Joss Whedon

[Laira]

I guess we can count him as a celebrity, so here goes:

IMHO, the man is a moderately talented writer who let the adulation of the BTVS/ATS internet fans go straight to his head, causing a major cause of Headus Swellicus. Thus leading to his acting as if ever line he writes is great art, and his inability to accept that the entire world does not think he's a genius or like every thing he does.

Examples: Blaming Halle Berry for the miserably unfunny 'toad' line in X-Men. Blaming FOX for running Firefly out of order for it's dismal ratings - apparently it's impossible to start watching a show mid-season, it couldn't possibly have been the dumb literal space western aspects.

He also has a bad habits of playing favorites among his actors to the detriment of his shows. (e.g. Fred on ATS, Alyson Hannigan on BTVS).

[hamhock]

His fake self-deprecation in interviews makes me want to shove an icepick up my nose.

[LurkerNan]

I used to think the sun revolved around him, because I loved BtVS that much... But I can see now that he really had been playing favorite with actresses that weren't that good. Alison Hannigan is OK, but no Meryl Streep.

[bitsygirl]

I don't really know that much about him so don't really have any opinion of him as a person, but I loved Buffy and liked Angel and Firefly, warts and all ( thought it had potential). Have no idea if showing the eps out of sequence hurt the show or not, but I never really understood why Fox balked at showing the original pilot as the pilot since it set up the show much better than the episode they actually went with.

[Mouse]

laira said:

He also has a bad habits of playing favorites among his actors to the detriment of his shows. (e.g. Fred on ATS, Alyson Hannigan on BTVS).

I've also heard that when he has problems with actors, he tends to take it out on their characters. (SMG, anyone? Charisma Carpenter? And I wouldn't be surprised if he'd butted heads with Alexis Denisof.)

[Deleted]

Also...please don't turn this into a discussion about the box office performance of Serenity. It was irritating in the movie thread and it will be irritating in this one.

I agree with this comment x's 1000. Okay, you don't like the movie. Seriously, at this point, can we move the freak on?!

Topic: Don't know that much about him as a person but I love Angel, Buffy, Serenity and Firefly so I guess that makes me a fan. To some, he is a genius. To others, not so much.

[slanderous]

Even though I loved BtVS (until it started to suck), I tend to loathe Whedon. His interviews are annoying and some of his more enthusiastic fans (i.e., the ones who proclaim him a god) frighten me. I think that he hit on a really good idea with BtVS but failed to follow through, and that the rest of his work is mediocre; it also seems to me that the cult popularity of BtVS affirmed some sense of injured genius he'd been carrying around with him since the failure of the original movie and now we're all paying for it.

And I definitely believe he played favorites among the cast, especially on behalf of the more sacchrine female figures -- baby-voiced, addicted Willow, "hey ya'll!"/"handsome man saves me" Fred. Ugh.

[HotLips]

mouse said:

I've also heard that when he has problems with actors, he tends to take it out on their characters. (SMG, anyone? Charisma Carpenter? And I wouldn't be surprised if he'd butted heads with Alexis Denisof.)

Actually, I think he's pretty close with Alexis Denisof and Alyson Hannigan, since he chose them to be his child's godparents.

[spinsterliz]

mouse said:

laira said:

He also has a bad habits of playing favorites among his actors to the detriment of his shows. (e.g. Fred on ATS, Alyson Hannigan on BTVS).

I've also heard that when he has problems with actors, he tends to take it out on their characters. (SMG, anyone? Charisma Carpenter? And I wouldn't be surprised if he'd butted heads with Alexis Denisof.)

Really professional behavior there, Joss. Clearly Joss cares more about who hurts his feelings and who doesn't vs. what would work for his shows. Loser.

I've never liked him. Even when I was watching BtVS I didn't understand the whole "Joss is God!!!" thing. It was the same with Chris Carter (creator of X-Files). I have no idea why some behind-the-scenes people (producers, writers, etc) get signalled out this way when most don't.

[mostlyharmless]

I have to say here that I'm a big fan of Whedon and his writing. No one makes nearly three hundred episodes of three TV shows and then moves on to movies, all attracting much fan and critical acclaim, without some talent. However I am at a loss to where this "Huge Ego" thing comes from. The guy has a sense of humor and is self depreciating in many interviews, what do you want? If he came out and said "Yes, I AM very talented" people would say he's got an ego problem. The biggest thing I hate about Tom Cruise is he has no sense of humor and cannot laugh at himself and many people in his thread have said the same. But here is someone who does and yet THAT is taken badly!

