|
|
Post by Clare on Sept 26, 2008 9:51:56 GMT -5
5.09 Listening To Fear - Episode #087
A meteorite crash-lands on earth, bringing with it a Queller demon that takes an unhealthy interest in an ailing Joyce.
Review (also post a score out of 10) and discuss this episode.
|
|
|
|
Post by cyclica on Feb 9, 2009 17:19:13 GMT -5
Meh, not a great episode.
The joyce drama subplot was at its most depressing. And the while I usually enjoy seeing the scoobies solve problems without buffy, I didn't like the explanation that 'life stuff comes first'. I mean it was a life and death situation, surely that's important enough for buffy to get involved. I didn't really buy the idea of a demon from space anyway, and just why is it the gang did the research at the college library, instead of at the magic box? Does the college have demon books too?
Still there were good moments, like anya saying the radiation could make you go sterile, and xander leaping back. And the demon itself was pretty original and scary, although with no legs and 2 stubby arms it didn't look like much of a threat.
I give this ep a 4.
|
|
|
|
Post by partcynic on Aug 12, 2010 14:24:22 GMT -5
5x09 “Listening to Fear”
Episode Rating = 4
One thing that makes S5 harder to review than prior seasons is its high degree of continuity, and the fact that many of its offerings aren’t so much episodes as connectors. “Listening to Fear” is one such example – I can’t say that there’s anything fundamentally wrong with it, but I have the hardest time coming up with any substantial discussion. It takes us from A to B with a few minute bits of character and arc progression, but it’s basically “Shadow, Part Two” in all but name, with nothing new to offer besides its cool monster. That’s all fine in concept, but I wish I could leave more S5 episodes feeling like I’d watched a well-written story rather than gone on a mere ‘trip to Sunnydale’, and the constant over-involvement is significantly hurting the season’s rewatchability.
What I Liked about “Listening to Fear”:
- I guess you could easily find the outer space aspect of the plot jarring, but I was okay with it. It was neat to have a little “X Files” flavour to the story, and the reveal that the meteor was the result of a summoning spell helped it to fit with the Buffyverse. It was also cool to have a monster appear via a different method, and it makes sense that if they can come from underground or be horizontally drawn to the Hellmouth’s energy, they might also come from above.
- The Queller demon is one of the more disturbing things the show has provided. Although its movements aren’t the most convincing in the world, its ‘alien cockroach’ appearance is creepy (as were those eerie clicking sounds it made). I also loved its horrible method of killing – it was the most skin-crawling thing we’ve had since Der Kindestod, and it’s always a plus when monsters are actually monstrous.
- All of the Scooby scenes were good. I liked the vampire fight towards the start (and applaud the writers for remembering that humans should struggle against supernatural beings), and the group research/investigations provided some much-needed comedy (Xander’s response to the radiation comment; Anya’s space-lamb; “killer snot monster from outer space”; and the key to the case lying in a book titled “Meteors and You!”)
- The material that focused on the Summers family was acceptable. You can really feel Buffy and Joyce’s pain (while blatantly manipulative, the scene where Buffy tried to do the washing up and broke down in tears was upsetting), and it was their interactions that held the most emotional power. Their final, pre-surgery conversation was written very sappily, but Kristine and SMG overcame its limitations and made it moving instead.
- As in “Shadow”, Dawn was fine. She works better as the young and naive member of the family unit than as a bratty upstart, and I liked that she demonstrated some intelligence and connected the ‘disturbed people and me’ dots.
- The Willow/Tara stargazing chat was romantic and charming, and it’s rewarding to see Tara’s continued development. It’s also interesting to note that despite the limitations that have been imposed on their portrayal, they feel like much more of a couple than the prominent Buffy/Riley pairing.
- This episode has a lot of neat little arc bits, and it’s fun to spot them when you know the full story. Moments like the brain-sucked watchman from ”No Place Like Home” making a reappearance; the fresh emphasis placed upon the mentally unstable and their perceptions of Dawn, and the first mention of the link between Ben and Glory were good, and I really liked that Joyce discovered the truth about her ‘daughter’ (and then, how she reacted to the news).
