Perfectly acceptable Buffy. Every time I don't watch the show in a while and come back to it, I forget that there's no one like Joss Whedon for writing awkward teenage dialogue. Willow and Oz's scenes are the highlight, as there's both an undercurrent of sweetness to it, but a true-to-life weirdness of trying to be sexy as an awkward teen that feels very real. Similarly, Giles's bemused but reservedly belligerent response to Angel asking him for help was appropriate and just as complex as it needed to be as well, and Faith's uncomfortable demurring of Buffy's x-mas invitation has an adorableness to it as well.
At the same time, I liked the idea of the main story a lot more than the execution of it. The concept that Angel is haunted by his past is not a new one on the show exactly, but the idea that he's ashamed of the man he was, not just the demon that posseses him, is an interesting tack to take with the character. He's in a position where he's wondering if he'd be doing the world more good by removing himself from it, by not torturing himself with the struggle to keep away the craven urges that threaten to overpower him, and give in by letting the sunlight toast him. It's a legitimate and very interesting angle on the character.
The problem is that Boreanaz's acting is fairly overwrought, Jenny Calendar's return sees her give a pretty blunt performance as well, and Sarah Michelle Gellar vacillates between being heartbreaking and being similarly overdone in her delivery. The dialogue that's generally so good in showing human interaction falters a bit when it has to deliver these Big Important Colloquies about the grand theme of the episode. The First suffers from LaMorte's attempt to be devilish, but the bigger point of the story works better in images, like montage of that unexpected snow.
That snow (even if we later learn a few things that change the impression of it) represents hope, represents the way that the unexpected can come into our lives and change our plans, sometimes even for the better. It's a beautiful idea, even if the road to get there is fairly bumpy.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParentSpoilers2015-12-15T05:57:13Z
Perfectly acceptable Buffy. Every time I don't watch the show in a while and come back to it, I forget that there's no one like Joss Whedon for writing awkward teenage dialogue. Willow and Oz's scenes are the highlight, as there's both an undercurrent of sweetness to it, but a true-to-life weirdness of trying to be sexy as an awkward teen that feels very real. Similarly, Giles's bemused but reservedly belligerent response to Angel asking him for help was appropriate and just as complex as it needed to be as well, and Faith's uncomfortable demurring of Buffy's x-mas invitation has an adorableness to it as well.
At the same time, I liked the idea of the main story a lot more than the execution of it. The concept that Angel is haunted by his past is not a new one on the show exactly, but the idea that he's ashamed of the man he was, not just the demon that posseses him, is an interesting tack to take with the character. He's in a position where he's wondering if he'd be doing the world more good by removing himself from it, by not torturing himself with the struggle to keep away the craven urges that threaten to overpower him, and give in by letting the sunlight toast him. It's a legitimate and very interesting angle on the character.
The problem is that Boreanaz's acting is fairly overwrought, Jenny Calendar's return sees her give a pretty blunt performance as well, and Sarah Michelle Gellar vacillates between being heartbreaking and being similarly overdone in her delivery. The dialogue that's generally so good in showing human interaction falters a bit when it has to deliver these Big Important Colloquies about the grand theme of the episode. The First suffers from LaMorte's attempt to be devilish, but the bigger point of the story works better in images, like montage of that unexpected snow.
That snow (even if we later learn a few things that change the impression of it) represents hope, represents the way that the unexpected can come into our lives and change our plans, sometimes even for the better. It's a beautiful idea, even if the road to get there is fairly bumpy.