Post by stargazer1682 on Nov 3, 2018 21:12:43 GMT
I don't think I've ever liked "Normal Again," which is something I find disappointing, because I tend to like some of the other, trippy episodes of its ilk, that play with reality and look at the big "what ifs?" And in spite of my premise in the fan theories thread, that the "lie" is usually the more interesting take, this, in my opinion, is one of the examples where it is not.
I think my main problem with it, is that there's no part of me that wants the alternative - that Buffy is just schizophrenic, and everything about the series and everything tied to it is unreal - to be true. At least not within the scope of the narrative. I mean, I know that it's not really real. In fact , the knowledge that none of these things are real or could never remotely happen, and the reasonably certain that Joss Whedon wasn't drawing his inspiration from the time he tried to team up with two other losers he went to high school with to take over his hometown and subsequently spent several months of his early 20s tied up in the Slayer's house in contrast to if there were any doubt, all allows me to sleep relatively well in contrast to if there was even the slightest bit of doubt. But there's a huge difference from know and even wanting a work fiction to be exactly that; and building that conceit into the story itself so the audience and the characters are well aware of this fact. It undermines the structure of the story; we may know it's not real, but when a story is told effectively enough, it can feel real at the time; which is important, if you're to let the characters into your head and allow what's happening to them to affect you.
And it's just so convoluted to suggest she's unreal in that way; because Buffy the schizophrenic as the "real" Buffy would still just be another fictional character from the perspective of the show and the writers who created her.
Growing pains took a novel approach, where in an episode the youngest son, Ben, found himself in the "real" world, where he was embodying the actor who portrayed him (I've read that Supernatural has taken a similar tact in one episde). He then meets caricature versions of the other actors, who he of course sees as his family, but aren't - with exception of his brother Mike, who it turns out found himself in the real world too, several years earlier, but had never found a way back; and just sort of settled into his life as "Kirk Cameron". In this scenario it seems to be the implication that both the narrative and the making of the narrative were somehow simultaneously real and bound together; which was a fun idea.
Then there's two Star Trek episode of note, "Far Beyond the Stars" and "Frame of Mind". I think most people would probably most closely compare "Normal Again" to "Far Beyond the Stars," more so because of that lingering idea that somehow, because both episode effectively pose the question of which is the dream and which is the dreamer. While I like "Far Beyond the Stars" much more than "Normal Again," I have always disliked the way it tries to do what Buffy does, in trying to suggest that the unreality was in any way the reality. I know Rob Moore wanted that to be the twist ending to Deep Space Nine, and words cannot convey how much I'm glad they did not go that route; as it would have been as bad as entire show being written by Rosanne or taking place in a snow globe, or the fucking mother being dead the whole God damn series....
TNG's "Frame of Mind," though is, in my opinion, an excellent example of no so much trying to trick the characters or the audience into wondering if the show is real within the context of the story, but instead is just pushes the audience and one of the main characters to try and figure out which end is up, only to find that essentially nothing has been real from the start of the episode. It's like a particularly potent nightmare that seems perfectly real when something horrible happens and you wake-up, only to realize you didn't wake-up and you were dreaming about dream; until finally do wake-up and it takes you a solid minute for your lucidity to return and know unquestionably, to the best of your knowledge, that everything around you is really real this time, and that none of the stuff you thought was real matters, no matter how much it might have shaken you to your core. Like Franky says, sometimes a mind fuck can be nice.
Then there's the episode from Batman the animated series, "Perchance to Dream," where, much like most of these other examples, Bruce Wayne is put into a state of mind where he doesn't know that he's Batman; and in fact his parents are still alive. Little bits from his real life filter in, subconsciously, and Bruce tries to make sense of it; like expecting an entrance to the Batman behind the clock, where there is none; and trying to conceptualize who this Batman is, who is still running around without him under the mask, yet it's not anyone else, it's still Batman as he would appear with Bruce Wayne under the cowl. But in this case Bruce figures it all out when he realizes it's impossible to read anything, which is would only be true for him if he were asleep. So you get all the "what-if?" elements, without needing to question all of reality; and even have the character outsmart his altered perception and demonstrates the failure of what he's presented.
(Riker does something similar in "Frame of Mind," but it goes even further where his delusions try to deny his denial of reality - "If this isn't real, how do I have a phaser?" "That's not a phaser, it's a knife.")
I like Joyce's speech about Buffy being strong enough to face her demons and challenges; which is clearly directed at "real," supernatural Buffy, to help her face her depression and everything else going on. But I find it's undermined by the fact that this is effectively meant to be an unreal Joyce, and that Buffy's essentially hallucinating her mother giving her this encouragement; compounded by Joyce's subsequent reaction to Buffy retreating back into herself - a reaction that would be understandable and natural if the delusional state were real, but not the reaction the audience wants in the context of the Sunnydale world being real; and Buffy returning to her real life with words of wisdom from her mother intended to help her there. I think I would have liked it more if there was ambiguity whether the Joyce telling Buffy that she was strong enough, was delusion Joyce or some manifestation of "real" Sunnydale/dead Joyce, offering her daughter words of wisdom in her time of need.
Last, I think I might have liked the delusional aspect more if they took a page from DS9, by finding ways to incorporate Buffy's delusions into the real world - like spending more time in the delusion and meeting alternate, delusion-verse iterations of characters; like if Giles were Buffy's doctor, Oz was an orderly.... although I just realized that Charmed did an episode like that too, and had to look it up and saw that the Charmed episode aired several months before "Normal Again". Still, seems like a waste of opportunity....
