Angel 3.7 Offspring

Episode 7 brings us back to the Darla story arc, which was started at the end of the first season and has yet to really go anywhere.  She was brought back by Wolfram and Hart (an entity that has been almost completely off the radar for the last several episodes) to…uh…ummm…what was she supposed to do again?  Turn Angel evil?  Was that it?  I can’t really remember because they spent almost an entire season (2) working this Darla plot without ever really giving us any rhyme or reason for what was happening.  A blast from the past come to fiddle around with the present, that’s the best I’ve got.

Anyway, Julie Benz (Rita from Dexter) plays the soon-to-be-mother Darla.  Everyone’s favorite vampiric mommy enters the AI headquarters unannounced and breaks the big news to Angel and the gang.  Cordelia empathizes with Darla because of her own magical impregnation experience.  The AI squad takes the bloated vamp in and allows her to stay in a bed with Cordelia watching over her.  Now, I may be new to this whole “plots making sense” thing but why would the AI squad allow a vampire ,who up to this point has terrorized their lives, into their headquarters just because she’s pregnant.  And not only do they accomodate her but no one has any problem with Cordelia getting all cozy with Mother Pale Skin.  It should be no surprise that Darla tries to take a bite out of Cordelia and succeeds in getting a few gulps of her lifeforce before fleeing the hotel in search of younger prey.  Angel and Darla have a little throwdown at the local arcade, the spot Darla chose to stave off her pregnant cravings.  She gets away (shocker!) but not before Angel can break the news to her that their baby, their little infant bond of joy, has a soul and a beating heart, a.k.a. is human.  Apparently the same logic that tells us a negative times a negative equals a positive also tells us that a vampire plus a vampire equals a human.  For sure.

The larger narrative arc functioning in this story is that of the Niazeon (sp?) scrolls’ prophecy concerning the arrival/birth of the “person or being that brings about the ruination of mankind.”  We are led to believe that this is referring to Angel’s little lovechild buried in Darla’s abdomen but we find out via Fred’s nifty calculations and a cutshot to some underground cavern that it is actually concerning the arrival of Holtz, the vampire hunter from the days of Angeles and Darla.  This is a lovely little surprise appearance but I have a little problem with the purported magnanimity of this prophecy.  This arrival is supposed to bring about the being that is the ruination of mankind and it brings a vampire hunter (human) who failed to kill Angel and Darla 100% of the time.  To illustrate the absurdity of this situation further, let us look at Buffy, the chosen one, stronger than every other regular person (like Holtz) in the world.  When Angel turned into Angeles, Buffy had quite a bit of difficulty with him.  The girl who makes it her one priority in life to kill vampires was not totally up to the task (alone) of taking down Angel.  I don’t think it’s a huge leap to believe that Buffy is stronger and better at what she does than Holtz, the man that couldn’t take down Angeles even with an entourage of cloaked figures.  So, I’m just wondering, how is it that Holtz, Mr. Choke Artist himself, is going to be bringing about the ruination of mankind when he can’t even complete the single task that he supposedly specializes in?

In relation to last episode, ‘Offspring’ was not as strong but I can see that they are trying to start some narrative momentum and for that, I am grateful.  However, that being said, I’m curious as to the state of our Fred/Wesley relationship.  Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell promised me in the commentary of the last episode that the attempted murder of Fred by Wesley would have implications for the story as a whole and Wesley specifically and after watching today’s episode, I haven’t seen any of those things.  Wesley mentions it once but little attention is payed to him and the scene shifts away directly after he speaks.  I’m not giving up on Tim and Jeffrey, I just don’t know how they can go back to working around each other seemingly normally after the breakdown Wesley had at the end of yesterday’s show.  I am going to keep up my hope and just assume that these huge effects are going to show up later and have major implications when they do.

