Tabula Rasa

[shapinglight]

Don't have an icon for the ep, so this one will have to do.

This episode is so good, but the end is absolutely heartbreaking.



Not a lot to say - it's awfully late here and I have to go to bed - but at this point, the Willow plot still looked like it was going to be all about how Willow's desperate control-freakiness had got the better of her, which works really well. Such a pity they had to turn it into the silly magic-addiction thing, though, yes, definitely addition-like comparisons could be made to her behaviour, but when the metaphor goes belly up and addiction becomes literal it doesn't do the story any favours. Pity.

Also, Giles's reasoning behind his decision to go home is quite right, but his timing absolutely stinks. Poor Buffy!

I think this may well be the last episode of the show that got the comedy/drama balance just right. You go from laughing out loud over the antics of Giles and Anya in the magic shop and Randy and Joan's amnesia-induced heroics, to the heartbreak of the final scene without any of the reaching for that balance and missing it I seem to remember in later episodes in a similar vein, like Hell's Bells and Him.

That's it. Gone. Glad I watched them, though. BtVS was a great show.

Comments

[shapinglight]

Yes, shipperx long ago filled me in on all the gory details of some of these soap plots. They're mind boggling. Our soaps tend to be a little more realistic.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I don't think you have as many of the soaps as we do, or rather did - it's a dying art form. Or have had them on air as long - many go back to radio, or they did - all the ones that went back that far are dead now.

And yes, mind boggling. But worth keeping in mind that at least two of the head-writers and show-runners (Marti and Whedon) were daytime soap fans (specifically Luke & Laura on GH), and Marti wrote for them. Passions was bizarre...they had a woman get another woman pregnant with another man's child to break up her relationship with her boyfriend - with a turkey baster. So Whedon and Marti, after seeing that, probably thought Seeing Red was tame. And it was. All depends on what you've seen in tv and film. Marsters and Gellar's reactions to the material demonstrate that - Marsters allegedly rebelled and hated the idea, and fought against, while Gellar who came from All My Children, and as Kendall accused her mother's husband of raping her, shrugged it off as nothing to worry about it. I think it would have played differently if Marsters had come from a soap background not a theater background.

[shapinglight]

We do have some very long-running soaps. The oldest dates back to the 60s.

Actually, re: Noxon having a soaps background, I think that's a fandom legend, or confusion. I've looked at her profile on IMDB and it isn't mentioned anywhere.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Doesn't mean she didn't write for soaps at some point. A lot of writers and actors leave daytime soap operas off their resumes, it's not exactly a medium people are proud of.

1960s? Hee that isn't really that long. Do you have soaps that go back to the 1940s and 1950s and started on the radio? We do or rather did. The Guiding Light went back that far.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

I got curious so looked up a few dates.

The Guiding Light until it was cancelled about four years ago, was the longest running soap in history - it started: June 2, 1947.

General Hospital now has that honor, according to Guinness Book of World Records with a start date of 1963.

So the true old timers, got killed two-four years ago. Truly a dying medium, unless the internet (which killed it) revives it.

[shapinglight]

Coronation Street's older than GH, then. It began in 1960.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

If it's still going, it may beat..Guiding Light.

Not sure how they are presented in UK? I've watched East Enders.
Is it every day, an hour each? Or half hour?

[shapinglight]

It varies. The two big soaps, Coronation Street and Eastenders are on for 30 minutes three times a week. There's another one aimed at teenages, though, called Hollyoaks. That's on every day for half an hour.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Less time, then. That may be the secret. US soaps are on, with the exception of Bold and the Beautiful. There's only four now. Days of Our Live,
One Life to Live, General Hospital, and Young & The Restless. They are on for an hour or in reality 43 minutes or 33 minutes...with commercials an hour, every day except weekends, 12 months a year. No wonder the storylines get wonky.

[shapinglight]

Yes, they must run out of ideas. I'm not a soap fan anyway, but I can't cope with shows that are on daily. My girls used to watch Hollyoaks and if I was there I would watch it with them, but once they left home I dropped it. Far too much of a commitment.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Have I told you about these handy little things called DVR's? ;-)

Never really thought of them as a committment. Doesn't take much time - I watch the thing while making dinner. Mom watched while eating lunch or just after getting home. It's not like we sit and focus on it. It often plays in the background. And you can skip episodes...

Buffy, now that was a committment. Daytime soap operas...hee, not so much.

[shapinglight]

I never get around to watching stuff I've recorded. Gave up years ago. I either watch it when it's on or it doesn't get watched at all.