av Mr Chase » lör mar 20, 2004 21:16
Dr Jekyll och Mr Chase:
38. Beauty and the Beasts
"Faithfulness and devotion, things born of fire and roof were his... yet he retained his wildness and wiliness. And from the depths of the forest, a call still sounded." (Jack London, Call of the Wild).
Let's see, what have we done? Well, obviously "Dracula" and "The Wolfman". Then also "The Invisible Man" -- check! "Frankenstein" -- check! "Alien" -- check! "The Mummy" -- check! "The Creature from the Black Lagoon" -- check! "Nightmare on Elm Street" -- check! What haven't we done yet? Yes, of course, let's do "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde".
I'm not trying to diminish "Buffy" for lack of originality here. Often the show's takes on the classic horror flicks have been quite good. Unfortunately this one isn't one of them. Instead it is a very thinly disguised domestic abuse story which they, for some reason, repeatedly club you over the head with. Sure, morals and values are the core of what our characters are all about but when you blatantly try to deliver a Message with a capital M at least I cringe. Domestic abuse is a very bad thing, we all know that. There is no reason to rub it in our faces. We're not stupid thank you very much! I think they could have used the Mr Hyde-thing in a much more interesting way rather than waste it on this.
This episode is possibly the very worst of season 3, at least for me. While the not-so-good episodes of previous seasons still had some redeeming quality about them, like a good B-plot involving Cordy and Xander for example, all this one has is a little werewolf angst from Oz and Buffy seeing Angel again. But even the latter thing was somewhat of a disappointment. We've already seen a confused teary-eyed Angel saying "Buffy?" And his rescuing Buffy from the teenage Mr Hyde was uncalled for. She's the goddamned slayer, for Pete's sake (pun intended)! I'm sure she could have handled an abusive teen on steroids.
From what's been seen of Angel's return it lacks imagination, not to mention a good explanation. Instead we got a Giles guessing game about how it must be like for him in hell. Well, duh! And besides, Buffy's hypothetical questions should seriously raise the Giles early warning radar system that was shown as late as the episode before. But nooo...
What are Buffy's feelings for Angel anyway? He's back, sort of, but she's dating that annoying guy Scott (please get rid of him soon). She's keeping Angel's return a secret from the other Scoobies. I can understand that, given everything that the evil Angelus did, but keeping secrets from your friends, Buffy, your track record in that regard has *not* been a good one! What is she planning to do with him anyway? Sending him to the pound? And where on earth did he get his pants if he was supposed to be this wild beast after he literally came back from hell in the buff, so to speak?
The episode had its moments, though. Against my better judgement (I don't care for shrinks) I liked the school counsellor Mr Platt. But why does all the sympathetic adults at Sunnydale High have to go the happy hunting-grounds while creeps like principal Snyder gets to stay behind? But you knew from the moment that you saw him smoke that this guy's gonna be toast, as per the show's anti-smoking bias. Ugh!
Mt Platt seemed like a guy how could listen to Buffy's problems without going ballistic. And he said the darnest funny things, like these two:
Mr Platt: "What you need is a trained, not too crazy professional who will always give you his honest opinion."
Mr Platt: "Look, Buffy, any person -- grown-up, shrink, Pope -- any person who claims to be totally sane is either lying or isn't very bright."
But so much for the Buffster reporting to sanity.
Faith seemed a bit redundant to the plot, but since we obviously are going to see a lot more of her as the season progresses, her presence was probably just to make us get used to it. And I'm definitely not complaining! But for her young years Faith is way too cynical. She must have had a really rough time growing up.
Faith: "All men are beasts, Buffy."
Buffy: "Okay, I was hoping to not get that cynical 'til I was at least forty."
Faith: "It's not cynical. I mean, it's realistic. Every guy from Manimal down to Mr 'I-Love-The-English-Patient' has beast in him. And I don't care how sensitive they act. They're all still just in it for the chase."
Faith, on behalf of my gender, hey! But then she can also say the funniest things. Did I mention I like this girl?
Faith: "And when you think about him, you get that good, down-low tickle, right?"
Buffy: "Yeah, I guess, but... How low?"
Faith: "You tell me."
Don't get me started on Xander here. For all his normal clueless teenage stupidity his actions in this episode was way out of character in my mind. Having him coldly go to sleep on Oz-watch the moment Willow leaves is not the Xander I know. Is there a pod person that snuck into the script while no one was paying attention?
The angst from Oz when he thinks he might have killed someone as a werewolf was quite good in that restrained and subdued Oz manner we've all come to appreciate. He's also perceptive beyond his years as he immediately figures out that Debbie has been taking abuse from Pete. And his line "Time's up. Rules change" to Pete as he was about to change during their fight was cool. But why does the Were-Oz look so different from the admittedly silly version we saw in "Phases". That one walked upright and had a snout, this one doesn't and hasn't. Well, at least Willow got to pull his tail, LOL. And she has a Scooby Doo lunchbox for her forensic tools!
There was very little interesting Cordelia stuff in here. But then again, as the ensemble cast has gotten progressively larger it has become more difficult to give everyone enough screen time, especially if you have important guest stars, like in this one. So some people are going to get short-changed and it has mostly been Cordy and Xander, I'm sorry to say. They were good in the morgue scene and their similar reaction to the corpse and everything shows that they, besides their obvious differences, really are made for each other.
Cordelia: "Pete was a monster? Where have I been?"
Xander: "In your special place, Cor, which is why I adore you."
Well, I adore her for that too. Does that make me a freak?
Rupert Giles: "I'll be back in the Middle Ages."
Miss Calendar: "Did you ever leave?"