Firstly, I’m glad I now know where the inspiration for Grey’s Anatomy the musical came from...yikes!
Secondly, Joss Whedon was clearly a musical theatre nerd in high school. This episode was chock full of musical tropes (my personal favorite, the striking resemblance that “Walk Through the Fire” bares to “Tonight” from West Side Story).
Thirdly, I’m going to write this post in a kind of song by song manner, and then analyze them as a unit for the “grand finale” (see what I did there...yeah I agree not my best but hey it’s finals week). Without further ado, please silence your cellphones, sit back, relax, and enjoy “Once More With Feeling.”
“Going Through the Motions”- This song felt like a combination of the opening song in Legally Blonde (Hoku’s “Perfect Day”) and “Happy Working Song” from Enchanted, however the birds fluttering around in this one would be scary-ass crows.
“Under Your Spell”-Poor Tara, she has no idea. Also, this made me hate Willow even more than watching her wipe her girlfriend’s memory in “Tabula Rasa,” because this whole song (despite being performed by one of the few decent singers in the cast) is a happy oblivion and we as viewers know that Tara’s world will ultimately come falling down around her, as she crashes back down onto her bed. Doesn’t everybody float?
“I’ll Never Tell”- A twisted version of Singing in the Rain’s “Good Morning.” I loved how Anya and Xander dance around each other and the truth.
"Something to Sing About"- This was actually the first time in a long string of episodes where I haven’t found Buffy to be too whiney or mopey. In fact, it seemed rather genuinine. Also, from a musical standpoint, those descending half steps, I wish she had stayed in heaven so I didn’t have to hear those.
Okay, so here’s my 11:00PM, or rather 2:30 AM number for you (in musicals, 11:00pm is usually when the big show-stopper happens). This episode, in my limited and ever changing definition, seemed the least Gothic of all of those we have watched. For me, Gothic is a sense ignorance, that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that says there is something going on here that I don’t quite understand. And while had I been watching the series in order (we really needed spoiler alerts in this class) I would not have know about the whole getting pulled from heaven not hell thing, every other plot point or problem was so clearly laid out. Not only that, but it was sung about in simple rhyme and choreographed to boot.
As a closing note, I really wanted to like this episode. Really. I love musicals! Just ask a certain roommate of mine who want want to slay me just about every waking hour because I never stop singing #sorryimnotsorrybex! But for some reason I just could not get behind it.
And scene.
Exits...pursued by a bear(load of finals work).
In keeping with your musical meta-post, here's a standing ovation.
ReplyDeleteAs you know, "Under Your Spell" was my favorite song. Good for Whedon for flying so many innuendos under the radar ("You make me cum...plete"; "underneath my Willow tree"; even an ~absolutely magical~ oral sex reference! In a lesbian relationship! Four for you, Glen Coco.)
I also quite liked that, in so structuring the episode as a musical, Whedon had greater manipulation of dramatic irony. For example, "Under Your Spell" is initially a lovely metaphor for Tara's love for Willow. Only later in the episode do we realize the irony of Tara words; having been "wiped" by Willow's memory charms, Tara is literally under a spell.