I'll try to keep it more interesting than just wailing the main character's name over and over
I put in the third disc of AS5 last night, and it automatically started playing "Damage." True story. I guess Myfanwy keeps closer tabs on my viewing habits than I thought... But, no, despite her fairly alarmingly spot-on assumption about what I was likely to ask of her, I actually did plan to watch "Harm's Way" and "Soul Purpose" this time.
Those two episodes, for the record, are the kind of delightful most shows only achieve once or twice in the course of their run, if ever, and my habit of watching only "Damage" on this disc should be understood simply as a function of my bizarrely intense fascination with "Damage" and not any commentary on the other two episodes, both of which are certainly more entertaining and, I assume, more popular.
It is now time for "Damage" again, though - or it will be when I have finished with my other chores for the evening - and I think I'll update this post with a real-time reactions type thing (something between a live blog and my usual never-ending ETA MO) when I do watch it here in a couple of hours. Maybe I'll work it out this time...
Oh, also! I went out in public for the first time in nearly a month today! I was even more panicky and anxious than usual, with all the people *everywhere*, but I have now satisfied my sushi and Jaffa cake cravings, so life is good.
Alrighty, it is just after 8:15 PM on Monday 6 February 2012, and I am beginning my millionth viewing of the 11th episode of the 5th season of Angel.
8:17 Unfortunately, I am flipping *exhausted* from getting only a couple of hours of sleep last night, but this opening scene should help, if I recall correctly.
8:18 I always think Dr. Rabinaw looks really familiar, and then I look him up and remember whether or not it's just because I recognize him from the previous billion times I've watched the episode. And that answer is that he played a similar character on The Secret World of Alex Mack, though it's really just the multiple viewings of this episode that I'm thinking of.
8:21 I don't know about you, but I personally will never get lithium and thorazine mixed up. This nurse should have watched the episode as many times as I have, and we wouldn't have this problem...thus paradoxically preventing me and the nurse from knowing the difference.
...I may have too many thoughts to blog this way.
8:25 The first several times I saw this episode, I thought Dana was supposed to have been kidnapped from Eastern Europe, since she doesn't speak English until quite a long way in.
8:27 I love the Angel title sequence, I really do. Even with that unintentional reflection in the puddle at the end that I can never unsee. Darling Violetta did an amazing job with this theme, and the textures for the characters are just too cool. I did always wonder why they went with, like, an outdoor concert or whatever for Connor, but that's in the past, now (oh, Connor, you scamp...)
8:30 Attorney!Gunn is so entertaining and confident, and it's actually really nice to have that layer or not-quite-the-same-character-anymore to keep his past with Fred from being too weird, IMHOE. There's little about Gunn I don't appreciate, really, and I don't talk about that nearly enough.
8:31 Really, though, having him so readily adapt to W&H rings so true for me, considering how quickly he adapted to Angel Investigations, and having him be the dissenting voice of "No, guys, really, we CAN work with these new tools, and stop looking at me like that" feels so right.
8:36 This is going to take me all night. Absolutely ALL NIGHT. And I am okay with that.
8:38 Oh, Harmony... You are so...you.
8:38 Parallelism makes my little heart all fluttery. And petty bickering masking deep-seated issues that can never be fully resolved? OH YES PLEASE MORE OF THIS.
8:39 Nope, gotta pause here for a minute. My favourite thing about what they do here in these middle episodes is obviously the way they explore the Angel(us)/Spike relationship, and the flashback scenes in "Destiny" probably go the furthest on their own to capture all of that. But we had seen that before, and the true brilliance is in bringing it all full-circle on Angel - the show and the character - by bringing Spike in as the freelance helpless helping defender of the innocent (and slightly dim) to play off Disillusioned Corporate Patsy Angel. What Eve and "Doyle" do here is so diabolical, it's almost worthy of Angelus' scheming, although their patience is rather more admirable than his own, and the fallout is far more interesting to me.
...and we're back in.
8:47 Is this the first time we've seen Spike in a hospital without him (or Harmony) smoking?
8:48 Spike's version of questioning witnesses amuses me so much, for some reason, I mean, it wouldn't sit right with me on any other character, but he's just...too much of a squishy-on-the-inside, generally-incompetent, astronaut-sized buffoon to take him too seriously.
8:52 That look he gives Rabinaw when he's describing what happened to Dana... Spike just looks, I dunno, a little more concerned than Angel, who seems to be looking at it more as a puzzle to be solved than a horrific story of abuse. Which all makes total sense for both characters, particularly at this point in their respective ensoulments.
...I am less than 8 minutes into this episode.
8:55 Oh, Spike, and his enough-talking-it's-time-for-action-now tack. SLOW DOWN, PET.
PS: Any special significance re: which drawing he grabbed off the wall?
