Angel - Season 1 impressions (episode 3)
Today I was in an extremely cranky mood. Started to work at 7.30 and I'm emphatically not a morning person. I fully come awake in the evening hours. 10pm, 11pm, midnight, 1am, 2am - hey, I'm fully active. Ready to think and plot and plan. (Back at school, I sometimes slept in the afternoon after school and then did my homework in the early morning hours.)
At 8.00 am I felt like I was getting somewhere with a problem I was trying to solve - and then four of my collegues burst in and made a lot of noise and tried to *talk* to me! In the morning! Before 9 am. The nerve!
Plus there was so much stuff to do and I was tired and not that hungry so I ended up working 10 hours straight. No break, no food. Silly me. I just forgot about lunch and then I was stuck in a training.
So I was Miss Crankiness of Snark Mountains today. Thank heavens, there's Angel. Watching In the Dark cheered me up all right. Especially when I nearly suffocated on my pasta because I thought eating while watching Spike's antics would be a good idea.
Enough of the whining. Here's my take on In the Dark.
Spike's entrance scene was shiny. If I'd known it would crack me up, I would not have eaten my pasta while watching it, but alas... Anyway, here's quotage, because this scene rocks. It's the way, Spike times his playback comments for the rescue scene and the way he delivers his lines.
Spike in high voice: “How can I thank you, you mysterious, black-clad hunk of a night thing? (low voice) No need, little lady, your tears of gratitude are enough for me. You see, I was once a badass vampire, but love and a pesky curse defanged me. Now I’m just a big, fluffy puppy with bad teeth.
Spike's a dangerous villain and a bastard - but he cracks me up. We does he have to make comments like Because you are vampire detective now? What’s next? Vampire cowboy? Vampire fireman? Oh, vampire ballerina.. Now this picture of vampire ballerinas is stuck in my head and makes me laugh out loud at odd moments.
And Spike's such a geek as can be seen by this comment: Quickly, to the Angel-mobile, away! So true, Angel does the Batman routine. :-)
Spike likes getting into people's head and uses his knowledge for psychological warfare, so it fits that he enjoys mock-acting as well. He's a born actor. Also he's a drama-queen; he enjoys wallowing in his emotions. When he gets all upset about something, it's partly real emotion, but partly emotions he *wants* to feel because he gets a kick out of them. He simply needs to impress himself in some way, he needs to leave a mark.
You can see Cordelia's personality changing:
She's less self-absorbed, she tries to connect, but often does know how to. E.g. she's pleased to see Oz, because, hey, it's Oz, and they've shared some adventures. But then there's really not much they have in common apart from that. So we get this neat moment of embarrassed silence.
She also has become better at using a computer. Good for you, Cordy!
And I've noticed there are now moments when she bites her tongue and doesn't go through with all of her extremely blunt comments.
Cordy to Oz: “And she [Buffy] didn’t even send a note? Wow. That’s really - (Angel looks at her) - this is one of those times when I should just shy away from the topic, isn’t it?”
We get nearly shirtless Angel. In a lot of pain. Also we see Angel doing his erotic kata excercises. (I had to pour myself three drinks... Yeah, I've started to count the kata exercises as well.)
The torturer is related to Niska from Firefly. They share the philosophy that pain reveals the real you.
He has also has a touch of Fenrir Greyback.
Overall, the episode appears to deal with addictions:
The woman Angel helps in the beginning is addicted to her abusive boyfriend. Her story ends on a positive note, though.
Spike is addicted to things he wants to have. He also has a strangely obsessive relationship with Angel. He wants to impress him, he wants to hurt him, he feels connected to him (still calls him "my sire"), he hates him.
Marcus is addicted to causing pain.
And as Doyles phrases it: Angel has an addiction to the brooding part of life. It makes perfect sense that Angel wants redemption the hard way. The ring would make things just too easy for his taste.
I really like the ending of this episode:
The sun sinks below the horizon. Angel takes off the ring, picks up a brick and smashes it. Big green flash of light.
Doyle: “Oh, and that Rachel girl with the crazy boyfriend called. Said to say thanks, and that she found a little faith. Said you’d know what that means.”
Angel: “I don’t know about you, but I had a nice day. - You know, except for the bulk of it, where I was nearly tortured to death.”
Mostly unrelated post-scriptum: Spike and Joyce seem to share a love for manacles and chains.
