|
That's My Take Archive Early-Mid January, 2001- airing of "Triangle" & "Redefinition" | |||||||||
|
Buffy- "Triangle" This episode had good acting, good writing, good directing, & that good old "Buffy" feeling/aura. Mmah! (kiss noise). I'm gonna' be short, sweet (mostly), & too the point: I didn't hate SMG in this episode. She was too cute to hate. Always keep her in those 2 loose-bun type things. Aly Hannigan was cute, but she's always cute. Nick Brendon just bothered me for some reason. Giles was too sexy. James Marsters is just the best actor EVER! Again I asked: What up with the mannequin? Best line ever: "He's not a ball of sunshine." Poor Giles' shop. I don't think Joyce's tumor is unrelated to Dawn. All I thought when that doctor was asking Buffy about exposure to cellphones & powerlines (past episode) was exposure to Dawn. I think they'll tie the tumor in with the Dawn-stuff as the season winds-up. Yea, sweeps are on the way! Angel- "Redefinition" What Wolfram & Hart have really turned Angel into is one of them. I've always thought that Wolfram & Hart's senior partners were going to end up being really evil demons, but now I'm not so sure- what they really are are humans with souls, but not necessarily consciences. Is what they do all about bringing about evil for some evil purpose to sustain evil? No. It's about the power. & if they have to do something a person with a good conscience would call a good act to sustain their power then they'll do it, because it's not about evil or good. What I'm really saying is: when they're doing evil it's the same to them as doing good. & that's where they've ultimately taken Angel. He's obsessed, so obsessed he doesn't see that difference. He doesn't think he can kill her so he's shutting off that part of himself- the emotional, feeling part of himself. Anything he can to avoid doing it himself, really himself. So he's becoming Wolfram & Hart, he's getting on their level. Really, what's scarier, what's more evil: the person who does something wrong because of some evil purpose or the person doing it for no reason at all? I mean, "I've Got you Under My Skin" really coined it: "Do you know what the scariest thing in the world is: nothing.... (he) destroy everything around him not for a belief in evil." Do you think Angel burned Darla & Dru because he thought it would kill them. Maybe, but I don't think so. Think about it. Angel's become not the champion of those helpless lost souls nor the evil torturer he once was, he's now what he was for almost a hundred years after he got his soul, what we saw in "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been": self-serving. I think they're exploring an overlooked clause in the whole soul-curse idea. People with souls & consciences do bad things. What Darla said at the end of this episode: "That wasn't Angel. That wasn't Angelus either. Who was that?" Made me realize something I didn't get in "Reunion", Dru said "He's not thinking about his own family only them", yet what Angel does after that clearly shows that he wasn't thinking about 'them', the lawyers, at all- what he was thinking about was himself. The lawyers and his girls, Darla & Dru, were both his enemies & it ain't so bad to let the one destroy the other-- oh, this now connects to the beginning of "Dear Boy" where 2 groups of demons are having a religious war over some other demon & they band together to fight Angel & co. Man, Joss Whedon is just a mastermind. What he has done for this show is amazing. I really think "Buffy"'s slacking, but you have to remember that he's not working on that too much, he's focusing on "Angel" & the result has been this, so far, amazing & elaborate seasonal layout that just blows my mind. He's gotta be the greatest mind of his generation, definitely, if not of his time. & I hope he doesn't visit this site regularly & is reading this right now because I hear he already has a big head, but, shit- the character development & how they've evolved this lead character... & what they're doing is monumental in that department: who has their lead character evolve like that, of course they're going to do something major to the character of Buffy at the end of this season. Eh, I was just thinking that Buffy & Angel truly belong together- they're probably both capable of some real evil. I'm ranting, incoherently, I'm aware, I'm still just blown away. I saw this episode 15 minutes ago & I'm just- What they've done this episode is they've brought about a whole new feel to the show & I really like it & what they've done with these characters & these intricate & passionate, complicated story they've weaved between all the characters: Lilah & Lindsey; Lindsey & Darla; Darla & Dru; Gunn, Cordelia, Wesley, & Angel; Angel & Darla; Angel & Lindsey. This is probably the best work that has ever come out of Joss Whedon, it's on-par if not above the whole "Buffy" second half of season 2 events that led to the fabulous "Becoming" AND the whole thing they did with Faith in Season 3, which now that I think about I don't think was fully realized, well, because I don't think that's truly over yet. I really liked how Angel narrated his thoughts because that was really necessary to understand his psyche. I thought it was really interesting how they had Darla retain a little bit of that humanity & her feeling for Angel. Really created an intense, complicated love concept, & this is where I get the "passionate" from when I describe these events as "intricate & passionate". I was really surprised that Darla & Dru let Lindsey & Lilah live & didn't turn them into vamps. Watching Buffy's "Fool for Love" where they showed Dru making Spike she said to him "(I) don't need a purse". She doesn't need money, vampires can live without it. All they need is to be near something with running veins & they're pretty much good. Also, if they want money, kill some Bill Gates type guy & raid the safes. They want a house, kill Robin Leaches latest stakeout. Which is something really interesting because humans, who live in modern civilization, certainly our civilization- if you have a computer, you're definitely bound by this culture where we need money to survive. Anyway, I remember thinking during "Reunion" when Holland called Dru & Darla & told them that they had the full support of Wolfram & Hart: I thought 'how cool? You get to paint the town & spree shop at Neimans or somewhere, & a big lawfirm supports you.' But, vampires don't need support, they don't need money- so why would they need Wolfram & Hart at all. Which, I thought later, when they planned to kill the lawyers, that Wolfram & Hart underestimated Darla & Dru & that they didn't need what they had to give them. But, I was wrong about that too, that was about revenge- Darla didn't like being used & that was her "sending them a 15 body memo". But she did need something from them afterall, she wanted their power. Sorry, these are just thoughts, I'm not going anywhere with it. Ya know, Doyle is rolling in his grave. Angel has given up his mission. It's real. It's not just me saying it, they actually said it on the show. Yes, indeed, disappointed is the word. But, who really is Angel? In 1996, a good demon named Whistler approached a worthless creature living in cardboard boxes in New York, wasting his power & that creature became something more, something great, but that was only 5 years ago & he's lived almost 2 1/2 centuries. Maybe that good, champion of the helpless isn't who Angel is. & maybe he's not the thing he was reborn as a vampire as before he got his soul. Maybe he's just Liam. & Liam, although young, could have had the potential to become what Angel has become now... But, Doyle is rolling in his grave. Doyle wanted Angel to be anything but alone because THIS WOULD HAPPEN!!! You take Angel away from the things that make him human, you distance him from those ties, & that line between right & wrong, good & evil, blurs &, right now, I don't think he knows there's a line at all. The Host: "When the big guys talk, I shut my yap." Love it. Love the integration of this guy into the show. He makes up for them killing the Oracles, considering the tradeoff that the Oracles didn't show up that often. I really haven't felt that Gunn, Cordy, & Wes fit into what's been going with Angel & Darla, & I was beginning to think that the characters were sort of useless, but I like what all-mighty Joss is going to be doing with them & it brings an interesting & added thing going on which is always good- to have more than one thing going on in a show, one more story being told that aids the main story. What Dru meant when she said there were 10 warriors & now there were 9 was that the 10 included Angel, but once he killed those others he stopped becoming a warrior & became like Wolfram & Hart- doing that killing from afar in a calculated, thought-out, evil manner. So, still counting the dead ones as warriors, they're were 9 & Angel was no longer a warrior. I'm tracing concepts again: the whole thing in "Darla" was about Darla confused about what she was. No longer a vampire, but not really a human- something unnaturally given life, & that's kinda' what Angel goes through. He's not a vampire, he's not a human- there's no laws or rules to say what he is. He just is & the truly liberating & scary thing is that he could be anything. Be what you wantta' be, baby. & look what he's become. | |||||||||