"Best" of Spike DVD

[PokerKitten]

I was going to buy this when it comes out next year, but now I am not so sure. There is a collection of special DVDs, with eps featuring the highlighted character (others are Angel, Faith and Willow).

This is Spike's line-up:

THE SLAYER COLLECTION - SPIKE DVD

EPISODES

School Hard Spike and Drusilla come to town, and Spike invades Parent-Teacher night.
Lie to me Buffy's childhood crush comes to town, but he's not looking to reminisce - he's looking for immortality as a vampire.
Lovers Walk A broken-hearted Spike returns without Drusilla; relationships are torn apart due to a liaison between two members of the gang.
Fool For Love When Buffy forces Spike to recount how he was able to kill two Slayers, his flashbacks reveal his first meeting with Drusilla.
EXTRAS

Spike profile featurette - 15 minutes
Buffy / Angel Trailer

Lie To Me? Hmmm, I would have picked maybe "Something Blue", "Crush", or "Intervention"....

The other eps on the DVD are logical and obvious, but LTM just jars with me... What do you guys think?

[PokerKitten]

Nice cover... although as the eps are earlier than this Spike incarnation it maybe wasn't the most appropriate choice either... picky picky PK!



The more I think about it, the more I think LTM fits okay... if this was a 6 or 8 ep set. It does show Spike being all caring for Dru, for example. But still not what I would have chosen.... Probably will buy it though ;D Gotta support Spike! As far as I know it is just Region 2, at least at first.

[PokerKitten]

Well, I hadn't bought myself a Christmas present, had I?! So I pre-ordered the DVD today, and as it was a bargain I can't lose really. From amazon.co.uk it is only £9-74 and is due to be available February 24 2004.

[BEEVR]

THE PPL WHO PUT TOGETHER THESE DVD SETS R KNOWN EVERYWHERE FOR THEIR POOR CHOICES IN EPIS THEY CHOOSE TO PUT IN THE DVDS. I AGREE W/ ALL OF THE CHOICES BUT THERE SHOULD MOST DEFINETLY B MORE.
GOOD S7 SPIKE EPIS:
"LIES MY PARENTS TOLD ME"
"SLEEPER"
"GET IT DONE"
"CHOSEN"

[PokerKitten]

Yeah well, word is that Joss had a say in the episode choices for all these character DVDs....

The BBC has clips up from the profiles on the DVDs - here's Spike's clip, bit I am not impressed! Let's hope the 15 minutes on the actual DVD will be worthwhile, but I was hoping for something new. Old interview excerpt in the clip

www.bbc.co.uk/cult/buffy/buffystuff/dvdvideo/slayer_spike_clip.shtml

[BEEVR]

there were sum good bits, but they probably just thru it together to grab the spikers' attention.

[PokerKitten]

The postie dragged me from my cosy warm bed this morning... to bring me my Spike DVD! ;D

They really could have tried a little harder with the production of the character sets, I reckon, but hey, it's Spike. And it will be cool to whip it out (so to speak!) for a quick fix, rather than sorting through my vid boxed sets and choosing (and finding) a particular episode.

The on-screen artwork for the menus is very season 6 - some of these promo pics are used (and very nice too!), as on the case and the disk itself. And they have retained the blue-green theme that the promo pics all had from that time, as background.

I have watched the character profile, and as I suspected from the BBC clip, it is basically a cobbling together of two old interviews we have probably all seen before, intercut with a bunch of clips...... from the episodes on the DVD. Both from Buffy DVDs? As I am a vid boxed set girl, I am not sure. But I have downloaded both interviews in the past.

Anyway, it was interesting to me to see the two so closely cut together because in the first one James is all bubbly, happy looking, relaxed and sexy. In the second he looks tired and too thin! They included clips from the first interview that have Juliet, Marti and Jane talking about Spike. And what a good choice, because it is women who have been so important to Spike and his development (although I could have lived without seeing Noxious Noxon again!).