Blaming FOX for running Firefly out of order for it's dismal ratings - apparently it's impossible to start watching a show mid-season, it couldn't possibly have been the dumb literal space western aspects.

So Firefly got canned. Like "Dark Angel", "Titus", "Undeclared", "Action", "That '80s Show", "Wonder Falls", "Fastlane", "Andy Richter Controls the Universe", "Skin", "Girls Club", "Cracking Up", "The Pitts", "Get Real", "Freaky Links", "Wanda at Large", "Costello", "The Lone Gunmen", "A Minute with Stan Hooper", "Normal, Ohio", "Pasadena", "Harsh Realm", "Keen Eddie", "The Street", "American Embassy", "Cedric the Entertainer", "The Tick", "Louie", and "Greg the Bunny". (Thanks to Family Guy)
Shows get cancelled. Good shows. Bad shows. It's what happens. Taking a show with a seasonal arc and showing them out of order can't help.

Thus leading to his acting as if ever line he writes is great art, and his inability to accept that the entire world does not think he's a genius or like every thing he does.

This is certainly not the impression you get from his DVD commentaries, for example. A large part of them is Whedon praising actors (inc SMG), other writers, DP's, lighting guys and so on and that's when he's not admitting mistakes by himself.
A vast part of the Buffy Fandom hated the introduction of Dawn, season six, season seven, Willow going bad and the Buffy/Spike relationship yet Whedon has never suggested anyone else is to blame or thrown a hissy fit at the critisizim. He has said that "We" (meaning he and the producers in general) did make S6 too dark but the way many people here suggest he behaves he would have said "Yeah, I left someone far less talented than me in charge and they ruined it."
If anyone can find a comment even hinting at that or placing any blame on anyone else then please post it.
As for "Blaming the marketing for the failure of Serenity" his quote on it was "Serenity was hard to market. I don't think Universal cracked the problem but if it were easy every movie would be a hit. I didn't crack it either." Yeah Joss, that's REALLY letting those assholes at Universal have it!
Some of the biggest critics of Whedon and Serenity here have talked for ages about "A movie based on a failed TV show and without any big name stars" and yet they then completly discount this as a possible reason for the poor box office.

He also has a bad habits of playing favorites among his actors to the detriment of his shows. (e.g. Fred on ATS, Alyson Hannigan on BTVS).

How? Alyson got some great scenes on BtVS. So did Emma Caulfield. So did Michelle Trachtenberg. So did Nicholas Brendon. And so did SMG. Just how did he "favor" Alyson?

I've also heard that when he has problems with actors, he tends to take it out on their characters. (SMG, anyone? Charisma Carpenter? And I wouldn't be surprised if he'd butted heads with Alexis Denisof.)

So he took it out on SMG by giving her a fantastic character arc that gave her the chance to show off her acting chops? For actors, making their characters suffer and go through hell is the best thing a writer can do. Buffy went through hell in S6, so did Willow. It gave both actors some great scenes. Charisma came back and got a great send off on Angel and Alexis Denisof had a fantastic final season. If that's what he does to actors who piss him off then everyone would be lining up for it!

His interviews are annoying and some of his more enthusiastic fans (i.e., the ones who proclaim him a god) frighten me. I think that he hit on a really good idea with BtVS but failed to follow through, and that the rest of his work is mediocre; it also seems to me that the cult popularity of BtVS affirmed some sense of injured genius he'd been carrying around with him since the failure of the original movie and now we're all paying for it.

I love his interviews, but some fans scare me as well. I would, however, call thirteen years of Buffy and Angel "following through" quite well. Again, I have never seen anything to suggest this "injured genius".

Really professional behavior there, Joss. Clearly Joss cares more about who hurts his feelings and who doesn't vs. what would work for his shows. Loser.

Again, where does this come from? If we're to believe he and SMG didn't get on then why weren't we watching "The Willow Show"? Why did SMG and Buffy get the meatiest, center stage, showoff scenes? The chance time and time again to shine?


I think he is a good writer, director and producer. He's one of the few people who casts actress who aren't stick insects. SMG and Amy Acker are balanced by Amber Benson and Jewel Staite (who Whedon asked NOT to slim down for Firefly) and the actress he cast as Willow originaly was FAR from stick thin and he has spoken out about the network demanding a recasting because they want shows full of Nicole Ritchie lookalikes.