Free With Ads - [UNLOCKED BOCO] Buffy The Vampire Slayer Musical "Once More With Feeling"

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

It's 2026 and we at Free With Ads want to let all the freebies know that we took a tiny vacation! So we have unlocked our favorite bonus episode of the year from the MaxFun boco feed. Please enjoy our review of the musical episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer "Once More With Feeling (S6 Ep7)." It's one of the rare instances of a fan service that is actually quite enjoyable for regular people.Tune in next week when our movie will be... Misery.To listen to ALL of our bonus episodes of Free With Ads, become a member of MaxFun by going to maximumfun.org/join

Hey, gang, it's Jordan. What you're about to hear as a special unlocked bonus episode. Our bonus episodes are where we talk about free with ads, TV shows, and you can listen to them all by going to maximum fun.org slash join. If you become a max fun member, you get our episodes, the episodes of every other show on the network, and a good feeling knowing you support your favorite podcasts. Okay, enjoy this bonus episode and go to maximum fun.org slash join if you want to hear more.

It's free with us. It's free with ads. It's free with ads, the podcast that asked the podcast that asked a question, Why pay Apple TV $10 bucks a month to watch Shmigadoon, a musical TV show that apparently had two seasons and a bunch of stars? But I never heard of it until I googled musical TV shows to find a reference for this joke. When you can go online for free and watch one of the greatest musical TV episodes ever. I'm Jordan Morris. And I'm Emily Fleming.

Today's bonus episode is Buffy the Vampire Slayer once more with feeling a musical episode that may not always have great singing but definitely has a scene where someone kicks knives. into the air. So, yeah, this is an episode that we think y'all wanted to hear because we made it a little incentive, a little carrot we dangled during the Max Fun Drive, and folks stepped up and joined the network.

And so here we are, talking about the Buffy musical episode. And I'm here with my drops. Oh, you got a drop, Matt? I got a drop. Here, let's check it out. Fuck. Hold on.

Good drop. God damn it That's what we call Drop in the ball My drop broke All right Well let's cancel What was it gonna say?

It was your impression It was the one where he goes Where he goes Respect the cruller And tighten the donut Classic Xander line Yeah which is an amazing line Because that is a reference

To the movie Magnolia Really? Yes And it is specifically referencing This scene Which I'll play for you now with Tom Cruise, who plays sort of like an Andrew Tate type guy. Uh-huh.

And he says this line. Respect the cock. Wow. And tame the cunt. That is the reference in Buffy. So I just want to say, sometimes I'd like Buffy. Yeah. We love it.

I've never seen Magnolia. Oh, it's a weird one. It's great matter. I know. I know it's incredible. And now it sounds like it's even more relevant now. We got to work magnolia. Yeah, it is.

It is. It is. But this isn't about magnolia. We're talking about the musical episode of Buffy. That's true. We get kind of a new opening. We get a kind of a swooping orchestral version of the pop punk theme song. Let's be real.

It's a keyboard that makes orchestra noise. You're right about that, yes. Probably not a lot of actual stringed instrument. Yeah, no. The signature Buffy Jank is all over this thing. in a very charming way, I think. So, yeah, we get that kind of sweeping version of the theme. Yeah, it's so kind of weird.

We talked about the pilot of this episode, and now we're jumping forward to season six, and like the whole fucking thing is different. Not in high school anymore. Buffy's kind of living in a house with like all the other, like, you know, demon hunter people. Willow and Tara are in there.

Summer, who was her sister, who was kind of a clone or something. Anyway. Is that Michelle Tractonberg? Yes, it is. Yeah, Michelle Tractonberg passed away this year and, like, is great in this. Obviously, Harriet the Spy and like... I love Harriet the Spy.

