The actor who plays Annie annoys me--I liked the one in the original pilot a lot better. Anyway, I don't think there are any moral issues in being a ghost, whereas for werewolves and vampires the question is always whether you can maintain sustainable predator behavior. (There's a competition going on now in the New York Times about whether it's ethical to eat meat, so I suppose Mitchell and George are always writing their essays.)
I have been avoiding hunting down the original pilot, though not for any good reasons. Something about the way Annie / the actress who plays her speaks does make me roll my eyes a little. I can't put my finger on it.
I think there's a line in series 1 about George being a monster one day a month, but Mitchell being a vampire all the time. Are they a continuum of slippery slope or two different kinds of moral dilemmas?
Not that I'm an expert on supernatural fandoms, but based on Buffy and Being Human, there is a tendency to make the guy into the werewolf/vampire and the girl into the witch/ghost. Of course, if the show is trading in metaphors, the animal side is a way to explore male aggression and violence, but my sense is that there's far less exploration of women struggling to hold back their violent urges. It's kind of interesting to think what the show would be like if were about Nina the werewolf, Annie the vampire, and George (or Mitchell) the ghost.
Some stuff I could say is not being said because...spoiler!
However, in Buffy, there is a crucial scene involving a female werewolf, and Darla is a notably violent and aggressive vampire. I wish Ethan had more screen time, but the series clearly contemplates the possibility of men casting spells--and Giles' negative reaction to Willow's development as a magic-user clearly relates to his own, mostly bad, history with magic.
Oz is interesting for reasons both inside and outside the fictional continuity. I mean, as a human being he is startlingly unpowerful, and in fact I bet Cordelia, not to mention Harmony, could beat him up. But he had to be written out, not necessarily because there was nothing that could be done in the story, but because Seth Green quit. And that meant Veruca had to make her brief, catalytic appearance. (And, by the way, I think Willow was a GIANT hypocrite--her own relationship with Xander should have taught her that one can have a powerful affinity for someone other than one's official partner.)
Also, Oz was notoriously uninterested in verbal expression, and, for that matter, despite being intelligent, couldn't be bothered to study high school subjects. And, having watched Freaks and Geeks I have seen some TRULY dumb high school student characters, compared to whom Xander is Noel Coward. But I still can't see either Oz or Xander as a profound student of anything that involves spells that you dig out of a bunch of old books.
Reply
I think there's a line in series 1 about George being a monster one day a month, but Mitchell being a vampire all the time. Are they a continuum of slippery slope or two different kinds of moral dilemmas?
Not that I'm an expert on supernatural fandoms, but based on Buffy and Being Human, there is a tendency to make the guy into the werewolf/vampire and the girl into the witch/ghost. Of course, if the show is trading in metaphors, the animal side is a way to explore male aggression and violence, but my sense is that there's far less exploration of women struggling to hold back their violent urges. It's kind of interesting to think what the show would be like if were about Nina the werewolf, Annie the vampire, and George (or Mitchell) the ghost.
Reply
However, in Buffy, there is a crucial scene involving a female werewolf, and Darla is a notably violent and aggressive vampire. I wish Ethan had more screen time, but the series clearly contemplates the possibility of men casting spells--and Giles' negative reaction to Willow's development as a magic-user clearly relates to his own, mostly bad, history with magic.
Reply
Reply
Also, Oz was notoriously uninterested in verbal expression, and, for that matter, despite being intelligent, couldn't be bothered to study high school subjects. And, having watched Freaks and Geeks I have seen some TRULY dumb high school student characters, compared to whom Xander is Noel Coward. But I still can't see either Oz or Xander as a profound student of anything that involves spells that you dig out of a bunch of old books.
Reply
Leave a comment