Whedon Writer's Report Cards

I don't know if I'm qualified to be the one doing this, but that's OK, I'm sure you guys will correct me on any obvious flaws.

And these are after all just opinions.

So here's my grades for the Whedon Writers on how they've been doing so far, since the WB murdered Angel.

Honour Roll guys first.

*

Tim Minear A+++ : OK if you haven't seen Wonderfalls, you need to do it. Sling burgers, Rob a convenience store. Do whatever you have to do to get the DVD when it comes out next month.

It's beyond good. It's genius. You may think you've seen Wonderfalls, if you've seen the first 4 eps that were run on the network. Not so. The arc and the true depth of the characters don't begin to show themselves until about episode 5.

Minear is also working on something called The Inside. You can get some info on it here:

https://www.buffy-boards.com/showthread.php?t=19546

Notice how the the series when described in the first article on that page, sounds like a stinker. That was before Tim got ahold of it. Read the second article and see how he re-tooled it.

Joss Whedon A++: I admit, I haven't actually seen any of Joss's current projects, that's why I deducted him a +. 🙂 The buzz on Serenity suggests it's going to be something special though, and critics seem almost unanimous in their praise of his work on the comic series Astonishing X men.

David Fury A+: Executive producer and writer on Lost. Lost is one of the two surprise hits of this season. Also I remember making note of the episode Fury wrote, and although I can't remember which one it was 🙂 I remember thinking, "Hey. That's good."

Drew Goddard & Jeff Bell A : G & B, made an inspired move after Angel. They joined the JJ Abrams stable of Alias and Lost. I think JB's Alias episode will be ep 12, and Drew is going to be doing both an episode of Lost (don't know when), and an Alias ep in February.

Ben Edlund ? : OK I lost track of him and Deigo Guittierez after the Global Frequency project got scrapped.

Jane Espenson B : I saw one of her scripts for Gilmour Girls. I thought it pretty good, but apparently my opinion wasn't universally shared. The Buzz on the 6 unaired, Espenson-influenced Tru Calling eps suggested they're pretty good. I expect good things from her in the upcoming Tim Minear project. I gave her a B, because she sounds like she's still got it, she just hasn't found the showcase yet.

Mere Smith C+ : Tried to watch Johnny Zero one night. It seemed like it might be OK if you forced yourself into it.

Rebecca Rand Kirshner C+ : Apparently she's been writing for Gilmour Girls then Las Vegas. Haven't heard or seen anything terribly interesting from, or about her though.

Drew Z Greenberg D : I've said it before. I'll say it again. Greenberg sucks. I still blame him and his mentor Marti Noxon for destroying a big chunk of BTVS Season 6, and being dually responsible for the flaws of Season 7. Greenberg wrote one good script in his career for Firefly, and that was probably because Joss was standing over him with a Whoopen stick. Apparently Greenberg was writing for Smallville this season. I tried to watch this season's Smallville, and thought it was awful.

Marti Noxon F - : Speaking of awful...Anyone seen Point Pleasant? It's like an uninspired attempt at imitating Stephen King, but with really, really bad acting.

To me Point Pleasance confirms something I've always suspected about Marti Noxon. She's not very good. She was able to bamboozle a lot of people hiding behind Joss's coat tails, but now the truth is out. Now we know why so much of Season 6 seems childish and amateurish, why Showtime destroyed the continuity and common sense of Season 7, sending it on a nose dive from that point, and why giving Noxon so much responsibility for the final arc of 5 in S -7 (if that's what happened, as I suspect) was probably the single most serious error in the history of BTVS.

Here here! I never wanted to say anything about Drew Z Greenberg but it's true. The thing about Marti is that she's good at single episodes (The Prom, The Wish) but the story arcs aren't what she's best at which is why Point Pleasant probably won't get a 2nd season.

I disagree with Nerd4Hire about Marti. She's quite talented. Jeffrey Bell's 1st Alias episode was on last week and Drew Goddard's 1st episode is on this week.

Oh yeah. Marti's got a lot of fans. This I know. Hey SlayerPower. I know you keep informed on this kind of stuff. You should post your grades for the writers too. I enjoy seeing different opinions.

And hey, I missed some, didn't I. Which ones did I miss? They're not coming to me.

