I... Help the Helpless?
Well the waiting is over, or so I thought, having viewed the (taped) season premiere of Angel last night. It started off in witty Joss Whedon fashion, and soon I was back in Sunnydale enjoying the type of fantasy-drama fans of the show(s) have come to expect. Only, it's not Sunnydale, it's LA, and a lot of these characters haven't paid their dues (i.e., been developed) enough to warrant anything other than recurring status. I'm pointing to Gunn and Fred, both of whom could likely be replaced by potted plants and the show would have much more time to concentrate on its core characters (Angel, Wesley, Lorne) and spend some time on new ones. As it is, the first episode, while good, was a little shaky, but as Amy Amatangelo suggests, the second part will be what we want. Note: her observations are pretty much aligned with mine, but she commits the inversion of Poor-Listener Of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" Error (heretofore known as the PLOPFCNE) in one of her quotes. If you don't know what I mean, that's okay.

And what is it we want? As I've said, this isn't Sunnydale, so there's no Willow, Xander, Giles, Cordelia (lamely explained to be in a coma when actually she's just done with the show), or... Spike? Yes, he is the reason I was intent on watching season five of the show, but he didn't appear until the last two seconds of the episode, so instead I spent the entire show going, "Hmmm, pretty good, but they are running out of time for Spike..." I suppose one more week isn't that much. At least the trailers look good.

The Resurrection of Spike
As fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer know, Buffy's longtime nemesis-turned-lover vampire Spike died in the series finale. This was quite a shocking ending for a lot of viewers, especially those who noticed a few weeks before the finale that James Marsters (the actor who plays Spike) had joined the regular cast of next season's Buffy spin-off, Angel.

Naturally, this little development led to a lot of fan speculation over how exactly Joss Whedon (the brainchild behind both Buffy and Angel) would accomplish this. Of course, being a series laden with supernatural goings-on, resurrections are fairly commonplace. Still, we fans have been chomping at the bit.

Then, I found a short article at Ain't It Cool News entitled Learn How Spike Returns to Angel???. According to the article, someone got their hands on the first act for episode one of next season's Angel, and forwarded it along. My curiosity overcame my normal resistance to viewing spoilers, so I read the synopsis. I have to agree with Hercules (the staff writer) -- either this is one of the best pieces of fan fiction I've read or its real. Either way, it's bloody brilliant. Joss Whedon rocks. I am definitely going to be watching Angel this season.

Buffy Spoiler
Well, I woke up this morning to my usual room-service full American breakfast (I'm staying in a hotel outside of NYC for work purposes -- THAT is all you need know) and USA Today, only to find the most subtle of spoilers in the "Life" section of the paper. In it, there was a minor blurb down the page which gave a clue to who certainly won't be slain by the conclusion of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's last episode, airing next week.

For those of you who have read my critiques, you'd expect me to fly (or type) into some kind of rant regarding yet another 'spoiler', but this one had a mixed connotation, so I'm not really upset. Basically, this article notes that one of the main characters from Buffy will be joining the cast of Angel next season, which I'm very excited about. It's industry news, and the Angel series was kind of on the fence as to renewal status, so I can understand why they wouldn't wait to reveal the show's status. Plus, with Buffy gone, I will be refocusing my efforts toward the WB (again).

Tonight on Buffy...
Yes, I'm gearing up for the last few episodes of one of my most beloved TV shows ever, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Last week (well two weeks ago, really -- last week was a repeat) introduced the sinister psycho henchman behind all the rampant evil that's been plaguing the cast, providing one of the single-most stunningly horrorific scenes in the history of a horror-based show. I won't give it away, but when a main character gets maimed on camera in gruesome fashion, you sit up a little straighter and think Joss Whedon (the creator of the show) may be ramping up for one powerful sendoff. The scene was great and shocking, but I believe it had a duel purpose -- it sends a message letting the viewer know that all the usual rules for a series are off -- every character is expendable. With a show like Buffy, that makes its own rules, 'tis a dread warning indeed.

Anyway, on my way to check out what was going on tonight, I stopped by the listings on MSN's Entertainment TV page. Here's the description they gave for tonight's show:

Caleb [the aforementioned henchman - mj] launches an attack against Buffy; Faith takes the potential slayers out to blow off some steam, and the night ends with a startling development.

Hmm. Well, MSN sure is trying to milk the last five minutes of the show for UPN. Out of curiousity, I checked out UPN's own synopsis, which is:

Faith decides to take the young women out for the night to blow off some steam, which leads to a startling development.

No mention of the new henchman in this one, which is kinda odd because at the end of last episode he had beaten them up pretty badly (not to mention killing a few). Too much info? Does UPN censor their previews because of their younger audience base?

For the ultimate in reliabilit, I've found that the reviews at Buffy Guide are much more thorough. So much so you they are marked as 'spoilers'. If you've ever read The Force.net you will be familiar with this format -- designed to prevent someone from inadvertently reading material they didn't want to know. I'm one of those people, frankly; I like to know only the minimal amount of information going in to a film. Nevertheless, I trust that the folks at Buffy Guide won't trick me. Here's their preview:

As Sunnydale's residents evacuate en masse, Faith rallies the demoralized potentials while an emotionally fragile Buffy endures another run-in with Caleb.

A lot darker than the first two. Buffy fans 'keeping it real'? Once I see the show, I'll know which one sounds better, but it's interesting to see how the same show can produce three very different tv-guide listings. I would have thought that the show would publish its own brief preview, but what do I know? All's I know is it is time to order pizza for the show, coming on in 40 minutes.

Update: The winner is the review at Buffy Guide. Overall captured the feel and events of the episode. Caleb didn't really 'launch an attach' on Buffy -- he just taunted her. If he wanted her dead at that time, frankly he could have killed her easily. He's hoping to badger her mental state, steer her into doing what he wants, and based on the 'startling development' that [highlight to read] Buffy was voted out of her own house by everyone else because they don't believe she is leading properly anymore, it may be working. Oddly, the video preview for next week's episode here doesn't seem remotely the same episode as in the descriptions. From the video, you'd expect wall-to-wall sex. Not that I'm complaining. I just don't want to see Wood getting it on with Faith -- she's too cool for that.