Buffy the Vampire Slayer Omnibus—Volume One

In the wake of the arrival and consequent crazy-good sales of Buffy: Season Eight in comic book form, Dark Horse Comics is now re-releasing the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics in trade paperback format. I'm glad they're doing this, because the original comics are a bit hard to track down now, and buying all the paperback compilations is expensive, plus not all the comics were rereleased in this form.

The other thing I really like about the new compilations is that they're not in publication order, but in chronological order. The original Buffy comics jumped around on the timeline, with some set pre-series, and others set during various seasons of the show, in somewhat random order. In these new omnibus editions, the comics have been reordered to fit the series timeline.

Volume One consists entirely of pre-series stories, some of which I had read and some of which I hadn't. All of them are solid stories, and I enjoyed the book quite a lot.

The book starts off with All's Fair, a Spike and Dru series set during the 1933 World's Fair. It's an enjoyable story, but I found it to be the weakest of the set. The next series is the strongest. Buffy: The Origin is an adaptation of Joss Whedon's original script for the Buffy movie--i.e., this is what the movie would have looked like if studio suits and egomaniacal actors hadn't stuck their fingers in the pie. The Origin leads directly into Viva Las Buffy!, in which Buffy fights vampires in Las Vegas with Pike, her boyfriend from the original movie. This series and Slayer, Interrupted, in which Buffy ends up in a mental institution, fill in a good bit of the timeline between the movie storyline and the story that picks up with the pilot of the TV series. Also included is backstory on Giles, with a much-appreciated cameo from Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. Sandwiched between these two stories is the one-shot Dawn and Hoopy the Bear, in which an attempt to kill the Slayer affects her little sister, instead. Her arguably non-existent in this time-frame little sister.

The inclusion of Dawn in these comic sets was a conscious decision by the writers, since Season Four through Seven canon includes the character not only in the present but also in the other characters' manufactured pasts. It makes sense given when these comics were written, so I don't have a problem with it, but it'll make your head explode if you think about it too much.

Overall, this is a very enjoyable read, and I plan to follow this series as it's made available. Volume Two is already out--Borders here I come! With coupons, of course.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight—The Long Way Home

Issues One and Two by Joss Whedon, art by Andy Owens, Dave Stewart and Richard Starkings. Featured covers by Jo Chen.

While I was bummed that Joss Whedon had decided to end his run on Astonishing X-Men, the news that directly followed this annoucement perked me up heartily. Joss is now writing a Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic for Dark Horse that picks up where the series left off. An Angel comic from IDW, also continuing where the show left off, will follow in a few months.

To say I enjoyed these first two issues would be an understatement. I've read and enjoyed the comics that have come out since the end of Buffy's television run, but having Whedon behind the pen again feels like coming home. As good as the writers at IDW are, most notably Peter David, they lack the exactness of voice that comes from Whedon. Which is understandable, since Whedon created these characters, after all.

The Season Eight series opens with Buffy holed up in a castle in Scotland with a cadre of Slayers, as well as familiar faces like Xander, Willow and Dawn (who, by the way, has been transformed into a giant). The new population of over 2,000 Slayers is scattered throughout the world, presumably killing evil things.

Speaking of evil things, there's a new one afoot. And by the end of issue two, the Buffster is in the midst of a passel of trouble once again. Just like old times.

Overall, the first arc of this new series has gotten off to a great start. The story is good, the art is solid, and I can't wait to see more. The only thing I find disappointing--deeply disappointing, in fact--is some of the reader letters published in the backs of the issues. The series has just gotten underway, and already "fans" feel the need to write in pushing their own agendas regarding the stories. Fortunately, Joss has proven in the past that he'll follow his own agenda, regardless. And I'm okay with that.

TV Tie-Ins—Spike vs. Dracula

A five-issue series from IDW, now available as a trade paperback compliation, Spike vs. Dracula presents five more or less standalone stories that, taken together, explain Spike's reaction to Dracula in "Buffy vs. Dracula", the Season Five premiere episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. We also find out why the bloody ponce owes him eleven quid. There's also a bit of backstory for Angel's Season Five episode, "Why We Fight". I found this series to be quite an enjoyable little romp.

To Arc or Not to Arc?

The TV series of today seems to constantly have to struggle between the concept of standalone episodes and the serial arc. The serial arc seems to be in vogue at the moment, even though several shows with very strong serial structures have bombed heartily this season (Day Break, The Nine, Vanished). How does a show find the balance here? Is one approach truly better storytelling than the other? Or does it just depend on the show?

