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Post by Clare on Sept 23, 2008 8:18:20 GMT -5
2.11 Ted - Episode #023
Joyce gets a new boyfriend who isn't quite 'human'
Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.
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Post by cyclica on Sept 26, 2008 10:51:39 GMT -5
It didn't really work. The drama didn't fit with suddenly revealing he was a robot, it was a cheap way out of the situation. And since when could they build a robot in the fifties? We don't even have them now. And why was ted keeping his exwives' bodies in the basement? Was he programmed to do that for some reason, or was this robot a psychopath?
On the plus side, joyce finally gets to have something revealed to her, as she sees ted is actually a robot. Up until this point every monster has been supernatural, and joyce was always kept in the dark.
I give this ep a high 3.
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Post by jennf10 on Nov 25, 2008 18:53:57 GMT -5
Buffy returns from a night out with Xander and Willow to find Joyce kissing a man called Ted. Ted turns out to be charm personified, baking superbly, which impresses everyone but Buffy. She's having parental issues, fearing Ted is trying to take over as her Father. Ted takes the Gang and Joyce to mini-golf, where he and Buffy have an unpleasant confrontation over the rules of that great sport. Cordy and Xander continue to illicitly smooch in school broom cupboards. Buffy decides to spy on Ted, but he finds out, and hits Buffy. She goes ballistic, and kicks him down the stairs, where he lands and breaks his neck. Buffy is questioned by the police. Giles saves Jenny's life while patrolling, and some trust is re-established. Ted then turns out to be a homicidal robot, who has married and killed four women before. Ted attempts to kidnap Joyce, but is defeated by a skillet-toting Buffy.
My Review:
Another episode that really did not do much for me. Outside of the outstanding acting by the late John Ritter, this episode was just filler fodder for me. Had no plot advancement and was just silly.
My score: 2/10 - the two is all for John Ritter alone. RIP
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Post by partcynic on Nov 1, 2009 15:32:46 GMT -5
I had a flash of inspiration today, and was able to rewrite one of my lost reviews. Here's hoping I'll be able to do the rest.
***
2x11 “Ted”
Episode Rating = 2
Twenty-three episodes into its run, “Buffy” finally produces its first edition worthy of being called an unmitigated dud. Despite a noteworthy attempt at doing something different with the show’s established formula, next to nothing works here, and the story fails to succeed in either the fields of character insight/development or spinning an entertaining narrative. However, for all of its major flaws, “Ted” is still unique in the “Buffy” canon amongst bad episodes. While many of the truly poor editions (“Wrecked”; “Dead Things”; ”Empty Places”) are shot through with fatal problems and feel like the output of people who’d never be up to making quality television, “Ted” just feels like a group of talented people got together and made a big mistake. It can at least boast that it feels like it belonged to a good show (and it did) – but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s the one that failed.
What I Liked about “Ted”:
- As with many of this era’s episodes, the plot is imaginative, and it covered ground the show hadn’t looked at before (even though it didn’t do it well).
- I enjoyed all of the material pertaining to the reunion of Giles and Jenny – even though it comes across as a Pyrrhic victory. I felt that an appropriate amount of time was left between the Eyghon conflict and the events of this episode to make Jenny’s overtures believable, and the scene in the graveyard was touching and humorous.
- Overall, the quality of the acting is high. John Ritter does a great job of portraying Ted, and the underutilised Kristine Sutherland makes Joyce compelling and sympathetic despite her frequent antagonism towards Buffy. Sarah Michelle Gellar also does an excellent job, and I could certainly feel Buffy’s concern, anger, fear and remorse as the story progressed.
- Considering that I always perceive this episode as being very heavy and melodramatic (which it is), there are some nice jokes in the first half – in particular Xander and Willow’s reactions to Ted (the “you’re having parental issues” dance is my favourite of the lot). In the second half, the laughs quickly evaporate, but I liked Cordy tactlessly bringing up Giles’ involvement in his old friend’s death, as well as her asking why they couldn’t live in a fascist society.
- There are lots of cute references to Ted’s real nature, which are fun to catch when you know what he really is - such as his work nickname being ‘the machine’ and Joyce saying that ‘every home should have one of you’.
- The score music is solid throughout, with my highlights being the strings that play while Buffy and Joyce drive home from the police station in silence, and the creepy scare chords that pop up during Buffy’s final Ted-hunt.
- The climactic Buffy/Ted confrontation is campy, but it’s good camp, and Buffy beaning him over the head with the skillet is a great moment.
What I Disliked about “Ted”:
- I liked that the writers remembered the contract Spike placed on Buffy’s life and dealt with the Order of Taraka, but the explanation undermines the drama of “What’s My Line?” somewhat. After all of the talk about the sect’s dedication and brutality, having them give up after losing only three members detracts a lot from their scariness. Or did they only quit because Spike and Dru were supposedly dead, meaning that they’d receive no payment for killing their bounty?
