Article Joss: "They're going to hate you"

Someone on Whedonesque didn't like the premiere of Necessary Roughness. Pfft, whatever. It's not a super-deep show, but I thought it was funny and cute with an interesting plot. Not everything has to be "examine the universe" deep. It's a fun summertime show for me. Callie Thorne's character has attitude (without her Rescue Me character's neuroses). It's better than watching a stupid reality show IMO! And certainly different from the million crime/detective/spy shows out there (and I do like those). In fact, I like quite a few of the USA shows.
 
VisionGirl said:
Yeah, it was almost a self-fullfilling prophecy. Because then he wrote him so that he definitely would be hated!
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When I re-watch I actually think it's the opposite, Riley becomes kind of 'bland' at times because it seems to me that the writers were trying toh hard to make him so nice and good and perfect in some ways so that he wouldn't be hated, don't feed the flames y'know. Major misfire, eh?

I think Joss was just aware of what the fan-climate was and that anyone - anyone - he brought on as Buffy's new beau was going to get a lot of heat simply for that reason. 🙂

I remember my great dislike of Riley and in hindsight I know it had less to do with him (besides who wouldn't look bland next to creatures of the night regardless of his soldier job) and more to do with the timing. I didn't want anyone with Buffy then who wasn't Angel (or possibly Spike) so Marc really got a rough gig there. I don't remember the online hating myself but I'm sure it was fierce.

Now I'm thrilled we got Riley of course and don't find him bland at all, but it took me a while to reach that conclusion 🙂
 
Thanks Much for the interview and the essay link -

I am one of those viewers that really disliked the character, but it had absolutely nothing to do with his taking Angel's place as Buffy's new love interest - the character brought a lot of "cultural symbol" baggage with him. I was one of the "oldies" that watched the series, and for a lot of women in my age group he was exactly what we were trying to unload in our society and culture. He came off for many women as the Big Powerful Man who was going to insist that his job of to take care of his female. By the second time I saw him, and when he tells Buffy that he will beat her the next time (sorry for the paraphrase) I felt that he would not be acceptable as the mate for a strong female character - I really did believe in the premise that Buffy was a role model for the strong independent woman who did not need the man to be her protector or her superior. Add the connection to the military via The Initiative and their secret organization and a tendency for the Initiative soldiers to feel themselves a bit superior and being placed in the role of "good follow all orders" without questions - I was personally never going to be able to like him much. Granted, we all know that good soldiers do follow orders, you can't have any effective fighting force without the chain of command, but Maggie Walsh and her group were involved in some extremely nasty projects. My cultural bias and personal perspective were so in conflict with the character.

I thought Marc Blucas did a very good job with his performance of Riley -
 
C
caritas08
Agree 100%
Awww I loved Riley 🙁 I can't understand why people didn't like him; I loved his & Buffy's relationship a lot more than Angel and Spike 🙂
 
I liked Riley. I think one thing that could of really helped for his likeability was if you took the initiative out of him. I remember when I found out that he and Maggie knew of the demon world I was like "come on, really?" I think if he dated Buffy like a normal guy, clueless to the demon world..it could of made for some interesting plots. A character who became part of the core cast that was new to everything in the demon world could of made for some great comedy too.

The whole initiative plot could of definitely been done without him. Same for Maggie too, it would of just took a little tweaking.
 
I thinks it ridiculous some fans can't separate the actor and the character, there's no reason to hate Marc Blucas for his character. IMO Riley was a decent character, he was boring at times, but he was field commander for a top secret government demon hunting division ...that's badass
 
Hale Caesar said:
I thinks it ridiculous some fans can't separate the actor and the character, there's no reason to hate Marc Blucas for his character. IMO Riley was a decent character, he was boring at times, but he was field commander for a top secret government demon hunting division ...that's badass
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I get why you think it's silly but at the same time I think it's a bit of an honor for the actor because it means that they're playing the part so well that people cannot separate you from it (e.g. like Rebecca De Mornay in "The hand that rocks the cradle") but with Marc Blucas I guess it was mainly because he was relatively unknown too so there was not much of him or his work for people to reference besides Riley, so if they disliked him they were bound to 'dislike' the actor. It's not really personal, I think they all get that, but people can be mighty venomous online. 🙂
 
I didn't like Riley at first because I wasn't sure about him. Then I eased into a bit, and now I think he's a pretty good guy. No real problem here, and I don't really understand any hate against him. Other than probably not being right for Buffy, and going a little whackado in season 5 (Sumwhat, partially understandably), I don't really see anything wrong with him.
 