Angel 3.6 Billy

The storm has passed and after the rainshowers of doubt and the thunderstorms of criticism from my post yesterday, I am happy to say that this episode has pushed my fears aside and allowed some hope to enter.  Although the narrative arc from the last episode (Fredless) is not continued here, episode six pushes beyond the typical narrative and plot structures and poses some very interesting and serious questions.  Billy, the prisoner Angel released from his Hell-dimension prison in episode 2 of this season, That Vision Thing, comes into focus again and we find out that he is not only not totally human, but he has a power that allows him to awaken the “primordial misogyny,” which is apparently something that is present in every man, a dormant force just waiting to be brought forth.  This little bit of information on Billy comes from Lila, the person in the episode that would know him best.  I only make this point because later in the episode, after the dusk has cleared, Fred is talking with Wesley about what happened (he was affected by Billy, tried to kill Fred, obviously unsuccessful) and he says “something inside [him] was forced to the surface, something primal.”  Fred responds by saying that it wasn’t “something in [him],” but instead, “something that was done to [him].”  Perhaps Fred is implying that Billy’s power is to place this misogyny within men, and I could absolutely go along with that except for the point in the story in which Billy tries to work his voodoo magic on Angel and it has no effect.  Angel claims that it’s because he’s a demon and Billy’s power only brings out the hatred and malice within humans but if it is not that way, if it is instead the way Fred is putting it, shouldn’t Billy be able to place this misogyny in Angel as well?  I listened to the commentary for this episode, given by its creative forces Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell, and they seem to be going along with Angel’s version of how things are.  That’s fine and dandy but why write a script that doesn’t support the point of view that you have on a topic?  I love the idea behind this story arc, I just wish they would have sorted things through a bit more.

In less confused thoughts, Alexis Denisof (Wesley) absolutely knocked me off my seat with his acting.  For as long as he’s been in the Whedon-verse, Wesley has been the comical, quirky, light-hearted bookworm and though he is lovable, he is often quite boring.  His character had his origins in Buffy the Vampire Slayer where he was to be Faith’s watcher.  This position of responsiblity and service has colored Wesley in the teaching role ever since.  Yet in this episode we finally get to see Wesley as something more, something different and Alexis performed quite admirably.  His warm, easy nature tinged with his cute accent takes a cold twist when he is affected by Billy’s power and attempts to kill Fred.  He becomes a heartless misogynist but not in the same way as the other affected men.  Instead of allowing rage to control him and turn him into a barbarian, Wesley maintains his civilized composure and acts in the manner of a killer taking his time with his prey.  There is pleasure in every one of his hate filled lines and this is what allows Alexis to steal the show from anyone else.  He has the best performance, hands down, out of anyone in this episode.

An important aspect to this story is the extent to which women help themselves.  Cordelia addresses the fact that Angel often comes to save her when he is teaching her how to use a sword.  Our hero is teaching Cordelia only enough to allow her to stave off an attack when what she really needs is how to fight back.  Angel realizes this and goes on to teach the already adept Cordelia as much as he can.  Later, as Angel is trying to track down Billy, Cordelia goes on the chase (ha ha, get it?  Cordelia Chase…ouch) too and even though Angel is the great detective (Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell actually say that they are trying to portray him as the “Indian Tracker.”  Uhhh, schwa?) Cordelia manages to find Billy first.  To further add to the point, Angel can’t seem to finish Billy off and it is Lila, with two shots from her handgun, who finally destroys the beast.

In comparison to the last episode, Billy is a freaking gift from heaven.  But even on its own, this episode stands strong and after hearing what Tim and Jeffrey had to say in their commentary, it sounds like good things are on the horizon.  Hallelujah, my hope is renewed.

Angel 3.5 Fredless

Whew, it feels good to be back.  Well, it feels good to be blogging again, not so good to be blogging about this episode.  It’s getting a little frustrating, writing about a show that seems to be going nowhere in an exceptionally haphazard kind of way.  There have been some good moments but this episode was a bit of a let-down.  In the spirit of every scrap of motherly advice ever given, I won’t say too much since I don’t have too many nice things to say.

Episode 5 gives us a view of a nice, normal family with Roger and Trish, Fred’s parents.  This is a first for the show, since not only have none of the characters in Angel had a supportive, normal family, but I can’t really think of any characters in Buffy that had a normal, stable family situation either.  Sure, Joyce Summers was a pretty supportive mom but I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that they didn’t have the most stable family life.  Either way, for the first time (according to my possibly faulty memory) ever, we have a good, honest, clean family situation, which is fine and dandy except that little hints are dropped throughout the episode that things are not totally right with Fred’s parents.  I’m not sure if this is the producer’s attempt to establish some sort of lasting plot or if they were just trying to get us to believe that something was wrong in order to calm our fears at the end of the episode.  I’m leaning toward the first of these two options since lines like “we might have to call them in sooner than we thought” (whispered between Trish and Roger about some unknown they) along with Fred’s urge to stay away from her parents throughout the episode point to some fishy behaviour.  Could it be that a problem was not totally solved during the space of one episode?  If that’s the case, thank the sweet lord, it’s about time.  Yet, I have a problem with this situation turning out to be more than it really is because I think it’s important that one of our characters finally has some sort of family life that it positive, structured, and stable.  Whether or not this possible problem will really turn out is yet to be seen but either way, I’m already a little disappointed.

