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Reviews
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tabula Rasa (2001)
Utterly Disturbing
In a different season, with a different premise, this would have been a wonderfully fun episode. Like "Halloween". But it's a season six episode and consequently is tainted by the vileness that seems to be the season's theme.
The premise. Previously, Willow magically mind-raped Tara to get her to forget an argument then, once she'd had her free will altered, slept with her. Tara is understandably upset when she discovers this.
So, what does Willow do? Try to mind-rape Tara magically again. This time it backfires and she accidentally mind-rapes everyone. Without this premise, it would have been a fun episode. With it, and the fact that mind-rape is played for laughs, utterly disturbing.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Hell's Bells (2002)
Pure Soap Opera Nastiness
I loathe this episode with a fiery vengeance. It's nastiness for the sake of it, pure, vicious, spiteful melodrama with no reason for it, a decision to break up one of the strongest relationships in the series for absolutely no meaning other than to do so.
I've neither been a Xander fan or hater, but I realised what was wrong with this episode and the run up to it; it's out of character for him. When you look back at what Xander has accomplished over the previous five seasons, this is not someone who would have done this. "I like the quiet", the character who made Angelus back down, hit Glory with a wrecking ball, worked out how to defeat the undefeatable Judge, launched himself at Spike without a moment's hesitation when he thought Spike had broken the chip and so many other things (seriously, if you look at what Xander actually did in seasons 1-5, he's surprisingly awesome, and all his character development was just casually tossed away) would not have behaved this way. He'd have done something. Possibly something stupid, but not just casually backed down. Even in "The Replacement", when Scruffy Xander was nothing but his doubts and insecurities, he was still willing to kill rather than lose Anya. If Scruffy Xander would fight to keep Anya, and Suave Xander would fight to keep Anya, why the hell wouldn't Xander Xander be willing to do so?
This is one reason why seasons 6 and 7 are dead to me. Don't watch after "The Gift"; it's just not worth it. Every happy good thing that season 5 ended with was destroyed in this godawful mess of a depressing season, during which the writers systematically ruined every major character's life in some way, more often than not having them behave out of character. The more I rewatch the earlier seasons, the more it looks like the writers had plain run out of ideas by this point and were scavenging from soap operas to try and hide the fact that couldn't come up with a decent big bad for this season or the next.
Xander and Anya marrying would have created interesting possibilities for character growth, especially for Anya, but by this point in the season it's become clear that the writers not only have no interest in fostering new character growth but have been actively ignoring all that happened over the previous five seasons.
If you like depressing realism, watch the news. If you like depressing unrealism where no-one has a happy life, watch soap operas. If you want some fun escapism about a young woman with superpowers fighting demons and vampires, which by its very nature has no truck with realism, watch seasons 1-5. If you want to finish a series depressed due to crappy things happening for no reason other than the fact that someone likes awfulness, watch this season and season 7.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Shades of Gray (1989)
Clip Show
Commander Riker picks up an illness on an away mission. To help cure him, Dr Pulaski replays his memories - clips from the first two seasons. And that's, um, it.