Angel 5.3 Unleashed

[thebratqueen]

Well that was an ep.

Again much like last week I've got to stress that it's not that I hated the episode, it's just that it didn't do much for me. That's the catch-22 of the one-off format. On the one hand you get the benefit of being able to play around and switch genres from horror to comedy to action, but on the other you've got all the weight of introducing characters that we may or may not care about. I didn't care, and everything wrapped around this didn't affect my caring. At least last week had snappy dialogue.

Still, there were some good bits. I liked seeing the gang's dynamic, both good and bad. I liked the renewal of the idea that these guys are a family, both dysfunctional and not. I liked that Wes still has a motorcycle because I am a shallow, shallow whore.

I'm surprised that this wasn't a better episode Fred-wise, as ususally the Siamese twins are better at writing her (Note for those who didn't read my reviews last year, the Siamese twins is how I refer to Sarah and Elizabeth as they never write apart). I'm tempted to put some blame on the direction though since emotionally the ep didn't click. But hard to say where the line is drawn. I mean the fight with Nina and her family had some very stilted dialogue, and why did Nina run off after a fight but get welcomed back in soft focus with a song from Dawson's Creek playing on the soundtrack as though nothing at all had ever happened? And the fight itself was just strange. I get her sister being upset about leaving the 9 year old alone, but the "You sleep all day!" bit? Uh, didn't she do that once? Overreact much?

In terms of long-term ramifications - and note how I step waaaay over the possibility of Angel/Nina being a long-term ramification because please God no - I find the ending very interesting. When I read the spoilers for this ep I thought it was Crane who got turned into a werewolf, not Royce (which shows how much I read for content). Crane being left for werewolf chow made more sense, since presumably he's done this to countless others.

Royce, on the other hand, is presumably a toady. Yeah sure he's an accessory to a crime, but is what he does worthy of him being made into a live buffet? And not only that, but this was an action casually watched by Angel and Gunn and Wes. Now Wes having a dark streak surprises me not at all, but Gunn too?

Now I know, granted, that the gang shut the buffet down so presumably Royce isn't getting eaten, but since Royce being turned wasn't a planned event that still means that Angel et al were still happy to take that chance, which I find very interesting. I suppose they could have been very very confident that they'd win in the end but even still, I suspect at least the Gunn of old would have made a greater attempt to save the guy.

I'm not calling it a continuity error, as I realize it's starting to sound like I am. I'm saying to me this is an interesting plot point. Two guys who freaked out about Angel's let them eat lawyer are now shrugging their shoulders and calling it a night about an even more preventable crime done by a guy who was no more or less evil than Lindsey or Lilah or anybody else in that basement with Dru and Darla (except maybe Holland ;) )

We've already seen that Angel is very comfy with his dark side as a way of ruling this law firm. We saw that when he gave his last shot of mercy, literally. For Wes and Gunn to be joining in presents all kinds of interesting possibilities for what's going on inside everybody's head. The boys, at least, have come a long way from "The lesser of two evils is still evil"

As for the rest - eh. Spike was there. There's a vague interesting contrast in the fact that the guy who fell into his role the easiest, Lorne, is so far proving to be the heart of the gang. But beyond that, as I say, it was an ep. Didn't suck, didn't rule. Just okay.

Random comments:

And once again we fuzzy tiger our timeline. Granted not so much a fuzzy tiger here as reasonably moving things along, I'm just amused to notice the mentions that we get.

So Wes has decided to prove that he's gay by wearing leather vests. Nice of him.

I never noticed this before but Amy Acker's teeth are huge.

They can give an Initiative shout-out but absolutely no Oz shout-outs? This makes even less sense when you consider Spike was waxing nostalgic about werewolves to begin with and Spike, Wes and Angel all knew Oz personally. (This I'm sure makes me the 5,923rd person to point this out)

Speaking of being redundant, can I already call the "Let's write the fake Wes and Spike background story as though it were real" concept an overdone fanfic cliche? I just figure I'll save time if I do it now. Yeah I'm sometimes snotty.

Though props to the score for treating that moment as though it were real. That was kind of cute. And nice that they're explaining why Spike went to Fred. So props to the person who last week correctly guessed it was because Spike knew Wesley would be too inclined to share secrets with Angel.

In other news, David Boreanaz apparently schtupped the cameraman's wife, as that is the only way we can explain why there was an extended shot of him in Angel's car in which he looked bald.

Silver car? Still a shout-out to me.

Wes giving a lame excuse for not ordering for himself while Angel immediately says he's paying for the food and the two of them then exchange the GAYLE? I would so call that a shout-out if not for the fact that I only wrote all that this week. I swear to you I had no idea that was in tonight's episode.

More seriously though, what was that look supposed to be if not the GAYLE? As I honestly can't fathom any non-sexual intent for it and I'm really not joking. Anyone? Anyone?

Dear ME: Please stop trying to sell us on Wes/Fred. We ain't buying.

Okay, okay - I will allow one thing regarding Wes/Fred. Depending on how the mindwipe/reality shift/whatever it is worked out, I could see how if Wes suddenly has no memory of/reality of a previous relationship with Lilah that good Wes characterization would still have him mooning over Fred. But dear God get him over this quickly. It still sucks.

Thanks to wolfling for reminding me about this line - am I the only one who thinks that Fred added "puppies" to the list of "Angel saves women, men..." to tone down on how gay that line sounded? (Of course Wolf points out that this could have just meant beastiality...)

Regarding the promo for next week's ep: The good news is that there's partial nudity! The bad news is that to all appearances it's Fred! (Sorry, sorry, but there's no point in showing a naked Amy Acker - there ain't nothing to show. Granted it could also be Marsters but at which point what's he got to show that we haven't all seen?)

On a serious note, though, they do mean it about the graphic content. Normally I don't spoil like this but I've seen promo shots and the makeup department has definitely earned its salary. Might want to be careful if you've got a squeamish stomach.

Finally, if we all chipped in five bucks do you think we could get them some new microphones? Granted this week wasn't nearly as bad as last week but we still had a few too many painful moments of overdubbing, as in all of them.