So... I take it the author of this review didn't get that the opening segment was meant to ape the stereotypical new employee orientation video, and therefore WAS related to the plot of the episode (i.e. seeing Wolfram & Hart from the pov of the little people, peon steno-pool cannon-fodder 9 to 5'ers).

He probably also didn't catch the reference to Weyland-Yutani, otherwise known as "The Company"... the evil corporation from the Aliens film series. A bit of a shout out from Joss back to his miserable experience with that sci-fi film franchise perhaps?

Haunt | January 15, 22:06 CET

I guess he didn't catch it... To be honest I didn't pick up on it either until someone pointed it out to me. Aside from the Aliens reference and the little dig at NewsCorp...wasn't there another company mentioned as well? I didn't recognize the name.

tacitron | January 15, 22:14 CET

Yoyodyne, from Buckaroo Banzai.

Oddjob | January 15, 22:17 CET

Trying to make it into some sort of pseudo THE OFFICE clone, trying to milk humor out of occult-laced office politics, just doesn't satisfy me. Fred worrying about the boss checking up on her, Harmony being excluded because of her perceived relation to the "upper echelon," that’s shit that too many of us are dealing with day in, day out. We've seen it, we know it, we live it. We don't need to be reminded of it.

Amen.

Sorry to say it, but I hated this episode. If I wanted office politics, I'd go to work.

Wait. I am at work. Damn.

fraying | January 15, 23:37 CET

Hating this episode because you hate office politics is like saying you hated BtVS because you hated high school. (A whole series about it, though, I could understand not wanting to see - I can't stand The Office for exactly that reason.) AtS is about the choices you have to make and the life you have to live, even when it isn't what you wanted. Harmony is the grown-up who didn't get to be the cool person with the glamourous job that she wanted to be when she grew up. She's the peon that so many of us are. Me, I liked seeing a day at W&H, and the other characters, from Harmony's POV.

Although I did wonder why it was necessary to brush the vamp teeth separately from the human teeth...

[ edited by zencat on 2004-01-15 21:49 ]

zencat | January 15, 23:47 CET

I did hate high school! How didja know?

No, I hated this episode for more reasons than I could count. Read the Geekly review for the full list - I pretty much agreed with the whole thing. An unimaginative story, from an unlikable character. Pure filler - and the wrong way to come back form a hiatus.

But most of all, I resent the grumpy caricature Angel has become. The last season of Buffy suffered from the same problem: The writers just seemed to run out of new ideas for the core characters. Now here we are again - all the characters are settling into nice little boring ruts. And what are we left with? An episode from the vantage point of the office scenery.

Blech.

[ edited by fraying on 2004-01-15 22:43 ]

fraying | January 16, 00:05 CET

Well, I liked it. But then I like Harmony a lot. And it felt very BtVS S1 or 2 to me. Thought it was a nice fluffy episode with a rather abrupt and disappointing solution and ending. Loved the mad demons with their click talk. Also... very little Spike. Always a good thang.

Caroline | January 16, 00:15 CET

This episode was originally scheduled to air the week after Destiny, but the WB pulled all the new episodes that were supposed to air Thanksgiving week. So this was planned to be a light holiday thing. This is definitely not something I really wanted after a big fighty last episode and a month long break. But I didn't hate it. I've never hated Harmony in the first place, and now she's even less annoying than she used to be.

lalaa | January 16, 00:44 CET

I actually love Harmony a lot -- yet I didn't care for this episode and was surprised that, elsewhere, it's getting a pretty good exception. (I half expected to see comparisons to the dreaded "Beer Bad.")

The story was cliched without being a clever twist on a cliche in the best Whedon styled. Most of the jokes fell a bit flat -- though there were the inevitable nifty exceptions, mostly having to do with the clicky demons, the crowded closet and the in-gags (did'nt get the Alien connection, but I certainly appreciate ANY dig, no matter how subtle, at the vile Rupert M.)

Maybe the problem is that not all comic relief characters can hold up an entire show. Sort of like there being more frosting than cake or something.

Also, Buckaroo Banzai was not the first appearance of a company named Yoyodyne -- I caught the name in Thomas Pynchon's "The Crying of Lot 49" years before BB.

bobster | January 16, 09:46 CET