{"id":2843,"date":"2004-09-30T15:16:36","date_gmt":"2004-10-01T05:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2004\/09\/30\/once-more-with-feeling\/"},"modified":"2019-12-11T09:23:04","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T17:23:04","slug":"once-more-with-feeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2004\/09\/30\/once-more-with-feeling\/","title":{"rendered":"Once More, With Feeling"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:10129,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.upn.com\\\/shows\\\/buffy&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20050928175407\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.upn.com:80\\\/shows\\\/buffy\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-11 01:28:07&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:206},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-05 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05:38:18&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10135,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/click.linksynergy.com\\\/fs-bin\\\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252FviewAlbum%253FplayListId%253D4426036%2526originStoreFront%253D143441%26partnerId%3D30&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:10136,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/click.linksynergy.com\\\/fs-bin\\\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252FviewAlbum%253FselectedItemId%253D4425962%2526playListId%253D4426036%2526originStoreFront%253D143441%26partnerId%3D30&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:8822,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/click.linksynergy.com\\\/fs-bin\\\/click?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941.10000002&amp;subid=0&amp;type=4&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6324,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/click.linksynergy.com\\\/fs-bin\\\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DOrchestra%26partnerId%3D30&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>As I&#8217;ve mentioned on here every so often, I&#8217;ve been working my way through the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.upn.com\/shows\/buffy\/\" title=\"Buffy the Vampire Slayer\">Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/a> series from beginning to end by renting the DVDs from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.netflix.com\/\" title=\"NetFlix\">NetFlix<\/a>. I&#8217;m up to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/asin\/B0000DANYD\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"Buffy Season Six\">season six<\/a> now (which means I&#8217;m going to have to take a break pretty soon, as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/asin\/B0002XVKMC\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"Buffy Season Seven\">season seven<\/a> isn&#8217;t out for a little while yet), and I&#8217;m still thoroughly enjoying the show.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B00008K2XP\/djwudicom-20\" title=\"Buffy Season Four\">Season four<\/a> had what is so far my all-time favorite episode &#8212; &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.restlessbtvs.com\/episodes\/season4\/10hush\/\" title=\"Hush\">Hush<\/a>&#8216; &#8212; but last night I watched what&#8217;s now a very close second: &#8216;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.restlessbtvs.com\/episodes\/season6\/7omwf\/\" title=\"Once More, With Feeling\">Once More, With Feeling<\/a>&#8216;.<\/p>\n<p>In deference to friends who are also working their way through Buffy for the first time, the rest of these ramblings is behind the cut&#8230; Now, I&#8217;d heard about &#8216;Once More With Feeling&#8217; (a.k.a. &#8220;Buffy &#8212; The Musical&#8221;) before hand, but I knew nothing about it beyond that it was a musical episode, so I was really looking forward to seeing it. I didn&#8217;t know how they were going to present it (music and spoken word, like a true musical; purely music, operetta-style; possibly something else), or how they were going to make it work within the confines of the show &#8212; though, admittedly, with a show like Buffy it&#8217;s easy enough to explain nearly anything away with a little creative work.<\/p>\n<p>I knew I was going to be in for a treat when the show opened to a widescreen ratio and old movie style credits. Obviously they weren&#8217;t going to go about this halfway! I spent the rest of the next hour with a goofy grin on my face, often laughing out loud as the trademark wordplay worked its way into the songs.<\/p>\n<p>Musically, while it&#8217;s not perfect &#8212; the cast are actors, after all, and not professional singers (though Anthony Stewart Head and Amber Benson both do quite well) &#8212; it is a lot of fun, with styles bouncing all over the place, from soft-shoe jazz to rock power ballads, and even a few reprises of earlier themes popping up later on in the show. Whedon is obviously a fan of musicals, and that shows throughout the show, not just in the music, but also in his framing of the shots and the choreography of the dances.<\/p>\n<p>While it&#8217;s definitely something that could only be done as a one-off concept episode, I had a blast with it. Enough of a blast that when I found out that <a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252FviewAlbum%253FplayListId%253D4426036%2526originStoreFront%253D143441%26partnerId%3D30\" title=\"Once More With Feeling Soundtrack\">the soundtrack is on iTMS<\/a>, it was downloading to my computer just a few moments later. My favorite track from the show? <em>Definitely<\/em> Spike&#8217;s showcase number, <a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=http%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZStore.woa%252Fwa%252FviewAlbum%253FselectedItemId%253D4425962%2526playListId%253D4426036%2526originStoreFront%253D143441%26partnerId%3D30\" title=\"Rest in Peace\">Rest in Peace<\/a>. Not only does it do a wonderful job of expressing Spike&#8217;s frustration in his non-relationship with Buffy, but it&#8217;s a fun power rock pseudo-ballad, and James Marsters does a credible job with it (even if his accent does slip a bit from time to time).<\/p>\n<p>While &#8216;Hush&#8217; still takes the prize as my all-time favorite episode that I&#8217;ve seen so far, &#8216;Once More With Feeling&#8217; is a very, very close second. If only there were more television shows like this, I might actually bother to watch TV more often.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/click?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941.10000002&amp;subid=0&amp;type=4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" border=\"0\" width=\"61\" height=\"15\" alt=\"iTunes\" src=\"http:\/\/images.apple.com\/itunesaffiliates\/logos\/iTunes_sm_bdg61x15.png\"><\/a> &#8220;<a>Main Title (from &#8221;Once More with Feeling&#8220;)<\/a>&#8221; by <a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DOrchestra%26partnerId%3D30\">Orchestra<\/a> from the album <em><a href=\"http:\/\/click.linksynergy.com\/fs-bin\/stat?id=xLsJkztrnNY&amp;offerid=78941&amp;type=3&amp;subid=0&amp;tmpid=1826&amp;RD_PARM1=itms%253A%252F%252Fphobos.apple.com%252FWebObjects%252FMZSearch.woa%252Fwa%252Fcom.apple.jingle.search.DirectAction%252FadvancedSearchResults%253FartistTerm%253DOrchestra%2526albumTerm=Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Once More, With Feeling%26partnerId%3D30\">Buffy the Vampire Slayer &#8211; Once More, With Feeling<\/a><\/em> (2002, 0:27).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Season four of Buffy had what is so far my all-time favorite episode &mdash; &#8216;Hush&#8217; &mdash; but last night I watched what&#8217;s now a very close second: &#8216;Once More, With Feeling&#8217;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2035,2037],"tags":[1481,80,2581,8],"class_list":["post-2843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-tv-and-films","tag-buffy-the-vampire-slayer","tag-music","tag-once-more-with-feeling","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}