Thursday, August 13, 2009

An Open Letter To the Writers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Dear Writers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer,

Andrew is not nearly as funny as you think he is.

Sincerely,

All the Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

PS. This is by no means a slight on Tom Lenk. Andrew is just as unfunny in the comics as he was on the TV show.

5 comments:

Fred said...

I don't think he's unfunny, but yes, he's clearly less funny than the writers think he is. This was mostly a problem during season 7, I think, when they weren't quite sure what to do with any of the characters except Spike and Andrew, and where they both got too much screen time.

John Seavey said...

No, no. He's really, really unfunny.

It's because he's a geek--not just a geek, but a Capital-G Geek. While he's grounded a bit in authenticity (because let's face it, he's being written by a bunch of geeks) he is every bit the complete stereotype of the ranting fanboy who has an opinion about everything, no matter how obscure or unimportant.

Which basically gives the writers license to take every single rant they've ever thought of themselves, and stick it into the story even though it doesn't belong there, isn't actually very funny, and absolutely stone kills the momentum of the story every time it crops up...because hey, it counts as character development when Andrew says it.

They're basically stopping the story every single time Andrew shows up in order to provide a showcase for that bit about how obnoxious Lando Calrissian is that always totally slays their friends when they bring it up at their weekly D&D game. The character essentially serves as nothing more than a clearing-house for the writers' in-jokes, and that's not a story function, that's a self-indulgence that a professional editor would beat out of them. With a stick.

Anonymous said...

so what did you think of Andrew in Angel Season 5? Personally, i liked Andrew in Buffy, but i really thought he had changed alot by the time he showed up in Angel.

Austin Gorton said...

Huh. ToMAYto, ToMAto, I guess. I see your point about him serving as the writers in-joke delivery system, but I've always thought Andrew was hilarious nonetheless.

Maybe cuz I'm almost sorta that kind of geek, close enough to both appreciate not being a full on Andrew but to still find his rants hilarious? I dunno.

Unknown said...

Um. Andrew makes me laugh so hard sometimes I get scared I'll piss myself. I'm guessing you're no fan of Seth McFarlane's work either, since it's almost completely based around 'stopping the story' so a less sensical event can take place. Doesn't mean it's not funny...just that you're a stickler for plot. (I'm sorry, 'metaplot'...bwahaha).