"Once More, With Feeling" was unexpected. I am not a fan of musical episodes in general. The choreographed dance numbers usually have nothing to do with the actual plot of the show and there is never any explanation as to why the characters are singing. I was pleased to find out that in this Buffy episode the musical aspect is explained. However, I found myself dreading the next tune. The music makes the episode move incredibly slow.
I do not think the “Lord of the Dance” is a strong enough villain. The idea of a person dancing so fast that he or she bursts into flames does not make any sense to me. I think it could be explained more thoroughly. There is not even a fight scene with him at the end. He leaves voluntarily without even a scratch. I don’t like the lack of action.
Some of the lines in the episode were pretty hilarious. The best part was the song between Xander and Anya. As we discussed in class, their true feelings are forced out of them through song. It’s an interesting way of making them deal with their feelings although they never really seem to resolve any of the issues in the end. The ending seems to be wrapped up into a neat little bow which hasn’t been the style of Buffy ending we have seen in the episodes we have watched in class.
10 comments:
I'll agree the Lord of the Dance might not be a strong villian (though I thought he might be the "coolest") but I feel he was there to be the catalyst and allow for the musical numbers. This might all be obvious but I feel that the Scoobies were the main focus of the episode. In fact the musical numbers allowed them to express more of their feelings in a shorter amount of time then they otherwise would have.
I don't see how this episode tied things up in a "neat little bow." Isn't it just the opposite? Buffy's friends are devastated by her revelation, Tara is about to break up with Willow, Xander and Anya are obviously very conflicted about their upcoming wedding, and the whole darn gang sings "Where do we go from here?" There's nothing neat about that. Even the big kiss at the end is unsettling. You just *know* things aren't going to end well.
Yeah, I agree the dancing to death was a bit odd. My defense of it would be it is just a pun off dancing to death or burning up the rug. The writers of this show love their puns. It sort of suits the cheesiness of the idea of a villain that makes everyone break into song.
The idea of Sweet/the bad guy serving as a catalyst for bad things to come is an interesting way to use the musical. It is hard to grap that without following the Buffy series as a whole. I think that is part of my issue with getting of watching Buffy in this class. Good television series require you to watch all the episodes. Each episode has its inner conflict then a bigger issue lingers to connect the episodes. The first season of Dexter is a good example of this. That each episodes he kills a serial killer, but the lingering problem is his mystery stalker that he discovers at the end of the first season... or was it the second. Either way, I think the gaps in plot make it hard for me to become hooked on Buffy. I will probably take some time this summer to watch one of the later seasons of Buffy.
A gap for me this episode I was going to write about why the hell did the bad guy think Dawn evoked the monster. I read a little bit after I started sketching the idea in my head that she was having problems with acting out. It is hard to tell that Dawn is having so many problems by watching the episode alone.
A better ending would have been to Xander taken to hell with Sweet. Who says monsters have to be heterosexual.
The part with the villain leaving so easily was the part I felt was resolved too easily. I did not find the end to be unsettling but perhaps that is because I'm not a huge follower of the show. That is just my personal opinion.
Holly- You're right we are not told why it is Dawn who is thought to have summoned him. It would have been a much more interesting ending if Xander was pulled down to Hell. However, that may have made it into a two part musical episode and I don't think I could handle that.
Sweet does explain why he thinks Dawn summoned him--she's wearing his necklace thingy.
But what is the necklace thingy? When did she use it to summon Sweet? Did she do anything at all, or did it just passively happen?
This was confusing for my head.
Here's my understanding: Xander summoned him (using the necklace, which was in the magic shop), Dawn stole the necklace, so the demon thought she was the one who summoned him. But yeah, it's a bit confusing.
The Lord of the Dance wasn't the most challenging of enemies, I agree. The idea of dancing yourself to the point of spontaneous combustion is a little hard to take in, and it was a final showdown without much suspense when the demon just vanishes on his own accord. I get the feeling however that this was done to highlight the internal problems existing among characters, that in reality their greatest challenge to fight against in this episode was the tension that each of the gang was experiencing in their private relationships. There is no final fight and resolution of tension, and the gang is left to deal with the question, "where do we go from here?"
After rereading "Singing and Dancing and Burning and Dying" hand out I was reminded the spontaneous combustions was a reference to Dickens' 'Bleak House', (which I haven't read so I'm going off the hand-out). It is supposed to served as a "metaphor for the self-destruction of either an individual or an institution involved in secrecy and pretense" (Wilcox 192). How this connects to the random folks dancing to death I don't know. Maybe the literal combustion
is a side not to the actual social combustion the gang is facing like Andrew said.
Just want to say that this whole thread of comments is really impressive and smart. Well done, folks!
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