30 Days of Television - Day 22
Jun. 3rd, 2010 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annissamazingDay 22 - Favorite series finale
"Chosen"
This, folks, is how it's done. If you have a long-running, popular television show, you know you have a whole season to close it out, and you have some of the best writers in the industry, this is what you'll end up with. In my opinion, "Chosen" is one of the finest hours of television ever produced. It was an entertaining and satisfying end to one of the best tv shows in history and I love it just as much today as I did when it first aired in 2003.
Do I need spoiler warnings for a 7-year-old show? If so, this is your warning.
It starts with Buffy getting into a fight with Caleb the evil preacher (a character so terrifying I had a hard time seeing Nathan Fillion as anything but sinister for a long time). Angel makes a cross-network cross-over from his eponymous show and looks like he's about to save the day, except he gets knocked out and Buffy gets to finish the preacher and make a really terrible pun. It is, in fact, the last pun of the series. The "Big Bad" in this season is too big to joke about.
One of the awesome things about this episode is the writers are still developing the characters. Buffy has a speech that really resonated with me. She explains how she's "cookie dough." She's not done yet. I love her realization that she doesn't have to pick a lifemate at this stage in her life. She's not ready. She hasn't become the person she's going to be. She says, "I make it through this, and the next thing, and the next thing, and maybe one day I turn around and realize I'm ready. I'm cookies. And then, you know, if I want someone to eat..." She stops when she realizes the double entendre. "...Or enjoy warm, delicious cookie me, then...that's fine. That'll be then. When I'm done."
The episode then begins to slowly build to a truly epic battle (and I'm not talking about the D&D game Giles and others play the night before). The lot of them head to the high school. This is where it started and this is where it should end. Full circle. As the guest stars and extras peel off to the places they need to be for the final battle, we're left with the core group of the show, Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles, in a neat little nod to the end of the first episode (technically the second episode, but it was a two-parter). The camera pans around their circle as they glibly discuss what they'll do tomorrow. The three characters that we've watched grow from children to capable, powerful adults walk away as their teacher and mentor sighs, "The earth is definitely doomed."
Everyone is in place for the battle before the audience is shown what the battle plan is. Buffy makes a lot of speeches in the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I admit, it got really old. She continues the speechifying in "Chosen" but they seemed to carry more weight. They meant more. Her last speech when she tells everyone the plan always gives me chills. Earlier in the episode, we were allowed to see her say this, "I hate this. I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there's evil, and that I was chosen to fight it. I wish, a whole lot of the time, that I hadn't been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn't been either. But this isn't about wishes. This is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes. Not when its army is ready. Now. Tomorrow morning I'm opening the seal. I'm going down into the Hellmouth, and I'm finishing this once and for all.
"Right now you're asking yourself, 'What makes this different? What makes us anything more than a bunch of girls being picked off one by one?' It's true none of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here's the part where you make a choice..."
Upstairs, Willow has worked her magic. As the potential slayers are standing in the mouth of Hell watching as the Turok-Han advance on them, we get the rest of the speech. "So here's the part where you make a choice: What if you could have that power...now? 'In every generation, one slayer is born...' because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman," Buffy points to Willow, "is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power is your power."
As she continues to speak, we see girls and women all over the world become imbued with the power of the Slayer. "From now on, every girl in the world who might be a slayer will be a slayer..." A scared little girl on a baseball diamond gets the courage and confidence to play well. "Every girl who could have the power will have the power..." A young woman in Japan stands up from a family dinner. "Can stand up, will stand up..." A victim of domestic violence stands up and stops a man from hitting her. "Slayers... every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?"
Thus begins one of the best battles on tv set to one of the best musical themes written for tv. The fight is bloody and horrifying. Buffy is badly wounded and can't do much more than watch as newly-minted slayers are injured and killed. As The First stands over her and taunts her, Buffy's anger gives her the motivation get stand up and continue the fight. In the place of her normal snappy pun, she instead says, "I want you to get out of my face." It's not funny and it's not cheesy. It's not even a particularly good line, but she says it with such fury that it's chilling.
