Ramble on why ATS is noir
Nov. 24th, 2003 01:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatTaking a break from working on my marketing plan, which I actually started tonight, instead of waiting until the last possible minute (it's due Dec. 2), yeah me!
Saw Matrix Revolutions this weekend with cjl. Also watched Alias, The Practice, and Coupling (the episode where Steve sees Sally naked - the British version which is nothing at all like the American one.) In the midst of all this, I realized part of the problem some fans have with Angel the Series is they think they are watching a gothic romance, no...it's a noir horror tale with redemption mythology, as stated repeated by the writers of the series. (Most recently by Drew Goddard in a post to BronzeBeta and by Jeff Bell in the magazine interviews. ) Buffy was gothic with teen horror and coming of age mythos. Angel is noir with redemption mythos (which by the way is in all noir in one form or another). Big difference.
Noir is a tough genre for people to embrace and rarely succeeds on television, partly because most viewers can't deal with the concept of an anti-hero and unhappy or ambiguous ending. (They want to be comforted, dammit! Have the hero waltz off happily with the heroine in the end, happy and redeemed - which NEVER happens in noir, gothic? yes. Noir? sorry, nope.) There aren't many noir vampire movies (with possible exception of Near Dark, The Hunger and Nosfertu) and until Angel, no one has attempted vampire noir on television. As cjl pointed out to me this weekend - most if not all the novels regarding vampires are "gothic romances" in the style of ANN RICE or Laurel K. Hamilton (who does dabble in noir occassionally - Obsiddian Butterfly came pretty close). Ats is not in the style of Ann Rice. It actually has more in common with the novels of Patricia Highsmith, Philip K. Dick (the sci-fi version of noir), Mary Shelly (horror version of noir), Rod Serling (also noir), Dashielle Hammett, and Raymond Chandler. Filmmakers in this genre include Stanley Kubrick (most notably The Killing), David Lynch (Muholland Drive, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway), Serling's old Twilight Zone series and the old movies Kiss Me Deadly ( the flash in the box from Destiney, 5.8 ATS, comes from Kiss Me Deadly by the way - in which it was a briefcase, a woman opens it, there's a flash and the world breaks apart - also used in Muholland Drive - the box flashes and the world is turned inside out in the heroine's head), Double Indemity, Out of the Past, The Maltese Falcon. Noir more often than not deals with the dark psychological impulses of the protagonist. The protagonist will often have a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde personality, like Batman. In the comics genre - Batman is a noir hero, especially in Frank Miller's restyling of the comic book. (See Dark Night Returns, Batman Year One). In these books it is no longer clear who is in the right - Batman or the villains he fights. From Hell - by Alan Moore is also noir in some of it's themes. As is The Watchman. And Sin City.
What does it mean that Ats is a noir drama? In noir, the hero does not "win", he "survives" but usually after sustaining a great loss. If he does good deeds, no one recognizes them and they usally cost him or his friends or the world something major. (See the JAsmine arc for an example of this.) More often than not in noir, the hero has to solve a puzzle or mystery of some sort and is usually being manipulated by a third party while he's doing it. Lots of puppet metaphors in noir fiction. (Invasion of the Body Snatchers is another example of a noir tale.) The noir hero does not get the girl - if he does, she either dies or betrays him. He does not get the prize, if he does it blows up in his face. Or he ends up with something he didn't want. He is not redeemed, redeemption for a noir hero is a carrot that is always out of reach, he's always striving for it, always hopes for it but never really achieves it and if he does? He's not happy about it. (For instance in noir - redemption might be Cordelia's acension to heaven only to realize she's horribly bored. Or Connor have his slate wiped clean and being placed with a family. OR Doyle's sacrifice in Hero. Or Spike being brought back as a ghost after sacrificing himself to save the world - that's noir. )
Noir never ends happily, the best we can hope for is a gray ending that is neither happy nor unhappy such as Home in Season 4 or the end of the Pylea arc in Season 2. Often the ending when it comes has a twist, what happened with Connor in Home is a perfect example of the "noir" ending. Or in Pylea when they come home to Willow's news that Buffy's dead. Home was a twist on the "father kill the son prophecy" and ends with none of the characters in a great situation. They survived. The decisions they've made are morally ambiguous. The female love interest or heroine has either died or doomed herself by betraying the heros. In Home - Cordelia after betraying AI is left in a coma she may never come out of, Lilah chooses a hell that Wes can never free her from. At the end of S2 - Cordelia chooses Gunn,Darla lost her soul and Buffy is dead. Angel is completely alone in the romance department. If this had been a gothic romance - Cordy would have been in S5 ATS redeemed, Lilah would still be in the show and Wes could save her like Orpheus entering hell, and Angel would have been able to redeem Connor.
