I’ve been waiting for this day for weeks — the season premiere of Bones. This is another show that has some good writing, particularly snappy dialogue. One of the fun lines from tonight’s episode, uttered by loveable conspiracy theorist Dr. Jack Hodgins:

“As long as paranoid’s on the schedule somewhere.”

But one of my favorite lines from the first season, spoken by FBI Agent Seeley Booth during the episode where the characters are quarantined at the medical lab over the Christmas holiday:

“Nothing brings people together like a Christmas lung fungus.”

The line was particularly hilarious because of David Boreanaz’s delivery.

And speaking of great writing, I hope I sent off some of my own off today. I sent the partial of my new paranormal manuscript to my agent. I’m anxious to see what she thinks, and I hope we get good response from editors. The paranormal market is hot right now, particularly for new and fresh ideas. Lucky for me I like to read and write paranormal.

In the reading department, I’m particularly enjoying Seven Seasons of Buffy and Kim Harrison’s Dead Witch Walking. The first is a collection of essays about various aspects of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and it’s so interesting how the writers peel back the layers to reveal the themes of the show that the casual observer might not notice. The second is the first in a series that combines several mythical creatures such as vampires, were creatures, pixies, fairies, etc., and casts them in a unique world.

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Whedonverse Quote of the Day:

Angel: And Buffy, be careful with this gift. A lot of things that seem strong and good and powerful, they can be painful.
Buffy: Like, say, immortality?
Angel: Exactly, I’m dying to get rid of that.
Buffy: Funny.
Angel: I’m a funny guy.

One of my new must-see TV programs is Prison Break. It, along with Bones, is one of the shows that I didn’t watch last season but heard lots of good things about. So I downloaded the first season from iTunes, and am I glad I did.

From a purely viewer standpoint, I look forward to each and every episode, anxious to know what happens next. But there’s that writer part of me that’s watching too, trying to figure out how the script writers make the show so addictive. It bowls down to two things — tension and the characters.

First, the tension. I start feeling it before the program even starts each week. The first season, it was all about if Michael Scofield’s plan to get his brother (Lincoln Burrows, on death row for a murder he didn’t commit) and himself out of prison, along with a few other guys who were crucial to his carefully crafted plan, would succeed. I was on the edge of my seat, chewing my fingernails, afraid they’d be caught tunneling behind the wall, digging a hole. This season, they’re on the run, and not only do they have cops all over the country on the lookout for them, their faces are splashed on the fronts of newspapers and on TV newscasts. They’ve got an FBI agent (William Fichtner, who made the leap to Prison Break after Invasion was cancelled) who is at least almost as smart as Michael on their tails. They’re the eight most wanted men in America. On top of that is the fact that Lincoln’s son, LJ (Marshall Allman), has been charged with the murders of his mother and either her husband or boyfriend, not clear on that. Again, it’s a setup. That’s what’s providing another layer of tension, the government conspiracy to make Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) the fall guy for the murder of the president’s brother. The writers have shown us just enough of the workings of that conspiracy to make us curious for more information and to make it frighteningly real. And now that the two people who were in Michael’s and Lincoln’s corner have been killed, it’s literally them against the world. This constant building of tension is the equivalent of a novel writer being able to make the reader keep turning those pages even though it’s 2 a.m. and they have to go to work in the morning.

Another kind of tension shown in Prison Break is romantic tension, between Michael and Dr. Sara Tancredi (Sarah Wayne Callies), the prison physician. He goes in knowing that access to the infirmary is crucial to his escape plan, so he cultivates a good relationship with Sara and fakes having diabetes so he has to be in the infirmary regularly. What he doesn’t expect is to have feelings for her, ones that grow each time he sees her. Now that he’s escaped, he’s having regrets about how she must feel he faked his feelings and how she’s now in trouble for aiding in the escape. His cellmate, Sucre, figures out what’s going through Michael’s head as the escapees head down the road in a stolen vehicle. “You fell for her.” And her for him. There’s one scene where Sara and Michael are together where you just can tell by the look in his eyes that he wishes he’d met her under different circumstances. What he says to her is very powerful. I’m hopeful these two will have the chance to meet up again.

