Buffy 3x06 - "Band Candy"

"Band Candy" is another Buffy episode which focuses mainly on thrills and laughs, and it works wonderfully. Find out why after the jump.

"They're teenagers. It's a sobering mirror to look into, huh?"

- Oz

Coming as I did from a high school without a marching band, I suppose I don't know much about the sale of band candy, but it seems strange that every student in the school is expected to sell it. Yeah, I know, Willow mentions this as well, but whatever tvtropes may have taught you, calling attention to a logical flaw underlying the very premise of the script doesn't make it any less of a problem. Still, I have to grumble about it and move along, which I suppose is the point. 

Because it's really hard to hold anything at all against this fantastic episode. There's just so many great pieces to this episode, from Giles and Joyce's relationship to Snyder as the lame tagalong, to a stoned Ms. Barton realizing that Willow is a tree. It's an episode that prioritizes fun over drama and plot.

Because again, the plot doesn't hold up to logical scrutiny: if Ethan's role in these proceedings is to get the adults of Sunnydale out of the way, surely there are better ways of doing so than making cursed candy and then hoping they happen to buy it. But then again, maybe that's just how Ethan operates. It certainly does bring about chaos, and it makes for a really fun episode that lets some of the actors really strut their comedic stuff.

Observations:

• Not only is Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysses" a great song choice for the record Giles and Joyce listen to together, it's also worth noteworthy because of a great callback to it in season five. 
• This is the first episode written by Jane Espenson, who has written for every Whedon TV show and has gone on to write for Battlestar Galactica and Caprica as well as co-creating Warehouse 13 and now writing for Torchwood. I mention this because I feel the need to recommend the blog she keeps at http://www.janeespenson.com/, which is about television writing. She doesn't update very often anymore, but for anyone who wants an insight into the television writing process (or the creative process in general), the archives of her blog are worth a look.