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Oh, god!

Angel – “Habeas Corpses” (Jeffrey Bell)

A great title or a naff one?

There was a whole pile of stuff in this that cannot bear close scrutiny which I find irritatingly sloppy. And that’s another reason why Angel is pants. It is crazy sloppy far too much of the time. Episodes often feel like they have been thrown together like they have been made in a hurry which, of course, was frequently the case but that’s no excuse for carelessness. For example: what makes Wesley think that the beast “won’t quit ’til everyone at Wolfram and Hart is dead”? Another: why when Cordelia is a proven fighter isn’t she allowed to go to Wolfram & Hart while Fred is? (real answer: the actress playing Cordelia is pregnant, show’s answer: erm). And the building is in lockdown and there are still ways in and out. It’s either in lockdown or it isn’t.

And this dialogue:

Gunn: So, fight seven floors of evil lawyer zombies or sweet talk a nasty little girl? You know where my heart’s at.
Fred: Yeah, I gotta disagree. I vote for the white room. How do we get there?

doesn’t make any sense at all.

Is this farewell to Lilah and Stephanie Romanov for the time being? Please don’t actually answer that question. As much as I like her, half the time her character is treated poorly, and I don’t like that. In a single scene with Wesley she gets to sexually humiliate herself and make a racist remark.

And gawd, how boring is the incessant sniping between Gunn and Wesley? Extremely boring and nonsensical.

At least we were spared more than an episode of Angel seething over Cordelia sleeping with Connor.

Posted in Angel, Television | 7 Comments »

Warren killed Tara. I didn’t do it. And he was aiming for Buffy anyway.

Never Leave Me (Drew Goddard)

Andrew can’t help himself by mentioning Patrick Swayze. Tom Lenk is excellent as Andrew, by the way. It’s a pity that Andrew is a character I have little time for. Or that I think I have little time for although time will tell if I revise that opinion.

Tying a super strong vampire to a chair was always a good idea, I don’t think.

Are all American butcher shops like that? Super busy and with a ticketing system?

I love that Andrew is terrified of Willow and how she plays up to that. It’s a nice contrast with Willow’s attempt at being mean in “Doppelgangland”. This Willow knows how to be scary but still adds an “ok?”

I have reached a stage where I plain cringe when women hit men (because, obviously, I already cringe when men hit women!) and so I didn’t enjoy Xander and Anya’s good cop, bad cop routine.

Spike in shackles. The imagery is complete.

Eye roll: “You like men who hurt you”. Buffy denies this, thank goodness.

What the hell was that with Principal Wood and Jonathan’s body?

Duh, duh, duh, Buffy has sussed it; it’s the First.

I know Buffy is low budget but that Watchers’ Council explosion is pretty awful stuff.

Posted in Buffy Season 7, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Television | 2 Comments »

Is this why I like Mad Men?

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Man, I hate playing vampire towns

Sleeper (David Fury and Jane Espenson)

I still like S7! And although I don’t have much to say about this particular episode I still enjoyed it for the most part. It was Spike-centric and I simply don’t have much to say about him or his relationship with Buffy.

I don’t want to think too hard about this (I’ll leave that to others) but isn’t Buffy’s attitude to Spike in “Sleeper” rather different from her attitude to Anya in “Selfless”?

The moment when Buffy/the First encourages Spike to kill is shocking.

I didn’t like the way that Anya came onto Spike after he catches her snooping in his room. I realise that it is supposed to be funny and it is because Emma and James are good at being funny but it is tacky. And this: “I got it. No problem, I understand. You think I’m fat.” is just idiotic and not funny at all (because I guess it was supposed to be ironic [insert twisted face smiley]).

Aimee Mann! Two songs and a line! OK, the line is annoying because she knows Sunnydale has vampires and it’s not supposed to be common knowledge. But, Aimee Mann!

And it was nice to see Giles again albeit briefly.

Posted in Buffy Season 7, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Television | 4 Comments »

Call me kooky-pants

Angel – “Apocalpyse, Nowish” (Steven S. DeKnight)

WARNING: THIS CONTAINS RAMBLING

I have been struggling to find a reason just why Angel just doesn’t engage me in the way that Buffy does. I have some idea: in “Apocalypse, Nowish”,  Angel, Gunn, Wesley and Lorne are trying to decipher the papers from Wolfram & Hart in order to prevent the Apocalypse meanwhile Cordelia and Fred are absent; they are not there as part of the team. OK, Cordelia has a good reason to be missing but Fred is in a café moping about the men in her life and what they did for her.

However, I don’t really mind that Cordelia and Fred aren’t there; it’s more that there aren’t any other women on the show who could be there. The men are in the majority. Of the seven main characters in S4, five are men and two are women.

The question that then popped into my head was, does everything I watch have to be about women? Erm, let’s examine the evidence by considering my favourite recent shows, Mad Men, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Battlestar Galactica.

