Anthony Head, RIP

Giles, to most of us. 

Felicity

Roughly concurrently with the run of the greatest TV show of all time, another show featured an "innocent" but determined young woman making her way in the world. We watched the pilot of Felicity last night, and I doubt I'll watch many more episodes. Dated, earnest, and not really my demographic. But judging from the pilot, the show was really pretty good. And Keri Russell was already amazing. You see the steeliness and intelligence that made her so good in The Americans. There is a lot going on behind that angular, elegant, pretty face– vulnerability, sure, but also arrogance, and suppressed anger. 

Buffy, again

Watching Season 1 from scratch. Within four episodes you know the main characters as if they were your best friends in high school too. You know they live on the hell mouth. You know that upon first laying eyes on each other, Buffy and Angel have fallen for each other hard, eternally, like the Juliet and Romeo they are. You know that Buffy loves and respects her mom, and vice versa, no matter how bad it's been... and it's been bad. You know that Willow and Xander would willingly go to hell and back and even transcend their stereotypical teenage selves for their new best friend Buffy... and not just because– in spite of being so much cooler and beautiful than they are– she treats them like human beings, but because, yeah, she is the Chosen One, and that's, like, really really important. You know that Giles is smart, lonely, and (mostly) platonically smitten with this strange creature he is nominally in charge of. Most of all, you get Buffy, TV's single greatest creation.

Meanwhile, as a bonus, you also get ridiculously clever plots, and even more ridiculously clever dialogue. This is the TV show that loves our crazy English language more than any other.

Our old DVDs are a bit fuzzy on our ridiculously large screen. And apparently the HD versions are insultingly badly rendered. Mr. Whedon, this is your claim to immortality, so why don't you spend a few of your well-earned dollars and give us the definitive version that we, and you, deserve?

Your Willow quote of the day

"Chemistry's easy. It's a lot like witchcraft, only less newt."
If you have no idea where this could come from... I'm sorry for you...

Bones

Bones is really a pretty dumb show, featuring an ensemble of fairly mediocre supporting actors and lame plots centered on gross-out forensics, in the tradition of the truly awful CSI franchise, albeit with a welcome modicum of humor. But all of this is the modest price you pay for one of the classic TV romances, between actors Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz. Boreanaz is a fortunate fellow indeed, having now played the hunky but sensitive love interest for two of the great female characters in TV history, Buffy Summers and Temperance Brennan. They light up that little screen.

Ringer

So, Sarah Michelle Gellar has a new series on the CW, premiere tomorrow. It appears to be based on one of the oldest and often lamest premises in the book: the evil twin or maybe the mysterious doppelganger plot. But I will dutifully watch. After all, Sarah was the star of what was arguably the greatest television series of all time. So I am prepared to cut her some slack.