Busy, busy, busy...
Mar. 4th, 2004 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatWon't be on livejournal or online much these next few days - mother arrives today and is staying with me until Wed, the 10th. Sort of rude to be typing away on computer about Angel or anything else while mother is in the room. Very small apartment.
Brief Thoughts on ATS 5.16?
I enjoyed Shells. Give it about a 8.5 on the ricter scale at the moment. Had a few weak patches here and there. Not sure Whedon and Deknight should co-write and co-direct episodes, tends to make things a little uneven.
But that's just me.
What I liked?
1. The whole sequence in the plane between Spike and Angel, which was apparently co-written by Deknight and Whedon and directed by Whedon. Possibly one of the most important thematic/metaphorical sequences in the episode.
The idea about how we views things being a matter of perspective was clever. Do you view Fred as completely gone? Improved? Different? A new creature informed by what Fred was? She looks like Fred, just as the tiny JAck Daniels bottle looks like a Jack Daniels bottle - but neither provide what the viewer wants exactly, depending on the viewer of course.
Note how it was shot? Spike in the back of the extrememly white plane, and Angel in the front, facing forward, while Spike's in profile at a table. Angel over-analyzing and fretting. Spike attempting to wash his woes in booze. Neither getting anywhere. Both afraid their friend is gone.
Then Spike's comment : "It's a matter of perspective really..." regarding the jack daniels bottle.
Angel's response (none of this is close to exact, I'm paraphrasing from memory): you mean Fred, what we did?
Spike - no, Fred's gone. We couldn't save her,
thousands would have died. That's not what she wanted.
Angel - Except we died, and aren't gone. Buffy's still here. I can't let this happen to her. Can't lose her like I did Cordy through something else violating her like that. (I wonder if Angel sees the vampire inside himself as a violation? Does
he see Angelus and even the vampire blood in Spike as violating them. This is not us. We are our souls? Just as Spike looks at the tiny bottle of Jack Daniels and wonders if it really is one?)
2. The scenes between Illyria and Wes - in both the other world, where Illyria finally gets grief through her loss of her world and being stuck in one she doesn't belong in and later in Fred's office where she asks Wes for his help in adjusting to this new world, since she is here whether they want her to be or not, and can't leave it.
Fragments of Fred - I liked that. String theory.
The idea of fragments of memories. As long as we have those fragments of memory - someone is never truly gone. (Nice twist on Connor and the mindwipe - Angel preserved Connor yet wiped him at the same time. Here Illyria preserves Fred's shell, is informed by what she considers just a shell - because the shell has left behind fragments of memory which are now part of her. While Angel perserved Connor's shell, but removed the memories. So whose really gone here? Fred or Connor? Or is it just a matter of perspective?)
3. Gunn...amazing show of a man in conflict. Go JAR. Loved Gunn and Harm's scene. Also like Harm and Wes' conversation.
4. The final montage - which I'm sure I'm in the minority on, since it seemed hokey and un Angel, - but I think it was supposed to be "un-Angel", it was meant to convey who Fred was and how she viewed the world, and this music fit Fred's character to a T. It also had a series of nice character shots - each character feeling separate and alone. Angel isolating himself in his office. Gunn expelled to the hospital where his best friend Wes sent him via stabbing. (Nice flip by the way of Wes/Gunn - Angel/Spike - in Hole, Wes/Gunn are getting along, Angel/Spike bickering. Also Spike has stabbed Angel with the intent to help/save him from a parasite. Angel wants to send Spike far away. In Shells Wes stabs Gunn with the intent to hurt him because he let a parasite come into the country. Spike suggests Angel send Gunn out of the country to prevent Wes from wanting to kill him. And Spike tells Angel he wants to stay for both Fred and himself, because although he doesn't particularly like Angel (they are like oil and water), he likes Angel's fight and wants to help. (Reminds me very much of a X-men comic books scene between Cyclops and Wolverine. In which Wolvie said basically the same things Spike does, to Cyclops.) ) Wes is packing up Fred's things...grieving over what he lost, isolated in that grief. Harm is out of focus behind her desk. Illyria is standing by her sarcophagus wondering what her future is and grieving over the loss of the past. And Spike is sitting like a ghost on the steps with people wandering around him. Finally Fred leaving her sheltered home...and driving to her dreamed of future.
Each wants to find a place to call their own where it doesn't rain or snow...and each feels lost in world in which it seems to do nothing but that... Very interesting.
Oh..I still think we're going to revist the mindwipe. I still think Angel is going to have to revisit Connor and possibly undo the decision he made in Home. I have mixed feelings on this spec and half-hope I'm completely wrong. Totally unspoiled on it.
Okay off to eat something, run to the bank and hopefully greet mom. Have a great weekend!
Brief Thoughts on ATS 5.16?