Characterization is the key to any good, memorable story, and the writers of Prison Break are very good at crafting three-dimensional characters that aren’t all good and aren’t all bad. Even for the worst of them, the writers give us glimpses of vulnerability and clues about what made these people who they are. T-Bag (Robert Knepper), the horrible rapist and murderer, has a very sad past that no doubt made him the person he is. Mob Boss John Abruzzi (Peter Stormare) kills with no problem, but fear is stricken in his heart when his little children are threatened. Then there are the guys who were in prison for lesser crimes. C-Note’s (Rockmond Dunbar) in for transporting stolen goods, and all he wants is to get back to his wife and daughter. He’s a man whose path was also misdirected by unfair treatment, at the hands of a corrupt officer in the Army. Sucre (Amaury Nolasco) is one of my favorite characters. He’s Michael’s cellmate when they’re in prison, and you can tell when they part ways outside the walls that Michael really likes this guy where he’d just as soon not see any of the rest of them again. Sucre’s in prison for holding up a store because he wanted to buy his girlfriend an engagement ring. He did it for love, and that’s why he made his escape too. Plus, he’s just funny. The most compelling character, however, is Michael Scofield (Wentworth Miller). He’s brilliant, has a single-minded focus, and cares deeply for those in need. Not every man would leave his good life behind to get himself thrown in prison so he can break his brother out.

So the writers make us care about the characters and then raise the very real possibility that the characters won’t survive. They’ve taken a page from the LOST handbook in that respect. Already this season, a main character has been killed. One died at the end of last seasson. The buzz is that others are about to make their exits. And because the writers have made us care through the characterization, we all have those characters that we hope make it. For me, that’s Michael, Lincoln, Sara, Sucre and LJ. Only time will tell if they make it, or my viewer’s heart will be broken.

I wanted to shout out a big thanks to everyone who took time from their busy schedules to contribute to Whedon Week last week. Thanks to Natalie Damschroder, Mary Fechter, Tanya Michaels and Kendra Clark. And to Joss Whedon for giving us the shows to be fanatic about.

So other than Whedon’s shows, what TV programs have you found yourselves addicted to? The ones you simply couldn’t miss, the ones where you were on the edge of your seat rooting for the characters, the ones you loved talking about endlessly with other fans? Two of my current faves are Bones and Prison Break. Tomorrow, I’ll be blogging more about the intensity of Prison Break and how writers can learn from it. Be sure not to miss the second episode of the second season tonight. And if you’ve never seen either show, both of their first seasons are available on DVD or for download at iTunes.

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Whedonverse Quote of the Day:

“I laugh in the face of danger. Then I hide until it goes away.” — Xander, Buffy

One of the main reasons I began watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel over the summer was the frequent Angel or Spike debates I heard at writer conferences. Romance writers loved their Buffy characters, and they had definite opinions about which hunky vampire Buffy should end up with. As it turned out, she ended up with neither – at least in the Buffyverse material penned by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt.

I went into watching Buffy knowing certain things about the series – who some of the characters were, the general world in which they lived, and that Joss Whedon was supposed to be a writer extraordinaire. I didn’t expect to become a rabid fan of all things Joss Whedon, but the Buffy bug bit and bit hard. And I now can take part in those Angel or Spike discussions.

My answer – Angel, baby!

Lots of fans loved the Spike storyline because Spike was the bad boy, had great dialogue and wore a cool, long leather coat. Though he was reportedly based on English punk rocker Sid Vicious, a member of the Sex Pistols, Spike always reminded me more of Billy Idol, particularly in the flashback scenes where he fought Slayer Nikki Wood on the subway in New York City in the 1970s. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of Spike’s. He has some of the most hilarious dialogue of any Buffyverse character. I mean, I crack up when I hear him say things like, “I’m bad! It’s just I can’t bite anymore, thanks to you wankers.”

