JENNY'S REVIEWS -- BUFFY ARCHIVES

ARCHIVES

first air: 11/06/01

BUFFY THE MUSICAL!

Move over Phantom of the Opera… it's time for Buffy The Vampire Slayer on Broadway!! This episode was one of the BEST episodes of any tv show EVER, and the fact that it was a musical made it even more amazing. The songs were SOOOOOO good, the dancing was great, the production numbers were fantastic, and the plot was GREAT! I swear, this show should totally be on Broadway. I'd pay big bucks to see it in person. I give the whole cast and crew, especially the incredible Joss Whedon, HUGE props for a brilliant episode.

As far as singing voices go… Buffy was actually good, as was Tara and Anya, but Willow sort of bit a little… (sorry Wil)… hence her smaller part in the show, and Dawn sounded like she had a voice double… and Spike mysteriously lost his British accent when he sang (I know it's fake anyway), but he was still good. The lyrics and music were all great too… I was never bored with a song at all.

So here's the story. The Scooby Gang, along with the rest of Sunnydale, was unexplainably, randomly bursting into song. Turns out, there was this demon whose way of killing people was to make then sing and dance themselves to death… like literally burn-out. I love that Anya thought the dark forces causing the song and dance were evil bunnies. Xander and Anya's musical number was awesome… they sure dance well. Anyway, this evil demon kidnaps Dawn, cuz he thought she summoned him, but then when he finds out she didn't, he just leaves. But not before the last song, in which the dynamic of the whole show was changed forever… I'm totally serious. Buffy (after an awesome dance-break) revealed to everyone that she was pulled out of Heaven to return to Earth (which had Willow practically in tears), and Tara found out that Willow put her under a "forget" spell, and then… as if things could get any better… hold on to your holy water…

SPIKE & BUFFY KISSED!!! And I'm not talking about a peck on the cheek either!!! It was awesome!!! And the previews for next week look like it could be even better… if that's even possible…

Oh yeah, how did the demon come to Sunnydale you ask? Well, our girl Dawnie has had some sticky fingers lately, and chose to 5-finger discount an amulet at the Magic Box, which turns out, summons this demon to town. And the summoner is supposed to marry him. Yikes. This dude was FUGLY. But after Dawnie fessed up about the snatch, it only took a minute for Xander to confess that he ordered it… just so there would be some fun singing and dancing around town. Betcha he'll never do THAT again.

Sidenote: Tara and Willow… what was up with the 18th century milkmaid outfits? They were quite unattractive and not so flattering… FYI.

PS - Cool opening credits too… very Honeymooners-like.

first air: 10/30/01

It's Halloween in Sunnydale, so you KNOW there's gonna be trouble. But there's also gonne be some killer laughs. Anya is dressed as one of Charlie's Angels and she's on roller skates (fun!!), while Xander is a pirate (eh). Anya asks Tara "Xander wants to play Shiver-me-timbers when we get home, have you ever played shiver-me-timbers?", to which Tara responds "I'm not much for the timber". GENIOUS! That was just so funny. And finally, while the gang was reveling in all the Halloween sales they made that day, Xander announced that he and Anya were gonna get married. I'm so glad he finally fessed up. But that gang wasn't as happy as I thought they would be. That was a bummer. But when Xander planted a big kiss on Anya, one of the biggest Buffy secrets ever was finally revealed - why Giles cleans his glasses so much! Are you ready? He does it so he doesn't' have to look at what the Scooby kids are doing! (ie, kissing). Cool, huh? Buffy was the only one to figure it out, but points for her. Anyway, now for the trouble. Dawn said she was spending Halloween night at her girlfriends house, but instead met up with her friend and 2 boys at a park. Ok, c'mon, Dawn, this is Sunnydale and it's Halloween. Don't you know there's gonne be some evil lurking around? Well, at first I just thought they were after some lovin' cuz they kept talking about "are you gonna go all the way with her?", but sure enough, the 2 dudes, she was hanging with were vamps. And the "all the way" thing vent are you gonna turn her into a vamp!!! Yikes! Well, Dawn got her first kiss (hell it was actually a big make-out session) from this vamp Justin. But then when he turned on her, she had to stake him. It was actually really sad. You could just see how upset she was… it was like she was following directly in her sister's footsteps. Poor Dawnie.

