Baywatch Season 3 and Review - S03E04: Rookie of the Year

My last post has two views?! Wow, scary. Maybe it's wasn't a real person.

Falling Behind on Baywatch Reviews and Still Missing Shauni and Eddie

I haven't written a blog post since the the 13th of June, which isn't a big gap compared to back in the day but it is for Baywatch reviews. I've fallen behind since I watch one episode almost every day. My last post was about the episode called 'Tequila Bay', I'm way ahead of that now. My pace of writing about Baywatch was already slowing down and I'm afraid it will probably only get worse. I'm still enjoying the show even though I do still miss Shauna, Eddie and to a lesser extent, the other old characters. Then again, they did all work together as a team, naturally, so it did feel nice to have them all together.

Getting to the End of Season 3 - Small Issues

The enjoyment factor is waning a little though, since more and more of the stories are starting to feel similar to season 1 and 2 episodes. They are often told a little differently and it doesn't happen loads, but I can imagine it becoming more frequent as the seasons go on. I wanted to write about these in more detail but since I've fallen behind, I can't remember the specifics, so here's just some vague examples off the top of my head - Hobie has a dream in-which is dad is injured, or killed, I can't remember which, while rescuing someone. He warns his dad who doesn't believe it but Hobie's warning eventually saves him. The dangerous event actually does happen. Wasn't there an episode just like this before? I can't quite remember it but there was some about a dream, for sure. Maybe it was Hobie again, but this time season 1's Hobie (the other actor). Isn't there also an episode in Season 3 where C.J. also has a premonition style dream? There's also a 'B' plot where it turns out that C.J. is addicted to gambling in casino's, I'm pretty sure there was an old episode about Eddie having similar issues, possibly in season 1. And then there's Harvey, who was only in season 2. He also had a gambling problem, if I remember correctly.

Another observation about season 3, about half way through the season, the Mitch focused stories become very frequent. Mitch is alright but there's just too many at that point.

I may have to skip reviewing most of season 3, or I'll just blast through them, writing only a few words about each. But for now I'll try to catch up.

Review - Season 3, Episode 4: Rookie of the Year

I'm going to review the rest of this season from the perspective of someone who has now seen all of the season, simply because I'll find it hard not to. Stephanie and C.J. move in together, they spend barely any time on this story, it's not important. I might be wrong but they may only spend two scenes on this story. Basically Stephanie is the tidy one and C.J' isn't.

The main story is about the rookie life guards competing to see who will be hired. We of course already know who gets the jobs because they are in previous episodes, in the intro and they're not extras, unlike almost everyone else who are competing.

Notes and Observations

- I had this episode running in the background, is it just my imagination or does it look more colourful than the last episodes of this season? Maybe they changed cameras.

- For season 3, I hate to admit it but the montages, especially the ones with under water shots, are often better than the ones in season's 1 and 2. The music, which I think was all replaced for this remastered edition, is also a bit better. Some of it actually sounds quite good and fitting, unlike some of the older, bootleg sounding tracks.

- It's funny how low effort the screenshots are for this episode on baywatch.fandom.com.

- Matt's dad is in this episode, he's quite a good actor and I kind of recognise him. Even though he's the typical mean dad character, I do like the dynamic between him and his son. Unfortunately we barely ever see him again, maybe he'll return in season 4.

- Guido Torzini briefly shows up, I didn't know he was going to be on the show so much at this point. He was in season 3 so much, that I'm surprised he's not in the title sequence. He'd have to be at the end, though. Guido is the most in your face comic relief character I've ever seen on a non-comedy show. I guess I'm used to him by the end of season 3, but he is supremely unfunny. The joke is that he's a got a foreign accent and that he's not fit like everybody else. The weird thing is that he's literally never not trying to be funny, he feels like a dated character type even in 1992. Harvey Miller in season 2 was a comic relief character but I guess he didn't work out, so the show creators decided to ramp it up to 100% with Guido. I don't know if he continues to be in it after season 3 but I doubt it, since I never saw a picture of him online back when I was watching season 1 and didn't care about spoilers.

- We briefly see that Matt Brody has the hots for C.J. but this is only touched upon once or twice after 'Rookie of the Year' and only a tiny bit. It's then completely dropped for the rest of season 3, they have a platonic relationship, it seems. So to recap - Summer like Matt at the start of the season but they never mention this again after, I think, one episode, and then Matt doesn't get with C.J. I'm not even saying they make a story out of these, what I mean is they don't even explain why these characters don't get together. Funny thing is, I guess that makes the show unintentionally more like real life. So anyway, it makes me realise that Matt really wasn't the replacement for Eddie. Perhaps the writers thought it's best to have characters occasionally only have one episode relationships with a guest star, since it gives them more freedom. But does it? I'm not sure. I guess if Shauni and Eddie stayed in the show, the writers would always have to come up with scenarios around the fact that they are married. Of course, that opens doors to a whole host of other stories. I think other shows after Baywatch realised the potential for long running stories about relationships, love lives and love triangles. That's made me realise something - I can't believe I've watched three seasons of Baywatch and there hasn't been a single love triangle. Before I started this show, I thought that was going to be a main focus.

A Review of Tequila Bay, Sort of

 I've fallen really behind on writing about episodes along side watching them, so I'm wondering if I should just skip a lot, or not. I can't believe I haven't written about 'Tequila Bay' yet, I say it ages ago, I can't remember it! I'm going to have to turn on the episode in the background to remind myself.

Tequila Bay

This is episode 3 of season 3 and I consider it the first "real" episode of the season. This is the first one to not have Shauni and Eddie, I shed a tear. I did like these early season 3 episodes but since I've decided not bother explaining the plots, I don't think I have much to say. Or rather, I can't remember what I wanted to write about when it came to these episodes.

Stephanie Holden

This is the first appearance of Stephanie and I forgot to write about her in my review entry so I may as well write it here, since I don't think I have anything to say about the Tequila Bay's story. I didn't know Stephanie was going to be such a key character because she shows up late in the intro, I assume she'll be bumped up later on. She's played by Alexandra Paul, her acting is good and I quite like this character. Shes an old frame of Mitch's, he's pissed off with her for leaving all of a sudden. I think this tension would have been an interesting thing to play around with in the season but this is Baywatch, so of course they resolve their differences by the end of the episode.

A small issue with this is that it takes away a level of complexity from the character, it's something I've started to notice in the show. For example, Shauni is a selfish youngster in the pilot, she green and there's a scene where she wants to be assigned to a tower because her friends are around that area. This "noob", bratty side of her would have been interesting to keep for a while but it's completely resolved at the end of the pilot and I don't think it's ever mentioned again. From that day forth, she's a super professional life guard. Oh man, how did I change this section about Stephanie into a Shauni discussion? Haha.

Back to Tequila Bay

Anyway, Stephanie is a pretty good character. However one gripe I have about this episode is how they made all the flashbacks black and white, these show us Stephanie and Mitch's happy days together. The reason they're black and white is because they're in the past... get it? But I'm pretty sure there's been flashbacks in Baywatch before and they weren't in black and white. It just comes across as corny.

Summer Time

I don't think I have anything else to say about Tequila Bay but going back to it now, it does remind me of something odd that I noticed. Maybe not even odd, but a small thing - Summer is in this one quite a lot and she's in the next few a fair amount too. This gave me the impression that she was an important new addition but she actually almost completely vanishes for a chunk of time. I think she's almost completely absent from episode 7 until her return in episode 12, where she gets a story. Sometimes she appears for a few seconds, sometimes not at all. It very such reminded me of Shauni in season 1, there's even an episode where Summer walks into frame, gives someone a drink and then walks off, that's her entire presence in that episode. It did make me chuckle.

Nicole Eggert, Summers actor, is pretty good at acting in this show, but I wonder if they ended up changing their minds about her being a main character for some reason. For some other reason other than acting chops. Who knows, it could be many reason, I won't look them up though, in fear of spoilers. It just felt weird how she was in it so much for 6 episodes and then poof, she's gone.

More Baywatch, No Surprise There

It's a lovely sunny day outside but I'm here inside writing about Baywatch episodes from three decades ago. I've been falling behind in writing this too, so I need to speed this up. I am way more a head in episodes than the ones I'm writing about here. I've set a timer for half an hour, I must stop after that.

River of No Return, Part 2

I know I've spoken about this two part story so much but I still have a few more things to say. Firstly I know I didn't actually talk about the story, like the whole treasure hunt that Shauni, Eddie and co. go on. It was an alright story, I guess Shauni and Eddie leaving overshadowed the actual story for me.

Small correction - In an earlier post I think I said that Eddie only ever appears once more but that's not true, he also comes back for one episode of Baywatch Nights, a short-lived spin-off show. But 'River of No Return, Part 2' was Eddies final appearance on the series proper.

On Baywatch's fandom site, which I use a lot to double check stuff I'm writing on here, it says this - 'They reportedly left the series over salary problems, as they were paid a lot less for the syndicated series than they made during the initial NBC run.'

It's referring to the actors for Shauni and Eddie. It's the first I've heard of this but I reckon it's most likely the truth. I read some different reasons in interviews but this one seems the most likely. It's nothing special, nothing dramatic but quite likely. In other places I've read things like Erika Eleniak left because she didn't like were the show was going. Who knows what that actually means, it could be true as well as the reason above, there doesn't have to be only one reason. At first I was curious what she meant and I've been trying to figure it out, but who knows. It's hard to tell. I might talk about this more another time, even though it's not important.

