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wisdomeagle[spoilers for all of Angel S4 but not for S5. Minor spoilers for Buffy S7 but I think it's pretty common knowledge]
Mostly, the continuity gets pastede off unyay!
This season starts off well (with Angel drinking from Wesley OMG the RST) and had a good -- well, okay a decent -- premise and arc and oh man, with the arcs. Then some very bad awful things happened. Well, naturally, not as bad as all that, and congrats to Charisma Carpenter and all that, but pregnancy. Never a good idea. NEVER. Well, okay, maybe that once. Hem.
So anyhow, after getting off to a great start with a nice juicy arc and an evil character (eeevil!) they lost one of their actors and yeah. *hem* Therefore, Connor/Cordelia. And also, therefore, Jasmine.
Oops.
Best episodes:
"Deep Down": Not the greatest, maybe, but everyone was nice and in character and eee! Angel/Wesley!
"The House Always Wins": Lorne! And goodbye to real!Cordelia. >< Dammit, I miss Cordy...
"Supersymmetry": Fred/Gunn science!sex. Hee. Fred getting her life back, Fred being cute and Fred-like, Wesley going to see Fred's talk, Lilah stalking Wesley, Fred being dark and... mmm. Yummy all 'round. And goodbye to Fred/Gunn, which I liked, but wasn't the most enthralling 'ship ever...
"Spin the Bottle": Real characters! Very, very gay Wesley. Amusing as hell. Low-brow humor. Joss and Alexis commentary. Stoner!Fred. Mmm, Wesley. Good clean fun, lots of dirty jokes.
"Apocalypse Nowish": All they really needed was a good apocalyse to bring them all together... Wes/Gunn working together... Angel + Wesley being friends again... an absolutely gorgeous shot of broken!Lilah. Except for the Connor/Cordelia. Ewww.
"Soulless": Actually, more like the very end of "Awakening" through the beginning of "Calvary". I just like Angel gasping "Buffy" as he's having sex with Cordy. It makes very little sense, but it's continuity and it's funny and it's great. And I love Angelus taunting everyone. Especially Wesley. I could watch the first Aus/W scene over and over and over again. Mmm, Wesley is in love with Angelus. Which one knows is absolutely sick. But still. Squee. Not to mention, Wesley kissing Fred. It was so WRONG. Which makes it so good. And also... *shiver* Yes. And then Angelus saying that if he were gay, he'd want Wesley. Yeah. If he swung that way. Ahem? Yes.
"Orpheus": I'm sure there was an arc here, somewhere, with Angel and Angelus and Faith or something... but it was all about the Willow/Wesley/Fred and you know it was. Willow just made everything bright again, and they desperately needed some brightness after a season of unrelenting darkness. Fred obviously just needs the right girl around and she'd be gayer than Tara is. It's not such a good sign that my first introduction to Kennedy/Willow was Willow saying "I'm seeing someone" and thus preventing the possibility of Willow/Fred. Which is SO CUTE. So unbelievably cute. And I love that Wesley/Willow could happen. It's got some good points. Including the meta. *snerk* Sometimes, meta is good (Willow/Wesley). Sometimes, meta is BAD (Cordelia's pregnancy). Anyhow, Willow being all sunshiny and making Wesley almost okay again. There is a very strange Willow/Wesley/Fred/Giles fic in here somewhere.
...
And then there was Jasmine. And I'm not sure how much I like Jasmine. For one thing, I totally want to know how much hatemail they got over "God is an evil black woman." I get that it was supposed to be a black is beautiful kinda thing, but still. Their incarnation theology is so solid! And yet, so horrible, since Jasmine is evil and eats people!
I think I'm mad at a bunch of atheists talking religion. And usually I'm pretty decent about such things, but this just pushed my buttons the wrong way. In the meta (I think in the season overview) Joss basically said it's about free will and that they had to destroy her because humans need to have free will and won't tolerate being robbed of it, which, okay, but that still doesn't answer the essential question of is she telling the truth?
The problem with this season is that it seems to be attempting to answer some big questions like Why Has All This Happened? and Why Is Cordelia Evil? and... there weren't any answers. I mean, there was Skip saying basically JASMINE MADE EVERYTHING HAPPEN! JASMINE IS IN FACT JOSS! which obviously isn't true and seems to indicate a much higher degree of control than we've ever seen. And then there was them basically answering the question of Cordy by saying that the demon inside her woke up at the end of "Spin The Bottle" and she's been eeeevil since then.
I really don't like that answer for a bunch of reasons. For one thing, it still feels totally pastede on, and I don't like the lack of closure we get with Cordelia. Which okay, I get, because they're going for realism (I mean, minus the ascension and the demon pregnancy and the magically cured amnesia and the visions from Powers That Be) and we don't always get closure, but I think they can do realism without doing bad story telling. "The Body" is good storytelling. "Seeing Red" and the arc that follows is good storytelling. And somehow, I just don't think S5 will do enough to wrap up S4 to please me.
As a whole, perhaps, Angel simply isn't as good as Buffy: the Vampire Slayer was at dealing with the emotional consequences of death. Doyle is... well, not really dealt with. Not really . And then this whole deal with Cordy, not to mention....