But it's not. What happened in HOME completely works within the thematic structure of noir - actually when I look at the series through this structure, Home was the only possible conclusion. Connor had to end up the way he did. Any other solution would not have worked thematically within that structure, no matter how much I may wish otherwise.
Traditionally noir appeals to an 18-34 year old male demographic. This is the "target" demographic and the ones who usually write, read, and watch noir. Most women appear to prefer gothic romance for some reason. I'm a rarity, I'm female and I grew bored of gothic romances in my 20s. I'd read them all and there's just so many ways you can end those damn things. After you've seen one misunderstood hero that appears to be a villain but is really good, you've seen them all. Also I always knew how the gothic romance would end - the hero gets the girl. In noir - the hero is neither good nor evil - he's ambiguous and as a result unpredictable. You never know what he will do. Or how it will end. All you know is it won't be happily ever after. But there's lots of variations in between happily ever after and doomed. It can end unhappily, slightly happy, or just plain gray. Examples: the gray ending of To Shanshu in La, slightly happy ending of Pylea arc, and the unhappy ending of Tomorrow. If you look at the ratings for Ats, you'll see it appeals to a higher percentage of young men than women and WB is in effect going for the young male audience. While BTVS went for the female audience.
Another thing about noir - it seldom focuses on romance. If there is a romance? It's short-lived and doomed. The female characters in noir fit three main roles: girl-friday, mother, and femme fatale. Male characters have a larger variety of roles. Except for neo-Femme Noir, most noir stories feature lots of men and you might if you're lucky have two or three women if that. The main characters are generally male. Supporting are female. The best thing about noir is the characters are usually multi-dimensional. The arcs are filled with lots of twists and turns. The antagonist is as developed as the protagonist and you can't always tell which is which.
I hope ATS continues - since it is so rare to see noir on tv. But I fear its audience will abandon it when they catch on to the fact that it is not the gothic romance they kept hoping it will become.(Of course ME is pretty clever about dropping little gothic touches here and there to keep them hoping...)
It's late and I need to sleep. I think I'll ramble about Matrix Reloaded, Alias and Coupling in another entry. ;-)
Saw Matrix Revolutions this weekend with cjl. Also watched Alias, The Practice, and Coupling (the episode where Steve sees Sally naked - the British version which is nothing at all like the American one.) In the midst of all this, I realized part of the problem some fans have with Angel the Series is they think they are watching a gothic romance, no...it's a noir horror tale with redemption mythology, as stated repeated by the writers of the series. (Most recently by Drew Goddard in a post to BronzeBeta and by Jeff Bell in the magazine interviews. ) Buffy was gothic with teen horror and coming of age mythos. Angel is noir with redemption mythos (which by the way is in all noir in one form or another). Big difference.
Noir is a tough genre for people to embrace and rarely succeeds on television, partly because most viewers can't deal with the concept of an anti-hero and unhappy or ambiguous ending. (They want to be comforted, dammit! Have the hero waltz off happily with the heroine in the end, happy and redeemed - which NEVER happens in noir, gothic? yes. Noir? sorry, nope.) There aren't many noir vampire movies (with possible exception of Near Dark, The Hunger and Nosfertu) and until Angel, no one has attempted vampire noir on television. As cjl pointed out to me this weekend - most if not all the novels regarding vampires are "gothic romances" in the style of ANN RICE or Laurel K. Hamilton (who does dabble in noir occassionally - Obsiddian Butterfly came pretty close). Ats is not in the style of Ann Rice. It actually has more in common with the novels of Patricia Highsmith, Philip K. Dick (the sci-fi version of noir), Mary Shelly (horror version of noir), Rod Serling (also noir), Dashielle Hammett, and Raymond Chandler. Filmmakers in this genre include Stanley Kubrick (most notably The Killing), David Lynch (Muholland Drive, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway), Serling's old Twilight Zone series and the old movies Kiss Me Deadly ( the flash in the box from Destiney, 5.8 ATS, comes from Kiss Me Deadly by the way - in which it was a briefcase, a woman opens it, there's a flash and the world breaks apart - also used in Muholland Drive - the box flashes and the world is turned inside out in the heroine's head), Double Indemity, Out of the Past, The Maltese Falcon. Noir more often than not deals with the dark psychological impulses of the protagonist. The protagonist will often have a Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde personality, like Batman. In the comics genre - Batman is a noir hero, especially in Frank Miller's restyling of the comic book. (See Dark Night Returns, Batman Year One). In these books it is no longer clear who is in the right - Batman or the villains he fights. From Hell - by Alan Moore is also noir in some of it's themes. As is The Watchman. And Sin City.
