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Post by PyleansDontLeaveMe on Oct 27, 2005 13:31:24 GMT -5
TO make up for my extended absence (And I've missed you all terribly)
I present to you, for the first time in quite some little while,
A new Review in Retrospect
(Be warned.... time has been short this morning, so this one isn't entirely up to standard, I'm afraid. And the end is more than a little bit rushed.
But, still and all...)
Eternity
A review in retrospect.
It¡¦s all about the Alphas and the Omegas
It¡¦s a fundamental truth that the nature of a thing is defined by its beginning and ending. The center of a shape could be part of anything- It¡¦s the edge that makes it a circle, if you see what I mean.
And while there¡¦s nothing new about the observation that it¡¦s our mortality that makes life worthwhile and significant ¡V that today is ONLY special because we know that one day we won¡¦t have a tomorrow, what¡¦s interesting to me about this episode is the open acknowledgement that death is only one sort of ending. In fact, every change is nothing more than the end of one thing and the beginning of something else. And as the opening teaser of Wes and Angel stuck watching a crappy production of A Dolls House (Ibsen¡K. He is indeed the foundation of Hell. Of course, it could have been worse ¡V It could have been Hedda Freaking Gabbler. Eicchhhhh) Where was I¡K Oh yes, as the opening teaser shows only too clearly, true eternity is best defined as the impossibility of change. To be trapped in an unending sameness with no hope of things changing in any way shape or form.
To be, in other words, living in a sitcom. Which brings us neatly to Hollywood. ļ
This episode is, from beginning to end, a reasonably in depth discussion of the nature of beginnings and endings. It is, for example, essentially the end of ¡¥shallow Cordelia¡¦. Never again do we see her as a vapid Wanna-be actress. (interestingly enough, the change was precipitated by a true friend being honest with her about her ¡¥talent¡¦. Which would be all warm and cuddly if I wasn¡¦t talking about Angelus. Or am I¡K.? More on this in a moment.) Simultaneously, it¡¦s the beginning of our seeing Cordy as a thoughtful, resourceful friend. Someone who¡¦ll be there for you and who can handle herself against the scary bad guys.
Wes, thematically, is transforming from useless butt-of-jokes Wesley in his leather pants to a kind and brave man who genuinely wants to do what¡¦s right (as opposed to the self involved thingy who just wanted people to look up to him, as he previously was shown)
And Angel¡K. Angel just continues unchanged until he¡¦s inadvertently transformed into Angelus for a brief period. Or is he¡K? More on this in a minute.
What really strikes me as odd in this episode is that Rebecca¡¦s stated goal is to overcome change. To stop things from changing. To freeze things exactly as they are and become a vampire, a being without endings, and therefore without change.
And that is so CLEARLY exactly what she already has and desperately wants to get rid of. She SO much wants to find and embrace change. She¡¦s constantly viewed by strangers as being ¡¥That Raven girl from that show¡¦. Held in stasis in the public eye as that one image, unchangeable, inviolate. And like a fading picture, she¡¦s held there unchjanging as the show circles in syndication. Her fame is fading, true. She¡¦s getting older, true. But she doesn¡¦t really want to stop the process of change. She wants change more than anything in the world. She wants to be seen as malleable, changeable (I¡¦m trying desperately to fit the term ¡¥Character actress¡¦ in here¡K) She wants to be free to reinvent herself infinitely. To never fade and always transform. Like some sort of hellbound cosmic David Bowie.
In a way of course, being in a sitcom IS very like becoming a vampire. You¡¦ll always be young, always trapped in that moment in the public eye. Always feeding on those dead hours between 5 and 7 PM on TNT. No Alpha, no Omega, just a continuing unbroken line. This might be a good moment to drop a nice card of sympathy to Jimmy Walker. (T.V.¡¦s J.J. Evans!)
Switching gears for just a moment ¡V What is redemption, but change? An end to an old persona of guilt and the birth of a new ¡¥clean¡¦ soul?
