BEAUTY AND THE BEASTS; thoughts and reviews

[Saturn 5]

Beauty and the Beasts;

The Good;
Faith dancing, Buffy hunting and capturing Angel, Buffy's scenes with the counsellor, Willow's concern for Oz.

The Bad;
Pete's makeup is pretty stupid looking, I think the writers probably had more in mind a Bruce Banner halfway through his Hulk transformation rather than the rather daft way he is portrayed

Best line;
Oz; (mid fight with Pete, seeing the moon rise) " Times up. Rules change!" Great line, very similar to Roddy McDowell's exchange with his vampire foe in Fright Night as he sees the sun rise "Daylight Mr Dandridge, you're out of time"

Wheldon Cliches;
Character death; Platt becomes the 7th member of the SDH faculty to die in 3 years. Lord knows how many SDH students have died, I think Hellmouthcentral.com did a survey once, I'll look it up
Shot; yep, Oz again and Giles
Tied up; Angel. In case you're wondering the chains Buffy uses aren't her own, she knocks Dru's dolls off the chest they're contained in.
Knocked out; Oz, Giles and Angel whilst Willow faints. Buffy tells Faith to knock herself out but not literally.
Women good/men bad; the entire episode, about as close as Buffy ever becomes to being truly misandrist (the rumoured original title was 'All men are beasts'). Whilst Pete is obviously the villain here you have to blame Debbie to some degree, she knows what's going on and doesn't do anything to stop it, even though people are dying. Whilst it's worthy to tackle spousal abuse you do feel slightly bashed over the head by the not so subtle point. Faith says "All men are beasts" which seems a little unfair. She also refers to Manimal which again seems weird for a 17 year old in 1998 to refer to a tv show that lasted exactly 8 eps in 1983 (thank you IMDB). Again, something a bunch of 30 year old scriptwriters might be big fans off.
Kinky dinky; Naked Angel in chains. Ok, miraculously Angel seems to have acquired himself a pair of trousers despite his feral nature, keeping his dignity, like the Hulk. Willow says she's seen Oz 'half-monty', as Xander says, which half? Xander has seen Oz 'full-monty', presumably in the school showers but who knows? He seems very panicky explaining the use of his term 'handling'. Faith refers to the 'good lowdown tickle'. When Oz refers to two students 'fooling around' Faith automatically assumes 'They were screwing', shows how her mind works! Jerk Pete calls Debbie a whore as an insult.
Calling Captain Subtext; Buffy is horrified at the idea of a girls school with uniforms and 'no boys' but I think that would make a good series in itself. Scott asks if Barbie ever wonders why Ken doesn't come around any more now he's got an earring. No wonder she always dumped him for Action Man. He also says that you never really know what's going on inside someone. Hmmmm?

Questions and observations;
Mr Platt smokes, probably the last time we'll ever see that in a teen show. Willow's reading from 'Call of the Wild' is interesting when you compare it to what Verucca says later. It could also apply to the Slayer's nature when we later see what Faith and Buffy get up to and what the first Slayer is like and why she's like that. What happens to Oz's clothes when he transforms whilst fighting Pete? Sunnydale High's marching jazz band is mentioned which Amanda is part of in season 7. Platt's remarks about being love's dog are interesting in comparison with Spike referring to being 'Love's Bitca' in Lover's Walk. Faith refers to going crazy and 'Get out of jail free' which she one day will do both. Will offers Buffy a jelly doughnut which we will see again in The Zeppo. Will actually saves Faith here. Cordy is missing for most of the ep.
It's a good enough ep but it's not terrific
6/10

[gumgnome]

While I agree that the not-so-subtle message gets irritating, I really like this episode on a minute-by-minute basis. Something about Pete really amuses me (don't take that the wrong way) particularly when he's talking in his angry voice to Oz ("You won't be alive to see it").

I believe that this is the first time that we see a trademark move from Angel, where he flips Pete over his back, then cracks his neck - very similar to how he dispatches one of the loan shark demons in "Rm w/ a View" and the leader of the Scourge in "Hero".

I think that the suspicion that Oz may have killed during the night is pretty silly when you consider that if he escaped, it's hardly likely that he would make his way back to the library in wolf-mode.

Mr Platt joins my cast of one-ep characters that really endear themselves to me - he seems like he could really help Buffy, but then he dies...

We get another Xander/Larry conversation which, while not being as pants-wettingly funny as the first one, is still pretty entertaining and certainly some excellent continuity.

The ep does lack knockout dialogue, but there are gems:
GILES: Right. It's good to see you. Um, no need to panic.
OZ: Just a thought: poker: not your game.

and some trademark Cordy:
BUFFY: I'm afraid to ask.
CORDELIA: Oz ate someone last night.