And honestly, I felt sorry for the guy when he fell for Buffy and she didn’t return his love. She cared about him eventually, but it wasn’t love. Spike knew this. At the end of Buffy’s last episode, she tells Spike she loves him. His response: “No you don’t but thanks for saying it.”

Throughout her seven-year run, Buffy had boyfriends and flings, but she only ever truly loved one man, Angel. Even Spike knew that when he said to Buffy and Angel, when they were insisting they were just friends:

“You’re not friends. You’ll never be friends. You’ll be in love ‘til it kills you both. You’ll fight, and you’ll shag, and you’ll hate each other ‘til it makes you quiver, but you’ll never be friends. Real love isn’t brains, children. It’s blood. It’s blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love’s bitch, but at least I’m man enough to admit it.”

We knew something was going to happen between Buffy and Angel pretty much from the first time they laid eyes on each other. At first, Buffy says she doesn’t like him or the way he pops by just to leave her with cryptic messages about impending evil she’s going to have to face. And Angel, well, he’s loved Buffy from afar for a long time, even before she got her calling to be the Slayer. But he doesn’t want to give in to that attraction because of obvious reasons. One, he’s a vampire, and she’s the Vampire Slayer. Hmm, star-crossed love, anyone? Second, he’s older than her – by like 225 years!

But during the first few episodes of season one, we see their attraction drawing them together despite their best efforts. Did any of us not get the delicious chills when Angel gave Buffy his leather jacket? By the time we reach episode seven, titled “Angel”, we’re more than ready for their first kiss. And even though that kiss leads to Buffy learning Angel is a vampire, she can’t stop thinking about him. Who can blame her? He’s dark, mysterious, has a tortured past, not to mention he’s gorgeous. Sounds like a classic romance hero to me. Buffy’s also convinced that he really is a good guy, despite all she’s been taught that vampire = bad. And in the episodes that follow, he proves she’s right. He’s a vampire with a soul, and he’s trying to pay for all the bad things he did when he was soulless, when he was Angelus. In “Out of Sight, Out of Mind”, even Giles sees what’s obvious, that Angel is in love with Buffy. “A vampire in love with the Slayer. It’s poetic, in a maudlin sort of way.”

Buffy and Angel go through the dance of trying to stay away from each other because it can never work. I mean, Angel’s technically dead after all. He won’t get any older. He can’t have children. He can’t take her out in the daytime. But none of that matters when they’re together. Angel lets Buffy know a bit about how he’s feeling in “Prophecy Girl”, the last episode of the first season. When she’s going off to face the Master and the prophecy says she’ll die, Angel says, “Do you think I could stand it?”

Their love continues to grow in season two, with much fun smooching going on. You can tell how much Buffy’s fallen for him when she kisses him in “What’s My Line, Part 1” when he’s got his game face (he’s in vampire mode) on and she says she didn’t even notice. She’s only concerned that he’s injured. They watch each other’s backs when they’re patrolling at night. They save each other on numerous occasions. One of my favorite episodes is “Surprise”. It’s the one where Angel gives Buffy a Claddagh ring and his heart. After they have another near-death experience, Angel finally tells her that he loves her, even though he tries not to. They sleep together, a beautiful expression of their love but also a gigantic turning point neither of them would have wanted. Because Angel experiences that one true moment of happiness, an unknown clause in the gypsy curse that gave him back his soul kicks in. He turns back into Angelus and starts wrecking havoc on Sunnydale, and on Buffy’s heart. The man she loves has been supplanted by the evil demon living inside him. She only gets him back at the end of “Becoming, Part 2.” His soul is returned, he tells her he loves her again, but because of what he’s done as Angelus, Buffy is forced to kill him. I admit I shed a lot of tears watching this episode. It’s a good thing I was watching the DVDs instead of the original run of the series, or I think I would have been sad all summer before Angel reappears from the hell dimension at the beginning of season three.