Connor. The Great Pastede Off YAY! Fiasco
Okay, so if I follow the meta correctly, they pastede Connor on (and actually, the explanation offered, that he was the "new life" Angel earned for Darla in "The Trial" does make sense) but were only planning to have him around for a season or so, and then wanted to kill him off. Have Angel kill him, actually, to satisfy the prophecy. Which was a fake prophecy in the first place but hush. Forget about it. So then they realized that S4 was already the season of unrelenting darkness, so they wanted S5 to be lighter, so instead of killing him, they pastede him off using the special paste. Presumably the same paste they used for Dawn.
On the one hand, I really don't like Connor, so no tears shed over not having him around in S5. On the other hand, I really don't appreciate paste-ing off the continuity. The over-use of memory spells in the Jossverse is tremendously sad for me. They do watch their own show, they do seem to have some sense of continuity (though admittedly, it's not entirely flawless; no one is.
But when they intentionally pull crap like this... and essentially because they want the character to have a happy ending.
Excuse me? JOSSVERSE? Wants someone to have a happy ending? *laughs horribly*
I am pleased with "Home" otherwise, though. I loved Lilah in it. I wasn't terribly pleased with how badly they seemed to have broken her after "Habeas Corpses," and it's good to have her back and evil as ever, if slightly dead. And Fred was cute as ever, and Wesley seems to have made some obscure reference to Giles that makes one wish that they had any chemistry whatsoever in S3 Buffy since they would make a wonderful couple otherwise. Er, yes. "Home" is good except the part where Connor gets pastede off instead of just dying a horribly tragical death.
I think that essentially sums up my thoughts on the season... and the commentaries were mostly all wonderful. Especially Joss + Alexis's commentary on "Spin the Bottle." Hence the use of the Joss + Alexis icon.
Sox are two games up! Sox are two games up! Sox are... okay, I'm going to keep hoping. This will be our year. This will be our year. Maybe.
I have switched over to Firefox. Hopefully it will work. I'm getting used to tabbed browsing, but otherwise it's not too entirely difficult.
Women's studies midterm today. I'm not so confident about it. Lots of work to do the rest of this week. Not so confident about that, either.
My neck is sore and Firefox is not responding. But Scorpius and Braca are on my desktop and they are shiny and pretty.
Mostly, the continuity gets pastede off unyay!
This season starts off well (with Angel drinking from Wesley OMG the RST) and had a good -- well, okay a decent -- premise and arc and oh man, with the arcs. Then some very bad awful things happened. Well, naturally, not as bad as all that, and congrats to Charisma Carpenter and all that, but pregnancy. Never a good idea. NEVER. Well, okay, maybe that once. Hem.
So anyhow, after getting off to a great start with a nice juicy arc and an evil character (eeevil!) they lost one of their actors and yeah. *hem* Therefore, Connor/Cordelia. And also, therefore, Jasmine.
Oops.
Best episodes:
"Deep Down": Not the greatest, maybe, but everyone was nice and in character and eee! Angel/Wesley!
"The House Always Wins": Lorne! And goodbye to real!Cordelia. >< Dammit, I miss Cordy...
"Supersymmetry": Fred/Gunn science!sex. Hee. Fred getting her life back, Fred being cute and Fred-like, Wesley going to see Fred's talk, Lilah stalking Wesley, Fred being dark and... mmm. Yummy all 'round. And goodbye to Fred/Gunn, which I liked, but wasn't the most enthralling 'ship ever...
"Spin the Bottle": Real characters! Very, very gay Wesley. Amusing as hell. Low-brow humor. Joss and Alexis commentary. Stoner!Fred. Mmm, Wesley. Good clean fun, lots of dirty jokes.
"Apocalypse Nowish": All they really needed was a good apocalyse to bring them all together... Wes/Gunn working together... Angel + Wesley being friends again... an absolutely gorgeous shot of broken!Lilah. Except for the Connor/Cordelia. Ewww.
"Soulless": Actually, more like the very end of "Awakening" through the beginning of "Calvary". I just like Angel gasping "Buffy" as he's having sex with Cordy. It makes very little sense, but it's continuity and it's funny and it's great. And I love Angelus taunting everyone. Especially Wesley. I could watch the first Aus/W scene over and over and over again. Mmm, Wesley is in love with Angelus. Which one knows is absolutely sick. But still. Squee. Not to mention, Wesley kissing Fred. It was so WRONG. Which makes it so good. And also... *shiver* Yes. And then Angelus saying that if he were gay, he'd want Wesley. Yeah. If he swung that way. Ahem? Yes.
"Orpheus": I'm sure there was an arc here, somewhere, with Angel and Angelus and Faith or something... but it was all about the Willow/Wesley/Fred and you know it was. Willow just made everything bright again, and they desperately needed some brightness after a season of unrelenting darkness. Fred obviously just needs the right girl around and she'd be gayer than Tara is. It's not such a good sign that my first introduction to Kennedy/Willow was Willow saying "I'm seeing someone" and thus preventing the possibility of Willow/Fred. Which is SO CUTE. So unbelievably cute. And I love that Wesley/Willow could happen. It's got some good points. Including the meta. *snerk* Sometimes, meta is good (Willow/Wesley). Sometimes, meta is BAD (Cordelia's pregnancy). Anyhow, Willow being all sunshiny and making Wesley almost okay again. There is a very strange Willow/Wesley/Fred/Giles fic in here somewhere.