And then there was the "B" plot (which I predict will be a HUGE "A" plot very soon) had Willow and Tara arguing over Willow's over-use of magic. She uses magic for everything these days (ie, instant party decorations, trying to find Dawn in a club, etc). Tara confronted her about abusing her powers and what did Willow do in return? She cast a spell on Tara so she'd forget that they had a fight about anything. Ok, Willow is officially scaring me. I think she's got way too much power and she's gonna start using it for bad, bad reasons.

Next week is the highly anticipated BUFFY:THE MUSICAL episode! Woo-hoo!

first air: 10/23/01

Ugggh, my ears hurt after having to hear a reference to the evil Enterprise show in my glorious Buffy. Yuck! It hurt so much. But of course, it was the troupe of geeky supervillains who said that nasty word. (sorry Laurie) I have to wash my mouth out with soap now.

OK, enough of that. SO the trio of self-proclaimed "supervillains" (Warren, Jonathan, and the 3rd monkey guy who I can't remember) made themselves a little "stalker van" as I like to call it. So they can keep Buffy under surveillance while they play their stupid (but kinda cool) games on her. This van comes complete with tv monitors, hanging beads and a Star Wars themes horn. Nice touch. The guys have decided to play the "slayer games" where they each throw a test at Buffy to see who's confuses her more. It's actually a pretty cool idea. And the games were pretty creative. The first one had time speeding up for everybody except for Buffy. Very cool. But she figured it out and removed the little speed sensor thing on her sweater. Then there were 3 huge demons who attacked her, but she killed them all. (Not the most original idea) And then there was the one that had her repeating/looping the same moment over and over again at the magic shop. It was like Groundhog's Day. Very cool (except that it was during this game where the gross Enterprise reference was made) . But she eventually figured that out too and stopped the loop. So these supervillian geeks are not through with her yet and they will most certainly be back other episodes for more.

The best part of the ep had to be Buffy going to visit Spike in his crypt. It was awesome. They were doing shots, and then they went to a demon bar, where Spike was playing a mean game of poker. Except that these demons don't gamble with money… they gamble with KITTENS!!! Cute, but gross when you think about them drinking kitten blood. Line #1 of the week goes to a VERY drunken Buffy (on tequila I believe), after storming out of the bar on Spike - "You're a neutered vampire who cheats at kitten poker". C'mon, where else are you gonna see poetry like that? Genious, I tell ya! I love Spike and Buffy hanging out together. And he kept calling her "my lady". Aaaawwwww!!!

Also, loved that these big nasty demons were using the deck of cards with the big numbers, for sight impaired people… I figured they'd be using nudie cards. Oh yeah, and Giles gave Buffy a check for an undisclosed sum of money to get her out of debt. What a sweetie.

PS - Line #2 of the week goes to Willow, who in response to requesting a piece of fried chicken from Buffy, said "I'm a breast girl myself…. can you blame me?"

first air: 10/16/01

Buffy is broke. Bankrupt. Ella no tenga un dinero. She's about to be living in the ghetto if she doesn't pay her bills. But here's my thing… the whole time she and the Scooby Gang are trying to figure out how to pay her debts, nobody suggested selling her house. I know it's sentimental and all, but c'mon, they don't need that big thing. But I liked Anya's suggestions… asking people to pay for her slaying services. Gee, sounds a lot like Angel Investigations, dontcha thinkkkk???? But I won't go there. It was however, awesome to see Giles back, for now. When I saw him standing there at the Magic Shop I got a little teary eyed.

Well ok, M'Fashnik… that's the name of the demon who was wreaking hell on Sunnydale during this ep. And he was icky too. But natch, Buffy kicked his butt - no biggie. But here's the thing… he was hired by a few guys you might remember… Jonathan (the dude who tried to shoot up Suunydale high), the dude who built robo-Buffy for Spike (and other robo-girls for himself), and some dude who trained evil demon monkeys (although, I don't remember him). Yeah, turns out these geeks have built themselves a "lair" (at the bottom of one of their mom's houses) where they have a mission… to take over Sunnydale. Yeah, like that's ever gonna happen. Basically this place looks like a tech-heavy, geeky, fallout shelter for losers. But the part that had my pausing my VHS tape and checking for more, was their "TO DO" list written on a wipeoff board. The list included things like , getting fake ID's, girls and hypnotizing Buffy. Whatever geeks.