Despite their decision to try to remain friends in season three, it’s just not going to work. They love each other too much. Another tearjerker episode was “Amends”, in which Angel goes out to meet the sunrise so he’ll die. He’d rather die than hurt Buffy again. Buffy finds him and has tears streaming down her face as she tells him that he’s good, that he has a place in this world. Fate seems to agree because a freak snowstorm blows into Sunnydale, blocking out the sun and saving Angel. The rest of the season, they continually show each other how much they care about each other, even though at the end Angel leaves because he can’t give Buffy what she needs.

Perhaps the episode that made me cry the most and which showed just how much these two star-crossed lovers love each other was actually in the first season of Angel. In “I Will Remember You”, Angel is made human when he comes into contact with demon blood. He and Buffy get to spend a glorious day with each other, walking in the sunshine, making love, imagining how they can now be together, make a life together. Only there’s a catch, as there often is in Whedon’s worlds. Angel can’t face that his mortality and weakness compared to his vampire strength might lead to Buffy getting killed defending him. He asks to be turned back, knowing he’ll lose her all over again. And the most heart-wrenching part? He’s the only one who’ll remember the day. The day will be erased, and Buffy won’t remember it. But oh how she wants to. As the moments tick away and she’s crying and whispering to him that she will remember, and then she doesn’t…it doesn’t get any more tearjerky than that.

Though Buffy and Angel aren’t really shown as a couple after this, there are moments when their deep love for one another is still apparent. When he comes back to Sunnydale to comfort her when her mother dies, when he learns of Buffy’s death and goes off to Tibet to mourn alone, his joy when he finds out she’s alive. And even at the very end of Buffy’s seventh and final season, Angel returns and they share a kiss. Though Whedon and crew left both Buffy and Angel romantically alone at the end of their respective series, in my mind they’ll find each other again and find some way to be together. Perhaps Angel will find a way to make the Shanshu Prophecy come true, maybe that ugly “true happiness” clause of his curse can be lifted. Maybe Buffy will “finish baking” and she’ll admit that no Spike, no Riley, no The Immortal can ever make her feel love like Angel does. Angel’s had a fling here and there, but we’ve all known that he still loved Buffy. Darla was just a held-over obsession from his Angelus days. He even says he never loved her. When she returns as a human and eventually carries his child, the savior in him does his best to save her, but he still doesn’t love her. And though I do think he cared for Cordy, I never felt that romantic storyline as deeply as the Buffy/Angel one. I really liked how Cordy was being redeemed as her story progressed, but the “love” between her and Angel always felt a bit forced to me, particularly on Angel’s part. What I would have rather seen was the love story between Cordy and Doyle developed more and his sacrifice moved to sometime in season two. Unfortunately, it couldn’t have gone much longer because of the death of actor Glenn Quinn.

What it all boils down to for me is that Buffy’s true love will always be Angel, and his will be Buffy. We can see this in the last bit of conversation their two characters share, in “Chosen”, the last episode of Buffy, when Angel asks her who she sees being there with her when she’s “done baking”.

Buffy: Angel. I do sometimes think that far ahead.
Angel: Sometimes is something.
Buffy: It’ll be a long time coming. Years, if ever.
Angel: (smiles) I ain’t getting any older.

As Buffy once doodled on her school notebook, Buffy & Angel 4-Ever!

By Kendra Clark

To me, Spike and Buffy were the most amusing and well-written aspect of the Jossverse.

The evolution of the Spike/Buffy relationship is the stuff romance novels are made of, and the master (Joss) taught me how to write believable and memorable characters. His work is truly what romance authors should aspire to mimic.

Do you think I love Joss? You bet your Whedonesque booties I do! Why? Spike and Buffy meet, they are mortal enemies. Although they are both killers (one kills people, the other vampires), they are opposite in goals, likes, dislikes…or are they?

At first they seem to be polar opposites, but as the show progresses, it seems that Buffy and Spike aren’t as different as they first seem. They both want acceptance and a normal life—something they’ll never have because of who and what they are. So are they all that different? The brilliance in the writing is they are not.

