Angel and a little MI-5

[rhienelleth]

So let’s cut right to the chase. I didn’t post anything here about Alias, simply because fifty people on my friends list expressed all of my thoughts extremely well. ;) But as few people on my friends list have posted about this yet…

Ok, so after last season I had almost given up on this show. In fact, Alias replaced it and Buffy as the show I “must tape each and every week”.

But I won’t get into my Buffy disappointments here.

But in my Angel-verse, I would just axe last season completely and start from the end of S3. Because S4 disappointed and pissed me off on so many levels. I know Charisma Carpenter was pregnant, and they wanted to write it into the storyline and all, but please, could they have come up with a worse way??? I’m not even saying that Evil!Cordy herself is bad, but see, she’s been one of my top three favorite Buffy characters for so long, simply for being Cordy, and what they did with her last season just about killed all that love. First off, sleeping w/Connor…um, NO! I cannot express that enough. Eeeeew. And yuck, and please-let-us-not-ever-go-there again!

In S3, Cordy was becoming a bad ass in her own right. The way the visions forced her to “grow up” and yet still left her with that charming tactlessness that is pure Cordy, really worked for me. I love it when characters evolve in a great direction that makes sense. (Wes is another great example of this.)

S3’s story was just….awful. And pointless. Why? Because at the end of the season, Connor is gone for good, he and Angel never moved past “I hate you, Dad.”, and Cordy was in a coma, also gone for good (presumably, as the actress has moved on from the role. And who could blame her?) What was accomplished last season? Other than the complete destruction of W & H and the gang taking over the LA branch, all of which could have been differently, and in only a handful of episodes. The whole Jasmine storyline did nothing, nothing for me.

I can look back and count the scenes which moved me on one hand. (Wes be-heading Lilah? Still makes me sniffle.)

So this season, what with Cordy gone and Spike moving in, did not leave me with much hope for improvement. Don’t get me wrong, I adore Spike. But…bringing him to Angel left me kind of iffy about what direction the writers would go with that, and whether or not another favorite character might or might not be ruined for me.

Of course, the season premier restored much of my faith. :) The opening scene, with the fleet of W & H reps that arrived just as Angel finished his rescue, cracked me up. And it’s really too bad that bad-ass team-leader-man is dead and gone, now, cause I kinda liked his matter-of-fact attitude, all the way up until that stupid line “I believe in Evil.” Um, ok. Didn’t know evil was something you had to believe in or not. I think the line should have been “I serve Evil.” Or something like that.

In any case, this show was full of all the snarky Angel goodness that made me love the show in the first place. The humor, the conflicted characters, the little touches of angst and drama (i.e. the Cordy conversation.) Made me like the show again, and after last season, I was in serious question about whether or not that could ever happen again.

Points of note:

-- Love the new Gunn. That line Eve said about “the one with the most wasted potential.” So. True. I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do this season.

-- Fred. Her speech when she went off at her department people was a nice glimpse of the “real” Fred, the one capable of killing the man who stuck her in another realm, without any regrets whatsoever. Course, I love her phone-answering issues, too. “Dept. of….Fred.” LOL. And I liked Knox. Not shipping, yet. But I like the character.

-- Harmony. Adore her. “Blondie-bear?”

-- Eve. Hmm. Still reserving judgment. She’s no Lilah, unfortunately.

-- Lorne. As ever, one of my favs. Doing employee evaluations by song is so him. :)

-- Wes. Haven’t seen much of him, yet, but he was one of the few aspects of last season I enjoyed, so I have high hopes. And I love that fact that he was the one who picked Harmony to be Angel’s secretary. Excuse me, “assistant”.

-- Spike. The previews looked great. I’ve always loved his humor. I’m beginning to look forward to seeing him and Angel on the screen together. Maybe.

-- Would be nice to see more women on the team. I miss Cordy, the old Cordy. Fred’s fun and all, Eve is to-be-determined, and Harmony isn’t my idea of a strong member of the team. I miss Cordy. :(

Overall, interesting. And at least they addressed past events, i.e. Connor and Cordy. Looking forward to the next ep.



Oh, and on a last note, MI-5 was so good Tuesday night. Best episode I've seen yet.

The emotional wringer the characters are put through was so, so well done. The ending scene, when they find out it really was a drill, is just perfect. People crying, people angry, Tom on the edge.

"So, you must have figured out we broke into the armory and switched ammunition, eh?"

"No, not really."

"You really would have shot me?"

Deadpan, totally serious."Yes."

And the scene that followed, on the phone with his soon-not-to-be girlfriend:

Her: "I sat in that restaurant alone, Tom! Everyone looked at me. It was like I had a huge sign over my head: 'jilted'!"

Tom: "I had a sign over my head today, too."

Her: "What did it say?"

Tom, holding the phone away so she can't hear: "End of the world. End of the world. End of the world."

*Sniff* I love Tom. I adore Tom. I love this show.

Comments

[voleuse.livejournal.com]

all the way up until that stupid line “I believe in Evil.” Um, ok.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to respond that way. That line makes no sense to me. I believe in evil, too, but that doesn't mean I'm all, "Yay, evil!"

Otherwise, yes. A great ep when it could have been horrible.