One important bit that came up in the beginning of this episode is this: the AI squad knows almost nothing about Fred.  When trying to find out where she would go after sneaking out of the hotel, the best any of them can come up with is a taco stand, because all they know about her is that she likes tacos.  Finally, someone on the story board team realized that every one of our squad members had been peachy keen with living/working with someone they had no information about.  They’ve been living and working together for several months according to this episode and just now our characters are starting to open their eyes a little bit and look around.

Short post today, maybe tomorrow’s episode will be a little more inspirational.

Angel 3.4 Carpe Noctem

Episode 4 of this season focuses on the growing infatuation Winifred (Amy Acker) has for Angel.  This connection serves two purposes: a) Winifred comes out of her room more often in order to find the man of her dreams and in doing this, she runs into the other members of the AI squad, further establishing her place within the group  b)We get an idea of just how horrible Angel is at dealing with anything that doesn’t require a fist to be punched through a face.  The episode is framed through the case the AI squad encounters immediately; a mysterious someone has been stealing young, handsome, muscly men’s bodies (Carpe Noctem means Seize the Night), using them for a bit, and then shedding the husks much like a snake getting ready for a new outfit.  Angel gets the great opportunity to be the perp’s newest change of clothes when our hero pokes his nose just a little too far into the case without proper backing.  The usual mistaken-identities-chaos ensues and only by the brains and determination present within the AI squad is Angel able to manage to switch back into his body before stuck forever as an old man.  Not only would our hero not have been able to fight evil, his new body doesn’t have near enough hair to spike and we all know that Angel isn’t Angel without the 10th grader hairdo he proudly wears.

Even though the beginning of the episode (Winifred looking for Angel and imagining him to be doing something romantic and deep like reading Goethe) is meant to be comical and only establish Fred’s growing infatuation for and dependence on Angel, it also serves another more interesting end.  Fred imagines that Angel is reading “the brothers Karmatzov, Joyce, a little Goethe to round things out” and we are all supposed to laugh when Angel, giddy as a school-kid at recess, comes hopping out of his room to tell everyone about the great Charlton Heston movie festival that is going to be playing downtown, including the great works Soylent Green and The Omega Man.  It’s a cute little scene but the real rub of it is that the Angel we met in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Angel who started this show would be reading those deep, thick, and usually boring books alone in his study.  I mean, the only time we really saw Angel in season one was either outside fighting the baddies or inside, alone, reading thick tomes filled with arcane knowledge.  I’ve been noticing the change in Angel, the shift toward the light, quirky star, for a few episodes now but this is the first time that there has been any mention (albeit indirectly) to what and who he used to be.  Now, we have some serious questions to consider.  First, can I still use the phrase “broody, dark hero” to refer to this show’s namesake?  Second, while his preppy boy band hair served as a nice contradiction to his previously dark demeanor, can we hope for a change to serve the same purpose with this new personality?  And last but certainly not least, does this shift from the broody also mean (fingers crossed folks) a shift from the leather pants?

Angel 3.3 That Old Gang of Mine

Charles Gunn, the well loved, scrappy, streetwise, muscley part of the AI crew gets the spotlight in this episode and really, it’s about freaking time.  This guy joined the crew officially in the previous season and up until now he’s been pretty ho-hum about it, going about his work with, seemingly, little to no regrets or second thoughts about working for a vampire who doesn’t have any hard and fast rules for deciding between good and evil.

The episode begins with Angel’s heartfelt and previously transcribed words of regret and apology to Merl, his former informant.  Words lead to anger and anger leads to Merl trying to deck Angel in the face, which is a nice set up for the rest of the episode since there is an enchantment on Lorne’s place, Caritas, that prevents any demon offensive violence from happening.  The opening song/video montage begins and dear, sweet, baby Jesus I wish that song would never have ended because following it is a shot of Angel in leather pants.  Ummmm, why?  Did the people that clean his wardrobe/make his wardrobe/buy his wardrobe suddenly fall ill with the crazy disease that gives them strange, wrong thoughts and the hiccups all day?  I thought Angel only wore his pimpin’ pants when he was evil, and one of the big draws for me in this show is that he isn’t evil, which means, in a perfect and happy world, never ever ever ever should he be wearing those things.  My mind is still scarred, as is my innocence.

