Angel Season 1 Episode 9 Hero
Feb. 17th, 2011 04:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackThe episode where Doyle dies heroically. When you know what's coming, it's really moving. And the whole series has a low-key string of very moving/funny moments.
Unfortunately, like many important episodes of TV series, if you don't know what's coming, the tragedy is somewhat undermined by comparison with too many other episodes where they pretend someone is in serious danger of death, to create a fake feeling of excitement, and then it all turns out ok at the last minute.
Wesley
Although Wesley's appearance in the next episode sort of represents the retreat from noir-ness I talked about yesterday, I do appreciate that they did make him a much richer character than before: although he always has a core of the hopeless nerd, now, and especially later on after the sea burial, he has a lot more layers too.
Rogue Demon Hunter
Wesley: I'm a rogue demon hunter.
Cordelia: What's a rogue demon?
This is pretty funny. But it doesn't really work, because both demons, and demon hunters, are habitually rogue, so the question isn't so much why Cordelia was misunderstanding, but why she questioned either interpretation.
ETA: The Powers that Be
In Angel, we're introduced to the concept of "the powers that be", presumably some sort of intangible forces of goodness or at least order. Unfortunately, they never really seem to specify what they are. They seem good -- maybe -- but also irritatingly cryptic, presumptuous, ungrateful and rude. You never know if you're supposed to believe they're good, or not.
Unfortunately, like many important episodes of TV series, if you don't know what's coming, the tragedy is somewhat undermined by comparison with too many other episodes where they pretend someone is in serious danger of death, to create a fake feeling of excitement, and then it all turns out ok at the last minute.
Wesley
Although Wesley's appearance in the next episode sort of represents the retreat from noir-ness I talked about yesterday, I do appreciate that they did make him a much richer character than before: although he always has a core of the hopeless nerd, now, and especially later on after the sea burial, he has a lot more layers too.
Rogue Demon Hunter
Wesley: I'm a rogue demon hunter.
Cordelia: What's a rogue demon?
This is pretty funny. But it doesn't really work, because both demons, and demon hunters, are habitually rogue, so the question isn't so much why Cordelia was misunderstanding, but why she questioned either interpretation.
ETA: The Powers that Be
In Angel, we're introduced to the concept of "the powers that be", presumably some sort of intangible forces of goodness or at least order. Unfortunately, they never really seem to specify what they are. They seem good -- maybe -- but also irritatingly cryptic, presumptuous, ungrateful and rude. You never know if you're supposed to believe they're good, or not.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 04:04 pm (UTC)On the Powers That Be, isn't the lack of knowledge about TPTB the point? Not that TPTB are themselves unclear, but that the characters don't know anything about them? It's the 'what is God' question of the pre-medieval period.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 08:36 pm (UTC)Oh, huh. Yes, that would work.
isn't the lack of knowledge about TPTB the point?
Hm. Maybe I'm too atheist. But it seems like some episodes we're supposed to assume the characters have to follow them, even if their representatives act like entitled, arrogant supercilious jerks because it's for the greater good. It's implied -- but never stated -- that the characters have some off camera reason for assuming they're forces of good, either tradition, or experience of them doing good things before.
And other episodes you're supposed to judge them based on whether or not they're good according to "human" standards of empathy.
And I'd be happy with either of those, but I feel it should be one or the other.
Many shows with PTB (or even just wise mentor figures) suffer from this because other shows do it the other way, so people are familiar with the wrong tropes. But I feel like Buffy had very, very little to say about supernatural good, and then Angel starts off assuming they exist, and leaving you guessing whether you're supposed to assume as a narrative premise that they're good (even if they don't seem to be) or if you're supposed to judge them on what they do, and never really fills in the details, and then just when you're getting used to it, suddenly changes its mind...
no subject
Date: 2011-02-18 08:58 pm (UTC)