There are certainly advantages and disadvantages to each approach. With a show that depends largely on standalone episodes, a new viewer can drop in at any time and still be able to get the gist of the show. However, that show loses an opportunity for deeper, more complex storylines and longer character development arcs. On the other hand, a show that depends on serial arcs can easily lose a new viewer, thus reducing its chances of building its audience in later seasons. Several of my favorite shows have fallen into this conundrum, including Farscapeand Angel, both of which had developed very complex arcs by the third and fourth seasons. Angel addressed this by retooling the show in Season Five to be a bit more standalone; Farscape just got cancelled.

Some shows manage to find a good balance between these two approaches. The X-Files used standalone stories through most of the season, with an underlying story arc that they revisited during sweeps. (If it's February, there must be black oil.) Supernatural seems to be following a similar pattern—not unexpected given the preponderance of X-Files alumni on their writing/production staff, though they seem to also be focusing more on their story arc during the second half of the season. This gives the audience a chance to orient themselves to the general premise of the show before plunging into the full-on arc. It seems to work—I came into the show three episodes from the end of last season and had no trouble figuring out what was going on. Bones presents the case of the week as a standalone story, but there are other subplots playing out in the background which are strongly character oriented, such as the Jack/Angela romance and the mystery of Brennan's parents. Just about any episode of House can be viewed as a standalone, but they also throw in an occasional arc, such as the Tritter storyline from this season.

Other shows seem to be pulling in strong audience numbers in spite of—or perhaps because of—their complex arcs. Lost is still doing well in its third season, and Heroes has taken off with a bang. Both these shows are strongly driven by a complex and layered story structure. In the case of Lost, though, some of the audience seems to be tiring of a storyline that seems to become more and more convoluted as it develops, with few answers to be had (see my post here for news on how Abrams and Lindelof, et al may be planning to handle that). Heroes has yet to prove if its complicated storyline will sustain a long-term audience, but so far so good.

I think some shows are simply better suited to story arcs than others. Angel's first season, when they used a more standalone structure, wasn't nearly as strong as the later seasons, when they headed into serialized plotlines. And in Season Five, they tried to do more standalone episodes, but quickly moved back into the serial structure, completely giving up on the standalone concept the minute they found out they'd been canceled, much to the show's benefit. Superatural's arc/standalone alternation seems to be working out quite well, as does Bones' mostly standalone structure. On the other hand, House seems to me to be more enjoyable when they're concentrating on the case of the week, rather than on a background story, especially when that storyline goes on for several episodes.

I have to admit to a preference for shows with a strong story arc. In spite of that, they tend to make me nervous. First, because the new ones so often don't last. Second, because when they do work, pressure to keep the story going becomes such that the storylines tend to get bloated and out of control just to sustain the storyline so the show can continue. This seems to be happening with Lost—it'll be interesting to see if the growing complexity of the storyline, intended to keep the show going, instead leads to ratings loss and eventual cancellation. It seems to me that a better approach is the one taken by shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel—a strong story arc, but with major storylines that are wrapped up within the course of a single season. And with shows like Bones or House, strong standalone stories seasoned with less involved story arcs that play out more or less in the background.

Where Have All The Writers Gone?

It's interesting to note how many writers from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and/or Firefly, all shows I loved with a crazed and unreasonable passion, have gone on to other shows I've enjoyed or am now watching regularly.

Let's take a look...

Drew Goddard, after a stint on Alias, which I haven't watched since its series premiere, is now a supervising producer on Lost.

Drew Z. Greenberg is now a producer on Dexter.

David Greenwalt is now a consulting producer on Eureka.

The incomparable Jane Espenson has penned two episodes of Battlestar Galactica, which I watch but don't blog regularly (for reasons I might blather about in a separate post), and also was a co-executive producer on Tru Calling, where Douglas Petrie also served for a while as co-executive producer.

Ben Edlund is now working on Supernatural, where he penned the fabulous "Simon Said." He's joined there by many folks who were involved in another long-term obsession of mine, The X-Files.

Jeffrey Bell spent some time on the unfortunately cancelled Day Break, along with several other X-Files alumni.

And that's just the writers. Many of the actors, too, have moved on to do excellent work on other series. But that's a post for another day...

