On Mar 30, 12:03 am, "One Bit Shy" <O...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> "Arbitrar Of Quality" <tsm...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
messagenews:6ec5a49c-f136-4941-8370-a65b0e80f627@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> OK, where I struggle with this episode centers mainly on Cordelia.
You're
> right that its well written for the Cordy character, indeed so much so
that
> it makes this episode likely the best argument for Jasmine being slow to
> take over. There's almost no practical hint of what's going on with
her.
> But the thing is, we know now that this is the moment of one of
Jasmine's
> great deceits. Jasmine/Cordy is responsible for the death of Manny.
This
> is when/why I pretty much give up on figuring out the when and how of
> Jasmine taking over and arbitrarily choose Spin the Bottle as the point
when
> Jasmine takes over.
It's not even all that arbitrary. It's the choice that makes the most
sense, and as we both seem to agree, partial-control stuff only
needlessly complicates the story.
> The
> who-done-it mystery has the nice short term effect of getting people
> suspicious of each other, but otherwise is left alone until pulled back
up
> in the big revelation many episodes form now so as to say, See? We
fooled
> you. But it makes no sense for a suspicious group to just stop trying
to
> figure out how such an im****tant thing to happen from within. AtS may
not
> be an especially subtle show, but this is ridiculous.
I don't quite understand why this bothers you so much. They're being
rushed from crisis to crisis and have no real leads or starting points
for figuring out what happened. Without a means to figure it out,
they can't act on it.
> Conceptually I do like the
> idea of the process of removing Angel's soul prompting a dream of
perfect
> happiness. Indeed, I would guess that's how the shaman achieved the
> removal.
Okay, this topic (soul removal triggering the dream vs. the dream
being the method of soul removal) originally prompted one of those
conversations about magic mechanics that's longer and more boring than
anything I want to get into at length again; either way, it doesn't
affect the story significantly. But I must ask: how would one be an
expert in this technique if the only individual it'd work on is Angel?
> The quest is pretty stock, and by
> indulging in Angel's desires, everything is overblown - often to a trite
> level. I usually don't mind florid language, but many of the
> conversations - especially between Cordelia and Angel - are
extraordinarily
> dull to boot.
Sadly, they're not all that different from non-dream scenes involving
these two. As I may have hinted once or twice, I am not a huge fan of
this pairing. (I was just pondering the fact that I've never liked
any relation****p that Cordelia's been in, short or long term. The
embryonic thing with Doyle is the one that achieves the vaunted
adjective of "inoffensive.")
> > I guess in general I'd have liked to see Faith for more than
> > the three episodes for which they her actor was available, but such is
> > TV.
>
> Well, they were so short of characters in BtVS...
Heh.
> Just one more episode to go that was previously unrated by me. Here's
> hoping Whedon's new series succeeds in feeding the jones.
Looking forward to completing the set, seriously. As for _Dollhouse_,
I'm going to have to stop paying attention to the hype, because even
now it'll be hard to deal with the letdown when we realize that, in
the end, it's just a TV show. Ideally one that'll be good, and not
canceled.
-AOQ
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