(from ata:) Shanna's S3 Commentary
Tafka
Shanna's (who's an occasional, yet frustratingly infrequent, poster to
umta... *hint hint*) commentary on Season 3. Which fits nicely with
her post-S2 and post-2x12 (I think) commentary.
Read on, if you've read them before or just want to take someones long
(and well-explained) opinion [I have a "ODC one-liner free" card, btw;
so no need to reply with something like "Only if you think S3 was X &
Y & Z" - ta muchly :P]
I notice *no* spoilers for S4 - merely some wishful thinking & a
little smidge of speculation.
So, clearly, this means SPOILERS FOR SEASON THREE OF ANGEL - All of
it.
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<BEGIN>
Just in time for the start of season 4, here's my belated commentary
on
season 3. I've actually made a couple of false starts writing this,
but they
turned into either epic rants or attempts to rewrite the entire
season.
Let's hope the third time's the charm.
If I had to choose one word to describe season 3, it would be
"uneven." This
season seemed to contain both higher highs and lower lows than any
other
season. In the first season, the series was still finding its legs, so
there
were some ups and downs, but for the most part, the episodes fell in
the
middle of the bell curve (although, perhaps, a lower middle than seen
with
later seasons). The "5 by 5" and "Sanctuary" two-parter were positive
standouts, and the only nearly unwatchable episode was "She," but even
that
one had a few good moments that made the episode watchable with
liberal use
of the fast-forward button.
Season two was perhaps the most consistent so far. We hit the high of
"Reprise," there were a few episodes of scattered quality, clustering
in the
middle, and then there was "Blood Money," an episode I haven't been
able to
make myself watch all the way through since the first airing.
Which brings us to season 3. I don't think we had nearly as many
episodes at
the middle of that bell curve. We had some fairly stratospheric highs,
with
the "Loyalty," "Sleep Tight" and "Forgiving arc that showed us this
series
at its best. But the number of unwatchable episodes is much greater
this
season. There was "Carpe Noctem," which was mostly harmless on first
viewing
and not worth watching beyond that. There was "Dad," which could be
prescribed as birth control (see, babies turn you into a total idiot,
and
then they cry all the time). There was "Provider," which left viewers
asking
the question "Who are these people, and what is this dreck they're
airing in
place of Angel tonight?" There are mixed feelings about "Couplet," but
for
the most part, I find myself wanting to turn off the television
throughout
it. Then we had the arcus interruptus episode of "Dude, Where's My
Truck?"
otherwise known as "Double or Nothing," which not only suffered from
being
an incredibly lame episode but also from coming right after three of
the
best in the series run, so the audience was left with a serious case
of
whiplash to come from major story arc to bad television sitcom.
Finally,
there was the mostly laughable finale, which I discovered upon the
recent
re-broadcast that I couldn't make myself watch without liberal use of
the
mute button on my remote.
That made for a frustrating season that showed us what this series can
do
best and, perhaps, better than anything else on television, but also
what
depths it can sink to.
At its best, Angel is a drama about a group of deeply flawed people
who
usually try to do the right thing, only to find that the right thing
is a
shaky concept that floats around in a gray area. These are people who
make
mistakes and suffer because of them. They can be unforgiving of
themselves
and others. They may find that one person's idea of the right thing
can be
another person's idea of the worst possible thing. They have divided
loyalties and petty jealousies. Conflict isn't swept under the rug or
forgotten. We're still seeing the emotional fallout of something that
happened during February sweeps, and I suspect that will last a while
longer. Sometimes good things happen to bad people, bad things happen
to
good people, and good things come as a reward for bad behavior, while
the
people who try the hardest to be good get punished for it. That makes
for a
morally and ethically complex series laden with conflict and drama. As
I
mentioned before, the "Loyalty," "Sleep Tight" and "Forgiving" arc
showcased
these things beautifully. We saw characters trying to do the right
thing,
only to fail and cause harm instead. We saw friendships shaken and
challenged, and all was not set right in the world, even as the facts
were
revealed. There was no reset button here. I'd also rank the ending of
"Lullaby" with the highs, as well as much of "Billy." Yeah, it was bad
pseudoscience, but it was riveting television.
