| Review | “The Zeppo” – Season 3, episode 13 | Director | James Whitmore Jr. |
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| Writers | Dan Vebber, Jane Espenson and Douglas Petrie |
| Cast | Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Charisma Carpenter, David Boreanaz, Seth Green, Anthony Stewart Head, Eliza Dushku, Saverio Guerra, Michael Cudlitz and Channon Roe |
“If anyone sees my spine laying around, just try not to step on it” – Xander
Buffy (Gellar) and her gang of “Scoobies” – which (at this point in time) consists of fellow classmates Xander (Brendon), Willow (Hannigan), her boyfriend Oz (Green) and former Watcher Giles (Head), with some able assistance from the other vampire slayer Faith (Dushku) and Angel (Boreanaz), the vampire who has a soul – regularly battle a variety of villainous creatures who are drawn to the town of Sunnydale thanks to the mystical energy generated from The Hellmouth that’s located on the grounds of the high school.
When “The Zeppo” begins, Xander comes dangerously close to being injured during a brawl with some creatures and the gang worries about him. In fact; Xander is sort of the Odd-man out in this group. Willow is a practising witch and has become very powerful in conjuring up helpful spells. Oz is a werewolf when the full moon takes over. Angel is a vampire and with that comes over 250 years of living (or un-living) and a mountain of experience in a variety of situations. Buffy and Faith are the chosen vampire slayers and with that comes immense physical strength. And Giles is the Knowledge-Guy who possesses an immense wealth of information about everything supernatural and has proven himself to be more than adequate in a fight. Then there’s Xander who has nothing very special about him…at least that’s outwardly apparent.
As Buffy and the Scoobies prepare to battle some immense evil that’s very imminent and the fate of the world hangs in the balance, the gang convinces Xander to sit this one out so they won’t have to worry about him. While he’s off trying a form an identity of his own, Xander manages to get himself in trouble when he accidently pisses off fellow Sunnydale high school student Jack O’Toole (Roe), who’s quite the psychopath. They do square things and Jack invites Xander to come along and meet his pals. Being this is Sunnydale and all; Jack takes Xander to the cemetery and conjures up his deceased pals who then plan to “bake a cake”. Sounds harmless enough to Xander until he realizes the cake is actually is a bomb and they’re planning on blowing up Sunnydale High. Which is exactly where Buffy and the gang are fighting the ultimate of evils.
There are so many excellent things about this episode and it really is one-of-a-kind. While Xander deals with his identity crisis and feelings of ineptitude the whole End-of-the-Word scenario facing Buffy is completely relegated to the background. We get glimpses of what the gang is going through but only when Xander either accidentally meets up with one of them or pops up unannounced (and completely unwanted). All that transpires ends up becoming a sort of rite of passage for Xander, in more ways than one. He gets himself in trouble and suddenly can’t seek assistance from Buffy or the others. He must rely on himself and on the road to fixing things he unexpectedly winds up experiencing intimacy with a woman for the first time. As if that wouldn’t be head spinning enough he must get back on track and stop the guys from blowing up the school. And once he ends up victorious it’s not only a very big deal for him but for the whole world. In fact; Xander’s personal triumph saves the world and no one knows about it.
Really good writing was always a big thing in “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. Many scenarios Buffy encountered dealt with real human issues that many could relate to and quite often the foes were symbolic for dangers that had decent basis in reality. The show could be as heartbreaking as they come, thought provoking, side splittingly hilarious and more often than not; a combination of all three. Every character got their day in the sun and was fleshed out really well in the course of the series. “The Zeppo” gets extra points for the way it presents a pivotal growth for Xander and shows well and truly that he firmly belongs in the group despite being a bit different. And the funny things is that “his different” is in fact that he’s the most normal and relatable character for the audience.
Nicholas Brendon was, quite simply, sensational as Xander. The actor had great comedic timing and never once phoned in a performance. While he excelled in the more comedy driven episodes he quite often had to deliver some heavy duty dramatic acting. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” had some seriously gut-wrenching moments throughout it’s run and Brendon certainly delivered his bit when called upon. A quality actor.