Isn¡¦t Angel, at the end of the day, just questing for a chance to experience beginnings and ending, to experience CHANGE, just like Rebecca? Just like the rest of us?
And what lengths would we go to to experience that change?
Let¡¦s consider for a moment the Curse. If Angel experiences a moment of true happiness he will lose his soul. Seems pretty cut and dry.
And yet, at no point does the curse say, if Angel experiences a moment of true happiness his soul will just wander off for a bit and probably will come back on its own after the happiness wears off. At no point does it say, ¡¥If Angel experiences a moment of ¡¥synthetic¡¦ happiness then he¡¦ll kind of have a little bit of the curse, but then the soul will just come back on it¡¦s own probably. You know¡K eventually.¡¦ Nor does it say that there will be a gradual ¡¥soul losing¡¦ period during which he can shove actresses faces in blood and then feel momentarily bad about it, then lose his soul, then have it come back on his own.
This episode doesn¡¦t play by ANY of the rules we¡¦ve already established.
And I submit that it¡¦s not supposed to.
Because what we saw here wasn¡¦t what we thought we saw.
I submit that we never saw Angelus in this episode. I submit that Angel, so desperate for change, latched on to the moment of happiness and just assumed his soul was gone. Cut loose. Let the evil side out. Because any change is better than none.
Because that¡¦s the only explanation that makes any sense to me to explain how his soul just magically came back when he sobered up.
And I suspect that Wes knew that that was what was going on.
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Post by tjaman on Oct 27, 2005 15:52:36 GMT -5
Interesting theory. I'm surprised it never occurred to me that Angel was playacting. All the signs were there -- open in a theater, plotline revolves around an actress, didn't actually kill anyone (altho he did do quite a good amount of damage).
Maybe he did it too well. Maybe the show cheated -- didn't let us in on the thing.
Maybe he felt that he needed to risk getting staked.
Maybe ...
Actually ...
I'm ... still of the impression that it was simply bad writing.
But that was some incredible exploration. Well done!
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Post by PyleansDontLeaveMe on Oct 27, 2005 16:13:58 GMT -5
I'm happier making excuses for them. It's the enabler in me
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Post by Aunt Arlene on Oct 27, 2005 19:14:09 GMT -5
It manages to explain Angel's comment to Wes in "Awakenings" quite nicely though.
"You have no idea what Angelus is, Wesley. All you know is what you've read is books. You've never had the pleasure of his company. And you're not going to."
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Post by Charisma69 on Oct 27, 2005 22:00:47 GMT -5
I haven't seen Eternity in ages but I completely agree with Py's assessment that Angel never actually became Angelus in this ep.
I think he just wasn't able to keep a tight rein on his bad-side while on the drug, I mean Angelus is always there. He never actually goes away. Angelus is always a part of Angel.
Angel on the other hand isn't always there. If he looses his soul then he looses the part of him that is Angel. He can't come back to the body unless someone puts him back.
I really need to see this ep again so I can make a clearer argument for what I mean. Not sure when I'll have time to do that though. I still have several shows from this week that I haven't seen yet, plus all the Angel eps I'm behind on the the Wednesday Night Book Club.
I'm never going to catch up.
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Post by tjaman on Oct 28, 2005 11:03:40 GMT -5
For whatever reason, I was especially interested in Py's reaction to this one, so with your kind indulgence, I give you ...
S5x05 - Life of the Party
It's Lorne! And he's so cheerful, and happy, and a big bursty ball of energy like he always is, fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun!
Well, not so much.
And now with seven years' bad luck to boot.
