I never noticed that until they pointed it out in the commentary.

This kind of makes me wonder whether there's not quite as much to work with, in terms of discussing what's going on under the surface. I love TWW, but I'm not sure it's crying out for the kind of analysis as, say, Deadwood.

I love Restless, too, HipsterDBag. It's the closest any show's ever come to capturing the experience of dreaming.

I think Hush had the scarier monsters, but the thing about Helpless is that Buffy, our fearless hero, is unable to fight back and has to run away and cry for help. It's a pretty jarring image.

Well put, Elusive Robert Denby. I understand why a lot of people hate Amends, and I'm not a big fan of the miracle snow, but even the overwrought dialogue between Buffy and Angel doesn't bother me too much. Only on this show could a character get away with saying something like "I killed you, but it didn't help." I…

Yes, on the commentary, David Fury talks about that - putting Buffy in serious danger and making her vulnerable. There's a slightly heavy handed Red Riding Hood thing going on there too. I think, in this episode, you really notice how Whedon played with the whole slasher-film-victim-girl thing and turned it upside…

Amends marks the start of some of the worst Buffy hair of all time. Those little bangs? [shudder]

Hasn't Judd Apatow dismantled that whole "manly man" thing though? The trend now seems to be the beta hero, rather than the alpha male. I mean, if Gerard Butler can't play strong and virile, who can?

@ Wolfman Johnathan: If you look at the cover of EW vs. the quotes he gave in the story, it fits perfectly with the two different agents theory.

"High concept"?
This is "high concept"? There's a whole genre ("marriage of convenience") of romance novels with this exact premise. You can pick one up at the supermarket. Of course, you'd have to merely imagine Ryan Reynolds abs.

I was surprised too, but I wonder if his reputation hasn't been artificially inflated by Top Chef in the last few seasons. I wouldn't be surprised if Bravo suddenly announced some sort of Wylie Dufresne reality series titled "Wylie Wonka."

I have to admit, I found myself strangely attracted to Graham Elliot after watching that episode.

I think "strong" does get thrown around a lot in this regard, and it's not always the right word. To me, an interesting female character (or male character, for that matter) is complicated. And Deadwood offers plenty of complex female characters.

Yeah, I think the Josh-as-heartthrob stuff is kind of stretching believability (and it continues with the Lemon Lyman plot, although that's at least funny).
However…
"Leaving aside the question of whether someone who looks like Bradley Whitford could be considered a sex symbol" — I don't know, I have a weird…

I just rewatched it on Youtube to jog my memory. I don't know if the actual things Leo and Bartlett say are annoying as much as the stagey-ness of "Hey, look over there. It's CJ. She's a 50s movie star!" [Shot of CJ laughing it up, surrounding by people holding cocktails.]
"And look in the other direction. …

The "These women" speech: barf.
I'm glad you mentioned that speech. It's one of my least favorites in all of TWW. There's something kind of weird, condescending, and sickly sweet about it. I mean, I don't find it offensive in a "hey, that's sexist!" way (even though I'm sure there's a women's studies 101…

I thought I was the only one bothered by Josh's ugly sunglasses.

"Some people also think a girl that gets killed outside the Bronze is a non-Slayer'd Faith, but it's hard to tell even with the help of freeze-frame."

Wasn't Danny Strong in the original pilot?

I took my mom to see Hair. It's fun, but if you're going to sit on the aisle, you'd better be cool with being fondled.