A reminder: I know these threads are still unconscious during this
part of the story, but can you believe these mooks?
ANGEL
Season Four, Episode 5: "Supersymmetry"
Writers: Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain
Director: Bill L. Norton
_Angel_ does confluences well. I'm a fan of the attack on Fred
happening in a room full of suspects, while Wesley was looking on from
the shadows and Lilah was watching him, and a bigger fan of Angel
trying to reconstruct the web later (hey, isn't this the kind of thing
the group ought to do from time to time, what with being detectives
and all)? It's not on a "Benediction" level of coolness, but those
are tough standards to match. Meanwhile, Acker gets a good chance to
show off her versatility - and Fred's - as she gets a chance to pay
back the bastard who ruined her life. Wesley comes off very well as
Fred's matter-of-fact enabler, aware of the consequences but leaving
her to make the decisions. That's in contrast to the way Fred
interacts with Gunn, as the episode posits that each has a badly
sanitized view of the other. They have no one to blame but themselves
for it, because those watching the series without blinders on can
attest to what they're both capable of. I think breaking the guy's
neck is probably the worst choice Gunn could have made, but I've heard
people say they sympathized with his no-win situation. This concept
is the kind of thing that works very well for any writers seeking a
good trigger to break up a long-ish running couple, or for those just
trying to write an interesting episode with some weight. Best show
of the early season pre-intensive-serial period.
Rating: Good
Season Four, Episode 6: "Spin The Bottle"
Writer: Joss Whedon
Director: Joss Whedon
I said last time that I didn't really "get" STB. No, it's not
considered cool to admit something like that when writing about pop-
art, but I had to express the frustration I was feeling, since Joss's
episodes generally have a lot beneath the surface, so I knew to look
for depth, but I wasn't finding it in STB (or WITW). Especially given
Lorne's portentious segments (which actually made me enjoy him for
once) suggesting it'll be a big episode, or at least one whose
foreshadowing is specific rather than vague. Revisiting the series
and listening to the commentary only makes me less convinced that
there's anything there to get. The point very much seems to be "let's
have Cordelia and Wesley revert to the annoying versions of their
characters, cuz that'd be fun! Wouldn't it be funny to see Wes fall
down a lot?" We learn a little about how Fred used to tick, and
precious little about anyone else. It's indulgence without much
content to justify it. But, one might ask, is it fair to demand that
every episode to have something wonderfully meaningful to say rather
than just being an hour of (sorta) character-driven comedy? Can't we
just have a moment of levity before the coming storm? Maybe, but I
don't think it's unfair to ask it to be something more than a
collection of gags that never really gels into either a story or a
"Pangs"-style riot. rI still think that STB isn't nearly as clever or
entertaining as it imagines it must be. I'm not saying it's devoid of
value, or that it doesn't have a fair amount of amusing moments,
because it does. So do lots of other TV shows.
Rating: Decent
Season Four, Episode 7: "Apocalypse, Nowish"
Writer: Steven S. DeKnight
Director: Vern Gillum
I didn't enjoy this show as much last time, or just wasn't as
impressed with its build-up, or something. Maybe it does come a bit
too quickly as the winter hiatus approaches too quickly. Nonetheless,
it is a buildup, and it does almost as well as it can given the time
frame. We start with juggling our personal problems, and steadily
progress to some great visuals involving rains of birds and mystical
symbols on maps. Onward to the Beast, whom I've never much liked,
even as a proximate villain. It's a monster like every other, so the
fact that Team Angel (and later W&H) are so ineffectual feels like the
hand of the script, not the badassery of the Beast. Here, though, re-
watching the rooftop fight and watching the DVD featurettes have
increased my appreciation for how meticulously the fourth act is put
together. It's one of the big fight scenes of the series, and a lot
of work went into making it that way. The Beast isn't big enough a
disaster, though, so we end with *fire raining from the sky*. Whether
or not one feels it's been "earned" by the previous forty minutes (I
was doubtful originally, now less so), that's quite a montage. And
mixing the massive with the personal, that's in part just a backdrop
for the bigger (to Angel, and to some fans) calamity of Cordelia and
Connor having sex. I was never able to figure out what exactly is
being done, filming- and acting-wise, to make literally every
interaction between them scream "WRONG!" so universally to all viewers
(whatever it is, the show wasn't doing it nearly as much in
"Slouching" and "Supersymmetry"). It has the desired impact.