Anyway, the episode focuses around Gunn running into a few members from his old vampire hunting gang.  Rondel, one of Gunn’s best friends, is leading the group but now they have a hotshot new member named Gio.  It turns out that Gunn’s old gang have “forgotten the mission” and are now, instead of only hunting vampires, killing any demons that they hear about, including Merl and any other peaceful hell spawn.  Everything falls apart when Cordelia and Wesley bring Fred to Caritas for a little singing and the gang shows up with machine guns.  Most of the demons are killed before they discover Gunn is there as well.  This prompts Gio to get into a little spat with good ol’ Charles Gunn, which ends with Gunn killing a demon hostage and proving that maybe he isn’t such a 1-dimensional character.  Big, bad Angel of the leathery pants brigade shows up and Gunn is given a chance to make things right with his old pals again by putting a stake through Angel’s heart o’ hearts.  Angel vamps out, to make it easy for Gunn and then says, “Deal with it or don’t, just make a damn choice.”  Gunn refuses, not because Angel is his friend but because Angel has the mission and Rondel doesn’t.  Gio gives Fred the chance to shoot Angel with a crossbow, offering her freedom for Angel’s life.  She is a little wishy-washy right away but eventually turns out be still be a part of Team Good.  This whole time Cordelia has been working hard to get the enchantment on Caritas lifted and at this point, she succeeds.  A fight breaks out and a demon that had been left alive eats Gio’s head.  I pretty much hated the cocky jerk, so I was cool with it.

As I said before, this episode works for me because Gunn is finally exposed a little and shown to be more than just the mindless muscle that he has appeared to be until now.  The producers of this show are really great at giving us characters that are mostly shades of grey and I don’t think this episode in any way takes away from that.  Sure, we now know that Gunn has made a clear decision to be on the AI crew and we even have his reasons, but this only serves to detail the grey area that his character is a part of, not detract from it.  We also get an idea in this episode of just what kind of boss Wesley can be (remember, he was put in charge after Angel did that whole, “I’m gonna be bad but still have a soul” thing).  Wes corners Gunn after everything has gone down and says, “If you ever withhold information or attempt to subvert me again, I will fire you.”  Don’t get me wrong, I love happy endings, but only when things are actually all cleared up.  The AI squad has a lot of problems going on and I am glad that they are being addressed instead of just pushed aside in favor of more action and explosions.  Angel (and Buffy the Vampire Slayer for that matter) are both enjoyable for me because even though the structure of the shows, the premises, are totally unbelievable, the characters that fill those unbelievable worlds with the gray and shifty structures, are not only believable, but totally inviting.  I love that both of these shows know that they are cheesy and absurd, but can still achieve moments of real emotional weight.

That being said, I do have one real problem with Angel that was brought out in full force in this episode.  The majority of black people (I want to say all but there may have been one or two that I can’t remember) in this show have all been portrayed in the same kind of way: streetwise gangsters that all talk in total cliches and look like total buffoons in the face of the civilized crowd that can think in the face of danger and complicated situations.  This episode is a great example because we have Gunn’s former gang, made up of mostly black people juxtaposed with the AI squad.  The gang has a shoot first, think later mentality with no concept of distinguishing between good and evil.  Their only indicator is whether or not a being is human and if it isn’t, it needs to be stab stabbed or pew pewed.  The AI squad, meanwhile, is headed by a vampire that totally embodies the noble, selfless, make-me-puke-sometimes, kind of hero.  The squad also has Wesley, who specializes in words and would much prefer to talk things out rationally in the place of a good skirmish.  Maybe this juxtaposition is unfair because the gang was all raised on the streets and so they have no formal education unlike Cordelia (high school graduate), Wesley (brain man), and Angel (loves long walks on the moon-lit beach and sitting at home alone with a nice pitcher of blood and a stack of old novels).  Gunn is the in-betweener here and maybe this is the producers’ attempt to break out of this mold by having a black man use his words instead of his weapons.

