Beer Bad - Buffy Episode Review by MikeJer

Ah yes, the episode many people consider to be the worst in BtVS. What's my take on it? Well, it isn't all that great, but the first half has a lot of really good material in it. The main plot isn't terrible in theory, but in execution we have a completely different tale. I'll just outright say that the big problem is that there is far too many extended sequences involving the cavemen running around and grunting. But, since I can't stand beer myself I am pretty amused of the idea that excessive beer turns people into cave men/women, which honestly isn't far from the truth anyway. This is without a doubt not even close to the worst episode of the series though.

All of the character interaction is handled perfectly. Right in the beginning Buffy is day dreaming about saving Parker from vampires at which point he apologizes to her and says he sees how wrong he was. She's interrupted by seeing him chatting up another girl and Professor Walsh talking about the "pleasure principal." Buffy then, very amusingly, has another dream where Parker gives her the same speech and then gives her flowers and some kind of ice cream too. I really like how the writers aren't glossing over her sexual encounter with Parker, because it's actually really important to address further. This is a big deal in Buffy's life -- an experience she's learning from. She finds out from Riley that Parker "sets 'em up and knock's 'em down." This is the point when Buffy stops trying to make excuses for Parker and looks to herself for blame. She tells Xander "I'm a slut ... idiot." These are natural thoughts after an experience like this and it's meaningful to see Buffy thinking about it. Xander offers a little sympathy but can't help much.

It's at this point when Buffy begins drowning her sorrows with beer. This is understandable even though it's not fun seeing her do that to herself. Cave Buffy begins to now emerge and there's a few interesting things that happen after this point. The first is more just being entertained than interested: Cave Buffy spinning around in a chair. I can't pinpoint why I love this so much but I do. Xander walks in on her and then she starts coming onto him on a primal level. Is it just the fact that Xander's male to why she's all over him, or does it possibly have something to do with a buried attraction for Xander himself? Maybe I'm stretching, but I think this gives some possibility to a Buffy/Xander relationship post-S7.

It's worth noting that even as a cavewoman Buffy still has instinct to help others in a time of crisis. Even though she can be selfish at times (aren't we all though?), the core of her being is selfless and will always be that way -- it's who she is. This point is brought across blindingly clear when she even saves Parker from death (although she, quite hilariously, knocks him out first). After everyone is outside and safe Parker begins to actually apologize, although I honestly believe that it's only because she just saved his life and that he really isn't sorry at all. Thankfully, Cave Buffy can see right through it and knocks him out again. Can I just say...YAY! (Look! An un-academic outburst! What can I say, academia can suck the fun out of things sometimes ;))

Problems are beginning in the Willow/Oz relationship. Willow is noticing that Oz has become awestruck by this new band's singer, Veruca. It's the same girl who Oz passed by and 'sensed' back in Living Conditions (4x02). We can see Willow trying to pry Oz away from being all mesmorized by Veruca, but her charms aren't working. This issue is directly addressed in Wild at Heart (4x06). Willow, a bit concerned about Oz, goes out for a break and sees Parker sitting down for a coffee. This is certainly my favorite scene of the episode. Parker goes on about how people should be able to engage in casual sex without expecting committment. I agree with him, but only if both partners are in 100% agreement about that. The problem is that Parker misleads people into thinking he does want a lasting relationship just to break down their barriers so they'll have sex with him; it's disgusting. Anyway, Willow acts like she's buying his act and then nails him where it hurts by saying "how gullible do you think I am?" That in combination with Buffy clubbing him over head with a stick is enough to allow Buffy, and myself, to move on. Lets not forget we also get to see Riley punch him for what he did to Buffy in The Initiative (4x07).

That pretty much wraps up all there is to say about this one. The cursed boys that run around grunting for large portions of the episode certainly don't spark my interest and rub off as really stupid, but I think that's the point. I think it could have been made without being boring to watch though. All the great character development going on with Buffy, Willow, Oz, and a little bit of Xander really help give this episode substance which prevents it from completely sucking and is why it avoids sinking into useless territory. I'd take something like this over I Robot, You Jane (1x08) or Bad Eggs (2x12) anyday.

