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Season 2, Episode 9: What’s My Line, Parts 1 and 2

26 March 2017

In this episode!

  • Mark wonders if Angel is the sexiest man in the world; Katherine says even in the universe of the show, maybe not…
  • We love Kendra, but Mark wonders about her accent.
  • Katherine is the grammar police and explains slay vs. slew.
  • Mark says Buffy the show is all about toxic masculinity; Katherine says but what about Xander and …
  • Mark says vampires aren’t sexist; rather, vampires are racist and/or speciesist.
  • Mark points out that not only is Spike emotionally fragile, Mark thinks that the Big Bads in Buffy are basically bad at being bad. They lack focus and are too impulsive.
  • Destiny and fate vs. free will: on which side does Buffy the show land? Katherine leans toward free will.
  • Have any of you noticed that people who love Buffy, the Vampire Slayer are really cool and interesting?
  • Katherine loves Drusilla and Spike; Mark, not so much.
  • We both love Oz.
  • Career talk—note that Buffy is told she should be in law enforcement and Xander a prison guard. Buffy worries she doesn’t have a future, and this episode makes it clear that Xander doesn’t think he has a future either.
  • Mark says there is a Beauty and the Beast feel to this episode, especially the scene at the skating rink.
  • Mark is a little concerned about who the Big Bad of the episode is going to be. If it’s Spike then what are we waiting for?

Shout outs and interesting tidbits

Shout out to Jessica Branch who suggested that the Hellmouth is in University Circle, more specifically, under the Cleveland Museum of Art and CWRU. She argues this has to do with Jane Jacobs’s theory about urban spaces that are deserted at night. Mark takes this on in the episode. Katherine argues the Hellmouth is probably in Old Brooklyn under Rhodes High School.

Shout out to Tony Martin whose photographs of West 3rd and Quigley make the argument that the Hellmouth is there.

Shout out to Cathy Podojil.

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Season 2, episode 2: Some Assembly Required

04 October 2016

Friends of this podcast! We are now available on Itunes!

In this episode:

  • Has anyone out there read Frankenstein? If so, do you have any thoughts or questions about it? We are hoping to have a little extra episode that discusses this great novel.
  • Mark sings the Temptations!
  • We liked (even possibly loved) this episode despite all the haters in podcast land. Katherine thought it was perhaps the funniest Buffy episode ever!
  • We do not think this was an anti-feminist episode.
  • Mark thinks that Buffy could be attracted to Xander. He bases this on “When She Was Bad” and continuing to the chemistry between Buffy and Xander in this episode. Katherine is strangely silent on this issue. 😉
  • Katherine has said all along that Xander is her favorite character so far. Mark seems to concur when he says, “What is sexier then rescuing someone from a burning building?”
  • We love Giles and Jenny’s first date, and Giles’ slur on American masculinity.
  • Katherine’s favorite moment in this episode and one of her favorites for the show thus far is the crackling, tension-filled exchange between Xander and Angel in the library.
  • Mark questions Angel’s “obvious” attraction to Buffy and argues that it is creepy. He is, Mark states, frankly too old for her. “What can Angel possibly see in her?” queries Mark.
  • Katherine argues that what Buffy the show is doing is deconstructing the horror genre.
  • Does Daryll have a soul or a conscience?
  • Mark did consider medical school but gave up on the idea when he realized he would have to have his own cadaver. Katherine never thought about medical school. However, she did dissect a frog in high school that she then kept in a desk drawer to keep her sisters out of it. It worked, too.
  • Shout out to Kris Roth!

Resources:

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.  If you can, get an annotated version at the library. I love annotated versions. They explain all sorts of information readers will miss since we are 21st century readers. But you can also read it free here: http://literature.org/authors/shelley-mary/frankenstein/

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Out of Mind, Out of Sight

02 May 2016

In this episode!  Crush, Kill, Destroy!

  • Katherine and Mark think that despite the fact that most podcasters hate this episode, we love it, and think it has some interesting messages
  • We think this might be a true horror episode. Do our 6 listeners think so? Why or why not?
  • Mark thinks Whedon is prophetic, and points out Cordelia’s “All Lives Matter” stance and the teacher’s critique of it
  • Katherine points out the significance of the “the anger of the outcast” and says this was a large part of Whedon’s rationale for creating the Buffyverse
  • Mark (Fashion Police)noticed that Harmony and Cordelia were wearing matching colors, and he wonders if it is a cult. Anyone else notice?
  • Katherine and Mark have a dispute that only YOU can solve, listeners. Mark says that Marcie begins disappearing a few days ago; Katherine insists the disappearance happened months ago. Who’s right? The winner gets Indian food, so this is high stakes.
  • We do have a very serious question we can’t answer: Why doesn’t Angel want Buffy to know he saved Giles, Willow, and Xander? We have a weak answer but are mainly stumped on this.
  • Shout outs to Just Laurie,  Nina Ryerson, and of course, all Lost in Space fans!
  • How long is the list of missing, dead, and disappeared?
  • Katherine asks, whose responsibility is it that people don’t fall through the cracks?

Resources:

Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare

“Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” The Beatles

Katherine mentioned that when Marcie looks at her book at the end of the episode, she sees it is about assassination. Here is some further incredibly fun information. The information was taken from the Buffy Wiki and from Wikipedia:

“Underneath the manual headline of “Assassination and Infiltration” are the lyrics to the Beatles song ” Happiness Is a Warm Gun“, but with a few small changes; any repetition in the lyrics is removed, the line ‘happiness is a warm gun’ is changed to ‘joy is a hot revolver,’ and the last line of text that is visible is not part of the song. What it says is ‘because joy is a hot revolver, and he is afraid of the monkeys who are in'”(Buffy Wiki)

“The body copy of the book Marcie opens at the end of the episode is the lyrics to the Beatles’ song “Happiness Is a Warm Gun.” However, the titular lyric is altered to “Joy is a hot revolver” and the text ends as follows: ‘Joy is a hot revolver, and he is afraid of the monkeys who are in possession of digital skeletons of Swiss cheese.”‘ (Wikipedia)

 

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Angel

29 March 2016

In this episode!

  • Mark loves Cordelia’s Bernie Sanders response to NAFTA!  Feel the Bern!
  • We don’t know if the Anointed One is human or not. Can anyone help us out? (Katherine thinks he’s probably a vampire?)
  • Mark struggles with the rules of invitation.
  • Katherine and Mark debate over the significance of Buffy exposing her neck to Angel, and Mark reveals he is probably not a vampire, even though he (Mark) did die once.
  • Mark believes Angel has a death wish. Does Buffy?
  • Mark loves the connection to Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter, and Katherine loves that in Buffy it is mainly men who get punished. (Angel as Hester Prynne! Sort of.)
  • Katherine explains the significance of “sires.”
  • Mark loves the idea of Angel as addict who hasn’t been using for over 100 years.
  • Katherine winks at Buffy fans when Mark asks, do vampires have human farms?
  • Mark thinks Buffy isn’t turned on to Xander because of his jokester status–do you agree? And, what role is Xander playing? Willow?

Resources:

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