chrisg@removethistoreply.gwu.edu
02-21-2008, 11:20 PM
Arbitrar Of Quality <tsmtsm@wildmail.com> wrote:
> ANGEL
> Season Three, Episode 20: "A New World"
> Writer: Jeffrey Bell
> Director: Tim Minear
This is one of those episodes that feels exciting while it's playing, but
afterwards feels kind of slight, almost truncated. As OBS already pointed
out in his reply, not a whole lot of ground is covered beyond the
introduction of Connor and his less than loving attitude towards his
father. I think it's all done well, but there could have been more.
This isn't enough of a problem to keep me from enjoying the episode, just
enough to make me hesitate to call it Excellent.
But there are certainly good moments aplenty. The whole Lilah-Wesley
scene, for instance. I love Lilah's pleasure in her blatantly fake memory
lapse in the speech about traitors -- Oh, I always forget, what *was* his
name? -- and Wesley's guilty inability to cut her off. It's kind of neat
the way the Lilah-Wesley relationship straddles the end of S3 and
beginning of S4, when they'll continue to have wonderful little scenes
together isolated from the rest of the cast.
The actiony bits are good too, the first one in the teaser and beginning
of act 1 in particular. In the final fight scene, it's fun, in a slightly
cruel way to watch Connor slap that loathsome drug dealer upside his
mutilated head. And I really like Sunny. Her sad little voice as she
insists that no, she isn't sad, sticks with me. I wonder how Connor would
have developed if Angel had shown up just in time to get her to the
hospital? Or even if Angel's first reaction was to try to help her?
Instead, Angel's unsympathetic reaction to her death, furiously demanding
if she put any of that crap into Connor, is just about the worst it could
be for Connor at that moment. Well, it might not have mattered anyway.
Holtz's trick in the next episode might have been enough to turn Connor on
Angel no matter what.
> Rating: Good
I said Good last time. Watching it again for this thread, I enjoyed it as
much as an Excellent. But again, all the excitement doesn't advance the
main story very far, leaving me with a nagging feeling that there should
have been more. It's like one 42-minute-long first act. So I'm going to
leave it as a Good, though a high one.
> Season Three, Episode 21: "Benediction"
> Writer: Tim Minear
> Director: Tim Minear
..
> One of the first things I think about when calling this episode to
> memory is the sound-effect-enhanced vision and the cut to how everyone
> else sees Cordy. I don't know exactly why that bit tickles me so
> much, but there ya go.
It tickles me too. Perhaps it's related to how I'm always amused (even
when simultaneously irritated) by people with headphones on who talk too
loud, or who think they're silently mouthing the words when in fact the
whole office/subway car/national park can hear them muttering loudly
along.
I also share your love (or at least tickledness) for the whole scene in
the dance club, and the scene after it in the back alley. Their little
play sparring match might actually be the high point of the entire
Angel-Connor relationship, at least until NFA.
Holtz tells Connor he should spend time with Angel to learn "what of him
is in you." So how much of Angel *is* in Connor? They're both warriors
by nature, both have volcanic tempers and a talent for sneering, both are
molded by teachers other than their parents (Holtz, Darla), both go
through a period of hating their fathers.... What else?
Benediction also gets points from me for the return of Justine, one of my
absolute favorite recurring AtS characters; I wonder if she might show up
in S6? And of course more points for the dramatic ending. I'm a little
more dubious of the "soul colonic," though. To a first time viewer, it
might seem like the whole season is turning into a cheap trick to give
Angel a son, soap-operaify him into a teenager, then purge him of his bad
energy so he'll become a loyal Robin to Angel's Batman. *That* never
happened, of course, thank Joss; but I'm still not sure what good the
colonic did for the larger Angel-Connor story. Just a misdirect before
Holtz sends Connor over the edge, I guess. Did Lorne get Connor to sing
so he could evaluate the effects? Maybe we missed our chance to hear some
authentic Quor-tothian folk songs.
Cute detail: Cordy's comment on Fred's mystical geiger counter is ...
"Shiny!" Gorram amusing, that.
> Rating: Excellent
Excellent for me too. My favorite of this excellent trio of episodes.
> Season Three, Episode 22: "Tomorrow"
> Writer: David Greenwalt
> Director: David Greenwalt
..
> As mentioned, at this point many fans seem to
> have understood that not all was as it seemed, and that's just
> prominent enough to partially mitigate some of the cheesy excesses of
> that.
Forget the fans, Cordy herself should have realized something was up. She
never notices the incongruity of getting a vision about her own love life,
not even remotely connected with helping the helpless. I guess deep down
inside she's still self-centered old Queen C, sometimes at least.
