cmburns:
[Gunn]Just want my props, is all.[/Gunn]
Got my first season Angel DVD set yesterday. Woo Hoo!
I have the first three seasons of Buffy, but will probably stop there. FX has played the rest so much I think I have them memorized.
I hope to see all of you in the Angel threads next year!
It seems clear to me that the next step is to drive the bus (after taking the scythe down from its roof) to Los Angeles. Buffy needs to tell Angel the “second front” won’t be necessary, most of them need medical attention, and all of them need a place to sleep.
Team Angel/Wolfram & Hart/Hyperion hotel can answer all of those needs, and I’m sure that’s what will happen, offscreen. I hope, although I’m not optimistic, that this will be mentioned in Angel’s fifth-season opener three months from now.
What then? Giles, Buffy, Willow, Dawn and Xander will probably re-found the Watchers Council…in Cleveland? Back in London? I wouldn’t hazard a guess.
The new junior Slayers will go back to their hometowns to keep them safe from whatever.
Faith and Robin Wood will ride off into the sunset together. This is complicated slightly by the fact that Faith is a wanted fugitive. Will she go back to prison? Or will Wolfram & Hart give her a new identity?
I don’t expect any of these questions to be answered (anytime soon) by ME, so I’m asking you-all instead. Whattaya think?
I just bought my Angel DVD set, too! A couple of days ago I got tired of waiting for my father to get it for me (late birthday present from January), so I broke down (not much convincing needed to happen there), strolled into Wal-Mart and took it away with me. (Making a side trip to pay for it, of course. Damn Sam and his rules!)
I’ve watched the first disc thus far, and will bring a couple more for when auntie em and I are on a plane to LA this weekend. She’ll snooze away (“The only way to fly,” she tells me) and I’ll watch Angel. Yay!
And can I say that, after watching the first four episodes, I’m not so much annoyed by Doyle as I was back when they first aired?
Also, in In the Dark, Spike had some of the best lines of his career full of good one-liners. I do miss the old, evil Spike.
Where to begin? At the ending, I think.
Joss did do a good job with this one episode, but overall, it was lacking for one main reason. Usually, the point of writing is to make the audience hunger for more; to ask “What happens next?”
But this was a finale not just for the season, but the series. It’s supposed to be a wrap, last scene, final take, the fat lady should be singing. We got a decent job, but nothing close to the great jobs we had in the past.
And mostly, the problem was with this entire season. We had a few good episodes, but mostly we had some pretty bad episodes, with too many things going on that we just didn’t care about, or that really didn’t work themselves out in any meaningful manner.
I really liked this show. I really liked season 6. I really liked the potential of this season, and the things that were hinted at. And the finale did hit several high notes-- it resolved Spike. Buffy finally used her brain and figured something out. Faith opened up. We had almost ghostly reminders of the first season, with Giles, Xander, Willow and Buffy.
But there was too much dreck in there as well. Kennedy always came across as a poor substitute for Tara, and it was the same in this ep. Caleb bounced back for another round? Puh-leeze. Anya’s death has me bummed, because it was, to be honest, wasted. A throwaway. Every other significant character had their death come from something important, going all the way back to Jenny Calendar. But Anya was just tossed to one side. Sure, we had Andrew lying to make Xander feel better, and One-eye’s reaction was appropriate, but overall, that element was lame. And there were too many lame, throwaway elements this season as it is.
I read somewhere that Joss planned every season finale as if it was going to be the last show ever, and this show did that. But I’m afraid this season did not leave me with the same sense of satisfaction that I got at the end of 5 and 6.
No one congratulated me either for guessing right a year ago that Cordelia’s ascension was a big trap. They’re jealous of our genius.
And let me add a hearty “Argghhh”. There was so much more that could have been done.
That being said, I still loved the episode. I need to third/fourth/83rd the view that Joss Whedon is a special talent. I only wish he had written the last few episodes, rather than just the last one. Still, a wonderful sendoff for a wonderful show.
I gotta go watch my Season 2 DVD now.
Quite so. I was certainly outguessed by the two of you. 