8:58 "I got a demon needs repossessing. Ta." LOVE THIS LINE. And anything where Angel snipes Spike behind his back. "Yeah, but he'll just end up coming back..."
8:59 Convenience stores always make me want hot fries and Rainbow Chips Ahoys. There's a reason for this that has to do with Flex Bucks and the Graham Oasis.
9:01 I kind of can't believe she got all that way into the store with a bone saw, but there we go.
9:02 UGH, I love this use of "Blood, Milk, and Sky." This is the only White Zombie song I have - perhaps the only one I've ever heart; it's not my usual genre - and I just love it. I also love that look on Dana. She makes truckstop flannel look totally practical and badass, as well as feminine in a grunge sort of way. It's a very simple, understated, and highly evocative silhouette, and I approve so heartily.
9:08 Spike's un-Angel-ish methods are explicitly shown not to be incompetent, and I very much appreciate that. He may not be getting the whole story, and it may not turn out too well for him because of it, but he's on a trail at least. It's just a breakdown in communication that keeps him and Angel from jointly working it out earlier.
9:13 Another thing they do so well in this season is keep you on your toes about Spike. They deal so directly with the darker sides of his nature - and, to his credit, he's pretty much done flinching from them himself already, which is a huge amount of progress in a very short amount of time - that you're never quite entirely certain that he isn't being seduced back toward his old comfort zone. OH, the "mistreating little girls" line. Spike, you poor, silly, misguided man. I love your moxie, though. You keep that up.
9:17 And, as a follow-up to that last thought, the way they intercut this Slayer reveal is SO PERFECT OMFG. Big ol' bravissimo, to everyone involved in that, most especially Signorini DeKnight, Goddard, Kibbee, and Goldman.
9:19 Can I just comment on the brilliance of dealing directly with the Slayer-activation fallout? Not every little girl was at a baseball game when that happened, and this is such a blunt - and extremely welcome - exploration of what all can go wrong along the way.
9:22 I love how much joy Spike takes in kicking demon arse, I really do. I also love the callback to "Fool for Love," and how he's completely oblivious to it in the heat of battle.
9:24 The directing and editing really is superb in this one. I'm usually not big on action sequences, but this first Spike/Dana fight is absolutely stunning. And I just stare at Marsters' poor head and think about what he said about what the bleach did to his scalp and having to redo takes anytime his head actually made contact with a semi-hard surface...
9:26 "Just thought I'd see what it was like to bounce off the pavement." There are so many classic lines in this episode...
9:27 "...one of those elemental thingies." Oh, honey... Your heart's in the right place, and your brain is clearly engaged...
(Meanwhile, all that thinking I was doing a minute ago about bloody, weeping scalp sores doesn't take one iota away from the fact that Marsters looks incredible here. The profile shot of him and Boredridinghood is so perfect I can't even.)
9:39 Aaaaand then I pulled the power right out of my computer like the genius I am. Thank goodness I've been updating as I go. ::sigh::
Anyway, I've got a ::cough:: *very* tart fake sea breeze now, and I'm ready to get back to what I was saying. And that was:
This reaction shot, too, is just perfect. Never change Spike, never change. [beat] I don't mean that. You know what I mean. You just keep doing what you do; you got this.
9:42 lolz awesome. Myfanwy has now decided that I would rather begin in the end credits of "Soul Purpose" than continue from where I was in "Damage." Good thing I was right at a scene break.
(Unrelated query: Why is Wes on the menu for this disc? This is the Spike and Harmony disc. Last disc was the Wesle disc. Whatever. I should stop picking pointless nits.)
9:45 Wow. I don't think I've ever actually looked at the Scene Selection menus for AS5. This one's kind of pretty, in a rusty industrial grunge sort of way.
Okay, I just checked, and it's not just this episode; "Harm's Way" has that look, too. So...perhaps they weren't intentionally going for the warehouse look. Still, highly appropriate and really very neat. I know a lot of people are annoyed by flashy, gimmicky DVD menus and whatnot, but I still appreciate a nice design and the occasional bit of Easter eggy goodness (speaking of, I should really at some point watch all the commentaries and poke around for extras and stuff, shouldn't I? That's what DVDs are for, after all.)
9:49 Dude, I am on Chapter 6 (I LOVE CHAPTER 6). It's been over an hour and a half, and I've made it a third of the way through. HAHA THIS WAS A GREAT IDEA I COULD NEVER LIVE BLOG FOR REAL.
9:51 No, I really do love this chapter. I mean, it starts with Spike "trying to wrap [his] lobes around it," and then we get ANDREW. HI, ANDREW! HOW ARE YA?! I LOVE THAT YOU LOOK LIKE A HOBBIT.
(PS: I'm fairly certain this is the episode the horse racing comment was made about. Certainly either this one or "Hell-Bound.")
