Hit first, repent later
Oct. 30th, 2003 10:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwynIt's hard to feel all happy about TV when so many people are in danger and losing everything in the fires in southern California. My heart goes out to you if you live down there. I guess we're all pretty luck elsewhere that we can sit and think about TV shows instead of whether we have to evacuate. And that said, I have been, in between worrying about my sister, thinking of TV:
This episode reminded me a lot of very early Angel, first season and early second. The focus was more on the characters in the midst of a “case” and doing things that were driven by the storyline, and interacting with each other more. By fourth season, most of the Angel cast had gone into separate corners. Angel was driven largely by anything related to his son, Wes by his exclusion from the group, etc. The only time they really interacted was when they crossed paths on the way into and out of their separate corners, until Jasmine came along. So even though, in some ways, this is continuing the step out of the character-driven arcs, it helps illuminate the characters as they find out what’s happening in the monster of the week type story, and then work to solve it. Even Spike was interacting with everyone rather than simply focused on Fred.
And it was fun. I liked even from the beginning how we see Lorne as accompanied by his own private disco track, which was there at the end, too. And how even in his element he felt out of it, without understanding how or why. One of my favorite moments was early on, as well, when Angel comes out of the shower and doesn’t even attempt to hide his nakedness from Eve (oh, a little symbolism there? Do the names mean anything much, ya think?), acting almost as if it’s a weapon because she’s strayed, uninvited, into his territory. That was such a great picture of Angel, how belligerent and casual he is about things others would find uncomfortable, and how unthreatened he is even when he’s in a threatening situation. Even while he’s very clear about his own motivations for things, he’s completely clueless about what others need from him, and I enjoyed his scene in the limo with Lorne, because he was in this compressed space, having it flung in his face and being forced to actually slow down and look at someone’s emotions.
Of course, any ep with Knox is good, and I just love the way he interacts with kindred spirit Fred, especially as they were complimenting each other, and how annoyed that made Wes. There’s still so much insecurity in Wes and it comes out in so many ways — that he won’t believe he could do something faulty, that he knows he still doesn’t have a chance with Fred (though I admit I wish that storyline would die), that he questions his place in the scheme of things in their new situation. And Alexis Denisoff is a good drunk actor — most people overplay it, as Amy Acker did, but he was just wonderful: kind of sleepy, too slow in reactions, not sure if his reactions are even correct or if he’s speaking clearly. I wish they’d get him drunk more often. And oh how I loved Spike being Mr. Sunshine — what I loved most was that it shows what a big stupid doof he is under the hard exterior. He gets a suggestion to be positive, and bang, he’s not just happy, he’s a complete dork, the dork that most of us who like Spike know and adore.
Few of the monsters of the week ever creep me out, but the guest demons were wonderfully disgusting. I loved how their horns moved, and that poor little slave guy who opens up his veins. That was just... ew! In a good way, of course, and a fairly repulsive little bit of extra to the story; not to mention the one who had the jacket made of Pylean. One repulsive bit I could have done without was the peeing, but then, I’m freakishly modest and can’t stand anything about bodily functions, so even though it made sense within the story, it just wasn’t necessarily to my taste. At least, though, they didn’t linger on the disgusting, and kept the humor rolling along nicely with the more dramatic part of the plot. Some of the throwaways were just marvelous — Angel telling everyone what to go do, and then telling Eve “you stay here and let’s have more sex,” the Psyche Components storage room, and that someone had her ennui removed (I want that!), the idea that Gunn thought sleep removal would be cool, Spike saying “I’m your people person,” Knox’s story about the cows and the Sambucca. I really do enjoy Ben Edlund’s writing.
But I was thinking. So, Angel says he doesn’t really need release because he’s not bottling (and how I loved him hitting that guy off the elevator without even pausing), and clearly Lorne doesn’t understand his own need for release until it’s almost too late; neither do Wes and Fred, and so on (Spike releases his own inner geek?). But this was of course all about release, the id, even a suggested id, run amok, and so on, in a world where none of them can afford even the tiniest release of that id. Very, very dangerous. But it showed something about all of them, in a backwards way for some, in a forwards way for others, and it reminded me a lot of last year on Buffy. I kept banging on about how season 7 was all about a search for identity — and that the identities they all ended up finding were what made the difference with the First (and I suppose I could explain that to those who never had to listen to me drone about that, but I won’t bore you). And I think now Angel as a show is all about that search for identity, particularly as they’re all confronted with these new visions of themselves inside W&H, and they don’t always know what they see in the mirror (so to speak), let alone like what they see.