Willow is dangerous

Scariest part of the show had to be the confrontation between Giles and Willow in Buffy's kitchen. Was it me, or did anyone else get totally creeped out by Willow's ever-growing G-d complex?? She actually had me freaked. I think she is becoming too powerful and sadly, I think somebody will have to put a stop to her pretty soon. And threatening Giles? That's a no-no babe.

And oh yes… WHAT'S WITH THE TEASING ABOUT A CROSSOVER! Buffy had to leave abruptly when she got a call from Angel (ahhhhhhh) wanting to meet her somwehere between Sunnydale and L.A. Hey, guys, my place is free….. I mean, I'd love all this cross mentioning between Buffy and Angel if I knew it would pay off sometime and we could see them meet again. But I don't think that's gonna happen. But dang, I'd love to be wrong.

first air: 10/09/01

Ok, I had a mega problem this week. I set my 2nd VCR to tape, Buffy, Roswell, and Real World, while my main VCR was taping Gilmore Girls. Much to my shock and horror, when I checked the 2nd tape, I only saw picture and there was no sound. After about 15 minutes of screaming and nearly going into cardiac arrest, my brother called and said that I could put on the closed captioning and literally "watch" the shows. So that's what I did. Needless to say, it's not as good when you can't hear the music or people's voices, but I made do. So here goes nothing.

Buffy's back! Woo-hoo again! And this week she got to see Spike. I am sure that if I had volume on my tape, I would have been crying at that point, cuz I was getting all teary just reading the words on the screen. Spike knew that Buffy was missing for exactly 147 days. (I feel tears) He looked so happy to see her, he loves her so much. And I love my precious Spike. OK, so moving on, Anya was full of one-liners this week, commenting on Buffy's trance-like state, "Jet lag from Hell must be like… jet lag from hell". And when the Scooby Gang figured out the "hell-beastie" that was tormenting them was actually a side affect of Willow's spell on Buffy, Anya referred to it as "a free gift with purchase". C'mon… a hell-beastie as a free gift with purchase? That's funny! This little creature looked like a rat under a rug. I don't know why nobody just took a broom and swatted it to death. So Buffy is sort of feeling closer to Spike than the others right now, I guess cuz he's also been tortured and all that, so she went to go visit him in his crypt. Which by the way, he pointed out has new furniture in it. Looked like Spike went shopping at the Pottery Barn from 1900. But really, poor Spike feels so guilty for not saving Buffy. And then he told her he saved her every other night… in his dreams… (insert heavy weeping here).

But really, the big guns came out at the very end. Buffy thanked the gang for rescuing her from hell… because she knew that's what they all wanted to hear. But it wasn't until she sat outside with Spike that she revealed the truth… she wasn't in Hell when she was dead. She was in heaven. And she was happy. And it was her friends who ripped her out and brought her back to Sunnydale… the real hell. And then she told Spike they could never know the truth. Could someone pass the tissues please?

first air: 10/02/01

Buffy lives!! Ok, well not yet. For now she's robo-Buffy and she's posing around Sunnydale and the real deal slayer. That way Dawn can stay in her house and live with Willow and Tara. But we all know she's no Buffy… she makes dozens of PB&J sandwiches and asked weird creepy questions at Dawn's parent/teacher school thing. So Willow and Tara and Xander and Anya are determined to bring Buffy back from the grave. (PS - Anya's hair looked so amazing this whole ep) But they didn't include Giles, Dawn or Spike in their plans. And side note about Giles… he left Sunnydale. He tried to sneak out by just leaving a note, but the gang met him at the airport for a really teary goodbye. Giles (well, the real life actor) is going back to England to do another Buffy spinoff show there. But Joss said Giles will be on the show from time to time. Anyway, Willow and troops go to Buffy's grave to perform a really intense spell which involved Willow secretly killing a deer earlier in the day, and barfing out a snake. Ewwwww. It really was as gross as it sounds. Another sidenote, what's with Xander being a closet BSB fan? And the vampire wearing the Hanson t-shirt? 2 cool points. Ok, so back to the spell. These hellion demon bikers were trashing Sunnydale and robo-Buffy, with demons in tow, led them directly to where the gang was trying to resurrect the Buffster. The spell was aborted mid-way through and everybody was really upset cuz they didn't think it worked. BUT IT DID!!! However, when Buffy awoke, she was buried alive in her own grave. How's that for a welcome home party? So naturally, after having to claw her way out of her own grave, she was a little shaken up and hazy. But when the gang saw her, they knew she was the real deal. And robo-Buffy was destroyed by the hellions. But will Buffy ever be the same again? That's the big question. Right now, she looks like that cavewoman-Buffy from a few seasons ago, all dirty, with long hair. But at least she's back.

first air: 5/22/01

SEASON FINALE!!