Continuing My Thoughts on the New Season 3 Characters

Jimmy Slade

Slade doesn't appear until episode 3, he's a good looking young man who can surf and I don't think he's going to become a life guard, surprisingly. Now, the thing is with Slade is that the the guy playing as him is clearly an expert at surfing and that's why he was chosen to be on Baywatch. His acting is terrible but I'm not surprised, he's clearly spent most of his time honing his surfing craft. You quickly notice that it's him on the board, not a stunt double like the show normally uses. Not only that but he's far better than any of the stunt doubles they've used in the past, he puts them to shame. In real old episodes you might sometimes see a character doing a little bit of surfing but only briefly, I think Craig's actor could actually surf a little so they got a few full body shots of him. You see, especially in the earlier episodes, you could clearly see the stunt doubles in the HD Remasters of Baywatch, it's pretty funny. The stunt doubles are in far away shots or they have to be facing away from the camera. It's especially funny when you can see they're wearing a bad wig.

'Slade', as they cool him, which to be fair is pretty cool, turns out to be the love internet for Summer. As far as I've got, Matt Brody is simply portrayed as Summers friend. I was surprised because I thought Baywatch was going to do a whole love triangle with the three of them, but apparently not. Unless it happens later. Even if it does, Baywatch doesn't have much continuity, especially since the start of season 3. If they do a love triangle story, I wouldn't be surprised if it is for just one episode and then completely forgotten afterwards.

Summers Mum

I can't be bothered to look up her name. Shes pretty hot, very tall (I think I have a thing for tall women) and shes... a support character. I don't know if that's a proper term but she is literally supports Summer, shes just in the show to chat to Summer, be nice to her and sound board. Is that also a real term? I dunno. She's alright, there's nothing wrong with her. If this was any other show, I'd assume she'd be fleshed out later on but this is Baywatch so I doubt it. For that reason, I'm not investing much thought into her since she'll probably vanish before even Summer does.

Returning Old Characters

Mitch

Mitch is just Mitch, no change there. He's still fairly important to quite a lot of stories.

Hobie

He continues to be in it a fair amount, though he does vanish for some episodes. His acting improves a tiny bit in this season.

Garner Ellerbee

So far, Garner has appeared a lot more in season 3 than he has before, he even gets some stories. They aren't character building ones though, he just stays the same and that makes it pretty shallow. After quite some time, they bring back is main character trait which is that "I don't like sand, water, the heat.. I don't like the beach". It was basic and not funny in older seasons and it continues to be not funny here. It's not to see him get some more screen time but he's still pretty boring and I don't think he's had any serious stories yet.

Ben Edwards

He's not in the intro anymore but he does occasionally turn up, these times are even more brief than he did in the old seasons, though.

And sadly, that's all of the returning character I think. Besides that tall guy who gets a couple lines sometimes and was a life guard in real life.

Returning to the River of No Return

Random Thoughts

- Most of the grass in the park next to where I live hasn't been cut for ages, it's sunny but there's not many places to sit there. Because it's so long.

- I just realised that I could playing Street Fighter 6 instead of writing about Baywatch... I've barely played it yet.

Baywatch - River of No Return Part 1 - I'm Still Talking About It

How am I still stuck on this episode? I must not spend much more time on it since I'm already four episodes ahead of this two part story! I'm probably not going to write much about them since I'm already forgetting a lot. The reason why I'm still talking about River of No Return Part 1 is because I haven't even mentioned the other half the the episode - the introduction of the new characters. I'm already forgetting the details but I think some of them don't interact with the old characters in this episode, they have their own introductory story. Since I'm six episodes deep into Season 3, I may as well just tell you about how the new faces come across in these six episodes in general. In other words, I'm sort of moving away from 'River of No Return'. 

Summer Quinn

A blond girl who moves to the area with her mum, they're portrait as being a bit poor since they live in a trailer. This isn't focused on though, and they seem very jolly so it's not all doom and gloom. She's probably not supposed to be much younger than Shauni but she's definitely portraid as that, since she starts to go to high school in episode 6. Summer is in the first six episodes a lot, which come to think of it is a bit unusual for Baywatch. For example, if Shauni had a episode about her, she'd often barely be in several episodes after that.

In the first episode Summer appears in, I was wondering if her or C.J. is the replacement for Shauni. However by episode 6, I will give the show credit by saying that both of these characters are quite different than Shauni. Besides both being blonde. If anything, Summer initially appeared to be the replacement for Eddie, since she's kinda broke and has only just moved there, just like Eddie. But I was proven wrong over the next few episodes, she doesn't have the hard-knock-life background that Eddie had and she doesn't have a chip on her shoulder over her past. So far anyway.

In the first six episodes shes in, there is a focus on relationships. It's set up that Summer is going to get with Matt Brody, another new character, so I thought this was going to be a replacement for Shauni and Eddies love story. Not so. The show seems to forget this completely after 'River of No Return', instead having Summer fall for Slade, another new dude to the show.

C.J. (and sexy people on TV)

If I had to choose though, C.J. is closer to being like Shauni but that's not saying much. C.J. hasn't even been in it much as of episode 6. C.J. is of course played by Pamela Anderson, I assume this is the show that made her famous. Her acting in these six episodes is quite bad, in the way that's it's all one note, she also speaks quickly. I went to 'Baywatch.fandom' to check the spelling of her name, her profile picture makes her look quite different from what I've seen so far. I don't know how much further into the series that photo was taken, but I guess this is evidence of what I used to hear - That Pamela Anderson has had a lot of plastic surgery. Was that it? I'm not sure. Something about boobs too. You see, I was never a Pamela Anderson fan, not in the 90's, not ever. I don't even remember asking myself if I found her attractive or not back when I was a teen, I never thought about her at all for some reason. Even though I was a teen in the 90's so I was the prime audience for getting the hots for Pamela.

That said, despite not having much to do so far, she is growing on me. Shes no Erika Eleniak however. Shes not close to being as good at acting and her face isn't as pretty, her... assets aren't as nice either. Sorry for objectifying them but hay, this is Baywatch we're talking about here and I'm a lonely old man who has had very little relationship experience, so I hadn't help but think about these things. Let me live out my sad little fantasies in the mornings while I eat breakfast and watch TV. Anyway, a little more perving ahead - Despite those negative things I said about Pamela (personal preference stuff), you do gradually start to see how attractive her body is. I'm starting to see why this show became so popular, it was probably quite explicit back then. I'm sure there were many complaints in the 90's, even though Baywatch is so incredibly tame compared to everything nowadays. If it was rated, I assume it would be a U or PG at best. We've had shows like Game of Thrones which makes Baywatch look like My Little Pony when it comes to raunchiness. Sorry, I know even Game of Thrones is old now, what's it been, ten years already? Something like that. I don't watch much modern TV and Game of Thrones is just my go to show when contrasting how much more explicit TV shows are now.

Wait, this was supposed to be about C.J. wasn't it, I have nothing else to say about her anyway.

Matt Brody

The new main dude in the show, for sure, Brody is a stunningly attractive guy, or rather I should say the actor is. It's mind blowing how good looking he is. Acting wise, he's not bad, personality wise, he's a bit like a younger version of John D. Cort. He's a bit hot headed like him but the difference is that Cort was an action hero, it appeared like he was doing dumb things but he actually knew what he was doing. Or was at least doing things for the right reasons. For Brody, he does stupid things just because he wants to have fun. It's Baywatch though so of course he has a heart of gold underneath the reckless attitude. He is no John D. Cort though, that character was great and had charisma.

As of episode 6, Brody has a thing for C.J. and she might like the attention though it's hard to tell through Pamela's acting. This attraction has barely been touched upon though and unlike in the past, I'm not going to assume it'll lead anyway. I'm starting to see how Baywatch will drop ideas all the time. I'm probably used to modern TV writing where not a single scene or line is pointless, they always lead to something.

Last thing I'll say about Brody is that he's already had several 'one episode girlfriends'. I'm not sure why I'm pointing this out, it's just a thing I noticed. It's sort of like old episodes in-which Mitch did the same thing. Brody will have some random girlfriend, sometimes an extra or sometimes someone more significant but never a main cast member.

General Thoughts on Season 3 So Far

- The borders between the 'A' and 'B' stories are more vague, editing wise, I mean. Not that this was a bad thing in earlier episodes but I did notice it more, it was very clear that there were two stories going on and that one of them was the main focus. The general consensus would be that having the lines blur more is a good thing, though. I'm late saying all of this though since it started mid-season 2 but it becomes more potent in season 3, I found myself not even thinking about if there are 'A', 'B' or 'C' stories. On the other hand I might be wrong about all of this - I may have just gotten used to the structure of the show, having it originally stick out because I haven't seen a show like this in so long.

I've actually been writing this post for several days so I've fallen behind, I'll post it now and move straight onto the next one.

Baywatch - Season 2 - The End of the Original Cast, Pretty Much

Random Thoughts

- All of my posts going quite far back have one view each, I'm wondering why. Perhaps there's staff at Blogger.com who check everyone's posts to see if there's hate speech or whatever. If this is the case, apologies that you have to read such a sad, lame, badly written blog that blabbers on about pointless old TV shows. I mean I don't think it's pointless but you know what I mean.

- This blog really is, and perhaps always has been, basically my journal.

- Once again I'm looking at how young I look in that photo of me on here, on the left-hand side. Oh boy. And one of the only photos of myself I like, too. Even back then, I didn't look good in most photos. Now that I'm old, I look even uglier.

Baywatch Season 2 - An End of an Era

More Baywatch, what a surprise. Here I'm going to continue my thoughts that I started in my previous post, which was mostly about Shauni and Eddie leaving. I had more to say about it all but I've forgotten, let's see how much I can remember.

I say Season 2 above because even though the changes happen in Season 3, it's only after two episodes in. That two part story could have been at the end of Season 2, in fact. It even felt more like a season ender than Summer of '85 did.