Well written N4H. I'd have to say on a whole I tend to agree with every point you made there, in particular about Point Pleasant and Miss Noxon. Good job.

David Fury
A
Lost is a hit, David is doing good. I wish I liked the show.

Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft
A-
These two are now writing for the award-winning show The Shield.

Drew Goddard and Jeffrey Bell
A-
Alias is getting it's biggest ratings this season, though I still think it needs a little work, quality wise. Let's see if Drew's Alias episode is as good as his Buffy and Angel work.

Steven S. DeKnight
B+
After Angel, Steven joined Smallville. He wrote the Flash episode.

Jane Espenson
B+
Since leaving the Buffyverse, Jane has done Gilmore Girls, Tru Calling and now is working on Tim Minear's The Inside.

Rebecca Rand Kirshner
B+
Rebecca only wrote one good Buffy episode (Tabula Rasa), so it's not surprising that no one's following her. She's now on Gilmore Girls, which is not only good again, but getting great ratings.

Tim Minear
B+
While Wonderfalls was good, it didn't last. The Inside sounds interesting and he completely retooled it himself. Let's see how it does.

Joss Whedon:
B+
Joss got to make a Firefly movie. An astonishing feat, let's see how it does.

Drew Z. Greenberg
B
While Drew may not have been a good Buffy writer, he is now writing on The O.C. Only problem is that it's ratings have dropped to 6 million. But it's still got buzz.

Marti Noxon
B-
While Point Pleasant might not be a critical hit, it's too early to tell whether it's a ratings hit.

Ben Edlund and Mere Smith
C
These two are both working on Johnny Zero and it's both a rating and critical flop. It's hard to feel sorry for Mere, who ditched Angel after it's 3rd season to write for Tarzan. Brilliant choice, Mere. Poor Ben had to go here after The WB didn't pick up Global Frequency, which sounded good.

David Greenwalt
C
After leaving Angel to create Miracles, it was quickly cancelled. He also wrote for Jake 2.0, which was also cancelled.

Douglas Petrie
C
After working on the now cancelled Tru Calling, I heard he's taking some time off and then writing a movie. Pity since he was such a good writer.

I was surprised last night. I was watching the new Point Pleasant, ep and it didn't noticeably suck like the first two did. In fact towards the end it was getting kind of interesting.

I look over the credits though, and I see she's brought in Ben Edlund and Diego Gutierrez . Good call. Last night's ep was a definite improvement. The acting still sucks to the point of making the character's unbelievable, but I hear Marti's thinking of bringing in more Buffy Alum to help fix that too. She was using names like James Marsters, and Amber benson.

I don't know maybe she can save that turkey yet, in which case I'll have to raise her grade to B or something. :winking15

David Fury is without doubt the most successful Buffy-ite post-Buffy. I just wish I found "Lost" more interesting. I don't actually like any of the characters, or David would get a grade higher than
A

Joss, with his success with the X-Men world and a Firefly movie also gets an
A

Let's not forget that Jane Espenson wrote one of the amazing early episodes of the OC (one of my personal favorites, The Gamble) that, plus her consistantly-good work elsewhere, raises her to an....
A-

Tim Menear's inspiring and intriguing remodel of The Inside earns him a
B+ (since no one has actually seen it yet)


Drew Z. Greenberg, as far as I can see, has done little else than write one of the least moving episodes of season 2 of the OC. "The Family Ties" is only memorable for getting rid of one of the best characters: Jimmy Cooper (Tate Donavan) and royally screwing with the one of the best relationships (Lindsay and Ryan) The producing gig saves him from a complete failing grade, but still only earns him a
C

Marti Noxon with the noxious and overwrought Point Pleasant, earns a
D-

As far as I can see, the other writers haven't done much that would measure up to Buffy...Wait what am I saying! There isn't anything else out there that even comes CLOSE to Buffy!! 🙂

Well I havn't seen The Inside or Lost, due to the huge ocean getting in my way. Not a fan of OC, seems like a lot of rich kids Dawsoning. So only seen Point Pleasant, which seems like The OC with a dash of fantasy. Will watch another 2 eps, see if it picks up.

Question:

Does Marti Noxon actually write episodes for Point Pleasant. Or is she in just a producer type job? I didn't think that she wrote the episodes.

Marti wrote the first two episodes, so I'd say, yeah, she writes some episodes.