MovieChat Forums > Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997) Discussion > Once More With Feeling

Once More With Feeling

posted 6 years ago by artguylarry (498)
6 replies | jump to latest

Before I saw this, friends told me about it and I rolled my eyes 'til they nearly fell out. Then I watched it. I loved this episode, and while the premise, if unseen may sound a little cheesy, give it a chance. It's one of my favorite episodes. Be assured, the music doesn't make it a campy, filler episode. This is more than just some hokey lyrics and cheap synth pop. This is a fully orchestrated musical with well written lyrics charged with so much heart, pain and emotion. And the plot here is just as gripping as any Buffy episode, even more so than some of the random filler episodes.

I would love to see more of this written further to flesh it out more and presented on stage. This would be a great stage musical.

As three of my personal favorites, I would point out that "I'll Never Tell" a duet with Xander and Anya is fun and sweet. Later, it's contrasted by Giles's heartfelt "Standing" and then the beautifully written "Walk Through the Fire" sung by the full cast (good guys and bad guys) as one of the most charged numbers. It pumped me up for what I knew was going to be a great finale.

[–] AngularTurnip (3333) 6 years ago

Good commentary. I liked it too. "Buffy"'s willingness to experiment was always why I came back -- even when some of the characters, like Xander and Dawn, got on my nerves.

[–] Stratego (29192) 6 years ago

Nope, still an awful episode. But it was an awful season anyway.

[–] Prelude (1443) 4 years ago

Once More With Feeling is at the same time cheesy as hell and amazing too. I like it a lot; the dance scenes are great - seeing Anya and Xander doing a Fred and Ginger is huge fun. And I liked the song where Buffy reveals the shocking truth of where she was. The fact that Spike is the one who tells her the best any of us can do with how hard life is, is to just go on simply living, is actually pretty darn deep for a daft musical episode -- that whole scene resonates to anyone who has ever felt like this is hell right here.

[–] RebelBlood (213) 4 years ago

The story is important to the canon, but musicals annoy me so much that I had to watch this episode on mute with captions. You're right. It was still one of Spike's best moments.

[–] Prelude (1443) 4 years ago

I know what you mean about musicals - I do usually find them annoying and silly. But there are some good songs in this - I would recommend taking a listen to James Marsters'/Spike's own solo number "Rest In Peace" which is a fairly decent rock song fitting to his character. Other songs are typical cheesy musical fodder but Rest In Peace could even be something you hear on the radio.

[–] AnubisRaydeen (7897) 4 years ago

Having watched and hated the Buffy movie, I didn't give the TV show a chance.
Years later, a good friend forced me to watch this episode. I was amazed by the quality. It was very good. It didn't make me watch the whole series but I did watch 15 or so more episodes.
More importantly what it did was turn me on to Joss Whedon. Were it not for this Buffy exposure, I would not have watched Dollhouse and Firefly. Both of those shows were excellent, if brief.

Then somewhere along the line after that, Joss lost his mind.