9:54 Long, long before I saw this episode - like, back when I was in BS4 or 5 - I ran across an icon reading "Spike: He's like Gandalf, in a way." I laughed SO HARD and was SO PUZZLED by this statement that I spent the rest of the series trying to figure out what in hellfire the iconmaker meant. The pay-off is so delicious.
Meanwhile, I can't possibly be the only one who is amused by the fact that Spike is constantly so nonplussed by Andrew (and Jonathan and Warren)'s references when we know for certain that 1) Spike is way more pop culture savvy than he lets on, and 2) Marsters is seriously every ounce the geek that these characters are. <3333
10:01 Poor, poor Wes...
10:01 I lurve you, Tom Lenk. I lurve you so much.
10:02 I do not know that I like that combination of patterns and mustard-coloured leisure suity goodness that Lorne has on, but I am intrigued by it. I think I'd like the shirt and cravat/dickie/undershirt/whatever-that-purple-and-black-thing-is fine with a different suit, but it's hard to tell.
10:07 I...kind of can't believe no one filled Angel et al in at least a little on the Wham Bam Slayers All Over the Place, Ma'am dealie. But then, I also kind of can't believe that no one bothered to let Buffy et al know that Cordelia is all comatose. So...not a lot of crosstalk, really, despite how much I want Wes, Fred, and Willow to be adorable brainy types together for always, and how stoked I would be if we could get just one single Xander/Gunn comic book dork conversation on record.
10:11 I would like to point out that the "crappy third act" Andrew was discussing here with X-Men was the third act of the first movie, not the third movie in the trilogy, given this episode was written before even X2 aired. Let's not let that take away from his prognostication, though.
10:18 I pulled the plug again. Like I said, genius. But I've put in a different battery - one that will allow me to tilt the screen back far enough to do my thing (stupid after-market batteries...) ANYWAY, I was saying something about... Oh, about Spike getting fed up with Angel's snide remarks and walking out. These two need each other to call their bullshit, and I love the dynamic so much, even when it shows them both at their worst. And this balance that these writers - and the other show writers, and Brian Lynch and Peter David and, every now and again, Bill Willingham - strike is exactly how this should be played, and exactly what Tipton misses. It's not that, as a Spike fan, I'm not fully able to look at the situation and say, "Yes, Angel is being a willfully cynical tool to him," because it is obvious to me who I think is in the right, given my having seen what both of them have been through the past few years. But I can ALSO see why Angel, given his temperament and past history with Spike, and his tenuous and highly stressful position, isn't entirely in the wrong. Tipton's comics show Spike storming off with a snappy one-liner to shut Angel up, then immediately proving to Fred (or Wes, or whomsoever else) that he was right all along and everyone else is a jerk, so THERE. Um. No. Missing the point. The point is that they're both idiots.
10:29 No, really. Marsters' expressions, you guys.
10:31 "What are those, wrinkles?" "Laugh lines." "Hell of a good joke."
10:31 Yeah, there we go. Lorne's taken off the suit coat, and it looks much better. It's still a little much with the two totally different patterns, but definitely looks better. (Or maybe I'm just a bigger fan of baby blue and dark purple than of goldenrod. Yeah, that could be it.)
10:33 We should always, ALWAYS listen to Lorne (except when magic bottles are involved). He knows what he's talking about (except when magic bottles are involved).
10:34 Denisof's eyes...
10:35 I know I say this roughly every time the character comes up in any way, but Spike one-on-one with any character is what I bloody live for. This exchange with Andrew is in no way an exception.
10:38 This is the most accommodating real estate agent in the world. And I seriously cannot believe they got her out in the middle of the damn night to show a place to a shaman, a flamboyant green demon, and Captain Forehead. I'm pretty sure I would have been a little more pissed than her when I realized they had no intention at all of buying.
10:40 There's a lot about this episode that reminds me of "Countrycide," actually.
...which doesn't get me any closer to understanding my fascination with either.
...and, actually, I've had this "Countrycide" revelation before, I think, despite the fact that I think it has always been more of a "kind of slashery, but in a way that I like" way in the past, and now I mean that it is fundamentally about how people are worse than the monsters because we have no excuse.
10:43 Good lords, that "Let's try the blue one this time" is still as chilling as it was the first time. Oh, SPIKE. MY HEART.
10:44 PENNIES. God, I love these two.
(Even though, really, Andrew, EW. Don't lick things you find in a back alley at the docks. Jeebus.)
(Also, that is a really shiny penny.)
10:46 SUBTLY DONE, SPIKE. YOU ASK ABOUT BUFFY ALL NONCHALANT-LIKE.
10:47 "Do you want me to tell her?" [MEGADEATH GLARE OF GLARING INTENSITY] lololol
10:48 Richards is SO TALL, Y'ALL. And in a waistcoat.
