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Post by Clare on Sept 24, 2008 6:14:56 GMT -5
3.02 Dead Man's Party - Episode #036
Buffy's return home celebration is marred by a relic with the power to raise the dead.
Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.
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Post by cyclica on Oct 1, 2008 12:24:56 GMT -5
Not a fun episode. It gets only a 4 from me.
Most of it is taken up by buffy's family and friends shouting at her, with xander and willow being especially nasty. And the zombie plot is just an afterthought, a token supernatural element to add to an otherwise purely emotional episode.
On the plus side the beginning was ok, with giles holding back the tears when buffy returns and things seem to get back to normal. And the end conversation between buffy and willow was pretty good. (Witch! Freak!)
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Post by partcynic on Dec 7, 2009 15:47:09 GMT -5
3x02 “Dead Man’s Party”
Episode Rating = 2
I think I’ve gone on record as saying that I only find five of the first hundred “Buffy” episodes to be bad, and S3 sadly contributes the show’s second unmitigated misstep with “Dead Man’s Party” (the first one was “Ted”). Despite possessing a decent number of positive qualities, it’s also one of the only episodes from the first five seasons to have major characterisation problems, with many of the series’ key players being twisted and misrepresented in order to present a patronising theme. This singlehandedly sinks the story for me, and it also provides an alarming example of the heavy-handed moralising that would haunt the show en masse in its final years. Fortunately, good material for Giles and Joyce and a few excellent lines permit it to slide past with a passable (but still failing) grade.
What I Liked about “Dead Man’s Party”:
- The teaser was enjoyable (for the most part), and the interaction between Buffy and Joyce showcased how mother and daughter were trying to redefine their relationship in light of recent events. The subsequent reunion of Buffy and the Scoobs was also good, and I liked how the gang were bewildered to the point of not really knowing how to respond.
- Giles is easily the best character in this episode, and his material was consistently great. The moment where he opened his door to see Buffy was emotional, as was the excellent cut to him in the kitchen while the Scoobs chatted nearby. I was thankful that he actually considered Buffy’s feelings (being the only character in the entire episode to do so), and his later gripe about “Americans!” after discovering Joyce’s mask was demonic was the funniest line in the episode. I also loved his confrontation with Snyder, where we got to see a bit of Ripper coming through – it’s wonderful how much the character has grown and changed since the prim and proper days of S1.
- Surprisingly, I thought that the progression of Joyce’s character was very good. It was obvious that she was having a hard time dealing with both Buffy’s Slayerhood and her having run away, but she still came across as loving and considerate. In addition, her frustrations had legitimate reasons, and the fact that they were based on ignorance and misinformation made them much easier to accept than the malicious reactions of the Scoobs (who should all have known better). Having her experience the battle against evil first-hand was the best way to open her eyes to the realities of Buffy’s life, and sets the stage for a renewed closeness between the two in subsequent eps.
- Principal Snyder is a fantastic character when taken in small doses, and he was excellent here. I laughed at his smug comments about ‘tingliness’ and Hot Dog On A Stick, and his solitary, parting shot about the Mayor continued the strong arc foreshadowing we got in S2.
- As far as love-to-hate characters go, Pat was a good one. She was so thoroughly obnoxious, thoughtless and condescending that she was easy to loathe, and that made both of her deaths very satisfying.
- The mask and Ovu Mobani (or however it’s spelt) were cool one-episode concepts, and permitted a type of story the series hadn’t done before. I dug the whole zombie attack, and liked the ‘Dawn of the Dead’ homage in the corpses’ appearances and shambling, aimless movements. In general, the story’s pace picked up once the monsters arrived, and it allowed for a great moment as Joyce wielded a baseball bat (not as awesome as her taking an axe to Spike in “School Hard”, but still cool), as well as Cordy’s amusing line about ‘zombie-Giles’.
What I Disliked about “Dead Man’s Party”:
- Continuing the annoying tendency for Slayers to seem pointless, there’s no way that Willow and Cordelia should have been able to pull away and restrain a vampire. In addition, even the gang’s revised figure of dusting six out of ten vamps is far too high – as regular human beings with little physical training and no supernatural skills, they should be defeating one in a hundred at absolute most, and incurring bad injuries/dying in the process.