Hmm…seeing a pattern here? Most often when we write, we have the hero and heroine have polar-opposite goals or have one of them stand in the way of the other character’s goals — like Spike stood in the way on Buffy’s missions many times, and vice-versa.

Don’t we do that with our characters?

Also, the verbal sparing is entertaining and wonderful. How often do we read banter in romance? The banter serves as foreplay to a fiery relationship, and Buffy and Spike prove no different. One minute they are in a heated conversation, the next they are playing tonsil hockey (not so eloquently stated by a romance author I know, but it’s the truth).

So it stands to reason that when Spike and Buffy finally do get together fists fly, sparks fly, and even pieces of the building! It’s a hotter-than-hot forbidden relationship (oops, am I using the components of a romance again?).

I’d say that the beginning of the relationship had all the key elements of a romance. Toward the middle of Spike and Buffy’s journey is where we enter a black moment that just seemed to never end.

Spike attempting to rape Buffy? Some say this was necessary for Spike to take his journey for his soul. Some say it was because he was a vampire, “bad and wicked” by nature, so it was something he did because it was in his character. I don’t know that I agree with this. I think it’s something so terribly out of character for him. If he was so horrible and had no remorse, why did he show evident remorse? So much so he made the journey to have the literal Hell beat out of him to get his soul? If that’s not a remorseful act of redemption, I don’t know what is.

And sometimes, I found myself getting aggravated at the way Buffy treated Spike, but then again he was her mortal enemy wasn’t he?

But you know what I think about in the end? Even though I didn’t agree with everything that happened in the relationship of Spike and Buffy, the fact that Whedon made me care so much should be a clue the man did his job. He is a brilliant writer, and the characters are immortal (no pun intended).

By Tanya Michaels

What I love about Joss is that in addition to the big, sweeping masterpieces (musical, anyone?), he pays attention to little details. Small, ironic touches like a kick-ass woman who must deal with frequent apocalypses–apocali?– whimsically named Buffy. An annoying, backbiting troublemaker named Harmony. A soulless serial killer named Angelus. A selfish hell-goddess named Glory. (Elsewhere in the Whedonverse, a hulking, gun-toting, testosterone-driven mercenary named Jayne.) And a dark Slayer named Faith, played to perfection by Eliza Dushku.

No offense to vampires-with-souls, their rippling pecs and great cheekbones notwithstanding, but Faith has one of my favorite redemption arcs. And her storyline is often shaped by a lack of faith (both her own and others’) and how much of a difference it makes when someone does believe in her (whether that someone is an evil-soon-to-be-snake-creature Mayor or Angel).

Despite her optimistic name and bad-ass attitude, the reason Faith comes to Sunnydale is because she’s running scared after her Watcher’s brutal murder. In the beginning, she and Buffy have a friendship of sorts. . .although Buffy experiences envy and resentfulness over the way Faith moves in that will later be mirrored, when Faith’s wanting to be like Buffy becomes painfully acute when she is Buffy in Season 4’s “Who Are You?” How could their relationship be anything but uneasy? The entire Slayer mythology is that in every generation, there is a chosen one. One. How must it feel to be the second, the accidental Slayer who shouldn’t exist, the Slayer whose destiny is already being lived by the golden girl who has family, friends, education and, basically, everything Faith lacks? Of Faith’s many great lines, the one that may best represent her character is from Season 7’s “End of Days.” Buffy hands her a mystical weapon, and Faith notes its power, saying it feels strong, special, “like it’s mine. . .I guess that means it’s yours.”

