BtVS season 1: The Harvest

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Trawled through my enormous cache of icons looking for suitable ones for posts about BtVS season 1 and this was the best I could come up with. Very nice, though, isn't it?

Anyway, tomorrow I'm off back to work. No more episodes of The Wire in the afternoons. I'm stalled at episode 6, which was - of course - brilliant. :Sigh: I didn't get to watch one today either, as once K left to catch the train, there wasn't time. I did have time to watch another episode of BtVS season 1, though. Thoughts on The Harvest behind cut.



Hmm, Buffy gets out of her Luke-induced tight-spot rather easily, doesn't she? It was a bit of a One Leap and Buffy Was Free Moment. Apart from that, while she's down in the sewers with Xander, she seems a lot less take-charge than she does by the end of the episode, and I have to say the fight scenes made me smile. Wee little SMG-P, with her chubby cheeks and her tiny little fists raised in a defensive posture. However, her beheading of the minion with the cymbal is still a cool moment as is her under the brows stare at the remaining vampires at the end.

Quite a few important mythology bits in this episode, including Giles's Revised History of the World talk in the library, his vehement insistence to Xander that Jesse is not his friend 'but the thing that killed him', a view certain fans refuse to move on from, no matter how later events contradict it. Also, since I'm always sticking in descriptions in my fics of vampires as having eyes that glow in the dark like a cat's or a wolf's, was very pleased to see the vampire glowing eyes in the sewer scene (even if we never see them again). See - canon!
The Master, along with Luke, is still a crashing bore in this episode, except in the scene where he pokes the unfortunate Colin's eye out. Awful lot of Colins in the Master's family, aren't there?
Luke, Darla and Jesse all standing gaping at the Master while he pontificates is very silly. I'm fanwanking to myself that Darla's really thinking, "What did I do to end up with this bunch of losers?" while she's standing there, but sadly, I don't think she is.
Angel's cryptic act really annoyed me this time, even though he still looked very pretty (see icon). In view of later events, I ended up thinking, did he decide he wasn't going to back Buffy until he knew she could win? That's not how it came across in Becoming 1, though in fact I think I prefer that interpretation to what did happen in Becoming 1.

Xander still annoyed me too, though I suppose I have to expect that, seeing as he made such a poor first impression. I kept having to remind myself that Jesse was his friend and that's why he felt impelled to go after Buffy, but he still came across as whingy and sorry for himself to me when he was complaining about being useless. The Cordy/Harmony/Willow scene in the IT lesson was quite amusing. Cordy gets most of the best lines.
Best line of all, however, belongs to Giles, who looks utterly, utterly gorgeous in his cardy, with his 'The Earth is doomed' line at the end. His glee about all the nasties Buffy may have to face in the future is also very funny. However, I had to grit my teeth at his Techno Amish moment. Of course, in the late 1990s, we Brits were still sending each other messages by post-chaise, or even carrier pigeons, and had never heard of computers. :Rolls eyes:

Finally, Joyce's attempts to be stern mum with Buffy suggest that she's not really done it before, which is odd in view of Buffy's less than stellar academic record, and doesn't mesh that well with the relationship they seem to have. Poor Joyce! Doomed to be a feckless parent because her getting a clue would mean the end of the story. Also, I really like Principal Flutie. Wish he'd lasted a teeny bit longer before being eaten.

All-in-all, fun but the cheese factor is too high for comfort.

Comments

[frimfram.livejournal.com]

In the late '90s I was still on smoke signals personally :)

Hi D, just popping my head round the door to say hello. Hope you're recovered from last week's illness and that work's not too drab. Enjoyed your recap of The Harvest; I know how cheesy it was but it still gives me a big silly grin.

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Hi, Frim. How lovely to see you! How are you? What have you been up to?

Same old, same old round here as I guess you can see.

In the late '90s I was still on smoke signals personally :)

Well, I may have been a bit ahead of you but I'm pretty sure my home computer was still steam-powered at the time.

I'm all better, thanks for asking, and yeah, it made me grin too. SMG-P is so cute.

[frimfram.livejournal.com]

Mine was an old Acorn computer, powered by a genuine hamster on a wheel.

