Angel 5.20 The Girl in Question

[thebratqueen]

Okay, let's get this out in the open. I am the world's most picky bitch when it comes to the funny stuff. How picky am I? I am the only human being who doesn't like the "Wes and Cordy imitate Angel and Buffy" scene in Fredless. Yes, I realize that puts me in a severe minority. But the fact that it was screamingly out of character throws me out of the scene too much to enjoy it. I'd accept it as an outtake, I'd accept it in another episode, I do not accept it as a response to Buffy's death and subsequent ressurection, especially from Wesley.

So - consider that your hyppogryff warning for my review of this ep.

Yes, bits were funny. Bits made me laugh out loud. And it was gayer than Angel's jacket. I will grant all of that. But on the whole my overarching reaction to this ep teetered between bored and annoyed.

See here's the thing, first off don't juxtapose farce with Fred's parents. That right there is your biggest mistake. The Fred's parents thing was huge in emotional impact. We're getting another snapshot of what Fred's death means for the real world, plus we're watching the few molecules that are left of Wes's sanity be sandpapered down into dust. This isn't funny stuff. This is hardcore. You can't slam that up against Spike and Angel's Marx Brothers meet Eddie Izzard and not expect us to get some motion sickness.

Now, granted, they're low on episodes. It's possible that they were unfortunately forced to smoosh these two together because the Fred's parents bit had to stay but it was originally intended for what was going to be episode 20 which was, if my spoiler whore memory serves me right, the Connor ep. But then the show got cancelled, things got moved around, they obviously wanted to deal with the Buffy question before doing the final farewell but poor Wes and Illyria got stuck right where they were. So I'll grant a little leeway in terms of why this ended up the way it did, but unfortunately the why doesn't even out the result. Uber-funny and uber-angst don't meld into a happy whole. They both worked to try to cancel out each other and unfortunately for the boys on Vespas the acting of one plotline overshadowed the acting of another.

Which brings me to my next point: David. Now I love him, and the boy can act, and I'll happily get into it with anybody who dares say that these days (note the qualifier) he can't act at all because the boy can bring it. But (and you knew that was coming) not like this. Over the top anger in the spirit of farce is just not his thing. Frankly over the top anything is not his thing. David needs to be dialed down. Angel shouldn't have been spending the episode trying to do an impersonation of an exploding teakettle. David can't act it well and it's just too much.

Now note that I'm not saying that Angel shouldn't have been pissed, or annoyed, or generally frustrated. I'm just saying that as a directing choice the way they did it was all wrong. It wasn't funny. It was David tensing up and kicking things and talking with his teeth gritted. Allow me to give a hearty Whatevah. It's not funny.

What should they have done? David's strength: quiet. Angel on a low simmer. Get the water slowly boiling, don't leave it constantly at the bubbling over stage. Angel should have basically been the straight man. Keep the jokes, keep the indignities, but keep Angel quiet. Let the pressure gradually build and gradually build and then have him blow up if you're that hell bent on it. We needed emotional foreplay here, basically. Angel was prematurely ejaculating all over the place. That's rarely if ever good. Keep him low, keep him slow, and remember that things are funnier when you don't have people bouncing all around and hitting you over the head with how funny they are. If you want to do slapstick humor like Airplane! or Police Squad go nuts, but remember that the man characters always played it straight. You've got to play humor like it's serious or the jokes start to fall flat.

(My personal vote on when he should have boiled over, fwiw, is during the cookie baking rant. Have Angel just get all wound up and pissed off about baking and cookies and cookie dough and there's Spike and Andrew looking at him like he's gone insane. Possibly with a reply of "O... kay". Because then you're combining the boiling over with the surreal nature of the thing he's finally ranting about and it comes off as much funnier than him being bitchy the whole ep through.)

Finally, the last bit of failure was Jonathan - I mean the Immortal. Dude, it was a Mary Sue. And I get that it was supposed to be a Mary Sue, but when it's a Mary Sue who is, essentially, Jonathan in Superstar let me assure you that you have failed on your satire of this concept. Which either means that you weren't intending to satire this concept, in which case let me assure you that boy was that a bad judgement call on your part, or you wanted to satire the concept and failed miserably, in which case let me tell you that the thing that you should've been going over the top with was his achievements. Saying he climbed Everest and wrote a book isn't enough. I remind you that Jonathan basically did the same thing. It needed to be more. It needed to be utterly ludicrous. It wasn't and thus I was annoyed.