(What is Wesley wearing lol There's nothing wrong with it, just, wot? How many identity crises does this poor man have to go through before the writers are satisfied with his writhing?)
10:51 "Danny, I'm gonna need a whip!" Lorne, there is no way in which you are not the best.
10:51 "Like nickels?!" Why yes, Andrew, that IS exactly how metals work!
10:55 Damn. Just...every shot in this episode is perfectly composed. It helps a lot that the characters are all so well designed, and that the focus is on Spike, he of the perfectly clean lines and light-on-dark juxtaposition (and the halo hair, what with all these back-lit scenes outside at night). But, no, really, this is some great directing. I should take a closer look at what else Kibbee did on this show.
("Salvage," "Peace Out," and "Lineage." Hmm...)
11:01 They did a much more elegant job of incorporating Marsters' stunt double in this one, too. It has always struck me as odd that they had such a thick-necked bloke for the entire run. I mean, Steve Tartalia is great, don't get me wrong - the guy was actually knocked out filming the final scene in "Smashed" - but it's more than a little distracting that he is not at all shaped like Marsters.
11:06 This descent down the stairs is not entirely unlike the one in "Flooded."
11:08 Gawd, the thing that just killed me about this episode the first time is that *he doesn't remember*. There's not even a little flicker. I mean, I know I say all the time that the first time he ever truly took responsibility for one of his victims was at the end of "Seeing Red," but this was some twisted, painstaking shit that happened over a span of who knows how long, and he has no idea at all who she is.
11:11 Nothing like a little "Let's make you better" pep talk from Spike...
11:12 Oh, jeeze, the Nikki memory. MY HEART.
(Aside: Applying Spike's "Fool for Love" hypothesis about Slayers dying because they want to die to the later revelation that Nikki had a son is SO HEARTBREAKING I CAN'T. I mean that. I can't. I'm not usually one to spend too much time doubting what Spike has to say about the human condition, but I can't believe, from what we see of her in "Lies My Parents Told Me," that she didn't think protecting Robin was enough of an incentive to live.)
11:16 HIS FACE.
11:17 "No, no, no, that's not gonna lead anywhere good." UGH I CAN'T.
11:18 I don't think I will ever not be in awe of Marsters.
11:20 Oh, the molasses factory suggestion, and how it would be silly.
11:21 "Whiskey"! OMG, how did I forget that? Amy Acker, I effing love you in all of your many and varied roles.
(PS: As someone who lived for several years in Texas and has made trips back throughout her life to visit family and friends, I can, indeed, confirm that everyone in Texas cooks up whiskey somewhere in hir house, thinks the government is covering up anything and everything, and ultimately just wants to score some weed.) (PPS: There's also a very nice gentleman down near San Antone who will be more than happy to sell you some ocean front property out in Arizona.)
11:29 "Piece by piece" is so freaky...and WHY DOES THIS SHOW HATE HANDS?!
11:30 Oh, and right there, the line that totally transformed my opinion of the character and my opinion of the writer's intentions for the character: "I've done my share of wrong, but you're not one of 'em." He is so desperately sincere, and I'm getting all choked up again, as many times as I've watched this play out.
11:33 "That and worse." Please allow me to cry ALL OF THE TEARS.
(This is truly just masterful. Both of them, here. Marsters and Navi Rawat. EMMYS FOR EVERYONE.)
11:37 And there's something a little "Ghost Machine"-y about having the actual perp die years before in unrelated circumstances. Not that Ed Morgan died off-screen, but somehow it feels kind of similar to me. [shrug]
11:40 Wes loves his guns, doesn't he?
11:41 "For god's sake, tell the shaman 'No cadavers'." That always amuses me for some reason I don't care to probe into.
11:42 I really wish we could have gotten some followup in the comics about Dana, but we never do, do we? That's a shame.
11:43 "Check the view screen, Uhura. I've got twelve vampyr slayers behind me, and not one of them has ever dated you." Andrew, you cheeky little Hobbit. Come here and let me affectionately noogie your brains out.
11:45 Oooooh, BURN. I love that twist, by the way. Why did anyone think the W&H transition would be simple and catch-free? Silly, silly Angel...
11:47 Precisely where are they going with her, beeteedubs? Is there, like, an amphibious Slayer plane parked there on the wharf? Are they just gonna wheel her down to the water and shove her in?
11:49 This hospital bed scene is so much less traumatic than the last one. Or the next one. And it contains all of the best dialogue ever in the world. This is absolutely the scene that defines Angel(us) and Spike for me, and I think this is going to be my last word on the subject for tonight.
"So were we...once upon a time."
LOL That took almost four hours, and I don't think a bit of it was any more enlightening than any previous viewing. I am awesomely addicted to that episode.
