Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, With Feeling (2001)

On patrol one night in a Sunnydale graveyard, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) suddenly starts singing about how she is "Going Through the Motions" as she dusts vampires. The next morning she finds out that she is not the only one who has been suddenly bursting into song ("I've Got A Theory/Bunnies/If We're Together"). Even the common people are affected ("The Mustard") and the only people happy with the situation are the two lovebirds, Tara and Willow ("Under Your Spell"). But the power of the music forces Xander and Anya to be honest to each other about their fears regarding their upcoming nuptials ("I'll Never Tell") and it does not help Marti Noxon ("The Parking Ticket"). Spike is also brutally honest with Buffy in his song ("Rest in Peace"), while something Dawn leads Tara to discover that she has been under Willow's spell in more than one way.

Dawn is left out of the song ("Dawn's Lament") but not the dance part of the festivities ("Dawn's Ballet") and meets Sweet (guest star Hinton Battle), the demon behind the music ("What You Feel"), who reveals his plans: marry Dawn and let the Slayer dance herself to death. Meanwhile, Giles comes to the conclusion that he is just "Standing" in the way of Buffy growing up and both he and Tara decide the time has come to leave ("Under Your Spell/Standing - Reprise"). So Buffy is sent off to fight Sweet alone, but of course everybody shows up to lend a hand ("Walk Through the Fire"). There they learn the horrible truth, that they did not save Buffy from a hell dimension but instead ripped her from the eternal bliss of heaven ("Something to Sing About"). It is Spike who saves her from the demon and the ending is rather anticlimactic when they discover it was not Dawn who summoned the demon but Xander, worried about his future with Anya. The deal is off ("What You Feel - Reprise") and the gang is left to ask the musical question, "Where Do We Go From Here?"

We all knew Anthony Stewart Head could sing from his acoustic versions of "Green Eyes" and "Freebird" (plus "The Exposition Song"), but Amber Benson certainly does a very nice job with both her big number and the reprise, and you have to give Sarah Michelle Gellar points for giving it her best when you know this is not something she is comfortable doing before the entire world. But then we are back to giving Joss credit for writing songs that played to the vocal strengths (or lack thereof) for his cast (e.g., Willow's "most filler" line in "Walk Through the Fire"). That is why Nicholas Brendon is able to do his retro pastiche that is never going to be breakaway pop hit with Emma Caulfield (I love the sound of the crickets chirping before Anya launches into "Bunnies"). Of course, I am preaching to the people listening to the choir here because fans of the show know they really pulled it off in this episode, which was finished #44 on the "TV Guide" and "TV Land" list of the 100 Most Unexpected TV Moments."

The cover art for this DVD was also used on the videotape sent out by 20th Century Fox/UPN/Mutant Enemy to plug "Once More, With Feeling" for the Emmys (as well as on the CD, the script book, and the poster art for the episode). Of course, the only nomination the episode received was for Outstanding Music Direction (for Jesse Tobias and Christopher Beck). Oh, and "Under Your Spell" was the song they were pushing for Outstanding Music and Lyrics that was passed over. We all thought that once Joss Whedon was nominated for his script of "Hush" the Emmy people had recognized what great work he had been doing in relative obscurity over there on the WB. We figured "The Body" would obviously get a nomination, but that did not happen. Then we though "Once More, With Feeling" was a no-brainer, but, ironically, it turns out we were right and the people who do Emmy nominations do, in point of fact, have no brains.

If you like Karaoke, musicals, and the bizarre ......
Review date: 2005-08-06 Rating: 8 out of 10

this is one for you. Even if you don't know Buffy (and how could you not!) this is a story that has it all, saving the world, heartache, secrets and confessions, hard choices and the team winnning out in the end (well sort of). And if you watch with subtitles (there was always a bit about the bunnies I could never get) you can sing along too. What more could you ask?