The Puppet Show

The Puppet Show
Written by Robin DesHotel and Dean Batai
Directed by Ellen Pressman

Original Airdate: May 5, 1997

Plot: Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Giles are all forced to play a part in the annual talent show by Sunnydale's new principal, Synder. One of the acts is a ventrologuist's dummy who be a demon attempting to re-animate itself...

Review

Warning: If reading SPOILERS for "The Puppet Show" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer makes you want to claw your eyes out, I'd strongly sugest turning back now. There are major SPOILERS just ahead....

In short: First half good, second half not so good.

First of all, I've got to warn those of you who have purchased the videos but might not have seen the episodes on them to fast forward past Joss's comments in the beginning if you want to go in SPOILER free. I'm not saying that Joss pulls a Chris Carter and gives away the entire ending of the story in most cases, but his comments are far more fun and entertaining when you understand the context of the episode they come from.

Other than that, from what I've seen so far, I love the quality of the Buffy vids. And it's nice to have them professionally edited without the commericals. It makes for a great, relaxing, viewing experience. :-) Run, don't walk to the nearest video outlet and buy them.

OK, all that said, let's move on to the reason we're all here.

To discuss the Puppet Show.

As most of you know, I'm an opening credits reader--especially when it comes to who wrote the episode and who directed it. Sometimes this combination can make me sit up and pay more attention while at others, it makes me sigh just a bit. When I saw the writing credit for Puppet Show, I had to sigh a bit. As most of you know, I'm not a big Dean Batai and Rob DesHotel. This judgment comes mainly from the fact that I abhored Killed by Death so much. So, when their names flashed on screen last night, I got a bit wary.

What I will say is that for the first two acts, they did a lot to really, really alleviate my fears. In fact, surprisingly enough, I find myself not only really enjoying the episode but also really on the edge of my seat, wondering how it would all come out. Because for those first two acts, Batai and DesHotel really had some good stuff going. First of all, you had Buffy's fear of the doll that played out rather well. Once again, Sarah Michelle Gellar delivers a dead-on performance of showing us this but not telling. Her body movement, her poise, her mannerisms, her vocal inflection all show that Buffy is not thrilled by taking on a demon possessed doll. Seeing some of the fears and personal demons that haunt Buffy seems to be a theme in Batai and DesHotel scripts. But, unlike Killed by Death, where Buffy's fear of death seems to be a late minute addition to the plot, her fear here is far more motivating and interesting.

Also, Sid is suitably chilling for a wooden dummy. I will admit I've never seen any of the Child's Play films (well, excpect the odd snippet on USA when I was completely bored!) but I can't imagine Chuckie being much more sinister. Sid is far more effective, at least in the first half, than even the demonic doll we saw in the Stephen King episode of the X-Files this year. Possibly a large part of this goes to the fact that Sid has his own personality. It's a lot more fun that way.

The first half also had some great laugh out loud moments with the talent show. Seeing the talent of the students (or lack thereof) was a nice touch.

But, once you got past the second major commerical break and discovered that Sid was some kind of soul trapped in a wooden dummy in order destroy the real evil demon at large, the whole thing just fell apart. All the tension was gone that had been set up so well. DesHotel and Batai had some great stuff going here, what with Sid's controller being tired and having constant headaches. I was expected a bit more to be made of this such as the fact that Sid was somehow leeching the life energy out of his mentor as it were. Or that the demon that lived in Sid fed off his lifeforce and energy when he couldn't kill to get it. Instead, this all turns out to be a red herring and a poorly executed one since the mentor is killed and we discover he had brain cancer. Then, you've to the question late in the show of wondering did Sid, by chance lie to the Slayerettes and trick them into handing over Giles so to speak? After all, Sid could have operated under the theory of keeping your friends close but your enemies closer. Nope, yet another red herring.

So, when it turns out that the demon is magic boy, it's a bit far fatched and a bit farther than my suspension of disbelief is willing to go. Namely because we have no clues, no lead-up to this. You could have literally picked anyone from the show and made them the bad guy. I think the only reason they chose magic boy was that he had the guillotine ready so he could slice Giles head open to remove his brain.

And Sid's conversations with Buffy never gelled. Sarah Michelle Gellar does her best with the sequences trying to play off the wooden dummy, but it never quite works.

In the end, we're left with an episode of polar opposites. The first half is nicely realized while the second half is a bit of a disapointment. If it hadn't been for the extra segment over the ending credits, this story would leave a bad taste in your mouth. Sort of like the first time you drink Kool-Aid with nutra sweet. You get a sweet taste at first, but then that nutrasweet after taste kicks in....

So, that about wraps it up for now, except for a few small things...

--I loved Principle Synder's first appearnace. Armin Shimmerman is wonderful in the role. One sequence I especially liked was when he's backlit while Buffy is in the wings of the stage. Based on what we come to know about him, it puts a whole different spin on some of the things he says...

--The talent show segment at the end was nice. Literally had me rolling on the floor laughing.

--This isn't really to do with the episode, but with the vids. I was honestly surprised at how soft spoken Joss is. He has such a quiet, calm but intensely professinal manner about him in the segements that lead off the tapes. And his comments are far more enlightening than some of the ones by Chris Carter on the X-Files vids.

Well, that's about it for now. All in all, Puppet Show is a major dichotmy episode-part good, part not so good. But, you get Angel on the tape with it, so that alone is worth the $14.95 investment....

My rating: 5.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: The first Buffy book for the older crowd, Child of the Hunt will be reviewed. But the next new episode review I do will be the season premire on Sept. 29! Unless some kind person has a copy of Teacher's Pet they'd be willing to trade with me....