Who Stays? - Mitch and Ben

Shauni and Eddie leaving was a big deal not just because I liked those characters, it was also the end for virtually all of the original cast. They were the last to go. Yes Mitch (David Hasselhoff) stays but everyone knows he's always in the show, I think for the whole run. I used the word 'virtually' because to be honest there are other actors who stay but they are glorified extras. We have Ben who is no longer in the intro and I think he may appear for a few seconds more here and there, and then vanishes completely. Since his page on that Baywatch Wiki Fan site is so bare. Which, by the way, is actually too bare even for Ben. Most of his page sections are blank, shows how much of an impression the character left on the fans, despite being played by the same actor who is a different character in the pilot episode. Rest in Peace though (the actor passed away a long time ago, 1997 I think).

Who Stays? - Garner

Garner also continues to be in the show and seems to appear and disappear from the opening quite often between Season 1 and 3. I've seen online that he stays on the show for a long time and is in the spin-off but I still almost don't care about this character at all, to be honest. I don't think there's been a single story about him so far and he's barely in it. I mean, out of all of the 'background' characters, he's been in Baywatch long enough to warrant actual stories about him. Even Ben got one or two and I'm pretty sure Garner has had more screen time by Season 3. In case you don't know, Garner a cop, he's THE cop of the show. He exists just so the show writers have a cop to turn up at the end to arrest the crooks, if the episode happens to have crooks. My memory is already getting hazy when it comes to Season 2 but I think Garner is barely seen in the second half of that season.

Who Stays? - Hobie

Yes there is also Hobie but this is fake Hobie, the one that started at the beginning of Season 2. His acting gradually improves but he's not as good as the original actor and he looks and acts so differently, he may as well be a different character. He also looks and acts younger. Also since he's Mitches young son, his stories are often about being naughty. The problem is that this new Hobie often does things that the original one did, but the original one learnt his lesson in those old episodes. So again it makes him feel like a different character because he does things the original Hobie never would do. I might be wrong but I think there's even a bit where he has no experience with girls, he hasn't kissed before, or something. But the original Hobie did kiss someone! I know it's the writers fault but it's still kinda funny.

And the Rest

Then there's the rest, who I can't be bothered to remember, they're basically just extras anyway.

End of the Beginning

That may have not looked like a tangent but it was. What I should have simply said was that Shauni and Eddie were the last two IMPORTANT characters / actors to leave Baywatch. From episode 3 of Season 3, all of the core original cast have left besides David Hasselhoff. It's just sad, ya know? Those two, as well as the others who left earlier, they made what Baywatch was. Perhaps it's because compared to TV now, it seems weird to have so many actors leave, and so early on too, relative to how long the series went on for. 2023 TV shows and for a long time now, the cast mostly stay the same.

Shauni and Eddie Leave Baywatch

Random Things

I have a cold, it crept up on me which I don't recall ever happening before. I didn't get my usual saw throat a day or two before hand. Also I've been exercising a lot so I thought my immune system would have been stronger

Thoughts on Writing More About Baywatch

Some problems have appeared; I can mostly justify watching one episode almost everyday in the morning while I'm eating breakfast but writing about it those days is probably too much. It takes too long, longer than watching the show. One option is to write about it the day after, skipping watching a new one for a day, but that kinda sucks.

That may not be a problem on the other hand, due to another far bigger issue with Baywatch - I might stop watching it and therefor writing about it. Or I might keep watching it a but I might not have enough interest to write. Oh no, what a travesty! Haha, as if it matters. This is an unknown blog, written badly, written with all types of errors imaginable and also it's about a long dead TV show probably no one cares about anymore. Despite it apparently being one of the most watched shows ever and going on for quite a long time, it finished twenty-two years ago! I lived in a different town back then and I was working in a video games store. I didn't care about Baywatch at all back then, I never even thought about it.

 Even if I was writing about some new, popular show, even that is kind of a waste of time. I think the only good thing about writing on here, about anything really, is that it's good writing practice. Maybe it would make me improve, even if I'm writing about Baywatch, something no one cares about.

I just realised, I didn't get to the actual second reason why I might not write about Baywatch anymore - It turns out that Shauni and Eddie leave the show in season 3. If you read my last post, I think I said that I was pretty sure they are in it for one more season, that being season 3. This was because back when I started watching season 1, I stupidly didn't care about spoilers. I saw a few things online and one of those things was that they leave the show in season 3. Now, my assumption was that it would be at the end of the season, but it turns out that they are only in the first two episodes.

River of No Return, Part 1 & 2 - End Times for Shauni and Eddie

These first two episodes happen to be a two part story which do partly involve Shauni and Eddie. By the way this probably isn't going to be a review and I've decided there's no point writing summaries and a synopsis for each episode since they can easily be found on other sites like IMDB. Also I need to look up the definitions of 'summaries and synopsis' because I think I have them confused, haha. Not that all of that matters because I might stop writing about Baywatch all together.

The intros to both parts are misleading because Eddie and Shauni show up and they're in their usual spots after Mitch. Baywatch does this thing were the most important characters are closest to the start of the intro. It being a new season, I assumed it meant they will be in the rest of it but oh boy was I wrong. Shauni and Eddie leave the show after this two part story and not only that, it also felt rather sudden. It's not the focus but there is a small story that leads up to it, not that it really matters. I was going to write about it but who cares? It was most likely written into the script a little later so as to explain why they are leaving their job at Baywatch.

I didn't even see it coming even though perhaps I should have. Eddie talks about going to Australia for a year for some sort of life guard exchange program, which... I guess could be a thing. Stuff happens and then Shauni decides to go with him. I don't recall her actually even saying this, it's just an off-handed comment that Mitch says to Hobie seconds before the episode ends. In fact come to think of it, Mitch says 'at least a year' which of course turns into forever, at least for Shauni. There's not much of a risk of spoilers after this so I looked up the characters online. It turns out Eddie does in fact return but it's so insanely brief sounding, that who cares. It's in 'Baywatch: Hawaiian Wedding' and I think that's his only appearance after River of No Return - Part 2. Hawaiian Wedding is a TV film that came out in 2003, two years after the show ended, so that's... wow, twelve years after Eddie left.

To add insult to injury, according to 'baywatch.fandom.com', Eddie says that he and Shauni have separated, not explaining why. He then has a new love interest in the film or something but I don't know how important to the film that is. My guess is that it's extremely insignificant. Anyway finding out that Shauni and Eddie split up is a kick to the teeth, just WOW! That is absolutely depressing as hell. They are supposed to be the unbreakable couple, the never ending love. I'm sure none of that mattered in the fiction of Baywatch in 2003, of course.

I sound really quite upset over this fictional couple from thirty one years ago, don't I, haha. I forgot to mention a big part of it though - They get married at the end of 'River of No Return, Part 2'. I really should have mentioned that earlier shouldn't I. I know it's fiction but finding out they split up after they got married is just sad, couldn't you have just left them as the perfect couple? I know the reason is probably just because Erika Eleniak wasn't in Hawaiian Wedding. In my head cannon they stayed together after they left their job at Baywatch... forever. Those actors were actually dating by then and I think they even got engaged, they split up not long after though, so real life kinda sorta was like their characters on the show.

So, the wedding, what can I say? One of the reasons why them leaving felt abrupt was because the wedding is a short montage at the end of the episode. Being a montage this of course means there's no dialogue. They get married on the beach and it all looks quite nice, though short. Bearing in mind that Eddie proposes to Shauni moments before that wedding montage. At this point I honestly still thought they were going to be in the rest of the season, ya know, being engaged and perhaps having some stories around that.

Everything above was written several days ago but I didn't post it because I thought I needed to finish it. I really should just make posts lives because it doesn't feel right going back to them, plus I forget things. I'm going to end this one here even though I may continue to write about the same stuff straight away in a new post.

Baywatch - Season 02, Episode 22 - Summer of '85

Another Baywatch review just a day later, it's quite unlike me. Yesterday when I was looking up Shauni's father name, I accidentally saw that my concerns were unfounded, she is in fact in season 3. This means I'm sure Eddie is as well. I'd better not spend too much time writing this one, I spent way too much time on here yesterday.

I'm adding this later, I did, in fact, spend hours on it again.

 Thoughts on the Title

With a title like 'Summer of '85' I thought it was going to be a flashback episode, how would that work though? Perhaps it would be focused around Ben, there's been an episode or two before with Ben flashbacks but they were only 'B' or 'C' plots. Ben is barely in the show though so I knew it was unlikely, he's never the focus. I'm glad though because who cares about Ben? I don't really know why he's even in the show and from accidentally seeing some pictures of season 3, he's still in it. To be fair, the reason why I don't care about him is most likely just because he doesn't get much screen time. He'd be more interesting if they'd built up the character. Evidently I don't think Ben shows up once in this episode.

Synopsis

Shauni and Eddie go to see a fortune teller who informs them that Eddie is going to meet his first true love, much to both of their dismay. Eddie is bothered by this but he doesn't believe in fortune telling anyway. Shauni is put out by the prediction and is jealous when Eddie seems interested in some other woman, however this turns into concern for Eddie's safely when she returns to the fortune teller to find out more. She then goes on to investigate and warn Eddie.

Thoughts on Summer of '85

Here we have the final episode of season 2 and it doesn't feel like a finale at all. I thought they were going to go for an action packed disaster type thing like they did at the end of season 1, oh boy, that feels like it was long ago now. Not only is this a rare one plot only shindig but it's also the second Eddie and Shauni one in a row, I think this is the first time it's happened, ever. Eddie gets more time in the lime light than in 'Game of Chance' though, so that part is reversed.