What I Disliked about “Listening to Fear”:
- There are a number of shaky editing decisions. I noticed multiple incidences of character reaction shots not synchronising to spoken dialogue (focus on Dawn when Joyce and Buffy exchange their look over the gelatin conversation); and when Riley calls the military group, there’s someone standing in the left side of the shot despite his supposedly being alone.
- Speaking of Riley, does anyone really care about his vampire-biting games? As I said in my last review, it’s baffling if the writers are expecting us to sympathise with him, and poor writing if they’ve arbitrarily decided to make him a whiny male with masculinity issues.
- The ‘we can’t involve Buffy in this’ comments from the gang were iffy. I understand that they don’t want to add to her worries and feel that they should be able to handle things by themselves, but neglecting to inform her of a dangerous, newly-arrived monster was a poor decision.
- How was the Queller able to travel around so easily? When Buffy’s fighting it, it appears to be around the same size as her, yet no-one notices it crawling about at the hospital. It could have at least gone sneaking through the air ducts.
- Quite a few scenes are wet. I was hardly expecting things to be a barrel of laughs, but the omnipresent doom and gloom got a bit much, especially as it felt like drama for drama’s sake. I’ll say that I both sympathised and empathised with the Summers family throughout, but it was too much given that “Shadow” also dedicated most of its time to hospital scenes and barely-contained emotions. It also didn’t help that the writing was a bit cheap and amateurish, and ‘revelations’ like Buffy’s sage advice for Dawn being “don’t listen” were unintentionally humorous.
- Spike’s appearance is unnecessary and ruined the tenseness of the monster hunt. I also continue to be unimpressed at seeing stalking portrayed as a joke.
- Ben’s statement that he’s been “clearing up Glory’s mess all my life” doesn’t make sense when you know that she only managed to start manifesting six-or-so months prior to this episode.
Do I like this episode more or less than the last time I watched it?
Probably a teeny bit more, but only because I made the deliberate decision to leave a big gap between watching this and “Shadow”. Doing so helped ease the issues of repetitiveness, though I remained constantly aware of them, and they contributed to making things drag. That said, I still thought that the Queller was a creative and wonderfully disgusting foe; liked the multiple arc references (as I’ve said before, I’m not a huge fan of the Glory/Key stuff, but respect that most of it was well-planned); and enjoyed all of the material with the non-Riley Scoobs. Those qualities are enough to bag “Listening to Fear” a four out of ten, though I’ll say that I’d probably have rated it a point higher if its story had either 1) been a sub-plot to something more interesting; or 2) hadn’t had ninety percent of its material covered only one episode before.
|
|
|
|
Post by cyclica on Oct 22, 2010 14:50:58 GMT -5
One thing that makes S5 harder to review than prior seasons is its high degree of continuity, and the fact that many of its offerings aren’t so much episodes as connectors. “Listening to Fear” is one such example – I can’t say that there’s anything fundamentally wrong with it, but I have the hardest time coming up with any substantial discussion. It takes us from A to B with a few minute bits of character and arc progression, but it’s basically “Shadow, Part Two” in all but name, with nothing new to offer besides its cool monster. That’s all fine in concept, but I wish I could leave more S5 episodes feeling like I’d watched a well-written story rather than gone on a mere ‘trip to Sunnydale’, and the constant over-involvement is significantly hurting the season’s rewatchability. Agreed. - I guess you could easily find the outer space aspect of the plot jarring, but I was okay with it. It was neat to have a little “X Files” flavour to the story, and the reveal that the meteor was the result of a summoning spell helped it to fit with the Buffyverse. It was also cool to have a monster appear via a different method, and it makes sense that if they can come from underground or be horizontally drawn to the Hellmouth’s energy, they might also come from above. I liked the show shaking things up and trying something different every now and then, but I'm not on board with a space demon. Either it's an alien demon, and there's a whole planet full of quellers out there, or the