My thoughts on Unleashed
Oct. 17th, 2003 12:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWell the commercials weren't bad. A really cool one on Poland Spring - where you have a helicopter fluttering over forests. It lands and a man wanders through the woods as the voice over tells us how Poland Spring values the environment. Made me want to go to Maine. Then there was the commercial about Dunkin Donuts - you know the one where the guy on the subway train takes a bite out of someone's donut, mucho gross - yet, oddly made me crave donuts.
Unleashed is the only episode of Angel the Series where I actually looked forward to and enjoyed the advertisements and the promo for the next episode more than the episode. I even considered fast forwarding through the episode just to watch the ads. And it is one of the few that does not improve upon re-watching. Wow.
What follows are my complete thoughts as of now on this episode. A bit on the ranty rambly side, with some analysis. Spoilers on ATs Unleashed.
Craft and Fain managed to make every single character in this episode annoying - kudos. That is a feat worth mentioning. I didn't like anyone. Well, I did sort of like the Doctor played by Peter Billingsly from Enterprise, who was in a sense playing the dark version of his role in Enterprise - a twist that amused me for about five minutes.
Stand a lone's only work if you care about and like the guest-stars. If you don't like or care about them, then it won't fly. It also helps if the guest character is more than a cliche, actually has a personality and some depth that one can identify with and chemistry with regular characters. Examples of some successful guest starring roles include Holden Webster from Conversations With Dead People, Lindsey in Blind Date, Kate Lockley in The Prodigal, Penn in Somnabulist, Ryan and his family in I've Got You Under My Skin (S1 which by the way I re-watched part of yesterday and in doing so, realized how much better written and how much more interesting that Stand-a-lone was to Unleashed. Another really interesting tid-bit, they used exactly the same house in Unleashed that they used in Skin - you notice these things when you're bored.) Even the character in She was more interesting. Heck as a friend mentioned last night, She was better written and more interesting than Unleashed - at least I liked Angel in She. Can't say the same for Unleashed.
Nina? She was a two-dimensional Touched By Angel, Seventh Heaven reject with an unnerving resemblance to Julie Benze who played Darla. Her family, even worse. A bunch of pretty blondes. With no depth.
Ah, Angel - he kills the hairy guy whose fallen into despair, but saves the cute blond chick.
TV cliche - big time.
Spike - one of my favorite characters was so badly written in this episode that he annoyed me. It was almost as if the writers knew they had to insert Spike somewhere - so just did it willy-nilly. Oh here's a good place - we'll shove a Spike line in here. They did the same thing with Connor in their episodes in S4 - actually Craft and Fain wrote Connor and Cordelia horribly that season come to think of it.
While Spike was annoying in this episode - I at least understood why he was annoying. I could fanwank the bad writing with the fact that the poor guy is being tortured and yanked every five minutes.
Granted he sounded as if he swallowed the American Dictionary of British Slang. But hey, if you're being yanked to hell and tortured possibly for eternity and you think no one cares and your soul is telling you that you deserve it and everyone is more concerned about saving some cute chick who will kill people in her werewolf form, wouldn't you be a bit on the whiny side? I could also understand the desire not to confide this to everyone. Especially Angel - I mean really - Spike's experience with Angel is mostly Angelus. Angelus liked torturing people. And Angel has made it clear to Spike that he a) loves it when he disappears, wishes he'd do it more often or better yet stay gone, and b)thinks Spike isn't worth saving and belongs in hell. (I'm beginning to wonder if Spike bugs Angel so much, b/c Spike is a reminder that Angel got just a little more out his bargain with W&H than fear, distrust and a flock of fancy cars?)
