Puppets and other stuff
Feb. 20th, 2004 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWell, I stupidly broke my vow and watched an entire episode of The Apprentice because my neighborhood was featured on it. It was, by the way, there's the restaurant that used to be the Bagel Point Cafe, now the Hill Diner, and that was my block complete with kids playing basketball in the street. The apartments shown seemed much bigger and nicer than mine though.
If you want to see the evils of a capitalistic society gone hay-wire? Watch one of these reality shows. What a bunch of greedy, self-indulgent, whiny ....asswipes. (Sorry best word I could think of. And that's being nice.) In a way makes ATS 5.14 even funnier - perhaps network tv is being run by demons? It certainly would explain a lot. I am relieved I don't know any of these people and feel sorry for the people who do.
Last night's ATS episode is really interesting. Especially what's going on with Wes/Gunn/Fred/Lorne.
And the fact that Angel is completely oblivious to it and what the mindwipe really did to his friends. Since we're mostly in Angel's point of view this season, we've been more or less oblivious as well, but if we think about it a bit, we start seeing the signs. I really did last night. Actually I had one of those, Oh my God, why didn't I see that, I'm so stupid moments half-way through re-watching the episode this morning. Actually that wasn't the only thing that caused this epiphany, something livejournal user Masquerade states in her livejournal pushed it as well. So did two offhand comments by livejournal user aresutha and livejournal user dherblay on atpo board. (Sorry every time I try to do the livejournal user html my journal registers it as an error. ) Nothing really direct, just an offhand comment about the mindwipe, Lorne, and well about metaphors.
My Epiphany: It's not about what Angel did to "Connor or what Angel did with the amulet, it's about the compromise Angel made with W&H regarding his friends in order to save Connor.
The hidden arc this season is the mindwipe, it's what has been lurking in the background of every episode. But we aren't noticing it, because Angel is pointedly ignoring it. Closing his eyes to it. W&H and Lindsey have been throwing distractions at Angel right and left, keeping him from noticing what is happening with his friends. He even states to Nina that he's not good at noticing things around him, opening up, but that's changed now - just when Nina attacks him. Clearly it hasn't.
Analogy as opposed to metaphor. Who are the real puppets in Smile Time? Felt Angel and the puppets running the children's show? Or the AI gang - Fred/Wes/Gunn and Lorne? We're shown children getting tempted into giving away their innocence, just as Fred/Wes/Gunn and Lorne have been tempted and are slowly having their innocence sucked out by W&H. Lorne for instance no longer seems to be able to read people - or notice when he's being blocked, Gregor in fact feels sorry for him, because of his disability. This was Lorne's big deal for three seasons. I'm curious if the disability might be that Lorne's empathy is off and has been since Home, possibly before. Does anyone remember any evidence to the contrary? Yes, he reads all the employees of W&H, but how do we know his readings were reliable? Also there's Gunn who has Flowers for Algernon syndrom - requiring knowledge to feel good. Fred whose suddenly gotten attracted to Wes and is relying far too much on science - she's still the most untainted of the bunch, the one member who was undecided along with possibly Wes - when Angel made his executive decision in Home.
And of course Wes who got nothing more than a pen out of the deal and doesn't remember his betrayal or why prophecies aren't always trustworthy.
I'm wondering if by allowing W&H to mind-rape, as Cordy aptly calls it in You're Welcome, Angel may have doomed his friends? The only question is to what? Did Angel inadvertently sell his friends' souls to W&H in exchange for his son's new life and the amulet? Is that what the mind-wipe entailed?
In Smile Time: Gregor Framkin does a deal with the devil and as result all his employees become mindless drones, and he's nothing more than a tormented hand puppet, albeit a human one who wants to die.
Isn't it interesting that in "almost" every episode this season, the villian or person responsible is a human being? Not to mention a human being who is willing to negotiate or trade someone for something else? All the crimes these humans commit seem to be ones that are about trading one life or one thing for another. Contracts signed in blood. Which - wait we see Angel doing a lot of in Harm's Way, with Gunn hanging over his shoulder. Either that or "ends justifying the means" arrangements. And oh each villain seems to like the idea of implanting something - the puppet imagery.
Negotiating and trading - again a reference to Angel's deal with the Senior Partners via Lilah in Home.
A deal Angel defends to Cordy in You're Welcome, stating he did it to save her life and Connor's. Ironic. Since Cordy in a way did the same thing in Birthday and The House Always Wins. Cordy would get this. So too would Spike - who has made his own share of deals - ie. the deal he made with Lurkee the demon to get his soul - which ended up with that nifty trigger device? But...what if the price is too high?