The opening sequence (again, a long single shot following Lorne) begins with a muted strain of Thelma Houston's "Don't Leave Me This Way," which segues into Lorne trying to sell a space adventure vision of "The Grapes of Wrath" -- it's got space battles, laser beams, explosions, a tale of interstellar poverty (Tom Joad, the dirt poor farmer, on a journey through the stars? That sounds vaguely familiar. One wonders if that was Joss' pitch speech for "Serenity.") Lorne is asked to dig up a leading man and he tells them he'll get back to him. Henry Fonda played the lead in the 1940 original, but it's a great discussion as to how limitless Lorne's power has become by his reputation -- what kinds of things has he promised in the past, and -- more to the point -- what kinds of things has he delivered?
Having a driven, helpful guy whose empathy has become a persuasive force on your side must be a pleasant thing. After all, Lorne hasn't slept in a month, so his powers of persuasion must have been building over this time. And with all the demanding demands demanding actors and actresses and agents and directors and producers have been making in all of Lorne's power lunches and Lorne trying to deliver -- and magically doing so most of the time, I'm guessing -- asking him to bring Henry Fonda back from the dead probably doesn't seem like too much to ask at this point.
Again, I bring up the notion that these people, these department heads, need some staff. Lorne's interaction with his assistant, Van, is fun, but if Lorne is as busy as he claims to be, he really ought to be delegating some of this activity.
It bears out what Fred was saying in "Unleashed," however -- everyone is working way too hard. Later in this episode, we see Fred and Wes both concerned over a mystical grenade that didn't work, and both of them -- along with Knox -- were heavily involved in the creation of it. I enjoyed the tension of division rivalry, but it felt like, um, don't both of you have better things to be doing?
Well, it makes sense that they'd want to be very hands-on since they were sending it out to help Angel, in this case fight a Thraxis demon. Leaving a task like that to underlings -- underlings who may want nothing better than to see Angel aloft in the breeze. But they themselves worked very hard on it and it didn't work, so it's kind of the same difference.
I liked that knowing feeling Wesley got when he knows something.
Back to Lorne's truck through the lobby and his exchange with Harmony. It's fun that they had a nice little vibe going -- "The hair, the eyes -- no wonder the fourth floor's got a crush on you." Angel's broody party-poopery was well established, which led us to a nice exchange with Eve. Who, so far as we can tell, got to hang out briefly with naked Angel. "Gentlemen's time" indeed. With this scene and the one in his office, David had to spend a lot of time with Sarah Thompson in advanced stages of deshabille. It was never as scandalous as many scenes in "Nip/Tuck," but it's pretty racy even for a Joss production.
Finally alone, Lorne enters his office. He has a beautiful office -- spacious, actually tasteful, with space-emphasizing and visually engaging statuary and muted earth tones, against which the vibrant Lorne collection shows forth like a blazing star. He takes a moment to collect himself, because it's obvious that the pressure of what he does is really getting to him and ... this is the first time I've noticed this. Lorne's reflection sings to him in the broken and he looks deeply troubled.
More than Lindsey's performance in "Dead End," I wonder if this is where he sees his final moments in "Not Fade Away."
One wonders if he can read himself ...
His reflective pep-talk over, his flicker of grave concern past, we sweep forth to the resumptive accompaniment of "Don't Leave Me This Way" and Lorne singing it into his cellphone as he strides forth and back into the fray.
He's got a party to plan.
It's one of the best uses of music in the series. Joss has a great ear for sound and story and the plaintive pleading message of that song -- "I can't exist, I'll surely miss, your tender kiss, don't leave me this way ..." -- was beautiful.
Lorne is self-destructing.
Roll credits.
Lorne gets everyone together and the main point of the episode is the party. Party, party, party. He's all upset because everyone's kinda bummed out about it, and despite all his hard work and preparations, he can't get CYNTHIA! to focus on having fun or even relaxing a little.
But his powers of persuasion are kicking in, and he gets everyone in a party mood eventually -- even tho, during the party itself, for quite a long time the only person who's out there on the dance floor dancing is Harmony. But this is the best thing about Mercedes McNab -- how she looks -- so watching her dance is pleasant.