On the other hand, Groo is remarkably mature and reasonable, for a
barbarian swordsman. Thin though the character is, I can't help but feel
for him in these three episodes.
> I still
> get a bit caught up in how incredibly cruel Connor is with his
> vengeance, and hearing Angel's proclamations of love as the lid closes
> on him definitely gets to me.
I really like the calm, level-headed attitude Connor adopts in that scene
(in contrast to the fury of their fight earlier). He doesn't even bother
with any dramatic final words before shoving Dad into the water. On a
similar note, I like Connor's part of the teaser, when he and Justine
reprise Holtz and Sahjhan's roles at the end of Lullaby.
> Rating: Excellent (up from Good)
Excellent for me too. Though I like the previous episode a bit more,
they're probably on the same level of quality.
> Additional comments on S3D6: Anyone note the "screen tests" among the
> DVD features? They're fun little bits with Acker and Kartheiser
Fred is always a delight, even in non-canonical scenes.
> the missteps early are missteps with a purpose in mind, and after
> "Loyalty," well, I've gushed before, but it'd be hard to exaggerate
> how much I love this period of the show. It feels the most _Angel_-
> like because the whole team, as Chris has pointed out, is in place:
> Fred has arrived, Cordy hasn't left (or turned amnesiac/possessed)
> yet, Lorne moves in, and teen-Connor drops in at the end of the year.
> When asked to name my favorite year of the series, there's not even a
> hesitation from me.
I'll add that it's the season of Holtz, my favorite AtS antagonist.
(Except sometimes it's Lilah, but she also figures prominently in S3.) I
can understand OBS's view that S2 is stronger because there's more focus
on Angel and his struggle for redemption, but S3 still feels more
satisfying to me overall. There's less focus on Angel's redemption, but a
stronger seasonal plot arc and better development for the other main
characters (except maybe Cordy). Maybe the difference is that S2 has more
of what makes Angel a great character, but S3 has more of what makes AtS a
great show.
In another post AOQ mentions the "Excellent Trilogy." In the
non-rating-system sense of the word "excellent," S3 actually features a
trio of excellent trilogies: Offspring-Quickening-Lullaby, Loyalty-Sleep
Tight-Forgiving, and ANW-Benediction-Tomorrow. It's not just great
television, it's also satisfying in its symmetry.
--Chris
__________________________________________________ ____________________
chrisg [at] gwu.edu On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog.
> ANGEL
> Season Three, Episode 20: "A New World"
> Writer: Jeffrey Bell
> Director: Tim Minear
This is one of those episodes that feels exciting while it's playing, but
afterwards feels kind of slight, almost truncated. As OBS already pointed
out in his reply, not a whole lot of ground is covered beyond the
introduction of Connor and his less than loving attitude towards his
father. I think it's all done well, but there could have been more.
This isn't enough of a problem to keep me from enjoying the episode, just
enough to make me hesitate to call it Excellent.
But there are certainly good moments aplenty. The whole Lilah-Wesley
scene, for instance. I love Lilah's pleasure in her blatantly fake memory
lapse in the speech about traitors -- Oh, I always forget, what *was* his
name? -- and Wesley's guilty inability to cut her off. It's kind of neat
the way the Lilah-Wesley relationship straddles the end of S3 and
beginning of S4, when they'll continue to have wonderful little scenes
together isolated from the rest of the cast.
The actiony bits are good too, the first one in the teaser and beginning
of act 1 in particular. In the final fight scene, it's fun, in a slightly
cruel way to watch Connor slap that loathsome drug dealer upside his
mutilated head. And I really like Sunny. Her sad little voice as she
insists that no, she isn't sad, sticks with me. I wonder how Connor would
have developed if Angel had shown up just in time to get her to the
hospital? Or even if Angel's first reaction was to try to help her?
Instead, Angel's unsympathetic reaction to her death, furiously demanding
if she put any of that crap into Connor, is just about the worst it could
be for Connor at that moment. Well, it might not have mattered anyway.
Holtz's trick in the next episode might have been enough to turn Connor on
Angel no matter what.
> Rating: Good
I said Good last time. Watching it again for this thread, I enjoyed it as
much as an Excellent. But again, all the excitement doesn't advance the
main story very far, leaving me with a nagging feeling that there should
have been more. It's like one 42-minute-long first act. So I'm going to
leave it as a Good, though a high one.
> Season Three, Episode 21: "Benediction"
> Writer: Tim Minear
> Director: Tim Minear
..
> One of the first things I think about when calling this episode to
> memory is the sound-effect-enhanced vision and the cut to how everyone
> else sees Cordy. I don't know exactly why that bit tickles me so
> much, but there ya go.