As the amulet Spike is wearing shoots sunlight into the Hellmouth killing the Turok-Han, the Slayers run for the stairs. The ground above them is becoming unstable. The survivors run for the bus and drive out of the town as the city falls into a crater behind them. Buffy just manages to jump onto the roof of the bus as the buildings behind her fall.
In the end, two main characters have died, the enemy has been defeated, and the entire city of Sunnydale, California has been obliterated. Now that's how you end a show.
But that wasn't quite the end. It didn't witter on like some shows did (I'll be writing about that at a later date). In a short conversation as the camera moves closer to the core group, we know that there's more work to be done. There's a Hellmouth in Cleveland and thousands of Slayers to be found and trained. But there was one more point the show wanted to make before it ended. Buffy, the one girl in all the world who had the strength and skill to stand against the forces of evil, is no longer alone. As Faith says, "Yeah, you're not the one and only chosen anymore. Just gotta live like a person. How's that feel?"
"The Final Fight" by Robert Duncan
Past
Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled: Futurama
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching: Doctor Who
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season): Community
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever: Doctor Who
Day 05 - A show you hate: Charmed
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show: Doctor Who: "Blink"
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show: Doctor Who: "Planet of the Dead"
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch: The Prisoner
Day 09 - Best scene ever: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "You're beneath me."
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving: The Mighty Boosh
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you: Heroes
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times: "Midnight"
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show: Thundercats
Day 14 - Favorite male character: Dan Conner
Day 15 - Favorite female character: Buffy Summers
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show: Special Unit 2
Day 17 - Favorite mini series: The Stand
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence: Gunslinger Girl
Day 19 - Best TV show cast: Arrested Development
Day 20 - Favorite kiss: The Doctor and Rose Tyler
Day 21 - Favorite ship: The Doctor and Rose Tyler
Day 22 - Favorite series finale: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Chosen"
Future:
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death
"Chosen"
This, folks, is how it's done. If you have a long-running, popular television show, you know you have a whole season to close it out, and you have some of the best writers in the industry, this is what you'll end up with. In my opinion, "Chosen" is one of the finest hours of television ever produced. It was an entertaining and satisfying end to one of the best tv shows in history and I love it just as much today as I did when it first aired in 2003.
Do I need spoiler warnings for a 7-year-old show? If so, this is your warning.
It starts with Buffy getting into a fight with Caleb the evil preacher (a character so terrifying I had a hard time seeing Nathan Fillion as anything but sinister for a long time). Angel makes a cross-network cross-over from his eponymous show and looks like he's about to save the day, except he gets knocked out and Buffy gets to finish the preacher and make a really terrible pun. It is, in fact, the last pun of the series. The "Big Bad" in this season is too big to joke about.
One of the awesome things about this episode is the writers are still developing the characters. Buffy has a speech that really resonated with me. She explains how she's "cookie dough." She's not done yet. I love her realization that she doesn't have to pick a lifemate at this stage in her life. She's not ready. She hasn't become the person she's going to be. She says, "I make it through this, and the next thing, and the next thing, and maybe one day I turn around and realize I'm ready. I'm cookies. And then, you know, if I want someone to eat..." She stops when she realizes the double entendre. "...Or enjoy warm, delicious cookie me, then...that's fine. That'll be then. When I'm done."
The episode then begins to slowly build to a truly epic battle (and I'm not talking about the D&D game Giles and others play the night before). The lot of them head to the high school. This is where it started and this is where it should end. Full circle. As the guest stars and extras peel off to the places they need to be for the final battle, we're left with the core group of the show, Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles, in a neat little nod to the end of the first episode (technically the second episode, but it was a two-parter). The camera pans around their circle as they glibly discuss what they'll do tomorrow. The three characters that we've watched grow from children to capable, powerful adults walk away as their teacher and mentor sighs, "The earth is definitely doomed."
