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thebratqueenI've said it before but it bears repeating: it's a bittersweet pain to watch s2 Gunn, knowing the kinds of crappy dialogue and plotlines that are going to be shoved down his throat because for some god-unknown reason Joss couldn't figure out what to do with him.
Why yes I rewatched "Untouched" tonight, why do you ask?
Ahh, Mere Smith's first. Remarkable in that in spite of Joss's obvious efforts to fix it up, you can still see some of Mere's hallmarks in there. Though it's also amusing that some of her weak spots are also Joss's weak spots. This possibly goes far to answer my question about why Mere was allowed to write for the show as long as she was. (blah blah obLoyaltywasagoodepandasfarasweknowshewrotemostofit disclaimer).
I was amused this time to notice a bit of blocking on David's part which is a fav of mine from s4. He's got somebody behind him and he just puts his arm back, without looking, and the blocking as a concept involves just this extra stretch with his fingertips that basically sums up with this tiny bit of movement how little he thinks of the person he's interacting with. In Untouched it's him handing off the coffee cup to the cop without glancing back to see if the cop even takes it. In Salvage it's Angelus pushing one of the shempires away, where his fingertips give that extra inch of push that makes it all the more funny.
The Salvage move gets me every time, so it was interesting to see that David had done it before.
The other thing I noticed - well, always noticed but this time actually wondered about - is how at one point in Untouched Wes is written out of the ep. I didn't really get into the meta and the set gossip until later s2 (ah, the foiler of the Gunn/Cordy relationship, how we miss you) so I'm left to be curious now as to whether Alexis had some side project going that week and needed the time off, or if this was the first sign of Mere's classic "I can't write all the characters, so the ones I forget about basically vanish from the screen like it's Sting's Set Them Free video."
It's interesting in that def. a case can be made that there's nothing for Wes to do, so might as well provide a reason for why he's not there (and certainly it's a better reason than Mere's usual "stand them in a corner silently" or "put them in another room until they have a line again" - which I'm assuming was Joss's influence). But OTOH there's no reason for Cordy to be present in the final scene with Angel, Bethany, and Bethany's dad either and yet there she is. Hence me wondering if Alexis had another job that week, or maybe even a vacation that he was due ;)
Ah well. We may never know.
Still, good times. s4 is, of course, my baby now but s2 is still high up there in my favs. It's nice to snuggle up with it again.
Why yes I rewatched "Untouched" tonight, why do you ask?
Ahh, Mere Smith's first. Remarkable in that in spite of Joss's obvious efforts to fix it up, you can still see some of Mere's hallmarks in there. Though it's also amusing that some of her weak spots are also Joss's weak spots. This possibly goes far to answer my question about why Mere was allowed to write for the show as long as she was. (blah blah obLoyaltywasagoodepandasfarasweknowshewrotemostofit disclaimer).
I was amused this time to notice a bit of blocking on David's part which is a fav of mine from s4. He's got somebody behind him and he just puts his arm back, without looking, and the blocking as a concept involves just this extra stretch with his fingertips that basically sums up with this tiny bit of movement how little he thinks of the person he's interacting with. In Untouched it's him handing off the coffee cup to the cop without glancing back to see if the cop even takes it. In Salvage it's Angelus pushing one of the shempires away, where his fingertips give that extra inch of push that makes it all the more funny.
The Salvage move gets me every time, so it was interesting to see that David had done it before.
The other thing I noticed - well, always noticed but this time actually wondered about - is how at one point in Untouched Wes is written out of the ep. I didn't really get into the meta and the set gossip until later s2 (ah, the foiler of the Gunn/Cordy relationship, how we miss you) so I'm left to be curious now as to whether Alexis had some side project going that week and needed the time off, or if this was the first sign of Mere's classic "I can't write all the characters, so the ones I forget about basically vanish from the screen like it's Sting's Set Them Free video."
It's interesting in that def. a case can be made that there's nothing for Wes to do, so might as well provide a reason for why he's not there (and certainly it's a better reason than Mere's usual "stand them in a corner silently" or "put them in another room until they have a line again" - which I'm assuming was Joss's influence). But OTOH there's no reason for Cordy to be present in the final scene with Angel, Bethany, and Bethany's dad either and yet there she is. Hence me wondering if Alexis had another job that week, or maybe even a vacation that he was due ;)
Ah well. We may never know.
Still, good times. s4 is, of course, my baby now but s2 is still high up there in my favs. It's nice to snuggle up with it again.
