I have no problem with spanking men
Oct. 2nd, 2003 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynI’ve never been one of those fans who has a lot of problems with a show reinventing itself. If it’s done well, and responsibly, I think it can liven things up. In some cases, this has meant even losing a character I loved, but if the show is solid overall, and the changes are well-plotted, it can add something to a program. I was nervous about Angel’s reinvention — for a lot of reasons, not least of which was bringing Spike in, because, despite my love for him, I wasn’t sure if it made sense solely as a way to beef up ratings by bringing his enormous fan base in or by adding “tension” to the show.
And overall, I think Joss has succeeded in reinventing Angel again. There’s a strange tendency with this show: the season/series premiers are often much, much weaker than the second or subsequent episodes; in fact, I’ve found each season’s opener to be much less interesting than the episodes that came immediately after. And it’s clear that part two of this one will be far more lively, not least of which is that blondie-bear is back. Mostly because there’s going to be less exposition as dialog. I’ll just say it — there is nothing I hate more than exposition as dialog. I loathe it in fiction, I especially loathe it in film, and I hate it most in the talking killer edition of it — the minute characters start explaining stuff to other characters that they already know, I start squirreling around looking for a weapon to kill the writer with. Joss may be better at this game than anyone else, but it’s still big fat expository lumps choking the actors! Stop the madness!
If I had one gripe last night, that was it. Yes, it’s fun to have Wes make sport of Fred’s expository lump by teasing her about her run-on sentences, but it’s still a big old wad of exposition. Bleh. And they didn’t serve the character of Eve (my jury is waaayyy out on her, she seems like she’s a weak actress trying too hard to be saucy and dangerous in the way Lilah was, but who doesn’t have the maturity that Stephanie Romanov did to carry it off) well by shoving those kinds of lines at her. It’s going to be very easy to hate her when she’s coming around, explaining it all for us each week. Let’s hope that changes.
But I like the changes in the rest of the characters. This was where Joss’s talents come out as a writer — he’s good at creating subtle shifts in characters, making them move this way when we expect them to move that way. They’re faced with something they don’t know precisely how to deal with, and now they have to learn some new footwork. Fred found an inner boss bitch she didn’t know she had (and in so few scenes already, there’s far more sparkage with her and the adorable, wonderful Knox than she ever had with Gunn or Wes); Gunn took what was offered him to tap the potential no one, even he, knew he had; Angel is freaked out over the role he has to play now, as evidenced by his discomfort over the “rescue scenario” cleanup. I’ve always thought Angel is best when forced to look at himself from other viewpoints — when Buffy called him on his behavior back on that show, when he had to become AI’s employee after he left the group back in second season, even in humorous situations like when he found out they talk about him in the “chatty rooms.” Last night he had to see himself through a number of different eyes, from those of the girl he rescued to the rest of his crew, and it looks like he’ll have to also see himself from Spike’s POV once that happens, which could be horribly fun. I especially loved him hitting the client and the subsequent dressing down he got; it is Angel’s tendency to use his fists and physical abilities to solve problems, and now he has to not only accept that view of him, but figure out how to change it. (Though, I’m sort of sorry to see the ops team go — they could have made nice foils.)
And while the basic plot wasn’t scintillating, the setups were. I can’t imagine anyone not howling over the phone lines — “for goats, press one” — or identifying with Angel’s thrill over the cars (I would have a horrible time — the ‘stang? The goat? The ‘cuda?? Glad he chose the GTO) and the helicopter, the spanking lines, and other Jossian things. My favorite was Knox’s “it looks like he was fired. No, sorry, he was set on fire.” And I can totally identify with the discomfort over the vastness of their new empire — plus I hate those double sided elevators, they’re freaky and weird, so of course it was good seeing everyone else freaked by them, too. They are all out of their element, and this provides tension for the show; Gunn’s change to being in that element will increase the tension even more. If the show were to coast on its setup, it would be boring; even though it’s an unpleasant shakeup for a lot of fans (especially those who miss Cordy or Connor), I think it’s a necessary one. Call me kooky.
The things I’m most worried about are the Eve character, who could become quickly tiresome if she isn’t already, and Harmony, who has often made me laugh, but who I tire of nearly instantly. She is best in extremely teeny, tiny doses, and if she becomes a major part of the show, it could grow insanely irritating for me, very fast. With Spike in the mix, I worry. Mostly, though, I worry about Spike. While I don’t like Angel’s new hair (I don’t! I’m sorry!), and I think that tight-cut jacket is a wrong look for him (the man wears clothes SO beautifully, but I think that despite how popular that style is right now, the super-tight fit across his lovely shoulders isn’t so good), I like the overall new look for everyone. I like the new sets and the interactions as they all try to settle their doubts within themselves and among the group. But whether Spike really fits in here, I don’t know. Yeah, he’ll add tension and that’s good. Yeah, he’ll add snark up the wazoo. But... for fuck’s sake, please let the guy adapt. Let him lose that godawful coat now — it’s served its iconic purpose, and it’s now just annoying. Let him update his look, too, and his character.