| Review | “A New Man” – Season 4, episode 12 | Director | Michael Gershman |
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| Writers | Jane Espenseon, Douglas Petrie and Tracey Forbes |
| Cast | Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Marc Blucas, James Marsters, Anthony Stewart Head, Robin Sachs, Amber Benson, Emma Caulfield and Lindsay Crouse |
“Bloody humans!” – Rupert Giles
At this point in the series Buffy is in college, has a new boyfriend in Riley (Blucas) who’s a commando of a special elite force that monitors Extra-Terrestrial Activities on Earth and is slowly discovering the complexities of living in the adult world. Angel has moved to LA but her long time nemesis Spike (Marsters) is in Sunnydale and his recent condition is quite special. Xander and his girlfriend, former demon Anya (Caulfield), live in his parent’s basement and Willow, also in college, has broken up with Oz and is discovering she may have feelings for Tara (Benson), a fellow amateur witch. Meanwhile Giles feels sort of out of the loop as Buffy is completely smitten with her college Professor, Ms. Walsh (Crouse), and relies less and less on his guidance.
After a botched attempt at annihilating a demon, Giles happens upon an old acquaintance in Ethan Rayne (Sachs), and the pair head to a bar and get drunk. Ethan was part of Giles’ early days and showed himself to be a worshipper of chaos and doing evil deeds and the two fell out. But in Giles’ sombre state he actually has a quiet moment with Ethan and confesses to him that he feels a bit obsolete. But good times with Ethan come at a price as the next day Giles wakes up, hung over, and has the appearance of a nasty looking demon. He quickly deduces that this is Ethan’s work and heads out to find him. Giles’ first attempt at assistance is visiting Xander’s basement but Xander freaks out as Giles tries to communicate with him (as every word that comes out of Demon-Giles’ mouth is the demon’s native speech). The only place Demon-Giles can get help is from Spike! And meanwhile Buffy is convinced that a demon has hurt Giles and she goes after it.
“A New Man” is a pretty good showcase for Anthony Stewart Head. Ever since he was fired from the Council and seized being Buffy’s official Watcher, Giles nonetheless was absolutely indispensable in dealing with the massive threats in Sunnydale. But after Buffy entered college and met up with a Demon hunting elite unit he’s starting to feel fairly useless. And hence he’s having an identity crisis of sorts. In past seasons Giles has been through a lot but he’s always been somewhat of an authority figure for Buffy and the gang and someone she continually sought advice from. So when the gang is somewhat scattered with more obligations (and more clutter) taking up time it’s obvious that Giles feels his purpose has somewhat diminished. So what better way in the Buffy-verse but to turn Giles into an actual looking and sounding demon to drive home the point of his feeling out of sorts with the others!
This is once again an excellent example of the pinpoint writing that concocts a massively funny idea and manages to further explore a core character and visually materialize what he’s going through. This really is Head’s show all the way and gives the excellent actor a platform to show a vulnerable side and then really let loose in full demon make-up. There are some really terrific comedy bits here and Head has great fun with it. There is also some excellent chemistry between Head and Marsters and their bickering, which we got to see quite a bit of in the coming episodes, is always a joy to watch. And this was also the fourth, and last, episode that had a guest appearance from Robin Sachs (“The Lost World: Jurassic Park”) and his character was always interesting to watch and he had good chemistry with Head.
Anthony Steward Head was probably very instrumental in guiding the show through some of it’s early rough spots in the first season with consistently classy performances. He projected an aura of authority and did wonders with some of the jargon lines he had to deliver and it always looked and felt real. Able to be extremely funny but never missing a beat when dramatic acting was the call of the day; I doubt seriously there was a better Watcher to be found.
Physical Copy
I collected “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” on DVD back in the day and those are the copies I still use. The show has never received a Hi-Def release on physical media and, by all accounts on the internet, it’s not likely to happen anytime soon. The first two seasons look pretty rough on disc with fairly muted colors but things start picking up clarity wise from Season 3 onwards. The show can be streamed on Disney plus and the later seasons look fine (season 4 onwards) as they were shot on digital and in widescreen but the earlier ones were in the full screen ratio and not shot on digital. Seasons 1, 2 and 3 don’t look as good on the streaming service. I sincerely hope some effort will be done to bring the show on Blu-ray and make the necessary restoration work for the first three seasons to make them look good. One can hope, but until then the DVD’s will do just fine.
Why physical copy?
I always encourage the acquisition of physical copies as I dread the day when films will only exist as files on computers and through streaming services. The companies that put the effort into making the discs, create new artwork or reproduce the originals, issue booklets and much more deserve all the financial support they can. Therefore I will always mention the Blu-rays or DVD’s (and yes; also if I review something streamed through Netflix or the like) even though I gain nothing from it personally.