It’s easy to assume that blond Buffy–the good guy of a show bearing her name–and dark Faith–who ignores the law, bangs Xander, and eventually commits murder–are opposites. But I would disagree. The biggest differences between them hinge on circumstance. Buffy doesn’t always take advice or follow rules; we see in “Bad Girls” (Season 3, Episode 48) how easily she succumbs to Faith’s philosophy. It could be argued that a Vampire Slayer falling in love with a vampire is the height of self-destruction. (Yeah, yeah, he has a soul. Hey, I liked them as a couple, too, but still. . .) Like Faith, Buffy has a dark side. It’s what Spike tries to explain in Season 5’s “Fool for Love.” Sure, Buffy tries to suppress it long past the time when her brunette, 5-by-5 counter-part has unleashed her inner demons, but the dark side is there. (Witness it in hot, sweaty action in Season 6.) Though it’s Faith who lived in a hotel room, lay alone in a coma for months, then ends up isolated from society by a jail cell, don’t we often see Buffy standing alone even in the midst of her friends?

In Season 7’s “Selfless,” Buffy argues vehemently with Willow and Xander, possibly the two people closest to her, and snaps at them about being the one who has to make the tough decisions, regardless of what others think. “In the end the slayer is always cut off.” Without the guidance or loving influence of Giles or Joyce, without the touches of appreciation such as being presented the “Class Protector” award at her senior prom, Buffy could have been a lot more like Faith. Alone, tortured, self-loathing. Hell, Buffy had moments like that even with Giles, Joyce, and the Scoobies. Conversely, Faith, though a loose cannon, isn’t one-dimensionally evil. She was used as a pawn by a manipulative Watcher, kidnapped by the council when Angel–one of the few to ever truly have faith in her–was trying to bring her back from the edge of darkness, and accidentally murdered a human being. Without those events, could she have been Buffy? Or, if not living in the suburbs and running for homecoming queen, then at least not brutally torturing Wes in Angel’s Season 1 “Five By Five”?

Despite Faith’s past, despite what she did to Wesley, Angel persists in trying to believe in her, and it’s that which eventually saves her–a favor she returns years later when she busts out of prison at Wes’s request to help re-ensoul Angel. Metaphorically, at least, he was the person who helped Faith find her soul. Once Faith has faced both the best and worst in herself and been present as Angel does the same in Angel Season 4’s “Orpheus,” she’s able to go full circle. She returns to Sunnydale to fight the First alongside Buffy, her friend, mortal enemy, object of envy, and mirror image.

In conclusion. . .pop quiz! Please pick only ONE of the following to answer in the comments so that there will be two winners.

Buffy Trivia Question: Who was the Slayer activated after Buffy’s drowning who was later killed (leading to Faith’s being called?)

Or

Angel Trivia Question: Who were the only two characters present in both the Angel series premiere and the series finale? The first person to answer question 1 correctly gets a prize, as does the first person to answer question 2. (And no Trish, you don’t get to answer these, LOL, since you see all the entries before everyone else–but thanks for giving us such a fun place to revisit favorite shows and characters.)

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When award-winning author Tanya Michaels isn’t watching her Buffy and Angel DVDs, she’s writing for Harlequin American, NAL, and Harlequin NEXT. Motherhood Without Parole will be in stores in November. She’s also working on a nonfiction essay about Grey’s Anatomy for BenBella Books. You can visit her at www.tanyamichaels.blogspot.com

Which Buffy the Musical Song Are You?

You are the Buffy the Musical song “Going Through the Motions”! Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

By Mary Fechter

We all know about story arcs, the growth of characters and stories over time. Joss Whedon is a master of this, and Season 6 is my favorite example because a huge turning point is Buffy the Musical.

The arc begins at the end of Season 5 when Buffy dies to save her sister – and the world.

Only her friends can’t bear to go on without her, and Willow, a witch, raises her from the dead.

It’s not the joyous event you might think. Buffy is a shell of the girl she was. She’s thrust back into a life of fighting demons, and taking care of her sister on top of it. But she suffers in silence. She’s willing to sacrifice her own peace for the peace of her friends.

That’s the kind of girl Buffy is.

When the demon Sweet is summoned to Sunnydale (say that 3 times fast) and people start bursting into song, blurting out whatever’s on their minds, it’s worrisome.

