The Buffy Musical

For the month of October, I’ve opted to shift some key elements of this blog. I’ll be paying homage to my favorite television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer by dedicating each post to reflections on specific episodes of the show. Moreover, to cram in more BtVS ramblings, I’m foregoing my typical every-other-week posting schedule in favor of posting every weekend.

If you’re a fan of the show, I hope you’ll enjoy these looks back, and if you’re not, maybe I’ll incentivize you to give it a shot. If you find yourself someplace in between—e.g., you’re currently watching the show, please note that these posts will include spoilers about the episode(s) they discuss.

And, if you’re just not interested in Buffy, apologies, but this just isn’t your month. I will be back for a more typical blog post around Halloween, and resume the routine going into November.

I decided to close this month’s dive into all things Buffy with a look back at my favorite episode of all, ”Once More, With Feeling.” I wouldn’t have called this my favorite episode when it first aired. First of all, I didn’t watch it until weeks after it was first broadcast, because I’d started college and didn’t watch much TV in real time then, though my parents faithfully recorded BtVS on VHS so I could catch up when I was home on breaks. More than that logistical concern, though, while I absolutely liked “Once More, With Feeling” on my first viewing, it nonetheless came amidst season six which I by and large didn’t appreciate as it was airing, the show seemingly trapped in the same post-high school, college-dropout, maybe-I-should-have-stayed-dead malaise as the Buffy character herself.

Season six isn’t for high schoolers or traditional college kids, though. It’s a season for those wandering adult life, disenchanted, chronically uncertain, and above all else lost about what to do next.

I may never have been as lost as Buffy Summers, and I was certainly never as dead as her. Nonetheless, all these years later, it’s wild how much better season six seems to me in retrospect than it did in its time.

Going back to this episode, I thought it was cute at the time, and an impressive accomplishment. Nonetheless, I was then and for years to follow committed to my favorites being those season finale episodes BtVs built up to so well, with the world on the line and multiple big plot lines coming to a head. I still maintain that the seasons two, five, and seven finales in particular are excellent for so successfully tying together such long-running storylines in such epic ways. I can also appreciate the excellence of the steps along the way now, though, too.

“Once More, With Feeling” doesn’t exactly resolve a lot for BtVs. In all of the characters being magically compelled to sing their hearts out, though, the truths revealed in song are critical to moving the plot forward and, of course, ultimately leading to that first kiss between consenting, non-enchanted adults for Buffy and Spike.

I’d be remiss to go this entire post about the musical episode without actually discussing the music. No, Joss Whedon isn’t a professional when it comes to writing music, and few of the cast members so much as approximate professional status when it comes to their singing and dancing capabilities. It’s with these caveats that the accomplishment of this musical episode feels so immense to me, with everyone involved well outside their element, busting their butts to generate the songs of an infinitely re-listen-able soundtrack, telling every bit as good of a story as any other Buffy episode. From the earlier, more expository tracks, including Buffy's expression of ennui in "Going Through the Motions," and Xander and Anya breezily singing their unspoken fears about their pending nuptials, to the heartbreak of Giles and Tara mutually recognizing their needs to move on from their current situations, to the show-stopping, climactic “Walk Through the Fire” the episode offers a near perfect balance of celebrating what fans of the show already love, while ever pushing the envelope on what the story at hand might be.

I’ve been known to re-watch this whole series, individual seasons, and five-to-ten episode arcs of Buffy ad nauseam. I don’t know that I’ve revisited any single episode more than this one, though. It's a masterpiece.

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