"Smashed", the audio commentary
Aug. 14th, 2003 06:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakFellow 'Scapers, be thanked for your advice following yesterday's entry. I think I now have a solid program for the weekend.
More love for the BTVS writing staff, in this case, Drew Z. Greenberg. I watched Smashed yesterday, first without and then with the audio commentary. Writers named Drew certainly get challenging debuts, don't they? (Drew Goddard, after all, ended up with Selfless.) Far from being a monster of the week ep, Smashed had two crucial arc-important plot points for the writer to include - Willow's magical powertrip reaching unprecedented heights in the aftermath of Tara leaving and the de-ratting of Amy, and of course the Buffy/Spike sex. And Smashed arrives there in a flow which feels completely logical, emotionally.
I had heard Drew Greenberg before, in one of the Succubus Club interviews (where he was nice but also ticked off at the whole "dead lesbian stereotype" uproar since he was, he said, himself gay. But that had been a joint interview (together with Jane Espenson, I think), and this was the first time I heard him comment on the show alone. So, some bits and impressions from his audio commentary:
1) The writers really were and are in love with the Trio ("our guys", "I can't tell you how much fun it was writing them"), while at the same time using them to poke some fun at themselves; their self-confessed geekiness and fannishness is very endearing, as when Greenberg confesses he took a screen capture of his name appearing for the first time in the credits (over the frozen museum guard).
2) Tara's scenes with Dawn causes Greenberg to comment that the break-up with Willow was their chance to strengthen Tara as a character, to show her being strong in herself, not just as Willow's girlfriend, and to show her in other relationships (as with Dawn and later in the season with Buffy) to the point that "when Willow and Tara do get back together again, it is on Tara's terms". (I could quibble about that - yes, Tara makes the decision but I always felt she let her love for Willow override her caution that Willow had dealt only with the symptoms, not with the causes. But anyway, that's what Greenberg said.)
3) Willow using the laptop by magically connecting with the internet in order to do research was Joss' idea, as a foreshadowing of Willow absorbing the books of the magic shop late in the season. Greenberg's comments on Willow throughout are pretty much on the "hubris" note (the dreaded term addiction is never used, though "out of control" is), but with sympathy; when Amy suggests going out and adds "or you could just stay at home as you did in high school" he says that is how others could always get Willow, by exploiting her complex about her high school nerd past.
4) He's justifiably proud of the "Rat"/"Dead" exchange between Amy and Buffy but says it's also a triumph of acting and editing so it came across just like he had imagined.
5) As I said, much praise for the Trio; he mentions having known Tom Lenk before, through a play.
6) In his pitch, he had suggested that in the Bronze in the scene where the two guys turn on Willow and Amy, Willow would snap her fingers and force the boys to make out with each other, make them unable to stop kissing. Joss said no and suggested the dancing boy thing instead, because he didn't want to imply
a) that you can change sexuality with a finger snap and
b) that boy-on-boy kissing is ever a punishment.
"At that point, I realized two things. One, I was in the hands of a master, and two, Joss Whedon being straight is the biggest waste of all time. He'd make such a fabulous gay man."
7) Speaking of the boys: apparently, the actors are called Adam and Jordan, and Greenberg praises them for being real troopers and hanging around the set for a day in "their bikinis"; that was the day his agent came to visit ("so who knows what he thought").
8) In the Boba Fett scene: "Yes, I have a shelf with action figures at home. So?"
9) Much regular actor praise, particularly for AH, JM ("those cheekbones!") and SMG ("and here's another example of why Sarah is so very good at what she does, using dialogue like an opera singer to express much more", said when Buffy fumbles her way through explaining Spike's phone call to Xander and Willow "but I told him that I …would…not", and Drew Greenberg says it again after Buffy's "get out of my way" ("there is a hint of a smile there in her voice - there is much more going on here underneath").
A random observation of my own: I remember that after the scene with Spike and the Trio, which still cracks me up, there was much speculation that Warren might use the chip to control Spike at a later point now that he had learned about it (but, and the dialogue makes a point of including this, not what it does). This of course never happened, and I can see why - a Spike controlled by someone else would not fit with the season 6 story arcs. But leaving aside such mundane real life stuff - I wonder why Warren never tried to find out what the chip was all about?
Also: dialogue bit I didn't remember for some mysterious reason:
Spike (to Warren): "…I want you to have a look at my chip."
Jonathan: "Is that some sort of weird euphemism, 'cause we're not…"
Spike (still to Warren): "The chip in my head."
More love for the BTVS writing staff, in this case, Drew Z. Greenberg. I watched Smashed yesterday, first without and then with the audio commentary. Writers named Drew certainly get challenging debuts, don't they? (Drew Goddard, after all, ended up with Selfless.) Far from being a monster of the week ep, Smashed had two crucial arc-important plot points for the writer to include - Willow's magical powertrip reaching unprecedented heights in the aftermath of Tara leaving and the de-ratting of Amy, and of course the Buffy/Spike sex. And Smashed arrives there in a flow which feels completely logical, emotionally.