Angel’s stuck with a lot of new identity issues and is going to have to sift through them in order to succeed — not the least of which is his antipathy towards Spike, who’s around in one way or another. His sense of self isn’t terribly fluid or forgiving, so he’s going to struggle with this, especially with truth-tellers like Harmony, Eve, and Spike around to constantly throw those things in his face (witness Harm’s “everyone’s waiting to see if you axe them... or, axe them”). We’ve already seen that Gunn, Fred, and Wes are trying to figure out who they are now, especially Wes. And from Life of the Party we know that Lorne has been struggling too. So it’s clearly setting up where they can go for the rest of the season — even as they focus less on character arcs and more on standalone eps, it looks like we’ll get to see these glimpses of change in the characters as they sort out and search for their new identities.
And to MI-5: Does anyone know much about the “seasons” of the show and how many they’ve done over in England (Spooks, for those of you wondering what I’m talking about)? Or conversely, where things are now for the series here? I get the feeling next week is the last new one, and I’m bereft! I am just loving this show, and I especially loved this week’s. When Tom blows, man, does he have a spectacular meltdown! And I loved that he went to Christine at the end — I mean, who couldn’t tell back at the beginning that those two crazy, antagonistic kids weren’t meant for each other? And Harry with his interfering dictums... well, I hope Tom just mows right over him, but next week looks insanely angsty, and I know they’re coming to the end. I’m just really praying there’s going to be more...
This episode reminded me a lot of very early Angel, first season and early second. The focus was more on the characters in the midst of a “case” and doing things that were driven by the storyline, and interacting with each other more. By fourth season, most of the Angel cast had gone into separate corners. Angel was driven largely by anything related to his son, Wes by his exclusion from the group, etc. The only time they really interacted was when they crossed paths on the way into and out of their separate corners, until Jasmine came along. So even though, in some ways, this is continuing the step out of the character-driven arcs, it helps illuminate the characters as they find out what’s happening in the monster of the week type story, and then work to solve it. Even Spike was interacting with everyone rather than simply focused on Fred.
And it was fun. I liked even from the beginning how we see Lorne as accompanied by his own private disco track, which was there at the end, too. And how even in his element he felt out of it, without understanding how or why. One of my favorite moments was early on, as well, when Angel comes out of the shower and doesn’t even attempt to hide his nakedness from Eve (oh, a little symbolism there? Do the names mean anything much, ya think?), acting almost as if it’s a weapon because she’s strayed, uninvited, into his territory. That was such a great picture of Angel, how belligerent and casual he is about things others would find uncomfortable, and how unthreatened he is even when he’s in a threatening situation. Even while he’s very clear about his own motivations for things, he’s completely clueless about what others need from him, and I enjoyed his scene in the limo with Lorne, because he was in this compressed space, having it flung in his face and being forced to actually slow down and look at someone’s emotions.
Of course, any ep with Knox is good, and I just love the way he interacts with kindred spirit Fred, especially as they were complimenting each other, and how annoyed that made Wes. There’s still so much insecurity in Wes and it comes out in so many ways — that he won’t believe he could do something faulty, that he knows he still doesn’t have a chance with Fred (though I admit I wish that storyline would die), that he questions his place in the scheme of things in their new situation. And Alexis Denisoff is a good drunk actor — most people overplay it, as Amy Acker did, but he was just wonderful: kind of sleepy, too slow in reactions, not sure if his reactions are even correct or if he’s speaking clearly. I wish they’d get him drunk more often. And oh how I loved Spike being Mr. Sunshine — what I loved most was that it shows what a big stupid doof he is under the hard exterior. He gets a suggestion to be positive, and bang, he’s not just happy, he’s a complete dork, the dork that most of us who like Spike know and adore.