1.	Fallen Feb 14 2006
	I found Beer Bad to be just a hilarious episode. And even though there were parts of it that would bring the overall score down, just because there's not any real plot advancement shouldn't single it out for a bad score. Beer Bad always was one of those episodes that you don't really remember a lot about, but when you get to it in the rotation (I can't watch Buffy out of order, it's like nails on a chalkboard) you're really happy with afterwords. A few points just out of my memory that you didn't touch on but that should have been mentioned in the pros/cons: Buffy: You know maybe, maybe he's just having trouble dealing. I mean, don't guys sometimes put the girl they really, really like inside these little brain fantasy bubbles where everything's perfect? They do that right? Xander asking if the guy wants his ice water on the rocks. You mentioned the scene but you didn't mention specifically that we get to see a little more of Riley's character. It's something you gloss over because we all know that Riley is the paragon of chivalry but before 4.7 we only know that because of tiny little scenes like that one. Put em all together and we figure out that Riley is a good guy before Buffy gets together with him. Xander gets just reamed by the guy who comes up and interrupts his conversation (and then he tries to card him and has to just serve the beer, which when you look back on it has a whole new dynamic that you might miss the first time around: The bartender sees the guy being a huge jerk to Xander and forces Xander to serve him the beer anyway, but the beer is actually poisoned the bartender is helping Xander out rather than snubbing him) Xander: Beer Bad. Bad, bad beer. What the hell am I saying? Buffy, go home and go to bed. FIRE ANGRY! Xander taking advantage of the drunk guys that harassed him. Don't make cave-slayer unhappy. This will give them some time to ponder the geo-political ramifications of BEING MEAN TO ME! All in all I found it to be a pretty good one-off and I usually laugh the whole way through (already past it in the rotation this time around, so 9 times now).

2.	mikejer Feb 14 2006
	I have to admit, when I saw this thread I thought to myself, "oh my word, here comes the flames from people who thought I liked Beer Bad too much." Much to my pleasant surprise, I find out you're defending it even more than I. Great points Fallen. Especially about about the bartender. I don't know how I missed that. To be fair, though, this is only the third time I've ever seen this ep since I usually skip it when I'm showing other people (I've got to learn to stop doing that!) the series. As for Buffy on Parker, I do address it but not what you specifically pointed out: - QUOTE - She finds out from Riley that Parker "sets 'em up and knock's 'em down." This is the point when Buffy stops trying to make excuses for Parker and looks to herself for blame. The quote you pointed out is an example of what I meant when I said "stops trying to make excuses for Parker." I think my score of this episode is quite fair considering a large portion of the last half of it consists of cavemen running around acting like morons. I get the point, but I didn't need to see it for that long. Most of the episode's merit comes from the first half, and when that happens I can't really give it a very high score. But the episode does have a lot of great stuff in it and doesn't deserve the absolute thrashing it gets from the 'Buffy' community at large.

3.	Grounded Feb 15 2006
	"Xander walks in on her and then she starts coming onto him on a primal level. Is it just the fact that Xander's male to why she's all over him, or does it possibly have something to do with a buried attraction for Xander himself? Maybe I'm stretching, but I think this gives some possibility to a Buffy/Xander relationship post-S7." Hehe, it's a strech, but I'll take it . I think the reason a lot of people claim Beer Bad to be the worst episode is because it's probably got the most anvilicious story idea the series ever presents: drinking beer turns you into a caveman. It's not so much metaphorical as it is...well...literal. Having said that, it's pretty much inoffensive fluff that neither develops nor hinders the series at this point. Not in my top 10 worst eps either (there's a thread idea right there ), although I suppose I should go watch it again now you've brought it up...

4.	fryrish Feb 15 2006
	I love this episode beyond all reason.

5.	SpikeBad Feb 16 2006
	I love Cave Buffy spinning in the desk chair. That was just hilarious.

6.	AaronJer Feb 17 2006
	Your mom spins in a chair! Zing! (score one for Aaronjer!) I thought the episode was overwhelmingly funny enough to make up for how overwhelmingly stupid it was. There was a lot of whelming in the episode. The whole "Say bye!" thing totally did it for me.