My guess is that Summer of '85 isn't a popular episode but I quite liked it, however my favourite characters are Eddie and Shauni so of course I'm going to like it. However they'd have a run for their money if Craig Pomeroy was still on the show. I realised that the episode was pretty good when I paused to check my phone, only to find that there was only ten minutes left. Unlike yesterday. I'm going to make some bullet points;

- They do something sort of clever - The fortune teller tells us that Eddie is going to meet his first true love, which leads us to believe that he doesn't love Shauni and that they'll split up. They also seem to believe this. The thing is, Eddie then does meet his first true love, that being Rosalind from seven years ago. You get it? Eddie's first true love was in the past, she was only the first.

- Eddie kisses Rosalind on the lips, it's just a peck but I feel like this doesn't fit with Eddie's character being devoted to Shauni. I don't think the writers intended it to be cheating but it did come off as that.

- At the end, Eddie says to Rosalind "The only thing I kept from that summer was my baseball". This is most likely a sly way of telling us that he lost his virginity to her. It's very subtle and not like Baywatch at all, my guess is that they sneaked it in. Oh yes did I forget to mention that? They sleep together and Rosalind is an older woman. This fact is handled very well and very maturely, better than TV shows would handle it today.

- Some of the acting in this episode is a bit dodgy, especially the guy playing as young Eddie. Rosalind also is a bit bad. You might be thinking that all Baywatch acting is bad but it's usually just fine.

- Speaking of "young Eddie", that actor didn't look much like Eddie, he actually looked a little taller.

- Mitch doesn't appear at all, this is unusual. His son doesn't either but that's not as uncommon.

- This may devalue this episode by pointing it out but... it's a bit like 'If Looks Could Kill' from earlier on in the season. However it involves different characters and the Femme fatale turns out to be innocent. Also in that old one we knew the Femme fatale was a murderer from the start.

Not Really About This Episode, More About Harvey and the End of His Run

- For some reason Harvey goes to the fortune teller with Shauni later on, the fortune teller randomly tells him that 2 is an unlucky number for him. I thought this was going to lead to Harvey's death, since this is the last time he's in the show. But no, he slips and breaks two ribs in the small action sequence at the end, he's perfectly fine, of course. This means I'm sure they'll drop some random line in season 3 explaining why Harvey left, it'll just be something like "He got a better job somewhere else". Harvey is barely in this episode so the breaking his ribs thing seemed totally pointless.

- Speaking of Harvey, the episode starts with him watching some sexy woman on the beach. His proclivity for women was a trait that only came up a few times in his run even though I felt that they originally wanted to lean into it more. I remember the only time I thought Harvey was going to be interesting was early on, where they painted him as being unable to get a girlfriend. He was flirty but no one was ever interested. He seemed kind of sad and lonely, but this was only a small part of a single episode and they never went back to it. R.I.P Harvey, I'll miss you... kinda. The season 1 characters we lost were a bigger hit to me.

And that's the end of my review! Wow.

Baywatch - Season 02, Episode 21 - Game of Chance

Firstly, Some Random Thoughts on Baywatch

- The Baywatch.fandom.com site is often disappointing with how little it has on it, also the episodes section is in alphabetical order, not number order, which is silly. All of this is further evidence of how very few care about this show, which is understandable. I'm just weird.

Game of Chance

What is this, an actual review?! Shocking! I'm going to do it, finally.

Game of Chance is the twenty first episode of season 2, so one away from the end of the season. I was a little more lax with avoiding spoilers back when I started watching Baywatch a month or two ago, so I did see that at least two of main characters, namely Eddie and Shauni, leave around this time. I read that they leave in season 3 but I can't remember if they meant at the end of season 3 or at the beginning. So there is a chance that after 'Game of Chance', I only get to see my favourite characters one more time. I'm pretty sure they are also in season 3, though. That fact still irks me though, I'm not sure if I'll still enjoy the show afterwards. Not just because of their departure but because it'll mean almost all season 1's cast will be gone by then. Anyway, let's talk about the actual episode.

The Review

We start with the 'B' plot which focuses on Mitch and Harvey teaming up, a rare thing in the show and possibly the only time it happened. It's almost definitely the last, since Harvey leaves the show in the next episode. I've mostly avoided looking up spoilers for this show but after Harvey barely showed up in his debut season, I looked it up. Since I guessed he wouldn't be in it for long and decided I wouldn't feel sad seeing him go. Now don't get me wrong, I don't dislike him, he's just middle of the road. Harvey is a one note character - He's the comic relief guy.

Mitch comes to get Harvey off a boat where he's gambling lots of money on a card game, why, you may ask. Harvey was half an hour late for his shift, you see. Harvey convinces Mitch to let him finish his last game since he's going to win big, he does but some dude in a hockey mask and a shotgun turns up and robs them all. Harvey later references Jason from the Friday the 13th movies when describing the criminal.

Mitch and Harvey investigate the crime for rest of their story, it's pretty good but it's a short and simple one. I think most episodes start off with the 'A' plot but this turns out to be the shorter 'B' plot for Game of Chance, despite it being what the title is referring to. It ends with a pretty good chase sequence which features a car boat hybrid, I feel like this story almost focuses around this vehicle because of how cool it is. Which I'm alright with. This plot ends the episode with a reference to Knight Rider which I was pleasantly surprised with. In case you don't know, Mitch is played by the actor who starred in Knight Rider, another very popular, very old show.

In classic Ben fashion, he is in one scene for a few seconds and that's it. Harvey's problems with money was a trait of his that was brought up early in the season and then rarely mentioned again.

The 'A' plot is all about Shauni and Eddie even though it's not as action orientated as the other one. Basically it's about Shauni's father, Robert McClain, not accepting Eddie, he wants his daughter to be with a man who's got a better job. By the end of it, Eddie, of course, rescues Shauni's sister from drowning. The ever terrifying, most dangerous villain in Baywatch is water, by the way. This is one of the swimming pool episodes, so keeping away the beach won't help.

It's surprising that Robert felt this way, since there was an earlier episode where he felt the same way about Shauni, he wanted her to get a job he felt was better than life guarding. In fact I think that was the first episode he was in. Shauni rescues someone in that older episode and Robert see's that being a life guard is important because... ya know, you save lives. Come to think of it, the premises of these episodes are very similar, they are executed differently though, in their defence. There is one difference though - Robert still doesn't like Eddie at the end, which was odd. Because of this, Shauni moves out to go live with Eddie. Perhaps episode orders were moved around a bit because there's at least one earlier episode where Shauni says she's already living with Eddie.

Almost all of this plot takes place at Shauni's parents fancy house, other parts aren't important to the story and I think they're all montages. I like them but it's been a while since I've seen montages in Baywatch that pretty much have nothing to do with the story. They could be taken out and you'd still understand what's going on, this plot would probably be the same length as the 'B' one if they were deleted. I'm just pointing that out, I'm not saying that they should have been.

The most random, completely unattached montage is Shauni riding a horse on the beach, sometimes shes even laying backwards on it. The other montage is Shauni and her sister shopping for clothes, Shauni even looks at the camera one time which I don't think I've seen since a fantasy scene way back in season 1. These parts of the episodes are great, Shauni probably gets the most screen time so I'd say this is essentially a Shauni episode. A rarity. I guess these montages could be filler but at the time, the creators of this show probably were always looking for excuses to shoot Erika Eleniak looking gorgeous. Every time I see montages though, I wonder what the original music for them was. I'm watching the remasters which changed some of the music.

Overall this was a good episode, not the best but pretty good, having it focus on Eddie and Shauni is a plus for me. There's been quite a few good episodes in a row here.

Catch up and Baywatch

Intro

I plan on not spending too much time on this post but I'll probably end up writing loads, as usual. I also haven't thought this through at all, so it might be even more random than usual. I also would like to start writing on here more often, so not taking too much time on this entry would be a good idea. What I mean is that I should pass myself.

I probably say something like this in almost every entry - Wow, it's been seven months since my past post already?! That's crazy. I'd like to read over the last post at some point, I did skim the titles, looks like I mention Dead by Daylight. I've still been playing it but for the last month or so, not so much. I kinda feel like it would be good if I almost completely stop playing it and, like I think I mentioned in my last post, start playing other games instead. Namely retro comes. I see I mentioned Road Rash 2 last time, I'd forgotten about that. Some months ago I did play some Gremlins 2 on the NES but not loads, relatively speaking. It was the beginning of my plans to re-visit the first games I remember playing, these plans have been a failure so far. So the record, since I've re-forgotten this in the past, the other game I wanted to re-visit is Cloud Kingdoms on the Atari ST. This time around it took quite some time to figure out what this game was called. I also found out that it was definitely the Atari ST version that I played and that my memory of having another games console / computer before the Atari ST might be incorrect. It might be a false memory. There's a vague memory of playing a game on cassette that looked a bit like Space Invaders (though more sophisticated) but perhaps it was on a different platform, such as Atari ST or PC. I still haven't figure out what game that was and I did a lot of digging online trying to find out what cassette based platform I had. There's not that many and I watched videos of many games on them, none of them rang a bell at all. The closest I got was the Amstrad CPC but I watched a lot of game footage and none of it looked familiar, I even played it a tiny bit via my DE10-Nano (MiSTer Porject).

Writing about why I might write about Baywatch

Anyway, I could say far more about all the other stuff I've been doing or thinking about but that's not what I came here for. I came here mostly to write about Baywatch, to perhaps start a journey of regularly writing about Baywatch... this is very unlikely to happen, haha. My mission to review episodes of Buffy and Angel (or was it just Angel?) some years ago didn't last month and that show was shorter and better than Baywatch... I feel bad for saying 'better' because I love Baywatch at the moment, which I will explain later here or in a post another day.