Rating: Good (up from Decent)
Season Four, Episode 8: "Habeas Corpses"
Writer: Jeffrey Bell
Director: Skip Schoolnik
I've been staring at my screen for a few minutes, and I can't think of
anything to say about this episode. It's a good but not stellar bit
of destruction that I quite enjoy watching, entertaining enough to
earn an easy Good in my ratings. Even if my attention wanders a
little during the darkened-corridor sequences. Um... I adore the first
Wesley/Lilah scene, a lot. "Funny thing about black and white: you
mix it together and you get gray. And it doesn't matter how much
white you try and put back in, you're never gonna get anything but
gray. And I don't see your Texas gal pal wearing that color. Come to
think of it, she prefers black." Gavin Park gets one of the less
dignified death scenes of recurring characters.
Okay, this bit was going to go into the general thoughts at the end,
but that's too long and the entry for HC was too short, so... The
seemingly unwieldy story of Pod!Cordy's motivations mostly holds
together for me, but there are two things she does that don't make
total sense to me, a major one and a minor one. The major one is
cited by many people as a big honking source of confusion, and I'll
talk about it in the next thread. The minor one comes in this
episode. Most of the way she manipulates Connor is pretty clear,
albeit really really slow, but I've never understood why she "tries"
to leave him this episode. What does she stand to gain by doing
this? She figures he wouldn't buy it if she fell into his bed too
readily? A fiendish plan to make him want her more? She thinks she's
done with him once she's harvested his gametes, and is only driven to
really recruit him after Angel doesn't fall in line? Or, uh,
something? Like I said, I don't get it.
Rating: Good
Additional comments on S4D2: Just as a heads-up, probably no need to
check the ratings for awhile, because every ATS episode for the next
disc or two is likely to get a Good rating. In many cases it's a
fairly low Good, representing enjoyment but not complete
satisfaction. From this, one might conclude that I like this phase of
Season Four overall and am consistently engaged watching it unfold,
but am rarely awed to the point of being unconcerned by its flaws.
And that wouldn't be the least accurate of conclusions. It's good but
not great TV, sustained over an impressively long period of time.
Re-reading the old reviews, I was feeling proud of my alternate
episode titles (that I used to post under the heading as an attempt to
be funny or clever in my humorless way). "Wow," I thought, "at the
beginning of BTVS S7 and then to a lesser extent for ATS S4, I was on
my game. I rock, don't I?" Then I saw that I'd made two consecutive
obscure references to the video game _Final Fantasy IV_, and I don't
believe it was intentionally. Methinks a certain arbiter needs to get
out more.
Getting back to the show itself, let's talk a little bit more about
Jasmine and Cordelia. It's hard to pinpoint exactly when our Power
That Was first infiltrates and to what extent the control becomes
complete. Some people have gone as far back as "Birthday." I prefer
to keep Cordelia as herself for as long as possible, because
otherwise, what's the point of all the time the show spends on her?
Her behavior in S3 rings perfectly true to me (with regard to the
demon powers, anyway. Not barbarian warriors), so I'm fine to take
the show at its implication that the evil entered her on the higher
plane. The spell in "Spin The Bottle" is said to be what awakened
Jasmine, so I'm fine with that as a cutoff - before then it's Cordy,
after that it's not. Some people point to bits of Cordelia-esque or
Jasmine-esque behavior at other times to suggest some kind of shared
influence, but I don't see what that would add to the story.
This leads to a few questions, though. For instance, "Apocalypse,
Nowish" opens with Cordelia having a nightmare in which she discusses
being unable to articulate what she's feeling before being attacked.
Why would the series be showing us this if she's already fully under a
demon's control? One possible answer is that this represents the real
Cordy, as an independently conscious being, watching everything that
goes on for the rest of the year while kicking and screaming. That
interpretation is sorta supported by a line in "You're Welcome." And
it also feels more twisted and fucked up the more I think about it, so
it'll be my preferred explanation.
Thoughts?
-AOQ
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