7.	20questionsgenius Feb 17 2006
	Aaronjer, I was totally gonna say that one of my favorite parts of this episode was when Buffy says "Say bye", she was just so cute, I love when Buffy says cute things, she does cute well. As a matter of fact, I thought Buffy as a cavewoman was adorable throughout the whole episode. And I think this is the season where I like Xander the most. One of my favorite lines from him in this episode is, "This will give them some time to ponder the geo-political ramifications of BEING MEAN TO ME!" He's adorable and funny this season, most of the time, excluding S1 and a little of S2, I severely dislike Xander, but I suppose this is neither the time nor place for that so I'll stop that right there. Anyway I agree with the score for this episode, certainly not deserving of a B or higher but not as bad as a 50 or below.

8.	LibMax Jul 14 2007
	I've never understood the hatred I've seen (elsewhere) for this episode. It almost seems like people saw the title and said, "Hey, you can make fun of high school and college and the military and the government and religion and sports and cheerleaders, but you better watch what you say about BEER!" It's a comic episode. Most of those tend to be light and not too tightly logical. And this one had a tricky mission. We wanted very much to see Buffy knock Parker on his ass for the way he used her. But under ordinary circumstances, it would have been pathetic - she is The Slayer, after all. But it was okay for Cave Buffy who couldn't control her impulses. Even better to see him repeat the very speech from her fantasy earlier in the episode (with a few important differences) and have her ass him again. It's not a great episode. Some of the best comic episodes have had more substance and/or more to say. But it's better than anything in Season One or most of Season Seven.

9.	mikejer Jul 14 2007
	LibMax, although I agree S1 is overall very mediocre, I certainly don't think that "Beer Bad" is better than every episode in it. S1 has a few pretty good episodes. I also think S7 is underrated by fans. Yes, it's got some very notable problems and was the first time we start to see the writers getting a bit lazy. It's certainly not one of the best seasons of the show. But, there's still plenty of brilliance there. I look forward to making a case for it when my reviews get there. :)

10.	LibMax Jul 23 2007
	MikeJer, I respect your reviews and your insights generally, but I have to disagree with you here. I think some of the episodes in Season One look good compared to the rest of Season One. I agree that even Season One Buffy is better than 99% of non-Buffy television, but starting with School Hard the series jump up a big notch and never looked back, in my opinion. According to your scores, Destiny Girl is the best ep in Season One, and I totally agree. But let's face it - the plot of Destiny Girl, though much better than Beer Bad, is built into the series premise and therefore handed to Joss on a silver platter. Regarding dialog and acting, compare Willow's scene with Buffy after the breakroom murders ("It wasn't our world anymore") to her scene with Parker ("How gullible do you think I am?"). Compare Buffy's "Giles, I'm sixteen years old, I don't wanna die" scene (best thing in the episode, don't you think?) with either of CaveBuffy's scenes with Xander (in the bar or in the dorm room with Xander and Giles). Compare any Xander scene in Prophecy Girl with any Xander scene in Beer Bad. Only Giles seems to me to have better lines and better delivery (or at least as good) in Prophecy Girl. And I think the directing, score, and visuals generally are better in Beer Bad. I know it's hard to compare a comic episode with a very, very serious one. And I hope you have all the seasons on DVD like I do, or I've just been completely wasting your time! And, as I always try to remember to say, YMMV.

11.	LibMax Jul 23 2007
	Oh, and don't get me started on Season Seven. It had three really good episodes (Selfless, Conversations With Dead People, and Chosen) and occasional flashes of the quality and brilliance of seasons two through six, but it was extremely repetitious, Caleb and The Scythe were really dumb, the "Turok Han" and the Seal of Danzithar were miles beyond dumb, and I couldn't stop choking on the monstrous lie that Spike had gone to Africa intending to get his soul back. Also, S7 inexplicably took S1 as its model, at least for the early episodes, so we were back in brain-dead horror-high monster-of-the-week hell before Conversations With Dead People (with the break for Selfless). Him and Beneath You and Lessons (except for the last scene) were particularly awful in my opinion, much worse than anything else between School Hard and Grave. And no, I'm not forgetting Killed By Death or Where the Wild Things Are, either.

