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gwynSpoilerin' for Angel episode of April 23, Sacrifice -- really! Spoilers this way and that!
It's funny -- I've been busy all day and hadn't had time to really think about anything useful or interesting to say about Sacrifice last night. I kept going back to last week, which I thought was an interesting episode because it relied so heavily on classic film noir stylings, but which I also heard a lot of negativity about -- that it was boring, dull, stupidly plotted, etc.
And I can't argue with the plotting (how did Fred know Angel would stand behind Jasmine, how did she know Jasmine would show up at all, how did she know the bullet might not hit someone who couldn't live through it, how stupid the demon was, etc., etc.) issues, but at the same time, I didn't mind them. It's funny what trips our buttons -- we can gleefully suspend disbelief that all these other things happened, but then this one little other thing happens, and we can't go there at all, and then we're unhappy. (I remember back in season 3 Buffy when everyone melted down over the fake snow in Amends. I was like, for fuck's sake! This is your issue? In a show where vampires walk around and demons infest the town and people come back from hell dimensions, you're bitching because the snow's fakey looking?) There just seems to be a point where a lot of times the suspension of disbelief becomes impossible over the most insignificant of things or a standard regular world plot, and last week's ep seemed to be that for many (and also because they felt it was boring), although I quite enjoyed it because I just didn't care if it made any sense at all.
This week was my week to be bored by the beginning, and it didn't pick up for me until the end. As much as I enjoyed the gas station fight and the other stuff, it just seemed to be treading water for most of the hour, and it wasn't until the end, with Wes and the creepy scorpion monster, that I felt like it was going somewhere. And I know that there's a lot of folks on my friends list who like Connor, and I'm sorry, but I just am so fed up with him that I can't get past the lengthy scenes with his sour puss staring back at me. I know, I know, some people love him, but I'm just not there. I keep wondering how he can be so dim -- yes, he was raised without contact with others, blah blah, but at this point he's seen an incredible amount of stuff happen, stuff where he's consistently been wrong, and yet he hasn't once learned to think for himself or question his assumptions. Now, I know it's easy to say he's under the sway of and part of Jasmine's mind now, so he has no control, but the thing is, he's been doing this in other situations where he could have looked askance at something, where he could have questioned whether he was seeing what he should see, and didn't, that this just makes me all the more frustrated. And I don't buy him as a big sword-wielding tough guy. It makes me laugh; he seems about as sinister as Rory Gilmore.
While last week it was scary to see how easily Wes and Gunn decided to kill Angel (after all that time of trying to keep Angel alive, no matter what the cost, they were willing to give him up in an instant under Jasmine's influence), I can't help but think that it would have been far craftier plotting if instead of yet another example of Connor happily making assumptions and going off half-cocked and doing the worst, wrongest thing, they chose him to be an unbeliever, and someone else from AI as the dangerous still-believer. But alas, they didn't.
So that was my big issue. But once we got to that seriously icky monster, it started to rock. I loved Wes walking around with that orb, Yorick-like, and figuring it out, and I have seriously big fear of skittery spidery monsters, so... major ick with that vampire sacrifice going on, and all. I kept wondering if under the makeup that was Mark Metcalf (The Master), it sounded so much like him and the line delivery was so much like his, but I didn't see him in the credits. And that tag was priceless -- Angel's "Oh, hell" and those truly squicky creatures all lined up for a meat snack.
So, I seem to be off schedule with everyone else. Hopefully next week'll get me back in synch with everyone. ;-)
It's funny -- I've been busy all day and hadn't had time to really think about anything useful or interesting to say about Sacrifice last night. I kept going back to last week, which I thought was an interesting episode because it relied so heavily on classic film noir stylings, but which I also heard a lot of negativity about -- that it was boring, dull, stupidly plotted, etc.
And I can't argue with the plotting (how did Fred know Angel would stand behind Jasmine, how did she know Jasmine would show up at all, how did she know the bullet might not hit someone who couldn't live through it, how stupid the demon was, etc., etc.) issues, but at the same time, I didn't mind them. It's funny what trips our buttons -- we can gleefully suspend disbelief that all these other things happened, but then this one little other thing happens, and we can't go there at all, and then we're unhappy. (I remember back in season 3 Buffy when everyone melted down over the fake snow in Amends. I was like, for fuck's sake! This is your issue? In a show where vampires walk around and demons infest the town and people come back from hell dimensions, you're bitching because the snow's fakey looking?) There just seems to be a point where a lot of times the suspension of disbelief becomes impossible over the most insignificant of things or a standard regular world plot, and last week's ep seemed to be that for many (and also because they felt it was boring), although I quite enjoyed it because I just didn't care if it made any sense at all.
This week was my week to be bored by the beginning, and it didn't pick up for me until the end. As much as I enjoyed the gas station fight and the other stuff, it just seemed to be treading water for most of the hour, and it wasn't until the end, with Wes and the creepy scorpion monster, that I felt like it was going somewhere. And I know that there's a lot of folks on my friends list who like Connor, and I'm sorry, but I just am so fed up with him that I can't get past the lengthy scenes with his sour puss staring back at me. I know, I know, some people love him, but I'm just not there. I keep wondering how he can be so dim -- yes, he was raised without contact with others, blah blah, but at this point he's seen an incredible amount of stuff happen, stuff where he's consistently been wrong, and yet he hasn't once learned to think for himself or question his assumptions. Now, I know it's easy to say he's under the sway of and part of Jasmine's mind now, so he has no control, but the thing is, he's been doing this in other situations where he could have looked askance at something, where he could have questioned whether he was seeing what he should see, and didn't, that this just makes me all the more frustrated. And I don't buy him as a big sword-wielding tough guy. It makes me laugh; he seems about as sinister as Rory Gilmore.
While last week it was scary to see how easily Wes and Gunn decided to kill Angel (after all that time of trying to keep Angel alive, no matter what the cost, they were willing to give him up in an instant under Jasmine's influence), I can't help but think that it would have been far craftier plotting if instead of yet another example of Connor happily making assumptions and going off half-cocked and doing the worst, wrongest thing, they chose him to be an unbeliever, and someone else from AI as the dangerous still-believer. But alas, they didn't.
So that was my big issue. But once we got to that seriously icky monster, it started to rock. I loved Wes walking around with that orb, Yorick-like, and figuring it out, and I have seriously big fear of skittery spidery monsters, so... major ick with that vampire sacrifice going on, and all. I kept wondering if under the makeup that was Mark Metcalf (The Master), it sounded so much like him and the line delivery was so much like his, but I didn't see him in the credits. And that tag was priceless -- Angel's "Oh, hell" and those truly squicky creatures all lined up for a meat snack.
So, I seem to be off schedule with everyone else. Hopefully next week'll get me back in synch with everyone. ;-)
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no subject
Date: 2003-04-25 01:16 am (UTC)I am not one of these people.
and I'm sorry, but I just am so fed up with him that I can't get past the lengthy scenes with his sour puss staring back at me.
I've heard speculation that he'll have to do some major redeeming act to redeem himself for killing that teenage girl on Cordy's command - (and some other stuff along the way if you ask me) - I sure am hoping that this big act includes Connor's demise. Doesn't have to be quick and merciful as far as I'm concerned.
no subject
Date: 2003-04-25 11:45 am (UTC)Instead, it just kinda fell flat. And by falling flat, it sucked away the resonance of Angel's later statements about how "hearts get in the way," etc.
It is interesting to see how many people were thrilled with this episode, though. A reassuring reminder that we don't live in a Jasminesque univocal world, I guess!
no subject
Date: 2003-04-25 04:18 pm (UTC)No shiny happy people are we, though. ;-)