Sometimes, even the guide is surprised in the course of taking A Tour of Sunnydale
The Puppet Show is the ninth episode of the first season of Buffy. It's written by Dean Batali & Rob Des Hotel, who we last saw in the truly awful Never Kill A Boy On The First Date, and directed by Buffy newcomer Ellen S. Pressman, who'll leave the show after directing her next episode, the second season's Inca Mummy Girl. It's ranked 94th on The Phi Phenomenon, making it the second highest episode written by Batali & Des Hotel, just two spots under their most popular, the 92nd ranked Phases.
The Puppet Show might be one of the goofiest episodes of Buffy. Whilst not quite as silly as The Pack or something like Bad Eggs or Go Fish, it's weird in a way that the show doesn't really often dable in: through the camp and silliness of its central supernatural conceit: the ever cliche creepy talking puppet. As such, it's kind of a black sheep, since the monster of the week is oddly un-Buffy, which I find makes the community treat it with something approaching resentment. The Puppet Show is stupid in a way that can be pointed at to give Buffy a bad name that the show not only doesn't deserve, but that's not really earned by basically the entire rest of the show.
I'll admit I was guilty of that as well. I'd always thought of The Puppet Show as a solid but supremely silly episode of Buffy. I was wrong. The Puppet Show is legitimately a fantastic episode of television. The cold open alone is brilliant: An extended 5 minute sequence where we get some of the first truly Buffy-ish interactions between the main cast. For the first time in the entire run of the show, the four characters at its heart feel like a group of friends who genuinely enjoy spending time together. Yes, Buffy and co. goof on Giles the entire time, but it's fond poking fun at, and as such it's an absolute joy to behold. There's also the fantastic introduction of Principal Snyder, who is immediately completely present as the over-the-top monster he is. He's mean, he's petty, and he's incredibly fun to be around (at least as a member of the audience). He also gives us the best line of the episode "Kids needs understanding, kids are human beings... that's the kind of wooly-headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten"
This intro also does a great job of setting up the talent show. Morgan and Sid's act is immediately impressive, and though it's obvious to anyone with a brain that Sid is going to be a living creature, it's set up in such a way that you don't blame the Scoobies for not immediately catching on. There's also the bumbling magician, who is subtly the only new student really introduced, but who spends his time far in the background and doesn't draw atention to himself, making the reveal of his identity as the demon surprisng but not an ass-pull. Also, Cordelia's act. Hilarious.
While the cold open is the real highlight of the episode, the rest of it is no slouch either. There's plenty of hilarious little moments, like the Scooby's investigation montage, and the running gag of the "cut to another character in another location answering the question that just got asked" constantly being interrupted by Cordelia's self-obssesed rambling made me giggle. There's plenty of fantastic lines through the episode, with more of Whedon's signature dialogue style than any other episode so far (even the ones he actually wrote!). I think this might be the funniest episode of Buffy thus far.
The characters are also on top form: Buffy effectively and admirably takes the lead, with Giles and Willow doing their job as investigators in perfect synergy, and Xander has a couple brilliant moments of initiative. The side characters also shine in this episode: Morgan is a brilliantly awkward and creepy character who serves very well to cast suspicion on Sid. When their relationship is revealed this casts Morgan in a positive light just in time for his sudden death to be surprisingly effecting. Sid himself is a great red herring: Of course you expect the creepy puppet to be evil, but it turns out he's good, which only serves to make the episode more confusing and interesting. His constant horniness could have been an instant turn-off from the character for me, but it's actually suprisingly downbeat, and you get the feeling he's saying these things more as a joke than to actually let his feelings be known. Sid becomes very likeable very quickly and, like Morgan, his death is actually a pretty effective moment.
On top of that, The Puppet Show tells a tightly paced and competently constructed whodunnit story, with a couple twists and turns along the way. Every plot beat flows effectively from the last, and the pace is just brisk enough to keep the audience engaged and just slightly staggering behind the line of reveals. My one big gripe is the final action scene, which drags on a bit too long and hinges on Giles acting very stupid right after the literal line "Well, Giles is pretty smart" becomes a crucial plot point. It's also kind of confusing and overwrought, with worse stuntwork than I'm used to even by Buffy's relatively low standards, and some poor camerawork that makes it difficult to follow.
I was completely blown away by The Puppet Show. What I remembered as a somewhat below-average but still competent episode of Buffy was an absolutely fantastic time, with very few negatives. This episode works on almost every level. It's not even like The Pack, where a portion of my enjoyment came from how silly the episode is. Everything that I liked about The Puppet Show was intentional, and there was a lot to like in this episode.
Here's ranking and rating: The ranking is of all episodes of Buffy and Angel I've watched so far, with 1 being the best one, and the rating is out of ten in context of the quality of the show: I'm essentially trying to decide what 10% of quality of that particular show the episode belongs in. Because both shows are so good, this means negative ratings are not neccesarily a diss on the episode - I just think it's one of the show's weaker ones.
Ranking is a lot easier than I thought it'd be, and puts the episode at a surprising spot. This is so far easily the best episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I enjoyed it even more than The Pack, but all my enjoyment was actually on purpose by the episode, which is something I can't be sure of for The Pack. The Puppet Show effortlessly slides in at number 1.
Ranked List
Rating: 6/10 Rating was kind of hell, though. I remember giving The Pack a 6/10. I did not look this up, as that's against the rules, but I'm pretty sure that was the rating. It feels like there's at least 14 episodes worth of quality differential between the two episodes, but giving The Puppet Show a 7/10 feels ridiculous. I ultimately decided to give it a 6/10, just in case I'm suffering from recency bias. Edited after checking: Yes, I did give The Pack a 6/10. I'm pretty sure I've at least been consistent thus far, which is good!