This is the question Lawson asks Angel in Why We Fight.
What price is too high? He waves at Angel's friends who each stand on chairs with wires around their heads.
The analogy is wonderful - because that is the position Gunn, Fred and Wes have literally been in since Home. On chairs with wires around their heads. But Angel closes his eyes to it. Angel takes Gunn, Fred, Wes and even Lorne for granted. Yet, in every episode - it's those four (or if they aren't paying attention like in Soul Purpose, Spike) that save his butt. He can't do it alone. He *never* has. I'm curious, what would happen if Angel lost Wes,Fred, Gunn, Lorne, and Spike?
The most important episode this season was The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinquo - it's the episode that summed up in a nutshell what Angel had left to lose. Numero Cinquo makes it clear to Angel, that without his four brothers - he wasn't a hero. The heart stealing demon wasn't interested. It was when he was with them that he was a hero.
If we revisit the mind-wipe it won't be because of Connor, it will be because of those four people Angel has started to take for granted. And This is pure speculation - I'm not spoiled on this at all by the way: this time around, Angel may be put in the position of sacrificing his hopes and dreams for Connor, that perfect life he's given his son, in order to save his friends and avoid the fate of Numero Cinquo. I honestly think the question we should be asking is - was Connor's new life worth what Angel did to his friends?
I'm not positive but the puppets in Smile Time - may not have been metaphors for Angel but rather analogies. They were analogous of his friends. They had the same number - four puppets, four friends.
Maybe it's the lawyer in me, but I keep wondering about the fine print of that agreement Angel made with W&H...did he possibly sell out his friends in that deal with SP, without realizing it? Or is it at the back of his mind - as we see in the dreams in Soul Purpose? Not sure. What I know, doesn't answer any of those questions.
If you want to see the evils of a capitalistic society gone hay-wire? Watch one of these reality shows. What a bunch of greedy, self-indulgent, whiny ....asswipes. (Sorry best word I could think of. And that's being nice.) In a way makes ATS 5.14 even funnier - perhaps network tv is being run by demons? It certainly would explain a lot. I am relieved I don't know any of these people and feel sorry for the people who do.
Last night's ATS episode is really interesting. Especially what's going on with Wes/Gunn/Fred/Lorne.
And the fact that Angel is completely oblivious to it and what the mindwipe really did to his friends. Since we're mostly in Angel's point of view this season, we've been more or less oblivious as well, but if we think about it a bit, we start seeing the signs. I really did last night. Actually I had one of those, Oh my God, why didn't I see that, I'm so stupid moments half-way through re-watching the episode this morning. Actually that wasn't the only thing that caused this epiphany, something livejournal user Masquerade states in her livejournal pushed it as well. So did two offhand comments by livejournal user aresutha and livejournal user dherblay on atpo board. (Sorry every time I try to do the livejournal user html my journal registers it as an error. ) Nothing really direct, just an offhand comment about the mindwipe, Lorne, and well about metaphors.
My Epiphany: It's not about what Angel did to "Connor or what Angel did with the amulet, it's about the compromise Angel made with W&H regarding his friends in order to save Connor.
The hidden arc this season is the mindwipe, it's what has been lurking in the background of every episode. But we aren't noticing it, because Angel is pointedly ignoring it. Closing his eyes to it. W&H and Lindsey have been throwing distractions at Angel right and left, keeping him from noticing what is happening with his friends. He even states to Nina that he's not good at noticing things around him, opening up, but that's changed now - just when Nina attacks him. Clearly it hasn't.
Analogy as opposed to metaphor. Who are the real puppets in Smile Time? Felt Angel and the puppets running the children's show? Or the AI gang - Fred/Wes/Gunn and Lorne? We're shown children getting tempted into giving away their innocence, just as Fred/Wes/Gunn and Lorne have been tempted and are slowly having their innocence sucked out by W&H. Lorne for instance no longer seems to be able to read people - or notice when he's being blocked, Gregor in fact feels sorry for him, because of his disability. This was Lorne's big deal for three seasons. I'm curious if the disability might be that Lorne's empathy is off and has been since Home, possibly before. Does anyone remember any evidence to the contrary? Yes, he reads all the employees of W&H, but how do we know his readings were reliable? Also there's Gunn who has Flowers for Algernon syndrom - requiring knowledge to feel good. Fred whose suddenly gotten attracted to Wes and is relying far too much on science - she's still the most untainted of the bunch, the one member who was undecided along with possibly Wes - when Angel made his executive decision in Home.
