August 24, 2007

Buffy Night at the Speakeasy

The Speakeasy is a theater in Oakland (there's also one in El Cerrito) that recently started doing monthly Joss Whedon nights, alternating between Buffy and Firefly on the big screen. Last night was a Buffy night with a decent selection of episodes, so I went to check it out. Some observations:

  • The musical episode "Once More With Feeling" is shown at every Buffy night. The audience is encouraged to sing along, and the subtitles are turned on to facilitate this.
  • However, people don't seem to be really comfortable singing along: at the start of each song some people would be singing enthusiastically, but this would fade away to a murmur after a few verses.
  • Someone brought stuffed bunnies to throw in the air at the appropriate moment.
  • The other two episodes are usually selected according to a theme; last night's was a "double feature" double feature: "Dopplegangland" (twin Willows) and "The Replacement" (twin Xanders). The former is one of my favorites, but I'm not a huge fan of the latter and would have preferred (in the spirit of the theme) the late-season-5 episode "Intervention".
  • Character preferences were clear and fairly uniform: there was widespread cheering at the first appearance of Spike, while Dawn drew boos and hisses, and Riley's extended bout of lameness at the end of "The Replacement" was drowned out by jeers.
  • Next Buffy night is Halloween; the El Cerrito theater is showing "Fear, Itself" and "All the Way", although I would prefer to see the second-season "Halloween" (Ethan Rayne!) in place of "All the Way". The Parkway hasn't announced its lineup yet (they've said it won't necessarily be Halloween-themed). Anyway, I might be doing something else on Halloween but Buffy night at the Speakeasy was a lot of fun, and definitely worth doing again.

Posted by Arcane Gazebo at August 24, 2007 2:11 PM | Tags: Culture, Television
Comments

Coincidentally, Lemming, Zifnab, and I also watched "The Replacement" on Thursday night. (We watched the first 3 episodes of season 5 of Buffy.) I like "Dopplegangland" a lot better as well (that's probably one of my favorites), though "The Replacement" wasn't bad either. I am very much looking forward to the musical episode, but that will have to wait until later.

I actually like Dawn so far and while I find Riley to be a very boring character, I didn't actually have a big issue with his stuff at the end of "The Replacement" (and at least one particular comment, I could definitely see).

Posted by: Mason | August 26, 2007 11:56 PM

Hooray for Buffy Edumucation!

Personally, I think Ethan Rayne deserves his own night. Not to mention a large amount more episodes to have guest starred in.

Also, it's not technically a Halloween episode, but I think "Buffy vs. Dracula" would be a most legitimate choice for an All Hallow's Eve Buffy night. Perhaps The Parkway will feel the same.

Posted by: Josh | August 28, 2007 8:24 PM

HOLY SHIT IT ISN'T SPAM.

Ahem. Don't know what came over me there. (Though I do feel bad for AG, there's been a rash of comment spam here lately.)

Anyway, /agree Josh, Ethan Rayne amuses me greatly. Almost as much as Giles' off-color moments.

Hrm, maybe we can still sneak in an episode tonight?

Posted by: Lemming | August 28, 2007 10:05 PM

I need to come to Pasadena more. It's been way too long, dammit! Especially if you guys are adding Buffy to your video/board/role-playing games. I wish to join back in this fun.

Are you supplementing at all with the coinciding seasons of Angel?

Damn me for being so F-ING busy on the weekends. I shall try to make the best of both worlds and re-integrate myself into the fun soon!

I am free to drive around the country in 16 days...

Posted by: Josh | August 28, 2007 11:16 PM

Yeah, sorry about all the spam. I imagine it's showing up on the comments feed despite my best efforts to delete it right away. They mostly hit threads older than two or three weeks, so if I only posted more often it'd be pretty invisible. :)

Posted by: Arcane Gazebo | August 29, 2007 11:10 AM

I actually haven't encountered the spam when I look at comments. I only know it's there because of others mentioning it.

Josh: We are indeed watching appropriate seasons of Buffy and Angel side by side (while being watchful of ordering when it comes to cross-over episodes). We have yet to play the board game or other games (I guess Lemming has played the board game at some point, but we haven't done that as a group). I want to play that stuff at some point, but I am still hesitant for fear of spoilers. I'll be really eager to play that stuff once spoilers are no longer an issue, that given the upcoming move, that will take some time.

Posted by: Mason | September 2, 2007 2:54 PM
Post a comment