spell created the demon out of (and in) thin air, which is pointless. Why not have a spell that summons a demon right in front of you, instead of dropping onto you? - All of the Scooby scenes were good. I liked the vampire fight towards the start (and applaud the writers for remembering that humans should struggle against supernatural beings), and the group research/investigations provided some much-needed comedy (Xander’s response to the radiation comment; Anya’s space-lamb; “killer snot monster from outer space”; and the key to the case lying in a book titled “Meteors and You!”) All good. The scooby scenes are the only reason I'd watch this episode outside of a marathon, the rest of the ep is too much of a drag to be enjoyable. - This episode has a lot of neat little arc bits, and it’s fun to spot them when you know the full story. Moments like the brain-sucked watchman from ”No Place Like Home” making a reappearance; the fresh emphasis placed upon the mentally unstable and their perceptions of Dawn, and the first mention of the link between Ben and Glory were good, and I really liked that Joyce discovered the truth about her ‘daughter’ (and then, how she reacted to the news). Agreed. I especially loved how they setup the connection between ben and glory, the first time I watched s5 I found this subplot fascinating. ...and when Riley calls the military group, there’s someone standing in the left side of the shot despite his supposedly being alone. Really? I've got to watch this ep again and check that out. - The ‘we can’t involve Buffy in this’ comments from the gang were iffy. I understand that they don’t want to add to her worries and feel that they should be able to handle things by themselves, but neglecting to inform her of a dangerous, newly-arrived monster was a poor decision. It was stupid. Out of the 144+ villains buffy has had to face over the cource of the show, throughout whatever personal problems were going on in buffy's life at the time, the snot monster was the only one her friends decided to shield her from? Whatever happened to 'buffy needs something to vent her feelings on to stop her feeling helpless', or whatever the line was? - How was the Queller able to travel around so easily? When Buffy’s fighting it, it appears to be around the same size as her, yet no-one notices it crawling about at the hospital. It could have at least gone sneaking through the air ducts. It wasn't exactly threatening with it's stubby little arms. If you wanted to kill it, all you need to do is step on it. A jack russell could beat it in a fight. - Quite a few scenes are wet. I was hardly expecting things to be a barrel of laughs, but the omnipresent doom and gloom got a bit much, especially as it felt like drama for drama’s sake. Agreed. Fortunately it does get a bit lighter from here on. This ep had the 'season five funk' at it's worst. - Spike’s appearance is unnecessary and ruined the tenseness of the monster hunt. I also continue to be unimpressed at seeing stalking portrayed as a joke. Again I agree. I didn't mind the cameo last episode, but here it's the exact same cameo, and he's doing the exact same thing. - Ben’s statement that he’s been “clearing up Glory’s mess all my life” doesn’t make sense when you know that she only managed to start manifesting six-or-so months prior to this episode. I thought ben and glory were born together? Or something. ................... I stand by my 4. |
|
|
|
Post by partcynic on Oct 25, 2010 11:58:02 GMT -5
Glory's been 'inside' Ben since he was born, but has only been able to show herself recently. I think it's all explained in "Spiral" - something about her 'breaking free of her flesh and bone prison', or something similarly melodramatic.
I like that term. Would you care to explain what you mean by it a little further? What other eps would you say have the worst case(s) of it?
|
|
|
|
Post by cyclica on Oct 26, 2010 16:33:23 GMT -5
I like that term. Would you care to explain what you mean by it a little further? What other eps would you say have the worst case(s) of it? I meant all the overly emotional scenes that I find hard to watch. In particular anything relating to joyce and her hospital visits/aneurysm subplot, the ruffy arguing/break-up scenes, and to a lesser extent the spuffy scenes. I find the worst offenders to be 'out of my mind', 'shadow', 'listening to fear' and 'into the woods', and the first half of the season in general. I don't consider 'the body' as having that 'funk', even though it is joyce-centric (in a way), because of it's unique feel. |
|