Angel 3.2 That Vision Thing

‘That Vision Thing’ deals primarily with Cordelia’s visions and the physical manifestations that have lately been accompanying them.  Oh boy, wouldn’t you know it, Wolfram & Hart, the corporation of lawyers bent on…wait, what are they bent on again?  Anyway, Wolfram & Hart are messing with Cordelia’s visions through a hired associate with a lovely fez, played by Kai Penn.  When Angel finally confronts Lyla about this interference, she tells him that she has picked him specifically for a mission and if he wants to protect Cordelia, well, he’ll just get on up and do what the good lady says.  For some reason, Angel does the task, which involves removing a high-risk prisoner from some uber-prison from another dimension.  Our brooding, vampiric hero gives Lyla her boon and she promises to stop the harm to Cordelia.  For some reason, Lyla brought Mr. Fezzy Interference along for the shady exchange in the dark at the docks (drugs or inter-dimensional prisoner…) and just for some extra assurance, Angel throws a handy steel bar through the window of the nearest limo, giving our fezzman a shiny horn to go with his one and only Angel appearance.  The episode wraps up with a tiny continuation that is oddly reminiscent of Breaking Dawn.  We see Darla, pregnant with what looks to be the worlds largest set of manitees, trying to get some sort of magical abortion from anyone capable.  She is almost out of options so who better to turn to than the nice Native man rolling his future-predicting animal-bone-dice in his lovely teepee in the mountains of Honduras.  He takes some blood, mixes in some mysterious herbs and spices and, after rubbing the composite in his palms, presses his hands against her stomach.  Schade um, the technique fails and gasp! Darla is going to have Angel’s baby.  I swear Stephanie Meyer had to have been a large Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel watcher because this is the second time that a similarity of the large type has come up.  The first is of course the alarming traits that both Angel and Edward possess, especially early Angel.  Recall with me, if you will, the first few times we meet Angel.  He’s the strange, dreamy, hunky piece of man-meat who quietly watches Buffy while she sleeps.  Hmm, weird, it’s almost like Edward does the same thing.  The second crossover is this whole vampire baby thing.  First off, in both stories it is kind of thought to be impossible for one (and definitely two) vampires to make-a-da-baby but oh dear, love just transcends all of those physical limitations doesn’t it?  Also, much like Darla, Bella too quickly grows to the size of a tricked out station wagon with the offspring of her vampiric love.  Finally, both women  contain children that appear to be close to indestructible.  I can only hope Darla’s child grows up to fall deeply in love with one of her (or Angel’s) BFFs.

This episode was really great for a few reasons.  Cordelia, much like Xander Harris of the Scooby Gang in BtVS, is worried about her usefulness to the team and with good reason.  Before she had the visions, Cordie was no more than a secretary, but now she is a valuable and necessary member of the Angel Investigations squad.  Even though she is usually one of the less thoughtful characters in the show, we see that she understands this when she resists Lorne’s attempts to get the bottom of these interferences and maybe even fix her “vision problem.”  The usual perky and quirky Cordelia suddenly becomes a serious and almost tragic character, with her possible future contributions to the team hanging on her ability to survive the cuts, burns and, and diseases that have been accompanying her visions.  Gunn, in her absence from the funny person role, steps in and hits it of quite well.  This layer of the characters that the writers and producers are able to bring out is really great and I can only hope that now that equilibrium has been restored to the cast they won’t just fall back into their old roles again.

In other, slightly less connected or intellectual thoughts, Wesley seems to be working hard on transitioning from his pretty boy, “I am British and wear nice clothes” haircut to the ever-fashionable, wavy man-mullet.  Also, we get more of Fred in this episode and I am glad about that, due partially to the fact that Amy Acker playing a nervous, overly-talkative genius is totally adorable.

In non-Angel news, BigWhiskey and the GrooGrux King comes out very soon (June 2nd).  Am I excited?  Yeah, like, wet my pants excited.

Angel 3.1 Heartthrob

In an attempt to get something schedule-y going with my blog, I’ve decided to start writing about the television show that I am currently watching: Angel.  I started season 3 today and will begin my blogging here in order to be sure the episodes are clear in my mind.  There will most likely be spoilers, both for Angel and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (due to the nature of the shows and their cross-over relationship).  So, without further ado, let us begin with episode 1 of season 3, entitled ‘Heartthrob.’

The episode begins (apart from a shot of Winifred ‘Fred’ peeking around a corner in the hotel) in the manner of most of the episodes up through this point; members of Angel Investigations arrive at HQ, fresh from a fight with some nasty, smelly, most likely ugly, demon.  Cordelia, she of the visions, is complaining, as she does, about the content of most of their cases.  Gunn and Wesley are with her and the three members of AI chat over the massive loss Angel has most recently suffered.  The final episode of season 2 ended with Willow (Alyson Hannigan) awaiting Angel and crew’s return in order to tell them of Buffy’s death, enacted in ‘The Gift,’ the final episode in season 5 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  We learn that Angel has left, in his usual, broody fashion, with plans to seek peace in a monastery in Sri Lanka.  The AI crew’s talk transitions us to a film montage of Angel beating the snot out of some demon monks in his peaceful monastery.