- It’s good that the writers remembered the warrant the police put out for Buffy’s arrest, but the arbitrary statements that the case was dropped aren’t enough. Why exactly would the police ditch as likely a suspect as Buffy (has a history of violent behaviour; has been investigated in a homicide case before; was present at the murder scene; assaulted a police officer, resisted arrest and then fled both the crime scene and the town?) If the Mayor was excited about the idea of a Slayer being up for first-degree murder in “Consequences”, wouldn’t he have encouraged the cops to pursue the case, and not abandon it?
- Why did the mask only reanimate the dead cat on the first night, instead of immediately summoning a human zombie horde? Was the demon content with being reborn as a feline (though that would admittedly be funny)?
- The theme of this episode (don’t run away from home/your problems, because it’s bad) is too young for the show, and it makes the fatal mistake of drawing analogies between Buffy and the viewing audience. Since no-one watching the series is ever going to go through anything as horrific as Buffy experienced in “Becoming”, the comparison holds no water, and its purported lesson no meaning.
- There’s a glaring lack of forethought throughout this episode, and it results in some horrendous characterisation. I’ll break the three worst offenders down in detail, but suffice to say it’s very bizarre that everyone treats Buffy’s running away as though it occurred due to something trivial – the Scoobs should have had the brains to figure out what happened.
- Let’s consider the evidence, and that’s that the last time any of them saw Buffy (which was as Xander escorted Giles out of the mansion), she was fighting Angel to the death. Since the world didn’t end, it’s safe to say Buffy won, so that means they must know she killed Angelus at the very least. That would be scarring enough in itself (given that they know how much she had loved Angel; that sleeping with her was what turned him evil; that he’d done his best to psychologically torture her; and that Buffy blamed - and refused to forgive – herself for the events he perpetrated, including Jenny’s murder), but let’s also factor in that they KNOW Buffy was expelled from school, kicked out of her home, had an ally (and fellow Slayer, perhaps the only other person she could truly relate to) murdered, and was hunted by the police... all in the space of twenty-four hours. This kind of combined, mass psychological trauma could damage someone permanently beyond repair, and yet none of Buffy’s so-called ‘friends’ offer her a shred of compassion – only spite and nastiness. What on earth is wrong with these people?
- I used to enjoy Xander’s character quite a bit, but this is the point at which he reveals his true, slimy self - and my perspective thus changes to dislike. It’s notable that he’s the first character to turn on Buffy in any crisis, and true to form, he’s sticking the knife in at the first opportunity (his uncalled-for barb about her running away while they waited outside Giles’). His subsequent library statement about her ‘ruining [our] lives’ was ridiculous, and shouting at her at the party was unforgiveable. I have no comprehension of how clueless a writer would have to be to think calling Buffy “selfish and stupid” and equating all the pain she went through to “boy troubles” was acceptable or admirable – but that’s just what this episode does, and it’s actually disgusting. From this point on, I have no idea why Buffy would be willing to call Xander her friend – though maybe she wouldn’t, if the news of his lie had been revealed.
- Even poor Willow gets it badly, though she’s not as unbearable as Xander. Still, her uncertainty about Buffy’s return shouldn’t have translated into ditching her at the coffee shop with no explanation, ignoring her at the party and then having the audacity to whine that Buffy wasn’t talking to her. Worse, her intelligence seems to have vanished as she apparently believes that her trivial problems (having a werewolf boyfriend and doing magic, which she shouldn’t be messing with anyway) are equal to what Buffy went through.
- Last (but sadly, not least), Buffy’s behaviour is also strange. Much of this episode’s irritation factor could have been soothed if it had taken Buffy’s side – but instead, it renders her a meek idiot who’s incapable of stating basic facts. Given that Buffy knows what really happened, why doesn’t she shut the others up by telling them? Instead, she comes out with nonsense like ”you wouldn’t understand”; a woefully contrived plot device to make her accept the other’s unwarranted attacks and hammer the after-school-special theme home.
- As I mentioned in “Innocence” and “Becoming, Part One”, why is everyone now okay with monster fights in front of civilians? Similarly, should Xander really have been calling Angel a demon in front of everyone?
Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?
Every time I watch this, I like it less, and if it wasn’t for the many disasters waiting for us in S6/7, I’d easily slap this with a big zero. While I do often point out nitpicks and issues I have with episodes, most of the time they’re merely minor slips that have little impact on the show’s enjoyability. However, this edition’s massive theme and character problems go beyond miniscule gripes into full-fledged bad writing, and the presence of some admittedly great material can’t compensate for those glaring issues. As a result, I’m giving “Dead Man’s Party” my stamp of disapproval as one of the worst character slaughters in the series, as well as a much-deserved score of two out of ten.
