Kristen Bell vs Sarah Michelle Gellar

i think kb is prob a better actress but i still voted smg who i find much more likable

Bell is obviously the better actor; I can imagine (with a bit of mental strain) Bell pulling off both roles, but not Gellar.

I really like Bell, she seems to be a pretty decent and down to earth celeb, fwiw. On the other hand, I spent the latter half of the 90s with such an enormous crush on SMG that it almost feels like blasphemy to consider voting against her.

Freddie Prinze Jr. vs Dax Shephard

In Kristen Bell's favor, this is one of the funniest things ever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5jw3T3Jy70

Bell all the way. Never been able to stomach Buffy, partly because of SMG.

kristen bell is super-awesome. i can only presume that dax shepard is much sweeter and more interesting man than his professional life would make him out to be.

(and to be honest I imagine you'd have to be pretty sweet and interesting to overcome a name like "dax")

<3 Bell

kbeebs is one of my favorite actors ever
http://i1354.photobucket.com/albums/q686/tinyservants/12_zpsc996eae1.png

This is reminding me that I haven't watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall in a while.

I've never seen it. I guess I should fix that.

seeing what a softie Bell is in that Sloth video when I first saw it a while back made me completely forget/overlook her character in Party Down. I guess that makes her a good actress, and I also have a small crush on her, so Bell.

not sure that made sense, but what I mean to say is I didn't realize it was the same person

Am genuinely curious if/how women will vote in this.

Team Bell!

KB, this should be a landslide.

Bell's show w/ Don Cheadle is the worst.

Bell. never ever got the SMG appeal.

and veronica mars RULED like pink floyd

Kbell

ahah, that sloth video ! very sweet.
and KB, of course. never got SMG either.

KB is one of my favourite ppl ever and an amazing comic actor. Sorry SMG, <3 u too

bell duh. dunno how this is even a question

i think kb is prob a better actress but i still voted smg who i find much more likable

― Mordy , Monday, 29 July 2013 23:20 (Yesterday) Bookmark

trademark powers of perception there

Liked Buffy so much more than Veronica Mars, but there's a spark to Bell that Gellar's never had. And also, as a fan of Parenthood, Dax>>>>Freddy. I can't even name a single thing he's done.

Kristen bell is a good actor, whereas it seems like Sarah Michelle just exerted the power of her personality over her portrayal of Buffy for 7 years. But the heart wants what it wants, so I'm voting Sarah Michelle. They seem pretty different to me.

also, no matter how bad the Bell/Cheadle show is, it can't be worse than Ringer, which I watched a ludicrous amount of because I had missed SMG so much.

reading "SMG" in this thread as "shaking my gellar"

Never watched Veronica Mars but I loved Buffy, so this isn't a contest for me. Will say in smg's defense that while she might not have much range, she and Whedon were a perfect match of writer and actor. I don't think the show could have worked without her.

agreed, she did a great job on the show. still voting for KBell though

Bell's show w/ Don Cheadle is the worst

It's truly awful. I have no idea why anyone watches it.

I was trying very hard to support Don Cheadle but the terribleness of that show broke me

good god I could not make it through the first episode of that show, so awful

I got through 1.5 episodes before tapping out

the tone of it felt kind of like one of those amped-up saturday morning cartoons, only with consultants instead of robot lions or whatever

obv I would have stayed with this show if they formed Voltron

WE'RE TALKING REALLY FAST BECAUSE WE'RE IN A HIGH POWERED FIELD HERE'S A DOCUMENT CALL MY BROKER

would love to see Olivia Pope go ham on them

I hope geller doesn't read ilx because she's going to get the shit kicked out of her in this poll.

I need to set aside 3 uninterrupted days to watch Scandal before the fall.

A show starring Kristen Bell, Don Cheadle, and Ben Schwartz seems like it should be enjoyable, but I've never heard a good word about House of PiesLies.

Would watch House of Pies

I want to stick up for SMG here, but SHE wasn't in Pootie Tang.

Never watched Veronica Mars but I loved Buffy, so this isn't a contest for me.

OTM. Though I never liked SMG in anything else, but I think that was down to poor film choices more than anything. Don't know shit about Bell, really.

Watch VM ffs!