‘Heartthrob’ had a few really rough parts and little more than a single, shimmery, glimpse of hope for me as a viewer.  As a first episode after the relatively weak finale of season 2, it was disappointing.  Coincidentally, just as Angel is trying to work through the death of the love of his life, a blast from his past shows up and we are once more in the flashback style that Joss and the other producers seem to love so much.  I’m not totally sure, but I think they may have had a dialogue that went something like this:

Producer 1: “Hey guys, I have an awesome idea!  You know how Angel is, like, super duper old?  Well, since he’s pretty much seen, like, everything, we could have him face trials and tribulations in the present that like totally relate to the things he’s already gone through in the past.”

Producer 2: “Awesome!  You know that one super over-used idea of people being haunted by ghosts?  Why don’t we take that and make it a literal haunting by having old friends, like other vampires and stuff, from Angel’s past come and metaphorically haunt him in the present.  They’ll still be all bad and stuff but since Angel isn’t anymore, cuz remember, he’s totally got a soul now, he’ll have to fight them at the end of the episode and then it’ll be like he’s ridding himself of his past and paying penance for his sins.”

Producer 3: “Woah, this shit is getting real.  Let’s do it.”

Don’t get me wrong, I love a lot of the stuff Joss and his great team have produced.  That being said, I’m getting sick of these very episodic, formulaic, easy way out kind of stories.  ‘Hearttrhob’ contains an embedded narrative (even though this term usually applies to literature, I’m using it broadly to refer to a story within a story) involving two former vampire friends of Angel’s that were deeply in love.  In his fight for justice and peace, Angel kills the girl at the onset of the bulk of the episode and her love, Angel’s former friend, comes to fight him.  As Cordelia says to Angel after he has vanquished James, his former compadre, “I know that James, with all his Romeo and Julie madness, opened up a lot of wounds for you.”  Angel’s love for Buffy, his totally fairy tale, bitter-sweet, desire-for-but-can’t-have love, is called into question and even after an episode that made me cringe almost as much as it made me cackle sarcastically, there was still redemption.  After Cordelia does her best to console Angel after the heartwrenching events of the day, she ends with, “but you’ll be ok,” to which Angel responds, “I am ok.”  Finally, some real character truth in this show!  Yeah, Angel’s true love has just died.  Yeah, he just (end of season 2) had the true demon inside him exposed to everyone, thereby adding shame to the guilt he already feels.  Yeah, the dude has a lot of problems.  But he’s ok.  And as he says, the problem is, “that [he's] ok.  That losing Buffy didn’t kill [him].”  Alright, Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt (David actually wrote this episode), you guys are alright.  Because that is the problem with Angel.  Earlier in the episode, James, right before his death, looks at Angel and says, “I lived, you just existed.”  He puts it in the past tense but it is still absolutely true.  Angel is going through life, helping people, like Superman, because he feels obligated to.  Even the death of the love of his life (and unlife), the thing (person) he has been most passionate about up until this point, can’t bring him out of his essentially apathetic existence.  And that character is someone in whom I am interested.

Funny The Way It Is

Said goodbye to a special someone tonight.  We haven’t really been hanging out for a terribly long time but I have still really enjoyed spending time with her, having intelligent conversations (as well as not so intelligent conversations) together, and just being around her awesome personality.  I’m really stoked for summer, yet I am not so excited to only be able to talk with her over the phone.  It’s strange how terrible the timing can be with things like this.  Bugger.

In other news, I’ve been watching a fair bit of Angel recently and after about a season and a half of snooze alerts and Clifford the Big Red Dog kind of episodic connection, I have finally hit the good stuff.  The episodes have finally begun to get hazy and non-existent at the corners and have started turning into one big story instead of several episode length tales coincidentally involving the same folks.  Angel has started to do for me what Buffy was able to do so well; it is telling a story that makes sense, is compelling, is imaginative, and is comfortable with what it is.  Sure, it would be easy for a show like this to either be way too serious (I mean, come on, it’s about a vampire who finds many of his answers by singing for a demon in a bar) or else way too goofy.  Instead, Joss and the other producers were able to level out Angel in a way that allows for a stellar plot progression supplemented by comedy, drama, and spoofy fun.  To anyone starting out with this show, I have the following message: Push on, brave soul, and you will be heartily rewarded.  I just hope it continues along this path.

Also, as a final note, this from Jonathan Carroll’s twitter today.

Makes me wonder why I define love the way I do.