Prelude's Replies


I know what you mean about musicals - I do usually find them annoying and silly. But there are some good songs in this - I would recommend taking a listen to James Marsters'/Spike's own solo number "Rest In Peace" which is a fairly decent rock song fitting to his character. Other songs are typical cheesy musical fodder but Rest In Peace could even be something you hear on the radio. As someone who went through the same thing when I was not all that much older than Buffy was, this episode resonated with me so deeply that I was basically crying on and off through the entire thing. And everything was SO right! The writing, direction and performances perfectly captured all the things you really do go through, I went through. It was the most accurate portrayal of shock, denial, numbness, brain fog, grief, loss, etc that I think I've ever seen in film or TV. Whedon got it spot-on. It was devastating. Once More With Feeling is at the same time cheesy as hell and amazing too. I like it a lot; the dance scenes are great - seeing Anya and Xander doing a Fred and Ginger is huge fun. And I liked the song where Buffy reveals the shocking truth of where she was. The fact that Spike is the one who tells her the best any of us can do with how hard life is, is to just go on simply living, is actually pretty darn deep for a daft musical episode -- that whole scene resonates to anyone who has ever felt like this is hell right here. I can't pick between Dawn, Riley or Faith. Dawn was a drag and I never really got used to her abrupt supernatural insertion into all their lives. Like the reply above me, either have her be the sister from the start, or not at all. Riley: THE most boring boyfriend in the history of fictional boyfriends! So perfect, so good, so "sir yes sir." I groaned out loud when he shows back up again later on. I don't think there's a fix for a character who is supposed to be the perfect, normal, golden-boy potential "hubby" for Buffy. While Buffy could be too goody-two-shoes at times, I hated Faith for being so 180 degrees the nasty shit-stirrer, and all the jumping the bones of the guys who matter to the other characters. B word all the way! I guess they had to have someone who was the dark to Buffy's light, so I have no suggestions for how Faith could be different; I just couldn't stand her lack of ethics. I'm seeing those E4 broadcasts, and it's so refreshing to be reminded of a time when nobody was dependent on their cellphones, lol! In the final season they do have them though, and someone alerts someone by mobile. :( Another aspect of doing the right thing is this saying I like a lot: "Ethics are about what you do when nobody sees." Doesn't matter if doing the right thing goes unrecognized or your moral values go unpraised. You do the right thing because it's the right thing, sight unseen or not. Yes; open casket, family. I would have done the same thing; you did the right thing. To me it would have felt sucky if I'd kept the money. I know how it feels to really need that extra money but it feels better to know you did things right. I had a physical answering machine at home, and you could call your own home landline, punch in a code number, and listen to your answering machine's messages. So I did that. This was before cell phones were widely owned, so I didn't have one and I used friend's landlines or a payphone to call my own machine. Only just airing now in the UK - oh my god it's bad. Another Charmed-style fuck-up. They've warped everything about these characters. . YES. The Good Girl, and Derailed; she's capable of drama and handles those roles with subtlety and nuance. She's done too many bad, broad comedies, and those give her a bad name. But her comedic timing and facial expressions are brilliant. Watch the old movie "Carefree" starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Watch the scene in the psychiatrist's office where Ginger Rogers describes a made-up dream. Jennifer Aniston takes a lot of influence from Ginger's comedic chops. I agree. The show is intriguing, but wow her acting stinks quite often. It's distracting and takes you out of what is otherwise an excellent, impressive show. You don't have to be a "professional musician" to give your argument or opinion added weight. I've been somewhat of a struggling "professional" musician/songwriter too, and I never heard that "biz joke." It's "Rolling Stones or Beatles." I was both a Beatles and a Beach Boys fan. They had more in common musically than given credit for, namely great melodies. About Beach Boys singing in tune - yes I hear the little wobbles and sour notes. They never mattered to me. net result was it was REAL PEOPLE singing, flaws and all. Those tiny flaws in otherwise sublime music made it all the more sublime. Yay. I thought her performance was quietly STUNNING. My eyes were drawn to her in every scene, and her facial expressions and reactions to Brian's talks with her were so subtle yet very clearly signaled her thoughts and feelings. I had no idea Elizabeth Banks was such a good actor, having only seen her lighthearted movies. Cusack ruined it for me. Don't get me wrong, I don't need for an actor to resemble a person to a "T" but there has to be SOME degree of physical similarity, and it's not there with Cusack. His behavior may have been slightly evocative of Wilson but this looks mismatching ruined that. Paul Dano, for instance, does not look EXACTLY like the young Brian Wilson BUT he resembled him just enough to bolster an excellent performance even more. Cusack looks SO different from the older Wilson that when I first saw his first scene, I genuinely asked myself "Okay who's this now?" I seriously didn't know this was supposed to be Brian older. Well, one positive is that it's now easy and free to stay in touch with friends or family who live very far away. I've made two massive trans-global moves in my lifetime, and it was a lifeline to be able to e-mail and skype friends I had to leave behind. Before that, there was snail mail - which can take a whole week to get around the planet. And long distance phone calls, though cheaper now, used to cost as much as a dollar a minute. When I was able to get online and e-mail for the first time, to 5,000 miles away instantly, or equally use a chat room to talk to a friend that far away, it was amazing. On the downside, I truly hate how time spent with a friend face-to-face in the same actual space is often intruded upon by their phone. Making calls, taking calls, checking their damn social media - there's so much rudeness now, because nobody lives in the moment and is WITH the person they are physically with. Yep, she was the worst example of over-controlling, while in contrast the woman with the Hollywood wannabe daughter wasn't controlling enough and her permissiveness is the daughter's downfall getting ahead in the world. The two contrasting parental styles was a bit heavy-handed in the story but they get the idea across of two extremes. Wow, I really don't agree. I think it's a good movie. Lessons learned, gives pause for thought, albeit some of the lessons were not that deep. I don't think it's trash though. Maybe it just riles the generation that grew up seeing nothing wrong with the potential downsides of technology. In addition to Jimmy's answer, the whole bad vibe was added to by the fact that the home was partly emptied out by the mom taking most of her stuff when she moved out with the younger brother. The house just looked all abandoned and there was Jeff living in it anyway. It just looked bad enough that the friend realized something is totally wrong with Jeff. There was nice prose in the novel; it's certainly a work of high quality. But I found it so boring in terms of story. I read it after seeing the film, so I'm sure that affected my impression. I think the film did a good job of taking the most interesting aspects of the storyline in the novel, and making the film about those rather than faithfully adapting the whole thing.