Angel thoughts
Jul. 28th, 2002 03:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebratqueenI was checking out the TWOP Angel boards for spoilers and spied a thread on acting. It was interesting enough that I came out of nearly a year-long lurkdom and posted.
I'll share my thoughts here for whoever's interested:
It's worth noting who directed various episodes when doling out acting credit. DB can churn out a good performance ("good" not necessarly "great") if a good director is at the helm. Likewise AA has vaguely palatable scenes depending on how she's directed.
Loyalty is a great episode for watching the power of the director and the actors because the script itself isn't that strong and has many elements - like Darth Burger - which could've sunk the whole thing just by being there. That the episode actually worked in spite of all that is a credit to AD as an actor and James A Contner as a director.
Contrast that with Tomorrow which also had many nonsensical elements and none of them worked. Reason being - David Greenwalt can't direct his way out of a paper bag.
Tim Minear and Turi Meyer tend to be very good at pulling performances out of the actors. The few eps where Angel's "stoic facial expression which actually hints at emotion" comes out tend to be directed by Tim. Of course Tim also gets overly fond of style over substance, and even Turi couldn't save the sinkhole that was "Offspring"
When I try to judge the actors, then, I look at who pulled a good performance no matter the writer, director or episode. AD is consistantly good. CC spotty depending on her material (and I agree with those who said that it was obvious she didn't like s3). DB needs good acting partners or a strong director. AH does well and I'd say only falls flat when he's hardly given any lines to work with beyond handing Angel his coat.
JAR and AA are hard to judge because their material was all over the place. Gunn turned into this piece of schmoopy pudding out of nowhere - bad acting, writing or some from column A and some from column B? He seems best in certain kinds of scenes - angry, bantering, etc - but he can't sell romance.
After an entire year of AA I'm inclined to say she can't act. Granted Fred was all over the board but at no time was AA ever able to make her feel like a person. She showed promise in the early "ditzy because insane" episodes, but once Fredless magically healed the character it was all downhill from there. She wavers her voice, recites her lines and gets her paycheck.
ML actually surprised the heck out of me because he sold the character of Groo. Yes, Groo was a useless waste of space and the worst one-joke demon since Anya came to Sunnydale, but if you put that aside you'll see ML actually putting some believability into the idea of Groo as this overly earnest demon who's just trying to help. I don't say that this makes ML Olivier, but considering the crappiness of the character and the multiple directors that he worked with, I think credit's got to go to ML for any goodness to be found there.
(Which again goes back to why I blame AA - Fred was just as useless a character but AA never once sold her on anything. If Groo of all people could grow on me, then AA's got to share the fault of the uselessness of Fred)
I'll share my thoughts here for whoever's interested:
It's worth noting who directed various episodes when doling out acting credit. DB can churn out a good performance ("good" not necessarly "great") if a good director is at the helm. Likewise AA has vaguely palatable scenes depending on how she's directed.
Loyalty is a great episode for watching the power of the director and the actors because the script itself isn't that strong and has many elements - like Darth Burger - which could've sunk the whole thing just by being there. That the episode actually worked in spite of all that is a credit to AD as an actor and James A Contner as a director.
Contrast that with Tomorrow which also had many nonsensical elements and none of them worked. Reason being - David Greenwalt can't direct his way out of a paper bag.
Tim Minear and Turi Meyer tend to be very good at pulling performances out of the actors. The few eps where Angel's "stoic facial expression which actually hints at emotion" comes out tend to be directed by Tim. Of course Tim also gets overly fond of style over substance, and even Turi couldn't save the sinkhole that was "Offspring"
When I try to judge the actors, then, I look at who pulled a good performance no matter the writer, director or episode. AD is consistantly good. CC spotty depending on her material (and I agree with those who said that it was obvious she didn't like s3). DB needs good acting partners or a strong director. AH does well and I'd say only falls flat when he's hardly given any lines to work with beyond handing Angel his coat.
JAR and AA are hard to judge because their material was all over the place. Gunn turned into this piece of schmoopy pudding out of nowhere - bad acting, writing or some from column A and some from column B? He seems best in certain kinds of scenes - angry, bantering, etc - but he can't sell romance.
After an entire year of AA I'm inclined to say she can't act. Granted Fred was all over the board but at no time was AA ever able to make her feel like a person. She showed promise in the early "ditzy because insane" episodes, but once Fredless magically healed the character it was all downhill from there. She wavers her voice, recites her lines and gets her paycheck.
ML actually surprised the heck out of me because he sold the character of Groo. Yes, Groo was a useless waste of space and the worst one-joke demon since Anya came to Sunnydale, but if you put that aside you'll see ML actually putting some believability into the idea of Groo as this overly earnest demon who's just trying to help. I don't say that this makes ML Olivier, but considering the crappiness of the character and the multiple directors that he worked with, I think credit's got to go to ML for any goodness to be found there.
(Which again goes back to why I blame AA - Fred was just as useless a character but AA never once sold her on anything. If Groo of all people could grow on me, then AA's got to share the fault of the uselessness of Fred)