Something that leapt out of the screen at me, because of the way the short episode clips are used, is just what a sexual animal Spike is. Yes yes, I know we all knew this anyway. But it hits you right between the eyes in this format, particularly the interaction with Dru in "School Hard" - my glasses fair steamed up, I tell ya! And it only serves to emphasise how the writers effectively neutered the darling boy with "Seeing Red" and how much I have missed that burning sensuality, and Spike in love. To think, we may never see that again.... *shrieks and wails*

The fast cut clips at the beginning and end of the profile are from a much wider variety of episodes and are probably the coolest aspect of the profile. Starting with "Who are you?" "Spike!" Phwoar!

[nightnurse]

Mine arrived this morning ;D ;D , and I forgot all about it till now cos I was shoping!
The family just went 'Get a life' ! I told em I have a life...it revolves around James Marsters, Bloody Spike , shopping , Spike ,work, sleep, parties and possibly my family..and in that order!

[NLSpikette]

I like your way of prioritising NN

[Pixie]

I love my DVD... as PK says, it's great for a quick Spike-fix when one becomes inevitably necessary!

[Quiet Corner]

I want one!!! But still. I'll have to wait for it to come to a stoor near me. Or I could just wait till I get a credit card. Or I could ask a stoor if they have it or if they could order it for me............yeah. I like that idea.

[Cyrus]

I saw this in the Best Buy ad for this week and was like oooh! Then I went wait, we've already heard about this... Wonder why Best Buy is calling it an exclusive and preorder?

Spike: Love is Hell

[PokerKitten]

Because the character DVDs are only now being treleased in the US, aren't they? You got a slightly different cover to us.

[Cyrus]

ah ok I guess so... it says release date July 05, 2005

[PokerKitten]

SPIKE: LOVE IS HELL DVD REVIEW
Review by Brian Tallerico

The Show: A
Look: C
Sound: C
Extras: C-
Overall: B-

Love hurts, love bites, love beats the crap out of you, and then it forces you to sacrifice yourself to save the world. That last one might be just for Spike, the lovelorn badass from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Created by Joss Whedon and brought vibrantly to life by James Marsters, Spike the vampire loved and lost as he prowled the neighborhoods of Sunnydale. First, his love of centuries in Drusilla, then the love that proved his undoing (or his making depending on how you look at it), the slayer herself. Now, we can trace the tragedy of Spike's love with four episodes, repackaged by Fox under the banner Love is Hell. Sure is.

With all of their seasons released on DVD, many classic shows are trying to find new ways to reach out to fans who may not want to pony up for the big box sets. The X-Files Mythology sets, which compile the conspiracy episodes from the entire run of the series, are an excellent example of how to bring a series to a new audience, even after it appears to have run its natural course. Buffy the Vampire Slayer feels like a no-brainer (or should that be no-souler?) for such a repackaging, with any number of characters or series-long plotlines to play with in new sets. And so we get Spike: Love is Hell, four of Nosferatu Vicious' best episodes - "School Hard," "Lie to Me," "Lovers Walk" and "Fool For Love."

Four? Now admittedly, these are four of the best episodes not just in Spike's history but the entire Slayer mythos, but it leaves even a casual fan of the series wanting more. Keeping the price low and giving fans an introduction to a character is an interesting marketing idea but jumping from this little set to a full season is a big leap. Why not offer something more in the middle, for fans of the show/character and newbies alike? The arc of Spike could have easily been given twice or even three times as many episodes and the price still could have been kept reasonable. More character sets are likely to come along. All I can say is give us more. Four episodes is just a taste. Even new fans will want something resembling a bloody meal.

And the meal doesn't look or sound nearly as good as it should. Each episode is in full frame 4:3 with only Dolby Digital 2.0 to hear Spike's witty barbs. On both sides of the technical stake, the disc comes up short. The show's on so often that you could probably stumble across all four of these episodes in the same week. If Fox had made them look or sound better than digital cable, you might pick up the set just for the technical experience. And what about trenchcoat-wearing Spike fans everywhere looking for something extra about their favorite bad boy? Well, there is a 15-minute featurette about Spike, but it's a quickly slapped-together piece, cutting other interviews about these four episodes into one piece. Marsters is always entertaining and will give you new insight into his character's development, but, once again, a little something more, like a new commentary, would have been nice.

Spike: Love is Hell is like that first drop of blood to a vampire and, in the end, that's all Fox really wants to give you. They want to get your bloodlust up and running, to wake you in the middle of night and make you go buy the original season sets. But there's a better way to go about that. There's a way to make the Masters of the Buffy fan clubs happy as well as the newly bitten. Maybe they'll put a little more heart into the other character sets. Willow and Faith certainly deserve a better fate.


