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As far as I can tell, opinion is unanimous that Smile Time is the best episode of AtS5, though presumably there are dissenting voices out there somewhere. It's certainly my favourite, in spite of some stiff competition from Damage and TGiQ (though I'm aware that ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sistakaren is probably the only person who shares my enthusiasm for that last choice). Like my beloved OMWF, Smile Time is an episode whose subject matter is its own medium, it's a TV show about TV. And just as the climax of OMWF has Buffy singing and dancing for an audience, the climax of ST has Angel and Gunn fighting a battle on live TV, their vicious dispatch of the evil puppet demons being broadcast to the nation's (thankfully semi-conscious)children. But not only is ST satisfyingly self-reflexive, it's also packed with great moments - beginning with little Tommy leaning round his mother's body the better to keep watching his TV show - and it's hysterically funny. There are so many wonderful bits I'd be hard-pressed to choose my favourite - the fight between Puppet!Angel and Spike would be a strong contender, as would "Stupid plastic piece of crap", "bad Nina!", Angel taking a flying leap behind his desk when Nina comes in, the Power Walk, that horrifying moment when Polo puts his hand up Framkin's back, Fred and Wesley sharing coffee, Lorne threatening Framkin etc etc - except that there is one sequence that, for me, is head and shoulders above all the others. The bit of the episode I like best doesn't even have any of the regular characters in it. It's when the cute-looking, foul-mouthed puppets sit around the conference table, drinking whiskey out of mugs and discusssing their plan to drain the innocence out of their demographic (Ooh! How satirical!). No, seriously, I love it, I can recite all their lines off by heart and frequently have to be made to shut up, but there's one thing that I don't understand. Polo starts the conference off with the words "Okay, which one of you short bus bastards turned the CEO of Wolfram and Hart into a puppet?" What the hell is a short bus bastard? (okay, I know what a bastard is, but short bus? I somehow don't think the writers would have balked at saying "short ass bastards" if that was what they'd meant, so I'm guessing it's an Americanism that I've just never stumbled across before). Can anyone help me out with an explanation? I'd be hugely grateful.
sistakaren is probably the only person who shares my enthusiasm for that last choice). Like my beloved OMWF, Smile Time is an episode whose subject matter is its own medium, it's a TV show about TV. And just as the climax of OMWF has Buffy singing and dancing for an audience, the climax of ST has Angel and Gunn fighting a battle on live TV, their vicious dispatch of the evil puppet demons being broadcast to the nation's (thankfully semi-conscious)children. But not only is ST satisfyingly self-reflexive, it's also packed with great moments - beginning with little Tommy leaning round his mother's body the better to keep watching his TV show - and it's hysterically funny. There are so many wonderful bits I'd be hard-pressed to choose my favourite - the fight between Puppet!Angel and Spike would be a strong contender, as would "Stupid plastic piece of crap", "bad Nina!", Angel taking a flying leap behind his desk when Nina comes in, the Power Walk, that horrifying moment when Polo puts his hand up Framkin's back, Fred and Wesley sharing coffee, Lorne threatening Framkin etc etc - except that there is one sequence that, for me, is head and shoulders above all the others. The bit of the episode I like best doesn't even have any of the regular characters in it. It's when the cute-looking, foul-mouthed puppets sit around the conference table, drinking whiskey out of mugs and discusssing their plan to drain the innocence out of their demographic (Ooh! How satirical!). No, seriously, I love it, I can recite all their lines off by heart and frequently have to be made to shut up, but there's one thing that I don't understand. Polo starts the conference off with the words "Okay, which one of you short bus bastards turned the CEO of Wolfram and Hart into a puppet?" What the hell is a short bus bastard? (okay, I know what a bastard is, but short bus? I somehow don't think the writers would have balked at saying "short ass bastards" if that was what they'd meant, so I'm guessing it's an Americanism that I've just never stumbled across before). Can anyone help me out with an explanation? I'd be hugely grateful.