buffy at pylduck.com

(Spoilers inevitable in posts. Be warned.)

[3:19:50 PM]

So I can't figure out what "Doublemeat Palace" does with the situation of fast-food labor, of minimum-wage / subsistence-level jobs. It could've been a far more trenchant or deliberatory critique of the structure of the service sector of the economy. But that would perhaps be expecting too much of Buffy?

In some ways it seems like the episode was very clear in its critique of fast-food labor. The episode couched its description of the work and the employees in terms of a deadening experience and zombie-like automaton-workers. But then it didn't really do much with it. And Buffy ends up staying on with the job because she needs money. I'm not saying that she needs to give up that job for a better-paying, more "humanizing" (however you want to define that) job, but to provide those details and then leave them without further comment seems to forgive the structure of such work. We can only accept the way things are. There doesn't seem to be an acknowledgement of being able to make that workplace better, to compensate workers for their time so that they can actually make a living. (I can't believe an entry-level job at the Doublemeat Palace allows Buffy to pay the mortgage on the house and provide food and other necessities...)

And then again the sense of stifling, of the horror of staying in that job "for life" or even for five years seems always to insist on a critique of the situation. But what are the possible solutions? Maybe Buffy will become a union organizer. Maybe she will kick management ass instead of demon ass, providing stable, secure jobs for people in the fast-food industry? And then maybe the turnover rate will no longer be so high (demons notwithstanding) nor the workforce so insistently teenagers (it's just a part-time or summer job) and seniors (retirement supplement or lack of ability to do other jobs). (Or a workforce of immigrants who generally provide much of this kind of unskilled labor, something the episode made conveniently invisible.)

o0o

[11:10:12 PM]

Doublemeat Palace. It was too obvious the meat wasn't human. Or cat. Or whatever. But the plant idea is kinda cool. Heh heh. Vegetarian burgers (except the "special ingredient" meat fat) taking over the world! Muhahahaha....

Apparently Amy is the Big Bad this season. I don't understand that progression from the Amy tormented by her mother in the first season of Buffy to the somewhat self-involved practitioner of magic in the third (?) season to this crazy abuser of magic now. But maybe she'll be developed more as the season progresses.

I hope Anya dumps Xander.

I'm excited to see what the show does with Buffy in the Faith-situation of having killed a human ("innocent"?).

That is all.

o0o

[9:20:44 AM]

I don't really have much of an urge to write about this week's episode of Buffy, "Gone." Why is Warren so willing to kill?

Buffy has always had goofy episodes, but I think they used to be more substantive. This one was silly and only drew us unconvincingly to the conclusion that both Willow and Buffy managed a first hurdle of their addiction / existential crisis.

My sister pointed out that an interesting aspect of the episode was the social services interlude. The show could go the way of seriously asking why it is that Dawn needs to be raised in a "traditional" family. Why not a household of loving, caring friends? Why not by a gay couple? But I somehow doubt that the show will go that route.

o0o

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