This doesn’t mean I want him to be like Angel and be broody soul boy. Nor do I want him to move on quickly from Buffy like it didn’t matter. And I want his sacrifice to be acknowledged, however grudgingly, by Angel, because it would be absurd if Angel couldn’t even give him credit for that. But outside of that, I want the character to grow, to change. If they leave him as is, if he’s going to wander around in that stupid coat, looking older and yet still stuck in the time warp, if he’s just in the background to bring in his fan base, everything they did to reinvent the show will seem pointless, as least to my eyes. And I most emphatically don’t want him there at the expense of Wesley. I think the character Wes has become over the years is the integral balance to the show — he’s the intellect to Angel’s physicality, he’s the yin to his yang, the quiet power behind Angel’s success in the human world. To shove Wes in the background, even in favor of “my guy,” would bother me a lot. So I’m waiting — I don’t know what’ll happen, but I’m anxious to see.
I think that’s what Joss did very well, despite all the exposition: he made me curious, he intrigued me for the future. I want to see where all this is going, and that’s a lot more than I can say for almost any of the new shows I’ve watched so far this season. This show and these characters, these wonderful actors, have the potential to do some great stuff.
And for a cool and interesting take on the episode, read![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
superplin’s cool and interesting comments.
Last but not least — does anyone know of any icons for sharing of that incredible shot of JM that they’ve used in the promo for the past few weeks? The one where he’s in half-shadow, looking up and to the side? I’ve been the buffy_icons community but didn’t see any (I may not have looked far enough, of course). I just think he looks so scrummy there (the man should always be in blue), and am graphics challenged, but would adore an icon for that.
And overall, I think Joss has succeeded in reinventing Angel again. There’s a strange tendency with this show: the season/series premiers are often much, much weaker than the second or subsequent episodes; in fact, I’ve found each season’s opener to be much less interesting than the episodes that came immediately after. And it’s clear that part two of this one will be far more lively, not least of which is that blondie-bear is back. Mostly because there’s going to be less exposition as dialog. I’ll just say it — there is nothing I hate more than exposition as dialog. I loathe it in fiction, I especially loathe it in film, and I hate it most in the talking killer edition of it — the minute characters start explaining stuff to other characters that they already know, I start squirreling around looking for a weapon to kill the writer with. Joss may be better at this game than anyone else, but it’s still big fat expository lumps choking the actors! Stop the madness!
If I had one gripe last night, that was it. Yes, it’s fun to have Wes make sport of Fred’s expository lump by teasing her about her run-on sentences, but it’s still a big old wad of exposition. Bleh. And they didn’t serve the character of Eve (my jury is waaayyy out on her, she seems like she’s a weak actress trying too hard to be saucy and dangerous in the way Lilah was, but who doesn’t have the maturity that Stephanie Romanov did to carry it off) well by shoving those kinds of lines at her. It’s going to be very easy to hate her when she’s coming around, explaining it all for us each week. Let’s hope that changes.
But I like the changes in the rest of the characters. This was where Joss’s talents come out as a writer — he’s good at creating subtle shifts in characters, making them move this way when we expect them to move that way. They’re faced with something they don’t know precisely how to deal with, and now they have to learn some new footwork. Fred found an inner boss bitch she didn’t know she had (and in so few scenes already, there’s far more sparkage with her and the adorable, wonderful Knox than she ever had with Gunn or Wes); Gunn took what was offered him to tap the potential no one, even he, knew he had; Angel is freaked out over the role he has to play now, as evidenced by his discomfort over the “rescue scenario” cleanup. I’ve always thought Angel is best when forced to look at himself from other viewpoints — when Buffy called him on his behavior back on that show, when he had to become AI’s employee after he left the group back in second season, even in humorous situations like when he found out they talk about him in the “chatty rooms.” Last night he had to see himself through a number of different eyes, from those of the girl he rescued to the rest of his crew, and it looks like he’ll have to also see himself from Spike’s POV once that happens, which could be horribly fun. I especially loved him hitting the client and the subsequent dressing down he got; it is Angel’s tendency to use his fists and physical abilities to solve problems, and now he has to not only accept that view of him, but figure out how to change it. (Though, I’m sort of sorry to see the ops team go — they could have made nice foils.)
And while the basic plot wasn’t scintillating, the setups were. I can’t imagine anyone not howling over the phone lines — “for goats, press one” — or identifying with Angel’s thrill over the cars (I would have a horrible time — the ‘stang? The goat? The ‘cuda?? Glad he chose the GTO) and the helicopter, the spanking lines, and other Jossian things. My favorite was Knox’s “it looks like he was fired. No, sorry, he was set on fire.” And I can totally identify with the discomfort over the vastness of their new empire — plus I hate those double sided elevators, they’re freaky and weird, so of course it was good seeing everyone else freaked by them, too. They are all out of their element, and this provides tension for the show; Gunn’s change to being in that element will increase the tension even more. If the show were to coast on its setup, it would be boring; even though it’s an unpleasant shakeup for a lot of fans (especially those who miss Cordy or Connor), I think it’s a necessary one. Call me kooky.