It tickles me too. Perhaps it's related to how I'm always amused (even
when simultaneously irritated) by people with headphones on who talk too
loud, or who think they're silently mouthing the words when in fact the
whole office/subway car/national park can hear them muttering loudly
along.
I also share your love (or at least tickledness) for the whole scene in
the dance club, and the scene after it in the back alley. Their little
play sparring match might actually be the high point of the entire
Angel-Connor relationship, at least until NFA.
Holtz tells Connor he should spend time with Angel to learn "what of him
is in you." So how much of Angel *is* in Connor? They're both warriors
by nature, both have volcanic tempers and a talent for sneering, both are
molded by teachers other than their parents (Holtz, Darla), both go
through a period of hating their fathers.... What else?
Benediction also gets points from me for the return of Justine, one of my
absolute favorite recurring AtS characters; I wonder if she might show up
in S6? And of course more points for the dramatic ending. I'm a little
more dubious of the "soul colonic," though. To a first time viewer, it
might seem like the whole season is turning into a cheap trick to give
Angel a son, soap-operaify him into a teenager, then purge him of his bad
energy so he'll become a loyal Robin to Angel's Batman. *That* never
happened, of course, thank Joss; but I'm still not sure what good the
colonic did for the larger Angel-Connor story. Just a misdirect before
Holtz sends Connor over the edge, I guess. Did Lorne get Connor to sing
so he could evaluate the effects? Maybe we missed our chance to hear some
authentic Quor-tothian folk songs.
Cute detail: Cordy's comment on Fred's mystical geiger counter is ...
"Shiny!" Gorram amusing, that.
> Rating: Excellent
Excellent for me too. My favorite of this excellent trio of episodes.
> Season Three, Episode 22: "Tomorrow"
> Writer: David Greenwalt
> Director: David Greenwalt
..
> As mentioned, at this point many fans seem to
> have understood that not all was as it seemed, and that's just
> prominent enough to partially mitigate some of the cheesy excesses of
> that.
Forget the fans, Cordy herself should have realized something was up. She
never notices the incongruity of getting a vision about her own love life,
not even remotely connected with helping the helpless. I guess deep down
inside she's still self-centered old Queen C, sometimes at least.
On the other hand, Groo is remarkably mature and reasonable, for a
barbarian swordsman. Thin though the character is, I can't help but feel
for him in these three episodes.
> I still
> get a bit caught up in how incredibly cruel Connor is with his
> vengeance, and hearing Angel's proclamations of love as the lid closes
> on him definitely gets to me.
I really like the calm, level-headed attitude Connor adopts in that scene
(in contrast to the fury of their fight earlier). He doesn't even bother
with any dramatic final words before shoving Dad into the water. On a
similar note, I like Connor's part of the teaser, when he and Justine
reprise Holtz and Sahjhan's roles at the end of Lullaby.
> Rating: Excellent (up from Good)
Excellent for me too. Though I like the previous episode a bit more,
they're probably on the same level of quality.
> Additional comments on S3D6: Anyone note the "screen tests" among the
> DVD features? They're fun little bits with Acker and Kartheiser
Fred is always a delight, even in non-canonical scenes.
> the missteps early are missteps with a purpose in mind, and after
> "Loyalty," well, I've gushed before, but it'd be hard to exaggerate
> how much I love this period of the show. It feels the most _Angel_-
> like because the whole team, as Chris has pointed out, is in place:
> Fred has arrived, Cordy hasn't left (or turned amnesiac/possessed)
> yet, Lorne moves in, and teen-Connor drops in at the end of the year.
> When asked to name my favorite year of the series, there's not even a
> hesitation from me.
I'll add that it's the season of Holtz, my favorite AtS antagonist.
(Except sometimes it's Lilah, but she also figures prominently in S3.) I
can understand OBS's view that S2 is stronger because there's more focus
on Angel and his struggle for redemption, but S3 still feels more
satisfying to me overall. There's less focus on Angel's redemption, but a
stronger seasonal plot arc and better development for the other main
characters (except maybe Cordy). Maybe the difference is that S2 has more
of what makes Angel a great character, but S3 has more of what makes AtS a
great show.
In another post AOQ mentions the "Excellent Trilogy." In the
non-rating-system sense of the word "excellent," S3 actually features a
trio of excellent trilogies: Offspring-Quickening-Lullaby, Loyalty-Sleep
Tight-Forgiving, and ANW-Benediction-Tomorrow. It's not just great
television, it's also satisfying in its symmetry.
--Chris
__________________________________________________ ____________________
chrisg [at] gwu.edu On the Internet, nobody knows I'm a dog.