KB for Deadwood

bell is so pretty, almost unreal looking. I voted her because of the sloth video. I liked Buffy more than VM though.

more like crisp'n'swell vs. sarah miswell sweller

Is there a way we can boil this down to "David Mamet's Spartan vs. James Toback's Harvard Man"?

that's still pretty unfair

Would watch House of Pies

― HOOS next aka won't get steened again (Hurting 2), Tuesday, July 30, 2013 10:40 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that would be todd haynes's HBO mildred pierce adaptation.

the thing about bell is that she's a really good actress who has been in mostly terrible movies and TV shows. I don't know if that's just serendiipity and/or a reflection of the plight of an actress in her early 30s and/or bell has not-the-best agent and/or bell doesn't make good choices herself....

isn't that the thing about SMG too

SMG's curse is that her terrible shows and movies are also completely unsuccessful (at least since I Know What You Did Last Summer and Cruel Intentions) - Bell does okay with rom-coms and the worst show ever still got a second season.

ftr, both of those movies mentioned > all of KB's movies

IKWYDLS was unsuccessful? they did like three sequels

oh nevermind i misread

I assumed the Scooby-Doo movies and The Grudge remake were successful, time to hit Wikipedia to see how much money they made

anyways i like both of them just fine

o yeah, the Grudge. That probably did make money.

what I think of when I think of SMG's movie career:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ed/Simply_irresistible.jpg

OMG the little girl in Deadwood was KB? I never made the connection before.

The evil one, not the silent one.

DEAD HOOKER ALERT

I totally forgot she was in Deadwood! Whenever people would express doubts over the first few eps of Deadwood, I'd always say, wait until the Bell episode. Wow. Another notch on her post.

smg obv

Easiest poll ever

Bell seems a delightful person and a good actress (though I've never rly watched VMars). Buffy is obv one of the thousand greatest TV shows ever and Gellar is great in it, but she also seems to be a grumpy poo-head who's never done anything else good. TEAM SLOTH!

I saw that movie that Dax Shepherd wrote and starred in and supplied all the cars for, it was moderately+ entertaining and has a hilairs Tom Arnold perf

I liked The Grudge remake more than anything else named in this thread so far

This is a Koufax vs. Clemens thing for me. Bell certainly has more total value but SMG wins on peak -- she created one of the great characters of television and to me it kind of doesn't matter if she never does anything else.

is Clemens:SMG in that analogy?

obv SMG = Koufax; both refused to work on yom kippur

bell is so pretty, almost unreal looking. I voted her because of the sloth video. I liked Buffy more than VM though.

― akm, Tuesday, July 30, 2013 1:42 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i am a creep for even posting this but something about k bell's eyes or demeanor keeps me from finding her beautiful in the way so many women in film and TV are by default. this made the moment where her character tells mila kunis's character she's so pretty in forgetting sarah marshall extra-poignant to me.

sarah michelle i find ridic beautiful but i gather many people do not agree

i do not think this matters affected how i voted but who knows :/

these matters

Bell definitely has kind of unreal doll-like features that i don't find especially attractive, more than anything i just find her charismatic. also she's really good at scary/mean type roles like in Party Down, should do more of those.

i'm sad i missed the House Of Lies slander session, that really is the worst, Showtime buries so many talented actors in terrible shows for years.

I thought Kristen Bell seemed alright until I saw that sloth video. WTF is wrong with her?

There is something about her eyes, it's like they look naive and secretly sharp at the same time.

Bell can actually move her eyes totally independent of one another, as seen at the beginning of this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bbiiedZpeM#at=13

Apparently she has nicknamed the wonky eye "wonky" and the other one "nightowl"

WHOA

Yeah, take that, Kevin Pollock's Columbo impression

But so if you have a weird reaction to her eyes I guess you are reacting to an actual mild ocular thing (btw hi horseshoe!)

hi nabisco! but now i feel guilt! anyway, k bell seems lovely, in that clip as well as others. sarah michelle often seems slightly uncomfortable in interviews like she's not quite sure how to be a person, but i find that endearing. i imagine that being a child star made her a workaholic and socially awkward.

I can't see Bell as attractive/hot, she's 16-year old Veronica Mars forever, even though I imagine we're almost the same age.

Wtf she's almost two years older than me.

I thought Kristen Bell seemed alright until I saw that sloth video. WTF is wrong with her?

― wk, Wednesday, July 31, 2013 1:10 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol this is the only thing that's ever made me like her!

tbf though I've hardly seen anything she's been in so should could be awesome for other reasons too

I thought she seemed terrifying.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbSxwMC46zI

"catfish infused root curd" were the first words that sprang to mind when i saw this poll tbh

i'm surprised people have such strong feelings about this
sloth video kinda made me feel weird because of her infantile behavior, but i appreciate the feeling of being emotionally overwhelmed so i guess her?