I'm all right, thanks. Very very busy with work, which is mostly jolly, friends, who are very jolly, and P, who is famously jolly :) Still crossing my fingers that his possible army career can be averted; he's got two PhD applications in progress, which would take him to Nigeria for a year, but at least not *deliberately* into armed combat. Trying to decide myself whether to do another masters or have a kid :D

Are you still reading the AtS/BtVS comics?

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Mine was an old Acorn computer, powered by a genuine hamster on a wheel.

Heh! This is going to turn into a Monty Python skit if we're not careful.

Glad to hear that things in general are jolly and hope that P will lose interest in the army thing. Nigeria could be jolly, given the right circumstances.

Are you serious about the having a kid thing? If you are, bear in mind that it'll probably be years before you get to do the PhD, whereas if you do it the other way round, you can have the kid while resting on your academic laurels. Think how smug you'll feel.

I am still reading the comics. I like the AtS one but am still not keen on the BtVS one. I am reading other things too, though, including The Sword, which is brilliant, and someone introduced me to Fables, which I love. You?

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Should add that even I'm a bit of a fandom whore these days. I've fallen in love with Battlestar Galactica and The Wire.

[frimfram.livejournal.com]

Nooo, not you! You're the stalwart! Though heh, I love BSG too. (Not just because perma!stoned Helo reminds me of my other half.) The guy who pimped Buffy to me pimped me BSG as well, and I've loaned him my Torchwood disks in return, though he's definitely got the short end of the deal there :)

Yep, I've given up on Buffy too but am hanging on with AtS for the time being. I feel there are stories still to be told in that series; Buffy, not so much. And yes, I'm reading The Sword too, and a few other things: Umbrella Academy (is very silly and surprisingly good); Nightwing; Doktor Sleepless; and persisting with Midnighter though I've dropped the rest of the Wildstorm stuff. I read the whole of Y: The Last Man, too, and it's one of the best stories I've ever seen in any genre. Highly recommended.

As for the baby thing, it's something we've been talking about. It's definitely start-something-new time, but we're not sure yet what the thing should be. Lots of reasons not to do it now, but most of them (no job security, don't know where we'll be in five years) are going to apply for pretty much the whole rest of our lives and those of everyone in our generation :)

Btw, the Authority fancomic I was working on with whatistigerbalm is nearly complete and online here (http://fancomics.livejournal.com), should you still follow that series at all - but I know it's outside your fandoms, so please don't feel obliged to read.

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The guy who pimped Buffy to me pimped me BSG as well, and I've loaned him my Torchwood disks in return, though he's definitely got the short end of the deal there :)

Oh boy, has he! Seasons 1 was so pants! This one's been better but it still doesn't do a lot for me.

Tell me more about Y: the Last Man. Who wrote/drew that? It sounds very interesting.

Can see why you've dropped the Wildstorm stuff, though it's hard to abandon Midnighter. I dunno what the hell they think they're doing with those characters. I will definitely read your comic, btw.

As for the baby thing, it's something we've been talking about. It's definitely start-something-new time, but we're not sure yet what the thing should be. Lots of reasons not to do it now, but most of them (no job security, don't know where we'll be in five years) are going to apply for pretty much the whole rest of our lives and those of everyone in our generation :)

I do get what you're saying. People seem to be leaving it so late to have babies these days and there's an awful lot to be said for having your children relatively young so you're still youngish yourself when they're all grown up. I'm also the last person to tell you you should wait until you've got steady jobs/bought the house etc, as I didn't do that. When K was born (I was 26), S didn't have a proper job and we ended up living with his brother until he found one.

It is, however, true that once you've had the kids, your lives will never be the same, but that can be a good thing, of course, as well as a bad one.

Hope you and P manage to make the right decision for you, and lovely to see you around.

:Hugs:

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Hi, Frim. Don't know if you'll get this comment, but I've read your comic and I absolutely love it. It's a gazillion times better than anything Wildstorm are doing with these characters at the moment.

I hope the rest will be up soon?

[frimfram.livejournal.com]

Hey, thank you! That's very kind. I'm hoping the rest will be forthcoming soon: the remaining pages are all inked and just need colouring, but Mia - the artist - is doing a PhD and a full time job (in two separate countries no less) so her art time is limited.

How's things? I was in the office at 7 this morning (deadline day) and feel very virtuous ^_^

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I'm okay, thanks, except for having what you might call a noisy brain - ie. it won't shut down enough to let me think properly.

7am, huh? That is very virtuous. Made any progress on that life-changing decision yet?