I never thought I’d write that. During her time on Buffy, as well as the beginning of Angel, I thought both the character and the actress sucked. She was almost always a waste of space. Her affair with Xander was vaguely interesting, but not worth the air time.
But now –
I think she is the heart and soul of Angel. She’s the character that’s grown and changed. What’s more, I’m becoming more convinced that she, not Angel, is the true haunted, suffering hero(ine).
I–I agree with you. The separation of the main character and his human co-workers worked well to butch up the supporting characters. But Charisma Carpenter and her character improved better than anybody else in the Buffyverse. With main plot points going through her Danger Sense, she has responded with determined seriousness to help people, a seriousness I have never thought I would see in her.
It is kind of weird that she now works for the boss who was once her lover. I hope that Wesley would become a little more decisive in his leadership role. That is the problem with portraying booklearners, to be more certain, I guess. Also, I wish to see more of Gunn in character development and interaction, perhaps him and Cordelia getting together.
And Angel, I am sure glad to see him smile and show a little of the Angelus side, which at times is more hilarious than Spike.
To that I’ll add that it’s nice to see Angel playing the straight man a little less and busting off more one-liners. It’s made even funnier by the fact that the people around him are so oblivious to the humor in his lines.
Heh, don’t get too attached to her. You know that haircut of hers? She got it cut in the middle of the shooting season and seriously pissed off the powers that be. Their message to her, “you can be killed.”
She is, OTOH, the all important Hot Female Presence on that show. Angel wouldn’t be the same without her.
A friend and I were wondering about Gunn after this episode. He seemed to think that the incident where Gunn’s friend was killed because he couldn’t be there would drive him away from the group and back to his old Vampire alaying buddies. Thus heralding the beginning of the end for Gunn.
I, on the other hand, thought that the incident showed that Gunn, like everybody in this episode, was in transition. And that it simply showed that he was farther away from his old life than he cared to admit and deeply enmeshed in Angel’s world.
I’m with you on the transition thing. JW has a thing for themes, and the theme was transitions. Everyone was adjusting to new roles. Angel had to deal with working without his buddies, and then working FOR them, instead of being the boss. Wesley had to deal with not having Angel around anymore, then his girlfriend leaving him, and the gunshot wound. Cordelia had to work through her feelings about Angel betraying them. Gunn had to deal with the fact that he wasn’t a part of his old gang anymore, and was working with Cordy and Wesley now.
I agree that Cordelia has undergone the biggest changes. I recently re-watched the boxed set from Buffy’s season three, and Cordelia was so shallow (I have a horrible memory - I’d almost forgotten just how shallow she was). She’s had to deal with a lot since she started getting the visions. Without those changes, do you really think she would have kept the agency going after Angel left?
I was with you until here. When she did the first episode with the new 'do, my first reaction was pretty much, “AH! It’s Courtney Cox’s Hair from 1995, come back from the grave to enslave us all! Kill it, Angel, Kill it before it’s too late!”
My opinion hasn’t changed much.
And the guy who plays Gun did a signing appearance in town. I happened by, and he was pretty lonely. I personally don’t like his character primarily because Doyle got killed off for being too much like Angel, so who did they replace him with? Another character who’s less entertaining but just as much like Angel.
It is tough to see where Gunn may be headed at this time. However, he does add extra muscle, firepower and group tactics expertise, and has the ability to blend in everywhere, better than Angel can. Also, his old group, rightly or wrongly, decided not to listen to him anymore and go on their own. Most likely he will join Wes, Cordy, and Angel.
Another thing is that Gunn the crusader doesn’t share intimacy, due to his distrustful nature. He of all people in the Buffyverse, should be, need to be, intimately involved with someone, if only to get in touch with his humanity. If they do it right, the contrasting and complimentary traits of Gunn and Cordelia, let’s say, can help to develop a naturally refreshing relationship.
As for Cordelia, I think that even without the visions, she would still undergo the changes in her life, and adjust accordingly. I know that I will infuriate Doyle fans, but his death and the return of Wesley in her life was the best thing that could have happened to Cordelia’s character development. Besides realizing at last, the urgency and seriousness of Angel’s mission, she has the added incentive to show Wesley that she can stand on her own as a person, with or without him.
Um, isn’t that overstating Cordelia’s and Wesley’s “past” just a teeeeensy bit? The two of them flirted a lot back on BtVS, but realized they weren’t attracted to each other in the most hilarious kiss scene ever filmed. They never even went on a date.
As for Gunn, I think the actor has chops. I think the character doesn’t. First of all, what the hell happened to his anger? And second, I agree we need to see him have a personal life. 'Though I think the bonding between Wesley and Gunn is being pretty well done.
I’ve always loved Cordy. Especially in the early seasons of Buffy, she had such depth of character as well as one-liners and a sharpness of character.
She has changed SO much… I’m not sure yet for the better or the worse. She used to be bitchy and abrasive, but I think she’s grown out of that phase, which is okay, but I also think she’s kinda lost the edge. We’ll see how it develops.