SMG is someone i have 0 feelings about but i do like her teeth

It was infantile but I also thought it was kind of sweet plus i love sloths too so I was feeling her there. Also, at one point iirc she was talking about when she realized that her fiance had got her a sloth for the day and she said to him, "Is he coming to the party?" and I thought that was cute.

I think there was something very endearing about seeing a celebrity being willing to show herself completely vulnerable and ridiculous like that on television, but not in a drugged out sort of way.

ooh you know i have to shamefully admit i'd somehow forgotten about cruel intentions

oh man me too

i can't claim to be an smg oeuvre expert but that seems the one post-buff role i can recall that exploited horseshoe's otm "not quite sure how to be a person" vibe

gonna watch it TONIGHT

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f14/snouts/6ns6tx.gif

yeah, psycho buffy in cruel intentions is terrifying/great. similar: episode where faith possesses buffy's body and makes practice buffy faces in the mirror. basically voted for that. and her nose.

KB is basically the improv dork that all the other improv dorks have a crush on.

^^^ this seems accurate to me because something about KB is like fundamentally irritating to me, i don't mind her, she's good in stuff, she seems like a nice and genuine person, but i really don't wanna talk to her, especially about sloths. her kind of adorability always seems -- not false, but learned. pat. idk.

yeah i wouldnt trust her with it but i'd still be happy to play the game with kb tho. smg i just wouldnt really want to talk to at all, just observe her from afar and watch her stare uncomprehendingly at bread or toddlers in the supermarket

it hurts my heart to know that good honest people with taste and decorum have somehow not already watched the first 2 seasons of veronica mars

i know, right?

I kind of feel like if I spend enough time examining why I like KB, I will discover that it is for the *wrong* reasons

That sloth video makes me hate KB. She seems unhinged

i appreciate that she's able to detach herself from it and be entertained by it in retrospect like "look at this hilarious thing that just happens to me, aren't people weird"

but come on the answer is smg forever and always

Despite my vote, tbh, I've never watched a minute of VM. (Did watch s1 of Buffy and hated it. I saw a couple of later episodes that weren't so bad.)

yeah I love Sarah Michelle's nose. also love her in cruel intentions tbh.

"I didn't, but I still get the irony." I miss Party Down so much.

The scene in FSM where she tells Peter why she cheated on and then broke up with him is actually affecting imo.

That sloth video makes me hate KB. She seems unhinged

^^^ thank you! TBH I'm kind of creeped out by the people who thought that was cute.

i thought the sloth thing was a joke/skit for ellen? at least i hope so

i have never seen a kb joint and don't even know what v. mars is about!

/morbs

it's about a high-school detective! and it's good. has some of the most obsessively unified plots in any TV series ever!

it's not nearly as good as this might sound but at its best it's kind of back to the future of episodic TV. every little plot device in its place, working like a expensively-oiled machine. and bell is really very charming in it, and so are a lot of the other regulars.

There were times when Buffy felt a bit like a donut show, and VM never did. Not to throw shade on SMG, who did great work and is probably underrated in the fandom, but that supporting cast carried a lot of weight (this was probably more to do with the rich characterisation than anything). KB was so central to VM.

Yeah jjj basically summed up the thread for me

what's a donut show?

^^^ this seems accurate to me because something about KB is like fundamentally irritating to me, i don't mind her, she's good in stuff, she seems like a nice and genuine person, but i really don't wanna talk to her, especially about sloths. her kind of adorability always seems -- not false, but learned. pat. idk.

― one yankee sympathizer masquerading as a historian (difficult listening hour), Wednesday, July 31, 2013 4:10 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm. probably could not ever vote against someone who was in cruel in tentions in any poll anyway

I think a donut has a hole in the middl

"high school detective" -- i am a cretin who has never seen this show but this description just doesn't interest me whatsoever. it took me forever to see freaks & geeks, and i think i should have seen that earlier but i'm just not drawn in by "high school detective" or even "tightly woven plot lines" when the plot centers around a high school detective.

i haven't watched buffy either.

without buffy: the vampire slayer, there would never have been a veronica mars

imho

that's probably true. i'm fine with enjoying something that's influenced by something i don't care about, though.

they're kind of the same thing in my mind, only one is a "vampire slayer" and one is a "detective"
i guess i don't dig the irl 'superhero' as a character

it's ok, we're not really that invested in whether you give either show a chance

yeah not saying VM is derivative but I can easily imagine network meetings where VM was pitched as Buffy Noir

that's good!! i am not saying it offends me in any way, just that it is not my thing just like long boring documentaries aren't some people's thing. not a judgement on the irl superhero subgenre or whatever you want to call it.

tbf to VMars, I think a one-sentence description of it makes it sound even dumber than Buffy sounds somehow. it's a lot better than it sounds. and Elmo otm; it's the daughter of Buffy.

