"Beer Bad"
Airdate: November 2, 1999

One thing I've always liked about Buffy is that it's never been very preachy. Sure, there's the themes and the messages and the morals of teenage life, and I'm sure we'd all be better off if we actually learned from them. This episode was an exception, though; it did come off as preachy, and the sermon is a succinct one found in the title: "beer bad."

Alright. I'll give 'em that. Beer is bad, far as I'm concerned. Drunk driving and drowning in one's own vomit aside, beer can make even the hottest of men exude a stench that makes them much less lickable. So I understand the theme. But do they have to shove it down my throat? I get it, guys... it's beer, not love, that makes you do the wacky.

In this case, some magicked-up beer turns four intellectual college-types and one Slayer into Neanderthals. That didn't faze me much; I'm used to an exaggeration of basic ideas on Buffy; that's how they get their points across in such a cool way, by showing that school is even harder when you're stalked by the undead and some teachers really are giant bugs in disguise. What I really didn't need was a drunken Buffy drawing on her walls and growling, "Buffy want beer."

I have to wonder if Sarah Michelle Gellar actually thought this script was fun, or if she just had to swallow her pride, throw out her dignity, and earn her paycheck. I, personally, had to wince, watching her crawl about playing ape-girl with that vacant look on her face. I even felt pity for the guest stars who ended up being Buffy's fellow idiots, as they got to lope around town making monkey-like noises while beating on inanimate objects with tree branches.

As a known proponent of bestial behavior on Buffy, that just makes me mad. If there's going to be episodes in which regulars behave like animals, I feel that it should at least involve a hot guy and a cool animal. Hyena-Xander, for instance, had some definite sexual appeal going. Maybe in future episodes, Spike could be made to think that he's a panther, and we could get another crawling-across-a-bed forearms-and-biceps-rippling scene out of James Marsters. I'm sorry... where was I?

Aside from the sudden transition from Buffy to Chimp Channel and what felt like pretty scatter-brained storytelling, I found "Beer Bad" to be neither good nor bad. A setup for future electricity between Oz and new character Veruca (Paige Moss) left me pretty ambivalent about the whole idea, but Willow was given some great segments, especially her talk with Parker (Adam Kaufman). Xander fell flat with me and seemed like so much excess baggage, and Giles' appearance, though much yearned for, was short. Buffy's treatment of Parker while in her primordial state gave me a laugh, but I saw it coming. There was just enough humor and quirky smarts injected into an overall lame story to keep me from disliking the episode completely, but it's the kind of episode that I probably won't watch twice.

Buffy can be seen Tuesdays at 8pm EST on The WB

-- Lisa Kohles

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