Mad Men and BSG have more male cast members than female but women are central to how much I enjoy the series. Without Betty and Peggy and Joan and Starbuck and Six and D’Anna, I really wouldn’t be interested.

[I wonder how often I use the word “really”.]

I am bored by John and Derek in T:TSCC while I love Sarah and Cameron. I also liked Riley and Jesse (but only after I got used to Stephanie Jacobsen’s nasal voice and after they were linked together.

Okay, I definitely prefer to watch things with women in prominent and active roles and, if you are like me, I heartily recommend Torchwood: Children of Earth and, no, you don’t need to have seen the previous series (it didn’t stop Andy and I liking it).

Do you think that any men ever wonder at any point why the majority of things they watch are about men? “Oh, my favourite films are Apocalypse Now, The Shawshank Redemption and 12 Angry Men, just why do I like watching films about men all the time?” These two IMDb lists are interesting. No room on the male list for Amelie and To Kill a Mockingbird and no room on the female list for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Goodfellas. I feel a post coming on.

So I do know why I like Angel less than Buffy but it most certainly isn’t the only reason. Angel has clunky dialogue, poor line readings, and character dynamics that I don’t care about because I don’t believe in them due to their contrivance. This list makes me cringe:

* Wesley/Lilah
* Angel/Lilah
* Fred/Gunn
* Fred/Wesley
* Angel/Cordelia

while I only care about Angel/Connor and Cordelia/Connor (spot the connection).

On to the episode: Lilah as Fred was disturbing particularly since at first I thought she was supposed to be a schoolgirl. And having her hair done up in plaits caused Lilah’s hair to be tremendously bouffant later on.

Chocodiles are a real thing!

Satan was rather immobile except when he Springheel Jacked over the rooftops. I don’t dislike slow motion except when it is used in a hackneyed way or to serve no purpose except to prolong a scene and that’s exactly how it was used here.

A bright spot was Lilah (despite her relationship with Wesley) because she gets to call Fred a “Texas twig” (although part of me thinks that is mean to Amy Acker) and summarizes this audience member’s feelings when she says “so let’s say we skip the usual two-step, you threaten me, I threaten you, yadda, yadda, yawn”.

I’m not sure what to think of Cordelia and Connor having sex but I do know that in the Buffyverse sex can only lead to bad things happening. And, by bad, I mean worse than the Apocalypse.

Sigh. Why do I continue to watch it? The obvious reason is that I have watched Angel and Cordelia over seven seasons of Buffy and Angel and I do want to see the end of their journey. And the DVDs are cheap. And there are occasional crossovers with Buffy. And I like Cordelia Chase/Charisma Carpenter. And I like Lorne. And I like Vincent Kartheiser (even if I do have to check how to spell his surname every single time I type it). It isn’t hard or difficult to watch. Finally, I want to work out why Amy Acker can’t sell Fred to me but can do so with her portrayal of Dr Saunders in Dollhouse.

Posted in Angel, Female thinking, Films, Television | No Comments »

Willow & Tara and Doors

What fun! Read the essay by Stephanie over at her blog. It is fascinating stuff.

Posted in Amber Benson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Television | No Comments »

Anchovies, anchovies, you’re so delicious. I love you more than all the other fishes.

Conversations With Dead People (Jane Espenson & Drew Goddard)

One of the signs of great writing is to introduce a stranger into a cast of familiar characters and have the audience care about the interactions between the stranger and the well-known. This failed miserably in “The Message” (written by Joss Whedon and Tim Minear) where Jonathan M. Woodward played Tracey so it isn’t Woodward that made the trick work. Joss wrote the scenes between Buffy and Holden so it’s obviously something he can’t pull off every time. Andy made the point that Buffy clearly doesn’t remember Holden at all so she has no advantage over us (via in-jokes and shared memories, for example). This suggests to me that “The Message” didn’t work because the Browncoats remembered Tracey while we didn’t. Plus the story was execrable.

Although Jane Espenson and Drew Goddard are credited with writing the episode it was actually broken down like this: JE wrote Dawn’s story, DG wrote the Trio’s, Marti Noxon wrote Willow’s and Joss Whedon wrote Buffy’s. I wonder what happened to the person who wrote Xander’s… It is rather a kick in the chops that after six seasons the writers thought that Xander didn’t have a role to play in this important episode.

Spike has no dialogue and yet his story is told effectively and ends horrifically when he is revealed as a killer again.

Horror is the name of the game as Dawn’s story unfolds. It may be classic horror but it was also genuinely scary and revealed how resourceful and brave she can be. Such wasted potential.

I loved the character interaction between Buffy and Holden. The actors played off each other well. It is sometimes easy to open up to strangers. The look of sadness, dismay and thoughtfulness on Buffy’s face after she dusts Holden is nicely played by SMG who is, shall I say it again?, absolutely fabulous as Buffy.