Angel is beginning to annoy the living heck out of me. Now I might have been a little more sympathetic to Angel and the AI gang if I cared a fig about Nina. I didn't. I also got the feeling that the only reason Angel was so interested was he had the hots for her. Hence the lies he told her about vampires being able to control themselves. Uhm, Ang baby, the last I remembered it took you a 100 years to figure out how to control yourself and the soul? Forced on you. Plus cursed. No happiness. Doesn't exactly sound like you're in as much control as you say you are? Hmmm, maybe that's deliberate? Maybe I'm supposed to be annoyed with Angel? Maybe this is a bit like Angel's dream in Awakenings - another tale Angel is telling himself and his crew? If so, maybe Spike's role is partly to be reactive, to point out to Angel and everyone else that there is something rotten in their nice family unit, that all is not good in Denmark - a la Hamlet's Father's ghost? As a friend pointed out to me last night - Wes, Gunn, Fred and Lorne appear to defer to Angel, almost worship him as hero and champ and boss - we need someone to question. In S1-2 that was Cordelia, in S3-4 to some extent Wes. Now with the memory wipe, they've all regressed to where they were prior to Darla's arrival in S3. Which may be what was annoying me. Fred acted like Fred in Fredless and This Gang of Mine, Wes seems to be acting a bit like he did in those early S3 episodes towards Fred, there's 0 tension between Wes and Gunn. Lorne seems to have reverted back to Lorne of the post Pylea days. Boy was he annoying in this episode - although I was very thankful that Lorne did not have Angel sing - I also liked the fact that they showed the weakness in Lorne's abilities. Cordelia found a way to fool Lorne in S4, just as Royce found a way last night - leading me to believe Lorne isn't as good a source as he and the gang think.
If you think about it for a little while - the AI gang was led on a bit of a wild goose chase in Unleashed. Nina was a welcome distraction from the hell that is threatening to open beneath their feet, the hell Spike keeps whining about (although knowing what I know about next week's episode from the promo - he has good reason to whine and good reason not to trust Angel, whose become a bit picky on who he saves and doesn't save and is tallying up quite the human body count). The ironic tid-bits may be what's worth remembering, the bits that point to the darkness in Angel.
1. The meeting at night on the outskirts of LA, away from W&H. Notice Spike ain't there - probably stuck in W&H or yanked again. Wes tries to bring the Spike problem up - but Angel pushes it away as just a distraction, just a frustration. Then they discuss what they each got in exchange for their deal with W&H, two people don't tell their reasons. Angel out and out lies. Wes doesn't remember, but he realizes something's off, possibly because what he doesn't remember was so important. Out of the four people who've had their memories toyed with - Wes is the problematic one. Why? Because the Connor arc changed and affected Wesely the most. Wes may not have fallen in love with Lilah but he cared for her, she was the reason he joined W&H, she was the reason he went to the building to begin with, heck he had decided to join before Angel decided to do the memory wipe because of Lilah. Wes also had been the one who questioned Angel the most in S3-4 and betrayed Angel due to that guestioning. So now he stares at a pen and says with more than a note of confusion in his voice - "I got a pen". A pen which Angel takes from him to kill a male werewolf who had finally given up and wanted to be killed. The male werewolf is actually a far more interesting character than Nina - someone who despaired of ever controlling the Beast inside, who wants to rest - this character is in some ways similar to Spike, whom Angel is also shrugging off. And Angel's son Connor who like the male werewolf had given up and killed in despair - letting the monster take over.
Angel lies to the AI gang, telling his friends he only got the fancy cars. He does not tell them that he got the amulet - which controls Spike, or the ability to save Connor and by association Cordelia. He leaves that information out. And when Wes begins to probe further - up pops the distraction of the werewolf.
2. When Nina asks if Angel likes being a vampire, you get the feeling he really and truly does. He likes the power it gives him. Just as when he tells her that vampires can control themselves. And that the monster in her isn't her. IF OZ had been around he would have been able to correct Angel on this point. Re-watch Wild at Heart, New Moon Rising, and Fear Itself - the monster is in you all the time. All the werewolf did was accentuate the dark impulses that already lay there. Angel keeps denying that Angelus is as much a part of him as the demon. That Angelus' evil comes from Liam not the infection - all the infection did was accentuate it - give it life and remove the human conscience holding it back. Angel should take a close look at Harmony and ask himself why isn't Harmony out killing people?