Tru Calling

Tru Calling, starring Eliza Dushku (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), aired on Fox from October 2003 to June of 2005. Like many decent genre series on Fox, it was canceled after a short run. The first season ran a full 20 episodes, while Season Two was truncated at 5.

The premise--Tru Davies (Dushku) gets a job at a morgue, where the corpses occasionally wake up and ask her to save them. When this happens, her day restarts. Aided by her boss, Davis (Zach Galifianakis) and her brother Harrison (Shawn Reaves), she spends the repeated day trying to find out what happened to the victim, and how to keep them from landing once again on the slab in the morgue. As it turns out, her mother also had this ability, and late in Season One we are introduced to Jack Harper (Jason Priestley), as her opposite. Jack repeats days, too, but he considers it his duty to be sure people who were fated to die actually do, rather than saving their lives. This plotline carries into Season Two, building an ongoing backstory where Jack works to sabotage Tru's work. Without her knowledge, Tru's father assists Jack, opposing Tru. Unfortunately, the retooling of the show and the addition of Priestley weren't enough to bring in additional viewers.

Tru Calling isn't a great show, but it's not bad, either. It shares elements with Quantum Leap, an old favorite, especially in the first season, when each episode presents a standalone story. The addition of Jack didn't really help the show, in my opinion. This is partly because I just don't care for the way Priestley plays the character, but it also seemed to shift the focus of each individual episode. Before Jack came along, Tru had to sort through many often random circumstances to work out how and why she needed to save the current victim. After Jack, though, the focus became Tru vs. Jack, lending an element of predictability to each show that to me made it less interesting. Although even with only five Season Two episodes, the writers had already begun to add depth to his character, and bring up some interesting moral questions that mitigated this somewhat. (What if Jack was right? What if Tru really was meddling with Fate?) In at least one episode ("Enough"), Tru's motivations and actions really do seem to be wrong, and in another ("Last Good Day"), Jack himself questions his purpose. By the last episode ("'Twas the Night Before Christmas...Again"), Tru and Jack are working together, albeit reluctantly. One has to wonder how their relationship would have developed over the course of Season Two, and where the writers were taking the subplot involving Tru's parents. The Wikipedia entry for the series has information posted by one of the show's creators, with some thoughts about where the show might have gone. Overall, while it isn't exactly a television classic, it's too bad Tru Calling wasn't allowed a longer lifespan.

Hex

I ran into this show a while back on BBC America when I was at home, hopped up on Vicodin (I had kidney stones). I thought what I saw was pretty cool, so I tracked it down so I could find out if it really was cool, or if it was just the Vicodin talking.

Unfortunately, it seems it was mostly the Vicodin. I remember when this show first came out on Sky One in the UK, back in 2004, people compared it favorably to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Some people even said it was better than Buffy, which I pretty much ignored because that's just crazy talk. Of course there are similarities--blonde girl with lesbian best friend discovers legacy of superpowers, is seduced by demon lover, etc. etc. But the writing and the characterizations just don't compare. There are pretty actors and actresses, and the germ of what should be an intriguing story, but it seems to be to be all over the place. The pilot episode was, for me, dead boring--if I'd started with that one instead of the eisodes I caught on BBCA, I would have given up halfway through the first hour. I found it extremely slow, and what was probably supposed to be edgy, witty banter just struck me as an overabundance of sex jokes. Cassie is an unappealing character--she's a bitch to pretty much everybody, including the long-suffering Thelma (the only character in the show I actually like, though Ella has shown some promise)--and I could see no earthly reason for her hooking back up with Azazeal after his abduction of their demon child. She was possessed when the kid was conceived, then all of a sudden she's claiming she loves the guy, and she's jumping back into bed with him... it just didn't make any sense. And Azazeal, the demon lover trying to conquer the world with his hordes of Nephilim, is kind of a blah character, as well. He's good-looking, certainly, but his evilness seems kind of petty and watered down compared to, say, the Angelus of BtVS Season Two. (I think Azazeal needs "Sending the World to Hell" lessons. Lesson One: Be Scary. Lesson Two: Wear Leather Pants.) Then there's the big plot twist early in Series Two, completely eliminating the person we thought was supposed to be our Plucky Heroine, and a couple of episodes later I'm still wondering where the hell (no pun intended) they're going with this. The characters seem to develop different personalities in every episode, depending on what plot twist they need to serve, and the plot itself doesn't seem to know where it's going.

In any case, I have about nine episodes to go, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to stick it out to the end. If I do, and the show redeems itself, I'll let you know.