What does it mean that Ats is a noir drama? In noir, the hero does not "win", he "survives" but usually after sustaining a great loss. If he does good deeds, no one recognizes them and they usally cost him or his friends or the world something major. (See the JAsmine arc for an example of this.) More often than not in noir, the hero has to solve a puzzle or mystery of some sort and is usually being manipulated by a third party while he's doing it. Lots of puppet metaphors in noir fiction. (Invasion of the Body Snatchers is another example of a noir tale.) The noir hero does not get the girl - if he does, she either dies or betrays him. He does not get the prize, if he does it blows up in his face. Or he ends up with something he didn't want. He is not redeemed, redeemption for a noir hero is a carrot that is always out of reach, he's always striving for it, always hopes for it but never really achieves it and if he does? He's not happy about it. (For instance in noir - redemption might be Cordelia's acension to heaven only to realize she's horribly bored. Or Connor have his slate wiped clean and being placed with a family. OR Doyle's sacrifice in Hero. Or Spike being brought back as a ghost after sacrificing himself to save the world - that's noir. )
Noir never ends happily, the best we can hope for is a gray ending that is neither happy nor unhappy such as Home in Season 4 or the end of the Pylea arc in Season 2. Often the ending when it comes has a twist, what happened with Connor in Home is a perfect example of the "noir" ending. Or in Pylea when they come home to Willow's news that Buffy's dead. Home was a twist on the "father kill the son prophecy" and ends with none of the characters in a great situation. They survived. The decisions they've made are morally ambiguous. The female love interest or heroine has either died or doomed herself by betraying the heros. In Home - Cordelia after betraying AI is left in a coma she may never come out of, Lilah chooses a hell that Wes can never free her from. At the end of S2 - Cordelia chooses Gunn,Darla lost her soul and Buffy is dead. Angel is completely alone in the romance department. If this had been a gothic romance - Cordy would have been in S5 ATS redeemed, Lilah would still be in the show and Wes could save her like Orpheus entering hell, and Angel would have been able to redeem Connor.
But it's not. What happened in HOME completely works within the thematic structure of noir - actually when I look at the series through this structure, Home was the only possible conclusion. Connor had to end up the way he did. Any other solution would not have worked thematically within that structure, no matter how much I may wish otherwise.
Traditionally noir appeals to an 18-34 year old male demographic. This is the "target" demographic and the ones who usually write, read, and watch noir. Most women appear to prefer gothic romance for some reason. I'm a rarity, I'm female and I grew bored of gothic romances in my 20s. I'd read them all and there's just so many ways you can end those damn things. After you've seen one misunderstood hero that appears to be a villain but is really good, you've seen them all. Also I always knew how the gothic romance would end - the hero gets the girl. In noir - the hero is neither good nor evil - he's ambiguous and as a result unpredictable. You never know what he will do. Or how it will end. All you know is it won't be happily ever after. But there's lots of variations in between happily ever after and doomed. It can end unhappily, slightly happy, or just plain gray. Examples: the gray ending of To Shanshu in La, slightly happy ending of Pylea arc, and the unhappy ending of Tomorrow. If you look at the ratings for Ats, you'll see it appeals to a higher percentage of young men than women and WB is in effect going for the young male audience. While BTVS went for the female audience.
Another thing about noir - it seldom focuses on romance. If there is a romance? It's short-lived and doomed. The female characters in noir fit three main roles: girl-friday, mother, and femme fatale. Male characters have a larger variety of roles. Except for neo-Femme Noir, most noir stories feature lots of men and you might if you're lucky have two or three women if that. The main characters are generally male. Supporting are female. The best thing about noir is the characters are usually multi-dimensional. The arcs are filled with lots of twists and turns. The antagonist is as developed as the protagonist and you can't always tell which is which.