[buffyfan21]

For a one-time character I really liked Mr. Platt. He seemed a genuine guy who really wanted to help Buffy. Shame that he met the same fate as who knows how many other faculty and students at Sunnydale High! Principal Flutie was also eaten by a group of students in his office in the middle of the day. Mr. Platt suffers a very similar fate, that of being torn apart by an "animalistic" student. Pete, is by all purposes possessed much like the kids in the hyena episode. The difference of course being that the students in "The Pack" had no conscious control of their actions. The same cannot be said for Pete, however. He knew that the potion turned him into a monster and yet continued to drink it anyway. At any point he could have chosen to cease use of the potion, but instead he continues. It makes you wonder how many others he had possibly hurt and killed b/c of his insane jealousy toward his girlfriend, and the fear that she was letting other men get too close to her. Pete was very threatened by any attention she received from other men. Whether it was of a friendly/helpful nature, as with Oz, or of a more professional student/teacher nature, as with Mr. Platt, this obviously made very little difference to Pete. His own insecurities drive him so far as to brew a potion making him "the perfect guy," the guy he thinks Debbie wants. The irony of this of course is that his little concoction makes Pete far from the perfect guy, instead turning him into every woman's worst nightmare!

This really is a tragic episode, showing that even so called "normal" people can turn themselves into monsters or have the potential to be a monster. On the other hand, those we think of as monsters turn out to be something else entirely. As with seemingly feral, viscous Angel coming to save the day in the end. Or werewolf Oz throwing down with Pete to try and stop him from hurting anyone else (bad ass fight, btw. Love the moment when Oz is transforming from human to wolf mode). These are people we think of as monsters, but when we look beneath the surface, we find something else all together. Just goes to show that you should never judge a book by its supposed cover. Or as Scott says at the end of the ep, "you think you know someone, but you never really do."

It is also interesting to note, that Buffy herself later becomes a counselor helping students at Sunnydale High.

[Saturn 5]

Yeah Platt was a good character, interestingly Buffy will be the school counsellor in season 7 so maybe he inspired her?

[Tea - Total]

beauty and the beasts/

Pros.
*Hilarious how Giles informs about Xander of the Oz escaped.
* Very well done to the vivid themes it deals with. Very realistic to the theme of bad relationships, abusive relationship. Excellent concept of reality, perfect.
*Great storyline between the main plots, the conspiracy of oz killing innocent people, but Buffy thought it was Angel. But really it was Pete.
*Great makeup, Oz werewolf looks absolutely realistically brilliant.
*The interesting theme of hell dimensions.
* The fight scene between oz and Pete was practically good.
“Oz: Time's up. Rules change.”
*The whole faith chasing the werewolf was entertaining and when Angel returns to the screen and he fiercely attacked Pete, brilliant, but sad when he morphed in to human and hugs Buffy.


Cons
*When Oz transform he doesn’t remove his clothes. During the transformation, there are no indications that oz clothes are gone.
*Theirs in no chemistry to Scot and Buffy, but hey that’s a good thing because I don’t like Scot hope.


Favoritee quote
“Xander: A little now, uh, a little then. But I never heard Oz leave, and he was here in the morning when I, um... when I..."
Giles: "WOKE UP!"


Overall.
Great episode of realistic themes, so relatable really good to bring back Angel as a suspect of killing someone. Not the best on consuming actions but it’s their, great.

Acting. 7/10
Actions 6/10
Storyline 8.5/10
Overall. 7.9/10

[Saturn 5]

Well in in CWDP we find out exactly WHY there's no chemistry between Scot and Buffy. Personally I think the werewolf makeup is terrible, they should have stuck to the original stuff from Phases

[Tea - Total]

Oct 31, 2009 18:38:14 GMT -5 Saturn 5 said:

Well in in CWDP we find out exactly WHY there's no chemistry between Scot and Buffy. Personally I think the werewolf makeup is terrible, they should have stuck to the original stuff from Phases

I know he is gay but not in this season.

I have to disagree, but i do agree the phases werewolf does look like a werewolf not a ape ,but for me the phases werewolf, was way to stiff around the face.

But the werewolf in beauty and the beast, the face is more realistic and it has movement lol..

[Saturn 5]

Combining the issues the crew apparently used to refer to the later Oz werewolf as the 'gay possum'. When they brought Nina on in Angel they went back to the Phases look

[Randi Giles]

Sept 3, 2009 9:55:41 GMT -5 gumgnome said:

Mr Platt joins my cast of one-ep characters that really endear themselves to me - he seems like he could really help Buffy, but then he dies...

I think Joss knew with he was doing with this character. He actually liked Buffy somewhat so he had to kill him.

I'm watching this episode on MTV right now and I kind of realized this isn't exactly one of my favorite episodes. The only good is Faith punching Buffy in the library when she listening to her music nd don't realize she's the. LMAO. Plus Buffy running into Angel. It's on commercial right now so I'll come back if there's anything else worth mentioning.

Edit - Debbie saying "He does love me" over and over. So pathetic. Plus the little narration or whatever Buffy did at the end. Let's just say it wasn't needed. The only time that worked was at the end of The Gift.

[joxerlives]

I think there's some good stuff here, Faith dancing, Buffy and Angel getting back together, Cordy and Oz at the end ("where was I during all of this?"). Some nice stuff with Scott and Buffy too. Also the break in scene at the morgue is good, especially CC