Buffy/Angel Rewatch continues....
Feb. 10th, 2026 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatA few comments on the Buffy S7 and Angel S4 rewatches. Or take-aways.
I'm at the end of both seasons - have about four or five episodes left.
Watched up to and including Dirty Girls on Buffy, and up to and including Players on Angel. Players is the better episode. I don't know why? But the writers just didn't know what to do with Faith on Buffy.
S7 has one too many extraneous characters - so the main character relationships get a bit lost in the shuffle at times? (Which would be far less annoying if it weren't the last season of the series and let's face it everyone is watching for the major characters relationships and couldn't care less about the theme and world-building.) The writers really did not know what to do with or how to write the teenage potential slayers, who for the most part looked alike, with a few exceptions. They did manage to trim the herd a bit in Dirty Girls, but regrettably not by much. (You know there's a problem when the viewer starts rooting for the potentials to be killed off. Actually the main characters make jokes about it.)
Rona - the Black potential slayer (she's the only Black potential slayer - so it's a touch glaring and she's played by an actress who has one name, Indigo reminds me of Kendra - which is...well, words fail) - does nothing but complain. Honestly she's not had one line that wasn't a complaint. She's clearly competing with Andrew and Anya as the whiniest character, and winning by a mile - and considering how whiny Anya and Andrew are in S7 this is saying something. The poor actress just says the same thing over and over again: "We're all going to die. Buffy is insane." Basically she's Cordelia. But it's not working - also we already have a Cordelia replacement, Anya.(And the writers decide in Dirty Girls that she's not complaining about Buffy and the mission and the vampires and her lot in life nearly enough, so they break her arm - so she has even more to complain and whine about.) By the time we got to this episode - I was rooting for her to be killed off (but of course they couldn't, because she's the ONLY Black slayer in the cast. Although they did kill off the Chinese Slayer, but they probably figured that wasn't an issue or there were others representing Asia? That slayer couldn't speak English - and there's a running joke throughout that she has no idea what is going on or what they are doing or why. Why she was brought along to fight Caleb when she had no clue what anyone was saying 90% of the time? I've no clue. But I found some of her lines entertaining - such as in regards to Faith, "there's a girl doing gymnastics in the back yard" - no writers, Tai Chi, the Chinese Slayer would know what that is?)
The only slayers that we see repeatedly - in multiple episodes are Amanda, Molly, Rona, Kennedy, Chao Lin (Chinese Slayer), and Chloe (dead). There's also Violet (Felicia Day, and only two episodes if that). Each of these represents a different ethnic group or class. See? The writers are being diverse in their casting!
Diversification of casting was not done well in the 20th Century up through the early 00s. It's why a lot of pre-2003 series don't date well. They didn't really start doing this well until closer to 2003. It's also when the casting of commercials started to change. I don't quite know why everything started to change in 2003-2004? Maybe it just took three years for the cultural changes in the 21st Century to get into gear?
S7 also has too many group scenes. These must have been torture to film.
These are the episodes with the group scenes? Bring on the Night (although it's not that bad), Showtime, Storyteller, Dirty Girls, Empty Places Touched, End of Days, Chosen (8). In contrast, the previous seasons - S3 had maybe two or three episodes with group scenes, S5 maybe one, S4 maybe four, S1 maybe two, and S6, two episodes.
That said - it does some things rather well.
* It neatly wraps up the Xander/Anya romance. And moves both characters forward, demonstrating they didn't have much going for them but the sex.
* Also brings closure to the Willow/Tara romance, and allows Willow to move past her grief realistically.
* The Buffy/Spike relationship evolves in an interesting way - and kind of beyond sex. It's the opposite of the Xander/Anya romance - show that there was more to the relationship than sex, or that there was something beneath it. By removing the sex, we get back to the mutual respect and caring for one another.
The writers clearly have issues with sex? Or with heterosexual sex? Or are playing with horror tropes regarding sexual relationships being doomed?
Faith/Buffy gets some closure or Buffy seems to find a way of accepting and forgiving Faith finally. They'll never be best buds, but they find a way to coexist.
Also the break with Giles is done gradually and rather well, I thought.
I could do without Caleb. I'd forgotten how annoyingly cliche that character trope is. It is a horror staple though. So there's that.
Still enjoyable. I don't know if I can watch Empty Places again. We'll see.
***
Angel? The Cordelia arc should work - I mean all the foreshadowing is there? Cordy does get manipulated into becoming part demon, and then a higher being (except in a mystical hell or demon dimension). And it fits with the noir trope - of all of the heroes friends and loves being doomed.
But, something is off? I think the actress had issues with it and that certainly comes across loud and clear. Whedon must have had a devil of a time getting a very pregnant Charisma to play a big bad, when she just wanted her character to stay on the show and be redeemed and have a job. I kind of see it? The actress is begrudingly playing what is on the page. You can almost hear Cordelia screaming at the writers - "I'm not going to be the Big Bad, and you can't make me - nayayayya!" To give VK (who played Conner) some credit - he plays his part rather well, even if he hated the storyline - I can't tell.
Originally she was supposed to be the villain, not possessed, and Connor kills her. But she got pregnant, and it didn't work, so they changed the story - to Cordy being possessed by the demon in her, and the child killing her.
Players is the writers obviously chemistry testing Cordy's replacement with Gunn (they also tested her with Angel previously). Which I'm guessing didn't work - because Gwen doesn't join the cast, unfortunately. I liked Gwen. They even gave her a back story.
***
It's warmed up. Practically balmy at 30 degrees. 31 degrees now. I had to open a window and turn on the window fan. I go from frozen water and 64-66 degrees over the weekend in the apartment to a hot apartment. With a window open - it's 75 in the living room, and 76 in the bedroom. With it closed? Close to 80 degrees.