I hope ATS continues - since it is so rare to see noir on tv. But I fear its audience will abandon it when they catch on to the fact that it is not the gothic romance they kept hoping it will become.(Of course ME is pretty clever about dropping little gothic touches here and there to keep them hoping...)
It's late and I need to sleep. I think I'll ramble about Matrix Reloaded, Alias and Coupling in another entry. ;-)
"Round up the usual suspects!" (What is a "proper" ending for Angel?)
Date: 2003-11-24 11:15 am (UTC)I've never considered "Casablanca" a noir movie. Yes, Rick loses the girl, but he finds a higher purpose. (No doubt, he and Louie are going to fight for/contribute to the Resistance.) In noir, the "higher purpose" is always exposed as a sham or so beyond the hero's grasp that it's almost an abstaction.
You're right about the difference between Angel in "Forever" and Angel in "Chosen." In "Chosen," Angel was very much the Chandler-esque (Raymond not Bing) presence he was back in the very beginning of Season 1, before the romance kicked into high gear. But other than that, I don't think we're disagreeing too much. Joss dumped the gothic romance aspect of Angel (and Angel/Buffy) after Amends, and with rare exceptions, he's never gone back. (It's those rare exceptions, though, that keeps the gothic romance junkies hooked! And Joss definitely wants to keep them hooked. Cynical devil...)
My reference to KdS' essay isn't to contend that Joss and Co. are satirizing noir as a general rule, but that they're not comfortable with some of the macho cliches and easy moral nihilism of noir heroes like Mike Hammer. As you said, Angel is noir WITH redemptionist aspects. This is a tricky balance to maintain. The Mike Hammers of the world never question their sometimes dubious actions, because they know the world is a snake pit (with everybody trapped in the hole), and they can't even conceive of "redemption." We've seen Angel in Hammer mode in S2 and to some extent in this season as well, with his peremptory killing of Hauser. Angel is capable of killing with ease in "Conviction" because he's lost all hope. But this is NOT Joss Whedon's point of view. Joss does have hope, hope in community and giving to others, as shown at the end of Buffy season 7, and the family atmosphere of Firefly.
So with that in mind, what is the "proper" ending for Angel?
The romantic ending with Buffy? Nooooooooo.
Angel sacrificing himself for Buffy and/or his friends? Noooooooo.
As I've said somewhere before, my favorite aphorism from Kafka is that "the messiah will come when he's no longer needed." I've always taken this to mean that salvation and damnation has always been up to us. I'm hoping that Angel's last mission will be to destroy the Powers that Be, and achieve the satisfaction of Camus' version of Sisyphus, content pushing his boulder up the hill for the rest of eternity....
Re: "Round up the usual suspects!" (What is a "proper" ending for Angel?)
Date: 2003-11-24 12:37 pm (UTC)The interesting thing is this category is actually given a name in Film Noir Reader 2 - it's called Neo-Noir. In the new form - which isn't that new, since we also see it somewhat in Metropolis and the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr Hyde, is where the hero does have hope at the end, but the hope is muted somewhat. This is what I call the "slightly happy ending" - such as what we saw at the end of S2 Pylea or on Firefly.
Neo-Noir allows for stronger female characters - and a lot of femme noir films have fallen into this category, such as VI Warshowski, Blue Steel, Love Crimes, and Black Widow.
In Neo-Noir - the protagonist is not doomed, she/he does do good things but they aren't rewarded. The ending of this group of films is usually similar to the Casablanca ending. (They reportedly filmed five different endings to that movie, one pure noir, one pure romance, before settling on one in between.)
I suspect Whedon is going for the same middle ground with the character of Angel. To give Angel his redemption effectively ends his story. (While giving redemption to Spike or Cordelia or anyone else, such as Faith, only ends those characters stories). In Casablanca, Rick's story doesn't necessarily end...it goes on as he walks off-screen. He's redeemed but not completely. Because the redemption is sort of murky. In some ways...it's similar to Angel's leave-taking in Graduation Day and Chosen.
Sending Rick off with Esla would have ended it. Or killing him. In some ways the Rick/Elsa ending in Casablanca reminds me a little of the Spike/Buffy parting in Chosen.
(A little not a lot.)
In ATS, I tend to agree with you - we'll probably go with the ending in which Angel is neither redeemed nor unredeemed, instead he goes off like Rick does in Casablanca or the Firefly crew, content to continue the struggle of pushing that rock up that damn hill.