Cult TV Report

I just don't enjoy Buffy The Vampire Slayer as much as I used to.

At first, I thought it was me. But then I realised that I started to enjoy it less at the beginning of this season, when Joss Whedon moved aside and left Marti Noxon in charge.

Noxon undoubtedly has "angst" down pat, but she hasn't the deft touch and truly funny humor we've all come to expect from the show. And don't get me started on the theme of the season...

Problems in the show: Buffy's whole "Oh woe is me!" routine is getting stale; the "relationship" with Spike is something she should have outgrown by now; Anya and Xander really need to get over themselves and talk before one kills the other, and this whole stupid "Magick as drugs" storyline... Feh!

The show, IMO, has well and truly jumped the shark. I've enjoyed only two episodes this season: "Once More, with Feeling" and "Tabula Rasa". I find myself wishing it had really ended with the WB's last episode, and we could have been left with that wonderfully poetic and heartwrenching death.

Buffy's always reminded me of a quote from a White Wolf book: "I am a creature of violence, fated to die in violence. I cannot change this. I can, however, direct the violence as I will." Her death in last season's finale was, in my opinion, the only way the show can end believably. There shouldn't be a happy ending, not for the Slayer. I don't care if she lives to be 50, in the end, she should die fighting.
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Angel, however, continues to amaze me. I never laugh at or enjoy Buffy the way I do Angel these days. What should have been a sharkjump, the birth of the baby, has instead led to some pretty damned good stories. The addition of Gunn and then Fred to the cast has only helped the show, but even the original (ok, almost original) Triad is still fascinating. In the last episode, I enjoyed the hell out of Gunn's lines, smiled for him when Fred revealed her feelings, and felt for poor Wesley when he realized he wasn't the one for her.

Angel seems more adult, more vibrant, and more intelligent this season than ever before. Instead of being the spinoff of Buffy, it's become The Show, and Buffy is the one I watch out of remembered loyalty.
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Roswell. Hrm.

I started watching this show at the end of the first season. It was good, but had a bit too much teen angst for my tastes. In the second season, it became less Teen Angst, more Science Fiction. Now it seems to have swung back the other way, and I find myself alternately enjoying the story and rolling my eyes. But this may well be the last season, and I want to see how it turns out.
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Alias is still one of the best shows of this year. It's just killer. I only wish I hadn't missed the episode where Sydney learned the truth about her mother, and I wish they'd put another new episode on air soon.
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(no subject)

Frack.

I got a D on my first Algebra test. After getting EVERY FREAKING homework question correct, I fell apart in the test and bombed. And ALL of it because of stupid little errors like forgetting to reverse a sign, or accidentally misreading a previously-erased mark as a negative sign.

God damn it.

I've decided I can't deal with both Japanese and Algebra. The Speech class I can keep; it's once a week. But daily doses of five+ hours of math homework make it impossible to keep up with the Japanese, so I'm dropping it until next semester (or maybe summer).

Pity I didn't realise this LAST week. Now I can't get a refund. Oh well. Lesson learned.

On top of all this, looking at hours of math, I get home to find out Mike is starting a second job I didn't even know he was trying for tonight, and won't be home until late. Which means I have to make dinner. Which I don't have time for. Sure, I can do it, but I'll have to be very very careful not to burn it like the last time I tried to cook and do homework simultaneously.

I really frelling hate my life right now. And I hate having to get up at 5. It's killing me.