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Just watched Once More, With Feeling for the first time in years (I play/sing along with it fairly frequently in the car, but that's not quite the same) and still loved it just as much as ever. Every single second of it, there's so much going on, so much detail to see and to hear in the music and the lyrics.
And, because I just looked through my journal and discovered I have never posted a review of OMWF, I've dragged out the Word draft of a review I apparently wrote in November 2004 (and presumably posted to the Buffy Beeb Boards where I was hanging out in those days), so it's here too for posterity. :-)
I’ve always felt it’s completely impossible for me to write a review of OMWF. For two reasons: a) it would be thousands and thousands of words long (**g**), and b) it would be pretty much a description of the entire episode interspersed with “I love this bit”.
So I thought instead I would try writing a list of my top ten things about the episode. Of course it was impossible to narrow it down to ten, so it’s turned into my top ten ‘moments’ (i.e. performance/visuals) and my top ten ‘quotes’ (i.e. the genius of Joss’ writing).
Top ten moments:
1. Xander and Anya in ‘I’ll Never Tell’ at the “knight in armour” bit: facing each other, holding hands, looking so gorgeous and in love.
2. Tara’s “I’m cured! I want the boys!” and her bright little laugh that follows. You don’t often see Tara so happy and confident enough to joke around like that.
3. Anya’s grey dress. She looks stunning in it.
4. Spike rolling his eyes as he realises he’s singing a song even though he doesn’t want to.
5. Dawn’s little hip wiggle when Sweet has her dancing with him. Dawn’s so young, so innocent, and yet just starting to be aware of herself, and it shows in her dancing.
6. The moment in ‘Standing’ when Buffy goes slo-mo as Giles launches into the chorus – just moments after Buffy’s line about hoping it won’t turn into a training montage from an 80’s movie and Giles’ reply that if they hear any power chords they’ll lie down until it goes away. Fabulous.
7. Finally getting to the word “Burn” in ‘Walk Through The Fire’ and the group striding towards the camera with the fire engines charging by behind.
8. Willow’s face when she realises she pulled Buffy out of heaven. AH does crying so well – and still manages to look pretty! Especially here, with that little plait in her hair at one side, and her blue coat. (I like her in blue, too. Don’t often see her in blue.)
9. The choreography for “Understand, we’ll go hand in hand, but we’ll walk alone in fear” – everyone inconspicuously moving into a line, then clasping hands firmly one by one down the line, then throwing their arms up in the air and letting go, and only moving a couple of paces away from each other but ending up so scattered and lonely and far from each other. Fantastic.
10. Giles’ “Tell me” immediately following that. In fact, all of Giles’ singing and the acting that goes with it, but that particular moment always sticks with me. ASH is so cool.
Top ten quotes:
1. Buffy’s “It’s do or die – hey, I’ve died twice!” and Giles’ frown at her statement that there was nothing to worry about turning into an affectionate smile.
2. “His penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe.” – You can always rely on Anya to lower the tone! Hilarious.
3. “When things get rough he just hides behind his Buffy, now look he’s getting huffy ‘cos he knows that I know.” – Hilarious, and inspired use of internal rhyming. Only Joss could find so many things that rhyme with ‘Buffy’.
4. “You’re the cutest of the Scoobies with your lips as red as rubies and your firm yet supple – tight embrace!” Again, hilarious and witty rhymes, and I love this sung version of Xander’s classic foot in mouth syndrome.
5. Giles’ line about the police taking “witness arias” instead of statements. Hardly heard behind the end of Marti declaring she’s not wearing any underwear, but just makes me laugh. It’s such a tiny thing, but classic Joss.
6. “She’ll get pissed if I’m missed, see my sis-ter’s the Slayer.” – Again, beautiful internal rhyming, and making it funny by deliberately breaking the rules.
7. “Wish I could stay, your stalwart standing fast, but I’m just standing in the way.” – Says it all, encompasses Giles’ dilemma, and the anguish on his face and in his voice is fantastically acted.
8. “I’m under your spell. God, how can this be, playing with my memory? You know I’ve been through hell. Willow, can’t you see? There’ll be nothing left of me.” – Just four lines of song, but in them you get Tara realising she really is under Willow’s spell (love that going from a good thing in her previous song to a bad thing in this one), and the reminder that’s she’s already had her mind messed around with by Glory which makes it doubly bad – and by the time she gets to the end of those four lines, you know she’s going to leave. Such economy of words. (See, I admire economy of words even though I can’t get it myself. Perhaps because I can’t do it myself!)