I had heard Drew Greenberg before, in one of the Succubus Club interviews (where he was nice but also ticked off at the whole "dead lesbian stereotype" uproar since he was, he said, himself gay. But that had been a joint interview (together with Jane Espenson, I think), and this was the first time I heard him comment on the show alone. So, some bits and impressions from his audio commentary:
1) The writers really were and are in love with the Trio ("our guys", "I can't tell you how much fun it was writing them"), while at the same time using them to poke some fun at themselves; their self-confessed geekiness and fannishness is very endearing, as when Greenberg confesses he took a screen capture of his name appearing for the first time in the credits (over the frozen museum guard).
2) Tara's scenes with Dawn causes Greenberg to comment that the break-up with Willow was their chance to strengthen Tara as a character, to show her being strong in herself, not just as Willow's girlfriend, and to show her in other relationships (as with Dawn and later in the season with Buffy) to the point that "when Willow and Tara do get back together again, it is on Tara's terms". (I could quibble about that - yes, Tara makes the decision but I always felt she let her love for Willow override her caution that Willow had dealt only with the symptoms, not with the causes. But anyway, that's what Greenberg said.)
3) Willow using the laptop by magically connecting with the internet in order to do research was Joss' idea, as a foreshadowing of Willow absorbing the books of the magic shop late in the season. Greenberg's comments on Willow throughout are pretty much on the "hubris" note (the dreaded term addiction is never used, though "out of control" is), but with sympathy; when Amy suggests going out and adds "or you could just stay at home as you did in high school" he says that is how others could always get Willow, by exploiting her complex about her high school nerd past.
4) He's justifiably proud of the "Rat"/"Dead" exchange between Amy and Buffy but says it's also a triumph of acting and editing so it came across just like he had imagined.
5) As I said, much praise for the Trio; he mentions having known Tom Lenk before, through a play.
6) In his pitch, he had suggested that in the Bronze in the scene where the two guys turn on Willow and Amy, Willow would snap her fingers and force the boys to make out with each other, make them unable to stop kissing. Joss said no and suggested the dancing boy thing instead, because he didn't want to imply
a) that you can change sexuality with a finger snap and
b) that boy-on-boy kissing is ever a punishment.
"At that point, I realized two things. One, I was in the hands of a master, and two, Joss Whedon being straight is the biggest waste of all time. He'd make such a fabulous gay man."
7) Speaking of the boys: apparently, the actors are called Adam and Jordan, and Greenberg praises them for being real troopers and hanging around the set for a day in "their bikinis"; that was the day his agent came to visit ("so who knows what he thought").
8) In the Boba Fett scene: "Yes, I have a shelf with action figures at home. So?"
9) Much regular actor praise, particularly for AH, JM ("those cheekbones!") and SMG ("and here's another example of why Sarah is so very good at what she does, using dialogue like an opera singer to express much more", said when Buffy fumbles her way through explaining Spike's phone call to Xander and Willow "but I told him that I …would…not", and Drew Greenberg says it again after Buffy's "get out of my way" ("there is a hint of a smile there in her voice - there is much more going on here underneath").
A random observation of my own: I remember that after the scene with Spike and the Trio, which still cracks me up, there was much speculation that Warren might use the chip to control Spike at a later point now that he had learned about it (but, and the dialogue makes a point of including this, not what it does). This of course never happened, and I can see why - a Spike controlled by someone else would not fit with the season 6 story arcs. But leaving aside such mundane real life stuff - I wonder why Warren never tried to find out what the chip was all about?
Also: dialogue bit I didn't remember for some mysterious reason:
Spike (to Warren): "…I want you to have a look at my chip."
Jonathan: "Is that some sort of weird euphemism, 'cause we're not…"
Spike (still to Warren): "The chip in my head."
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no subject
Date: 2003-09-15 12:51 pm (UTC)Also: dialogue bit I didn't remember for some mysterious reason:
I don't remember it either. I'll have to go back and check my tape, but in the U.S. with the F/X repeats, sometimes important gay/suggestive/slashy dialogue lines get omitted by F/X, in some evil sort of censorship ploy.
I know they have to cut some stuff for time, but one little 3-second line (in the case of their cutting Xander's "do I have to be your ... queen" line in OMWF which *always* pisses me off) should not have much of an impact on how many commercials they can show.
There was also a Xander line about Angel being handsome and muscular or whatever, in season one, that F/X cut.
Thank you very much for your summary of the commentary, it should help sustain me in my long year of waiting for Season 6 to arrive in the U.S.
You're welcome.
Date: 2003-09-16 05:26 am (UTC)