And of course Wes who got nothing more than a pen out of the deal and doesn't remember his betrayal or why prophecies aren't always trustworthy.
I'm wondering if by allowing W&H to mind-rape, as Cordy aptly calls it in You're Welcome, Angel may have doomed his friends? The only question is to what? Did Angel inadvertently sell his friends' souls to W&H in exchange for his son's new life and the amulet? Is that what the mind-wipe entailed?
In Smile Time: Gregor Framkin does a deal with the devil and as result all his employees become mindless drones, and he's nothing more than a tormented hand puppet, albeit a human one who wants to die.
Isn't it interesting that in "almost" every episode this season, the villian or person responsible is a human being? Not to mention a human being who is willing to negotiate or trade someone for something else? All the crimes these humans commit seem to be ones that are about trading one life or one thing for another. Contracts signed in blood. Which - wait we see Angel doing a lot of in Harm's Way, with Gunn hanging over his shoulder. Either that or "ends justifying the means" arrangements. And oh each villain seems to like the idea of implanting something - the puppet imagery.
Negotiating and trading - again a reference to Angel's deal with the Senior Partners via Lilah in Home.
A deal Angel defends to Cordy in You're Welcome, stating he did it to save her life and Connor's. Ironic. Since Cordy in a way did the same thing in Birthday and The House Always Wins. Cordy would get this. So too would Spike - who has made his own share of deals - ie. the deal he made with Lurkee the demon to get his soul - which ended up with that nifty trigger device? But...what if the price is too high?
This is the question Lawson asks Angel in Why We Fight.
What price is too high? He waves at Angel's friends who each stand on chairs with wires around their heads.
The analogy is wonderful - because that is the position Gunn, Fred and Wes have literally been in since Home. On chairs with wires around their heads. But Angel closes his eyes to it. Angel takes Gunn, Fred, Wes and even Lorne for granted. Yet, in every episode - it's those four (or if they aren't paying attention like in Soul Purpose, Spike) that save his butt. He can't do it alone. He *never* has. I'm curious, what would happen if Angel lost Wes,Fred, Gunn, Lorne, and Spike?
The most important episode this season was The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinquo - it's the episode that summed up in a nutshell what Angel had left to lose. Numero Cinquo makes it clear to Angel, that without his four brothers - he wasn't a hero. The heart stealing demon wasn't interested. It was when he was with them that he was a hero.
If we revisit the mind-wipe it won't be because of Connor, it will be because of those four people Angel has started to take for granted. And This is pure speculation - I'm not spoiled on this at all by the way: this time around, Angel may be put in the position of sacrificing his hopes and dreams for Connor, that perfect life he's given his son, in order to save his friends and avoid the fate of Numero Cinquo. I honestly think the question we should be asking is - was Connor's new life worth what Angel did to his friends?
I'm not positive but the puppets in Smile Time - may not have been metaphors for Angel but rather analogies. They were analogous of his friends. They had the same number - four puppets, four friends.
Maybe it's the lawyer in me, but I keep wondering about the fine print of that agreement Angel made with W&H...did he possibly sell out his friends in that deal with SP, without realizing it? Or is it at the back of his mind - as we see in the dreams in Soul Purpose? Not sure. What I know, doesn't answer any of those questions.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-19 10:28 pm (UTC)The Apprentice
Date: 2004-02-20 05:28 am (UTC)Not wanting to criticize the general public too much, but you wonder why people loyally watch these phony reality shows. We know the contestants are interviewed and screened well ahead of time. It's pretty clear at least a third of the people are chosen simply because they'll make trouble. If you had ten truly qualified candidates for a serious job, who'd watch the Apprentice? The weekly games are absurd, just an excuses for the bad-actors to do their thing. It doesn't matter who wins or loses, because the producers have probably picked the finalists before hand anyway. I suppose it's a form of theater, but one that's pretty clearly abusive of the audience. Even the PBS series 'Such-and-such Era House' is the same way. They pick people to participate largely on the basis they'll have trouble and make gigantic scenes about it then try to pass it off as how most families would react.
Why do people want to watch badly behaved morons so much?
Re: The Apprentice
Date: 2004-02-20 08:30 am (UTC)If you want another sign of the "Reality TV" apocalypse, see:
http://www.villagevoice.com/tv/
It'll depress you even more.
J.