Everyone is in place for the battle before the audience is shown what the battle plan is. Buffy makes a lot of speeches in the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I admit, it got really old. She continues the speechifying in "Chosen" but they seemed to carry more weight. They meant more. Her last speech when she tells everyone the plan always gives me chills. Earlier in the episode, we were allowed to see her say this, "I hate this. I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there's evil, and that I was chosen to fight it. I wish, a whole lot of the time, that I hadn't been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn't been either. But this isn't about wishes. This is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes. Not when its army is ready. Now. Tomorrow morning I'm opening the seal. I'm going down into the Hellmouth, and I'm finishing this once and for all.
"Right now you're asking yourself, 'What makes this different? What makes us anything more than a bunch of girls being picked off one by one?' It's true none of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here's the part where you make a choice..."
Upstairs, Willow has worked her magic. As the potential slayers are standing in the mouth of Hell watching as the Turok-Han advance on them, we get the rest of the speech. "So here's the part where you make a choice: What if you could have that power...now? 'In every generation, one slayer is born...' because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman," Buffy points to Willow, "is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power is your power."
As she continues to speak, we see girls and women all over the world become imbued with the power of the Slayer. "From now on, every girl in the world who might be a slayer will be a slayer..." A scared little girl on a baseball diamond gets the courage and confidence to play well. "Every girl who could have the power will have the power..." A young woman in Japan stands up from a family dinner. "Can stand up, will stand up..." A victim of domestic violence stands up and stops a man from hitting her. "Slayers... every one of us. Make your choice. Are you ready to be strong?"
Thus begins one of the best battles on tv set to one of the best musical themes written for tv. The fight is bloody and horrifying. Buffy is badly wounded and can't do much more than watch as newly-minted slayers are injured and killed. As The First stands over her and taunts her, Buffy's anger gives her the motivation get stand up and continue the fight. In the place of her normal snappy pun, she instead says, "I want you to get out of my face." It's not funny and it's not cheesy. It's not even a particularly good line, but she says it with such fury that it's chilling.
As the amulet Spike is wearing shoots sunlight into the Hellmouth killing the Turok-Han, the Slayers run for the stairs. The ground above them is becoming unstable. The survivors run for the bus and drive out of the town as the city falls into a crater behind them. Buffy just manages to jump onto the roof of the bus as the buildings behind her fall.
In the end, two main characters have died, the enemy has been defeated, and the entire city of Sunnydale, California has been obliterated. Now that's how you end a show.
But that wasn't quite the end. It didn't witter on like some shows did (I'll be writing about that at a later date). In a short conversation as the camera moves closer to the core group, we know that there's more work to be done. There's a Hellmouth in Cleveland and thousands of Slayers to be found and trained. But there was one more point the show wanted to make before it ended. Buffy, the one girl in all the world who had the strength and skill to stand against the forces of evil, is no longer alone. As Faith says, "Yeah, you're not the one and only chosen anymore. Just gotta live like a person. How's that feel?"
"The Final Fight" by Robert Duncan
Past
Day 01 - A show that should never have been canceled: Futurama
Day 02 - A show that you wish more people were watching: Doctor Who
Day 03 - Your favorite new show (aired this TV season): Community
Day 04 - Your favorite show ever: Doctor Who
Day 05 - A show you hate: Charmed
Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show: Doctor Who: "Blink"
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show: Doctor Who: "Planet of the Dead"
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch: The Prisoner
Day 09 - Best scene ever: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, "You're beneath me."
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving: The Mighty Boosh
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you: Heroes
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times: "Midnight"
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show: Thundercats
Day 14 - Favorite male character: Dan Conner
Day 15 - Favorite female character: Buffy Summers
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show: Special Unit 2
Day 17 - Favorite mini series: The Stand
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence: Gunslinger Girl
Day 19 - Best TV show cast: Arrested Development
Day 20 - Favorite kiss: The Doctor and Rose Tyler
Day 21 - Favorite ship: The Doctor and Rose Tyler
Day 22 - Favorite series finale: Buffy the Vampire Slayer: "Chosen"
Future:
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death