Spike: Love is Hell DVD Review

UndergroundOnline

[PokerKitten]

Latest ‘Buffy’ DVD set will leave Spike fans feeling cheated
By Mike Moody
The Brownsville Herald

October 14, 2005 — “Spike: Love is Hell,” the latest character-themed DVD collection of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” episodes from Fox Home Entertainment, offers fans of the show and those uninitiated into the “Buffyverse” four solid hours of cutting social commentary, cheeky humor, pointed drama and well-executed action. But, the set fails to do what its glossy cover box promises: deliver the best “Buffy” episodes featuring the ever-evolving British punk vampire character called Spike (James Marsters).

Creator Joss Whedon’s underrated, genre-blending show took many dark and unexpected turns throughout its seven-season run (five years on The WB and two on UPN).

Whedon wrote season-long arcs that allowed his characters to grow and change and even die. Every “Buffy” regular, from bookish Willow (Alyson Hannigan) to everyman Xander (Nicholas Brendon) to the titular character herself (Sarah Michelle Gellar), evolved throughout the series in unexpected, sometimes hard-to-watch, but indisputably satisfying ways. Nifty beheading scenes and zeitgeist-capturing dialogue aside, “Buffy’s” true merit rested in its unflinchingly honest and entertaining examination of how a band of outsiders keeps its integrity intact when faced with its demons, figurative and literal.

Arguably, platinum blonde, leather coat-wearing Spike is the character that faced the most demons on “Buffy.”

After having it easy as a wise cracking harbinger of death for hundreds of years, he becomes impotent, depressed and nearly insane throughout the series when faced with a newfound humanity, analytical glimpses into his destructive past and dismissal from the love of his life. But, you wouldn’t really get all that with this set of episodes.

”Spike: Love is Hell” features the character’s introductory episode “School Hard” written by David Greenwalt. In this second season episode, Spike roars into the town of Sunnydale, Calif., and quickly establishes himself as the new big bad by feasting on parent-teacher night attendees at the local high school. In tow is evil gal pal Drusilla (Juliet Landau) — the Nancy to his Sid. The episode sets Spike’s reputation as the evilest of the evildoers and cleverly apes “Die Hard” and “Three O’Clock High” while referencing Woodstock, “Star Wars” and the Boxer Rebellion.

Next up is an inexplicable entry from season two titled “Lie to Me,” written by Whedon. The episode has a lot to say about friendship, subculture and young people’s need to belong, but it says nothing new about Spike. The character is given little to do but act menacing and feast on an “all-you-can-eat moron bar” of vampire wannabes.

“Lovers Walk” from season three finally displays how three-dimensional Spike can be. Episode scribe Dan Vebber starts to unravel the character’s bad guy exterior by giving him a broken heart, a softer veneer and the best jokes in the episode (“I may be love’s bitch, but at least I’m man enough to admit it.”).

The episode also paints Spike as a sensitive character who relates his mind-altering insight into other characters’ relationships. It’s one of the funniest Spike episodes ever written, and Marsters plays the comedy like a pro, but it still should have been shelved in favor of any of a number of later episodes from seasons five, six or seven that have to do with Spike’s struggle for redemption.

Season five’s “Fool for Love” is the gem of the pack. Not only does Douglas Petrie’s script reveal more about the character than ever before, the episode is expertly shot, directed, plotted and acted, cleverly balancing dark drama, humor and intense action. The flashback scenes (which recall many Merchant-Ivory and ‘70s “blaxploitation” filcks) reveal new dimensions of Spike’s character and set the stage for his transformation from evildoer to reluctant champion.

With its long arcs and emphasis on character development, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” is a natural for this kind of collector’s set. “Spike: Love is Hell” serves as a nice primer for those new to the series, but “Buffy” fans would be better served by purchasing any of the seven complete seasons on DVD.

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[PokerKitten]

It's interesting that both of these reviewers totally "get" the complexity of Spike and yearn for more/different episodes on the disk.

Trouble was that I don't think they could choose any eps from the UPN seasons. And 3 of the 4 eps have every right to be there, IMO.