Re: The Apprentice
Date: 2004-02-20 09:08 am (UTC)Why do people want to watch badly behaved morons so much?
I wish I knew, it would certainly explain the popularity of most of the situation comedies to air and all these reality shows. My hypothesis is that it's the old misery likes company deal. Somehow people find it comforting and funny to see someone act worse than them, be more moronic. Human beings have a tendency to compare themselves to other people and to watch a bunch of people who are worse than them...may be comforting. At least that's the excuse some of my friends have given me for watching it.
The Apprentice is clearly scripted or pre-arranged. Actually they sort of made fun of how they are duping the audience in last night's episode. What's really odd though is the number of serious business people who have recommended watching it. Vault.com - the job search engine for the Wall Street Journal - highly recommends it for figuring out how to deal with certain interview questions.
And the prof of my course on how to start a career in HR,
told us we should all watch it to see how to deal with mercurial (sp?) personalities like Donald Trump and Martha Stewart. I keep trying, but the most I can tolerate of this show is the last fifteen minutes, the board-room section.
They are currently doing auditions for a new version of it, called The Intern - ie. people competing for an internship with a major Television Network. Ugh.
Re: The Apprentice
Date: 2004-02-20 09:23 am (UTC)It reminds me a great deal of Gregor Framkin in Smile Time, who in order to get fame and fortune, he signs a contract with demons, and ends up being a parody of himself. Just as everyone on these shows ends up appearing as a parody.
I can't decide who's more culpable - the people who make them/participate in the making or the people who watch them and encourage more to be made, while good dramas like Angel get cancelled to make room for them.
Kaboom!
Date: 2004-02-20 09:41 am (UTC)The analogy vs. metaphor tipoff, the visual of the AI gang as puppets in Why We Fight, lots of goodies.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-20 10:33 am (UTC)Great post!
Date: 2004-02-20 12:56 pm (UTC)Depressing is right.
Date: 2004-02-20 03:43 pm (UTC)Too true. I was suprised to see people accept whatever Spike or Buffy said as the truth last year, and I am continuously suprised to see people accept whatever the president is told to say, even if it is refuted with facts the next day. The schools need to teach logic to everyone.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-20 03:52 pm (UTC)Btw, I love that icon!
Date: 2004-02-20 09:00 pm (UTC)Re: Btw, I love that icon!
Date: 2004-02-20 09:27 pm (UTC)someone on wisteria's live journal. Since I'm incapable of making my own icons, I sink to swiping others. Fell in love with it - it just perfectly conveys how I identified with Angel.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-21 11:00 am (UTC)This is unspoiled spec, but I think that Angel is being led towards yet another impossible choice scenario. In "Home" he was led to believe that he could fix things for Connor without consequences. But this whole season has been about the consequences, unknownable as yet to our stalwart heroes, anti- and otherwise. ;-)
Getting W&H handed to him in shiny wrapping made it seem like a reward. W&H is like the Trojan's Horse (and that ended well!). What kind of fool opens the gates for a prezzie from the enemy? The kind of fool that wants to believe he is destiny's chosen one and wants to be seen by others that way.
punkinpuss
Ooooh...good analogy
Date: 2004-02-21 12:06 pm (UTC)I hadn't thought of it that way - but, that makes a lot of sense. In Smile Time - a lot of emphasis is placed on how Angel isn't noticing what's going on around him - starting with the signals Nina keeps sending his way every time she visits.
What has Angel been focused on? On being "the" hero. Not one of several heros, note, but "the one and only" hero.
Being the chief, the guy in control, the chosen one.
In Conviction - he says that they can handle anything, he's in charge and at that precise moment he opens the envelope and out pops the amulet "he" gave Buffy and Spike. In Just Rewards - he reluctantly admits Spike was a hero, but seriously down-plays it, just as he avoids telling his friends Spike has a soul - Spike tells them that. All Angel told them was Spike was helping Buffy in Sunnydale. In each episode - we have Angel either giving a hero speech or worrying about not being "the" hero any more. That's his main focus, outside of Connor who resides always as a nagging reminder in the back of his brain. Yet, in every episode, Angel's hero status is questioned in some way - in one episode it is re-affirmed, in the next we are questioning him again. Back and forth. Conviction - reaffirmed. Just Rewards - questioned. Unleashed- reaffirmed.
So is Angel falling into the same trap Numero Cinquo said he fell into, taking the hero status for granted, forgetting that it's the four brothers backing him up that made him a hero? Or maybe forgetting what a hero is?
Interesting.