So... Baywatch... I'd like to do a far longer introductions to Baywatch and a summary of the show but I'll try to keep this one short and do the proper one another day. This is because I think it's best I use this time today to start reviewing episodes, namely the episode that's freshest in my mind. Unfortunately I'm starting at the tail end of season 2, perhaps I'll go back and re-watch the older ones so I can review them. This is unlikely though since this show has eleven seasons, I think, not including small spin-offs. Also, if I do write more reviews, I might delete them from here in the future and move them to a place where more people will see them. Umm... no one will see them here and to be honest who cares about Baywatch anyway? Even moving the reviews will make little difference, I don't think they'd get many views even on somewhere like IMDB. Side note - I tried to find Baywatch reviews, they are all terrible or really short or don't exist. So at the moment, I'm just writing about Baywatch for myself... for some reason.

Mini Introduction to Baywatch

I never watched Baywatch in the 90's, I never even accidentally watched a bit of an episode, as far as I can remember. My personality hasn't changed all that much but my mindset was certainly in a very different place back then, I'm not surprised I didn't give the show a second thought. I was probably thinking more about video games and I was perhaps a little too young - I was watching mostly cartoons, films and anime. I didn't even have the hots for Pamela Anderson, I don't remember even thinking about it. Baywatch was something I'd heard about in the background chitter chatter of my life, I heard someone called Pamela Anderson was in it and I quickly ignored it and probably went back to playing Resident Evil. Or went to some arcades. Or most likely continued to develop emotional scaring from bullies and school that crafted my current personality. Maybe some other day I will tell you why I started watching, or maybe not. It's not important or interesting.

Is Baywatch Bad?

Apart from the fact that Baywatch ran for ages and was apparently massively popular, the show is considered trash, even back then, I think. The older I get, the more I realise how subjective everything is. If someone who has never watched TV before was given Baywatch, they would probably love it, in a similar way, I've never watched a show like this before so it is fresh to me. I'm usually into horror, sci-fi, comedy, Japanese anime kinda stuff and surreal things. Baywatch is usually none of these. Also Baywatch is old, like, really old. I'm on season 2 which aired in 1992 and the show finished in 2001 which is twenty two years ago! I was probably working in CeX back then! That may not mean anything to you but that was a big part of my life, it also feels like a life time ago.

The closer I get to the grave, the more I appreciate things, well, least, that's what I've been trying to do. I have been succeeding with this even though it's probably not possible with everything. However it is possible with entertainment since it's just for fun, right? I watch Baywatch and I can see that once upon a time, a lot of people worked hard on this show. Also like I mentioned earlier, it's old, shows like this aren't made anymore... OK, I don't watch that much TV and there's A LOT out there so I don't know that for sure, but one things for sure - Baywatch is set in the 90's and it was made in the 90's, that's not possible anymore, that gives it a unique flavour. Sometimes movies and TV shows are set in the past but no matter how hard they try, they aren't going to be like the real thing.

Is Baywatch sometimes cheesy? Yes. Is it lazy? Yes but rarely (I'll talk about that more another time). It's also quite easy watching though, I consume it when I get up while I consume my breakfast. It's not easy going though, one of the first things I was surprised by was how dramatic it is, people are hurt, people sometimes die and there's sometimes criminals involved. All things I didn't expect, I thought the show was just going to be about beautiful people on the beach. To be fair I hadn't thought about it much before starting the show, of course it's going to have tension and drama. It's still easy watching though since it's a 90's day time TV show, even when serious topics are addressed, they are done in a pretty soft way... for the most part.

All of the above was written two days ago but I didn't post it because for some reason I thought I'd come back to it and write some more. Namely a review of a Baywatch episode and perhaps edit all of this a bit. How silly of me to think this, I should have just made it live (Blogger has a draft option, basically it just automatically saves everything for you before you post it). I'll write the review another day... probably. Although I have already watched one or two more episodes since then.

Destructoid

One last thing before I go - I noticed I mentioned my Destructoid blog in my last post, unsurprisingly I haven't written a second "article" on there since and there's a good chance I never will. It was completely ignored which I'm not surprised by but still, it made me lose interest fast. Also yeah I knoe it was just one post and it was badly written, just like everything else I do. Roughly 5 months later and there was a sudden short fad on Youtube with FGC Youtubers posting their reviews of Street Fighter 6 music, so I was way ahead of curve. Usually they leaned into the idea that the music is bad, so just like me. They have titles like 'Is SF6 Music Really Bad?". Of course they get hundreds of thousands of views and comments while I get zero. Most of them are actually even lower effort than my post, barely saying anything more than "This one is boring" and "Oh this one is kinda fun". It shows that yes, you probably have to put in the time and effort to get popular at first but when you're at the top, you can post any old crap. Minimal effort but you will get attention and then everyone thinks you're smart or entertaining just because you see they're getting attention from thousands, sometimes millions of others.

Wow I sound bitter! I'm not actually that bothered about this and t happened a while ago, typing it all out just makes it sound like I'm more jealous than I really am. Then again typing it out may have revealed my inner feelings for it to myself. Really at the end of the day, it's just that I'm tired of not being good at anything and / or not succeeding at anything. So tired. The idea right now is to give up on it all, I've never left the starting line anyway so I'd probably be happier if I just gave up.

 Destructoid Blogs

I keep worrying that I'm repeating myself on here but instead of pointing it out, I should leave it and not worry about it.

I'm back again and it's only been about two months, I thought it had been longer than that. I'm thinking of starting a blog on Destructoid, which is a video games site. Briefly having a look reveals that most blog entries get zero replies but at least there'd be a better chance of getting views on there than there is here. I will point out again though, that I don't write on here to get attention, quite the opposite - I get a strange sense of satisfaction writing on here, knowing no one reads it... Or least, I don't think anyone does. I did see just now that most of my posts get one view but I assume that is, for some reason, counting myself as a single viewer. It could be from viewing it when not logged in? But then it seems like I'm always logged in here. If there is one single person out there has actually been reading my posts, I'd like them to comment just so I know. The fact that I'm asking that will probably make them even less likely to do so, though.

All posts on Destructoid will be games related,  of course, but I'm thinking of writing them on here first, this could be considered the draft area. If I got into it, I could post there first and then copy them over to here, for no reason at all really, but it's not like it would matter to anyone anyway. Come to think of it though, knowing me, I'll probably write one entry and then lose interested and leave it at that. The most likely scenario is that I'll write about games today, on here, meaning to post it on Destructoid later, and then never do so. My allocated hour will run out quick so my musing on games will likely be short and / or unfinished anyway.

Dead by Daylight

I'm glad I read my old entry about DbD just now because I think I would have repeated some stuff if I hadn't. Most things from two months ago still apply, I have played a few more games but not to completion and not nearly as much as DbD, even if you only include the hours I've poured into DbD within the past two months. I have tried to cut down on it but I still play it almost every night. The addictive hooks still drag be back in because the satisfaction of doing well in a match is higher than retro games I try out for the first time.

So why don't I try newer games in an attempt to ween myself off DbD? Well, when I'm not playing retro games, the IDEA of playing them is really nice, I get that sweet nostalgic feeling. To clarify, in case anyone does read this, I'm not talking about old games I've played before. There's old games I've always wanted to play and there's ones I've discovered more recently, through spending way too much time going through massive lists. That's the kinds of games I mean, they're normally PlayStation games because that console continues to fascinate me and also be nostalgic. It replaced the Mega Drive for me in nostalgic terms several years ago, even though the Mega Drive was a big deal for me for ages.

Road Rash 2

There are some retro titles I have started to revisit though, namely Road Rash 2. I was curious when I saw someone had hacked it to improve the frame rate and then if you switch on the overclocking feature on the MiSTer Mega Drive core, it improves it further. I didn't think it was possible to smooth out this type of game - The type that is 2D pretending to be 3D, if you catch my drift. That type of 3D is more commonly known in Sega titles like Out Run, I think it's called Super Scaler technology. I thought it was just sprites representing the same objects, but of different sizes to give the illusion that some are closer to the screen than others. Which would mean there's no 'medium' size of those sprites between the ones that exist, so how could you increase the frame rate? Well obvious you can because it's been done by some talented people in Road Rash 2 and 3. Yes, they'd modded the third game too, I haven't tried that one though.

I also tried out the 'sort of' Road Rash 4 on the PlayStation which is simply called Road Rash. they were ahead of their time, that naming strategy reminds me of the modern era of reboots! I'd head it's pretty good but I found it to be pretty awful, I even struggled to get through the confusing menu system. Perhaps I didn't give it enough time though, I dunno. I should say before I go completely off topic, this FPS hack is impressive. It didn't seem hugely different until I loaded up the original game, it seemed pretty damn bad. I think it at least doubles the frame rate, it goes up to 30fps from about 15. Unlike most retro titles, I did think to myself many years ago that Road Rash 2 was pretty choppy, and even longer after that, that was the reason why I never revisited it. I can happily revisit real old games and be fine with their low end graphics but the Road Rash series was one of the very few which I thought would be difficult to stomach now.

Playing Road Rash 2 around the same time a friend of mine showed me Elite Dangerous and Stellaris started to make me ponder my personal experiences with video games throughout my life and in the modern era. Admittedly I didn't play this Road Rash 2 mod for that long so what I'm about to say may not be relevant but - Elite Dangerous and Stellaris looked like hard work I'd have to study for while Road Rash 2 was simple, to the point and therefor fun. There's always been complicated games and I've played some of them but most titles I've experienced are simple action romps. I am an ancient relic who grew up going to arcades a lot, after all.