The Puppet Show is the ninth episode of the first season of Buffy. It's written by Dean Batali & Rob Des Hotel, who we last saw in the truly awful Never Kill A Boy On The First Date, and directed by Buffy newcomer Ellen S. Pressman, who'll leave the show after directing her next episode, the second season's Inca Mummy Girl. It's ranked 94th on The Phi Phenomenon, making it the second highest episode written by Batali & Des Hotel, just two spots under their most popular, the 92nd ranked Phases.
The Puppet Show might be one of the goofiest episodes of Buffy. Whilst not quite as silly as The Pack or something like Bad Eggs or Go Fish, it's weird in a way that the show doesn't really often dable in: through the camp and silliness of its central supernatural conceit: the ever cliche creepy talking puppet. As such, it's kind of a black sheep, since the monster of the week is oddly un-Buffy, which I find makes the community treat it with something approaching resentment. The Puppet Show is stupid in a way that can be pointed at to give Buffy a bad name that the show not only doesn't deserve, but that's not really earned by basically the entire rest of the show.
I'll admit I was guilty of that as well. I'd always thought of The Puppet Show as a solid but supremely silly episode of Buffy. I was wrong. The Puppet Show is legitimately a fantastic episode of television. The cold open alone is brilliant: An extended 5 minute sequence where we get some of the first truly Buffy-ish interactions between the main cast. For the first time in the entire run of the show, the four characters at its heart feel like a group of friends who genuinely enjoy spending time together. Yes, Buffy and co. goof on Giles the entire time, but it's fond poking fun at, and as such it's an absolute joy to behold. There's also the fantastic introduction of Principal Snyder, who is immediately completely present as the over-the-top monster he is. He's mean, he's petty, and he's incredibly fun to be around (at least as a member of the audience). He also gives us the best line of the episode "Kids needs understanding, kids are human beings... that's the kind of wooly-headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten"
This intro also does a great job of setting up the talent show. Morgan and Sid's act is immediately impressive, and though it's obvious to anyone with a brain that Sid is going to be a living creature, it's set up in such a way that you don't blame the Scoobies for not immediately catching on. There's also the bumbling magician, who is subtly the only new student really introduced, but who spends his time far in the background and doesn't draw atention to himself, making the reveal of his identity as the demon surprisng but not an ass-pull. Also, Cordelia's act. Hilarious.
While the cold open is the real highlight of the episode, the rest of it is no slouch either. There's plenty of hilarious little moments, like the Scooby's investigation montage, and the running gag of the "cut to another character in another location answering the question that just got asked" constantly being interrupted by Cordelia's self-obssesed rambling made me giggle. There's plenty of fantastic lines through the episode, with more of Whedon's signature dialogue style than any other episode so far (even the ones he actually wrote!). I think this might be the funniest episode of Buffy thus far.
The characters are also on top form: Buffy effectively and admirably takes the lead, with Giles and Willow doing their job as investigators in perfect synergy, and Xander has a couple brilliant moments of initiative. The side characters also shine in this episode: Morgan is a brilliantly awkward and creepy character who serves very well to cast suspicion on Sid. When their relationship is revealed this casts Morgan in a positive light just in time for his sudden death to be surprisingly effecting. Sid himself is a great red herring: Of course you expect the creepy puppet to be evil, but it turns out he's good, which only serves to make the episode more confusing and interesting. His constant horniness could have been an instant turn-off from the character for me, but it's actually suprisingly downbeat, and you get the feeling he's saying these things more as a joke than to actually let his feelings be known. Sid becomes very likeable very quickly and, like Morgan, his death is actually a pretty effective moment.
On top of that, The Puppet Show tells a tightly paced and competently constructed whodunnit story, with a couple twists and turns along the way. Every plot beat flows effectively from the last, and the pace is just brisk enough to keep the audience engaged and just slightly staggering behind the line of reveals. My one big gripe is the final action scene, which drags on a bit too long and hinges on Giles acting very stupid right after the literal line "Well, Giles is pretty smart" becomes a crucial plot point. It's also kind of confusing and overwrought, with worse stuntwork than I'm used to even by Buffy's relatively low standards, and some poor camerawork that makes it difficult to follow.
I was completely blown away by The Puppet Show. What I remembered as a somewhat below-average but still competent episode of Buffy was an absolutely fantastic time, with very few negatives. This episode works on almost every level. It's not even like The Pack, where a portion of my enjoyment came from how silly the episode is. Everything that I liked about The Puppet Show was intentional, and there was a lot to like in this episode.
Here's ranking and rating: The ranking is of all episodes of Buffy and Angel I've watched so far, with 1 being the best one, and the rating is out of ten in context of the quality of the show: I'm essentially trying to decide what 10% of quality of that particular show the episode belongs in. Because both shows are so good, this means negative ratings are not neccesarily a diss on the episode - I just think it's one of the show's weaker ones.
Ranking is a lot easier than I thought it'd be, and puts the episode at a surprising spot. This is so far easily the best episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I enjoyed it even more than The Pack, but all my enjoyment was actually on purpose by the episode, which is something I can't be sure of for The Pack. The Puppet Show effortlessly slides in at number 1.
Ranked List
Rating: 6/10 Rating was kind of hell, though. I remember giving The Pack a 6/10. I did not look this up, as that's against the rules, but I'm pretty sure that was the rating. It feels like there's at least 14 episodes worth of quality differential between the two episodes, but giving The Puppet Show a 7/10 feels ridiculous. I ultimately decided to give it a 6/10, just in case I'm suffering from recency bias. Edited after checking: Yes, I did give The Pack a 6/10. I'm pretty sure I've at least been consistent thus far, which is good!
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