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Post by cyclica on Dec 10, 2009 17:18:41 GMT -5
There's not much to the story on this one. Buffy can't deal with the life she's come back to, especially when she can't go back to school, her freinds are insensitive towhat she's been going through (and throw a party for her for some stupid reason) and she overhears her mum saying things are worse in a way now she's back. So she tries to run away again, and her friends and family respond to this by... being even harder on her. Which they would never do, except in this episode they do. Oh and there's zombies. The only purpose of the zombies is to give the story a supernatural element, and to bring everyone together at the end, as they join forces to fight the zombies off. And suddenly everything's cool again, somehow. This ep isn't all bad though. There are some good scenes, like giles's reaction to discovering buffy's back, and the scene near the end where giles suddenly becomes extremely threatening to snyder as he tries to get buffy back into school. And there's some humerous moments too, such as oz calling the dead cat 'patches', buffy telling cordy to get out of her shoes, jonathan's appearance at the party, giles' comments about the mask ('Do you like my mask? Isn't it pretty? It raises the dead!' Americans!), and the conversation at the end between willow and buffy. And as always, I'm enjoying the little references to the mayor before his introduction later. I also liked the scene where buffy first meets the rest of the gang on patrol, but upon rewatching I couldn't help finding flaws. Why was xander patrolling on his own? If he was attacked and called for help, by the time the others arrived he'd be long dead. And what's with the vampire jumping out of a boarded up window? And did you notice buffy throwing cordy to the ground? Why would she do that, other than so all her friends can be on the ground together? There's plenty more to nitpick later in the episode too. Like giles reading a book, but missing the page on the mask because he was turning pages while looking the other way. That was just stupid. And I don't really get the mask. So it revives the cat, and the next day it revives corpses all over town, no matter how far away? If it's that powerful, why didn't it raise the dead on the first day, or better yet as soon as it was brought into town? Why does it only work at night? And once pat put the mask on and became the zombie demon, why were the other zombies afraid of her? And once again buffy dreams about angel, yay.  This isn't an unwatchable episode and most of the problems are overlookable, but a whole episode consisting of buffy's friends being overly hard on her or just acting stupid (and taken out of character to make the scenes work) is never going to be one I love. I stand by my 4. |
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Post by partcynic on Dec 11, 2009 14:51:22 GMT -5
. One of those scenes is not like the others.  I disliked the ending - it was moronic and hypocritical for Willow to act like the moral superior when she was in the wrong, and I hated that they played her obnoxiousness for laughs. I guess they split up to cover more ground. Given that they suck as 'slayers', it's not too far-fetched that they'd do something so dumb. She pushed her out of the way so she'd get a clear shot at the lunging vampire. Better to do that than risk having Cordy get acquainted with Mr Pointy. I'd say more 'contrived' than stupid. It's plausible that he could miss something while distracted, especially if he'd been working for a while. I didn't like the 'scared of her' reason the show gave, either. I like to think of it more as the minor zombies leaving their 'lord' to go about his work. Yeah - that scene was tacked on and unnecessary. Good job there's only one more ep of them. I agree that the messed up characterisation is what kills the ep, but I think your 4 is a bit generous. I assume you're saving the bottom grades for S6/7? |
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Post by cyclica on Dec 12, 2009 13:49:02 GMT -5
Wow. I am actually surprised you've commented on one of my reviews. After all, you hadn't left any comments on my last five. Like I've said before, the main reason I do these reviews is to get a discussion going, and that hasn't been happening recently. I've been considering giving up on the reviews altogether, after all it takes a lot of time and effort to make them, and if (as far as I know) they aren't even being read, I couldn't very well keep on making them for no reason. I'm glad you've decided to engage in discussion again. Anyway, on with the comments- - It’s good that the writers remembered the warrant the police put out for Buffy’s arrest, but the arbitrary statements that the case was dropped aren’t enough. Why exactly would the police ditch as likely a suspect as Buffy (has a history of violent behaviour; has been investigated in a homicide case before; was present at the murder scene; assaulted a police officer, resisted arrest and then fled both the crime scene and the town?) If the Mayor was excited about the idea of a Slayer being up for first-degree murder in “Consequences”, wouldn’t he have encouraged the