The things I’m most worried about are the Eve character, who could become quickly tiresome if she isn’t already, and Harmony, who has often made me laugh, but who I tire of nearly instantly. She is best in extremely teeny, tiny doses, and if she becomes a major part of the show, it could grow insanely irritating for me, very fast. With Spike in the mix, I worry. Mostly, though, I worry about Spike. While I don’t like Angel’s new hair (I don’t! I’m sorry!), and I think that tight-cut jacket is a wrong look for him (the man wears clothes SO beautifully, but I think that despite how popular that style is right now, the super-tight fit across his lovely shoulders isn’t so good), I like the overall new look for everyone. I like the new sets and the interactions as they all try to settle their doubts within themselves and among the group. But whether Spike really fits in here, I don’t know. Yeah, he’ll add tension and that’s good. Yeah, he’ll add snark up the wazoo. But... for fuck’s sake, please let the guy adapt. Let him lose that godawful coat now — it’s served its iconic purpose, and it’s now just annoying. Let him update his look, too, and his character.
This doesn’t mean I want him to be like Angel and be broody soul boy. Nor do I want him to move on quickly from Buffy like it didn’t matter. And I want his sacrifice to be acknowledged, however grudgingly, by Angel, because it would be absurd if Angel couldn’t even give him credit for that. But outside of that, I want the character to grow, to change. If they leave him as is, if he’s going to wander around in that stupid coat, looking older and yet still stuck in the time warp, if he’s just in the background to bring in his fan base, everything they did to reinvent the show will seem pointless, as least to my eyes. And I most emphatically don’t want him there at the expense of Wesley. I think the character Wes has become over the years is the integral balance to the show — he’s the intellect to Angel’s physicality, he’s the yin to his yang, the quiet power behind Angel’s success in the human world. To shove Wes in the background, even in favor of “my guy,” would bother me a lot. So I’m waiting — I don’t know what’ll happen, but I’m anxious to see.
I think that’s what Joss did very well, despite all the exposition: he made me curious, he intrigued me for the future. I want to see where all this is going, and that’s a lot more than I can say for almost any of the new shows I’ve watched so far this season. This show and these characters, these wonderful actors, have the potential to do some great stuff.
And for a cool and interesting take on the episode, read
superplin’s cool and interesting comments. Last but not least — does anyone know of any icons for sharing of that incredible shot of JM that they’ve used in the promo for the past few weeks? The one where he’s in half-shadow, looking up and to the side? I’ve been the buffy_icons community but didn’t see any (I may not have looked far enough, of course). I just think he looks so scrummy there (the man should always be in blue), and am graphics challenged, but would adore an icon for that.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
After a beautiful long review...
Date: 2003-10-02 11:14 am (UTC)I think you'd have been even more impressed if you were watching SV the hour right before Angel. The SV actors were working their little hearts out, but the writing there stinks so bad that Angel felt like Dostoevsky in comparison.
Sandy
Re: After a beautiful long review...
Date: 2003-10-02 12:08 pm (UTC)Yes, but I must say, BadAss!Jonathan and half-naked men really did make up for it. At least, in my happy little world, they did. *g*
no subject
Date: 2003-10-02 01:12 pm (UTC)::spoilers for next week, from the teaser::
Okay, maybe it's just me, but Angel getting pissed at Spike for sitting in his chair made me lol, as did Spike's "I'm his date" line. So, I guess I'm looking forward to next week, which means for now, anyway, I'm back in the fold.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-03 01:02 am (UTC)I so agree with you here. That was what we got from old-school Cordelia, too, and I suspect that Spike is going to be taking over that spot--just as he was supposed to do in S4 of BtVS (which kind of worries me, actually, but I'm refusing to dwell on it; here I am, being all Zen about this season... om om om).
They are all out of their element, and this provides tension for the show; Gunn's change to being in that element will increase the tension even more.
Ooh, great catch! I love this way of looking at the twist in Gunn's character, and I think you're exactly right, especially based on all his comments in the beginning about being out of place. He was the one who--superficially, anyway--fit in least, and now he's more of an insider than any of them. Yummy possibilities, there.
And for a cool and interesting take on the episode, read superplin's cool and interesting comments.
Aw! ::blushes furiously:: Thanks so much. I feel terribly rusty at this after having been away from it for so long. There's just nothing like having a new episode to chew over, though, I guess.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-03 10:55 am (UTC)And yeah, the deconstruction thing is a groove to get into, but chewing is good!
no subject
Date: 2003-10-04 01:35 pm (UTC)My favorite was Knox’s “it looks like he was fired. No, sorry, he was set on fire.”
I think that was mine, too, but it's easy to forget compared to the goats and the spanking. It was Knox's nonchalant delivery that made the line. That sort of thing always happens in W&H, apparently. *g*