Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season Two, Volume 2

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Script Book Season Two #2

by Various, Gertrude Pocket

The fourth collection of the original shooting scripts from the hottest show on television The phenomenal success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is owing to a great extent to the quality of the writing. Robert Hanks, TV critic of The Independent, wrote in September 2000: One of the most consistently brilliant piece of popular entertainment ever... it mixes these broad emotions with real sadness, shifting from wisecracks to loss, self-doubt and utter loneliness without missing a beat. It would be absurd to compare the show's writing to Shakespeare, but there aren't many other precedents for the way it refuses to observer the conventional divisions between comedy and tragedy. The Observer acknowledged the same qualities: Pulling off these shifts in tone from humour to horror to high emotion is a tribute to the strength of the writing. The Buffy scripts are as rewarding and as entertaining on the page as they are on screen. Now thanks to Pocket Books' volume-by-volume publication of the complete collected scripts from the show, fans can savour every moment of high emotion or of wisecracking quick-fire dialogue. With the added bonus of the original production notes and scenes that wer

Genres: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Vampires, Young Adult, Media Tie In, Fantasy

374 pages, Paperback

First published November 27, 2001

About the author

Various is the correct author for any book with multiple unknown authors, and is acceptable for books with multiple known authors, especially if not all are known or the list is very long (over 50).

If an editor is known, however, Various is not necessary. List the name of the editor as the primary author (with role "editor"). Contributing authors' names follow it.

Note: WorldCat is an excellent resource for finding author information and contents of anthologies.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the fourth in the Pocket series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer scripts and collects the second set of six scripts from the second season of the television show. (I'm not sure why Goodreads has the book credited to Christopher Golden, who didn't write any of the scripts and isn't mentioned in the book.) Reading the scripts allows you to experience the story itself without having your opinion or perception swayed by the appearance of the actors, the sound of the music, the lighting or direction or other production values, or anything other than what was captured by the writer on the page. It's also interesting to spot differences from the original vision from what was finally realized on screen. Lie to Me, the first one in the book, was written by Joss Whedon and is a very nice look at the downside of the vampire "life"-style, and again it appears that Buffy isn't meant for a boyfriend other than Angel. We get an interesting look at Giles' back story in The Dark Age (though I was never convinced he'd have been a Bay City Rollers fan... maybe Cream and Donovan and King Crimson for sure, but not the Bay City Rollers), which is followed by the two-part What's My Line? episodes that introduce Kendra, a new slayer, and delve more deeply into the Watcher/Slayer mythology. My least-favorite episode is Ted. Though written by Whedon with David Greenwalt, I never thought the science fiction tropes were effective in the horror/fantasy framework that was Sunnydale. It kind of over-does the fear one has when their parent begins to attach to a new, unknown partner; most of the Buffy phobias were far more subtly presented. The book concludes with Bad Eggs, a monster-of-the-week episode with some very clever lines that does little to advance the season arc. The scripts range in dating from mid-September to mid-November of 1997, but still read as fresh and vibrant. It's very impressive how one character can be featured in one and then turn up again later and be re-introduced in context rather than by summary. It's a very enjoyable read, and enhanced by appreciation of the filmed versions.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I made it to the halfway point of s2 of the tv show earlier tonight and just finished up the corresponding scripts book.
I'm still hard core fan-girling, revisiting a favorite teenage obsession. It's been fun to watch the series and break out the books at the same time.
I like the script books. They give you an idea for the original game plan and then the show let's you see what was cut or added afterwards. Quick easy reads that take less time to read then it does to watch it.

[Alyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Have to wait to order the next volumes before i can read the rest. Might take a break and read some actual books.