posted 03-02-2001 23:24 EST (US)
OK, in violation of board rules I am now going to start a brand new post to talk about "The Body" (rather than combining it with my ER ramble above). I'm late entering the conversation (life got in the way) so I don't have anything new to add. But I feel like babbling anyway. ![]()
I thought "The Body" was the most raw hour of TV I have ever seen. Of course it was manipulative -- aren't all stories? And really, how many NEW ideas are there about death or life? I don't think that's the point. The point (for me anyway) is how an idea (even an OLD idea ![]()
)is executed and if there's emotional resonance. "The Body" was deeply disturbing and affecting; in my mind that's good television... critics be damned.
I liked that the very physical aspect of death was highlighted. I felt ill when we abruptly cut from Buffy and Joyce slicing the Cajun pie to the harsh close up of Joyce's face, dead. The sickening cracking sound when Buffy broke her mother's rib while trying to perform CPR was also terribly powerful and jolting. I loved how almost all of the 4 "acts" began and ended with either Joyce's corpse or the sketch of the "negative space" body (one exception -- there may have been more -- was when they ended the act that took place at Willow's dorm with the shot of Xander getting a ticket for double parking).
I thought SMG was brilliant. The moment when she told Giles that they weren't supposed to move "the body" and her horror at realizing that she now viewed her mother's body as "the body" (as opposed to her reaction when the 911 operator said "the body is cold?") was so wrenching and well-acted.
I was also totally taken with Buffy's expression when she told Giles she was "waiting" (for the coroner). Something about her tone and facial expression moved me. She seemed simultaneously childlike, vulnerable, and aged.
I loved the absence of a musical score, esp. the use of the wind chimes.
I really enjoyed seeing a glimpse of Dawn in school. And I thought the "negative space" comments in her art class spoke to the structure of this episode about death -- now there's this body, literally framing most of the acts, and here is the enormous space of loss and grief and tender intimacy around it. Negative space could also refer to the awkward, poignant silences between and with people facing death (esp. when you strip away the artifice of a musical score). This was especially evident in that wonderful scene between Buffy and Tara in the waiting room as well as the shots of Xander and Anya in the car, Tara at the window of Willow's dorm room, and WIllow holding a piece of clothing. (BTW the shot of Xander and Anya in the car made me think of the scene of them driving in "Restless" and Willow's anxiety over her clothing seemed to echo her dream where Buffy kept telling her to take her costume off and Will insisting she needed it).
The kisses (I insist on plural because there was more than one!) were beautiful and so organic to the moment and to the episode. I think earlier in the previous thread there was some debate about whether one could call them "romantic" and that they seemed more about "comfort." And I agreed with April's definition of romance. While our definitions of these terms are highly subjective, I thought the kisses were romantic and comforting and passionate. I also loved that after the kisses they were still physically intimate and touching (Tara caressing Willow) and I loved the "strong like an amazon" dialogue. It was such a raw and intimate moment that was not hurried. Joss, Amber, and Aly get it done (400 takes and all!)
I could go on and on forever. But one last thing: I thought the ending to the episode was perfect... Dawn reaching out for the body (not her mother, she's "not there") but we don't get to see her make contact.
I have a question (and am not sure if this was discussed alread). Is it routine for the "rating" of a show to flash in the corner of your TV screen midway through the episode? Because I got TV-14 LSV on the upper left hand corner of my screen at the beginning of the "act" where Willow and Tara eventually kiss. I thought maybe that's why it was there. Unless it's routine to show such a rating in the middle of the episode and I just never noticed before.
EDITED TO ADD:
Many people have deservedly heaped praises on Anya's monologue but I have to add mine to the chorus. I think some of the most compelling emotions dwell in the quotidian -- the seemingly insignificant details that comprise our daily lives. When you tackle a subject as huge as Death, it's even more poignant and wrenching to use "small" so-called "trivial" details to speak to the enormity of loss. And Anya's monologue about Joyce not ever drinking fruit punch, eating eggs, brushing her hair, yawning again perfectly captured that. Emma delivered that moment wonderfully.
[This message has been edited by judy (edited March 02, 2001).]