Few of the monsters of the week ever creep me out, but the guest demons were wonderfully disgusting. I loved how their horns moved, and that poor little slave guy who opens up his veins. That was just... ew! In a good way, of course, and a fairly repulsive little bit of extra to the story; not to mention the one who had the jacket made of Pylean. One repulsive bit I could have done without was the peeing, but then, I’m freakishly modest and can’t stand anything about bodily functions, so even though it made sense within the story, it just wasn’t necessarily to my taste. At least, though, they didn’t linger on the disgusting, and kept the humor rolling along nicely with the more dramatic part of the plot. Some of the throwaways were just marvelous — Angel telling everyone what to go do, and then telling Eve “you stay here and let’s have more sex,” the Psyche Components storage room, and that someone had her ennui removed (I want that!), the idea that Gunn thought sleep removal would be cool, Spike saying “I’m your people person,” Knox’s story about the cows and the Sambucca. I really do enjoy Ben Edlund’s writing.
But I was thinking. So, Angel says he doesn’t really need release because he’s not bottling (and how I loved him hitting that guy off the elevator without even pausing), and clearly Lorne doesn’t understand his own need for release until it’s almost too late; neither do Wes and Fred, and so on (Spike releases his own inner geek?). But this was of course all about release, the id, even a suggested id, run amok, and so on, in a world where none of them can afford even the tiniest release of that id. Very, very dangerous. But it showed something about all of them, in a backwards way for some, in a forwards way for others, and it reminded me a lot of last year on Buffy. I kept banging on about how season 7 was all about a search for identity — and that the identities they all ended up finding were what made the difference with the First (and I suppose I could explain that to those who never had to listen to me drone about that, but I won’t bore you). And I think now Angel as a show is all about that search for identity, particularly as they’re all confronted with these new visions of themselves inside W&H, and they don’t always know what they see in the mirror (so to speak), let alone like what they see.
Angel’s stuck with a lot of new identity issues and is going to have to sift through them in order to succeed — not the least of which is his antipathy towards Spike, who’s around in one way or another. His sense of self isn’t terribly fluid or forgiving, so he’s going to struggle with this, especially with truth-tellers like Harmony, Eve, and Spike around to constantly throw those things in his face (witness Harm’s “everyone’s waiting to see if you axe them... or, axe them”). We’ve already seen that Gunn, Fred, and Wes are trying to figure out who they are now, especially Wes. And from Life of the Party we know that Lorne has been struggling too. So it’s clearly setting up where they can go for the rest of the season — even as they focus less on character arcs and more on standalone eps, it looks like we’ll get to see these glimpses of change in the characters as they sort out and search for their new identities.
And to MI-5: Does anyone know much about the “seasons” of the show and how many they’ve done over in England (Spooks, for those of you wondering what I’m talking about)? Or conversely, where things are now for the series here? I get the feeling next week is the last new one, and I’m bereft! I am just loving this show, and I especially loved this week’s. When Tom blows, man, does he have a spectacular meltdown! And I loved that he went to Christine at the end — I mean, who couldn’t tell back at the beginning that those two crazy, antagonistic kids weren’t meant for each other? And Harry with his interfering dictums... well, I hope Tom just mows right over him, but next week looks insanely angsty, and I know they’re coming to the end. I’m just really praying there’s going to be more...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-10-30 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-30 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-30 02:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-30 03:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-30 02:52 pm (UTC)the idea that Gunn thought sleep removal would be cool,
I thought that was about the creepiest part of the episode – even more so than that poor little slave meal. Man oh Man had Gunn changed! And, gross as the ‘marking’ was, what he marked was quite significant. Gunn’s one ambitious bloke!
Spike releases his own inner geek?
Or lets go of his bad mood? Or his false persona? I'm not real sure. But the latter does fit well with your very clever thoughts about identity - which I also think may well be at the heart of this season.
no subject
Date: 2003-10-30 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-10-30 03:24 pm (UTC)He gets a suggestion to be positive, and bang, he’s not just happy, he’s a complete dork, the dork that most of us who like Spike know and adore.
Exactly. Spike always has been a big dork trapped in leather and peroxide and his badass bravado. And I adored them showing this a bit, even when he really wanted to help with the ice, like the one kid in class raising his hand, volunteering to clap the erasers during recess.