Angel is over.

[lapsedmodernist]

I can't believe my favorite universe just went off the air. Who else is going to do zeitgeist-as-hyperbole now? Both Buffy and Angel went from astute and clever to political allegory, driven by the necessity of the last several years. They gave us the critique of the war on Iraq and Bush's unilateralst doctrine as subtext that burst into text at the very end of Buffy's last season. And this season of Angel was, really, really anti-corporate before it was anything else. Everything from the episode where Angel is literally turned into a puppet to Angel's last direct-action plan where he spells it out for his crew that they are inside a machine and "we can bring their gears to a grinding halt...even if it's just for a moment... Power endures. We can't bring down the Senior Partners except for one bright shining moment. We can show them that they don't own us." Angel even gives up his presumed chance at humanity in an amor fati kind of moment, the implication being that any worthwhile destiny cannot be negotiated in a contract, but only formed through praxis. The other theme developed throughout this season that I really appreciated was the (very timely) idea that everyone expects an apocalypse to be this Big Event, and in the meantime the apocalypse is in progress, it's going on all around us, and people are blindsided by it and do nothing to stop it. This is pretty much what pnts and I have talked about in regard to our own "moment of danger." And in line with that I was really pleased with the conclusion, because no one knows how it's going to end, not in their world, not in ours, and they go out fighting, and to all those whining about it, it's not a cliffhanger, it's an allegory.

P.S. Yes, I cried, just like I've cried at five out of seven Buffy season finales and at last year's Angel coda. I thought the final exchange between Wesley and Illyria weirdly and sweetly resonated with one of the early Buffy episodes "Lie To Me," which was the episode that first reveled in the kind of gray areas that eventually came to define the world of both shows. And I cried when she "lied" to him. It's always saddening when the characters that have undergone the most development die, like Anya and Cordelia, but I suppose those are the rules of a narrative genre.

P.P.S. Question to all those well-versed in with both Buffy and Angel: Does Angel's decision regarding Lindsey in the finale come from the same place as Giles taking care of Ben in "The Gift"? Discuss.

Bye-bye Whedonverse. Thanks for the amazing eight years.

Comments

[apropos.livejournal.com]

I cried when Harmony said that she missed her heart.

And... victory... I got my Whedon-hater boyfriend to admit, at the end of the episode, that Angel is "a good show" and that he now likes it. Ha!

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Better late than never! I have "converted" so many people to Buffy (I don't know anyone who got into Angel without being into Buffy first, or at all, with the exception of my father who finds Buffy silly but really enjoys Angel). It's always the same. They say it's a stupid show, they make fun of me for watching it, they roll their eyes at the idea that it could possibly be smart and work on many levels, then they watch one episode and noncommitally say something about wanting to see another one, and a couple of episodes later they are totally hooked.

I thought the Harmony bit was a little moment typical of how no character is ever written as completely two-dimensional in that world. Someone can be comic relief 95% of the time and then there will be this reminder that they have this whole world and history inside them.

How far did you get in watching the Buffy series?

[apropos.livejournal.com]

How far did you get in watching the Buffy series?

My friend lent me selected tapes in the first three seasons, mostly the Buffy/Angel backstory since I was interested in Angel as a character. Prior to that I'd also seen the final two episodes at a party, back when I was a hater who was just going along for the pops + nachos. And a few odds + ends while channel surfing... for example the "Buffy's actually a schizophrenic and her mom is alive" episode, which confused me to no end.

All my coworkers at my old job were big fans so I got to hear them talking about it constantly; I think I had something of a grasp of the plot (or at least the feel of the show) before actually watching it.

I'm planning on getting a DVD player soon so I can watch seasons 4 and 5 but I'm really slow at getting anything like that done.

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the early years of Angel? I think it's now on DVD up through season 3.

I just bought DVD of season 6 of Buffy on ebay. I have all the episodes from all the years on tapes, but I decided that all the sex scenes with Spike merited the purchase. Season 6 also has the episode you are talking about, "Normal Again," which I thought was excellent. I love meta-episodes. But I imagine it would be really confusing if watched out of sequence.

[apropos.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the early years of Angel? I think it's now on DVD up through season 3.

I've seen the first two episodes, and then one other episode from the... third?... season where Cordelia was trying to have sex with that weird knight guy from another dimension and Angel was jealous. That was... confusing.

But yeah definitely high on the list of things to do.

[saintpeg.livejournal.com]

Um, I don't have anything terribly engaging to say about the Angel series finale, except that while I was watching it last night I was also checking out Cordelia's rack in the latest issue of Playboy. (Thanks, boyfriend's roommate.)

[lapsedmodernist.livejournal.com]

aw, shucks she was in Playboy?

well, it's gotta be better than those weird-ass pictures of Alison Hannigan in FHM.

so what was your take on the finale?

[saintpeg.livejournal.com]

I hadn't been following Angel since, well...ever, so I didn't really have an overwhelming response to it, aside from feeling sad when Wesley died. I tried now and then to get into it, but Angel just never did it for me the way Buffy did. Can there be a Spike spin-off now?