Season 2: The Loss of Innocence

[Clare]

Review and discuss season two here - also include your scores for each of the episodes.

Which episode was your favourite and which was your least favourite? And why?

[cyclica]

Here are my ratings for season two.

2X01 When She Was Bad - Low 3
2x02 Some Assembly Required - Low 6
2x03 School Hard - 9
2x04 Inca Mummy Girl - Low 6
2x05 Reptile Boy - 5
2x06 Halloween - 7
2x07 Lie To Me - Low 5
2x08 The Dark Age - Low 5
2x09 What’s My Line? Part 1 - 7
2x10 What’s My Line? Part 2 - 7
2x11 Ted - 4
2x12 Bad Eggs - High 6
2x13 Surprise - 6
2x14 Innocence - High 7
2x15 Phases - Low 7
2x16 Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - 8
2x17 Passion - Low 7
2x18 Killed By Death - Low 8
2x19 I Only Have Eyes For You - Low 5
2x20 Go Fish - Low 6
2x21 Becoming, Part 1 - Low 7
2x22 Becoming, Part 2 - Low 8

Average score: 6

Upon rewatching I found I enjoyed the angel/spike/dru triangle a little more, and of course cordy, but aside from that not much has changed. I watch this season a lot more than I do s1, and so watching it again didn't make as much of an impression on me as rewatching s1 did.

Best Episode - School hard, easily.

Worst Episode - When she was bad, easily.

Most Valuable Player - Cordy. Prety much every scene she's been in has been enjoyable to watch.

Best Scene - This is a hard one. Probably either buffy doing her die-hard impression in 'school hard', or the sword fight in 'becoming part 2'. Or maybe even the conversation at the end of 'lie to me'.

[partcynic]

After finding my stash of never-published "Angel" reviews and deciding to post them here for old time's sake, I inevitably started thinking about the shows, and got a hankering to watch them again after a break of almost a decade. I've since made the time to do precisely that, and I thought I'd also take the chance to fill in some commentary I missed the first time round, from a perspective of increased age and experience. So, I'll fill in these season overviews as I go, and maybe tweak a couple of my old posts if I deem it necessary.

S2 Episode Ratings

5 2x01 When She Was Bad
5 2x02 Some Assembly Required
9 2x03 School Hard
7 2x04 Inca Mummy Girl
4 2x05 Reptile Boy
8 2x06 Halloween
6 2x07 Lie To Me
5 2x08 The Dark Age
7 2x09 What's My Line, Part One
7 2x10 What's My Line, Part Two
2 2x11 Ted
4 2x12 Bad Eggs
8 2x13 Surprise
9 2x14 Innocence
5 2x15 Phases
8 2x16 Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
10 2x17 Passion
4 2x18 Killed By Death
8 2x19 I Only Have Eyes For You
5 2x20 Go Fish
9 2x21 Becoming, Part One
9 2x22 Becoming, Part Two

Average = 6.55 (between very good and excellent).

(All ratings completely unchanged from back in the day!)

Overview

For me, S2 was the best of "Buffy". As S1's success took the show from being a curio to something the WB network took seriously, it got a full season order and a boosted budget - the improvement in special effects, fight choreography and incidental music alone is enough to suggest a step up. But what made the season shine this year was the total, heartfelt devotion of everybody involved with it. For all of the (legitimate!) criticisms of Joss Whedon that have emerged over the years, there's no denying that in his desire to prove himself, he gave season two (and three) of "Buffy" all he had, doing substantial rewrites on every single episode and granting the show a consistency that neither it - nor anything else he's done - would ever quite have thereafter.

But it wasn't just Joss who pulled out all the stops. Marti Noxon joined the show as writer and story editor in early S2, penning four eps almost in a row (the "What's My Line" two-parter, "Bad Eggs" and "Surprise"), and then gifting us "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" and "I Only Have Eyes For You". Her arrival lines up almost perfectly with the series fully realising its potential, and she and Joss are responsible for a full twelve of the season's 22 episodes. That's some dedication, and there's no denying that out of the creative team, Marti was second only to Joss in making the series the titan it became.

Then there was the cast. Whatever wobbles may have happened in S1, every single actor, main or supporting, was on fire this year. Whether it was the core four characters, established support (Cordy; Joyce; Jenny; Snyder) or the newbies (Spike; Drusilla; Oz; Angelus; Ethan; even Jonathon and Larry - we were spoiled rotten with quality characters this season), everyone was fully engaged. As a result, they all proved themselves stars, and I hope that they can look back and feel real pride in what they accomplished.

The primary joy of watching S2 comes from the consummate skill of its writing. Only one of its episodes failed ("Ted", which is still the best of the bad "Buffy" eps), and the rest show tremendous range. With a new story almost every week, no plot got the chance to bore or drag (bar Buffy's early "I want a normal life!" complaints), and we covered plenty of ground, from cute creature features ("Some Assembly Required"; "Bad Eggs", "Go Fish") to badass action ("School Hard") to hilarious comedy ("Halloween"; "Bewitched...") to the most powerful, emotional drama the show ever did ("Innocence"; "Passion"; "Becoming"). Every episode was well-paced, and even though different eps had different proportions of drama and comedy, there was a good mix in every single one.

Furthermore, the consistently great dialogue and chemistry between the main characters/actors made Scooby interaction a delight to watch, so that even the season's weakest episodes are plenty of fun, and the character development is handled so carefully - and so incrementally - that it feels almost effortless.

Most of the main characters would be significantly altered by the end of the year (Buffy losing her flippant worldview and struggling with her immense emotional pain; Willow becoming increasingly confident and assertive; Giles emerging as an equal partner and ally to Buffy rather than a bumbling authority; Cordy now a fully fledged Scooby who truly loves Xander), and the season was willing to devote equal time to the characters' joys and suffering. Because we saw the wonderful, genuine warmth and flirtation between Giles and Jenny, it was horrifying when he discovered her body, and because we saw the steady progression of tenderness, desire and love between Buffy and Angel, it was heartbreaking when he lost his soul, and when she had to kill him. I think this is the biggest takeaway of the year - S2 was willing to show the dark and the light, so its darkness was earned, and had real emotional impact.

Overall, it was a treat to watch S2 again - even after so many viewings and so many years passing, there's magic here, and I'm certainly psyched to move on to S3.

S2 Awards

Best Episode - "Passion". Deep, dark, dramatic and disturbing. Nothing in the show could be the same after this one.

Worst Episode - "Ted". The first properly bad episode, because it's the first time the show discarded metaphor. 80% of the ep is a bog-standard family violence drama, and the 'he's a robot' revelation is tacked-on and cheap.

Best Writer - Joss Whedon. "Innocence" and "Becoming" narrowly put him ahead of Marti Noxon's great work.

Most Valuable Player - Sarah Michelle Gellar. The Angelus arc was a real test and showcase of her talents, and she always excelled. But as I said, everybody was amazing this season.

Best Scene - To the year's credit, there are lots of candidates for this spot. But for me, it's got to be Giles discovering Jenny's body in "Passion". The tension is almost unbearable, as we already know what he's going to find. The little smile when he takes the rose from his door gets me every time.