Angel Season 3
Feb. 23rd, 2011 07:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackSeason 3 contains some very, very moving episodes, but somewhat suffers from the whole plot not making any sense. I mean, I try to judge stories on their own merits, especially if they sensibly get the unpalatable assumptions in up front and then let you relax. But all the way through, you seem to be going "huh? why does it work like that?" For instance:
1. Sahjhan has been flitting about time (in a manly way) trying to arrange that the original prophecy that he will be killed by Angel's son doesn't come true. So why go against Angel now? Why not continually for two hundred years? Why not back when he was human? Or before he got his soul? Or avert him getting his soul? Or killing him when he was alone and pathetic and friendless and eating rats? Or killing Darla?
2. If you're going to fake a prophecy, don't always try a divisive one. If the prophecy had been "Angel, don't sleep with Darla, even if you're really, really alone" he might well have listened. But the divisive prophecy, while standing a chance of setting people at each others throats, has a high chance of them resisting it.
3. Everyone involved spends way too much time chatting with their sworn enemies. Which is very characterful, but doesn't really justify why they NEVER get round to killing each other.
4. And how come Angel's always able to break into W&H when it's plot critical, but not otherwise?
5. If Sahjhan can open a portal to suck everyone into a hell-dimension, why didn't he do that earlier?
6. There is a lot of very moving interpersonal tragedy. But for GOD'S SAKE people, TALK to each other. You KNOW you end up keeping secrets from each other, and then judging each other when the shit hits the fan over it. Come up, IN ADVANCE, with ways of coping. If possible.
7. It didn't seem that hard to re-mortal Sahjhan. Admittedly that was the (poorly explained) white-room girl. But if it's out there somewhere, how come Sahjhan wasn't looking for it?
8. When Sahjhan was re-corporealified, why did the jar spirit-capture thing still work?
9. We still don't know much about W&H internal politics. Occasionally it works very well, but more often it seems to be an excuse to be inconsistent. How committed are the senior partners to keeping Angel alive? It never seems clear when someone can get away with going behind someone's back and when they can't.
10. "Oh, we did dark magics and it all seems ok. But next episode we had to fight a left-over demon as the price" episodes never seem to work as well as they should. In theory, they should emphasise the price of doing dangerous stuff, but when you don't know it's going to happen, it always just feels arbitrary twice over.
1. Sahjhan has been flitting about time (in a manly way) trying to arrange that the original prophecy that he will be killed by Angel's son doesn't come true. So why go against Angel now? Why not continually for two hundred years? Why not back when he was human? Or before he got his soul? Or avert him getting his soul? Or killing him when he was alone and pathetic and friendless and eating rats? Or killing Darla?
2. If you're going to fake a prophecy, don't always try a divisive one. If the prophecy had been "Angel, don't sleep with Darla, even if you're really, really alone" he might well have listened. But the divisive prophecy, while standing a chance of setting people at each others throats, has a high chance of them resisting it.
3. Everyone involved spends way too much time chatting with their sworn enemies. Which is very characterful, but doesn't really justify why they NEVER get round to killing each other.
4. And how come Angel's always able to break into W&H when it's plot critical, but not otherwise?
5. If Sahjhan can open a portal to suck everyone into a hell-dimension, why didn't he do that earlier?
6. There is a lot of very moving interpersonal tragedy. But for GOD'S SAKE people, TALK to each other. You KNOW you end up keeping secrets from each other, and then judging each other when the shit hits the fan over it. Come up, IN ADVANCE, with ways of coping. If possible.
7. It didn't seem that hard to re-mortal Sahjhan. Admittedly that was the (poorly explained) white-room girl. But if it's out there somewhere, how come Sahjhan wasn't looking for it?
8. When Sahjhan was re-corporealified, why did the jar spirit-capture thing still work?
9. We still don't know much about W&H internal politics. Occasionally it works very well, but more often it seems to be an excuse to be inconsistent. How committed are the senior partners to keeping Angel alive? It never seems clear when someone can get away with going behind someone's back and when they can't.
10. "Oh, we did dark magics and it all seems ok. But next episode we had to fight a left-over demon as the price" episodes never seem to work as well as they should. In theory, they should emphasise the price of doing dangerous stuff, but when you don't know it's going to happen, it always just feels arbitrary twice over.
no subject
Date: 2011-02-23 10:23 pm (UTC)