Fic recommendation
Least Obeisance is a story set after the episode and features Cordelia and Spike. No, not in a romantic way. I like this story, because WesleysGirl perfectly captures the voices of Cordy and Spike.
At 8.00 am I felt like I was getting somewhere with a problem I was trying to solve - and then four of my collegues burst in and made a lot of noise and tried to *talk* to me! In the morning! Before 9 am. The nerve!
Plus there was so much stuff to do and I was tired and not that hungry so I ended up working 10 hours straight. No break, no food. Silly me. I just forgot about lunch and then I was stuck in a training.
So I was Miss Crankiness of Snark Mountains today. Thank heavens, there's Angel. Watching In the Dark cheered me up all right. Especially when I nearly suffocated on my pasta because I thought eating while watching Spike's antics would be a good idea.
Enough of the whining. Here's my take on In the Dark.
Spike's entrance scene was shiny. If I'd known it would crack me up, I would not have eaten my pasta while watching it, but alas... Anyway, here's quotage, because this scene rocks. It's the way, Spike times his playback comments for the rescue scene and the way he delivers his lines.
Spike in high voice: “How can I thank you, you mysterious, black-clad hunk of a night thing? (low voice) No need, little lady, your tears of gratitude are enough for me. You see, I was once a badass vampire, but love and a pesky curse defanged me. Now I’m just a big, fluffy puppy with bad teeth.
Spike's a dangerous villain and a bastard - but he cracks me up. We does he have to make comments like Because you are vampire detective now? What’s next? Vampire cowboy? Vampire fireman? Oh, vampire ballerina.. Now this picture of vampire ballerinas is stuck in my head and makes me laugh out loud at odd moments.
And Spike's such a geek as can be seen by this comment: Quickly, to the Angel-mobile, away! So true, Angel does the Batman routine. :-)
Spike likes getting into people's head and uses his knowledge for psychological warfare, so it fits that he enjoys mock-acting as well. He's a born actor. Also he's a drama-queen; he enjoys wallowing in his emotions. When he gets all upset about something, it's partly real emotion, but partly emotions he *wants* to feel because he gets a kick out of them. He simply needs to impress himself in some way, he needs to leave a mark.
You can see Cordelia's personality changing:
She's less self-absorbed, she tries to connect, but often does know how to. E.g. she's pleased to see Oz, because, hey, it's Oz, and they've shared some adventures. But then there's really not much they have in common apart from that. So we get this neat moment of embarrassed silence.
She also has become better at using a computer. Good for you, Cordy!
And I've noticed there are now moments when she bites her tongue and doesn't go through with all of her extremely blunt comments.
Cordy to Oz: “And she [Buffy] didn’t even send a note? Wow. That’s really - (Angel looks at her) - this is one of those times when I should just shy away from the topic, isn’t it?”
We get nearly shirtless Angel. In a lot of pain. Also we see Angel doing his erotic kata excercises. (I had to pour myself three drinks... Yeah, I've started to count the kata exercises as well.)
The torturer is related to Niska from Firefly. They share the philosophy that pain reveals the real you.
He has also has a touch of Fenrir Greyback.
Overall, the episode appears to deal with addictions:
The woman Angel helps in the beginning is addicted to her abusive boyfriend. Her story ends on a positive note, though.
Spike is addicted to things he wants to have. He also has a strangely obsessive relationship with Angel. He wants to impress him, he wants to hurt him, he feels connected to him (still calls him "my sire"), he hates him.
Marcus is addicted to causing pain.
And as Doyles phrases it: Angel has an addiction to the brooding part of life. It makes perfect sense that Angel wants redemption the hard way. The ring would make things just too easy for his taste.
I really like the ending of this episode:
The sun sinks below the horizon. Angel takes off the ring, picks up a brick and smashes it. Big green flash of light.
Doyle: “Oh, and that Rachel girl with the crazy boyfriend called. Said to say thanks, and that she found a little faith. Said you’d know what that means.”
Angel: “I don’t know about you, but I had a nice day. - You know, except for the bulk of it, where I was nearly tortured to death.”
Mostly unrelated post-scriptum: Spike and Joyce seem to share a love for manacles and chains.
Fic recommendation
Least Obeisance is a story set after the episode and features Cordelia and Spike. No, not in a romantic way. I like this story, because WesleysGirl perfectly captures the voices of Cordy and Spike.