First, tho, he has to get the guest list.
The episode introduces a member of The Circle: Archduke Sebassis. We're not given his full significance -- it's not really even hinted at -- but Joss being who he is and adhering to his commitments -- no story arcs, simple, self-contained standalone episodes -- recognizes the potential for telling different parts of stories and making them even more amazing by weaving them together down the road. They overshot themselves with Jasmine, and this introduction, bit by bit, to the members of the Circle, actually seems like a better approach.
Sebassis is charismatic, charming, scary, a little too S&M with his nameless manservant, perhaps (who in this episode becomes the "Pee-Pee Demon"), and doesn't seem to be the party sort. We know from the 'Bash that he's delightful, of course, and his aristocratic nature is wonderful. "Your contempt is fragrant" is a phrase I'd love to use sometime in my life.
He agrees to attend, and presumably all of the other hold-outs do domino in behind him.
One moment ...
Before we get to the crazy fun of the party, let me discuss a couple of conversations. One of the things I love about "Angel" happens, in fact, to be Angel, and I want to not fly past a couple of these exchanges so quickly.
First: Angel and Eve in the elevator.
Angel gives a show-so-far on what being in charge of the company he'd done everything in his power for so long to bring down is doing to his soul. He's conflicted, given to rationalization, he's done things he's completely unhappy about -- in getting to the low morale of the company, he's had to do a lot more violence than we've seen on camera. And he's never certain that any given move isn't exactly what the Senior Partners want him to do. That kind of second-guessery wears on a person.
And he did more confiding in that one brief moment than we've seen him do all season -- and it was with Eve.
His ties to his staff are clearly weakening.
Step ahead to Angel and Lorne in the limo on the way to Sebassiseseses'
He realizes -- almost surprised by it -- that this party being a success means a great huge deal to Lorne. And they talk about Lorne's position in CYNTHIA. And they talk about it after that flicker of concern Lorne got when he may or may not have been reading himself in the mirror.
I'm on your team, he says. I don't have super-human strength, I can't do physics, I can't do spells. But this is what I can do, he says. It's something I can do.
Well ... yes and no.
He can, after all, do absolutely anything. He was the first one in the evil limo, he was entirely won over by the job, and he's right -- he is the Host with the Most when it came to Caritas (although that space got destroyed more than once even with the anti-violence spell in place).
He's the schmooze factor, the lubrication in CYNTHIA!s engine, the buffer between prickly personalities, the guy who's always there to hear everyone's troubles. And as we saw at the mirror, there's barely any of him left over to support himself.
He was strung out and stressed. A good leader would've talked to him about that much earlier than Angel did, but even Wesley, onetime head of CYNTHIA!, has been to wrapped up in his own stuff to check in with him and see how he's doing.
Course, as I said before, all of them are working way too hard, which supports my W&H-as-meatgrinder theory: Just try to be in charge of everything we're in charge of and not be evil.
The party was good, the spells were mostly harmless (although Angel shagging Eve may have been the "EW!"-factor that made her all but universally hated and earned her the title of "skank on a stick") And naturally shagging Eve is no road toward perfect happiness, tho Spike's enthusiasm for him "getting some" was part of why Spike was just pleasant in this episode.
And as lighthearted as this episode ultimately was -- Wes and Fred are fun together, even with Fred's unfortunate timing ("Let's be better friends than we are. We could be confidantes, confiding confidences -- Whaddyou think of Knosch?") Oy. That was so much fun I almost forgot about where they were -- the Psyche Component Storage, where people have apparently had their ennui removed, which was just fun -- it got very dark with the assassination by Lorne's Hulkster alter ego of Artode, and the Archduke threatening a rain of destruction.