cops to pursue the case, and not abandon it? I guess snyder wasn't exaggerating when he said the police of sunnydale are deeply stupid. And the mayor hasn't appeared yet, so that fact that he's not sending cops after buffy at this point but will do later is more of an issue for a later episode. - Why did the mask only reanimate the dead cat on the first night, instead of immediately summoning a human zombie horde? Was the demon content with being reborn as a feline (though that would admittedly be funny)? It never occured to me that the cat might have been trying to put the mask on. Though now I think about it that would have been pretty funny, especially if patches talking in a demon voice. Or if buffy and the cat had a fight. - Even poor Willow gets it badly, though she’s not as unbearable as Xander. Still, her uncertainty about Buffy’s return shouldn’t have translated into ditching her at the coffee shop with no explanation, ignoring her at the party and then having the audacity to whine that Buffy wasn’t talking to her. Worse, her intelligence seems to have vanished as she apparently believes that her trivial problems (having a werewolf boyfriend and doing magic, which she shouldn’t be messing with anyway) are equal to what Buffy went through. Totally agree. I never understood why willow would be avoiding buffy then complaining about buffy not talking to her. And that whole 'having no one to talk to thing' makes no sense, she can talk to any one of her friends, and it's not like she has problems, she just wanted conversation and support. - As I mentioned in “Innocence” and “Becoming, Part One”, why is everyone now okay with monster fights in front of civilians? Similarly, should Xander really have been calling Angel a demon in front of everyone? I didn't mind xander's comment, if I heard someone call someone else a demon I wouldn't assume demons are real because of it. But a crowded room's worth of people all getting attacked by zombies, that's a different matter. Some of them were even helping to fight the zombies. Are we supposed to beleive these people still won't beleive in the supernatural after everything they saw? She pushed her out of the way so she'd get a clear shot at the lunging vampire. Better to do that than risk having Cordy get acquainted with Mr Pointy. That seems likely. I just found it pretty amusing that xander, willow and oz would get knocked down by the vamp, with cordy and buffy still standing, and then buffy threw cordy down, as if to 'complete the set'. I'd say more 'contrived' than stupid. It's plausible that he could miss something while distracted, especially if he'd been working for a while. I agree that it's contrived. But it's stupid too. I agree that the messed up characterisation is what kills the ep, but I think your 4 is a bit generous. I assume you're saving the bottom grades for S6/7? You're right I am. But you don't have make an assumption, you can go read my s6 and s7 reviews and see for yourself. Speaking of, if I continue reviewing up until season 5, I'll be ending it there. I've already given season 6 and 7 much more in-depth reviews than I had initially given for the first 5 seasons, and besides my s6 reviews are still fairly fresh and new, and unread (certainly uncommented upon), and there would be no point in reviewing them again as I'm sure I'd have very little if anything to add. Though I do still have the last 3 eps of s7 to review, which I will get around to doing one day, promise! |
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Post by partcynic on Dec 12, 2009 15:11:53 GMT -5
It's not intentional - trust me. My internet is giving me all kinds of grief at the moment, so I can do quick replies, but not longer ones. What I'm having to do is copy posts, save them offline, and then write my response in Word before posting them (and praying my internet doesn't make my computer crash, as it's doing at the moment). I will catch up on the ones where I have something worthwhile to say (not "Anne", since we agree on almost everything there, as you pointed out) ASAP - maybe even this evening. I think it was - after all, it went straight to Joyce's room upon entering the house. I think the cat demon would have been hilariously bad - they should have done it! Yes you do - complete them!  |
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Post by cyclica on Dec 13, 2009 18:11:50 GMT -5
It's not intentional - trust me. My internet is giving me all kinds of grief at the moment, so I can do quick replies, but not longer ones. What I'm having to do is copy posts, save them offline, and then write my response in Word before posting them (and praying my internet doesn't make my computer crash, as it's doing at the moment). I will catch up on the ones where I have something worthwhile to say (not "Anne", since we agree on almost everything there, as you pointed out) ASAP - maybe even this evening. I'm sorrry to hear about your internet troubles.  I've been there myself. |
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I disliked the ending - it was moronic and hypocritical for Willow to act like the moral superior when she was in the wrong, and I hated that they played her obnoxiousness for laughs.
I've been there myself.