With Shia LeBeouf?

Dunno, but why not?
Just because he's in those rubbish Transformers films doesn't make him a bad actor.

Mark

I agree that the movie sucked balls and Joss' TV work is certainly of a better calibre. But he can still write and there are examples of that in a few good movies. Also, we've not seen Cap yet.

But what about that article makes you think that woman is doing anything but spouting the same stuff you and I know about that show as fans. I've seen every ep, I could've written that article. Does that make me a good replacement for Joss?

And all that aside, Buffy works better as serialised TV than as a movie. Joss INVENTED the concept of the "big bad" that has been replicated everywhere since 1997!

Nothing.
I just said she seemed to know what she was talking about.
Unless there's real merit to the project I don't see it happening, mainly because of the still very strong fandom for the TV show and Joss in general.
If there is real merit to the proposed idea, Hollywood will have faith that the vocal fans against it will be won over by the end result.
One way it works, the other way it never happens. That's got to be the best outlook, no?

Mark

I've not seen Buffy so can't relate specifically to what you are saying about "big bad", but wiki gives it the following description.



Now I'm pretty sure there will be quite a few recurring adversaries, villians and antagonists in shows well before Buffy, so wouldn't it be more correct to say that he invented the term, and not the concept?

(8+D
I'm glad I kept my gob shut. Sometimes it's nice to not be alone in your observations and thoughts.

Mark

If nothing else, is the concept of the 'Big bad' who must be overcome at the end by our hero actually any different to an end-of-level boss enemy in video games? We've had those since the mid-80's.

Jon

There was A LOT less good serialised television before Buffy. Let alone a "one villian per season" concept. The implementation is what makes it different.

Oh and Hollywood doesn't understand faith - only money. If they think the IP has legs they'll make it. Irrespective of what original fans think. After all, the moviegoing public have the attention span of a goldfish and vampires are *in* right now.

You don't generally see the Big Boss throughout the game though.



A couple more questions.
So none of these Big Bads appeared outside of any one season?
Did they appear in every episode per season, and if not what was the story about if there were no other villains?


I should probably watch Buffy at some point. But, as I haven't seen Babylon 5 and a few seasons of SG Atlantis, and I prefer sci-fi to fantasy then it is someway down the list.

Matt just got me thinking about B5, and while I can't quite recall the term "big bad" being used in that show, it certainly had it's seasonal big bad to deal with.
Also, if I recall correctly, the entire five seasons had the same evil force being fought.
The Shadows weren't just a seasonal big bad, they were the big bad for the whole show.
Other that that, I'm finding it difficult to come up with any other examples.
Anyone else have any?

Mark

Military Police characters in the A-Team.

Generally a different character per season, with a sidekick in most cases.

Q

Although present over several seasons, hence the question about Big Bads being season specific in a previous post.

Q, bad? Mischievous, certainly, but bad, I'm not so sure.

Mark

Q - Antagonist, yes, adversary, yes.

Ha. That'll teach me.

Mark

Defence rests, your honour.

B5 is often rolled out as THE template for serialised television and rightly so. It's a great show. But it's also an anomaly amongst it's chronological contemporaries for that very reason.

As for Q, he doesn't meet the definition IMO, because he wasn't always there at the finale and he didn't ALWAYS pose a threat to the various crews he encountered.

Matt, big bads appeared sporadically throughout each season of Buffy, but were not in each ep. One of the beauties of Buffy (which has since been replicated to varying degrees of success in a ton of shows) was the ability of the writers to balance arc/mythology eps (mostly, but not always featuring the big bad, or at least a significant reference to them) with character/standalone/musical/whatever eps. Buffy Summers struggled with her duty as a slayer and tried to balance it with wanting to be a normal teenage girl. The show was a macrocosm of this balance and to my recollection (outside of B5, go on Tim find something else, I dare you ) the first show to do it successfully and in a format recognisable to today's TV audiences.

Did big bads exist across seasons - I can't remember 100%, but I don't think so. Spike, Angel etc. don't count. Perhaps the 1 person here with more televisual knowledge than me can answer that (;-)