Buffy, Season 2 [rewatch]

[laceblade]

I think that I've been reading new books/manga/etc. and watching new TV shows steadily for a couple of years now. And this is weird behavior for me, as my tendency throughout life in general has usually been to reread my favorite books obsessively.

I don't remember what initiated it, but last week I started re-watching the second season of Buffy, and I finished the re-watch today.

I'll put my spoilers behind a cut - it was just last year that I was watching this show for the first time myself!


Characters
I had forgotten how much I love Oz. But right after I fell in love with him again, I realized that he actually doesn't appear in many episodes in season 2! This is sad to me.

It's still refreshing watching Cordelia. I shallowly wonder if I love her a lot more on Buffy just because I think she looks awful with short hair?? Watching Cordelia on Buffy makes me hate Angel the Series more.

I'm hating Xander a lot more than I did the first time around. I find a lot of his sexual comments to Buffy really inappropriate considering that she's made her refusal absolutely clear, and I frequently find him more self-centered than Cordelia. His actions in Becoming, Part 2 are particularly atrocious to me, with him purposely not telling Buffy that Willow was trying to re-soul Angel. I kind of hate that this is never brought up by either Willow or Buffy in season 3 in a "Dude, you suck at life" kind of way. He is never punished by the other characters for his actions. I guess Buffy would never know that Willow delegated the sharing of this information to Xander unless Willow herself told her, but it seems surprising to me that nobody would ever discuss what happened during season 3, especially once Angel came back.

His refusal to forgive Angel for his actions as Angelus (namely killing Jenny Calendar) are also pretty weird - out of all the characters, he was probably the least close with Ms. Calendar. While yelling at Buffy for "forgetting about Ms. Calendar so she can be with her boyfriend," he is in reality using Ms. Calendar's death as a way for punishing Buffy, yet again, for not reciprocating his romantic feelings.

While I'm liking Xander less, I'm liking Willow more. She is just....adorable. She points to her pouty lip; "Resolve face."

Episodes
Buffy killing Angel in "Becoming, Part 2" still made me cry.

My favorite episodes are Innocence, Passion, I Only Have Eyes for You, and Becoming Parts 1 and 2. Apparently I'm a big fan of rapid plot development combined with epic, dripping angst.

I hated the episode "Ted" the first time I watched it, but I found it delightfully hilarious this time around. My favorite scene is Buffy, Joyce, and Ted sitting at the dinner table, with Buffy looking ready to scream. Ted asks Buffy how she would react if her mother married Ted, and Buffy says in deadpan, "I'd kill myself."

Other
Overall, I'd forgotten how much of a horror show this used to be. By the last couple of seasons, the characters have become so jaded that it's almost amazing to watch them be legitimately afraid of vampires, werewolves, etc.

I do like the first two seasons of Buffy a lot. But I do like watching characters post-trauamatic experiences, and I like the jadedness that Buffy gets after having to kill re-souled Angel.


Lastly: I was rereading my old entries about Angel the series to see if it was a bad as I remember it being, and I am mildly ashamed by how much squee there is. I think my favorite part is how much I loved Wesley for screaming at Faith to shut up so that he could stab a heroin addict in the shoulder. I might be disturbed, but people make TV shows just for me! It's awesome.

Comments

[lavendersleeves.livejournal.com]

About the resouling--they didn't bring it up because they didn't know! I mean to say, Buffy never realized that Willow was trying to do anything, nor that Xander knew about it--the subject never came up until season 7! I think Buffy stewed on it a bit, but there's a complete lack of communication about Angel in most of season 3. It's like a theme.

I was pretty disturbed by Ted the second time I watched it. Buffy has no idea that he's not human when she kicks him down the stairs. She shows just as little foresight as Faith, as he so easily could have been human, and thus, a human murder on her conscience. I think there should have been a lot more angst about that misstep, because it's pretty dark.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

I guess that's true - the first time through, I was more hanging on every word, but this time through season three, I'm noticing a lot more how much silence there is, and secret-keeping.

You make a really good point about being disturbed about how Buffy basically killed Ted. I feel like there are a lot of double standards in this show - the refusal of many characters to ever forgive Angel, but then it seems cool to have Spike hang around (and Anya, who didn't even have the loss/gain of a soul to explain her changes - she just lost her powers - she didn't regain a conscience). Faith gets punished for a lot of things that nobody else does.
I think one of my friends was also trying to make the point that Faith is viewed marked as "evil" in the show by expressing her sexuality openly, while the other characters are more embarrassed/ashamed of things.

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

Hey, your favorite episodes are also my favorite episodes! Clearly this means that we both have excellent taste. The second season is my favorite by far -- not just of Buffy but of, well, any TV show in the grand history of ever -- so I've watched it way too many times to count and still (still!) those episodes never fail to reduce me to a blubbering pile of mush.

I shallowly wonder if I love her a lot more on Buffy just because I think she looks awful with short hair??

Bwahaha, I certainly would not blame you if this were so! Really, though (and I say this without having seen THAT much of Angel, so this is just a general impression), I think for me she works better on Buffy because there she was always such a love-to-hate character whereas on Angel she seemed to be set up as more of a love-to-love protagonist and, just, that loses half the charm of the character right there for me.

Your moment of random hilarity in "Ted" reminds me of another great OMGWTFLOLOLOL moment from another not-so-great S2 episode -- at the very beginning of "Go Fish," when Wentworth Miller (!!) smells the evil sea creature at the beach and goes, "Duuude! What is that foulness?!" with such offended conviction. Oh man, that gets quoted in my house on a regular basis.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

Yay! I don't think Season 2 is my favorite - although, I seem to be in the minority here, because a *lot* of other people do. I guess I personally get really bored with "Monster of the week" themes, and I like my characters more once they've already had their souls crushed.

OMG, I know exactly what line you're talking about, and it was indeed hilarious. Season 2 is pretty good with the one-liners!

[sasha-feather.livejournal.com]

I don't remember what initiated it, but last week I started re-watching the second season of Buffy,

It was your Buffy boardgame! Which is awesome BTW.

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah! LOL, I tell people at work that I only have a five-second memory, which is why I carry a notebook to every single meeting. They don't believe me, but I've got my reasons! Case in point, right here!