Retro review: Buffy, season four, episode 22- 'Restless'
August 26th 2008 02:44
One of the many things I loved about this show when it originally aired (and still do today) is that it takes so many risks, creatively. It was a bold and potentially fatal risk that creator Joss Whedon took when he followed up season three's exciting, nail-biting two-parter 'Graduation Day' with an introspective surrealist character piece called 'Restless' to close out season four. I really respect him as an artist, for trying something different. He never delivers what audiences expect to see. Most primetime TV dramas do not dare to modify the formula much, lest they lose their audience (generic cop shows like CSI, Law And Order, I'm looking at YOU!) Having finished off the season's main story arc in the penultimate episode, with the expected big budget, stunt-packed crowd-pleaser 'Primeval'; here our attention turns towards a low-key reflective piece (which draws upon both where the show has been so far, and gives tantalising hints of what is to come in future seasons). The risk paid off, because 'Restless' is not only, along with 'Hush', one of the finest episodes of the fourth season; it is arguably amongst the finest crop of episodes this series produced in its entire run. The episode features great performances from the principal cast, and some great direction (including extensive handheld camera work). It shows off the impressive sets nicely. Each of the four core Scoobies (Giles, Xander, Willow, Buffy) gets their moment in the sun. And, having discovered Tony Head's singing talent in the earlier season four outing 'Where The Wild Things Are', the producers show off his skills for the third time this season (but not the last time in the show) in the witty Exposition Song. If you want to know what this episode means, you'd have to ask Whedon himself, because it is admittedly very abstract. But it's a fantastic journey inside the dreamworlds, and hence the fears and insecurities of our Scoobies. And it's great to see old faces again, like Principal Snyder in Xander's dream, performing in a magnificent paraphrasing of Willard's first meeting with Colonel Kurtz in 'Apocalypse Now' (1979). Or Harmony, and Olivia, neither of whom we've seen in a while. One other awesome thing in this show (one of many awesome things, in fact) was that the seasons were so well-defined. There aren't many shows where you can tell apart the first season and the fifth season. In many dramas, the episodes and the seasons all blend together. In this series, there is no status quo. Each season has its own self-contained arc, which nevertheless contributes to the greater whole of the series. And each season has a different foe to face, and often a major cast shuffle. Life is like that. You aren't in the same place, interacting with the same people, year after year. Life changes. And there is so much foreshadowing, that it is impossible to tell if it was all planned in advance, or was just an extraordinary set of coincidences. Even if it was the latter, it all fits together so well. Joss was an auteur, not just a TV writer. I miss him terribly, and I wish him luck in his upcoming new series 'Dollhouse'.
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