Yeah, she's awesome. Definitely, like, you know, gone too soon, but, like, amazing body of work and so cool that, like, this show is going to be around for it. And I think a lot of people, like, I don't know, when I watched the show when she became a character, I was so stoked. Yeah, I know. I loved her. And so it was surprising to me to hear that a lot of fans.

gave her a hard time. Oh, yeah? And I got to say, I cannot believe it. Like, because I, this was so exciting when I saw her in the show. Yeah, and I think she's super beloved now for this, for sure. I mean, yeah, I think it's just a bunch of people who don't like joy. Sure, it might be. They didn't like to have any joy.

But, yeah, no, it's really cool. I would like to say there's some spoilers, of course. Sure. Yeah, if you're doing a Buffy rewatch, yes, spoilers abounds. There's some major things, like Buffy has died and come back. Several times, yeah. A big part, I think, of the plot point is her misery of being, like, dying and coming back. Yeah, and I do kind of like that they, like, have to resurrect her for plot reasons in this a lot, but they kind of deal with it and like, oh, how would that affect someone emotionally?

And I like the way they do it. Yeah, me too. So as someone who, the only episodes of Buffy that I've seen is for this podcast, you're saying that she dies, dies? Yeah, so I think at the end of season Three is the first time Not related to vampires at all Yeah, a guy drove through a farmer's market Yeah, just really random

A very old man Yeah, exactly The gas with the brakes Asbestos I forget how she dies in season three But the last shot is like her tombstone And it says here lies Buffy She saved the world a lot

Something like a great Yeah, so she ends up coming They bring her back to life I can't remember why they made the decision but she was in heaven so she was happy in the afterlife and they ripped her away from bliss in the afterlife and now she's in hell after experiencing true like true joy and true heaven has to come back to this world that is I love that because that's sort of a metaphor for being on a hit TV show all right fucking yep I gotta kill a guy in the graveyard again Shit, that's so true. Stuck here forever. But I always like that because as someone who's very afraid that nothing is in the afterlife,

it kind of made me feel good that at least there is something. You know, I don't know. But it's, I really like that detail about it. So, yeah, that's a big part of this. Okay. Yeah, so. I'm going to be asking lots of questions like that during this. Sure.

So she has her kind of like, I want song. So it's a musical. She's kind of singing about how she's bored while she's like killing vampires in the cemetery. And yes, like a very just like. down the middle, Buffy scene apart from the singing. So yeah, this is just like going through the motions. Yeah. And we learn she comes home and she's like, hey,

did anybody else do some singing today? And it happened to everybody. I like how everybody describes kind of what happened to them throughout their day, but we don't see it. Very funny joke. And yeah, and it's happening all over town. There's this great kind of cut away to this guy coming out of the dry cleaner and he's like,

they got the mustard out. That guy is David Fury who wrote a lot of of the episode. Oh, really? There's one more great little writer cameo in this that I'll get to later. So, yeah, he's a big, big part of this show and, like, yeah, definitely, like, went on to do a much of other stuff.

I think he did the tick reboot on him. Oh, cool. The reboot or the one from, the live action one from... So I, so not Patrick Warburton, the tick after that. Okay, okay. Peter Sarah Fenowitz, I believe. Okay, okay. Which is a very good show.

Both are. So, yeah, so we have, Tara is now in a relationship with Willer. Willow is now in a relationship with Tara. played by the great Amber Benson, who you can hear on a previous episode of Jordan Jesse Go last year. Yeah, she was really, really great. And also, she is a great novelist in addition to being an actor. Yeah, she's got a great series called The Witches of Echo Park, which is great. Fuck, yeah.

That sounds like you should, like, write something together. Yeah, it was so cool to meet her. She was awesome and funny. And, yeah, if you want to hear. Oh, I think I produced that episode. You think you did produce that, Matt. Oh, that's cool. That's her.

That's her. That's, yeah. She sings that great song. So she... I liked their song. So they have a little love song together. I mean, the 2000s fashion in this off the charts, Tara is wearing a corset on the outside of her clothes that is too big.