There's no hating of Riley on my end. He's a pretty cool guy. If there is any secret hate, it's only because I see no reason why they had to have him be part of the commando goons. It makes no sense whatsoever.
 
I definitely like Marc and have watched a ton of his projects since Buffy. I'm really glad he's had a pretty good career and think he did the best a person could do with the character. I'm sorry he got hated on for the character.

I will never be able to like Riley and my biggest complaint is that Joss seems to think that it was the fans not being able to get over Angel or wanting Buffy to have some "monster in her man" that was the reason they couldn't accept the character. For many of us anti-Riley people that's not the case. I would totally love for Buffy to get with a guy like Xander or even Xander himself but Riley has always been too judgemental of Buffy and anyone who comes from a different background than him imo to be likable plus I really don't get the "need to be needed" thing.
 
I liked the character of Riley,to me he seemed to be a genuine good guy,and also truly funny. Seems from this interview that the actor himself is also a great guy,i feel sorry for him,i hope he never let it bother him,he did a great job on Buffy.
 
I always liked Riley, He was nice and stable and I thought he was a good follow on from Angel.

I have to say I've never noticed a problem with his acting, interesting it makes him cringe now. I think that not knowing what he's doing vibe completely worked fo the character, it make the Riley in the Initiative reveal better and it worked after cuz Riley found out he never knew what he was doing really.
 
PassionBecoming
PassionBecoming
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So I guess I could be considered one of those Riley hater, but my hate only extend to the character because of my own values, and I don't like the type of guy Riley is. That isn't Marc Blucas' fault, and it's not because of Angel either, I just dislike the character.

I actually really like Marc in general, and in interviews he sounds like a really awesome guy! Like he said, his character could have been played by anyone and I would have been turned off by Riley's personality.

About his acting, I did think he was a bit subpar at times, but nothing too too bad, still much better acting then a lot of other actors. His "woody-ness" worked well with his character, so that was fine too.
 
Ethan Reigns
Ethan Reigns
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I think it's totally normal that an actor or an actress gets some hate if he or she plays an unpopular character. That's not at all the actor's fault, of course. Actors shouldn't take something like that personally.
Lena Headey said she gets a lot of hate for her character on Game of Thrones, and she's a great actress.

By the way, I thought Riley was OK.
 
I didn't dislike Riley because he wasn't Angel, that would be just silly.
I didn't really like the Riley character because well...he wasn't interesting. I know he was meant to be 'the good guy', all kind and dependable, and while that was good for Buffy, and I think their relationship was good romantically (I think there was a distinct lack of sexual chemistry between them, but you can't have everything) he was just really hard to care about or have any interest in, as characters go.

It also annoyed me how in S4 Buffy kind of neglects her friends because she's that into her new boyfriend, and yet in S5 we supposed to believe that she was 'shut-down emotionally' and neglecting Riley- that bothered me. 🙁
If he hadn't left the show I couldn't really see where they could've taken the character. What could he have brought to the show? I can't really think of anything apart from...preventing Spuffy.
Wow, suddenly Riley Finn is all shiny and new! 😛

However I've seen Marc Blucas on 'House' and 'Blue Bloods' and thought he was awesome, no problem with the actor at all. My non-Buffy watching friend thought he was gorgeous.
 
Xin Rong
Xin Rong
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R
Robb Stark
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Here's the thing, Riley I'm not a fan of, but I can't fault Blucas' portrayal. I don't get why he thinks he sucked.

On the other hand, I can't seem to separate Riley and Blucas in my mind so if I see him in anything I'm usually rooting against his character.
 
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