On Mar 11, 4:04 pm, "One Bit Shy" <O...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
messagenews:2fced64b-7c5d-45b3-9e3c-1ee9f72eff83@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> The heist is fun, mostly pu****ng the right buttons. It's also fast
paced.
> Not belabored. The wow factor isn't supposed to be the heist though,
but
> rather the confrontation with Gwen leading to Gunn's tem****ary death and
> later to Angel's heartbeat. I don't think the latter was quite as big a
wow
> as hoped for, but I did like it - and also thought the two were pretty
hot
> together. (Making this one of the ***ier AtS episodes when you factor
in
> Lilah/Wesley as well.) I wouldn't have minded seeing more done with
that
> pairing. I suppose the writers decided it wouldn't fit well with the
Cordy
> story. More so than the extraneous superhero factor, this is where I
think
> Gwen's character ultimately falters. They simply failed to
follow-through
> on the personal connection with Angel now and Gunn later.
>
> On the other hand I suspect the idea had been that Angel and Gwen were
made
> for each other because he's the only guy she can touch and she can make
him
> feel alive (heartbeat). It wouldn't be impossible to make something out
of
> that, but boy is the concept concocted. And nowhere near the natural
> romance of a slayer/vampire connection. So maybe it's better they
didn't go
> there.
I responded to Mason summarizing why I don't particularly like Gwen,
but I don't know if I emphasized how it might've made more sense had
they actually, you know, done anything with her. The end of the
episode with her and Angel working as a team and arguing about traps
and whether to kill _My So-Called Life_ Guy are way more entertaining
than one would expect. There's an undeniable chemistry there that
might have been interesting. Maybe I'm drawn simply to the idea of
Angel getting into in a flirtation or relation****p that, unlike his
current thing, isn't *so goddamn melodramatic all the time*. Maybe
the reason this particular plot thread died a quiet death is that in
the long run one can't see Angel really getting serious about her, and
I can't see him involved in any kind of supernatural soap opera
elements that he's not serious about.
[THAW]
> I don't hate the episode enough to call it Bad. But it surely is poorly
> conceived and executed. So I'll rate it Weak.
[Shrug.] What can I say? Mind-numbing boredom matched with an
allegedly light/comedic episode is really a deadly combination for
me. There are few things worse than bad comedic stylings.
> I have a fundamental problem with considering the slow release of
> information to Cordy about everything that they are as deceitful. It
would
> have been no less misleading for Angel to announce that he's a vampire
right
> off and put on his game face, for example. There's a lifetime of
foundation
> to who Cordelia had become, and it doesn't come clear in an instant no
> matter what order it's imparted in. I can understand somebody reacting
> poorly to that - as Cordelia does - but I get really annoyed at the
implicit
> suggest (seemingly bought into by the characters) that they screwed up
and
> lied to her.
>
> This is more than unwieldy for me. It feels forced. The start of
slamming
> situations into place by gum, and too clever by half.
That's not how I read the sequence. The whole point of it is that
Angel and his company are at a disadvantage by the way things happen.
They can't tell Cordelia the whole truth right away - they're pretty
much required to hide something - but someone like Cordy will then
interpret this as lying to her. Especially since, as his been
previously established, they really suck at hiding things and tend to
come off as, well, untrustworthy to an observer. I don't tend to use
"too clever" as a criticism because I generally like things that I
think are clever. This is a reasonable and unforced way, in my
opinion, for Connor and Cordelia to be spending time together while
Angel suffers the indignity of losing someone to his own son (and
that's a really strong emotional moment), without him really having
done anything wrong. I don't want to think it's because of some evil
master plan either, just the way the chips fall to get in the way of
things turning out right.
> So, how much into Wesley do you suppose Lilah is? These last couple of
> episodes are where it really feels like she's falling for him. Even if
she
> can't help still being Lilah.
Hard to say. I was looking at it from the other side while watching.
Wesley's behavior in DD suggests that he's his own man, but continuing
to their bet here, he's clearly feeling something for her. The
dynamic between them is supposed to defy easy description, but in the
end, the tragedy of their relation****p for both of them was neither
was able to "save" the other from being themself. There's a concious
symmetry to the Wesley/Lilah interactions (to go along with Wes being
a reflection of Angel, as usual), yet I don't think it ever feels like
something that was shoehorned in to Lilah's character.
> I seem to remember that one of the BtVS commentaries speaks a little of
how
> they thought of mentioning the covering of the sun in L.A. as background
> news, but realized that they'd lost control of time continuity (and air
> dates).
I think it was mentioned here in the NG rather than on commentary. It
was during "Bring On The Night." Joyce would've followed the line
"the sun always goes down, the sun always comes up," with an after-
thought along the lines of "except in L.A., lately."
-AOQ
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