Combine it all with a MacGuffin that nobody gives a shit about and you've basically got a chaos of an episode. Some pretty bits, some amusing bits, but an entire ep that needed to be red penned and sent back for revisions. Sadly they had neither the time nor budget for this, so once again we can blame the bastards at the WB.

Still, some things were nice. I do like that the Buffy ep wasn't the final one, because I don't think the story of her and Angel should be the final one. I also like that they didn't answer the question of Angel vs. Spike because I don't think that should be told either. It's one of those things we're better left off not knowing. And the Fred/Illyria stuff was well done all around, for all that the other plotline worked hard to make it jarring. So props for that at least.

I suspect that this ep was Joss going "let's do one last funny one before the angst of the finale", and I get why he would do that. I also get that the ending of the show cut the legs out from a lot of things, like putting in any foreshadowing of what kind of a future Wes and Illyria might have (though I suppose Illyria's line at the end might be considered a hint). So I get why it failed, I just feel sorry that it did. My poor dead gay show.

Random comments:

Angel knocked Spike's feet off the furniture. Shout out to me. I'm glad they're getting those all in before the ending ;)

Based on the writing you'd have a hard time guessing that Steve and Ultimate Drew were responsible for the ep. The Illyria stuff is the closest. The rest is...me feeling sorry that the boys didn't have more sleep that night. Or something. And David Greenwalt as a director is a very good producer. Ahem.

Gotta love the Eddie Izzard shout-outs. "Ciao!"

"Wee sticks up the ass" I will admit is funny. Possibly the line of the ep.

I take notes as I watch the ep so that I stop saying "I forgot what I wanted to say". So my next note here is "Alexis just doesn't stop being sexy" and I stand by that comment.

I remain torn on nobody alerting Fred's parents to the fact that their daughter died. That Wesley wouldn't want to do it is one thing, that NOBODY, but NOBODY did it is really pushing my suspension of disbelief. But I'll fanwank it somehow and say that maybe they all assumed someone else took care of it. I suppose if nothing else it's consistant closure on the Fred's parents thing since they originally came to LA based on all the characters having the IQ of mashed potatoes (have I mentioned to you that I didn't like Fredless? I didn't like Fredless.)

Gotta feel for psycho-boy Wes though. You just know some part of him was thinking "These could've been my in-laws." Considering both his feelings for Fred and for the dysfunctional family he came from, I feel sorry for the lad. He needs a hug. And a gay vampire to take care of him.

Anybody but me notice that William and Andrew basically had the same hair? Draw your own conclusions.

Acting-wise I will give David and James props for the faces they made during the slow-mo fighting sequence. I know they didn't act in slow-motion but still, slowing it down definitely would've revealed any flaws in their performance so props for hanging in to the end.

Re: the Italian branch of Wolfram & Hart. I liked the smoking. I can't help but wonder if the Senior Partners view Angel as the pretty sexpot CEO of the LA branch that the Italian CEO was for hers. I can't help but wonder, though, why the Italian CEO cared that much about the head when it was established at the beginning of the episode that taking care of it would've primarily been a score for good. Uh - whoops! Looks like the guys forgot to check their own work as they were writing. Ah continuity, how I miss you so.

Speaking of which, you know I love my boy Andrew but shouldn't he have been a wee bit standoffish to Angel considering both their last meeting and considering that Buffy discovered that Angel sent W&H spies after her? Not saying he had to try to stake him or anything, but a little pissiness would've been more in character continuity-wise.

Also? Andrew? Straight? My notes here read, quote: NO WAY! Unquote.

On that topic: Darla? Caring about someone who was good? Also no way. Darla and Dru? Never doing group sex with the boys? Serious no way. And, again, Andrew as straight? NO WAY!!

And finally, the one shot that this ep and the Immortal had of winning my adoration forever was shot to Hell the minute they gave Spike his damn coat back. Thus sayeth my notes: ARGH!

Ah well. The last two are going to rock. I'll miss you, dead gay show.