Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 6, Episode 10: "Wrecked"


Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Season 6, Episode 10: “Wrecked”
Grade: 6.3

Some think this is the worst of the season along with “Doublemeat Palace”. Personally I enjoyed this more than “Smashed” and “Gone” but this episode had serious serious problems. It starts the Willow’s magic addiction /drug addiction analogy which could be the most horribly handled aspect of the show. I have been looking forward to Willow’s addiction to magic since I started watching the show and they had done such a good job up until this episode when they change the entire dynamic of Willow’s addiction. It became not even an analogy in this episode but a literal drug addiction. Magic has become a drug on the show and it’s absurd. Willow goes to Rack’s and has trips. It’s ridiculous and lame and dumb. Then Willow totally fucks Dawn over and causes them to get into a car crash. Her characterization here seems really out of whack and inconsistent. I could believe her behavior after she is on the drugs even though it’s still pretty ridiculous; I’ll suspend my disbelief. I cannot however believe that Willow would go there in the first place with Dawn. That was so out of character for her. While the episode had bigger problems that “Smashed” I personally enjoyed watching it more only because it was such an important episode and Alyson Hannigan turns in a stellar performance.

Spike and Buffy continue their sexual relationship which further causes her to completely disregard everyone in her life and isolate herself further.

I like that Xander and Anya are completely aware of Willow’s problem and its stupid that Buffy is so unwilling to see the parallels between her and Willow’s situation that she will not even acknowledge that Willow has a problem.

Overall it’s an interesting episode in that the series had been building to this rock bottom that Willow has gotten to but it is so poorly handled, so out of character for Willow and so unsubtle in its analogy it does not even feel like the same show.

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