ETA: I'm pretty sure "You're Welcome" affects me *more* every time I see it. Holy crap, I am just bawling over here. And it always seems like there should be more of a respite before the next tear-jerker, but nope. that would just be NICE.
Those two episodes, for the record, are the kind of delightful most shows only achieve once or twice in the course of their run, if ever, and my habit of watching only "Damage" on this disc should be understood simply as a function of my bizarrely intense fascination with "Damage" and not any commentary on the other two episodes, both of which are certainly more entertaining and, I assume, more popular.
It is now time for "Damage" again, though - or it will be when I have finished with my other chores for the evening - and I think I'll update this post with a real-time reactions type thing (something between a live blog and my usual never-ending ETA MO) when I do watch it here in a couple of hours. Maybe I'll work it out this time...
Oh, also! I went out in public for the first time in nearly a month today! I was even more panicky and anxious than usual, with all the people *everywhere*, but I have now satisfied my sushi and Jaffa cake cravings, so life is good.
Alrighty, it is just after 8:15 PM on Monday 6 February 2012, and I am beginning my millionth viewing of the 11th episode of the 5th season of Angel.
8:17 Unfortunately, I am flipping *exhausted* from getting only a couple of hours of sleep last night, but this opening scene should help, if I recall correctly.
8:18 I always think Dr. Rabinaw looks really familiar, and then I look him up and remember whether or not it's just because I recognize him from the previous billion times I've watched the episode. And that answer is that he played a similar character on The Secret World of Alex Mack, though it's really just the multiple viewings of this episode that I'm thinking of.
8:21 I don't know about you, but I personally will never get lithium and thorazine mixed up. This nurse should have watched the episode as many times as I have, and we wouldn't have this problem...thus paradoxically preventing me and the nurse from knowing the difference.
...I may have too many thoughts to blog this way.
8:25 The first several times I saw this episode, I thought Dana was supposed to have been kidnapped from Eastern Europe, since she doesn't speak English until quite a long way in.
8:27 I love the Angel title sequence, I really do. Even with that unintentional reflection in the puddle at the end that I can never unsee. Darling Violetta did an amazing job with this theme, and the textures for the characters are just too cool. I did always wonder why they went with, like, an outdoor concert or whatever for Connor, but that's in the past, now (oh, Connor, you scamp...)
8:30 Attorney!Gunn is so entertaining and confident, and it's actually really nice to have that layer or not-quite-the-same-character-anymore to keep his past with Fred from being too weird, IMHOE. There's little about Gunn I don't appreciate, really, and I don't talk about that nearly enough.
8:31 Really, though, having him so readily adapt to W&H rings so true for me, considering how quickly he adapted to Angel Investigations, and having him be the dissenting voice of "No, guys, really, we CAN work with these new tools, and stop looking at me like that" feels so right.
8:36 This is going to take me all night. Absolutely ALL NIGHT. And I am okay with that.
8:38 Oh, Harmony... You are so...you.
8:38 Parallelism makes my little heart all fluttery. And petty bickering masking deep-seated issues that can never be fully resolved? OH YES PLEASE MORE OF THIS.
8:39 Nope, gotta pause here for a minute. My favourite thing about what they do here in these middle episodes is obviously the way they explore the Angel(us)/Spike relationship, and the flashback scenes in "Destiny" probably go the furthest on their own to capture all of that. But we had seen that before, and the true brilliance is in bringing it all full-circle on Angel - the show and the character - by bringing Spike in as the freelance helpless helping defender of the innocent (and slightly dim) to play off Disillusioned Corporate Patsy Angel. What Eve and "Doyle" do here is so diabolical, it's almost worthy of Angelus' scheming, although their patience is rather more admirable than his own, and the fallout is far more interesting to me.
...and we're back in.
8:47 Is this the first time we've seen Spike in a hospital without him (or Harmony) smoking?
8:48 Spike's version of questioning witnesses amuses me so much, for some reason, I mean, it wouldn't sit right with me on any other character, but he's just...too much of a squishy-on-the-inside, generally-incompetent, astronaut-sized buffoon to take him too seriously.
8:52 That look he gives Rabinaw when he's describing what happened to Dana... Spike just looks, I dunno, a little more concerned than Angel, who seems to be looking at it more as a puzzle to be solved than a horrific story of abuse. Which all makes total sense for both characters, particularly at this point in their respective ensoulments.
...I am less than 8 minutes into this episode.
8:55 Oh, Spike, and his enough-talking-it's-time-for-action-now tack. SLOW DOWN, PET.
PS: Any special significance re: which drawing he grabbed off the wall?
8:58 "I got a demon needs repossessing. Ta." LOVE THIS LINE. And anything where Angel snipes Spike behind his back. "Yeah, but he'll just end up coming back..."