- One of the fundamental things understood by anyone who watches “Buffy” for reasons beyond ‘it’s funny, the fights are cool and the cast is hot’ is that the show put a creative new spin on coming of age dramas by using the supernatural as metaphor for the horrors of growing up. Until this point, the series had been doing this comfortably episode after episode, and it’s really jarring to see that all go flying out of the window. The main narrative point here (that of a young woman’s response to having her family encroached upon by a threatening father figure) was a worthy one, but it was handled in the most generic way possible. The story was told in a manner indistinguishable from any garden-variety soap opera or bad film (let’s face it, the robot bit was irrelevant to ninety percent of the story), and when the big reveal did come, it sat poorly with what had gone before. Simply put, the two aspects were oil and water, and they didn’t gel at all.
- As I mentioned when reviewing “Some Assembly Required”, I prefer it when “Buffy” and science fiction stay away from each other. While it would admittedly mean losing a pool of potential story ideas, the fact is that the series’ established universe cannot accommodate sci-fi concepts. Thanks to the Hellmouth explanation, I can buy the existence of magic, vampires and demons, but flawlessly executed robots that are so advanced they can dupe real people break my suspension of disbelief. As cool as the idea may be, the show’s late 20th/early 21st century setting can’t make it viable, and that means it shouldn’t have been done. Note that they never bother explaining how exactly the original Ted manufactured his creations – Xander spews out all of the exposition with less than a minute to go, and it’s deeply unsatisfying to hear no rationale beyond ‘oh, he was a genius’.
- On first viewing, Buffy thinking she’d killed Ted was shocking and dramatic, but on repeat watches it falls totally flat. Worse, it becomes glaringly obvious just how poorly the story is handled – this is a major event in terms of both Buffy’s individual growth and the show’s general approach to storytelling, and it’s depressing to see the series stooping to the typical trash-TV standard of having something ‘shocking’ happen, only for it to be tastelessly exploited before being undone or dismissed via a pat explanation.
- The plot point with the drug-cookies makes my head hurt, especially seeing that the explanation given was biological, not magical. What kind of drug is capable of causing an instant mood change in anyone that digests it (snorting and injecting, yes – but not by eating, like what happened with Xander in the library). Why would Ted even need to drug his victims – he seemed charming and friendly enough, and could probably prey effectively on lonely women and get them to come to his ‘bunker o’ love’ of their own accord.
- I loved Cordelia’s lines in the library scene, but it was interesting to note that the script didn’t even try to explore the point she raised. Why exactly shouldn’t there be some changes in the rules for Slayers? Obviously, they shouldn’t be given free reign, but acknowledging that they’re vastly different to normal people and can’t always be held to the same standards wouldn’t hurt. There’s a big difference between a license to kill and understanding a Slayer’s unique situation, and the show presents the issue as a dichotomous one when it’s actually far from that.
- The blocking with the third act break is poorly done. We see Buffy sitting alone in her room, by her bed with her door closed. She then moves over to her (nailed-shut)window, and Ted pops out from where she was just sat. Was he hiding under her bed or something?
- What exactly happened with the police case against Buffy? I’m assuming that Ted came around on the mortuary table and proceeded to clear everything up with the medics and police, meaning that they dropped it. Wouldn’t the Mayor have been happy to know that Buffy may have faced a homicide charge, or at least one for aggravated assault?
Do i Like this episode more or les than the last time I watched it?
The last time I rated this episode, I gave it a score of three, but on subsequent viewings it’s grated on me so badly that I eventually dropped it to a ‘2’. Rewatching now, it wasn’t quite so painful, though I certainly can’t justify raising it above its current position – mainly because I can only enjoy it if I shut my brain off completely and let myself be entertained by the pretty moving pictures. Personally, I find that to be a damning assessment, so I’m keeping my score at a two and consoling myself that the show won’t produce anything as weak as this for another three years.
