Buffy Rewatch: The Darkness

Let's talk about the first seven episodes of season 5.


"Do you know what a Slayer is?"
"Do you?"


Season 4 of THE WIRE. Season 2 of JUSTIFIED. Season 1 of VERONICA MARS. Season 2 of ALIAS. These are some examples of legendary seasons of great TV show, in which top-notch stories and top-notch storytelling elevate the series and the medium of television itself. (Yes, that's hyperbolic, but come on: season 4 of THE WIRE!)

But for me, the best season of television of all just might be season 5 of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER.

Episode 30 - Shake over ice, strain, and serve with garnish

Episode 30 was deemed to be the "Cocktail" episode by Joe. Alas, this does not mean an in-depth exploration of a middling Tom Cruise movie.

Amy chose as the movie, "The Blue Gardenia" from 1953 starring Anne Baxter and directed by Fritz Lang. Baxter has a night to forget to remember after consuming SIX Polynesian Pearl Divers at the Blue Gardenia supper club.

Randy selected Rebecca Barry's "novel in stories" Later, at the Bar. It "tells the sad and funny tales of the forlorn denizens of Lucy's Tavern, a gathering place and watering hole for the hapless, lonely, and lovelorn."

Show notes

Intro Music: "One Mint Julep" by Ray Charles (YouTube)
Exit Music: "Manhattan (Cha Cha)" by Xavier Cugat & His Orchestra from the album Cugi's Cocktails which is entirely made up of songs inspired by potent potables.

• Joe's just finished reading and liked Gutenberg's Apprentice.
• Randy's wowed by "We Are The Best!" a Swedish film about three girls forming a punk rock band
• In the film we watched, Nat King Cole's performance of "The Blue Gardenia" is used repeatedly. See a clip of him performing in the film on YouTube.
• Fun fact: In "Django Unchained" the character played by Leonardo DiCaprio orders a "Polynesian Pearl Diver" at one point. This almost certainly is a deliberate homage by Quentin Tarantino to Fritz Lang's film. One intrepid blogger has made and drunk the cocktail.

On the next episode

Amy's gallivanting across Europe (well, just the Netherlands and Poland, really) so Becca Gross will be guest hosting in her stead. Becca got to pick the theme and went for "Hollywood scandals."

Joe's chosen "The Cat's Meow" as the movie, which is a "semi-true story" about a murder that occurred at a star-studded gathering aboard William Randolph Hearst's yacht in 1924.

Randy's picked Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars by Scotty Bowers with Lionel Friedman. It's a dishy account of one man's sexual adventures, and the others he helped arrange, in the Hollywood of the 40s, 50s, and 60s.

Where to find the podcast itself and us

Listen At Podomatic

Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 

We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters:

Joseph
Amy
Randy
Next week's guest host Becca Gross

QUIZ TIME! Titles, Scrambled and Nested

For this week's quiz, to fit with the nonlinear narrative, Amy quizzed Joe and Randy on some "nonlinear" titles. Basically, two movies went into a blender and a mixed up plot summary and title came out.

• Sigourney Weaver has the second credit in "The Year of Living Dangerously." But it was Linda Hunt who won Best Supporting Actress for it. (Trivia: to date, she is still the only person who's won an Oscar for playing a character of the opposite sex. Although there could be a valid argument for Hilary Swank in "Boys Don't Cry.") (More trivia: Linda Hunt is actually shorter than Amy. This pleases Amy greatly.)
• Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni starred together in "Fun With Dick and Jane"
• The intro and exit music has nothing to do with the theme or the quiz. Amy just really, really likes Queen and "Flash Gordon".

Where to find the podcast itself and us 

The podcast:
Listen at Podomatic.
Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 
We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters:
Joseph
Amy
Randy

Buffy Rewatch: Oops

Getting back to the Buffy Rewatch with the final six episodes of season 4.


"You think you know what's to come, what you are. You haven't even begun."


So, yeah. I kinda lost track of the Buffy Rewatch there for a while.

There was some summer travel, but the real distraction was the release of TWIN PEAKS on blu-ray. I bought it the day it came out, and didn't plan to watch it right away. But I popped in the first disc, just to see how gorgeous it looked on blu-ray, and by the time Pete Martell said "She's dead! Wrapped in plastic!", I was completely hooked again. TWIN PEAKS was my first major TV addiction. It aired when I was in high school, a prime period for falling completely in love with its mysteries, its atmosphere, and its incredible "WTF!" moments.

Episode 29 - Nonlinear Narratives

What? We skipped a blog post for that last episode? HOW DARE WE.

THIS episode is all about nonlinear narratives. Randy came up with this theme, inspired by such movies as "Pulp Fiction" and "Memento."

Joe had us watch "JCVD" starring Jean Claude van Damme as "himself." The narrative jumps back and forth a little bit to heighten suspense and add humor, so it qualifies.

Amy chose The Hours by Michael Cunningham, after Twitter friend @tosyandcosh suggested it. Thanks, Tosy! It intercuts the stories of a different day in the life of three different women at different time periods.

Show notes

Intro Music: "Virginia Woolf" by The Indigo Girls (YouTube)
Exit Music: "Satyagraha" by Philip Glass (used in the film version of The Hours) (YouTube)

• Amy's new tumblr is "Beards of the NFL"
• Randy's raving about "Transparent"(Review from Alan Sepinwall at Hitfix)
• Amy and Randy both rave about "The One I Love" (imdb)
• The Mark Duplass/Emily Blunt/Rosemarie DeWitt movie Amy was struggling to remember the title of is "Your Sister's Sister"
• Joe's reading The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
• The opening sequence of "JCVD" can be seen here
• Joe had the right of it: Penelope Cruz did play the same role in both "Abre Los Ojos [Open Your Eyes]" and "Vanilla Sky"
• "Richard" was the fifth most popular name for boys born in the 1940s, according to Baby Name Wizard's Baby Name Voyager
• Virginia Woolf actually didn't have kids, as we wrongly state in the podcast.

On the next episode

"Cocktails"

Amy's chosen "Blue Gardenia" as the movie

Randy's picked Later, at the Bar by Rebecca Barry

Where to find the podcast itself and us

Listen at Podomatic.

Subscribe and rate us at iTunes 

We are also available on the Stitcher app.

Our Twitters:

Joseph

Amy

Randy