Where the series seemed to run off the road and into an
alligator-infested
ditch this season was when the writers seemed to forget all those
elements
that make the series good. We got sitcom hijinks where everything was
resolved in less than an hour and then never mentioned again. We got
character flaws glossed over. We had major issues and conflict totally
forgotten or too easily resolved in an effort to create romances. We
had
characters with nice shades of gray suddenly shoved over the line into
the
realm of black. That's how we got messes like "Provider," in which we
have
the wacky sitcom setup of "hey, we need to earn money for the baby's
college
fund!" and everyone runs off and does out-of-character things so that
everyone ends up in real danger, but hey, they learn their lesson and
all is
forgotten before the episode is over. And we have the entire shades of
grey,
good people doing bad things concept undermined when Cordelia is able
to
tell Angel with a straight face that he has the biggest and best heart
in
the world. Because, you see, she loves him and doesn't know it, and
she's
forgotten stuff like him firing her and abandoning her and him
sleeping with
Darla and then lying to her about it. But that's not important because
what
is important is the fact that she thinks he's just swell.
Another possible reason behind the unevenness of the season could be
that
they've lost and/or changed the focus of what the series is about. At
first,
I was blaming the characters for being so self-absorbed, but then I
realized
that it's something coming from outside. Once upon a time, they were
focused
on helping the helpless. When Cordy had a vision about someone in
trouble,
the main focus would be the person in trouble. They'd remove the
person from
immediate danger, then help that person deal with whatever else was
going
on. Post-epiphany, they've been serving more as demon exterminators,
with
the focus being on the demon they have to go out and slay, and the
victim is
barely a footnote. It's been ages since they actually really helped
someone
other than themselves in doing anything other than just slaying a
demon and
running. I know they wanted to focus the show on our ongoing
characters
rather than on the victim of the week, and I totally agree with the
concept,
but part of what made our ongoing characters sympathetic was the fact
that
they were out there trying to help people rather than wallowing
entirely in
their own problems. There's got to be a nice happy medium, a balance
in
which the problem they're helping with reflects a problem they're also
facing. You know, metaphors and all that stuff.
The other disappointment in this season was a lot of potential that
went by
the wayside. One thing that has worked in Angel is the fact that the
villains often have a personal connection to Angel. This isn't just
some
monster or hellgod that Angel has to fight. It's a personification of
his
past. Previously, we had Darla, who made Angel what he is. This
season, we
had Holtz. There were all sorts of shades of gray there, where he was
a good
man who had a legitimate gripe with Angel. He was someone who might be
fighting on the same side as Angel, were it not for their history.
Then they
had to make things much more simplistic by turning Holtz into a
sadistic
psychopath who tortured his own followers (see, that makes him the bad
guy,
since Angel only tortures his enemies). That undermined the power of
the
story.
I was also disappointed in how many serious things were swept aside.
Angel's
ethical lapse in his treatment of Darla and his lying about it was
turned
into a joke. The issue of Connor's origins was forgotten for quite
some
time, until Wes had to come up with something to do to distract
himself, and
then somehow he got sidetracked from the issue of who/what Connor was
to the
prophecy. That huge list of Connor's enemies apparently gave up and
found
something else to do, until Holtz decided to do something. They
totally
forgot to give Gunn a story line other than feeding Fred. They forgot
to
give Fred a story line other than being fed by Gunn. Wesley went
straight
from post-"Billy" trauma to Inspector Clousseau. Fred didn't seem to
feel
any long-term effects from anything. I won't even get into the Demon
Cordy
situation because I'm holding out hope that it's not over yet and
things
will turn out to be not quite what they seemed. If we're to take it on
face
value, it ranks a big "huh?"