At first, Buffy is longing for the feelings she had in her old life. Now she’s just “Going Through the Motions,” doing what’s expected of her as she tries to find what’s missing.

More secrets are revealed through song – some that have been building all season, like Buffy’s, including Anya and Xander’s fears of their upcoming mixed marriage (human and demon), Dawn’s that no one is paying attention to her, and Tara learns that she really IS under Willow’s spell as the increasingly powerful witch has erased some of Tara’s memories.

And these revealed secrets give a twist to the rest of the season.

Giles reveals his fear that he’s letting Buffy lean too heavily on him, which leads to him pulling back when Buffy needs help rescuing Dawn from Sweet, and sets the story up for when he leaves later in the season.

And the big secret, the one Buffy has kept all season?

Tears are in her eyes when she turns to her friends, who have decided to help her after all, and sings, “There was no pain, no fear, no doubt till they pulled me out of heaven.”

And her friends are sick with the knowledge and understanding of why Buffy has been so different (“She came from the grave much graver.”) all year.

So why song? Couldn’t Joss just have written an episode where everyone is cursed to tell the truth no matter what? Sure, but does Joss do things the easy way? Giving Sweet’s story added another layer to the episode.

Buffy has to save Dawn? Check. (See also Season 5.)
Buffy’s secret revealed against her will? Check.
Joss shows he’s a genius? CHECK!! (See also “Hush,” the Angel puppet episode and the entirety of Firefly.)

Again, why music? Okay, so I couldn’t actually FIND that, but I seem to remember that the cast was kind of joking around about doing a musical and Anthony Stewart Head (Giles) and Amber Benson (Tara) really got into the idea, and it went from there. Joss even wrote all the music and words, matching the songs to the ranges of the different actors (none of that digital manipulation like in Moulin Rouge.) If you have the soundtrack (and I do), there are tracks of Joss singing.

For more information, lyrics and quotes from the episode, check out the following sites:

BuffyMusical.com

Once More With Feeling

By Natalie Damschroder

When Trish asked me to write a guest blog about Firefly, I was so excited. You have no idea how I am about this show. It’s been almost a year since I saw the movie Serenity and then watched the TV episodes of Firefly for the first time, and I still watch them, and still listen to podcasts about them, and still rail at Fox for being such dimwits.

Short history for those who don’t know: Joss Whedon produced Firefly for the Fox TV network. It was billed as a western in space, and the idea intrigued a lot of people — who never found the show, because Fox screwed everything up. They ditched the initial cohesive, intriguing, hilarious, compelling pilot that introduced all the characters and forced the writers to complete a new pilot in two days. That pilot had tons of exposition and while it was still funny and interesting, it was unclear who we were supposed to care about. The rest of the episodes that were filmed were run out of order, preempted for baseball and other things, aired on Friday nights at varying times, and then were dropped completely by Fox for having bad ratings.

The people who HAD managed to find the show were rabid fans, and Universal contained one of them. Mary Parent greenlighted a feature film based on the TV show. That film caused the DVDs to rise to the top five on Amazon’s sales chart three years after the show was canceled. People are still flooding conventions to meet the actors and Joss, ask questions about the show and movie, and show support (read: beg) for future product in any incarnation.

So why is this? What makes Firefly such an addictive, compelling show?

I could rave about the writing, which is the foundation of any piece of entertainment and is, for the most part, phenomenal. I could gush about the casting of a large ensemble of mostly unknown actors who clicked so perfectly and delivered their lines so evocatively. I could list details that make the world building so rich.

But I won’t. I’ll focus on my favorite relationship on the show, that of Simon Tam and his little sister, River.

Simon was a brilliant doctor on one of the core worlds, part of a prominent family, well on his way to being rich and famous. But his even more brilliant sister was suffering, so he gave up everything to rescue her from the government officials who were experimenting on her and flee to the border worlds, where he hoped she’d be safe.

