Life Serial

Life Serial
Written by Doug Petrie & Jane Espenson
Directed by David Marck

Original Airdate: October 23, 2001

Plot: After returning from her meeting with Angel, Buffy begins the task of getting reassimilated to ordinary life. To do this she attends classes with Willow and Tara, works with Xander in construction and takes a job at the Magic Box. However, the three new super villians in town are testing the Slayer and her abilities.

Review

Warning: If you were caught in a time bubble of any kind and didn't get to see the latest episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "Life Serial" I strongly suggest you think about turning back now. There are major SPOILERS just ahead...

In short: Interesting and funny.

Jane Espenson sure is one hard working writer. Ever since the season-premiere, Jane has written or co-written every episode we've seen, so far in season six.

Now, as most of you know, I've not been a big fan of hers in the past. Her stories were generally OK by me but nothing to really write home about.

That's all changed here in season six.

Suddenly, Jane has really stepped up to the plate and delivered some solid, intelligent, funny and all-around enjoyable episodes of Buffy.

Personally, while I'm thrilled to see it, I am worried for Jane. One worry is that she'll write so many episodes early-on in the year and run out of great ideas as we get to the homestretch for the season, which is where all of this great stuff she's setting in motion will all play out.

That would, quite honestly, be a shame. The woman is really delivering some great material in the first month of the season.

"Life Serial" is yet another great offering by Jane, this time teamed with writer Dave Fury, who is no slouch and has given us some great stories as well.

Joss has repeatedly stated that this season on Buffy is all about the characters growing up and facing their new responsibilities in the world. Last week, we saw the financial side of the adult world thrust upon Buffy. We also saw how others are being forced to grow-up and face their responsiblities.

In "Life Serial" we are presented with how each of the character has grown-up, in terms of pursuing their careers and what they want to be post-high school days. And we saw Buffy trying to fit into each of those roles, but failing because her real career of being the Slayer kept interfering.

In a lot of ways, I see these tests as being very similiar to one of the very early themes Buffy dealt with--namely how does the girl with super powers and destiny try and continue to have a personal life. This was one of the strong, early themes of Buffy and it's one that has cropped up from time-to-time in the past. Here we see it cropping it up yet again as Buffy tries to find her place in the world, career wise.

And overall, I liked the things that Buffy tried. We saw three very different extremes of what where a life path can take you: continued education, manual labor or retail. And it was certainly a delight to get to see Buffy's reaction to all three. Each one ended badly for her--namely because of the three new super villains in town. But I will say that I don't think that Buffy would have been happy in any of the career choices for very long. We've seen in the past that she is very dedicated to her role as Slayer and I have a feeling that at some point this will lead to the Watcher's Council being forced to pay her for services rendered. (And let's face it, the girl has earned it!)

Of course, it might have helped Buffy had she not had to contend with the three new super villains in the show.

I'm telling you right now that, so far, I love these guys. And they are hitting way, way too close to home--at least for me. I hope that I'm not really as bad as they are, but I sometimes fear that my inner geek comes out and flourishes like theirs does. I think the fact that I spend as much time analyzing Buffy and Angel each week puts me in league with them--well, without the desire to take over the town in which I live. (Though on some level that might be fun...)

But, I digress.

As a set of villains, they're not too harmful, but they are fun to watch. And for all of their arguements about which Bond is best (Connery), which version of the Death Star was on the van and where the probic vent was, they could actually be a threat. They're intelligent enough to have studied Buffy, seen her reactions and might be able to probe out some weakness they can exploit. In a lot of ways, the tests reminded me of the early season-two Spike who sent several vampires to battle the Slayer in order to get her on video-tape and to study her moves and learn from them. (Heaven knows what Spike uses that tape for these days.) And the three super villians are smart enough to give Buffy fits. Yes, they're a bit inept--parking the van in plain sight is something that I figured would come back to haunt them--but they're learning. And they could become dangerous as the season goes along.

Of course, I'm still of the theory that Joss and company are doing what they did in season two--bringing in an obvious villain so that we pay attention to that developing plotline and completely miss who the real villain(s) of the season will be.