No commentary on this season would be complete without at least
addressing
the Cordy/Angel mess. I'm pretty clearly on record as being against
the
concept for too many reasons to list here, with a big one being that
it's a
match made in network promo hell, the oh-so-obvious male lead plus
female
lead equals pretty pictures thing. But even if you're for it, the
handling
of it this season was enough to make just about anyone sick. They took
a
match-up that had some degree of chemistry last year and started
trying to
ram it down our throats with all that talk of moira, kye-rumption and
champions and by making the characters act out of character when it
came to
dealing with each other. Then they went for the "Moonlighting" curse
of the
developing television romance and made it all about "will they ever
manage
to express their feelings for each other?" with one plot contrivance
after
another showing up just in time to prevent the big confession. It no
longer
had anything to do with the feelings these two characters might have
or for
the development of their relationship and instead became more about
which
grand piano would come crashing from the sky to stop them from saying
or
doing something about it this time around. If they were going to
pursue this
relationship in any way (not that they have to, really!), there's
plenty of
conflict inherent in the characters and their situation to keep them
from
dancing merrily into the sunset together for quite some time. It would
have
flowed far better if they had confessed their feelings for each other
in
Pylea, and then immediately came home and faced the Buffy issue, then
the
Darla issue, and then so forth rather than making both characters look
like
idiots because they need so much outside help to become aware of their
own
feelings.
The Gunn/Fred/Wes triangle comes in a close second in the annoying
sweepstakes. First, we have Wes as Charlie Brown and Fred as the
Little
Red-Haired Girl. All he does is sit and sigh about her while she
barely
knows he exists. If it was his fears following the Billy incident
keeping
him from making a move, they should have shown that more clearly in an
ongoing awkwardness around her. He makes no effort to get to know her
better, to spend more time with her or to even turn their working
sessions
into something social (the classic "Hey, why don't we go get some
coffee
since we're pulling an all-nighter" routine). He certainly didn't act
like a
man whose feelings ran so deep for her that losing her was the final
straw.
My personal theory was that she was a convenient excuse for him to
avoid any
other relationships that might turn out to be painful. Meanwhile, Gunn
and
Fred has to be one of the most sickening things on television. As one
friend
of mine said, "I get acne from watching them." So far, it looks like
Gunn
admires Fred for her ability to eat like a horse without gaining an
ounce,
and it's been stated on screen that what Fred loves about Gunn is the
fact
that he loves her. Sounds like the basis for a healthy, interesting
relationship, huh?
There's plenty of romance on television. If they can't write it and
make the
characters remain interesting and believable, they don't have to
include
romance. There are plenty of stories to tell without falling into the
fanfic
trap of focusing almost exclusively on who's going to get together
with
whom.
Characters:
Angel -- I'm not a fan of Dork!Angel, mostly because of DB's acting
style.
What he does well is convey emotion, but that means that the
characterization is mostly on the page. When Angel is written to act
out of
character, what happens is that instead of us seeing Angel behaving in
an
out-of-character manner, we see DB acting goofy. That meant that for
much of
the season, it felt like a case of "Who are you and what did you do
with the
real Angel?" I found it somewhat weird that his response to having a
son was
to become more goofy and irresponsible (aside from the occasional
throwaway
line about a college fund). A lot of the fatherhood stuff might have
worked
better if we'd ever had a sense that this was something he always
wanted,
that he longed to be a father and the biggest curse of being a vampire
was
that he never could be one. You'd think that finding out you were
going to
be a father when such a thing was previously considered physically
impossible would require some time and effort to get straight in your
head.
He went straight to proud papa handing out cigars like this was
something
he'd always wanted instead of going through any kind of shock of the
idea of
parenthood. His response to Connor's loss was probably the best Angel
stuff
of the season because we were right back to what they do well in
showing a
flawed person trying to deal with an impossible situation in the best
way he
knows how, even if what he does is create a bigger mess.
Cordelia -- When they decided to spend the season teasing a
relationship
with Angel, it was the ultimate sabotage of Cordelia's character. We
still
had some wonderful moments of spirit and snark, but there was too much
All-Mother understanding and wisdom. It also seemed to damage the
ensemble.
