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shannon_aGah, I can't believe I'm writing something else about TV shows. It must be sweeps.
On Angel this Sunday we finally met the Big Bad, and he indeed seemed to be Big and Bad ... a hulking, invulnerable monstrosity who flings our heroes around carelessly (while not truly hurting them) and then ignites one of the most apocalyptic events that we've seen thus far in the Whedon-verse... a literal rain of fire.
And yet, through much of the episode, I was convinced that we weren't really seeing the Big Bad, just his harbinger that would be defeated after a terrible battle before revealing that he was just the smallest mite before the power of he whom came after.
That of course wasn't what happened, and it looks like we indeed have met the A4 Big Bad. But, thinking upon it more, I've realized that my questioning of the Beast as Big Bad has to do with the fact that we really don't know him. His characterization was flat, like that of a single-episode villain.
For all the Big Bads in the past, we've clearly understood who they were and what they wanted.
Now, granted, we didn't know all of these motivations first thing. But we generally learned them pretty early, and definitely before ye olde Big Bads started engaging in apocalyptic tomfoolery.
But that hasn't been the case at all in A4. We've had apocalyptic mumblings about animals with bad posture, and that's about it for setting up our Bad-to-be. Then the Big Bad appears, preens, and finally engages in real villainry that can only be understood by Californians who are still suffering through the aftereffects of energy company price gouging ... by running up everyone's air conditioning bills in a fiery-end-of-the-world sort of way.
It was a great episode, full of revelation, character development, and character arc movement. The camera work--and overall directing--was wonderful.
But the core was all soft and gooey like center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, because we don't know who The Beast is, what he wants, and why he does the things that he does.
Interestingly, we seem to be seeing the same theme over on Buffy. (I no longer believe the two Bads are the same, because Buffy's Morphy has no physical presence and Angel's Beast very much does.) In both cases we're meeting a big, bad, powerful, apocalyptic force, yet gaining no understanding of who they really are or what they really want.
If this season of Angel (and Buffy) continues to Whedon form, learning what the Beast (and Morphy) really is and what they really want will be a revelation that dramatically changes the way we look at everything that's come before and everything that will come after.
But for me, for now, just seeing The Beast acting evil leaves me a little cold. He could be twirling his mustache and mumbling, "I'll get you, my pretties," for all we know about his motivations, and our Big Bads in the Whedon-verse have historically been characterized much better than that.
And on the topic of the California energy crisis which is still costing most consumers hundreds of dollars every year:
Fleecing Consumers Took Energy
Alas, the fact that "President" Bush sat complacently back when Californians were begging him for help because he's elbow-deep in Texan energy concerns seems to have slipped off the public's radar.
On Angel this Sunday we finally met the Big Bad, and he indeed seemed to be Big and Bad ... a hulking, invulnerable monstrosity who flings our heroes around carelessly (while not truly hurting them) and then ignites one of the most apocalyptic events that we've seen thus far in the Whedon-verse... a literal rain of fire.
And yet, through much of the episode, I was convinced that we weren't really seeing the Big Bad, just his harbinger that would be defeated after a terrible battle before revealing that he was just the smallest mite before the power of he whom came after.
That of course wasn't what happened, and it looks like we indeed have met the A4 Big Bad. But, thinking upon it more, I've realized that my questioning of the Beast as Big Bad has to do with the fact that we really don't know him. His characterization was flat, like that of a single-episode villain.
For all the Big Bads in the past, we've clearly understood who they were and what they wanted.
- B1: The Master wanted out of the Hellmouth.
- B2: Spike wanted to kill Buffy; Angelus wanted to hurt people; Drusilla was crazy.
- B3: The Mayor wanted to become a demon.
- B4: Adam wanted ... I dunno ... to understand the difference between demons and humans. Something like that. It never really made sense to me.
- B5: Glory wanted to get home.
- B6: Jonathan wanted respect; Andrew wanted love; Warren wanted power; Willow wanted revenge.
- A3: Holtz wanted revenge.
Now, granted, we didn't know all of these motivations first thing. But we generally learned them pretty early, and definitely before ye olde Big Bads started engaging in apocalyptic tomfoolery.
But that hasn't been the case at all in A4. We've had apocalyptic mumblings about animals with bad posture, and that's about it for setting up our Bad-to-be. Then the Big Bad appears, preens, and finally engages in real villainry that can only be understood by Californians who are still suffering through the aftereffects of energy company price gouging ... by running up everyone's air conditioning bills in a fiery-end-of-the-world sort of way.
It was a great episode, full of revelation, character development, and character arc movement. The camera work--and overall directing--was wonderful.
But the core was all soft and gooey like center of a Tootsie Roll Pop, because we don't know who The Beast is, what he wants, and why he does the things that he does.
Interestingly, we seem to be seeing the same theme over on Buffy. (I no longer believe the two Bads are the same, because Buffy's Morphy has no physical presence and Angel's Beast very much does.) In both cases we're meeting a big, bad, powerful, apocalyptic force, yet gaining no understanding of who they really are or what they really want.
If this season of Angel (and Buffy) continues to Whedon form, learning what the Beast (and Morphy) really is and what they really want will be a revelation that dramatically changes the way we look at everything that's come before and everything that will come after.
But for me, for now, just seeing The Beast acting evil leaves me a little cold. He could be twirling his mustache and mumbling, "I'll get you, my pretties," for all we know about his motivations, and our Big Bads in the Whedon-verse have historically been characterized much better than that.
And on the topic of the California energy crisis which is still costing most consumers hundreds of dollars every year:
Fleecing Consumers Took Energy
Alas, the fact that "President" Bush sat complacently back when Californians were begging him for help because he's elbow-deep in Texan energy concerns seems to have slipped off the public's radar.