3. Angel telling the party-goers that they do have a werewolf now. Giving Royce to them. Yes, I know he apparently went back to shut them down. But it's vague and we aren't told how or what he did with Royce.
4. Angel puts Nina back with her family without warning them about her condition. Remember with OZ it got to the point in which the wolf came out at any time. Spike was right when he said she was a killer now. So we have the lovely song (depending on your pov) but the chilling realization that Nina could still kill her family.
5. Angel is his cool digs, with his family, above the city, all is right with the world. A family he has manipulated mentally?
Not a very nice guy, Angel, is he? Yet, in his eyes and the AI gang's he's the hero. But then the AI gang doesn't know everything. Would they think he was such a great hero if they knew what he did? If they remembered? People who think the memory wipe isn't important and isn't going to come up again, aren't paying attention. It was there in this episode lurking in the background. Actually it may have been the only thing I found interesting in the episode.
The werewolf bits - well they've gotten better at the whole werewolf - costume - special effects thing. Much scarier than it was on Buffy. Unless you've seen The Howling and American Werewolf in London - which they stole from. Why does everyone do the hand growing bit? Oh, I'm going to watch my hand deform into a claw now. They did first in the Howling, then in American Werewolf in London. The writhing on the floor? Taken directly out of American Werewolf in London. The werewolf physique? Made me think of a spotted hyena, but again? American Werewolf in Paris or possibly Underworld.
I wish ME would stay away from the werewolf thing.
As for the cute blond of the week being thrown at Angel to see if he has chemistry with her? A friend of mind said this could be a network/Fox thing. Apparently they did the same thing with Highlander in it's final years - looking for a female spin-off, each week another cute woman would be thrown at Aidan Paul and each week bore the audience silly.
Until finally they realized Raven made the most sense. Television, ugh.
Oh well, I knew episode 3 wouldn't be great. I didn't think it would suck as much as it did. But what the hey, every writer has at least one bad episode. Next week's episode looks really good. Been looking forward to this one for a while. Actually episodes 4, 5, 7, 8 are reported to be very good. 4 - by Deknight (very dark not for kids), 5 by Edlund (Lorne episode - much lighter), 7 by Goddard (Wes episode - also very dark) and 8 by Fury. 9 and 6 are the stand-alones.
Unleashed is the only episode of Angel the Series where I actually looked forward to and enjoyed the advertisements and the promo for the next episode more than the episode. I even considered fast forwarding through the episode just to watch the ads. And it is one of the few that does not improve upon re-watching. Wow.
What follows are my complete thoughts as of now on this episode. A bit on the ranty rambly side, with some analysis. Spoilers on ATs Unleashed.
Craft and Fain managed to make every single character in this episode annoying - kudos. That is a feat worth mentioning. I didn't like anyone. Well, I did sort of like the Doctor played by Peter Billingsly from Enterprise, who was in a sense playing the dark version of his role in Enterprise - a twist that amused me for about five minutes.
Stand a lone's only work if you care about and like the guest-stars. If you don't like or care about them, then it won't fly. It also helps if the guest character is more than a cliche, actually has a personality and some depth that one can identify with and chemistry with regular characters. Examples of some successful guest starring roles include Holden Webster from Conversations With Dead People, Lindsey in Blind Date, Kate Lockley in The Prodigal, Penn in Somnabulist, Ryan and his family in I've Got You Under My Skin (S1 which by the way I re-watched part of yesterday and in doing so, realized how much better written and how much more interesting that Stand-a-lone was to Unleashed. Another really interesting tid-bit, they used exactly the same house in Unleashed that they used in Skin - you notice these things when you're bored.) Even the character in She was more interesting. Heck as a friend mentioned last night, She was better written and more interesting than Unleashed - at least I liked Angel in She. Can't say the same for Unleashed.
Nina? She was a two-dimensional Touched By Angel, Seventh Heaven reject with an unnerving resemblance to Julie Benze who played Darla. Her family, even worse. A bunch of pretty blondes. With no depth.
Ah, Angel - he kills the hairy guy whose fallen into despair, but saves the cute blond chick.