This storyline resolved itself a little too easily, but to be honest, while this pathenogenic golem worked really well in BS4x17 - "Superstar," it's quite impossible to believe it in this case, mostly because no one had ever seen it before, it's a creature built entirely without stealth, and this is a busy enough law firm that someone would've seen it before (the mystics do regular sweeps for noncorporeals, fer Pete's sake, they would've found that). Course, they would've found Pavayne, too, so whatcha gonna do?
Since it was dressed as Lorne was dressed in that episode, it may have manifested that very day, but to be honest, wouldn't someone have noticed that?
Anyway, it shows up, goes "smash," kills Artode and the demon who came to the party as "hooman bean" -- leading to potentially the worst line of the season (and maybe the series) delivered, naturally, by Harmony -- "Someone really dipped his chip" -- a close second behind Eve's "What would you like passing through these lips?" in S5x01 - "Conviction" as really terrible lines from otherwise superior storytellers (those were some serious clinkers) -- and it is disappeared as Lorne finally settles down and takes a nap the way he's meant to.
I ... had no idea I had this much to say about "Life of the Party." But Lorne-centric episodes are few, far between, and just joyous -- and also, they tend to foreshadow, and they give the writers an opportunity to take a step back and give us a "show so far" perspective. And naturally, examinations of the green guy himself are always satisfying, and lend themselves well to metaphor. In this environment of pushing ourselves so hard to meet challenges, to make ourselves vital, it's really possible to try to do too much.
After all, what we don't know about sleep would overflow the Library of Congress, but this was ultimately a great storyline. Without any escape from it, Lorne's entire world had become a dreamscape bordering on nightmarish, and it was a very cool discussion -- when you try to please everyone, you end up ruining everything. Being vital isn't the same as being omnipresent.
No Gunn Watch, no Powers-That-Sit-There this week. It's enough discreetly not to have mentioned Gunn's unfortunate role in the episode except in passing.
Instead, the whole "Set realistic goals," and "Take a break once in a while," and "You're no good to anyone if you burn yourself out" -- that's a pretty good message for a one-shot.
It's not bad advice to take to heart.
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Post by quantumcat on Nov 1, 2005 20:13:19 GMT -5
I recall an experiment where one group thought they had alcoholic drinks, soporific drugs,caffeinated coffee and had the expected reactions even though they had plain drinks,decaf and non drowsy drugs.
Another had the 'hi-test' versions and got sleepy on the coffee,stayed alert on the pills and drinks,etc.
All a matter of the power of suggestion.
The mind is a strange and wonderful thing.
It can even be several strange and wonderful things at once.
Folks with multiple personalities can have each alter respond to double blind studies of meds or allergens in different ways.
THIS one breaks out when exposed to strawberries. That one doesn't.
The same body. the same titration. different personas,different responses.
Was Angel *consciously* pretending to be Angelus?
Was Angelus partly there but not fully manifest?
Or was Angel's id complying with what it 'knew' it was supposed to do?
"I get happy,my bad side emerges and does evil things."
The rest of us get to use war or hormones or refined sugar to summon our inner demons.
Angel has curses-or auto-suggestion......
The placebo effect is barely understood.
If we knew how to elicit all the responses we get from 'sugar pills' we'd never need the real drugs.
Somehow,in his stupor,Angel got his cue to put his super-ego on hiatus.
Was his vampiric immunity truly eroding to the point he was affected by the mickey?
Or did he start the masquerade even sooner?
Was the change for real? Did he set out to fool us all?
Or was the first victim of his masquerade himself?
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Post by tjaman on Nov 3, 2005 14:33:35 GMT -5
Intriguing and insightful set of questions -- as usual, of course, q'cat. Thank you. ;D
Time to get the ball rolling here, I think, on
S5x08 - Destiny
The goal of this episode is to figure out once and for all what Lindsey is up to.
Eve brought up the amulet again, after the other box o' Spike showed up in the mail. I don't know if this is a mistake, since ...
OK, remember in "Fredless," where CYNTHIA! was simply dumbfounded at the concept of using detective work to track a piece of unmarked mail back to a specific address? Well, I'll be honest with you. It's not easy to do.
