Who's got the money?
Mar. 15th, 2005 10:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hazelkEven more random episode pairage
At a very straightforward level Doublemeat Palace is about getting a job in a big corporation. Power Play is the culmination of a season long arc about going to work for the Man. Buffy applies to the McPalace to get money and be seen as a responsible parent figure for Dawn. Angel signs up with W&H to buy a new life for his son. On her first day Buffy optimistically opines that Manny can “bite her”. Angel gives the troops a rousing speech about how they can make a difference. Soon both are overwhelmed by the pervading sense of hopelessness engendered by their very different corporate environments.
The Scoobies turn up at the DMP, take advantage of the resources (Xander gets a free burger) and leave. Andrew, acting as Giles et al.’s representative, arrives at W&H, takes advantage of their resources and leaves (with Dana). Buffy gets a sign, a disembodied finger, that she believes is a clue to the true nature of the Palace. Angel, or so we learn in Power Play, receives a vision from a briefly embodied Cordelia that forms the basis for a plan of attack.
So far, so superficially similar. But the interesting part is really in the differences. Because in Power Play we learn that all the evil in the world is controlled by a secret cabal of demons and that by joining with the Man you can uncover his covert identity. While in Doublemeat Palace the great corporate conspiracy turns out to be vegetables and the all-consuming source of paralyzing evil turns out to be the customer. To be us.
At a very straightforward level Doublemeat Palace is about getting a job in a big corporation. Power Play is the culmination of a season long arc about going to work for the Man. Buffy applies to the McPalace to get money and be seen as a responsible parent figure for Dawn. Angel signs up with W&H to buy a new life for his son. On her first day Buffy optimistically opines that Manny can “bite her”. Angel gives the troops a rousing speech about how they can make a difference. Soon both are overwhelmed by the pervading sense of hopelessness engendered by their very different corporate environments.
The Scoobies turn up at the DMP, take advantage of the resources (Xander gets a free burger) and leave. Andrew, acting as Giles et al.’s representative, arrives at W&H, takes advantage of their resources and leaves (with Dana). Buffy gets a sign, a disembodied finger, that she believes is a clue to the true nature of the Palace. Angel, or so we learn in Power Play, receives a vision from a briefly embodied Cordelia that forms the basis for a plan of attack.
So far, so superficially similar. But the interesting part is really in the differences. Because in Power Play we learn that all the evil in the world is controlled by a secret cabal of demons and that by joining with the Man you can uncover his covert identity. While in Doublemeat Palace the great corporate conspiracy turns out to be vegetables and the all-consuming source of paralyzing evil turns out to be the customer. To be us.
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no subject
Date: 2005-03-22 05:45 pm (UTC)Actually I came back to this discussion because of this Jane Espenson article at the LA Times. While she doesn't specifically refer to "Doublemeat Palace", this definitely ties into the "womens' work" theme.
DP is one of those episodes that's difficult to discuss without addressing the widespread viewer dislike of it... and the ick factor aside, I think much of the unhappiness comes from its exploration of the unglamorous, warts-and-all aspect of the kinds of work that most women (hell, most people) do. I was especially struck by this part:
But merely thrusting more women into more prestigious on-screen jobs doesn't necessarily make the working world a better place for women...
It's not television's fault, exactly. But television can help fix the problem. Not by writing women into better professions, but by more accurately showing them as complex people contending with the sort of snide, generous, ambitious, incompetent, sad and hilarious co-workers who populate real workplaces.
Yes. That is exactly the nature of many of the complaints about DP; that Buffy doesn't find a more prestigious job. This complaint, IMO, misses the point not only of this episode, but that of much of Season 6.
(I'll get back to the ick factor, too.)
no subject
Date: 2005-03-23 05:45 pm (UTC)It’s interesting how much more complaining there was about Buffy McJobbing than Xander. Well I think there was, I wasn’t really online during S4. The joy of data free conclusions.
Still is it worse for Buffy to get a crap job because she’s the hero? Because it looks more like she might be stuck in it? Or because she’s clearly middle class and Xander isn’t? (I don’t really have a good handle on the American class system.) Do the complaints about the episode reveal a degree of subliminal contempt for people who don’t make it out of fast food employment?
And here we have yet another example of how Jane E is a great woman of our times. Because, although Manny and the lifers are caricatures, she ends the episode presenting Buffy’s new boss as an eminently well-adjusted person who is sanely proud of having risen through the ranks. A working class hero on prime time TV.
no subject
Date: 2005-03-23 10:27 pm (UTC)And of course, Buffy's new boss is a woman. It's anti-male bias, waaaaaah!
(Sorry, I have Warren Farrell moments now and then.) Anyway, I agree that there was much more complaining about Buffy taking a lousy job.
(Work calls!)