Who's got the money?

[hazelk]

Even 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.

Comments

[mediumdave.livejournal.com]

It seems paradoxical, but I think that in this case the story with the more limited scope (BtVS) is making a more profound and honest statement about the way the world works.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I've always liked DMP. I can remember laughing out loud when the cannibal hamburgers turned out to be made of vegetables, and even louder when the management were frantically trying to cover up this totally unacceptable secret. I like the sheer banality of the job, and the way Buffy desperately tries to make it more exciting by imagining hideous goings-on. And the little old lady is such a dear, and the monster so outrageously silly. What's not to love?

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

I love it too. It’s dark and funny and surgically precise with lots of neat little character moments. I love that final Willow/Amy scene and the way Willow manages to come across as simultaneously righteous and incredibly creepy. And I could never understand all the complaints that Buffy should have got a better job. She’s a college drop-out with a quasi-criminal record and a history of mental instability. I wouldn’t hire her.

[mediumdave.livejournal.com]

... which underscores the idea (put forward more strongly in S6 than in others) that some of the most vital, difficult jobs are done by people who are underpaid and under-appreciated. I'm reminded of the moment in "Flooded" when Anya suggests that Buffy should be compensated for slaying demons, and everyone else regards this as a crazy idea. :D

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Arrgh these comments are getting all tangled, I’m not sure who this will look like a reply to…

the idea (put forward more strongly in S6 than in others) that some of the most vital, difficult jobs are done by people who are underpaid and under-appreciated…..Anya suggests that Buffy should be compensated for slaying demons, and everyone else regards this as a crazy idea.

Interesting. I never really thought about the dismissal of Anya’s proposal that way. It works but it sounds like part of a larger thesis. Is it?

[mediumdave.livejournal.com]

Not exactly... it's related to a comment I made in dkissam's journal, about slaying being a largely thankless (and unpaid) job. It probably should be part of a thesis. Hmm.

[spacedoutlooney.livejournal.com]

If we're on this subject: I put my thoughts about why Buffy doesn't get paid here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/spacedoutlooney/6984.html).

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Will head over and check them out.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Oh I get it. Sorry overthinking things again. Slayers are like nurses, their consciences prevent them from striking for higher/any pay. And female, so it’s taken for granted that they’d work for love and peanuts. So it is interesting that Angel (male) does ask for and get paid. But Spiderman doesn’t….Economics of the Superhero/heroine, I bet there is a thesis in that. Not my field though.

[mediumdave.livejournal.com]

Yes, the parallels to real-life economic/gender issues are very interesting. Actually, the discussion in dkissam's journal that I referred to was sparked by a Buffy music video set to Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work". But this is getting a bit off track, so I'll go back to specific discussion of these two episodes in a moment.

[spacedoutlooney.livejournal.com]

I can remember laughing out loud when the cannibal hamburgers turned out to be made of vegetables, and even louder when the management were frantically trying to cover up this totally unacceptable secret.

Other than the high nausea factor I think the episode was good, well written, well acted and so on. And the new manager being so excited about quoting party line "Doublemeat Palace is built on a foundation of, well, meat. You can't go spreading this around." hee.

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

It really doesn’t take too much of a stretch to read DMP as pretty subversive. As well as the whole customer=monster subtext there’s that conversation between Dawn and Xander making the point that not everyone can be a Doctor or a Lawyer or President. It’s an attack on the American Dream! No wonder fast food empires tried to ban it.

[mediumdave.livejournal.com]

In my world, "in a moment" can mean "a week later", apparently. :D

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.)

[aycheb.livejournal.com]

Late is still good.

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.

[mediumdave.livejournal.com]

...Buffy’s new boss as an eminently well-adjusted person...

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!)