Before, we got a sense of the whole team, and suddenly it's just Cordy
and
Angel off in their own little world (see the endings of "Billy" and
"Provider," where stories that involved the whole ensemble are brought
back
to Angel and Cordy oblivious to everyone else).I like the idea of her
character growth, but it was hard to tell how much of it was supposed
to be
taken at face value. Is she really a higher being, or does her easy
acceptance at being told she's a higher being mean that she isn't one?
Are
we not supposed to see her as wise and all-knowing when her
pronouncement
about what was going on with Fred and Gunn turned out to be wrong, her
sense
of Wes and Fred belonging together turned out to be wrong, her own
feelings
for Groo turned out to be wrong and her view of Angel and Connor's
relationship was inaccurate? And what about the fact that she had a
vision
of herself accepting Skip's offer, and she never has visions of good
things
happening? It was like they were telling us one thing and then
undermining
it with what they showed us. If that was intentional, it was
incredibly
subtle, perhaps too subtle among all the anvils they were dropping
elsewhere.
Wesley -- Wes was the storyline winner in the second half of this
season. It
was painful to watch his downfall, but it was also fascinating and
entirely
in character. Even as he was degenerating, I think we saw him start
growing
into a stronger person who doesn't need the approval of others. The
first
half of the season was another story, where he seemed to be playing
either
Inspector Clousseau or the all-purpose smart guy with no real story
line.
Things that happened to him didn't seem to have any lasting effect. We
didn't see how his relationship with Gunn was altered by Gunn's lapse
with
his old gang, and we didn't see how the "Billy" experience had any
lasting
impact on him. Even though there was some leadership pushing and
pulling
with Angel, that never really went anywhere and we never got a sense
of what
either of them thought about the leadership issue. There was a lot of
opportunity there to start setting up what eventually happened to him,
so
that it wouldn't have been such a simplistic thing of not getting the
girl.
They seemed to be trying to show us that it was a sense of isolation
brought
about by Fred and Gunn getting together and forgetting their other
friends,
but that would have been more effective if we'd seen more of the "it's
lonely at the top" stuff earlier. Wesley was the one case where I
think we
saw a good fallout from Pylea. His dilemma of what to do about the
prophecy
echoed his situation as leader of the Pylean army where he had to make
the
tough decisions on his own because he was the one leading the charge.
Wesley's story line is the one I'm most intrigued about for next
season.
Gunn -- Gunn could have slept through the season and we'd barely have
noticed it. I'm not sure what role this character is supposed to be
playing
in the ensemble. When they had him become Fred-whipped, he lost all
the
characteristics that made him interesting. If you have to get rid of
all the
other characters to give him something to do, you know you've got
problems.
Fred -- See Gunn. I wanted to like this character. I think that a
brainy
brunette from Texas should be a vital ingredient in all TV shows. But
I
can't figure out what the heck they thought she would add to the
series,
aside from Joss thinking Amy Acker was just so adorable he had to get
her
signed for a season (and as an aside, what does it say about him
psychologically that he's had an insane, babbling brunette in all
three
television series he's created?). It's like the series changes tone
entirely
when she opens her mouth.
Lorne -- I love the character, but I'm not sure that the transition
from
lounge lizard and semi-oracle to nanny was handled well. I'm looking
forward
to seeing where he ends up landing. He has more potential to add to
the
ensemble than Fred and Gunn put together.
Lilah -- Lilah was the surprise story line winner this season. They
started
adding complexity when she got to come to the rescue in "Billy," and
then we
saw her get caught in her own traps regarding Angel. Now her career is
in a
shambles, and she's getting involved with Wesley. That was a match-up
I
never saw coming, but it practically melted the TV screen when it did.
I'm
looking forward to seeing what's up with Lilah this season.
Bottom line:
This was a frustrating season. When it was good, it was very, very
good.
When it was bad, it was awful, to the point I lost sympathy for most
of the
major characters. Even so, there were enough unanswered questions to
have me
counting days until the season premiere, and there's plenty of
potential for
future plot lines. I just hope they don't blow it again.
Shanna
</END>
-Tafka-
No one needs to know about this except you, me and
Mr.-soon-to-be-living-the-rest-of-his-short-ass-life-in-agonizing-pain-rapist
here