The fourth wall is the imaginary invisible wall at the front of a stage or camera, through which the audience sees the action playing out. The fourth wall is “broken” in Buffy and Angel - in the musical Once More. With Feeling, Buffy, Xander and Anya sing whilst looking at the camera. Anya also says to Giles in that episode, after her duet with Xander that, “It was weird. It was like there was a wall missing from our apartment. Like there was only three walls and not a fourth one…”
In Angel’s Spin the Bottle, in which Lorne acts as a host, explaining the story to the audience. There is also a great moment in Spin the Bottle, in which Lorne says after a commercial break: “Well, those were some exciting products. Am I right? Mmm. Let’s all think about buying some of those.”
Andrew also breaks the fourth wall in Storyteller - whilst talking to his camera about what’s going on in the Summer’s house.
May 7th, 2006 at 11:57 am
I love that line from Lorne about the commercials, but it does sound kind of wierd when watching it on DVD.
May 8th, 2006 at 4:46 am
Haha, it does.
I love Anya when they’re speaking with Giles in OMWF after ‘I’ll Never Tell’ when she says “It was weird. It was like there was a wall missing from our apartment. Like there was only three walls and not a fourth one …”
May 12th, 2006 at 3:54 am
I’m not sure I totally get that, but could you say that Andrew also breaks the fourth wall in Storyteller? Like the scene at the beginning when he’s sitting in the study-type room and talks to the “gentle viewer” and…well, pretty much everytime he films himself.
May 12th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
He does indeed, Wynter, I’ll add that in.