Listen, do you guys know, you've seen me in multiple corsets on the outside of my clothes? As soon as I saw this episode, I was like, I love every single thing. Everyone's wearing. Oh, my God. It was so good. Yeah, I loved it. I also, did you know it at Comic Con there's often a screening of this episode and it's like Rocky Horror Picture Show? Yeah, and people sing along and stuff.

I didn't know that until, like, I was looking up this episode. Yeah, this is, I mean, this is like a big deal TV episode, especially to Buffy people. I had no idea it was that big of a deal. And so to everyone who is, is to that part of it, sorry. We're not going to, like, we're probably going to notice things, but also not. Yeah. So they have a song, and it's interesting. There's implied cunnelingus in this song.

Hell yeah. And there's like a joke, like, before she comes, she's supposed to say come in the song. song and they cut away and I'm like this was on fucking network TV way to go like yeah to go having this like lesbian pussy eating scene on network ass TV in like 2002

way to go pretty cool anyway love it um so yeah we kind of we're seeing around town all the there's some sort of musical disease and this guy tap dances so fast he catches fire and I guess that's the danger so you dance too much and you catch fire well is this kind of commenting on like the red shoes

and then that disease where people danced themselves to death that, like, happened back in the day. Oh, I vaguely know about that, but don't quite know any details. Well, I guess, yeah, maybe this is a supernatural. We've got a demon who's causing this whole thing. And that's like, and he's got cool makeup, by the way.

So then we kind of get the Xander Anya story. Zander is engaged to Anya. Who's Anya? She's a demon lady who hates bunnies. Yeah. And she turns good. She's a vengeful demon. So she's like, her whole thing is she helps women get horrible.

revenge on men and she's also someone you can be in a relationship with well it's like there's a lot of stuff that goes on in the past she's like kind of naive in a weird way but also incredibly evil okay kind of like but she seems to be in a relationship with zander yeah who seems to be one of the good guy i don't know that's arguable yeah so i really need to watch more episodes of buffy yeah you do uh yes and uh zander uh on Maybe a little too hot for Xander. Yeah, let's be real. Or just no chemistry.

Yeah. And so Xander is wearing these, like, giant silk jammies. Yep. And... It looks like he's, like, in a sort of a lullaby version of the Mighty, Mighty Boston. Like, he's just... The sleepy, sleepy bostones. Sleepy, sleepy bostones.

Zander, he's wearing, like, silk jammies, and, like, later, he's wearing, like, a giant leather trench coat. I still don't... I think I asked this question. question before, but I'll just ask it again. Was Zander supposed to look cool, or was he supposed to look awful? I don't know. I don't know either.

The 90s was a weird time where you really, I mean, literal archaeologists are going to be asking you the same question. I do think he is like the Ross of. Yeah. We're like Ross, like he's cute, but is he? Yeah. And the clothes were like, are we trying to look cute? Are we, like, trying to look dweeby?

I don't know. Yeah. And Xander just feels like a character that was supposed to be in the friend zone for Buffy, but then Willow is in the friend zone of him. Yeah. And it was going to be this love triangle and then they went, oh, no one wants to fuck Xander. So I guess he just floats in the stratosphere of these characters. Like, it kind of feels like that. Good for him.

Yeah. We get another little kind of glimpse at the thing going on throughout town. There's a woman getting a parking ticket. This is the other writer came here. This is Marty Knoxon. Marty Knoxon wrote a huge chunk of Buffy and directed some movies and she's a fucking legend. Cool. Also, maybe the coolest UC Santa Cruz graduate, man.

Oh, I did not know that. Yeah, there's a couple of UC Santa Cruz jokes in Buffy and she's responsible for him. So, yeah. Hell yeah. I love it. Marty Knoxon, fucking legend. Oh, she's beautiful. Yeah, really just super cool.

And yeah, apparently can sing. Hey, who in this can sing? very few sure wait a minute okay hard to say let's let's

the demon guy he's the only one who has kind of a voice yeah he's like a Broadway legend right okay so I do know a little bit about this because I

so I guess the idea for the musical episode came out because there was a party with the cast and they all found out that James Masterson who plays Spike

who spoiler alert that is the only hunk watch I will ever say in this show Jesus Christ, I think about him all the time. I don't even Giles?

