I was surprised and pleased by the development of a romance between Angel and Cordy and really pissed off that the production team seemed so incapable of taking it further naturally - the whole fourth season seemed to be a panic response to not knowing what to do next, or something. I quite like the idea of baby Connor and even teen sulky Connor had his moments (when acting with Angel, who totally deserved a sulky teen son and was entertaining in dealing with it) but everything to do with Cordy/Connor and her being all evil and possessed and all that stuff - blah.
I agree with you about the angelic stuff, too. It makes no sense with the canon. I loved Cordy so much in this show and from the end of season 3 onwards, they just ruined her!
I was surprised and pleased by the development of a romance between Angel and Cordy and really pissed off that the production team seemed so incapable of taking it further naturally
Yes. It was certainly a minority view among the people I knew at the time who watched the show, but -- particularly given Cordelia's development -- it felt like an opportunity for a grown-up relationship in a universe that hadn't offered many grown-up relationships to that point. And I was sad they backed away from it.
I also liked Connor. Or rather, I found Vincent Kartheiser magnetic. He has the thing that I think David Boreanaz has, of being very good at acting physically. (And he's better at delivering lines than Boreanaz, but so are most people...) You're right that he's at his best when interacting with Angel -- I'm very fond of "A New World" and "Benediction" for that reason.
I guess also in some ways they wrote themselves into a corner with the "true happiness" issue for Angel. Though really, you'd think clever and adept writing could work around it if they really wanted to.
I don't even think they needed to be that clever, to be honest -- simply emphasise that a moment of perfect happiness is going to be astonishingly rare, particularly when he has a son around. It could actually be a good metaphoric reflection of the difference between the intensity of first love and the satisfactions of a mature relationship, I think.
The same happened with Fred, of course. I liked Illyria as a character but was angry that it was her OR Fred. It was almost as if they were frightened of letting the female characters get too powerful/interesting in case they eclipsed Angel and turned the whole thing into Buffy II. I don't know
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Been trying to think of an example of a female-led action show. I never saw Bionic Woman. But I think shows kinda moved towards more ensemble into the 2000s.
Bionic Woman was very, very, very, really quite bad.
I never saw Sarah Connor Chronicles which was also ensemble but had two strong female characters. But really the big spec shows of the second half of the decade were Supernatural, Smallville (carry over from the previous decade), Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who/Torchwood. With a side order of Firefly.
I loved Cordy too in Angel. She grew into such an admirable woman. Sad that once she got there they didn't know what to do with her.
THIS.
I ended up loving the idea of Angel/Cordy because they grew individually as characters, and together they were awesome. It was an understated relationship that actually WORKED for me. I was so upset with what happened to Cordy in the end.
I was surprised and pleased by the development of a romance between Angel and Cordy and really pissed off that the production team seemed so incapable of taking it further naturally - the whole fourth season seemed to be a panic response to not knowing what to do next, or something. I quite like the idea of baby Connor and even teen sulky Connor had his moments (when acting with Angel, who totally deserved a sulky teen son and was entertaining in dealing with it) but everything to do with Cordy/Connor and her being all evil and possessed and all that stuff - blah.
I agree with you about the angelic stuff, too. It makes no sense with the canon. I loved Cordy so much in this show and from the end of season 3 onwards, they just ruined her!
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Yes. It was certainly a minority view among the people I knew at the time who watched the show, but -- particularly given Cordelia's development -- it felt like an opportunity for a grown-up relationship in a universe that hadn't offered many grown-up relationships to that point. And I was sad they backed away from it.
I also liked Connor. Or rather, I found Vincent Kartheiser magnetic. He has the thing that I think David Boreanaz has, of being very good at acting physically. (And he's better at delivering lines than Boreanaz, but so are most people...) You're right that he's at his best when interacting with Angel -- I'm very fond of "A New World" and "Benediction" for that reason.
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I loved Cordy too in Angel. She grew into such an admirable woman. Sad that once she got there they didn't know what to do with her.
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I never saw Sarah Connor Chronicles which was also ensemble but had two strong female characters. But really the big spec shows of the second half of the decade were Supernatural, Smallville (carry over from the previous decade), Battlestar Galactica and Doctor Who/Torchwood. With a side order of Firefly.
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I loved Cordy too in Angel. She grew into such an admirable woman. Sad that once she got there they didn't know what to do with her.
THIS.
I ended up loving the idea of Angel/Cordy because they grew individually as characters, and together they were awesome. It was an understated relationship that actually WORKED for me. I was so upset with what happened to Cordy in the end.
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