I've Lost My Way (aka nostalgia gripping me like it always does for old men like me)

The new thing that has happened, which should have dawned on me far sooner, is that I've drifted away from my roots - those old, simple arcade games, or arcade style games (they can be old consoles games, too) Is that a bad thing? It wouldn't be if I was happy but I'm not, I've become disillusioned by modern video games. So many games are released every week now and the older I get, the harder it is for me to get excited about any of them. I spend more time watching videos on YouTube about games, or of other people playing them, than playing them myself. That is a different discussion for a different day though. On a side note, I do enjoy absorbing the history of the gaming world at large, even some modern stuff. It certainly helps with the quiz I write once a month.

The thing is, even if I do get way back into old titles, the entire reason could be boiled down to a combination of two simple things - 1. Nostalgia, 2. Low quantity of brain cells (I'm not smart, is what I'm saying). Are these bad reasons? They may seem so at first, especially to any youngsters, but at my age you start to realise that it doesn't matter why you like something, just like it. Or maybe it's just me, since I've had depression issues, so I have spent a lot of time over-thinking things. At times I'd think man, I gotta keep up with contemporary games, don't get stuck in the past. But... why? Does it really matter? They're just entertainment after all. I think the only good argument, in my case at least, is that playing cutting edge games means I have more to talk about with my friends. Some of my mates are younger than me, you see. They aren't interested in 16-bit and 32-bit era games, I get the impression that stuff is garbage to them, it's ancient history. It's back when controls were stiff and janky and graphics were an eye-sore.

Going off on a tangent here - You know what? PlayStation games kind of ARE an eye-sore but I love them. Again it is probably just nostalgia, but my excuse is that looking amateur-ish is more appealing to me than our current state of realism found in the AAA industry. The environments largely look all the same to me which is the most cliche old man thing I could say but they really just do. They do look pretty, don't get me wrong, but there's something about all these identical, lush forests and fields which feel like they have no soul to me. OK they don't look exactly the same, they do have small differences between each other. What I like about an amateur look is you can see that human beings worked and struggled though these creations.

Ironically won't players be saying the game thing about PlayStation 5 titles when the PlayStation 10 comes out? Oh boy, look at how quaint and old fashioned PlayStation 5 games look, is what they'll be saying. Which means all this love for the past is in my head, which is worrying but again, perhaps I shouldn't care, perhaps I should embrace it. It is perhaps inevitable and how many times can I say the word perhaps. Old people do it with movies and music too, they say it's whatever we experienced in our teenage years, they are the informative ones. A more upsetting way of saying that, is that they are the best years of our lives, which certainly feels true for me. I ask the question again - But why? I honestly think it's because our brains are dying, we can't retain as much anymore. You can't teach an old dog new tricks, they say. That, combined with seeing roughly the same things rehashed over and over again in the entertainment would. I mean how many times can I get excited about a dude running around in first person shooting other dudes or monsters? They will look prettier, they will have small mechanical changes but they eventually aren't different enough to hold my interest.

Wow this got dark didn't it. Unfortunately it's where my brain is at, and it's been like this for a while. I'll try not to be like this all the time but I'm not promising anything. Also I should mention I'm pretty sure I'm going through a mid-life crisis, that is definitely another way of framing this. I have more to write about but I've been on here far longer than intended, as usual. I shall post this on my 'drop in the sea' blog and think about weather or not I'm going to post it on Destructoid. Now that I've written something, I realise I'd definitely have to edit it before posting there, because there's a lot of fluff, jabbering and angst which would be embarrassing to post on a more public platform.

Extra extra! I'm adding this bit at the end because after finishing this blog entry, I read all of my last entry and the bit that stood out was - 

"I this post may be very uninteresting to myself in the future because I rarely spoke about anything specific, like one big thing I was going to talk about was my bad dream concerning an old relationship. That's the main reason I feel down today. I'll talk about it another time if I remember to do so. I really should go do some exercising in the park now."

Funny thing is, I can't for the life of me remember this dream. I really should be happy about this and I kind of am but I do find it a little interesting that I can't remember it at all. I do sort of remember being upset that day because of it, but it certainly wasn't as bad as THAT dream I had at my mums a lot longer ago. I shouldn't be pasting this section here because why remind myself twice in the future out this? Well, I still can't remember it do I guess it doesn't matter. But now I'm even reminding you of the dream at my mums, which is kinda bad but that's one I've never forgotten anyway. Perhaps because I did actually try to do something about it after... which didn't exactly lead to something great. I... still can't remember this other dream from a couple months ago though, which is kind of a good thing but at the same time it shows how crap my memory really is. We really do forgot a lot, don't we. How much do we forgot?! Like, the majority, perhaps. Anyway, bye.

Guess What I'm Back Again with Nonsense

 

Preamble

I'm so used to dark mode in almost everything now, that writing this in Bloggers usual editor is a pain, so I'm using Notepad++ to write the draft. Using my new monitor made it worse, I'm not used to the clinical look of whites that appear on it and the text was too small at first. Oddly, changing the resolution from 2k to 4k seems to made the text a little bigger... I think? Actually I look to see if there's any options in Notepad++ to make the text even bigger. I'm getting old, this text is too small! Also I can fix the white tones later on the monitor settings, of course (if I can be bothered). Wow, I just zoomed in a lot in Notepad++, that's a lot better.

Getting to the Point

Right, well, here I am again and I've given myself half an hour as usual and as usual, I'll probably break that rule by far. It doesn't help that I spent the first five minutes messing around with other things. Also I started off, as usual, by reading my previous post but I stopped quickly when I realised that A- I didn't have the time and B- It was starting off a lot like I was planning this post to be. That's slightly disturbing. And, well, here is that rather repetitious "Intro", or whatever it is (imaging a slightly sarcastic tone when reading some of the next paragraph)

The Intro

Well, wow, look at this then, it's been ages YET AGAIN since I last wrote on here. I said that in my last post but there was "only" an eight month gap I think, while there's well over a year gap this time. I'm honestly surprised it has been that long, which is another thing I said in the last post. But come to think of it, I'm actually shocked this time, has it really been that long? Quite scary really. My half hour has ran out by the way and look how little I've wrote. Not only that but I've basically written nothing so far, why am I writing such unimportant nonsense? I will stay on for a bit longer but it is getting pretty late.

I thought I had a lot of good stuff to say but perhaps not... I'm not sure. Anyway moving on... I've probably also said this before - Coming back to this blog, it reminds me of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I wonder if from an outsiders point of view, it makes me look like a mega fan. While in truth, I haven't consumed any Buffy media since several posts ago. Which if judging by how long even the past post was, has been longer ago than I thought. On a side note, I might read some more of my last post after I've finished writing this. Because, well, it seems I am obsessed with myself and again I will point out that I don't think anyone reads this blog and I'm oddly OK with that. Though perhaps Blogger staff read everything everyone posts? I don't think I've ever considered that and thinking about it slightly takes away the magical idea that I'm posting into the void. I shouldn't worry though, staff probably only read entries if their system flags any illegal activities in peoples posts, I assume.

But What About My Life?

I should write about my actual life, shouldn't I. Even if I'm the only one who reads this back later (in months or years), I should wrote more than just nonsense relating to, well, writing this blog and technical issues. That kinda stuff will most likely not interest my future self. SO yeah, how is my life? Well, I think I usually only write on here when I'm feeling extra weird and depressed, which I am right. I am often depressed but that is not enough to make me write on here, I have to feel odd too. I guess it what makes me write on here is a sort of in between feeling of sadness. In the (luckily) rare cases when I'm incredibly depressed, I will not feel like writing on here, so I have to be in this between state.

Come to think of it I am pretty low right now. This is perhaps as low as I go because my brain no longer (hopefully) lets me hit rock bottom anymore because it's not worth it. That might sound odd but... umm I can't explain it. I think my brain has put up some blocks over the past few years which signs on them saying "Don't go beyond this point, there's no point because anything is better than being insanely miserable". Of course, saying all this might invite fate, I may now get worse than this later... In fact while writing I realise that of course things can get worse and they probably will... they will for sure... I don't want to think about it so let's move on.

How do I feel right now? I feel so old. I really hated hitting 40 last year, it was harrowing. 40 is an age which is significant to humans for some reason, I think it is considered the official 'You are definitely, not remotely young anymore. You are an old man or woman'. A few months later I told myself that I'm over that hurdle now, that 41 is going to be easy because of it. But I can't believe I'm already only a few months away from turning 41 and it feels pretty damn bad all over again. Now I'm thinking about how fast time seems to move, I've been thinking a lot about that lately. I actually found a bit of a remedy to it but I haven't practised it much and that is because it's hard. This segways into a new topic.

I'm Addicted to Media, I'm just a CONSUMER

Sounds kinds pathetic typing it out now... I quit TV and YouTube for four, well... three days. I wanted to quit it for seven days but I crumbled. The one new thing I learnt it that it made time go slower, so I should do it if I don't want my life to seem like it is flying by. I am so terrified of dying now. The only other thing it brought to mind was what I already new - I'm addicted to watching screens. It's a problem, it really is. It's a hard thing to stop now because my brain has got used to it over decades. Ironically I'm mostly talking about TV and YouTube, not video games. Perhaps if I suddenly started to play loads of games again I'd take this back but, currently, and for a long time now, to me I think playing games would be more healthy than watching TV all the time. It takes more brain power and also feels like I'm achieving something. On the other hand it will wouldn't be achieving much, would it?

Dead by Daylight

Oh gosh, speaking of which that's made me realise I hadn't started playing Dead by Daylight when I last wrote on here. I started playing it about a year ago and it's pretty much the only game I've played that whole time. Even though I was just talking about how I don'y play many games anymore, that is sort of not true - I've played about a thousand hours of DbD it's not the same thing I was talking about in the above paragraph. I haven't been playing it instead of TV, I've been playing it AS WELL as TV. Plus it doesn't feel like I'm achieving anything because it is just the one game and it also has a sort of gambling mentality to it. That's not quite the right of explaining it - Some of the game has addictive elements which I think are taken from the psychology behind gambling addiction. This is nothing new in video games, most people don't even think about it anymore, it's common but it's new to me. I'm so behind in some aspects of the video games world which is another thing I should fix. DbD was the first game I'd played like this even though it recently turned six (or seven?) years old and I only started it a year ago.