Oh, God damn it. No, it's him. I mean, that's so difficult. But also James Masterson, one of the top like, you know, creators on cameo. Really? Yes. As a person who reluctantly does cameo, I did it for a while. I'm so tired. I can't.

But there are people he's always at the top. I'm so impressed with his stamina. He is a musician. and a singer and so they were at like a party doing karaoke I guess and the um they just realized oh my god oh he can sing he can sing he's so good and then they were all singing with them and they went oh we can make this work yeah so he's like sure got a cool voice I love that his song in this is sort of grunge coded or at least the way he sings it oh yeah he's definitely got the whole

billy idol look is on purpose yeah and it and it kind of works uh but also trust me it works I would confused in that because again only seeing the pilot but I was confused is he in love with Buffy yes isn't Buffy also trying to kill him yes isn't he also trying to kill her yes God I love it I love it I got to watch the show so yeah Spike yes very grunge coded this song so they're kind of like fighting and singing they fight their way through the graveyard Someone makes a Lord of the Dance joke. We sure made a lot of those in 2000, didn't we? God, what a great joke it was.

We love to talk about the Lord of the Dance. Also, some of us took Irish step dancing classes because of Lord of the Dance and saw Lord of the Dance live. Okay, how was that? Michael Flatley was unable to attend, so there was a backup guy. I was heartbroken. Michael, Michael Sharpley. A surf of the dance.

I can't, I don't. Fuck off. See, he's flat. We kind of debate that had our own version of it. Also, if you guys ever want to do, honestly, can I give a request? We don't have to do it next time. But Lord of the Dance, the movie, which is the recording, the live recording. Sure.

Okay. Just talk about dancing. I think we can do it. No, no, no. Lord of the Dance has a plot point. Yes. Oh. It's like a whole plot point.

And it is free with ads. Of course, there's no words. There's a couple of like Irish little like full whatever. You fast forward through those. But anyway, there's a pooty toy to toy. Anytime some bitch comes out and is singing, you're like, no, and then you fast forward, and then you get right back to the clip clop, clippity clop. That's what we're here for.

The clippin and the clopping. The shirtless, clippity clop. Anyway, I got so horny for Lord of the Dance. I can't even tell you. So, yeah, no, anytime someone made fun of the Lord of the Dance, I was like, shut the fuck off. Yeah, you're never even taking a clap. I loved it. So, yeah, we get a Lord of the Dance joke.

Dawn, she's in the kind of middle of like a shoplifting. story here and she's like counting all the things she's shoplifted and they all have little price tags on them like you would shoplift them and not take off the price tags anyway she's like dexter she keeps the like little blood oh yeah maybe that's it maybe that's it she's got to file them for like taxes and she gets grabbed by a bunch of guys in ventriloquist masks who are fucking scary yeah yeah legitimately janky ass show is very rarely scary but here I'm like these are pretty terrifying yeah yeah well all of the um practical effects and makeup in the show is truly remarkable.

Doug Jones does a lot of work. Also, so earlier we did an episode about Batman Returns. Doug Jones makes an amazing appearance. He's one of the, like, you know, carny kind of characters. But he's also done a lot of character work in Buffy. Oh, neat, awesome.

Yeah, I mean, who can be under makeup better than that guy? He's the best. He's the best. He's the king. Do you think you could do it? Do you think you could get prosthetics put on your face? No, I'm not patient. I'm too fidgety.

It's terrifying to think about. And I have a mustache that will not go away. Yeah, y'all can't get rid of your facial hair. I would never. It's too good. You ever seen what I look like without a mustache? Yes. I see both of you, I think, without facial hair. And you're both good looking men.