Alright, from the top…

First off, I just love it when wooden objects (usually shaped oddly like a stake) just "wind up" in Buffy's hands when she's in the middle of fighting a vampire. Not important to the plot tonight, but something I often forget to comment on.

OK, so the gang is gathered around a table at The Magic Shop trying to come up with ways to kill Glory before she spills Dawn's blood in a couple of hours. But since she's a God and all, they have to come up with something extra hardcore. As Anya put it "She's a God, think outside the box". Then Anya reminds everyone that they have possession of the Dagonsphere, this magic ball that is supposed to repel Glory. While her and Xander go downstairs to look for it, they wind up having sex and then… XANDER PROPOSED!! Tear clock… 8:23pm. But Anya wanted to wait to accept the ring until after they battled Glory and won. PS - where did Xander get the cash to buy a ring for Anya? Is he hoping that maybe since she's a demon, she won't be able to tell a diamond from cubic zirconium? It was sweet anyway.
Then spike went with Buffy to her house to help gather supply's to fight with… (here comes another teary point). Spike tells Buffy "I know you'll never love me. I'm a monster, but you treat me like a man"… AAAWWWWWWW!!!!! Spikey!

OK, I'll speed it along… turns out Dawn is shackled atop this big Eiffel Tower-y looking thing, so her blood will open the portal in the sky. First killer move… Willow catches Glory off-guard and sticks her hand inside Glory's head and Tara's… reversing the brain damage Glory caused to Tara, returning her to normal… and leaving Glory unbalanced for a few minutes. You go girl! But one thing… this massive, life-or-death fight is now taking place and Tara And Willow are in the corner hugging and kissing… wassup with that ladies?!

During there previous basement romp, Anya and Xander had discovered the Buffy robot that Spike had built, so it rocked that Glory was actually fighting the robot Buffy at first. But up top of the tower, Joel Gray (he plays some evil demon) starts the blood-letting ceremony while Glroy fights off Buffy. He actually cuts poor Dawn and her blood starts running down her body… very gross. But Spike, gaining tower-top access thanks to a spell from Willow, is no match for Joel, and gets thrown off the tower!! I was so scared that Spike was dead! (he's not)

After hammering Glory's head so hard that it caused Ben's from to return, Giles gave a really great speech about how Buffy could never kill him cuz she's a hero. But Giles said he wasn't… AND THEN HE KILLED BEN/GLORY…GLORY IS DEAD!!!

death was Buffy's gift Then the tears really started to flow as Dawn pleaded to Buffy to let her jump into the portal so the world would be saved. But then, in a move that I NEVER saw coming… Buffy remembered how the first slayer told her that "death is your gift"… and BUFFY JUMPED INTO THE PORTAL AND KILLED HERSELF!! BUFFY IS DEAD!!! I thought maybe she'd live or just be injured, but as the sad music kicked in, we saw the Scooby Gang break down in tears (especially Spike) and then we saw her tombstone. It read:

Buffy Anne Summers
1981-2001
Devoted Friend
Devoted Sister
She Saved The World
A Lot

Holy cow! I have nothing left to say. I have no idea what is going to happen next season, but I hope it involves resurrecting Buffy from the grave.It had better.

congrats on 100 episodes!

And lastly…. Congrats to Buffy the Vampire Slayer on their 100th episode and 5 fabulous slay-ful years. Although I very bummed about having to watch UPN on Tuesdays in the fall, I'm glad the show will still be around.