Another new thing to me is having Steam tell me how long I've played a game. Besides Ultra Street Fighter IV, I hadn't played many Steam games before even though I own a load on there. Which I know is a cliche thing to say at this point, I've bought a load of cheap Steam games over the years just like a lot of people. There's also a big gap before DbD when I played nothing on Steam at all, I think. Thing is... I can't deny that DbD is fun but it gives me some bad feelings after playing it sometimes, unlike the satisfied feelings I got every night after playing some Parasite Eve. Which reminds me...

Are Old Video Games Just Better For Me?

I added the 'for me' bit because of course video games aren't WORSE now, it's all subjective. I keep pushing myself to play old games after Parasite Eve but I keep failing, I'm going to keep trying though because I honestly think it'll be better for me. There are several reason but I'll say one - They're what I'm used to. Or, they are what my old self is used to. I haven't actually played many old games over, what, ten, fifteen years? But I still think I'll feel right at home if I get back into them. By the way I'm mostly refering to old games that I haven't played before, this is all culminating in the fact that even though I'm a big games fan and I know a lot about them, I have an embarrassing list of classics that I haven't played. Not a literal list, it's in my head. One reason I hesitate is because the list is so long.

Parasite Eve

On a related note and going back to what I mentioned earlier, when did I actually play it? I didn't think it was that long ago but evidently I have a terrible time keeping track of time. judging from how long ago my last post was here. I played it in the Covid Pandemic but I thought it was quite close to the end. Maybe not? I mean the pandemic messed with peoples perception of time but I've still been struggling with it even after it ended.

Anyway there was a lot more I wanted to say and this has been the WORST post for rambling ever but it's so late, I must go. I this post may be very uninteresting to myself in the future because I rarely spoke about anything specific, like one big thing I was going to talk about was my bad dream concerning an old relationship. That's the main reason I feel down today. I'll talk about it another time if I remember to do so. I really should go do some exercising in the park now.

I'm Back

 

Oh hello blog, it's been a while. Looking at my last post, it's been about eight months, wow, I can't believe it's been that long already, it doesn't feel like it's been that long. It looks like no one has read any of my old posts, actually I don't think there's any way of knowing that but there definitely are no comments. Again I will point out that these facts are fine, that I do in fact have rather confusing feelings towards this blog, confusing in my own head anyway - It is public and even uses my real name, but for several reasons it's very unlikely anyone reads it, especially people I don't know. And people who do, well, I don't have many friends anymore and the ones I do, I doubt they care enough to randomly put my name into Google. I mean, I assume this blog would come up if you did search my name on Google.

So this blog is kind of just for me, except it's online so I can't say ANYTHING, so I do hold myself back a bit. But I like this weird in-between feeling of having a blog which is public but also kinda not. I mean, as in no one reads it. I'm over explaining this.

By the way I've given myself half an hour to write this, which I think is the time I used to give myself, even though I would often go way over. I did go back and read some of the last two posts, to see where I left off, to see perhaps why I stopped posting and also just out of curiosity. Unsurprisingly it really is a load of trash, which is most likely what the posts before that were as well, I do remember that I used to blabber on a lot and I wish to continue that tradition. That is one of the reasons I write in here; to get things out of my head, I guess. Or something like that. I didn't quite expect to find so many typos but it's not that surprising, they will also most likely continue. I have however become more worried about my mind over the past eight months; My typing, and to a lesser extent my actual speaking, seems to be become faulty. Of course typos are a normal thing but I never used to miss out really important words in sentences, I find it a little odd that the words I usually miss out are in fact the important ones. Without them the sentence is hard to read or the meaning of the sentence is often reversed. Like the best example is I'll miss out the word NOT. But concerning speaking out loud, it's mostly that I forget words and simple ways to explain things. I'm worrying that I'm getting early on-set Alzheimer's disease. Anyway let's change the subject.

I just had a call from my therapist, as in literally after I finished that last paragraph. I booked an appointment with her, hadn't spoken to her in a while. She had to take some time off.

One thing I didn't forget over eight months is the fact that I wrote a lot about the Buffy TV show on here. I mean, not since the start of the blog many years ago, but it's mostly what I wrote about in the chunk of time I was writing on here while in the pandemic of 2020. More specifically I think that chunk of time in which I was watching a lot of Buffy was in the first lockdown. Since then we've had three in the England, we are currently in the third and on the news they say it will be the final one. They aren't however saying when it'll end exactly but that it will most likely be at the start of spring. I am writing this in February 2021, in case you haven't noticed yet.

I don't plan on writing here every day, maybe once a month? Not that I'm going to try to stick to any schedule, I've learnt through experience that I can't stick to pretty much anything for a long period of time. Probably the only thing I have sticked to is the games quiz I make. That's odd, it's tell me that the word 'sticked' isn't a real word, hah, weird. I just noticed a typo on here while writing this and the funny thing about my typos is that they often look like auto-correct errors but they aren't, they are MY errors.

Anyway, as usual I keep going on tangents, back to Buffy. When I last wrote on here eight months ago, I hadn't finished Buffy and Angel. It also looks like I had already stopped tying to write (kind of) reviews for each episode. I had been writing notes on paper while watching them and then used to notes to write on here. But I had already got behind on them in my last few posts, evidently. It was too much effort, this blog is supposed to be a kind of escape for me. I think the translating and expanding on the Buffy and Angel notes thing was too much work. Which is a lot like most things I try in life, they just end up becoming a chore. By the way I'm trying to cut back on using the word 'just', I noticed I use it a lot.

Perhaps a big reason I started writing on here again last year was because I got really into Buffy and Angel so I wanted an outlet. I used this blog because it's not like anyone I know was watching the shows or would be even interested in it if they weren't. In fact there's a good chance that most people I know think the shows are rubbish. Or at least, and understandably, they wouldn't be interesting because it's such an old show.

Oh, half hour is up but I wanna keep going for a bit - After my last post, I finished watching Buffy and Angel, my nostalgia trip was over and I just remembered that I really didn't want it to end. In fact I just realised that I don't think I wrote about the comics on here, because I think I didn't look into them until after I finished the shows. The comics are, especially at the time, a continuation of the shows, which would have been perfect for me. I think it was a good idea. I way WOULD because I did some research and they seem really really.... crap. It was kind of sad actually. I did find some positive stuff but when I read the negative reviews, I really agreed with them. I looked up a lot of pictures and read a pirated version of the first issue of the Buffy one. By the way they are called seasons, so the Buffy one is season 8. They really don't look or feel like they're the same thing. There's literally at least one interview with one of the creators (maybe Joss?) saying that it's great to make Buffy and Angel into a comic because you don't have to worry about special effects budgets. But when I looked and read some of it, that was in fact one of the big problems. Having "no budget" meant the comics didn't feel like anything like the show. Suddenly there's dragons and fantasy stuff and Dawn is A GIANT which seems to go on for a while. She is a giant straight away and they're all living in a castle in Scotland or something, and now there's whole teams of slayers. Which is what happened at the end of the TV show but I don't think it was a good premise to base a large part of the comic on.

All these new slayers weren't that interesting in the final season of the TV show, they're even less interesting in the comic. They are also unrecognisable, though this is also an issue with even the main Buffy characters, sometimes they look really different, sometimes because they are simply not drawn well. However the front covers look great. I admit that the idea that the characters are unrecognisable is not my idea, I saw it in a review but then I did notice it for myself.

The other reason I gave up on the comics early was because the story and even story structure was not interesting and not the same as the TV show. So I after I read the first issue, I looked up summaries and info on what happens next in the Buffy and Angel comics and they sounded so crap and ridiculous. Now I do want to defend myself, almost against myself, in fact - Others, and even myself, would usually say that you should stick with things past just episode or issue 1 because things can often be a bit rough at first. But the Buffy and Angel comics are an exception because you can clearly see from looking at pictures from them and also reading up on the stories. I looked up A LOT on them and they were clearly very different from the show. One annoying part of the story is that in the Angel comics, it turns out that Gun becomes a vampire and therefor a villain. That's just ruining the character and was not alluded to at all at the end of the TV show.

The sad thing about my ranting is that I'm complaining about comics that are themselves, in fact, old. The shows are old enough and I'd already watched them before I re-watched them last year, but the comics came out not long after both shows ended (maybe a year max?) and I didn't read them back then at all. So it's pretty pathetic and pointless me talking about them on here to be honest. Them being old also means that a HELL of a lot of stuff had happened in them by the time I was researching their stories. Like, really crazy stuff, most of which I can't remember because I must have been looking info up about them about 6 months ago. Another reason the comics don't feel "real" is that the actors from the show don't seem to acknowledge them. I mean, why would they? They moved on a long time ago. In fact it was kind of sad for me to look them up after I finished the show last year, but hay that's life. Most of it wasn't too bad but one thing was quite tragic really - The actor who played Xander sounds like a bit of a mess now, or least he was after Buffy ended. Being the nicest character on the show, it shattered my illusions of the show when I head that he's had drinking problems. I think also drug issues and maybe even domestic abuse charges? I can't remember exactly, probably because I didn't want to think about it for long.

Another issue with the comics is that it turns out they're shockingly expensive. I could have just read them online but I hate reading digital comics, I've tried a lot but it not so different and not as good. BTW a different Buffy comic did start in more recent years, if I remember correctly. It looks better, it looks more like it's sticking to the feeling of the show, so maybe I'll try that one day.

