'Buffy's "Once More, With Feeling" Is the Gold Standard of Musical Episodes
From great storytelling to appealing initial tunes, Buffy's "Once More, With Feeling" excels at every aspect of the music episode.
From devoted tv followers to laid-back spectators, most viewers recognize with the idea of the music episode. While it may appear such as an uncommon choice, music episodes have become a initiation rite for many popular TV shows, consisting of The Simpsons, Community, and simply about any CW collection that lasts for a pair of periods. Music episodes existed before Buffy the Vampire Slayer's handle it, but Period 6, Episode 7 "Once More, With Feeling" probably promoted the idea right into trope status— and permanently factor.
Music episodes that have complied with in its steps have mistakenly associated its effectiveness to its appealing initial tunes, which is an reasonable misunderstanding. Besides, the episode's soundtrack charted 49 on the Billboard 200 in the US and received outstanding reviews from movie doubters. Although its excellent music numbers certainly add to what makes the episode great, the real factor "Once More, With Feeling" is the gold standard for music episodes is because the authors comprehended that music numbers as a tool function as monologues that expose a character's real sensations.
"Once More, With Feeling" skillfully sets up Period 6's progression. The episode dives right into personality inspirations and the group's social connections by having actually a music devil force individuals of Sunnydale to sing about their present circumstances.
In this period, Buffy, played by Sarah Michelle Gellar, is dealing with anxiety triggered by her expulsion from a peaceful afterlife, which she laments in the episode's opening up number, "Going Through the Movements." In the Period 5 ending, Buffy compromised her life to conserve the globe. Initially, the franchise business was supposed to finish with her fatality in Period 5, but the collection was restored for 2 more periods. Normally, Buffy the Vampire Slayer would not coincide without its titular heroine, so Buffy was restored by her friends at the beginning of Period 6.
Although Buffy's resurgence was necessary for the collection, her terrible sacrifice could not be cheapened by having actually it not affect her completely, so using this episode's music beast to dig deeper right into her sensations bordering her return from the dead was a fantastic choice. While this could've been accomplished in a "show do not inform" style, this additional understanding right into her personality came at a breaking point in the pacing of the period. Buffy's out-of-character state of minds and activities had been slowly escalating in previous episodes, but could not be the primary focus of the show because at its core, Buffy is a "beast of the week" design dramedy. Compromising Buffy's campy tone and facility would certainly have been counterproductive because the show is cherished for those factors.
With the help of a couple of comedic tunes breaking the stress of remarkable tunes, the episode really felt right in your home in the Buffy world. So did the supernatural facility of the episode, which not just made more sense compared to various other TV shows' convoluted thinking for music episodes, but also came at a perfect time in the story for the remainder of the personalities. Often, music episodes focus on the problems of one character— typically the main personality that bumped their
going
or took place a medication journey or whatever factor is offered to discuss why everybody is singing and dance in perfect unison. While that can work, the spirit of a music is to explore each of the personalities, not simply the protagonist.
In the episode, each of the personalities gain a brand-new degree of nuance either through a solo or a duet. The target market learns something new about their connections, instabilities, or future plans. It would certainly feel unnatural— and in addition to boring— for this information to be uncovered by the personalities all of a sudden deciding to be uncharacteristically vulnerable or by the authors arbitrarily throwing a team treatment session in the show. By sticking to both the spirit of the franchise business and the spirit of musicals, "Once More, With Feeling" mastered the idea in a manner couple of various other franchise business have managed to follow.
Along with exposing information to the target market, "Once More, With Feeling" utilizes the "in-world" vs "out-of-world" music strategy to expose secrets to the various other personalities. Out-of-world tunes are played straight to the target market, unheard by the various other personalities. In-world tunes are the opposite. Buffy, Surge, Zander, and Anya are all forced to take part in in-world tunes that cause them to say points they wanted to maintain private, such as Buffy exposing she didn't want to return to life to her guilt-stricken friends.
The secrets exposed in this episode straight progress the season's storylines, which makes "Once More, With Feeling" more compared to a one-off personality study. In truth, it is the essential episode of Period 6. There is absolutely nothing incorrect with enjoyable music episodes that include little importance to the overall plot, but they are probably missed out on opportunities because musicals provide unique storytelling methods well worth utilizing.
Musicals also provide stylistic methods that "Once More, With Feeling" used perfectly. From the overture prominent right into the opening up number to the team dancing number and harmonies commemorating the dry cleanser, it was clear the innovative group behind the episode understood music episodes should be more compared to some slightly appropriate jukebox tunes performed by stars that are uncertain how to emote while singing.
The actors truly leaned right into the job, which made the episode all the more pleasurable to watch. The music devil himself, played by Hinton Fight, was the cherry on top, providing viewers with smooth vocals in shape for a suave and unforgettable bad guy. It is clear the episode was a joint initiative with the actors and team both ensuring the music episode trope was done justice.
Overall, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's variation of the music episode rules supreme because it does everything a music is supposed to do, and it does it extremely well. Drawing off a music episode of this quality is no small accomplishment, but those that want to do the same need to look no more compared to "Once More, With Feeling."