Post by ambersknight on Aug 27, 2010 19:29:55 GMT 1
Season 6 for me represents a problem. You see, I want to like it. it has within it one of the best episodes of television America has ever had the audacity to produce in the musical "Once More With Feeling". It also contains a darker, more mature tone (in look and in themes and topics covered within it) than previous seasons and also has some of the best performances of the main cast. For all those reasons I want to like it.
And yet, try as I might, I cannot bring myself to like the season as a whole. There are a myriad of reasons why I dislike it, but if I had to place my finger on an over-riding reason I'd say it was down to weakness and a lack of courage by the writing team. Bold claim to make, so let me state my reasons for saying it.
If you break season 6 into two halves, the first 9-10 episodes setting up the themes and challenges of the characters and the back end of the season dealing with the fall-out and consequences of the choices made in the first half of the season, then my main contention is that the themes explored in the first half aren't, IMHO, dealt with in any real or dramatically apt way. In short, to use a British phrase, the writers bottled it.
Take the highly controversial "Magic Addiction" storyline involving Willow. Up until the episode "Wrecked" (apt title in retrospect) Willow's abuse of magic had been dealt with not as a substance abuse metaphor but as someone getting drunk on power. In other words, she wasn't addicted to magic so much as been warped by the power she had and because she believed her motives were honourable, then she had the right to do as she felt necessary to get the job done. It was another look at power corrupting but using the character who had always been a little edgy and showing what happens when you give such people real power.
But then in "Wrecked" this intriguing storyline is dumped for a very badly written, poorly handled drugs metaphor, robbing the impact of the previous episodes of their dramatic power and setting us on a course that has been done far better a million times before by other teen-orientated shows. Worse, by having Willow stop at the end of that episode, it robbed the storyline of the only possible oxygen it could have had. Imagine if you would if the writers had gone with this new metaphor and shown Willow's complete slide into substance abuse. Harrowing to watch? You bet! But it could've had a real impact on the viewers.
And yet, with a very disturbingly light trippy scene Willow gives up her addiction only for it to re-surface with tara's death. That whole section of this storyline deserves a separate thread so I'll deal with that part of it there.
Point is, what were the writers thinking? I really don't know. They went from a familiar but interestingly played out power corrupting storyline to a woefully plotted and painful to watch drugs metaphor. It seemed in both cases, the writers simply didn't have the courage of their convictions to take the story where it was going. if they couldn't take it there, don't start it.
Another example is Xander and Anya's wedding. By this point was it any surprise that it didn't happen? Xander and Anya not marrying was not only predictable, it bordered on cliche as Joss can't seem to handle drama with stability, unable to grasp that drama can come with a stable couple, it just requires smarter thinking. In fact, if Xander and Anya had tied the knot, that would have been a surprise for the audience.
Dawn's kleptomania? Barely touched even though they seemed to be hinting it would be a major plot point or at least a moment of tension for Dawn when the thieving was revealed.
I don't want to be down on Season 6. But as someone who watched it and felt ultimately let down by the bad writing within it, I can't help but feel, perhaps unfairly so, that the writers took the audience for granted.
And yet, try as I might, I cannot bring myself to like the season as a whole. There are a myriad of reasons why I dislike it, but if I had to place my finger on an over-riding reason I'd say it was down to weakness and a lack of courage by the writing team. Bold claim to make, so let me state my reasons for saying it.
If you break season 6 into two halves, the first 9-10 episodes setting up the themes and challenges of the characters and the back end of the season dealing with the fall-out and consequences of the choices made in the first half of the season, then my main contention is that the themes explored in the first half aren't, IMHO, dealt with in any real or dramatically apt way. In short, to use a British phrase, the writers bottled it.
Take the highly controversial "Magic Addiction" storyline involving Willow. Up until the episode "Wrecked" (apt title in retrospect) Willow's abuse of magic had been dealt with not as a substance abuse metaphor but as someone getting drunk on power. In other words, she wasn't addicted to magic so much as been warped by the power she had and because she believed her motives were honourable, then she had the right to do as she felt necessary to get the job done. It was another look at power corrupting but using the character who had always been a little edgy and showing what happens when you give such people real power.
But then in "Wrecked" this intriguing storyline is dumped for a very badly written, poorly handled drugs metaphor, robbing the impact of the previous episodes of their dramatic power and setting us on a course that has been done far better a million times before by other teen-orientated shows. Worse, by having Willow stop at the end of that episode, it robbed the storyline of the only possible oxygen it could have had. Imagine if you would if the writers had gone with this new metaphor and shown Willow's complete slide into substance abuse. Harrowing to watch? You bet! But it could've had a real impact on the viewers.
And yet, with a very disturbingly light trippy scene Willow gives up her addiction only for it to re-surface with tara's death. That whole section of this storyline deserves a separate thread so I'll deal with that part of it there.
Point is, what were the writers thinking? I really don't know. They went from a familiar but interestingly played out power corrupting storyline to a woefully plotted and painful to watch drugs metaphor. It seemed in both cases, the writers simply didn't have the courage of their convictions to take the story where it was going. if they couldn't take it there, don't start it.
Another example is Xander and Anya's wedding. By this point was it any surprise that it didn't happen? Xander and Anya not marrying was not only predictable, it bordered on cliche as Joss can't seem to handle drama with stability, unable to grasp that drama can come with a stable couple, it just requires smarter thinking. In fact, if Xander and Anya had tied the knot, that would have been a surprise for the audience.
Dawn's kleptomania? Barely touched even though they seemed to be hinting it would be a major plot point or at least a moment of tension for Dawn when the thieving was revealed.
I don't want to be down on Season 6. But as someone who watched it and felt ultimately let down by the bad writing within it, I can't help but feel, perhaps unfairly so, that the writers took the audience for granted.