I enjoyed Shells. Give it about a 8.5 on the ricter scale at the moment. Had a few weak patches here and there. Not sure Whedon and Deknight should co-write and co-direct episodes, tends to make things a little uneven.
But that's just me.
What I liked?
1. The whole sequence in the plane between Spike and Angel, which was apparently co-written by Deknight and Whedon and directed by Whedon. Possibly one of the most important thematic/metaphorical sequences in the episode.
The idea about how we views things being a matter of perspective was clever. Do you view Fred as completely gone? Improved? Different? A new creature informed by what Fred was? She looks like Fred, just as the tiny JAck Daniels bottle looks like a Jack Daniels bottle - but neither provide what the viewer wants exactly, depending on the viewer of course.
Note how it was shot? Spike in the back of the extrememly white plane, and Angel in the front, facing forward, while Spike's in profile at a table. Angel over-analyzing and fretting. Spike attempting to wash his woes in booze. Neither getting anywhere. Both afraid their friend is gone.
Then Spike's comment : "It's a matter of perspective really..." regarding the jack daniels bottle.
Angel's response (none of this is close to exact, I'm paraphrasing from memory): you mean Fred, what we did?
Spike - no, Fred's gone. We couldn't save her,
thousands would have died. That's not what she wanted.
Angel - Except we died, and aren't gone. Buffy's still here. I can't let this happen to her. Can't lose her like I did Cordy through something else violating her like that. (I wonder if Angel sees the vampire inside himself as a violation? Does
he see Angelus and even the vampire blood in Spike as violating them. This is not us. We are our souls? Just as Spike looks at the tiny bottle of Jack Daniels and wonders if it really is one?)
2. The scenes between Illyria and Wes - in both the other world, where Illyria finally gets grief through her loss of her world and being stuck in one she doesn't belong in and later in Fred's office where she asks Wes for his help in adjusting to this new world, since she is here whether they want her to be or not, and can't leave it.
Fragments of Fred - I liked that. String theory.
The idea of fragments of memories. As long as we have those fragments of memory - someone is never truly gone. (Nice twist on Connor and the mindwipe - Angel preserved Connor yet wiped him at the same time. Here Illyria preserves Fred's shell, is informed by what she considers just a shell - because the shell has left behind fragments of memory which are now part of her. While Angel perserved Connor's shell, but removed the memories. So whose really gone here? Fred or Connor? Or is it just a matter of perspective?)
3. Gunn...amazing show of a man in conflict. Go JAR. Loved Gunn and Harm's scene. Also like Harm and Wes' conversation.
4. The final montage - which I'm sure I'm in the minority on, since it seemed hokey and un Angel, - but I think it was supposed to be "un-Angel", it was meant to convey who Fred was and how she viewed the world, and this music fit Fred's character to a T. It also had a series of nice character shots - each character feeling separate and alone. Angel isolating himself in his office. Gunn expelled to the hospital where his best friend Wes sent him via stabbing. (Nice flip by the way of Wes/Gunn - Angel/Spike - in Hole, Wes/Gunn are getting along, Angel/Spike bickering. Also Spike has stabbed Angel with the intent to help/save him from a parasite. Angel wants to send Spike far away. In Shells Wes stabs Gunn with the intent to hurt him because he let a parasite come into the country. Spike suggests Angel send Gunn out of the country to prevent Wes from wanting to kill him. And Spike tells Angel he wants to stay for both Fred and himself, because although he doesn't particularly like Angel (they are like oil and water), he likes Angel's fight and wants to help. (Reminds me very much of a X-men comic books scene between Cyclops and Wolverine. In which Wolvie said basically the same things Spike does, to Cyclops.) ) Wes is packing up Fred's things...grieving over what he lost, isolated in that grief. Harm is out of focus behind her desk. Illyria is standing by her sarcophagus wondering what her future is and grieving over the loss of the past. And Spike is sitting like a ghost on the steps with people wandering around him. Finally Fred leaving her sheltered home...and driving to her dreamed of future.
Each wants to find a place to call their own where it doesn't rain or snow...and each feels lost in world in which it seems to do nothing but that... Very interesting.
Oh..I still think we're going to revist the mindwipe. I still think Angel is going to have to revisit Connor and possibly undo the decision he made in Home. I have mixed feelings on this spec and half-hope I'm completely wrong. Totally unspoiled on it.
Okay off to eat something, run to the bank and hopefully greet mom. Have a great weekend!
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Date: 2004-03-04 11:04 am (UTC)I liked the final montage. It's exactly what they needed in that episode. "So here we are, we need to do something, but we don't know what, but we can't just let go of Fred". Everyone feeling helpless, everyone feeling guilty, everyone wanting to do something but frozen in place.
They just picked the wrong music for it.