Without the facial hair, it's a whole other thing. Not all men can grow like good facial hair. I'm including me. I'm not true, Matt. I'm saying that with it, I'm fine. Without it. When you fish for compliments, it is so boring. It's not boring for me. If you think it's boring, then get to the compliment faster. I'm going to start fishing for compliments in a way that y'all will not be able to stand. I can't wait. My tits are so small.

No, I like the big. I like the milk. Give me the milkeys. Yes, give me the milkeys. Yeah, yum, yum, yum, yum. All right, I regret everything. I just said. Careful what you wish for.

My plan worked Now she'll never ask again Yum yum yum yum I'm gonna be more specific In another weird way So we get Everybody's like kind of going to save Dawn Fucking so many long leather coats in this

You can tell the Matrix just came out Everyone's wearing a long leather coat For sure did you guys in your high school Like were like leather trench coats Like not allowed Yeah Like any kid could afford it Oh I don't know

Yeah I'm sure that makes totally make sense. Yeah, I mean, that was like, you know, Columbine. Yeah, it was the dusters, uh, stopped being allowed after Columbine. But in high school, people were allowed to do it again, but there was a lot of theater kids at our school. So I feel like people were like, nah, there's just a theater kid. Don't worry about it's like, that is a lot of leather to afford as a 15 year old person. Well, they were pleather. Let's be real. Well, but, you know, but it was, it's just such a funny look that I don't think any of us were trying to do in the first place. Yeah. Well, people were going for the Matrix. Yeah, yeah.

So they're kind of, they go to the demons like lair. His layer looks kind of cool. It's kind of like a bachelor pad. All the, all the puppet guys are there. We never really get an explanation for these guys, but they're cool looking. Yeah, sure. They catch one and he, like, you know, they catch one of the puppet guys. Yeah.

And he tells them like, yeah, the demon guys over there or whatever. And then he runs away. And they all just let him run away. And they let him run away. And I was thinking to myself, I was like, you know, that is probably the scariest villain i've seen on this show thus far maybe he has like an arc does he ever come back i don't think so i don't think so either the like song demon and these guys are a one-off there's a lot of like just one and done yeah i mean i would have loved it if the song demon came back

i thought he was one of the cooler demons he ever had i know he's fucking awesome you're having a blast but even just that the puppet guy who escaped because they they make a point to mention like wow he's a lot faster and stronger than i thought he would be and i'm like okay is there more no Maybe there is, I just, I honestly can't remember it this moment, but who knows? Maybe we should do more movie episodes. Yeah, I mean, if the puppet guy comes back, someone will correct us. Someone let us know. Someone will correct us.

Yeah. So, yeah, this is kind of the big boss fight dance number. Yeah, Buffy does kind of her own number. And, you know, there's also this thing where she's training with Giles and he's like throwing knives at her and she's kicking him out of the air while she's singing. Very, very cool. Very cool. And yeah, this is kind of like Giles is getting ready to leave the show, and they're kind of like setting it up a little bit here.

Yeah. And then so I think we get kind of an answer to the mystery of why the demon is doing this. I guess Xander summoned him because he's afraid that he and Anya won't work out and did this to see if they would. It doesn't make a ton of sense. And then the demon just leaves for a reason that I didn't really understand. Listen, if you have to summon a demon to figure out if you should break up with your girlfriend, spoiler alert, you should fucking bring up with your girlfriend. Whenever I ask somebody, I text people to go, should I apologize to this person?

Which is literally every day. It means I should. Like, anytime I think to ask, it means I absolutely should. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Why am I asking people? Also, I really like the song with Michelle Tractenberg. Yeah. And the guy, because he keeps saying, I'm going to make you my queen.

She keeps going, I'm 15 years old. That's a really funny joke. She keeps saying, like, this is illegal. Yes. The show has a lot more jokes than I think I gave a credit for. It really does. It's joke on joke on jokes. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, it's great. And, like, you have some really great, like, TV actors that can kind of nail them. And some of them are kind of corny and they're too right orly. But, yeah, Michelle Tractenberg in particular. Yeah. And, yeah, and, like, nobody can fucking do that shit. Like, Alison Hanigan. Allison Hanigan is incredible.