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Post by cyclica on Nov 6, 2009 17:03:23 GMT -5
I'm bumping this one up to a 4. After watching 'all the way', ted was like a breath of fresh air. It was a bad episode, sure, but nowhere near season 6 bad. Like I said before, revealing ted was a robot was a really cheap way out of the situation, and it made no sense. However, the scenes leading up to it were ok. I can put up with the non-supernatural story and even the lame 'spoilers' ("I'm not wired that way", "he's the machine") because the story itself was well done - I wanted to see what happened next. If anything, the fact that it wasn't a supernatural story meant that I wasn't watching knowing that buffy will eventually kill the monster like in most episodes (although that is eventually what happened  ). The dramatic elements weren't all bad (I really felt for buffy when ted threatened to slap her, then went right back to hanging out with her friends), plus the dialogue was good like always, and we had some advancement on the genny and xandelia subplots, which were always good to watch. The ending though was unforgivable. So buffy cuts ted's arm, and suddenly he can't think straight? What kind of robot designer puts the brain in the arm? And since when could they build robots in the fifties? And why would he keep the bodies in his house? The whole robot reveal ruins the episode, they should have just made him a demon or something like that. One more nitpick I've only just noticed upon rewatching. At the mini golf cource, they were playing on a cource with a big clock. But in the very next scene it was a castle. |
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Post by cyclica on Nov 6, 2009 17:29:21 GMT -5
- I liked that the writers remembered the contract Spike placed on Buffy’s life and dealt with the Order of Taraka, but the explanation undermines the drama of “What’s My Line?” somewhat. After all of the talk about the sect’s dedication and brutality, having them give up after losing only three members detracts a lot from their scariness. Or did they only quit because Spike and Dru were supposedly dead, meaning that they’d receive no payment for killing their bounty? When watching this episode for the first time, I assumed the order of taraka would return at some point, and so I didn't think anymore of it. But looking back, the plothole becomes more obvious. I can only assume your explanation was correct, that they opted out after realising they wouldn't be paid. - As I mentioned when reviewing “Some Assembly Required”, I prefer it when “Buffy” and science fiction stay away from each other. While it would admittedly mean losing a pool of potential story ideas, the fact is that the series’ established universe cannot accommodate sci-fi concepts. Thanks to the Hellmouth explanation, I can buy the existence of magic, vampires and demons, but flawlessly executed robots that are so advanced they can dupe real people break my suspension of disbelief. As cool as the idea may be, the show’s late 20th/early 21st century setting can’t make it viable, and that means it shouldn’t have been done. Ted as a robot built in the fifties was hard to beleive, but I had no problem with april later on. Robots who can walk and talk exist now, as does the fake skin, hair etc (like they use to make movie props) that covers their metal bodies. The only thing that doesn't exist right now is artificial intelligence (a far as I know), and clearly april isn't thinking as a human does. I always assumed that warren would have got the blueprints from hacking into the computer of someone who builds robots (a lab for example), and therefore the only issue for me was where did he get the money for parts. - The blocking with the third act break is poorly done. We see Buffy sitting alone in her room, by her bed with her door closed. She then moves over to her (nailed-shut)window, and Ted pops out from where she was just sat. Was he hiding under her bed or something? I guess he was just in a shadow, out of the range of her sight. It's a really lame explanation I know.  - What exactly happened with the police case against Buffy? I’m assuming that Ted came around on the mortuary table and proceeded to clear everything up with the medics and police, meaning that they dropped it. Wouldn’t the Mayor have been happy to know that Buffy may have faced a homicide charge, or at least one for aggravated assault? Interesting. It never occured to me what the mayor might make of all this. Perhaps this is the incident that drew her to his attention? |
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Post by partcynic on Nov 6, 2009 18:37:09 GMT -5
Very true! "Ted" is a failure, but at least it's watchable. It's almost as though S6 sought to make people appreciate the less popular eps of S1-4 by redefining what the term 'bad' meant in reference to "Buffy". Yes and yes. I was so disappointed that they stooped so low with the resolution to the 'Buffy killed a human' plot - and it looks even more bizarre knowing that the writers were willing to actually follow through on darker stuff like "Innocence" and "Passion". Yeah. I'm assuming she severed some kind of important fluid distribution network or something. Those scenes are just bizarre. I've never been able to tell if Ted's lines about Parcheesi etc are supposed to be scary or funny. I have the same feelings about April as I do Ted concept wise - but April's story was far superior in humour, plot, theme and character development, so I can easily overlook my misgivings when reviewing IWMTLY. But you're right - at least April has the benefit of being a 90s/00s creation instead of something that's been around since the 50s. That, and why the dimwit didn't create or work with a company after achieving something so impressive. I've no clue why he'd need to rob banks with the Troika when he could make billions by copyrighting and selling his robots. That was just me thinking too much. But yes, perhaps this was an incident that may have heightened the Mayor's interest in Buffy. If he thought she was willing to kill humans, he might have been worried for his own safety (since he wouldn't become invincible for another year) and decided to have Snyder keep closer tabs on her. |
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Post by cyclica on Nov 7, 2009 13:05:53 GMT -5
Yeah. I'm assuming she severed some kind of important fluid distribution network or something. Those scenes are just bizarre. I've never been able to tell if Ted's lines about Parcheesi etc are supposed to be scary or funny. I'd say a little of both. Not really scary enough to scare you, but not funny enough to make you laugh. That, and why the dimwit didn't create or work with a company after achieving something so impressive. I've no clue why he'd need to rob banks with the Troika when he could make billions by copyrighting and selling his robots. Perhaps because he aquired his parts or knowledge illegally (hacking) and didn't want to go to prison. Or more likely he just loved the idea of being a supervillain more than the material gains. |
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). The dramatic elements weren't all bad (I really felt for buffy when ted threatened to slap her, then went right back to hanging out with her friends), plus the dialogue was good like always, and we had some advancement on the genny and xandelia subplots, which were always good to watch.