (Parker Abrams); Paige Moss (Veruca); Eric Matheny (Colm); Stephen M. Porter (Jack); Lindsay Crouse (Maggie Walsh)
Writer Tracey Forbes Director David Solomon
OK, don't hate me but I don't think this episode is all bad I actually thought that some of it was great fun!
ReplyDeleteThat beings aid though I COMPLETELY agree with Buffy and the Parker drama. Buffy transformed from a witty strong likable girl into a soppy whiney mess for those few episodes. It's very frustrating.
I actually thought the Buffy characterization was the worst part of the episode. We can sort of excuse the show for its demon-of-the-week badness, but they screwed up the lead character so much here. She was like a completely different person.
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting.
Oooh, I just watched this episode (I'm watching for the first time- thank you Netflix!!) and I love reading your reviews. I started off with your Nip/Tuck reviews, and then chose to do Buffy next so I could stick with you! Anyway, my question is this- if you still remember, what do you mean by "for behind-the-scenes reasons"? I've been reading the wikipedia and imdb trivia entries for each episode as well, but nothing mentioned that. Soooo what were the reasons they had to speed up the Veruca plot?
ReplyDeleteThank you for keeping up with the show!!! I fear the day when I catch up with your reviews and have to wait for them =)
Just watched the next one and found out that answer!! It's too bad that Seth Green had to go, but gosh it hurt so good...
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for reading! I gotta say that you're the second person on here who is just discovering Buffy, and I'm ridiculously jealous over that. Heh.
ReplyDeleteI know I'm in the extreme minority, but I actually liked Beer Bad. I thought the caveman bits were amusing, and while I hate Parker's existence all around, I think his impact on Buffy was less about him than it was about the affect of his rejection/using of her on her own self-image. She wasn't used to being cast aside, to being little more than a one-use trinket. Her romantic life before Parker was about aching desire, the wheels of fate and destiny, or at least being mooned over with puppy dog eyes (Xander and Scott). Here was Parker who didn't think she was special or worthy of anything more than a one-night stand. He made her into a joke. He turned her expectation of infatuation followed by a sense of privilege at having won her into fodder for adding another notch to his bedpost. He manipulated and used her, and I thought it was amusing how in devolving into cavewoman Buffy she became the opposite of the scheming, calculating guy he was, as she was incapable of such machinations. It mirrors Buffy's inner nature which doesn't rely on such tactics. She's straightforward in a primal sense, despite whatever insecurities or hang-ups she has. Neanderbuffy stripped away the veneer of civility and let simplicity lay bare the truth of who she is.
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