But if a private investigator with limited resources can do it for the Burkles, imagine what someone running a multinational and multidimensional state-of-the-art turnkey operation should be able to accomplish.
That's not fair! you shriek. He's wearing tattoos.
OK, fair enough. But not once in the course of Angel trying to figure out what the heck Eve is up to, he never had her followed? What, along with the power of immortality, she can vanish into thin air?
Well, regardless of how clueless Angel has indeed proven himself to be in this matter, Lindsey has snet him two pieces of mail -- Spike's essence and his corporeality.
Let me step off to the side here for a moment and comment on this. Fred exhausted her quarterly budget, even having fired a packet of staff people and, as far as I can tell, dimming her lights inexcusably. She couldn't come up with any way, physical or mystical, to recorporealize Spike.
Lindsey, with access to, um, well, the demon essence he picked up in Nepal -- and forgive me, but how much money was he making as an associate? Because I count at least two years of making it on his own with no more capital investment than the crappy old truck he drove in with from Oklahoma to finance this grand pathetic revenge against Angel -- sends a burst of light in a box and viola!
But aside from the money. Aside from the motive -- OK, Lilah gave the amulet to Angel, but Spike used it, and Lindsey, presumably, tracked it down and mailed it to W&H -- well, even if Lindsey sent it, he couldn't know that was gonna happen. And if he wanted Angel killed, there's easier and cheaper ways to do it (blow up the limo, for instance).
But we must assume that the amulet -- which saved the world, btw -- originated with Lindsey, mostly because of this episode.
Lindsey provided Part 2 -- the Incorporation.
That box was very much him. It was not the Senior Partners because Eve said they didn't have a clue. It was a plan that they -- she and Lindsey -- had had, which had worked perfectly.
So Part 3 is to turn Spike into Angel. Make him a champion. Make him the helper of the hopeless. Groom him as the anti-Angel. From their conversation, it was clear that Lindsey had more than half hoped Spike would dust Angel in fighting him.
Spike's reactions throughout have been tough to read. He knows Angel is fighting the good fight. He knows Angel does field work. He knows Angel is nothing more nor less than the Angel he left "In the Dark" with a better office.
So his incessant sneering betrays more than a little stupidity. Angel is no one he should be staking. If he was paying any attention at all, he'd know what Angel was up to. Consider that if Angel had made a single misstep -- ignored someone in trouble who came to him for help, had let a single thing happen to an innocent person -- Spike would've been all over him about it. All he could do is jeer at him for his comfy office suites and his fleet of cars -- both of which Spike availed himself of quickly enough.
Same with the Shoop, comes to that.
Spike's been the hero of his own story for so long he can't see past his own corneas. Angel put him in his place right quick, denigrating his quest for a soul as originating from lust for Buffy.
Lord knows he didn't have to travel halfway around the world to win his soul back. Willow lives up the street and would be more than happy to curse him.
But I digress. (It's part of my charm)
If Lindsey was building his own champeen, you'd imagine him doing it sort of like the way he did it. But where did he get his access to information? Where did he learn about Spike having a soul? By all public sightings, Spike was tracking, stalking and eating people fully a month into his soulage, triggered by the First. Even the Scoobs didn't get the scoop for a good long while.
And it's not likely he had deeper or greater access to mystical knowledge than Wesley did, so the box o' flash was a gimmick. A cheap-ass out for the writers who had no idea how to resolve what they'd set in motion.
What -- I ask you -- what was Lindsey up to?
Another problem is the tear in the universe, evidenced by calls from a zillion angry fax machines and a few employees who went a little nuts. I'd love for this to explain why Gunn going dark, but it can't. Gunn was just one of many who were affected by a temporary rage. The bloody eyes, the lashing out, that's frightening, but it's not the end of the world. And again, it resolved itself with no intervention on anyone's part.
