I am almost ashamed to call this an episode of BtVS. Even the presence of Angel (which was sorely lacking anyway) could not have made this sadly tacky episode bearable. In a word, The Puppet Show sucked. I’m going to keep this review short because I don’t really want to delve into the patheticness of the episode (which I doubt I’ll re-watch for a very long time), so here goes.

Things I hated with a flaring passion:

the oh my god how tacky Chucky look-alike
the entire dumb, uninspired storyline
Buffy’s sighed lament over Syd’s death
the cliched predicability of it all
Chucky’s come ons – uber ick-factor
the un-scariness of it all – especially the scene in Buffy’s room – oh come on!!
the really pathetic demon costume
Buffy’s clothes – pull down those skirts, girl!
Joyce and her textbook mother routine.

Things that managed to work despite the bad, bad, badness of it all:

the Cordy/Xander banter – gotta love those two!
Giles using the hair trick on Cordy, hehehe
Xander’s power trip over an inanimate object
Snyder, yay!

Thank God that wasn’t the first episode I ever saw – it would have scarred it for life.