Oh, I forgot.
Yes they are making a Scooby Doo 2-- right in Vancouver, as a matter of fact. The stretch SUV Mystery Machine looks downright stupid.
Sooo…
the battle’s done and we kinda won, so we sound our victory cheer…
I guess that sums up my feelings about this episode. Certainly not the best BtVS ever, not by a long shot. Not even the best this season.
Now, I’m just waiting to see how they’re going to bring Spike back next season without negating his sacrifice in this episode.
If he comes back human, I can picture him really, really unhappy about it. He obviously died in a state of ecstasy, probably dissolved into the Universal Consciousness and was contentedly humming “OM” and being One With Everything, and will find himself rudely wrapped up in flesh again and dumped back into a world that had rejected him.
And unlike Buffy, he won’t be afraid to let whoever is responsible for this state of affairs know he is not happy.
Of course, if he comes back as Something Completely Different, well, then, let the games begin…
I’m kind of leaning toward Something Completely Different, because with CC leaving the show, there will definitely be a void to be filled with Cordelia’s visions not there to serve whatever purpose they served. (Newcomer to the show…) so Spike would likely need to be endowed with some kind of supernatural talent to take up the slack. And hell, after sacrificing himself to save the world like that, it would be a nice reward for him. He should get a cookie.
Hmm. What if the amulet burned away Spike’s soul? Of course, if this is the case, and we have season 5/6 Spike back, than I imagine that the law firm-wielding FG will rip him to shreds. Or not. He is Spike, after all.
Oh God, horrible thought. Do we know that Spike is going to Angel, or that James Marsters is?
Spike will be on Angel. The compromise was for more Spike, not more James.
Just finished watching that one- what fun evil Spike was.
I am hoping that the character of Spike will make the next step when he is written by the Angel writers. It happened for the other Buffy crossovers, so the development of the character should be really interesting. Might be hard to keep the balance with an extra lead though- hopefully with CC moving on it will not be an issue.
Angel is fighting evil, going about it in the Angel-Mobile and sporting his nancy boy hair gel. But where is the evil? Cordy’s visions sent him (mostly) to the right place.
I’m a bit miffed that there will be so much eye candy for people who like men: Angel, Wes, Gunn, Spike - take your pick. However - Fred is just too… anorectic and … wimpy, I guess. I want a stronger woman in the mix. I know some people hated Cordy, but she wasn’t a sissy.
I’m kinda hoping Gwen will be back. Maybe they were grooming her to be a semi-regular, in case CC wouldn’t be around for S.5. Spandexia didn’t really fit into the arc.
Gwen may or may not be back, but hey! Lilah will be around!
Mmmmmmmmmmlilahmmmmmmmmm
I’d go gay for Lilah.
The thing that always bothered me about Spike’s “nancy-boy hair gel” line is that Spike apparently has enough product in his hair to deflect a bullet. Or does he use “manly-man” hair gel? I mean, if you’re judging manliness by how much goo your rub into your scalp every day, Xander’s got both those mincing femmes beat, hands down.
Um, well, Angel uses the nancy-boy hair gel to make his naturally straight hair go straight up. Spike uses his manly-man hair gel to keep his naturally curly hair duly and masculinely slicked back, so I guess there is a certain logic there.
I am very nearly a teetotaler, and I got thoroughly smashed and cried for half an hour.
It is a very strange sensation for two feelings to occupy the same space. On the one hand, the creative part of me completely understands that Spike’s end was much, much more satisfying dramatically than anything else that could have happened. It was correct. (And Drew Greenwalt completely gave it away in an interview about next year’s Angel. I would have been pissed if I hadn’t already been spoiled.) On the other hand…
- ** SPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ** *
Good one, sturmhauke!
Yeah, she really needs to be back: someone has to represent W&H in the new season: someone that we’re familiar with rather than some random, unknown person. She’s been great for the show ever since her tryst with Wes started. I just hope they really stick to the reality of her being dead, and don’t cop outby treating her like she’s just another character hanging around. She needs to be used sparingly, and I think she probably has to be something very different from the living Lilah, even if she hides it.