9. “She needs backup. Anya, Tara.” Love that double meaning. You’re thinking ‘Backup? Anya and Tara? Surely Willow, the witch, or Giles himself? Oh, I /see/. Backing dancers!’
10. “Bugger this.” So quintessentially Spike. Makes me smile, every time.
And more notes from a rewatch in January 2007 (which may well have been the last time I watched it!!!):
I think I must have watched this at least once since November 2004, but I know I haven’t watched it since December 2005 when my son was born. I watched the commentary at some point last year, but obviously I was concentrating more on what Joss was saying than on the actual episode. So this was effectively my first viewing on a big, flat screen and in full wide-screen. And I noticed several things I’d never noticed before, presumably because the picture was so much bigger and wider.
1. The second dancer in ‘Under Your Spell’: I’d only ever noticed the girl in the white blouse on Tara’s left before, never the girl in the pink jumper on her right, even though her arm is behind Tara on one of the close-ups!
2. Spike bumping into the pillar whilst walking backwards in ‘Where do we go from here?’, immediately before his “Bugger this”. I’m sure it was unintentional, but it certainly would have jolted him, literally, into waking up! :-)
And several other little nuances in the actors’ faces that I’d never noticed before – partly, I’m sure, because this is by far the longest I’ve ever left between viewings of this episode and partly because of the huge screen. And I’m glad I did leave so long, because it was even more fabulous than I remembered. I actually felt tears prick during ‘Wish I Could Stay’.
And I noticed so many little tiny bits of great directing, though I can’t think of any now except the pause before ‘Where do we go?’ with close-ups of each of the gang except Dawn and you wondering who’s going to start the song, and then the angle changes and it’s Dawn, and she walks across the stage so you get a view of everyone else, wondering the same thing. Actually, the choreography for that whole song, the placing of everyone, is beautifully done.
OK, that’s made me remember another one: the start of ‘I’ve Got A Theory’, when it begins by Giles’ face leaning into the shot from the side, very dramatic. I think there was another similar one somewhere, but I can’t remember where.
Also, something that really should have made it into the top ten moments or something: Anya's "Bunnies" song. It's so fabulously her, and I love the overdone rock anthem-ness of it!
And, because I just looked through my journal and discovered I have never posted a review of OMWF, I've dragged out the Word draft of a review I apparently wrote in November 2004 (and presumably posted to the Buffy Beeb Boards where I was hanging out in those days), so it's here too for posterity. :-)
I’ve always felt it’s completely impossible for me to write a review of OMWF. For two reasons: a) it would be thousands and thousands of words long (**g**), and b) it would be pretty much a description of the entire episode interspersed with “I love this bit”.
So I thought instead I would try writing a list of my top ten things about the episode. Of course it was impossible to narrow it down to ten, so it’s turned into my top ten ‘moments’ (i.e. performance/visuals) and my top ten ‘quotes’ (i.e. the genius of Joss’ writing).
Top ten moments:
1. Xander and Anya in ‘I’ll Never Tell’ at the “knight in armour” bit: facing each other, holding hands, looking so gorgeous and in love.
2. Tara’s “I’m cured! I want the boys!” and her bright little laugh that follows. You don’t often see Tara so happy and confident enough to joke around like that.
3. Anya’s grey dress. She looks stunning in it.
4. Spike rolling his eyes as he realises he’s singing a song even though he doesn’t want to.
5. Dawn’s little hip wiggle when Sweet has her dancing with him. Dawn’s so young, so innocent, and yet just starting to be aware of herself, and it shows in her dancing.
6. The moment in ‘Standing’ when Buffy goes slo-mo as Giles launches into the chorus – just moments after Buffy’s line about hoping it won’t turn into a training montage from an 80’s movie and Giles’ reply that if they hear any power chords they’ll lie down until it goes away. Fabulous.
7. Finally getting to the word “Burn” in ‘Walk Through The Fire’ and the group striding towards the camera with the fire engines charging by behind.
8. Willow’s face when she realises she pulled Buffy out of heaven. AH does crying so well – and still manages to look pretty! Especially here, with that little plait in her hair at one side, and her blue coat. (I like her in blue, too. Don’t often see her in blue.)