first air: 5/08/01

My first thought of the night… no fair! OK, was anybody else pissed off that Glory was totally cheating. Of course Buffy and the crew have NO chance of taking down that evil Glorificus because Glory can run at the speed of light… as if she needed any other way to totally unbeatable. Well, anyway, Buffy found a way to stall her for a few minutes… while arguing with Buffy, Glory got side-swiped by a bus (a la Final Destination). I'm not a fan of violence ever, but this time I cheered. Basically, the entire Scooby gang has fled Sunnydale cuz Glory and her squad are on their tails, fast. So Buffy gets the idea for them all to run together via this huge, broke-down wannabe Partidge Family bus thing. It was like the Partridge Family bus was parked in the ghetto and that's what was left. But when the hooptie-ville pulled up, all the windows were covered, which looked strange. But it turns out, that Spike (who I LOVE) was recruited by the Buffster to drive the bus. (Due to obvious vampire/sun issues, that's why the windows were covered.) En route to destination unknown, the medieval army people (who also want the key, but hate Glory) fought Buffy on the top of the bus and by accident, Giles got stabbed bigtime. Is it me, or did anyone else think he was totally dead mid-episode? The Scooby gang eventually found an old shelter to hide out in and Willow managed to put up some witchcraft-y wall that kept all the army folks outside. But seeing as how Giles was near death, and the medieval army wanted to have an all-out war with Buffy and her pals, she managed to negotiate to get a doctor in to look at Giles. (Don't ask me why the army peeps let her do that… what a dumb move.) So what doctor does Buffy call???? Ben, of course. And naturally, Ben sees Dawn (the key). Sidenote: Battered and bruised dead-guy turned vampire Spike is taking a smoke-break, Xander sees him and chimes in with "You know, those things will kill you". Nuff said.
	Ok back to the whole Ben thing. So after he fixes up Giles a little, you can see that he's starting to get all twitchy and he's like "let me out of here" cuz he's about to turn into Glory. And sure enough, he does, and Glory grabs the key and bolts. HELLO… GLORY HAS THE KEY!!! What does Buffy do in response? She goes all catatonic… huh? That is so not how I would've gone with this… but, whatever. Next week, she's catatonic some more… um…

first air: 5/01/01

Holy demons! Television shows don't get much better than this weeks ep of Buffy. OK, let's just get right to the fact that Glory is a definition of hell! When she sat down on the bench next to Tara I knew I needed to seek some shelter nearby cuz it was gonna get icky… and it did! The whole crushing Tara's hand was so hardcore… and actually I kept repeating to myself (from behind the pillow covering my face) that it was just fake Hollywood blood, and that seemed to calm me down. But it was the gross bone-crushing sound effects that sent nasty chills down my spine. I was totally suffering from that phantom pain syndrome - I swore by hand was being crushed too. (c'mon, you know what I'm talking about) Oh and yeah, when Glory stuck her fingers inside Tara's brain and basically destroyed her, that sucked too.

And how about Willow power-floating into Glory's lair with her eyes fully brown (ala Wes from Limp Bizkit)… hello, that was so straight out of The Craft, but I loved it! And you go Willow for spitting the biggest phlegm-globber I've ever seen at Glory's face. I don't think it was actually gonna kill her since she's a god and all, but nice try.

But now is Tara going to be forever reduced to being spoon-fed applesauce and sleeping in restraints? That would so suck! And was it me or was anybody else screaming at the tv when TARA POINTED OUT THE KEY TO GLORY!!! It is so going to be the end of things for somebody in Sunnydale. Look's like next week we're on the run…

first air: 4/17/01

Ok, I can't do my usual sort of review with this weeks show because it was just too good and it was about a serious subject - Buffy's mom's funeral. All I can say is, Joss Whedon, you are a master. Well, that's not ALL I can say…

I do have a few bones to pick, small ones though. First off, who wears tan to a funeral? I mean, this is the one time where an outfit choice for the Buffster is totally obvious - black. But no, somebody put her in a tan overcoat and a grey shirt. I know it's a petty thing to pick at, but hey, I said I really wasn't gonna pick at much this week. But I forgot all about the tan when Angel showed up beside Buffy at the cemetery. Does this vampire have ANY faults??? He's so perfect (well, you know, except for the fact that he's a vamp and all).

	And one more thing… Spike. Poor Spike, why does everybody always have to pick on him? I wwas so sad when he showed up at Buffy's house, with those flowers for her mom. He said she was the only one who was nice to him. Ugghh!! I just wanted to cry! And then Xander was sooooo mean to him! I couldn't believe all the crappy things he said to Spike. Xander, that's a big strikeout for you this week.
How about when the demon/zombie version of Buffy's mom walked past the window and all we saw was the shadow?? Aggghhh!!! I was actually yelling at Dawn through the tv to rip up the picture and kill the zombie. Honestly, if that thing would've walked through the door, I don't think I would've looked. Eww, gross. Thank you all for sparing us.

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