Well colour me stunned! AOQ gave 'Touched' an 'Excellent'. And not just that, but it also finally made him see the point of Spuffy:
Spike still has his obsessive faith (no pun intended) in Buffy, so he hunts her down to try to spark a little civil war. The resulting conversation... well, to say the least, it's impressive. It dances through Faith, how much of this Buffy has brought upon herself, the B/S arc from S6, identity as a Slayer and as a person, and makes it all seem like a cohesive train of thought. Buffy's so certain, such a convincing speechmaker, even when talking about depression and uncertainty. For his part, Spike says some of the wrong things (i.e. "connecting") and even in his monologue towards the end he can't always stay on topic, but Buffy does the favor of listening to the complete thought, and everyone's the better for it. As is so often the case, the actors deserve a good part of the credit for making it work so well, especially for the facial expressions, right down to Spike's "is this for real?" look that closes the scene. All in all, the outpouring of honest sentiment ranks among the series highlights. It's been quite a journey for them getting to this point, considering how things started, and how convincing this feels.
Just talking from a personal standpoint, I've always been resistant to a B/S relationship, despite liking both characters a lot. Part of it was that unsouled Spike was more interesting and consistent with the show's mythology when he was more evil. Ergo, it was degrading to Buffy's character to be with him, and discounting the crazier "shippers," I don't think the series ever intended to let us forget that. It's a big part of why "Crush" and "Dead Things" worked. Then it took a few episodes before I adjusted to S7 Spike as his own man. Another aspect is that I've never been a fan of couples that physically fight all the time, "cutely" or violently, nor with any semblance of using rape as a way show how much the misunderstood guy really cares. And through all this, I was feeling Angel's absence hanging over everything. Now? After "Touched," I think I can finally pledge my full support to the idea of putting these two back together... depending on what the show wants to do, of course.
Just wow. But - I have a few thoughts of my own...
( Read more... )
Spike still has his obsessive faith (no pun intended) in Buffy, so he hunts her down to try to spark a little civil war. The resulting conversation... well, to say the least, it's impressive. It dances through Faith, how much of this Buffy has brought upon herself, the B/S arc from S6, identity as a Slayer and as a person, and makes it all seem like a cohesive train of thought. Buffy's so certain, such a convincing speechmaker, even when talking about depression and uncertainty. For his part, Spike says some of the wrong things (i.e. "connecting") and even in his monologue towards the end he can't always stay on topic, but Buffy does the favor of listening to the complete thought, and everyone's the better for it. As is so often the case, the actors deserve a good part of the credit for making it work so well, especially for the facial expressions, right down to Spike's "is this for real?" look that closes the scene. All in all, the outpouring of honest sentiment ranks among the series highlights. It's been quite a journey for them getting to this point, considering how things started, and how convincing this feels.
Just talking from a personal standpoint, I've always been resistant to a B/S relationship, despite liking both characters a lot. Part of it was that unsouled Spike was more interesting and consistent with the show's mythology when he was more evil. Ergo, it was degrading to Buffy's character to be with him, and discounting the crazier "shippers," I don't think the series ever intended to let us forget that. It's a big part of why "Crush" and "Dead Things" worked. Then it took a few episodes before I adjusted to S7 Spike as his own man. Another aspect is that I've never been a fan of couples that physically fight all the time, "cutely" or violently, nor with any semblance of using rape as a way show how much the misunderstood guy really cares. And through all this, I was feeling Angel's absence hanging over everything. Now? After "Touched," I think I can finally pledge my full support to the idea of putting these two back together... depending on what the show wants to do, of course.
Just wow. But - I have a few thoughts of my own...
( Read more... )
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