TV cliche - big time.
Spike - one of my favorite characters was so badly written in this episode that he annoyed me. It was almost as if the writers knew they had to insert Spike somewhere - so just did it willy-nilly. Oh here's a good place - we'll shove a Spike line in here. They did the same thing with Connor in their episodes in S4 - actually Craft and Fain wrote Connor and Cordelia horribly that season come to think of it.
While Spike was annoying in this episode - I at least understood why he was annoying. I could fanwank the bad writing with the fact that the poor guy is being tortured and yanked every five minutes.
Granted he sounded as if he swallowed the American Dictionary of British Slang. But hey, if you're being yanked to hell and tortured possibly for eternity and you think no one cares and your soul is telling you that you deserve it and everyone is more concerned about saving some cute chick who will kill people in her werewolf form, wouldn't you be a bit on the whiny side? I could also understand the desire not to confide this to everyone. Especially Angel - I mean really - Spike's experience with Angel is mostly Angelus. Angelus liked torturing people. And Angel has made it clear to Spike that he a) loves it when he disappears, wishes he'd do it more often or better yet stay gone, and b)thinks Spike isn't worth saving and belongs in hell. (I'm beginning to wonder if Spike bugs Angel so much, b/c Spike is a reminder that Angel got just a little more out his bargain with W&H than fear, distrust and a flock of fancy cars?)
Angel is beginning to annoy the living heck out of me. Now I might have been a little more sympathetic to Angel and the AI gang if I cared a fig about Nina. I didn't. I also got the feeling that the only reason Angel was so interested was he had the hots for her. Hence the lies he told her about vampires being able to control themselves. Uhm, Ang baby, the last I remembered it took you a 100 years to figure out how to control yourself and the soul? Forced on you. Plus cursed. No happiness. Doesn't exactly sound like you're in as much control as you say you are? Hmmm, maybe that's deliberate? Maybe I'm supposed to be annoyed with Angel? Maybe this is a bit like Angel's dream in Awakenings - another tale Angel is telling himself and his crew? If so, maybe Spike's role is partly to be reactive, to point out to Angel and everyone else that there is something rotten in their nice family unit, that all is not good in Denmark - a la Hamlet's Father's ghost? As a friend pointed out to me last night - Wes, Gunn, Fred and Lorne appear to defer to Angel, almost worship him as hero and champ and boss - we need someone to question. In S1-2 that was Cordelia, in S3-4 to some extent Wes. Now with the memory wipe, they've all regressed to where they were prior to Darla's arrival in S3. Which may be what was annoying me. Fred acted like Fred in Fredless and This Gang of Mine, Wes seems to be acting a bit like he did in those early S3 episodes towards Fred, there's 0 tension between Wes and Gunn. Lorne seems to have reverted back to Lorne of the post Pylea days. Boy was he annoying in this episode - although I was very thankful that Lorne did not have Angel sing - I also liked the fact that they showed the weakness in Lorne's abilities. Cordelia found a way to fool Lorne in S4, just as Royce found a way last night - leading me to believe Lorne isn't as good a source as he and the gang think.
If you think about it for a little while - the AI gang was led on a bit of a wild goose chase in Unleashed. Nina was a welcome distraction from the hell that is threatening to open beneath their feet, the hell Spike keeps whining about (although knowing what I know about next week's episode from the promo - he has good reason to whine and good reason not to trust Angel, whose become a bit picky on who he saves and doesn't save and is tallying up quite the human body count). The ironic tid-bits may be what's worth remembering, the bits that point to the darkness in Angel.