Detectives existed before superheroes iirc

in high school?

I've read C19th US examples!

that I can't remember bcz its been decades

nancy drew? hardy boys? i liked that stuff when i was a kid but like you said, it has been decades :)

also "set in a high school" is not usually a core element of the genre "superhero" anyway

Veronica Mars isn't Nancy Drew so much as high school Noir, it's a pretty dark show

i like veronica mars a lot and i think LL might like it too if she watched it bc she likes good things. but i understand general ennui with tv shows about pretty high schoolers; this was my general problem with friday night lights.

yeah, i wasn't trying to push the show on you, LL. god knows there are enough VM fans. or at least, enough to fund a movie. not enough to keep the show on the air a bunch of years ago. but the show wasn't getting better anyway.

anyhow.

oh i know! no one cares what i do or don't watch. literally no one! not even me. but there are enough shows about high school too, that's for sure.
i did like KB in Party Down, and the Lifeguard looks pretty good
so her i guess

I didn't really dig Veronica Mars much. It was similarly smugly funny/clever and did sort of deal with class the same way Buffy does, but not to the extent or, imo, to the same degree of honesty. What I really liked about Buffy is that the characters went through real-world pain, and that's something I never really got from VM, which always felt like the Hollywood version of "pain." I never felt VM ever achieved anything the emotional level of "The Body," or the Willow/Tara relationship. But yeah, obv VM has its fans.

Party Down and Veronica Mars were created by the same guy, if you want an idea of how funny/well written VM is

kinda wish i had the level of commitment necessary to watch all this shows

god knows i have the time

Party Down is >>>>> Veronica Mars because it doesn't have to deal with the machinations of mystery solving and can just stick to the laughs.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

hi josh, how would you characterize how buffy dealt with class?

party down is fantastic but only two short seasons :(

party down is better than v mars imo

i don't know that buffy did deal with class, though it's a much better show than vmars and party down and all the other shows in history

xander getting a job while the others went to college, sorta

i really really like the scene where they're cleaning up in the aftermath of a battle in which some supernatural entity was kickboxed through a window, and nobody except xander knows how to fix the window, and this finally validates him.

no way is buffy better than party down.

u guys I just watched party down, first 2 episodes, again and I was shocked at how good it was. Bc I watched it the first time and I was like, cool, I'm on your level, but now I see everything that is happening and it is like, man.

xpost Yeah, there's the matter of Xander needing to work, and actually holding down a job, too. Also, Buffy needs to work as well, to get money to take care of her family, iirc to thwart child protective services. Then there's Cordelia, whose family had money but lost it and needs to fake her status. It's been a while, but I recall a lot of Veronica Mars still taking place in the realm of mansions and high school kids driving sports cars, which is a real thing, of course, but it felt a little too much like fetishizing rather than character building. Of course, VM and her dad were working class, but the show I don't remember showing any struggle to that aspect of their lives. Not that it needed it; it could be highly entertaining. It just didn't feel that "real" to me, more sort of weirdly surreal, which is ironic, since VM takes place in the real world and Buffy, of course, does not.

Neptune is very clearly divided by class though

I'm not saying it was "intelligent" commentary on class, but it only went three seasons. Buffy didn't start dealing with the job stuff until season 5 (bits of Xander in season 4 maybe).

neptune was "divided" but 90% of the show took place in richteenland and the other 10% was just weevil walking around richteenland with a wrench

Party Down and Veronica Mars were created by the same guy, if you want an idea of how funny/well written VM is

― some dude, Thursday, August 1, 2013 7:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is also ridiculous, vmars isn't a tenth as funny as PD and never attempted to be

vm had one good season, one season that i remember liking alright except i don't remember anything about it besides a bus crash and some baseball player and i think it ended with like a million unanswered questions? i literally only watched it in 2013 and i don't remember how it ended but i do remember thinking they let all the loose plot strands get away from them.

