Hiding hearts

[butterfly]

Sometimes, I claim to be an 'easy' viewer. "All you have to do is entertain me," I say. But really, I think that I say this, at least in part, as a defense against people who think that liking later season of Buffy means not being discerning enough. Because I'm not that easy. Sure, I can enjoy any old piece of crap on tv, but I won't watch another episode unless I see something that interests me beyond that surface stuff. My review of Tru Calling's premiere was pretty positive, but it wasn't good enough for me to watch last week's episode. And I'm not going to go to the trouble of watching this week's, either.

And I'll say that Andromeda doesn't suck, but I'm not exactly watching or recording it, even though I could, with the schedule I have. It'd be way easier than all the trouble I went to to record Smallville and Angel at the beginning of the season. So, the reason that I love Season Six and Seven of Buffy and Season Four and Five of Angel? Is because I see stuff there well worth loving.

So, no more excuses, yes? I'm going to stop conditioning my love.

Sure, it serves as a protective shield, but shields keep away everyone, not just the people who might hurt you. Plus, it's less than completely honest.

And it's a lot easier to say these things than do them. But I will try.

Comments

[superplin.livejournal.com]

I do the same thing sometimes; I have a bad tendency to take criticism of things I love personally. So when people say, "Seasons 6 and 7 of Buffy sucked!" what I hear is "How could you possibly be so stupid as to like them? Your critical faculties are clearly not as well developed as my own, you numb-brained idiot." My issue, totally, but it bugs.

Mostly I've stopped talking about opinions altogether, and focus on meaning, which is a whole different set of issues and something from which I can assume a sort of impersonal detachment, if that makes sense.

For the record (though I've already said so and wouldn't dream of denying it), I liked the first 3/4 seasons of BtVS well enough, but I didn't start loving it until Season 5, and didn't become obsessed until Season 6. And I thought Season 4 of AtS was amazing.

Basically, this was just a long-winded way of saying "I totally agree!" ;)

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

So when people say, "Seasons 6 and 7 of Buffy sucked!" what I hear is "How could you possibly be so stupid as to like them? Your critical faculties are clearly not as well developed as my own, you numb-brained idiot."

Right, that's it exactly. Of course, going to TWoP didn't help, because the people in charge all hated the show as it was. No difference of opinion in the moderators, so people who disliked the seasons probably felt more willing to post than those who liked them.

But yeah, I love Seasons 1-3 because I'm totally connected to that Xander, and Seasons 5-7 work with me because of the Buffy of it. Probably the reason 4 is my least favorite is because Xander wasn't in it as much and yet Buffy hadn't yet become identifiable for me.

And S4 of Angel just rules.