9. The choreography for “Understand, we’ll go hand in hand, but we’ll walk alone in fear” – everyone inconspicuously moving into a line, then clasping hands firmly one by one down the line, then throwing their arms up in the air and letting go, and only moving a couple of paces away from each other but ending up so scattered and lonely and far from each other. Fantastic.
10. Giles’ “Tell me” immediately following that. In fact, all of Giles’ singing and the acting that goes with it, but that particular moment always sticks with me. ASH is so cool.
Top ten quotes:
1. Buffy’s “It’s do or die – hey, I’ve died twice!” and Giles’ frown at her statement that there was nothing to worry about turning into an affectionate smile.
2. “His penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe.” – You can always rely on Anya to lower the tone! Hilarious.
3. “When things get rough he just hides behind his Buffy, now look he’s getting huffy ‘cos he knows that I know.” – Hilarious, and inspired use of internal rhyming. Only Joss could find so many things that rhyme with ‘Buffy’.
4. “You’re the cutest of the Scoobies with your lips as red as rubies and your firm yet supple – tight embrace!” Again, hilarious and witty rhymes, and I love this sung version of Xander’s classic foot in mouth syndrome.
5. Giles’ line about the police taking “witness arias” instead of statements. Hardly heard behind the end of Marti declaring she’s not wearing any underwear, but just makes me laugh. It’s such a tiny thing, but classic Joss.
6. “She’ll get pissed if I’m missed, see my sis-ter’s the Slayer.” – Again, beautiful internal rhyming, and making it funny by deliberately breaking the rules.
7. “Wish I could stay, your stalwart standing fast, but I’m just standing in the way.” – Says it all, encompasses Giles’ dilemma, and the anguish on his face and in his voice is fantastically acted.
8. “I’m under your spell. God, how can this be, playing with my memory? You know I’ve been through hell. Willow, can’t you see? There’ll be nothing left of me.” – Just four lines of song, but in them you get Tara realising she really is under Willow’s spell (love that going from a good thing in her previous song to a bad thing in this one), and the reminder that’s she’s already had her mind messed around with by Glory which makes it doubly bad – and by the time she gets to the end of those four lines, you know she’s going to leave. Such economy of words. (See, I admire economy of words even though I can’t get it myself. Perhaps because I can’t do it myself!)
9. “She needs backup. Anya, Tara.” Love that double meaning. You’re thinking ‘Backup? Anya and Tara? Surely Willow, the witch, or Giles himself? Oh, I /see/. Backing dancers!’
10. “Bugger this.” So quintessentially Spike. Makes me smile, every time.
And more notes from a rewatch in January 2007 (which may well have been the last time I watched it!!!):
I think I must have watched this at least once since November 2004, but I know I haven’t watched it since December 2005 when my son was born. I watched the commentary at some point last year, but obviously I was concentrating more on what Joss was saying than on the actual episode. So this was effectively my first viewing on a big, flat screen and in full wide-screen. And I noticed several things I’d never noticed before, presumably because the picture was so much bigger and wider.
1. The second dancer in ‘Under Your Spell’: I’d only ever noticed the girl in the white blouse on Tara’s left before, never the girl in the pink jumper on her right, even though her arm is behind Tara on one of the close-ups!
2. Spike bumping into the pillar whilst walking backwards in ‘Where do we go from here?’, immediately before his “Bugger this”. I’m sure it was unintentional, but it certainly would have jolted him, literally, into waking up! :-)
And several other little nuances in the actors’ faces that I’d never noticed before – partly, I’m sure, because this is by far the longest I’ve ever left between viewings of this episode and partly because of the huge screen. And I’m glad I did leave so long, because it was even more fabulous than I remembered. I actually felt tears prick during ‘Wish I Could Stay’.
And I noticed so many little tiny bits of great directing, though I can’t think of any now except the pause before ‘Where do we go?’ with close-ups of each of the gang except Dawn and you wondering who’s going to start the song, and then the angle changes and it’s Dawn, and she walks across the stage so you get a view of everyone else, wondering the same thing. Actually, the choreography for that whole song, the placing of everyone, is beautifully done.
OK, that’s made me remember another one: the start of ‘I’ve Got A Theory’, when it begins by Giles’ face leaning into the shot from the side, very dramatic. I think there was another similar one somewhere, but I can’t remember where.
Also, something that really should have made it into the top ten moments or something: Anya's "Bunnies" song. It's so fabulously her, and I love the overdone rock anthem-ness of it!