july, july! it never seemed so strange
July, already! It doesn’t feel like five weeks since the last time I felt sociable enough to post here, but that’s what my little lj calendar tells me. Truer words, Colin Meloy, truer words.
I just finished a rewatch of Angel S1 with my brother and I still love it. It’s funny, my love for Angel never got fanatical like it did for Buffy, but these days I find it so much more rewatchable. I kind of feel like I got burnt out on Buffy quite a while ago and have never really gotten back to it in a serious way, though I miss it and wish I could.
Maybe it’s because, ultimately, the character arcs on Angel are so much more satisfying to me - if by satisfying, I mean open-wound painful - rather than frustrating or unengaging (for everyone except S/B, natch). Maybe. Season 1 of Angel makes me feel achingly bittersweet-nostalgic for the early seasons, even when I’m watching it. I think “To Shanshu in LA” may be my favourite episode of the series, or pretty close to it at least. There isn’t a huge arc in the season, but when Angel really comes to realize that he, Cordy and Wes are family, it’s rather momentous. It’s also something that kind of got lost over the course of the series, what with all the infighting, and eventually, the sort of eclipsing of the chosen family by the biological one. It makes me sad.
Okay, long rambly detour from where I was actually going, which was early S1 and Doyle. I wasn’t in the fandom back then, but the impression I get is that Doyle is one of those popular and truly beloved characters. And much missed (though certainly, lots people, including me, are mourning Glenn Quinn himself). Rewatching all his episodes in succession though, I realized he’s actually kind of a tedious, bordering on annoying, character. It’s not that I don’t like him, but in every episode, he basically only does two things: has a vision, and gripes to Angel about his unrequited feelings for Cordy and his deep-dark half-demon secret. Maybe that’s a little exagerrated, but there’s really not a whole lot there. Plus, I adore Cordelia, but this is her at her flakiest and most shallow, and it really doesn’t reflect well on Doyle’s character to be so in love with someone so substanceless.
But then comes “The Bachelor Party”, which I think is sort of an unsung miracle of sorts. Cordy finally shows some depth by realizing that money and looks in a man aren’t enough for her anymore, and that she needs some bravery and substance too. Doyle gets multidimensional like whoa: he have a potential, newly interesting love interest in the wings, but he also has a failed marriage, angsty abandonment issues, and ambiguously unresolved feelings for his ex-wife! His half-demonness turns out to actually be a major point of crisis in his life! He pathetically and hilariously relives his glory moments (saving Cordelia) in front of a mirror! He almost has his brains eaten with a shrimp fork by Demon Ken/Lawrence “They know how many nose-hairs you have” Dobson! In this one episode, he’s transformed into a really great character. Great enough that his one act of heroic sacrifice is in no way diminished by the hokey Nazi demons, and great enough that by the time we get back to “our rats are low,” it really hurts. And then there’s this big empty space afterwards that doesn’t get filled up. (Cordy’s Stain-Be-Gone audition in “Parting Gifts”? Brings the pain and the funny like no other scene could hope to.) Always, always makes me tear up like crazy.) And it still hurts four seasons later when we see him onscreen again.
My brother keeps bringing this up, in a facetious but totally-has-a-point way: in the Birthday-verse where Cordy becomes a huge star, Angel goes mad from the visions and from the loss of his only friend, Doyle. So how did this happen? In a Cordyless version of “Hero,” Doyle has to kiss Angel to pass on the visions, and follow it up with a punch in the face to keep him from getting in the way. Or, does he knock him out, then kiss him, then jump? Eh? Slashers rejoice?
I had more stuff, but as usual I'm out of time. Because I am the slowest writer EVER.
I just finished a rewatch of Angel S1 with my brother and I still love it. It’s funny, my love for Angel never got fanatical like it did for Buffy, but these days I find it so much more rewatchable. I kind of feel like I got burnt out on Buffy quite a while ago and have never really gotten back to it in a serious way, though I miss it and wish I could.
Maybe it’s because, ultimately, the character arcs on Angel are so much more satisfying to me - if by satisfying, I mean open-wound painful - rather than frustrating or unengaging (for everyone except S/B, natch). Maybe. Season 1 of Angel makes me feel achingly bittersweet-nostalgic for the early seasons, even when I’m watching it. I think “To Shanshu in LA” may be my favourite episode of the series, or pretty close to it at least. There isn’t a huge arc in the season, but when Angel really comes to realize that he, Cordy and Wes are family, it’s rather momentous. It’s also something that kind of got lost over the course of the series, what with all the infighting, and eventually, the sort of eclipsing of the chosen family by the biological one. It makes me sad.
Okay, long rambly detour from where I was actually going, which was early S1 and Doyle. I wasn’t in the fandom back then, but the impression I get is that Doyle is one of those popular and truly beloved characters. And much missed (though certainly, lots people, including me, are mourning Glenn Quinn himself). Rewatching all his episodes in succession though, I realized he’s actually kind of a tedious, bordering on annoying, character. It’s not that I don’t like him, but in every episode, he basically only does two things: has a vision, and gripes to Angel about his unrequited feelings for Cordy and his deep-dark half-demon secret. Maybe that’s a little exagerrated, but there’s really not a whole lot there. Plus, I adore Cordelia, but this is her at her flakiest and most shallow, and it really doesn’t reflect well on Doyle’s character to be so in love with someone so substanceless.
But then comes “The Bachelor Party”, which I think is sort of an unsung miracle of sorts. Cordy finally shows some depth by realizing that money and looks in a man aren’t enough for her anymore, and that she needs some bravery and substance too. Doyle gets multidimensional like whoa: he have a potential, newly interesting love interest in the wings, but he also has a failed marriage, angsty abandonment issues, and ambiguously unresolved feelings for his ex-wife! His half-demonness turns out to actually be a major point of crisis in his life! He pathetically and hilariously relives his glory moments (saving Cordelia) in front of a mirror! He almost has his brains eaten with a shrimp fork by Demon Ken/Lawrence “They know how many nose-hairs you have” Dobson! In this one episode, he’s transformed into a really great character. Great enough that his one act of heroic sacrifice is in no way diminished by the hokey Nazi demons, and great enough that by the time we get back to “our rats are low,” it really hurts. And then there’s this big empty space afterwards that doesn’t get filled up. (Cordy’s Stain-Be-Gone audition in “Parting Gifts”? Brings the pain and the funny like no other scene could hope to.) Always, always makes me tear up like crazy.) And it still hurts four seasons later when we see him onscreen again.
My brother keeps bringing this up, in a facetious but totally-has-a-point way: in the Birthday-verse where Cordy becomes a huge star, Angel goes mad from the visions and from the loss of his only friend, Doyle. So how did this happen? In a Cordyless version of “Hero,” Doyle has to kiss Angel to pass on the visions, and follow it up with a punch in the face to keep him from getting in the way. Or, does he knock him out, then kiss him, then jump? Eh? Slashers rejoice?
I had more stuff, but as usual I'm out of time. Because I am the slowest writer EVER.