“She’s sorry she couldn’t come herself.” says Cassie, “She’s in dispute.” said Andy. Only a handful know the whole truth about Amber Benson’s absence but it is a great loss to BtVS that she wasn’t in this. There is no doubt in my mind that if Amber had been in this then it would have been awesome and the episode would probably be in my top ten. Tara egging on Willow to commit suicide, Willow’s dawning comprehension, Tara’s mocking “Oh, baby, you left such a big hole. It hurt so bad.” – all of that would have been amazing. The great “what if?” of BtVS. However, despite the oddity of Cassie (a character who Willow had never even met) being used to get at Willow, this still packs a punch. Alyson Hannigan is particularly good as she realises she has been had.

When Jonathan and Andrew appeared on my screen I gave a Pavlovian groan but their story was compelling and Andrew’s murder of Jonathan after being easily tricked by “Warren” was excellent drama. Unfortunately, the arrival of Andrew leads to the marginalization of other characters in his favour.

This was a fantastic episode and S7 continues to confound my memory of it. However, there is more Andrew to come and a bunch of Potentials and maybe my memory of them is not wrong. On the other hand, Faith!

Goodbye tiny man

Posted in Buffy Season 7, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly/Serenity, Television | 15 Comments »

Hello, salty goodness

Angel – “Spin the Bottle” (Joss Whedon)

Joss Whedon penned (and directed) episode improves Angel by 100% shocker!

Well, it is a bit of shock since “Waiting in the Wings” (the other episode so far with JW taking solo credit) wasn’t that much of an improvement in quality over the rest of S3.

This was exceptional. I will never love Angel but if I was to consider rewatching an episode then, so far, this would be my choice.

It is a wacky we-have-lost-our-memories episode  like “Tabula Rasa” but I love characters behaving wackily even if I don’t like the word wackily.

Plus, and this is big plus, anything that makes me LIKE Fred and Wesley (who are languishing in my least favourite Whedon characters drawer alongside Topher) is automatically raised a few notches.

Boohoo, Wesley, I do believe the fact that “I had my throat cut and all my friends abandoned me” was entirely your fault.

I loved the way it flowed and the way it was edited so that Lorne could seamlessly tell the story.

I have put up more pictures than text.

Posted in Angel, Television | 10 Comments »

It’s not coddling. Now go to your closet.

Him (Drew Z. Greenberg)

This rehash of season 2’s “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” is quite dreadful for the first two thirds. Women fighting over men is so flipping tedious and (really!) there was no need to tell the story again. It only picks up when Willow and Anya become affected because Alyson Hannigan and Emma Caulfield do funny very well indeed (I was going to point at “Triangle” for evidence and then I read my earlier reaction).

W: This isn’t about his physical presence. It’s about his heart.
A: His physical presence has a penis!
W: I can work around it!

I like the t-shirt and waistcoat look.

Sarah Michelle Gellar seemed off as if she couldn’t quite engage with a character who was bewitched in to doing the dirty on her sister and seducing a schoolboy while in a position of authority (despite being “extremely youthful. And peppy”): maybe SMG was as unamused as me. Also, as StephenT asks, does RJ know what effect the jacket has? Urgh, skeevy all round.

Poor Dawn,

Well, I guess you guys could use my help. Willow’s not very good with the practical strategizing – except when she’s evil. And Dawn – she’s not really good for anything.

She amply demonstrates this in a series of excruciating and humiliating and unfunny scenes: trying to make “Him” notice her and trying out for cheerleading, (bloody hell) sexy dancing and, naturally, a cat fight.

It was nice to see LouAnne from Girltrash! Riki Lindhome has such a distinctive face.

And look in that shop window, isn’t that Spike’s reflection?

The bazooka is funny.

Posted in Buffy Season 7, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly/Serenity, Television | 6 Comments »

People I admire (and who happen to be left-handed) #4

Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson has been part of my life for over twenty years. In fact, the Thompson family has been part of my life since the day I watched The Magic Roundabout on TV. Not only is she an excellent actress and a great presence but she is also an excellent person. I was going to write a lot of stuff on just why she’s a top person but I thought this list would say it better:

• Action Aid ambassador
• her work against sex trafficking for the Helen Bamber Foundation – I won’t directly link to the video I am Elena because it really upset me
• her support for the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS
• her support for Alone in London
• her willingness to portray herself as a lesbian and an Ohioan in Ellen
• her support for actresses and eating
• naming her daughter Gaia
• she usually sports a short hair style
• writing the best big screen adaptation of a Jane Austen novel, Sense and Sensibility
• being in two of my favourite TV series from the 80s, Tutti Frutti and Fortunes of War
• being absolutely the only redeeming thing in Love, Actually

Posted in Female thinking, Left-handedness | No Comments »