Every single actor Like everybody in this is like Just the chemistry between every single person You could put any single actor from that show Together in a scene together They're gonna crush it Like I just am blown away by the I don't know the talent and the integrity

Yeah It's such a good cast And Michelle Trachenberg Fuck you if you didn't like what she did She was fucking killing it from the minute she got there It was a bunch of you know jealous pre-teen boys. That's what it was.

For real. They were like, she thinks she's so hot because she's on show. I wish I lived with Buffy. Yeah, right. They're just jealous that they didn't live with Buffy.

And yeah, so that's kind of the end of the demon and then Buffy and Spike Kiss and it's a magical ending. Yeah, we'll do some closing segments real quick. Any hunk watch thoughts?

Emily Spike, obviously. Spike, but you're also completely right. Giles is like, I mean, 10 out of 10. Also, a lot of you have been sending in emails about us watching Repo. Yeah, the genetic opera. Yes.

And of course, he's a fucking killer in it. And I remember watching it and going, that's fucking joel. Oh, my God. And then watching him sing again, it's like, God, his voice is so pretty. It's like so, like, pure and smooth and sexy. So yes, him and Spike, I honestly, I'm going to have to give it to Giles in this scenario just because he was about to leave the show. It's a lot of hunks and buffy.

Spike is amazing, but Giles is the real man. You know, he's a real man. Oh, God. Matt, any thoughts on? I'm giving it to the singing demon because he was the one who I think had the best voice out of all of them. I was in trance by that he was the one good singer. I was also slightly puzzled by the fact that I'm not sure if it's an inside joke, but the fact that they still miced it as if it wasn't a musical,

because I felt like it was strange the way even like a really good singer sounded like he was coming through a TV show. Yeah. It was weird. It wasn't recorded well, which I thought was strange. And I think even sometimes the good singers sound not great. No, yeah, he didn't. But then I would. hear him like vocal control in like different moments and I was like no he's a real singer they

just didn't record this well which is yeah I thought maybe might be might be a joke but I'm not sure well I'm sure they also had to adjust sound to to television implement other singers sure oh they could you know a variety of skill levels yeah but I do like it's kind of a warts and all thing yeah you know even the you know even the characters who couldn't sing that good like got to do a little bit of it. Yeah, it's got a neat quality to it. Yeah, it's like how you have to adjust the volume when I talk. Exactly.

To everyone else sounding somewhat close to what I sound like. Exactly. It's just a lot of editing to make everyone sound as good as we all do. Yeah, well, this is why you are paid. This is why I get money. Money. I get money. And I get money for little toes pictures. Oh, look at my piggy.

Oh, well, yeah, that's Buffy once more with feet. Do we want to do we'll go around and do a little rating real quick. Let's do it. Yeah, I really like this episode. I like the show a lot. It's an eight for me. Same. Yeah. Yeah, I'm giving it a nine. Okay. There you go. The reason I'm giving her a nine is because I don't know what's going on. Because I didn't know what was going on. And even without knowing what's going on, I was watching something that it looked like they were having fun doing it. The music was really good, which is surprising for a TV show.

And this very easily could have felt like something, like I thought we were watching the episode where Buffy jumped the shark. And it didn't feel like that at all. It felt like they were actually having a good time. And everyone involved wanted to do it. And so because of that, it gave me happy feelings for about 45 minutes. I wonder what episode it is that people think it jumped the shark. I mean, you never really know.

Some shows... I'm sure there's opinions. I'm sure someone thinks this is the episode where they jumped the shark. I mean, I don't know, but I thought that's what we were watching. And instead, I watched a really, you know, fan favorite. Yeah, I didn't know that. So I was like, oh, this is good. And then you guys apparently liked it as well.

Yes. Very cool. Well, yeah, that's Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Once More With Feeling. Thank you so much. Tune in next week when our movie will be Rob Reiner's Misery.