And each of their tests was certainly an intersting one--though it was unsual that two involved time perception. Both of the problems here tested Buffy's cognitive skills and her problem solving meetle. In a lot of ways, it reminded me of certain video games I've played where you get stuck in a certain spot and just can't get out. I can understand Buffy's frustration in these areas. It was also interesting that both of these plots came directly from old episodes of Star Trek. (One from TOS and the one that was references as being a TNG episode.) It's interesting that the guys don't come up with these plots that aren't necessarily original.

The one with the monsters was an interesting one as well, though I see this more as a test of Buffy's physical skills. I am not sure what the guys may or may not have learned from this, but it will be interesting to see if and how they use that information as the season progresses.

Another part of this script that I found great was the humor. I've been critical of Jane in the past for reducing the characters to one-dimensional charactertures for the sake of a laught. This criticism has been mostly met and disposed of this year. There were times in this episode that were simply laugh out loud funny--and yet none of them felt like it was demeaning the characters or making them shallow representations of their normal selves.

A couple of the funniest scenes...

--The super villains van. Where do I start?!? Well, I'm going to go with the whole probic vent discussion, the idea of painting the Death Star on the side of the undercover van and the Star Wars theme horn. Oh help me, that was too funny.

--Buffy's growing frustration at being forced to repeat the same events over and over and over. Sarah Michelle Gellar did a great job with those scenes.

--Buffy picking up the heavy beam by herself and hauling it. Also the scene at the construction yard after Xander introduced Buffy and then later when he has to fire her.

--I loved how in the time loop Giles repeated the EXACT same statement over and over while Anya didn't.

--The whole best Bond discussion.

--The card game for kittens. ("Scatter, kittens! Scatter!" Oh, that just killed me it was so funny).

--Buffy's continued reaction to the whiskey.

But all of the funny stuff would have been for naught if not for a few serious moments and some real issues raised and pondered.

As I've said before, we got a real look at growing-up and facing the real world in terms of finding a job.

But there was also some other interesting stuff.

I liked the fact that Buffy turned to each member of the Scooby gang, who ultimately disappointed her--except Spike and Giles. She went to Spike and proceeded to get hammered, which is one adult way of drowning the harsh realities of the world. The entire scene with Buffy and Spike drinking shots and then her getting hammered in the bar was nicely done. (Though it does bring up an interesting question of why didn't the demons realize that she is the Slayer. It seems as though she might not be welcome there since those are the forces she's sworn to fight.

And it's interesting that in her hour of need she turned to Spike and Giles, both of whom could be seen a bit as mentors. We know Giles is because of his role as her Watcher. But we see Spike becoming more and more of a mentor. It's interesting that he is the one Buffy has turned to time and again in her hour of need and for counseling. I know it probably gives hope to all Buffy/Spike shippers out there. And I will admit I'm far more content with the way this has developed than I am with the idea of Angel and Cordy getting together on Angel.

We also realized here that Giles has not yet told Buffy his stay in not a permanent one. This should be an interesting development to see what happens when and if Giles heads back to England.

It also continues a season-long development of the Scooby gang keeping secrets from each other. It should be interesting to see what will happen when all of these secrets see the light of day. (Remember keeping secrets on Buffy always has huge consequences, so I'm anxious as all get out to see these come to light).

So, I guess that's about it for now, except a few small things.

--I found the scene of Buffy in Willow's class interesting. It was kind of an interesting contrast to the three super villains who were all speaking of things that you'd have to have a good background knowledge to understand. I'd be willing to bet Buffy would be as lost in one of their pow-wows as she was in class.

--The card game and the demons all cheating. A riot.

--So, Spike gets Buffy drunk but doesn't take advantage of her. He's come a long way.

--You'd think after Buffy's last exprerience with beer that she wouldn't want to run right to whiskey. And I loved seeing the after effects take their toll on Buffy.

--Last week, I wondered why Giles hadn't offered to loan Buffy the money she needed to survive. I mean, the man did get two year's back salary from being Watcher. Of course, he probably had some bills...

--The scene between Buffy and Giles at the end was superb. I loved the reference to Buffy seeing him like her mom and not her dad. It's going to make the news that Giles' return isn't permanent harder to take, I think.

--Loved the direction in the episode--espeically the scene with Buffy looping through time. The idea of having the close-up of the bell was a good one.

So, that's about it for now. All in all, another enjoyable episode in what has been, so far, an enjoyable year. Strong, intelligent episodes. Keep them coming.

My rating: 9.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Halloween is here, but Dawn's got other plans besides just trick or treating...