and then season 3 was worse than season 7 of buffy, there was a KONY episode and piz didn't even die

PITCHFORK

PRETTY MUCH THE MOST HIGHLY REGARDED MUSIC REVIEW PUBLICATION ON THE INTERNET

i don't think you're remembering all the people on the edges of the divide, often people veronica helps - and often people who manage to fit in with the rich in-crowd part of town, or are trying to get in, or to fake it. the pizza guy, the butler's son, the disaffected radio hosts. veronica's uncertainty over whether she'd even be able to pay to go to college; her scholarship competition, not all of whom were rich. cliff and his clients. wallace's gas station job, and his single mom dealing with a shifty tenant. local law enforcement at the mercy or service of the wealthy (and outside interests like the ones woody was pushing). kendall and the fitzpatricks. the difference between the people who could afford to drive and the people who died in the bus crash. the teacher whose retirement plan is ruined when richard casablancas' fraud is uncovered.

VM S2 is underrated, but yeah S3 isn't great, though the finale is great and pessimistic and very much in character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elFyV2zHYCE

xp i don't remember "the pizza guy", sorry

the show was still built around rich people being rich or middle class people pretending to be rich or previously rich people being slightly less rich and then weevil

it liked to yell "CLASS!" a lot but it never felt like more than an easy plot device when necessary to me. by the third season it was almost completely a non-factor, cause i guess class doesn't exist in college or smth

Class was so much more present as a plot and character point in MN than Buffy, how is this even a debate

Veronica Mars doesn't take place in the real world, it takes place in a world of teen detectives

i'm not debating that buffy cared a lick about class, but it also never claimed to

Do I want LA Actress or Theater Girl Actress?

SMG

oh my god, did anyone watch SMG in ringer

this is also ridiculous, vmars isn't a tenth as funny as PD and never attempted to be

― ty based gay dead computer god (zachlyon), Friday, August 2, 2013 1:12 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

obviously VM isn't a straight up comedy like Party Down but it's got a lot of comic relief of the same sensibility, is all i'm saying.

definitely

somehow i feel offended by calling party down a 'straight up comedy' even though i don't know what else to call it.

oh my god, did anyone watch SMG in ringer

Yes. I'm not sure she was exactly terrible but the show was like a soap opera that was automatically generated so she wasn't given a lot to do. I couldn't make it through the season.

jeez nobody's happy with any description of the comedy content of Party Down or Veronica Mars huh, n/m

party down is certainly a comedy, though a dark, dry one
veronica mars has lots of humor in it and tons of personality, though ostensibly it's a soapy detective noir
sound fair?

Soapy Noir would make a great pseudonym.

No it wouldn't

So peignoir?

horseshoe i think i made it through a few episodes of ringer but i think it was baaad, totally coked out plot, featuring smg wearing a million crazy ott dresses?? i think it might be thing she's done that i've seen

at least her performance in southland tales has some funny lines & 'teen horniness is not a crime'

might be the WORST thing, that is

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

what the hell

seems to line up pretty closely with the posts itt?

the non-republican won

that is so ilx, psssh you liberals

pretty easily predictable landslide for the Kabes

wait, SMG is a Republican? wow, that would've swung my vote even further towards KB

also: retroactively poisoning my Buffy fandom. but i always kinda liked Angel better tbh

might have voted for KB if she'd sung this on ellen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u52Oz-54VYw

Going by these results, I guess I should start with VM and then get around to Buffy when time permits.

Well, there's three seasons of VM and 12 of Buffy/Angel...

And you can pretty much skip S3 of VM

Party Down is unavailable to stream.

;___;

Going by these results, I guess I should start with VM and then get around to Buffy when time permits.

grrr

there's only two good seasons of vm so it won't take long. on paper this is bell in every way but i voted smg.

My vote for Bell has a little to do with the fact that I liked Veronica Mars (and have never seen Buffy), but that wasn't the only factor.

Party Down is unavailable to stream.

;___;

― Tottenham Heelspur (in orbit), Saturday, August 3, 2013 12:30 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol yeah i ended up torrenting it today bc this thread

it's amazing how angry I am at the last thirty or so posts itt

These results mean nothing. SMG > That woman. It's not even up for debate.

and yet here we are

is Cousin Slappy a Grampsy meta-sock?

hey i like the good place