Enough about the comics, let's move on. Anyway, after writing all that, I have the sneaking suspicion that I may have actually written about the comics last year. If I did, it means I've been repeating myself this whole time (in this blog entry).

Actually I should end this post now, even though I have so much more to say but I've been writing for about an hour. Can't believe I mostly wrote about Buffy stuff and old stuff at that. When I say old, I mean stuff I was pondering about seven months ago. I have so many more things to write about concerning actual current times. However I will end this post by saying more about Buffy -

Even now, months later, even before I decided to come back to this blog, I will think about the Buffy and Angel shows. They've occasionally been popping into my skull ever since I finished re-watching them. It was nostalgic watching them (especially on a CRT) while in lock-down in my flat. I'm now looking back at that period I was watching them last year and I'm even nostalgic for that! After I finished them I did entertain the thought of starting them all over again. I didn't because it seemed like a bad idea for several reasons, one reason was that I don't want to get sick of the shows. I wish I could watch them over and over 'for the first time' but that doesn't make sense, of course. My plan is to, well, basically do what I did in the first place - Re-visit them after some time has past, so that I have had time to sort of forget them. That's the best one can do, really. I mean to be honest I'm getting older and older and my memory might get really bad, and I worry about that. But perhaps the only silver lining of that is that I can watch Buffy and Angel again with new, or least newish, eyes. That way I can love it and experience it all over again. I rarely watch anything after I've seen it once but these shows are exceptions because I think they're amazing. One of the few others is Seinfeld, I'm currently on season five. However I'm not watching it as feverishly as I did Buffy and Angel.

Yet Another Buffy Book (not a novel this time)

Today

Well I just wasted five of my thirty minutes on here trying to remove the link to this blog from my Facebook account, it's in the 'Websites and Social Links' section. I didn't let me get rid of it, it just comes up with an error! It probably doesn't matter either way though, because I only just noticed that the entire section seems to be hidden from the public, it's seems to be only visible by me. This is fine now but somewhat annoying because it means that list of links hasn't been visible to friends for, well, maybe ever, maybe decades or whenever I added them. I wished to remove the link here for a silly reason - Logging into here today, I noticed it's saying all my latest entries have been viewed once. Now I shouldn't want this blog to be unacceptable by all but... actually maybe I do. Anyway it's all stupid because it's likely saying there's been one view due to Blogger simply wigging out, or I just viewed it once without being logged in.

In other news, I met up with my mum. I walked into town to meet her and remembered that it was the 15th, the day some of the restrictions on the lock-down were lifted. Most places were still closed at first glance, my area of town didn't seem that different. However the center of Nottingham was just as busy as it used to be before the virus, even though not that many places were open and there were annoying looking queues due to the social distancing rules. The amount of people filled me with anxiety when I got the feeling that everyone else had loads of friends, things to do and people to hang out with.

As soon as I got back home after my mum left, I said to myself that I'd spend the rest of the day (well until about 10pm when I eat and watch TV) doing productive but fun stuff. I mean, as in the productive stuff that isn't as stressful. So why it then I ended up spending ten minutes watching Youtube and then forty-three minutes reading this flipping book;

Slayer - An Expanded and Updated Unofficial and Unauthorized Guide to Buffy the Vampire Slayer



How long have I been in Nottingham already, seven, eight years? It would be in the early days, perhaps year one or two that I was going to a library a lot, mostly because I was doing courses that the job center were putting me on, it's a nice library and I should start going back there when they re-open, come to think of it. In year one or two I was in there and they were selling books that they weren't going to lend out anymore, why do they do this? I guess books that hardly ever get loaned out.

I bought a few things, a Teen Titans graphic novel, if I recall, maybe something else and this book. I never read it and I hadn't seen Buffy for a long time but it must have sparked something in my mind to make me want it, not just the price of 20p. Even then, I'm surprised I bought it because I reckon I had very different things on my mind at the time, though maybe I'm wrong. Things have happened in my life in recent times which have lead me to believe that my memory isn't as good as I thought it was.

I found it in a dusty cobwebbed corner (I think on the book shelve) in my mum's garage when I was tidying it a couple of months ago. Just so you know, a load of my stuff is in there from last time I moved, when my mum kindly let me leave less important stuff in there so as to not clutter my new flat. Well that was the plan but I have gradually taken more stuff to the flat over the years I've been here (two or three years, maybe?). What happens is I occasionally visit and get all nostalgic for things so I take them back with me, there's still a fair amount in there though. Last time I was there I focused on a big organising of my books, comics and magazines, baring in mind I was never much of a book person when I was young and became even less so over time, but have been getting a bit back into them lately.

I forgot to take this Slayer book back with me but I asked my mum to bring it with her and umm... she did. Where I am going with this? I've just ran out of time and realised I probably shouldn't explain every single detail... I'm enjoying that though for some reason. Anyway the book, I don't think I actually have much to say about it (famous last words).

Even though it took me forty-three minutes I've only read a little - The review of 5x01, 5x02 and funnily enough the back of the book has short reviews of some of those novels I've been waffling on about on here, so I read the one on Halloween Rain.

BTW I'd spent so little time looking or thinking about this book before, that I didn't know it was some kind of guide, it could have been one of the novels for all I know. I probably bought it all those years ago and chucked it on the shelf without a second glance. Come to think of it I was already in Nottingham by then so I most likely but it straight in the garage and then moved out not long after.

Before opening this book today, a thought crossed my mind - This is probably going to make me self-conscious about my blog writings on Buffy, it's going to be a lot like my write ups but well written and far more thought provoking and notice stuff I didn't. And explain the complexities which I struggle with, ignore because they're hard or didn't even notice. Also the fact that the book is from 2001 made these feelings worse for some reason, actually that reason would be that it would make my blog even more pointless. That fact that it was 20p also should have emphasised those feelings. I'm saying all this as if I put a lot of effort into this blog, haha.

 Well I was surprised to find that this book doesn't seem very good so far, I'm not sure if that makes me happy or not. On the one hand it means I was worried about nothing and it's make me a little happier about my admittedly terrible and lazy writings on this show (I really just do it to get the thoughts out of my head). But on the other hand it means it's not going to be a fun read, also perhaps I could have learnt something from it for this blog, or at least been pointed to things I didn't know about Buffy. I dunno, maybe there's better parts of it that I'll find later. Barring in mind I don't think it's a book that needs to be read in order, it's sectioned into episodes so I skipped to the season I'm watching.

The reason it seems lame is that it doesn't actually exactly review the episodes, it more just lists factoids. I said a minute ago "or at least been pointed to things I didn't know about Buffy", actually this book does have that but it's things I don't really care about. I don't care about what real world song could be heard on a radio in the background in a scene for 3 seconds! I guess there's a few little interesting things, it clearly would have taken a lot of research to write this book. He's looked up things like interviews so it's kinda interesting to hear how Alyson Hannigan felt about having to suddenly play Willow as gay.

But I need to point out that it's just a couple of mines from the interview and it's the kind of thing I read and say "hah, ok" to myself and then move on, I really care very little about it. I'm more interested in the storytelling and emotions in the actual episodes, not that "Sarah Michelle Gellar's boyfriend almost got the role of Draculla" in 5x01.

So what does the book say about the actual episodes? I thought it was going to be the writers thoughts on the episodes story, he seems to very briefly sometimes mention this but for the most part it seems to be lists of stuff from the actual episode. I'm explaining this terribly - He will list quotes he thinks are good and explain them if they are referencing something like pop culture like a film, and mention that something someone said is a reference to an earlier episode. He'll then list the page number for said episode. So basically most of the "review" for say 5x01, is stuff that feels like it's been copy pasted from the shows scripts, or referring to stuff that happened to in the episode but actually taking about it. It's simply saying this happened and this happened.

Come to think of it this is probably my misunderstanding, does it say 'review' anywhere? No, this is a GUIDE, something that is good if I want to look up FACTS like what film did Xander joke about in episode so and so. An example of my disappointment is this - I know I haven't written about it on here yet because I'm super behind my notes but I feel that there's a lot of stuff that can be said about Dawns introduction into the story. How it's done and how shes a part of the story from then on is genius in my opinion. But what does this book say about this? Well in 5x01 I don't think he mentions it at all besides saying something like 'Buffy's sister is introduced, wait Buffy has a sister?'. OK this is fair enough, shes only seen for a few seconds as a cliff hanger at the end of the episode. However 5x02 fully introduces Dawn and it's a head fuck and a WTF is going on moment. But all this book says, besides listing quotes, is something like "It was worrying that Dawns actress couldn't pull it off, but shes good in the role". And THAT'S IT. Oh I think he also lists things that shes been in before, I think he mentions that her and Sarah Michelle Gellar were in a different show before when they were younger.

I GUESS that kinda stuff is super interesting to some fans, but I thought the book was going to be more thought provoking. I mean, it looks like each ep has a bit called 'It's a Designer Label' where he almost literally lists what the characters were wearing. "Xander is wearing an orange top with white trousers", he might say "which is flashy" or something along those lines if you're lucky. It seems like the book is a result of a hell of a lot of research while the opinion on of the writer is not important so almost non-existent. At the end of one ep he does say that it was a great one and says one more line but that's it, quite surface level stuff.

Again though, perhaps I'm misunderstanding what this book is for, plus maybe there's parts of it I don't know of yet. Also his command of the English language is still far better than mine, to be fair. Looking online, it seems the book has been revised several times, adding the later seasons. There seems to be one that might be as recent as 2019?! My one is 2001 I think.

I gotta go, I've been on here for... almost an hour and a half?! What?!