Gotta love NYC in the winter.
***
I'm at the end of both seasons - have about four or five episodes left.
Watched up to and including Dirty Girls on Buffy, and up to and including Players on Angel. Players is the better episode. I don't know why? But the writers just didn't know what to do with Faith on Buffy.
S7 has one too many extraneous characters - so the main character relationships get a bit lost in the shuffle at times? (Which would be far less annoying if it weren't the last season of the series and let's face it everyone is watching for the major characters relationships and couldn't care less about the theme and world-building.) The writers really did not know what to do with or how to write the teenage potential slayers, who for the most part looked alike, with a few exceptions. They did manage to trim the herd a bit in Dirty Girls, but regrettably not by much. (You know there's a problem when the viewer starts rooting for the potentials to be killed off. Actually the main characters make jokes about it.)
Rona - the Black potential slayer (she's the only Black potential slayer - so it's a touch glaring and she's played by an actress who has one name, Indigo reminds me of Kendra - which is...well, words fail) - does nothing but complain. Honestly she's not had one line that wasn't a complaint. She's clearly competing with Andrew and Anya as the whiniest character, and winning by a mile - and considering how whiny Anya and Andrew are in S7 this is saying something. The poor actress just says the same thing over and over again: "We're all going to die. Buffy is insane." Basically she's Cordelia. But it's not working - also we already have a Cordelia replacement, Anya.(And the writers decide in Dirty Girls that she's not complaining about Buffy and the mission and the vampires and her lot in life nearly enough, so they break her arm - so she has even more to complain and whine about.) By the time we got to this episode - I was rooting for her to be killed off (but of course they couldn't, because she's the ONLY Black slayer in the cast. Although they did kill off the Chinese Slayer, but they probably figured that wasn't an issue or there were others representing Asia? That slayer couldn't speak English - and there's a running joke throughout that she has no idea what is going on or what they are doing or why. Why she was brought along to fight Caleb when she had no clue what anyone was saying 90% of the time? I've no clue. But I found some of her lines entertaining - such as in regards to Faith, "there's a girl doing gymnastics in the back yard" - no writers, Tai Chi, the Chinese Slayer would know what that is?)
The only slayers that we see repeatedly - in multiple episodes are Amanda, Molly, Rona, Kennedy, Chao Lin (Chinese Slayer), and Chloe (dead). There's also Violet (Felicia Day, and only two episodes if that). Each of these represents a different ethnic group or class. See? The writers are being diverse in their casting!
Diversification of casting was not done well in the 20th Century up through the early 00s. It's why a lot of pre-2003 series don't date well. They didn't really start doing this well until closer to 2003. It's also when the casting of commercials started to change. I don't quite know why everything started to change in 2003-2004? Maybe it just took three years for the cultural changes in the 21st Century to get into gear?
S7 also has too many group scenes. These must have been torture to film.
These are the episodes with the group scenes? Bring on the Night (although it's not that bad), Showtime, Storyteller, Dirty Girls, Empty Places Touched, End of Days, Chosen (8). In contrast, the previous seasons - S3 had maybe two or three episodes with group scenes, S5 maybe one, S4 maybe four, S1 maybe two, and S6, two episodes.
That said - it does some things rather well.
* It neatly wraps up the Xander/Anya romance. And moves both characters forward, demonstrating they didn't have much going for them but the sex.
* Also brings closure to the Willow/Tara romance, and allows Willow to move past her grief realistically.
* The Buffy/Spike relationship evolves in an interesting way - and kind of beyond sex. It's the opposite of the Xander/Anya romance - show that there was more to the relationship than sex, or that there was something beneath it. By removing the sex, we get back to the mutual respect and caring for one another.
The writers clearly have issues with sex? Or with heterosexual sex? Or are playing with horror tropes regarding sexual relationships being doomed?
Faith/Buffy gets some closure or Buffy seems to find a way of accepting and forgiving Faith finally. They'll never be best buds, but they find a way to coexist.
Also the break with Giles is done gradually and rather well, I thought.
I could do without Caleb. I'd forgotten how annoyingly cliche that character trope is. It is a horror staple though. So there's that.
Still enjoyable. I don't know if I can watch Empty Places again. We'll see.
***
Angel? The Cordelia arc should work - I mean all the foreshadowing is there? Cordy does get manipulated into becoming part demon, and then a higher being (except in a mystical hell or demon dimension). And it fits with the noir trope - of all of the heroes friends and loves being doomed.
But, something is off? I think the actress had issues with it and that certainly comes across loud and clear. Whedon must have had a devil of a time getting a very pregnant Charisma to play a big bad, when she just wanted her character to stay on the show and be redeemed and have a job. I kind of see it? The actress is begrudingly playing what is on the page. You can almost hear Cordelia screaming at the writers - "I'm not going to be the Big Bad, and you can't make me - nayayayya!" To give VK (who played Conner) some credit - he plays his part rather well, even if he hated the storyline - I can't tell.
Originally she was supposed to be the villain, not possessed, and Connor kills her. But she got pregnant, and it didn't work, so they changed the story - to Cordy being possessed by the demon in her, and the child killing her.
Players is the writers obviously chemistry testing Cordy's replacement with Gunn (they also tested her with Angel previously). Which I'm guessing didn't work - because Gwen doesn't join the cast, unfortunately. I liked Gwen. They even gave her a back story.
***
It's warmed up. Practically balmy at 30 degrees. 31 degrees now. I had to open a window and turn on the window fan. I go from frozen water and 64-66 degrees over the weekend in the apartment to a hot apartment. With a window open - it's 75 in the living room, and 76 in the bedroom. With it closed? Close to 80 degrees.
Gotta love NYC in the winter.
***