Just watched “Once More, with Feeling,” the musical Buffy episode. Someone I used to know had the same basic idea a long time ago (some malevolent force makes everybody act as though they’re in a musical), but Joss executes it as few others could. I think two of the reasons he pulled it off as well as he did are that he loves musicals and he loves television. He talks in the commentary about how he’s sorry that it ran long (8 minutes long, he says), since part of his thesis is that yes, you can do this in an episode of television, if you try. I’m guessing the length (and maybe the letterboxing) is why those of us who were catching the episodes on FX haven’t seen it. It’s also a demonstration of what a widescreen frame should look like. This is a marked contrast to other Buffys, which upon further reflection look empty on the sides of the wide frame; and even Angel, which looks to me like it was composed wide, but with a conscious effort to make it look okay in 4:3. “Once More, with Feeling” is clearly never intended to be shown in 4:3, and it’s beautiful. (Perhaps) unfortunately, because it’s just another episode, and therefore advances the various season 6 arcs, it’s not the best “Watch this and you’ll see why I think Buffy is so amazing” episode. I think “Hush” is a good episode for that purpose, though. And despite my reluctant acceptance that Buffy is fundamentally a 4:3 show, if you come over to my house, I’m liable to show you the widescreen “Hush”.