Hm. I haven’t. That doesn’t make as much sense to me either; what WOULD you call the per-episode obstacle then? The seasonal-obstacle and the episode-obstacle make binary sense, little/big-wise. A nebulous possible middle ground seems more ill-defined to me and not the best use of the big/little dichotomy. I wonder if you misinterpreted?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_and_little_bad
This matches the definition I am familiar with, meaning, for example, that Spike and Drusilla were S2’s Little Bad whereas Angel was the Big Bad. The per-episode villains were, to use the nomenclature of Star Trek, foreheads of the week.
And to use the nomenclature of Buffy, they were **Monsters ** of the Week (MotWs). I’ve never heard them referred to any other way. “Little Bads” were, indeed, Spike and Dru, Mr. Trick, The Troika, etc.
Indeed. I just prefer forehead of the week.
What’s good for the goose and so on and so forth.
Oops, that did sound corrective, didn’t it? Nope, just clarifying.
“Trio” not “Troika”. They gave themselves that name - why alter it?
Comment on your spoiler:
Conventional wisdom on this is that Doyle’s death was driven by behind the scenes considerations and not just a desire to shock the audience. Specifically that they discovered Glenn Quinn (the actor who played Doyle) had drug problems after they had hired him and started shooting, and it was affecting the work, so they had to write him out. At the time Joss claimed otherwise, that it was always planned, it was done for story reasons, etc, but he may have just been protecting Quinn. And then Quinn died of a drug overdose a few years later which lends some credence to the theory.
OTOH (Angel Season One spoilers)
I always disliked the character of Doyle. Killing him off was the best thing they could have done that season, IMO. I allowed them to shake the show up a bit, leave people wondering what they would do next, and allowed them to bring in Wesley, which was a much deeper character played by a much better actor.
The Masters of Pain that are Mutant Enemy did their jobs very well, and we lined up to be hurt.
As for Priam’s spoiler for Season 5:
I didn’t miss Cordy until she came back. All the Mother of Jasmine crap left me cold. What we got in “You’re Welcome” was the old Cordelia. She will always be missed.
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard them refer to themselves as the Troika during season 6. 
Speaking of which, I’ve been wondering… where did the name “Troika” come from, anyway? It’s never used in the show itself (they’re always referred to as the “Trio,” even in Season 7), but it’s common enough that the showrunners and the actors themselves have used the term.
Buffyspeak. Yeah, Wheden’s shows have definitely developed their own little subculture, complete with esoteric terms. Makes me wish I was part of the scene while it was still fresh, rather than 5-7 years later. I would have gone completely nuts over these shows in my college days (as opposed to my current state of partial nuttiness).
Any other terms I should know about? I know what a Browncoat is. I don’t think I am one, but that might change after I discover Firefly and get pissed off at how quickly it was cancelled.
More Angel Season 1 Spoilers, for those keeping track:
That certainly clears things up. Too bad Quinn died so young. I thought he had potential. Or maybe I was just charmed by that Dublin brogue. I guess Wesly’s slowly starting to grow on me. He still feels like “one-dimensional comic relief guy”, but I guess Xander was in the same position in Buffy Season 1, and now he’s one of my favorite characters (kind of a meaningless statement since almost every character on Buffy/Angel is “one of my favorite characters”).
June, what season of Angel are you on? because by season 3 Wesley gets very deep.
As for Glenn Quinn, he played Becky’s love interest on Roseanne, and had a great deal of trouble concealing his accent
Buffy’s friends are known collectively as “the Scoobies.” never liked the term myself but since they occasionally refer to themselves as such I guess I’m stuck with it. Angel’s cohorts are known collectively as “the Fang Gang” and I think also something like “the Ministers of God” which I never quite understood.
Hmm. Well, I still disagree. In my circles, “little bad” refers to the per-episode obstacle. True, some of them rise above the noise, and some of them return for more than one episode–as in your examples–but the demonic roommate who liked Celine Dion was as much a little bad, in my understanding of the term, as Drusilla. She was just not a recurring little bad. Since the term is used that way among the circles I discuss Buffy with, it appears there is some variance in the usage. It will be interesting to see which usage shakes out over time.
I was delighted to find that I greatly enjoyed season 6, after having been warned by many that it wasn’t any good.
Were there giant season 6 vs the world threads in the past? Anyone got a link to one?
I’ve noticed that too. I’d guess that much of it’s due to Firefly fans who decided to see what else Joss had done, and the recent release of the complete Buffy set at a very reasonable price.
I’m just finishing up with Season 1, so I’ve only seen Wesley in a handful of episodes. I’m looking forward seeing the character fleshed out a bit – I like the actor – it’s just that I haven’t had much chance to establish an emotional connection to his role, and he hasn’t done much yet but bumble around.
Yup. The Chosen Collection I believe it’s called. All seven seasons plus extras for around $140. The best deal I’ve ever seen on a DVD collection, considering that a single season of Deadwood (12 episodes) will set you back 50 bucks.
40 discs for $169.
I have never seen your usage in any of the sites or forums I’ve read but I will concede that Kathy could be called a little bad but not the Little Bad of the fourth season. That would be Professor Walsh and the Initiative.
Initially $130, which is how much I paid for my set.
I have to say that I paid $102 for it (actually pre-ordered) through Deep Discount DVD.com. Best $102 I’ve ever spent in my life.