We got very few insights in this episode. We could've seen that Angel, Dru and Spike thing a century off, and they certainly had more history than that.
The writers and directors in that terribly inadequate commentary were talking about how they, in the end, needed for Spike to win.
Well, no. No you didn't. The show is called "Angel," and there shouldn't be a question that he's the Shoop guy. After all, he's faced all the stuff he needs to to be eligible. Spike hasn't come close.
It was a good fight, but Angel should've won. Spike's the flavor of the month. He shouldn't be besting Angel in a reasonably fair fight for something this significant, even though it turned out to be meaningless.
What I would've preferred is the value in misdirection. Why is Eve so excited about getting them off the premises? She does nothing with that opportunity she made happen with the assistance of Sirk. Instead, desert fight and swig-taking.
Yes, it's a lovely bit of self-doubt, a seed that needs planting for "You're Welcome" to have the impact that it's meant to.
And the interaction between Angel and Spike is itchy and fun.
But they can't resolve the questions they raised.
P.S. -- For all the magic Lindsey was apparently able to pull out of his bum, Eve was doing some incredible things, too. Most significantly, she turned the White Room into a howling abyss (unless that was also Lindsey, which means that he, by all rights, ought to be wearing a Merlin hat when he's in shot). She closed off Gunn's access to the Senior Partners [who were likely to have been exactly as in the dark as their liaison left them] and she messed up the phones and computers and gives herself a gold star for simulating a rift in the universe.
Eve, honey, not even if you were capable of it.
And, forgive me, but Lindsey neither.
Just my take on the situation. I ... really don't believe this eppy. It felt hastily flung together and left way more questions that could ever be reseasonbly resolved.
It was still "Angel," tho, it had a good beat and I could dance to it, so I've decided to be generous and give it a 9.
* sigh * I miss Wesley.
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Post by Insane Troll Logic on Nov 3, 2005 14:42:17 GMT -5
I hated the box of flashy - it was the very embodiment of a plot device - it should have had a sticker on it saying "McGuffin Inside!". Weak, weak, weak.
Sometimes. Mutant Enemy's approach (mythos comes a long way behind character development and soap opera histrionics) doesn't quite work.
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Post by PyleansDontLeaveMe on Nov 3, 2005 16:29:32 GMT -5
One should always keep one's McGuffins as Free Range variety.
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Post by quantumcat on Nov 3, 2005 19:47:12 GMT -5
dang straight.
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Post by Charisma69 on Nov 4, 2005 0:42:26 GMT -5
I hated the box of flashy - it was the very embodiment of a plot device - it should have had a sticker on it saying "McGuffin Inside!". Weak, weak, weak. Sometimes. Mutant Enemy's approach (mythos comes a long way behind character development and soap opera histrionics) doesn't quite work.
You know, I actually enjoyed the box of flashy. I thought it was hilarious that Spike could be recorporealized so easily when Fred had been trying so hard to do so.
Sometimes they just drag that stuff out too long. I found it very unexpected and entertaining that they decided to go this route.
Of course I've only seen the ep the one time and it's been awhile but I do remember enjoying it immensely. It was a nice flashy toy surprise that actually worked.
I think we may have gotten more back story info if we had gotten a season six. Maybe Lindsey was working with the cyborg guys? Well, it could happen. ;D
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Post by PyleansDontLeaveMe on Nov 4, 2005 10:49:39 GMT -5
I am a bit concerned as to who the hell the cyborg guys were.
Has anybody ever asked Joss to explain himself on this one?
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Post by Insane Troll Logic on Nov 4, 2005 10:52:24 GMT -5
Soooo many plot devices, not enough backstory.
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Post by PyleansDontLeaveMe on Nov 4, 2005 10:53:17 GMT -5
I demand that we get Mssr. Whedon et al on the phone this instant to explain himself on this zombie/cyborg issue.
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