12.	LibMax Jul 23 2007
	Oops, sorry, YMMV.

13.	LibMax Jul 23 2007
	Oh, blazes, and it's "Prophecy Girl," not "Destiny Girl." Sorry. I can't see any way to edit old posts on this site, so please just pretend I didn't completely make a fool of myself.

14.	mikejer Jul 23 2007
	See, that's entirely the reason why I don't allow people to edit their comments. I intended for them to make fools of themselves. :p I do hope to add a 'preview' functionality... eventually. Since you seem extremely set in your opinion of S7, I'll refrain from defending it a bit 'cause there doesn't seem to be a point. I'll just let my reviews lay out the evidence when I get there. :) I suggest you join the forums. Just click on the 'discussion' link at the top of the page and register. Longer comments and debates are better suited in that format, imo.

15.	Austin Sep 23 2007
	I really like Beer Bad because: I don't drink (I'm underage and believe it or not I am alergic to alcohol - I was in a lot of medicine a number of years ago and whenever I took those medicines, I would just get worse), and so I have no problem with them bashing beer. Besides, Buffy is soooo funny when she is "cave slayer" it's great!

16.	Nix Oct 28 2007
	Being allergic to alcohol sounds even worse than the hypersensitivity I'm cursed with (a tiny drink and I'm drunk, a large one and I'd probably die: I don't go near alcohol for obvious reasons). But, um, the problem is that the cavemen just aren't interesting. They run around. They grunt. They act much more stupidly than most animals do. They certainly don't act like cavemen (who were pretty much as smart as you or I: it takes smarts to live in a cave with your whole family, with big cats who'd like to eat you all prowling outside, and not get eaten: if you expand `caveman' into `protohominid', that's actually the only environment on Earth that we know for sure selects for intelligence, because, well, it did). They act like grunters, and, well, people grunting and acting stupid isn't a form of comedy I find terribly amusing, nor is it the form of comedy Buffy does best.

17.	buffyholic Nov 4 2007
	The episode is pretty funny except the stupid guys grunting. That is not funny. Cave Slayer is very amusing and like mike, I like when she is spinning in the chair and when she grabs that girl´s sandwich. And I agree with the 65. It´s not great, but it´s certainly not bad.

18.	ThisYearsGirl Feb 29 2008
	LibMax- THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for this: "I couldn't stop choking on the monstrous lie that Spike had gone to Africa intending to get his soul back." Everywhere I've read, Buffy fans are perfectly willing to calmly accept the "monstrous lie" and go with it. Fanfic is some of the worst - his redemption is there and it's real, but let's not kid ourselves: he was there for the chip!

19.	wilpy1 Mar 8 2008
	"but let's not kid ourselves: he was there for the chip!" And you can prove this... how? It was a "plot twist", as Whedon so emphatically stated. Perhaps it wasn't written as cunningly as one would've hoped, but Spike was definitely there to retrieve his soul. He himself said it, Joss said it... ergo it's fact. Sorry.

20.	gabrielleabelle Mar 8 2008
	Waiting for the Dead Things review :) Gotta agree with wilpy. Why on earth would Spike want his chip out? He can already hurt Buffy. And he doesn't seem to desire the ability to hurt other people anymore (notice him having to "work himself up" to the attack in Smashed). He's spent the past 2 seasons trying to be the type of man that Buffy could love. Why would he suddenly change? And we've seen that Spike's major motivation in life has always been the woman he loves. Every action he does is for her, whether it's Drusilla or Buffy. Throughout the season (and last) Buffy's repeatedly told Spike that he's a "thing" not worthy of her. Spike knows that Angel, another vampire, WAS worthy of her because he had a soul. Spike finally decided, in a last-ditch effort after the events in Seeing Red, to get his soul. I think the main problem is that Joss and co tried for a mislead by keeping Spike's intentions ambiguous and it worked a little too well. I had the same issue with No Place Like Home where Dawn is played very much too arch to mislead the audience into thinking she is evil. But like wilpy said, Spike said he went for his soul. Joss said he went for his soul. Spike was going for his soul. His motivation may not be as pure as "I will make myself a better man for Buffy". I think it was more along the lines of "Hell, a soul worked for Angel. I got nothing else to lose".