...
And then there was Jasmine. And I'm not sure how much I like Jasmine. For one thing, I totally want to know how much hatemail they got over "God is an evil black woman." I get that it was supposed to be a black is beautiful kinda thing, but still. Their incarnation theology is so solid! And yet, so horrible, since Jasmine is evil and eats people!
I think I'm mad at a bunch of atheists talking religion. And usually I'm pretty decent about such things, but this just pushed my buttons the wrong way. In the meta (I think in the season overview) Joss basically said it's about free will and that they had to destroy her because humans need to have free will and won't tolerate being robbed of it, which, okay, but that still doesn't answer the essential question of is she telling the truth?
The problem with this season is that it seems to be attempting to answer some big questions like Why Has All This Happened? and Why Is Cordelia Evil? and... there weren't any answers. I mean, there was Skip saying basically JASMINE MADE EVERYTHING HAPPEN! JASMINE IS IN FACT JOSS! which obviously isn't true and seems to indicate a much higher degree of control than we've ever seen. And then there was them basically answering the question of Cordy by saying that the demon inside her woke up at the end of "Spin The Bottle" and she's been eeeevil since then.
I really don't like that answer for a bunch of reasons. For one thing, it still feels totally pastede on, and I don't like the lack of closure we get with Cordelia. Which okay, I get, because they're going for realism (I mean, minus the ascension and the demon pregnancy and the magically cured amnesia and the visions from Powers That Be) and we don't always get closure, but I think they can do realism without doing bad story telling. "The Body" is good storytelling. "Seeing Red" and the arc that follows is good storytelling. And somehow, I just don't think S5 will do enough to wrap up S4 to please me.
As a whole, perhaps, Angel simply isn't as good as Buffy: the Vampire Slayer was at dealing with the emotional consequences of death. Doyle is... well, not really dealt with. Not really . And then this whole deal with Cordy, not to mention....
Connor. The Great Pastede Off YAY! Fiasco
Okay, so if I follow the meta correctly, they pastede Connor on (and actually, the explanation offered, that he was the "new life" Angel earned for Darla in "The Trial" does make sense) but were only planning to have him around for a season or so, and then wanted to kill him off. Have Angel kill him, actually, to satisfy the prophecy. Which was a fake prophecy in the first place but hush. Forget about it. So then they realized that S4 was already the season of unrelenting darkness, so they wanted S5 to be lighter, so instead of killing him, they pastede him off using the special paste. Presumably the same paste they used for Dawn.
On the one hand, I really don't like Connor, so no tears shed over not having him around in S5. On the other hand, I really don't appreciate paste-ing off the continuity. The over-use of memory spells in the Jossverse is tremendously sad for me. They do watch their own show, they do seem to have some sense of continuity (though admittedly, it's not entirely flawless; no one is.
But when they intentionally pull crap like this... and essentially because they want the character to have a happy ending.
Excuse me? JOSSVERSE? Wants someone to have a happy ending? *laughs horribly*
I am pleased with "Home" otherwise, though. I loved Lilah in it. I wasn't terribly pleased with how badly they seemed to have broken her after "Habeas Corpses," and it's good to have her back and evil as ever, if slightly dead. And Fred was cute as ever, and Wesley seems to have made some obscure reference to Giles that makes one wish that they had any chemistry whatsoever in S3 Buffy since they would make a wonderful couple otherwise. Er, yes. "Home" is good except the part where Connor gets pastede off instead of just dying a horribly tragical death.
I think that essentially sums up my thoughts on the season... and the commentaries were mostly all wonderful. Especially Joss + Alexis's commentary on "Spin the Bottle." Hence the use of the Joss + Alexis icon.
Sox are two games up! Sox are two games up! Sox are... okay, I'm going to keep hoping. This will be our year. This will be our year. Maybe.
I have switched over to Firefox. Hopefully it will work. I'm getting used to tabbed browsing, but otherwise it's not too entirely difficult.
Women's studies midterm today. I'm not so confident about it. Lots of work to do the rest of this week. Not so confident about that, either.
My neck is sore and Firefox is not responding. But Scorpius and Braca are on my desktop and they are shiny and pretty.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-25 10:16 pm (UTC)I love the way your brain works. (Please write this fic!)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-26 12:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-25 10:28 pm (UTC)Yes.
Willow saying "I'm seeing someone"
grr. that continues to bug me...
that makes one wish that they had any chemistry whatsoever in S3 Buffy since they would make a wonderful couple otherwise.
So true. Although, I think they had some kind of chemistry. But it was a "he annoys the crap out of me" kind of chemistry... lol
There is a very strange Willow/Wesley/Fred/Giles fic in here somewhere.
I second
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-26 12:33 am (UTC)So true, so true. :p
And as I told gywn, it's on my list of plotbunnies...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-25 10:32 pm (UTC)