8:59 Convenience stores always make me want hot fries and Rainbow Chips Ahoys. There's a reason for this that has to do with Flex Bucks and the Graham Oasis.
9:01 I kind of can't believe she got all that way into the store with a bone saw, but there we go.
9:02 UGH, I love this use of "Blood, Milk, and Sky." This is the only White Zombie song I have - perhaps the only one I've ever heart; it's not my usual genre - and I just love it. I also love that look on Dana. She makes truckstop flannel look totally practical and badass, as well as feminine in a grunge sort of way. It's a very simple, understated, and highly evocative silhouette, and I approve so heartily.
9:08 Spike's un-Angel-ish methods are explicitly shown not to be incompetent, and I very much appreciate that. He may not be getting the whole story, and it may not turn out too well for him because of it, but he's on a trail at least. It's just a breakdown in communication that keeps him and Angel from jointly working it out earlier.
9:13 Another thing they do so well in this season is keep you on your toes about Spike. They deal so directly with the darker sides of his nature - and, to his credit, he's pretty much done flinching from them himself already, which is a huge amount of progress in a very short amount of time - that you're never quite entirely certain that he isn't being seduced back toward his old comfort zone. OH, the "mistreating little girls" line. Spike, you poor, silly, misguided man. I love your moxie, though. You keep that up.
9:17 And, as a follow-up to that last thought, the way they intercut this Slayer reveal is SO PERFECT OMFG. Big ol' bravissimo, to everyone involved in that, most especially Signorini DeKnight, Goddard, Kibbee, and Goldman.
9:19 Can I just comment on the brilliance of dealing directly with the Slayer-activation fallout? Not every little girl was at a baseball game when that happened, and this is such a blunt - and extremely welcome - exploration of what all can go wrong along the way.
9:22 I love how much joy Spike takes in kicking demon arse, I really do. I also love the callback to "Fool for Love," and how he's completely oblivious to it in the heat of battle.
9:24 The directing and editing really is superb in this one. I'm usually not big on action sequences, but this first Spike/Dana fight is absolutely stunning. And I just stare at Marsters' poor head and think about what he said about what the bleach did to his scalp and having to redo takes anytime his head actually made contact with a semi-hard surface...
9:26 "Just thought I'd see what it was like to bounce off the pavement." There are so many classic lines in this episode...
9:27 "...one of those elemental thingies." Oh, honey... Your heart's in the right place, and your brain is clearly engaged...
(Meanwhile, all that thinking I was doing a minute ago about bloody, weeping scalp sores doesn't take one iota away from the fact that Marsters looks incredible here. The profile shot of him and Boredridinghood is so perfect I can't even.)
9:39 Aaaaand then I pulled the power right out of my computer like the genius I am. Thank goodness I've been updating as I go. ::sigh::
Anyway, I've got a ::cough:: *very* tart fake sea breeze now, and I'm ready to get back to what I was saying. And that was:
This reaction shot, too, is just perfect. Never change Spike, never change. [beat] I don't mean that. You know what I mean. You just keep doing what you do; you got this.
9:42 lolz awesome. Myfanwy has now decided that I would rather begin in the end credits of "Soul Purpose" than continue from where I was in "Damage." Good thing I was right at a scene break.
(Unrelated query: Why is Wes on the menu for this disc? This is the Spike and Harmony disc. Last disc was the Wesle disc. Whatever. I should stop picking pointless nits.)
9:45 Wow. I don't think I've ever actually looked at the Scene Selection menus for AS5. This one's kind of pretty, in a rusty industrial grunge sort of way.
Okay, I just checked, and it's not just this episode; "Harm's Way" has that look, too. So...perhaps they weren't intentionally going for the warehouse look. Still, highly appropriate and really very neat. I know a lot of people are annoyed by flashy, gimmicky DVD menus and whatnot, but I still appreciate a nice design and the occasional bit of Easter eggy goodness (speaking of, I should really at some point watch all the commentaries and poke around for extras and stuff, shouldn't I? That's what DVDs are for, after all.)
9:49 Dude, I am on Chapter 6 (I LOVE CHAPTER 6). It's been over an hour and a half, and I've made it a third of the way through. HAHA THIS WAS A GREAT IDEA I COULD NEVER LIVE BLOG FOR REAL.
9:51 No, I really do love this chapter. I mean, it starts with Spike "trying to wrap [his] lobes around it," and then we get ANDREW. HI, ANDREW! HOW ARE YA?! I LOVE THAT YOU LOOK LIKE A HOBBIT.
(PS: I'm fairly certain this is the episode the horse racing comment was made about. Certainly either this one or "Hell-Bound.")
9:54 Long, long before I saw this episode - like, back when I was in BS4 or 5 - I ran across an icon reading "Spike: He's like Gandalf, in a way." I laughed SO HARD and was SO PUZZLED by this statement that I spent the rest of the series trying to figure out what in hellfire the iconmaker meant. The pay-off is so delicious.