21.	Kyarorin Mar 22 2008
	And besides, he wouldn't need to go all the way to Africa to get the chip out. A soul, sure, if you wanted to get that and not have the ramifications of never being happy, then you'd probably have to hunt for it, but a chip being removed? Heck, some doctors these days will take payments for illegal surgeries, and Spike's definitely not above doing that.

22.	Tony Jun 28 2008
	I have to say this episode has to be atleast in my top 5 worst episodes, maybe top 2, lol. I hate it, I re-watched it yesterday and even though there is some comedy, it doesn't make up for the ridiculous cheesy plot that the episode has.

23.	Tinkerbell Jul 28 2008
	Personally, I love this episode. I have always thought that it was hilarious. Two of my favorite parts are when Willow is confused and thinks that Buffy engaged in group sex with four college boys and when Xander finally gets his chance to hold out his lighter and display his empathy face, he holds up a no smoking sign and disreguards the girl. Hilarious.

24.	Paula Jul 28 2008
	This is a very silly episode, and all right, among all the Buffy episodes, some of course have to be the worst. No one who places Beer Bad among the bottom 5 is going to get much of an argument from me. I still say it's not all that bad - I quite enjoyed it. Particularly Willow leading that slimeball Parker on like that and then giving him his comeuppance. Go Willow! (I know it's not really Parker who gets his heart or whatever it was cut out nearly on-screen by the creepy bad guys in Hush, but that's what I always like to think, anyway.) Re: Spike, of course he went to Africa for the soul. Re: quality of S7 in general, I do think the writers were by then clearly losing focus (not helped by there suddenly being all these Potentials as new characters). It was probably for the best to quit there, but I still like S7 quite a lot. All of the seasons have their own problems and assets, after all. I just wish Whedon had seen fit to never mind so much about the fans and just take a bloody stand regarding some things (ahem) instead of leaving them wide open.

25.	MrTrick Oct 31 2008
	So, this is a cheesy episode. I won't argue with that. It's just that if there's any series that has a right to be cheesy now and again, it's Buffy. The writers know it, and I'm pretty sure the cheese is intentional. Yeah, the cavemen scenes are bordering on excessive, but Cave Buffy is great. There's not really as much preaching about beer being bad in this episode as many would have you believe, either. The only thing that bothered me was Giles going "you should have known better than to serve Buffy beer", but again, this might just be Giles, and not the writers themselves. After all, the conclusion is that beer is foamy, and I can't really argue with that. It's a foamy drink.

26.	Sanjuro Nov 26 2008
	I never thought I'd see the day when I would stumble across such love for "Beer Bad." I do agree that it's meant to be a silly bit of fun, but apart from "FIRE ANGRY!" I don't think I ever laughed. Plus, compare the allegorical arguments of, say "Innocence (sleeping with a guy can show you his bad side) or pretty much anything involving Faith to the over the top nonsense here (on par with "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" in its GET IT?!?!11? quotient). I'm starting any fights over it, but I say "Beer Bad" is the dubious winner of the Worst Episode award. And let's have a big round of applause for our runner-up, "Teacher's Pet" (which I am watching right now just because I insist on watching the full season).

27.	Paula Nov 26 2008
	Sanjuro, then where do you place "I, Robot... You, Jane"?! I mean, that's GOT to be the worst BtVS episode ever.

28.	Sanjuro Nov 30 2008
	After rewatching all of Season 1, yeah, I'd have to shift the list down one and put "I, Robot...You, Jane" on top (or bottom, as the case may be). At this point I'd say the five worst are: 1. I, Robot...You Jane 2. Beer Bad 3. Teacher's Pet 4. Where The Wild Things Are 5. Bad Eggs These are the only episodes of Buffy that, after two viewings of the series, I cannot bring myself to watch again.

BEER BAD (4x05)