1. The meeting at night on the outskirts of LA, away from W&H. Notice Spike ain't there - probably stuck in W&H or yanked again. Wes tries to bring the Spike problem up - but Angel pushes it away as just a distraction, just a frustration. Then they discuss what they each got in exchange for their deal with W&H, two people don't tell their reasons. Angel out and out lies. Wes doesn't remember, but he realizes something's off, possibly because what he doesn't remember was so important. Out of the four people who've had their memories toyed with - Wes is the problematic one. Why? Because the Connor arc changed and affected Wesely the most. Wes may not have fallen in love with Lilah but he cared for her, she was the reason he joined W&H, she was the reason he went to the building to begin with, heck he had decided to join before Angel decided to do the memory wipe because of Lilah. Wes also had been the one who questioned Angel the most in S3-4 and betrayed Angel due to that guestioning. So now he stares at a pen and says with more than a note of confusion in his voice - "I got a pen". A pen which Angel takes from him to kill a male werewolf who had finally given up and wanted to be killed. The male werewolf is actually a far more interesting character than Nina - someone who despaired of ever controlling the Beast inside, who wants to rest - this character is in some ways similar to Spike, whom Angel is also shrugging off. And Angel's son Connor who like the male werewolf had given up and killed in despair - letting the monster take over.
Angel lies to the AI gang, telling his friends he only got the fancy cars. He does not tell them that he got the amulet - which controls Spike, or the ability to save Connor and by association Cordelia. He leaves that information out. And when Wes begins to probe further - up pops the distraction of the werewolf.
2. When Nina asks if Angel likes being a vampire, you get the feeling he really and truly does. He likes the power it gives him. Just as when he tells her that vampires can control themselves. And that the monster in her isn't her. IF OZ had been around he would have been able to correct Angel on this point. Re-watch Wild at Heart, New Moon Rising, and Fear Itself - the monster is in you all the time. All the werewolf did was accentuate the dark impulses that already lay there. Angel keeps denying that Angelus is as much a part of him as the demon. That Angelus' evil comes from Liam not the infection - all the infection did was accentuate it - give it life and remove the human conscience holding it back. Angel should take a close look at Harmony and ask himself why isn't Harmony out killing people?
3. Angel telling the party-goers that they do have a werewolf now. Giving Royce to them. Yes, I know he apparently went back to shut them down. But it's vague and we aren't told how or what he did with Royce.
4. Angel puts Nina back with her family without warning them about her condition. Remember with OZ it got to the point in which the wolf came out at any time. Spike was right when he said she was a killer now. So we have the lovely song (depending on your pov) but the chilling realization that Nina could still kill her family.
5. Angel is his cool digs, with his family, above the city, all is right with the world. A family he has manipulated mentally?
Not a very nice guy, Angel, is he? Yet, in his eyes and the AI gang's he's the hero. But then the AI gang doesn't know everything. Would they think he was such a great hero if they knew what he did? If they remembered? People who think the memory wipe isn't important and isn't going to come up again, aren't paying attention. It was there in this episode lurking in the background. Actually it may have been the only thing I found interesting in the episode.
The werewolf bits - well they've gotten better at the whole werewolf - costume - special effects thing. Much scarier than it was on Buffy. Unless you've seen The Howling and American Werewolf in London - which they stole from. Why does everyone do the hand growing bit? Oh, I'm going to watch my hand deform into a claw now. They did first in the Howling, then in American Werewolf in London. The writhing on the floor? Taken directly out of American Werewolf in London. The werewolf physique? Made me think of a spotted hyena, but again? American Werewolf in Paris or possibly Underworld.
I wish ME would stay away from the werewolf thing.
As for the cute blond of the week being thrown at Angel to see if he has chemistry with her? A friend of mind said this could be a network/Fox thing. Apparently they did the same thing with Highlander in it's final years - looking for a female spin-off, each week another cute woman would be thrown at Aidan Paul and each week bore the audience silly.
Until finally they realized Raven made the most sense. Television, ugh.
Oh well, I knew episode 3 wouldn't be great. I didn't think it would suck as much as it did. But what the hey, every writer has at least one bad episode. Next week's episode looks really good. Been looking forward to this one for a while. Actually episodes 4, 5, 7, 8 are reported to be very good. 4 - by Deknight (very dark not for kids), 5 by Edlund (Lorne episode - much lighter), 7 by Goddard (Wes episode - also very dark) and 8 by Fury. 9 and 6 are the stand-alones.