Meanwhile, I can't possibly be the only one who is amused by the fact that Spike is constantly so nonplussed by Andrew (and Jonathan and Warren)'s references when we know for certain that 1) Spike is way more pop culture savvy than he lets on, and 2) Marsters is seriously every ounce the geek that these characters are. <3333
10:01 Poor, poor Wes...
10:01 I lurve you, Tom Lenk. I lurve you so much.
10:02 I do not know that I like that combination of patterns and mustard-coloured leisure suity goodness that Lorne has on, but I am intrigued by it. I think I'd like the shirt and cravat/dickie/undershirt/whatever-that-purple-and-black-thing-is fine with a different suit, but it's hard to tell.
10:07 I...kind of can't believe no one filled Angel et al in at least a little on the Wham Bam Slayers All Over the Place, Ma'am dealie. But then, I also kind of can't believe that no one bothered to let Buffy et al know that Cordelia is all comatose. So...not a lot of crosstalk, really, despite how much I want Wes, Fred, and Willow to be adorable brainy types together for always, and how stoked I would be if we could get just one single Xander/Gunn comic book dork conversation on record.
10:11 I would like to point out that the "crappy third act" Andrew was discussing here with X-Men was the third act of the first movie, not the third movie in the trilogy, given this episode was written before even X2 aired. Let's not let that take away from his prognostication, though.
10:18 I pulled the plug again. Like I said, genius. But I've put in a different battery - one that will allow me to tilt the screen back far enough to do my thing (stupid after-market batteries...) ANYWAY, I was saying something about... Oh, about Spike getting fed up with Angel's snide remarks and walking out. These two need each other to call their bullshit, and I love the dynamic so much, even when it shows them both at their worst. And this balance that these writers - and the other show writers, and Brian Lynch and Peter David and, every now and again, Bill Willingham - strike is exactly how this should be played, and exactly what Tipton misses. It's not that, as a Spike fan, I'm not fully able to look at the situation and say, "Yes, Angel is being a willfully cynical tool to him," because it is obvious to me who I think is in the right, given my having seen what both of them have been through the past few years. But I can ALSO see why Angel, given his temperament and past history with Spike, and his tenuous and highly stressful position, isn't entirely in the wrong. Tipton's comics show Spike storming off with a snappy one-liner to shut Angel up, then immediately proving to Fred (or Wes, or whomsoever else) that he was right all along and everyone else is a jerk, so THERE. Um. No. Missing the point. The point is that they're both idiots.
10:29 No, really. Marsters' expressions, you guys.
10:31 "What are those, wrinkles?" "Laugh lines." "Hell of a good joke."
10:31 Yeah, there we go. Lorne's taken off the suit coat, and it looks much better. It's still a little much with the two totally different patterns, but definitely looks better. (Or maybe I'm just a bigger fan of baby blue and dark purple than of goldenrod. Yeah, that could be it.)
10:33 We should always, ALWAYS listen to Lorne (except when magic bottles are involved). He knows what he's talking about (except when magic bottles are involved).
10:34 Denisof's eyes...
10:35 I know I say this roughly every time the character comes up in any way, but Spike one-on-one with any character is what I bloody live for. This exchange with Andrew is in no way an exception.
10:38 This is the most accommodating real estate agent in the world. And I seriously cannot believe they got her out in the middle of the damn night to show a place to a shaman, a flamboyant green demon, and Captain Forehead. I'm pretty sure I would have been a little more pissed than her when I realized they had no intention at all of buying.
10:40 There's a lot about this episode that reminds me of "Countrycide," actually.
...which doesn't get me any closer to understanding my fascination with either.
...and, actually, I've had this "Countrycide" revelation before, I think, despite the fact that I think it has always been more of a "kind of slashery, but in a way that I like" way in the past, and now I mean that it is fundamentally about how people are worse than the monsters because we have no excuse.
10:43 Good lords, that "Let's try the blue one this time" is still as chilling as it was the first time. Oh, SPIKE. MY HEART.
10:44 PENNIES. God, I love these two.
(Even though, really, Andrew, EW. Don't lick things you find in a back alley at the docks. Jeebus.)
(Also, that is a really shiny penny.)
10:46 SUBTLY DONE, SPIKE. YOU ASK ABOUT BUFFY ALL NONCHALANT-LIKE.
10:47 "Do you want me to tell her?" [MEGADEATH GLARE OF GLARING INTENSITY] lololol
10:48 Richards is SO TALL, Y'ALL. And in a waistcoat.
(What is Wesley wearing lol There's nothing wrong with it, just, wot? How many identity crises does this poor man have to go through before the writers are satisfied with his writhing?)
