At TV Squad, which has been reviewing issues of Buffy the Vampire Slayer as if they were television episodes, blogger Keith McDuffee is grappling with whether that approach works.
Last week, when he asked readers whether he should continue, the answer was a resounding “yes” (74.9 percent). So this week, McDuffee announces he’ll keep reviewing the comic, but notes that it’s vastly different from tackling the Buffy TV show.
“While this is meant to be a canonical continuation of the TV series, it’s not a TV series,” he writes. “This is a comic, and it feels like one. It can’t replace the direction and the acting we saw on the small screen, and I don’t believe it was ever meant to.
“When one of your friends heads off to a faraway land and sends you a letter every week, it’s not the same as them being there with you, but it sure is comforting to have them around, so-to-speak. It’s like that, only not as desperate sounding.”
August 3rd, 2007 at 10:19 am
So reviewing a TV show is different than reviewing a comic? Really???
I applaud TV Squad for following the comic series but when they conclude reviews like with the statement “for a comic, it would have made a good tv show,” I wonder if they’re really approaching the article the correct way.
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:11 am
I hope reviewing a tv show is different than reviewing a comic. The craft is different. 22pages of content certainly doesn’t equal 44min tv show. Even ish #5, 22 pages, done in one, would be all flabby when stretched to 44min.
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:25 am
Scott, if you want to get really frustrated, read the comments after every review.
August 3rd, 2007 at 12:29 pm
The reason I mentioned the difference between the comic and the TV show is that, if you read the comments on previous reviews of the comic, readers are going into these books thinking they’re going to get something very similar to the TV show.
Yeah it’s obvious to you and me, but the readers sometimes need to be reminded.