Some spoilers follow

In the episode “Safe,” Simon’s feelings are summed up in two disparate scenes. In the first, he’s following River through a general store like a parent follows a toddler just learning to walk. The ship’s mechanic, a woman who is geekily in love with him, says how he never has fun. He says:

It’s “fun” being forced to the ass-end of the galaxy, get to live on a piece of [garbage] wreck and eat molded protein while playing nursemaid to my [not entirely sane] sister. “Fun.” (The brackets denote the English translations of Mandarin that he actually says.)

This hurts Kaylee, someone he cares about but feels he cannot have because his only goal is to keep his sister safe. It’s thoughtless and reflects feelings he probably doesn’t usually acknowledge, because they’d be disloyal. He also says it within River’s hearing, which shows how much like a child he believes her to be.

River has been tortured, trained, and experimented on, and carries knowledge of unknown, horrible things. This manifests itself in unpredictable behavior and obvious emotional pain. But as Simon follows her through the town, she comes upon a group of dancers, and joins them. She dances with abandon, engaging with the people around her, smiling in joy, and shows a glimpse of her old self. The look on Simon’s face as he watches her erases the frustration he exhibited only moments before. It’s a subtle scene that tells us so much about these two.

Simon is kidnapped to provide medical care to hill folk, and though he fights and resents what they’ve done, he can’t help but treat them. Then River reveals her psychic ability, rousing the superstition and fear of the hill folk, who decide to burn her at the stake. Simon is no fighter. He wears silk vests and has gentle hands and a meek demeanor. Still, he does what he can, until his limitations cause him to fail.

He looks at the crowd, the futility of his resistance, and his serene sister, tied to a stake atop a pile of wood. He climbs on the platform. They tell him that won’t stop them. He puts his arms around River, looks at the crowd, and says, “Light it.”

How many of us would make such a supreme sacrifice? More, how many want to believe we are loved that much, that someone would do that for us? This is the pull of Firefly. Simon is far from perfect, and not even the perfect brother. He gets impatient and patronizes River at times. But when she laments that he gave up everything to find her, and found her broken, he says, “Everything I have is right here.”

Doesn’t that make your heart sigh?

Just to tempt you further into picking up these DVDs (Netflix has them!), here are a few funny lines from “Safe.”

River: “The body can be completely drained of blood in 8.6 seconds given adequate vacuuming systems.”
Mal (captain of the spaceship) to Simon: “See, morbid and creepifying, I got no problem with. Long as she does it quietlike.”

Jayne (thuggish crew member, pretending to read Simon’s journal): “Dear Diary…today I was pompous and my sister was crazy.” (flips page) “Today, we were kidnapped by hill folk never to be seen again. It was the best day ever.”

Zoe (second in command): “Cap’n will come up with a plan.”
Kaylee (ship’s mechanic): “That’s good, right?”
Zoe: “Possibly you’re not recalling some of his previous plans.”

From a writer’s perspective, this show has true depth, subtle GMC, and full characterization, all done in an organic way that doesn’t slap the viewer in the face. Any writer can benefit from studying the methods of the writers.

From a pure entertainment perspective, you’d be hard-pressed to find another show with the balance of drama and humor and relationships and cleverness this one possesses. I challenge you all to check it out. You won’t be sorry.

I’ve shared my love of all Joss Whedon’s TV shows, and knowing there are lots of other writers out there who feel the same way about his characters and writing gave me an idea. Thus, beginning tomorrow there will be several days of guest blogs on my blog. I’m calling it Whedon Week, and here are just some of the highlights:

* Tanya Michaels writing on the character of Faith from Buffy and Angel
* Mary Fechter writing about the importance of Buffy’s musical episode
* Natalie Damschroder on the brother-sister relationship between Simon and River on Firefly
* Kendra Clark writing on the relationship between Spike and Buffy
* Me writing on the relationship between Angel and Buffy

And if their writing schedules allow, we’ll have a couple of surprise guests — one a RITA winner and one a best-selling author who has written for the Buffy and Angel collections of essays put out by BenBella Books. So be sure to check back each day this week, and please comment on the posts by the generous guest bloggers.