10:51 "Danny, I'm gonna need a whip!" Lorne, there is no way in which you are not the best.
10:51 "Like nickels?!" Why yes, Andrew, that IS exactly how metals work!
10:55 Damn. Just...every shot in this episode is perfectly composed. It helps a lot that the characters are all so well designed, and that the focus is on Spike, he of the perfectly clean lines and light-on-dark juxtaposition (and the halo hair, what with all these back-lit scenes outside at night). But, no, really, this is some great directing. I should take a closer look at what else Kibbee did on this show.
("Salvage," "Peace Out," and "Lineage." Hmm...)
11:01 They did a much more elegant job of incorporating Marsters' stunt double in this one, too. It has always struck me as odd that they had such a thick-necked bloke for the entire run. I mean, Steve Tartalia is great, don't get me wrong - the guy was actually knocked out filming the final scene in "Smashed" - but it's more than a little distracting that he is not at all shaped like Marsters.
11:06 This descent down the stairs is not entirely unlike the one in "Flooded."
11:08 Gawd, the thing that just killed me about this episode the first time is that *he doesn't remember*. There's not even a little flicker. I mean, I know I say all the time that the first time he ever truly took responsibility for one of his victims was at the end of "Seeing Red," but this was some twisted, painstaking shit that happened over a span of who knows how long, and he has no idea at all who she is.
11:11 Nothing like a little "Let's make you better" pep talk from Spike...
11:12 Oh, jeeze, the Nikki memory. MY HEART.
(Aside: Applying Spike's "Fool for Love" hypothesis about Slayers dying because they want to die to the later revelation that Nikki had a son is SO HEARTBREAKING I CAN'T. I mean that. I can't. I'm not usually one to spend too much time doubting what Spike has to say about the human condition, but I can't believe, from what we see of her in "Lies My Parents Told Me," that she didn't think protecting Robin was enough of an incentive to live.)
11:16 HIS FACE.
11:17 "No, no, no, that's not gonna lead anywhere good." UGH I CAN'T.
11:18 I don't think I will ever not be in awe of Marsters.
11:20 Oh, the molasses factory suggestion, and how it would be silly.
11:21 "Whiskey"! OMG, how did I forget that? Amy Acker, I effing love you in all of your many and varied roles.
(PS: As someone who lived for several years in Texas and has made trips back throughout her life to visit family and friends, I can, indeed, confirm that everyone in Texas cooks up whiskey somewhere in hir house, thinks the government is covering up anything and everything, and ultimately just wants to score some weed.) (PPS: There's also a very nice gentleman down near San Antone who will be more than happy to sell you some ocean front property out in Arizona.)
11:29 "Piece by piece" is so freaky...and WHY DOES THIS SHOW HATE HANDS?!
11:30 Oh, and right there, the line that totally transformed my opinion of the character and my opinion of the writer's intentions for the character: "I've done my share of wrong, but you're not one of 'em." He is so desperately sincere, and I'm getting all choked up again, as many times as I've watched this play out.
11:33 "That and worse." Please allow me to cry ALL OF THE TEARS.
(This is truly just masterful. Both of them, here. Marsters and Navi Rawat. EMMYS FOR EVERYONE.)
11:37 And there's something a little "Ghost Machine"-y about having the actual perp die years before in unrelated circumstances. Not that Ed Morgan died off-screen, but somehow it feels kind of similar to me. [shrug]
11:40 Wes loves his guns, doesn't he?
11:41 "For god's sake, tell the shaman 'No cadavers'." That always amuses me for some reason I don't care to probe into.
11:42 I really wish we could have gotten some followup in the comics about Dana, but we never do, do we? That's a shame.
11:43 "Check the view screen, Uhura. I've got twelve vampyr slayers behind me, and not one of them has ever dated you." Andrew, you cheeky little Hobbit. Come here and let me affectionately noogie your brains out.
11:45 Oooooh, BURN. I love that twist, by the way. Why did anyone think the W&H transition would be simple and catch-free? Silly, silly Angel...
11:47 Precisely where are they going with her, beeteedubs? Is there, like, an amphibious Slayer plane parked there on the wharf? Are they just gonna wheel her down to the water and shove her in?
11:49 This hospital bed scene is so much less traumatic than the last one. Or the next one. And it contains all of the best dialogue ever in the world. This is absolutely the scene that defines Angel(us) and Spike for me, and I think this is going to be my last word on the subject for tonight.
"So were we...once upon a time."
LOL That took almost four hours, and I don't think a bit of it was any more enlightening than any previous viewing. I am awesomely addicted to that episode.
ETA: I'm pretty sure "You're Welcome" affects me *more* every time I see it. Holy crap, I am just bawling over here. And it always seems like there should be more of a respite before the next tear-jerker, but nope. that would just be NICE.