I think my main problem with it, is that there's no part of me that wants the alternative - that Buffy is just schizophrenic, and everything about the series and everything tied to it is unreal - to be true. At least not within the scope of the narrative. I mean, I know that it's not really real. In fact , the knowledge that none of these things are real or could never remotely happen, and the reasonably certain that Joss Whedon wasn't drawing his inspiration from the time he tried to team up with two other losers he went to high school with to take over his hometown and subsequently spent several months of his early 20s tied up in the Slayer's house in contrast to if there were any doubt, all allows me to sleep relatively well in contrast to if there was even the slightest bit of doubt. But there's a huge difference from know and even wanting a work fiction to be exactly that; and building that conceit into the story itself so the audience and the characters are well aware of this fact. It undermines the structure of the story; we may know it's not real, but when a story is told effectively enough, it can feel real at the time; which is important, if you're to let the characters into your head and allow what's happening to them to affect you.
And it's just so convoluted to suggest she's unreal in that way; because Buffy the schizophrenic as the "real" Buffy would still just be another fictional character from the perspective of the show and the writers who created her.
Growing pains took a novel approach, where in an episode the youngest son, Ben, found himself in the "real" world, where he was embodying the actor who portrayed him (I've read that Supernatural has taken a similar tact in one episde). He then meets caricature versions of the other actors, who he of course sees as his family, but aren't - with exception of his brother Mike, who it turns out found himself in the real world too, several years earlier, but had never found a way back; and just sort of settled into his life as "Kirk Cameron". In this scenario it seems to be the implication that both the narrative and the making of the narrative were somehow simultaneously real and bound together; which was a fun idea.
Then there's two Star Trek episode of note, "Far Beyond the Stars" and "Frame of Mind". I think most people would probably most closely compare "Normal Again" to "Far Beyond the Stars," more so because of that lingering idea that somehow, because both episode effectively pose the question of which is the dream and which is the dreamer. While I like "Far Beyond the Stars" much more than "Normal Again," I have always disliked the way it tries to do what Buffy does, in trying to suggest that the unreality was in any way the reality. I know Rob Moore wanted that to be the twist ending to Deep Space Nine, and words cannot convey how much I'm glad they did not go that route; as it would have been as bad as entire show being written by Rosanne or taking place in a snow globe, or the fucking mother being dead the whole God damn series....
TNG's "Frame of Mind," though is, in my opinion, an excellent example of no so much trying to trick the characters or the audience into wondering if the show is real within the context of the story, but instead is just pushes the audience and one of the main characters to try and figure out which end is up, only to find that essentially nothing has been real from the start of the episode. It's like a particularly potent nightmare that seems perfectly real when something horrible happens and you wake-up, only to realize you didn't wake-up and you were dreaming about dream; until finally do wake-up and it takes you a solid minute for your lucidity to return and know unquestionably, to the best of your knowledge, that everything around you is really real this time, and that none of the stuff you thought was real matters, no matter how much it might have shaken you to your core. Like Franky says, sometimes a mind fuck can be nice.
Then there's the episode from Batman the animated series, "Perchance to Dream," where, much like most of these other examples, Bruce Wayne is put into a state of mind where he doesn't know that he's Batman; and in fact his parents are still alive. Little bits from his real life filter in, subconsciously, and Bruce tries to make sense of it; like expecting an entrance to the Batman behind the clock, where there is none; and trying to conceptualize who this Batman is, who is still running around without him under the mask, yet it's not anyone else, it's still Batman as he would appear with Bruce Wayne under the cowl. But in this case Bruce figures it all out when he realizes it's impossible to read anything, which is would only be true for him if he were asleep. So you get all the "what-if?" elements, without needing to question all of reality; and even have the character outsmart his altered perception and demonstrates the failure of what he's presented.
(Riker does something similar in "Frame of Mind," but it goes even further where his delusions try to deny his denial of reality - "If this isn't real, how do I have a phaser?" "That's not a phaser, it's a knife.")
I like Joyce's speech about Buffy being strong enough to face her demons and challenges; which is clearly directed at "real," supernatural Buffy, to help her face her depression and everything else going on. But I find it's undermined by the fact that this is effectively meant to be an unreal Joyce, and that Buffy's essentially hallucinating her mother giving her this encouragement; compounded by Joyce's subsequent reaction to Buffy retreating back into herself - a reaction that would be understandable and natural if the delusional state were real, but not the reaction the audience wants in the context of the Sunnydale world being real; and Buffy returning to her real life with words of wisdom from her mother intended to help her there. I think I would have liked it more if there was ambiguity whether the Joyce telling Buffy that she was strong enough, was delusion Joyce or some manifestation of "real" Sunnydale/dead Joyce, offering her daughter words of wisdom in her time of need.
Last, I think I might have liked the delusional aspect more if they took a page from DS9, by finding ways to incorporate Buffy's delusions into the real world - like spending more time in the delusion and meeting alternate, delusion-verse iterations of characters; like if Giles were Buffy's doctor, Oz was an orderly.... although I just realized that Charmed did an episode like that too, and had to look it up and saw that the Charmed episode aired several months before "Normal Again". Still, seems like a waste of opportunity....