A reminder: If these threads ain't dead, I'm gonna kill them.
ANGEL
Season Four, Episode 1: "Deep Down"
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight
Director: Terrence O'Hara
I had to watch this one one extra time to justify the fact that it's
always been a Good rather than an Excellent to me. I mean, what's
wrong with it? Doesn't it have a nicely shot opening that sets the
stage for the whole year? Doesn't it convey a good mood of
perseverance in the face of listless depression, and keep surprising
the viewer with where characters have ended up? Isn't it a great
Wesley episode, making us realize that, unexpectedly, his eyes are
more focused on what has to be done then ever? (It also gives us the
amazing intensity of the Wes/Justine sequences and some killer lines
like his response to the accusation that he doesn't care.) Isn't it
uplifting to see Angel on dry land and speechifying in an interesting
way again? Doesn't DD have no major flaws (at least in this
reviewer's opinion)? But when I watch it, it's clearly Good. I
suppose Excellence requires a little something extra, more than merely
being a very solid episode that lacks many problems. The only thing I
can add is that a large enough proportion of the episode involves
characters finding out about things that the audience already knows
that it can't be as exciting as a "Benedicition." Meanwhile, however
entertainingly it's done, an hour that moves the show back towards the
status quo is rarely as awe-inspiring as one that shakes up the fabric
of the series.
Rating: Good
Season Four, Episode 2: "Ground State"
Writer: Mere Smith
Director: Michael Grossman
The final entrant in the series' big run of Good-to-Excellent
episodes, and few will accuse it of being on the same level as the
others. Electro-Gwen has never really worked for me as a character,
especially given how erratically she drops in and out of the show. As
another example of the ever-popular heist show, GS entertains even
when it doesn't wow. Also as with so many other Buffyverse entries,
what helps elevate it above a simple lightweight episode is the way it
makes time for its characters. Here I'm thinking of the impromptu art
competition that sets up Fred cracking under pressure later, and
definitely of the "strangely intimate" (Chris's term) discussion
between Angel and Lilah. Also, of the several Wesley/Lilah sex scenes
in ATS, the one in this episode is the hottest.
Rating: Good
Season Four, Episode 3: "The House Always Wins"
Writer: David Fury
Director: Marita Grabiak
We went back and forth a little bit about the driving force of every
individual having a single "destiny" that can be taken away. It's a
premise that still makes me a little bit angry and consider throwing
around words like "offensive" that don't really belong in a discussion
about a fantasy TV show. Because of that, I'm not inclined to come up
with ways to make the premise fit neatly into a Buffyverse that it
doesn't seem to belong to at first blush. I do think this is the kind
of thing that I'd cheerfully ignore if THAW were an engaging episode.
Instead, it remains one of the tedious few that're almost completely
devoid of anything that is in any way interesting to me. I suppose it
helps if one likes shticky musical performances, but even that only
covers a few minutes, and I remain oblivious about what's allegedly so
amusing about Fred as a Lornette. After this episode, I first
articulated my running idea that no episode featuring Angel being
possessed or ensorcelled in a way that changes his personality can
ever be particularly good. (No, smartasses, the original gypsy curse
that created the character as we know him to begin with doesn't
count.) I don't hold that as an absolute rule for any other
character.
Rating: Bad
Season Four, Episode 4: "Slouching Toward Bethlehem"
Writer: Jeffrey Bell
Director: Skip Schoolnik
"Slouching Toward Bethlehem" (hereafter "Slouching," since "Spin The
Bottle" seems to "own" the STB acronym) starts off as a story about
Amnesiac Cordy, full of continuity porn and reminiscing about what she
means to everyone (as if we haven't heard that five hundred times).
It's weird and kinda pointless, but at least I'm entertained. Then
Connor shows up to complicate things, and W&H shows its interest, and
Wesley tries to play Lilah again, and the whole thing ends up feeling
like the first step on the road to something bigger. Neat trick,
that. I admire the cleverness of the construct that more or less
guarantees that by simple virtue of showing up later, Connor will seem
more trustworthy to Cordelia than Angel does. I'm curious how much
people's feelings about this episode mirror their feelings about the
year as a whole. For me, "Slouching" (similar to S4) feels unwieldy
in places, but damned if it doesn't end up working pretty nicely.
Rating: Good
Additional comments on S4D1: I continue to maintain that the way
Fred's recklessness in her attack on Connor is entirely in character.
Lulling him into a sense of security before attacking him with the
same weapon he used on Angel is very much her style. Especially in
light of "Supersymmetry." I made that argument last time. On a
lighter Fred-in-"Deep Down" note, her attempts to incorporate "street"
language make for one of my favorite examples of character-based humor
that lasts for only one episode.
I immediately commented that the disappearance (so to speak) of Dennis
from the series didn't bode well for Cordelia-based storylines. I
hope someone thought to fill him in on the story sometime - he seemed
really worried about her.
Okay, I know ME isn't big with such things, but I spent a little time
fruitlessly trying to work out the chronology involved in this year.
Basically, the issue is that "Deep Down" is explicitly established to
take place about three months after "Tomorrow." So, roughly the same
time as "Lessons." Now, S7 of BTVS may not last all the way until May
(the apocalypse comes early this year...), but it clearly takes place
over a number of months. I can't imagine it not being spring semester
by the time of "Lies My Parents Tell Me." In the meantime, ATS has a
lot of "one episode leading right into the next one" stuff; almost
every show of S4 begins either at the moment the previous one ended or
the next day. Most of the story takes place over a few weeks. Yet
the same amount of time theoretically has to have elapsed when the
shows intersect again at LMPTM/"Orpheus."
So, where's the missing half-year in the ATS continuity? My original
fan-wanky plan was to presume a lot of not-much-happening time during
the first few episodes of the year, between the end of "Deep Down" and
the beginning of THAW (although it certainly doesn't feel like months
are elapsing). The problem is that Lorne has already been a Vegas
star for some time in "Deep Down" - presumably since early in the
summer because that's the explanation for why he isn't in contact with
the L.A. gang. In "The House Always Wins," a sign tells us that Lorne
has been performing at the Tropicana for 17 weeks. By the logic used
above, it's probably been a little bit more than a month since DD,
which "feels" right from the play of the episodes. (That's not set in
stone, though. Maybe his act was booked at a different hotel before
the current run at the Tropicana?) THAW, of course, leads directly
into "Slouching," and that kicks off the arc that never really stops.
There may be a little bit of down time between "Slouching" and
"Supersymmetry," but certainly not months. Ipso facto, Joss and
company suck at math and keeping track of fictional time.
Thoughts?
-AOQ
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