Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Jul 16, 2017 21:05:17 GMT -8
"Harm's Way" was cute. I mean, if you're going to have an episode with no relation to the overarching plot, might as well be a goofy Harmony standalone...?
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Jul 19, 2017 20:02:48 GMT -8
"Destiny" [5x08] Writers: David Fury & Steven S. DeKnight Director: Skip Schoolnik
This episode sets up an alarming template for the rest of the season: have forty minutes of formulaic, Bechdel test-flunking, boring-ass genre pap, then try to redeem it with a handful of very intelligent lines towards the end.
Part of this is that I just don't respond to the flashbacks on this show unless they comprise the meat of the episode ("Darla," "Are You Now"), and here they seem almost like an afterthought; and when they don't, they're made much worse by their surrounding context, most notably in the way Drusilla is paralleled with a sippy cup. (And a sippy cup of MOUNTAIN DEW at that! Could you get any bro-ier?) Oh, and speaking of misogyny, Eve is here for some reason, and she's especially obnoxious this episode. And in cahoots with Lindsey Macdonald too! There's a confusing apocalypse plot which mostly results in everyone's mascara getting all smudgy.
Spike has a fascinating back-and-forth with Angel towards the end pointing out that while Angel's soul was given to him as a curse, he went to great lengths to achieve it to help him become a better person. Which is a brilliant point! It also rings hollow because the first half of the episode sees Spike become corporeal and then immediately regress back to wild sex with Harmony. Which makes sense if you're aiming for a greatest hits of William the Bloody, oscillating between his pre-soul antics and his post-soul self-reflection, but then you have stuff like him screaming about shagging his mum which makes no sense for either?
In conclusion, this episode seems to exist for the same reason Spike has his corporeality mailed to him in a cardboard box: just 'cause lol
60/100
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Post by ThirdMan on Jul 19, 2017 23:29:14 GMT -8
Hey, even generally good, souled vampires have needs.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Jul 20, 2017 8:04:12 GMT -8
"Harm's Way" [5x09] Writers: Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft Director: Vern Gillum
It's funny: I was just thinking, gee, "The Zeppo" was pretty funny, but I think it was too funny, and also provided too much character development for its lead. Wouldn't it be neat if we got an episode that was like "The Zeppo," but not funny and with no character relevance? Because let's be clear here: this episode has no real purpose other than being a laugh riot. And it is just not funny. I guess the chopstick fight was pretty good?
And yet, it was still one of the most enjoyable episodes of the season, because Harmony is not a po-faced corporate executive. So... yay for levity, I guess?
70/100
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Jul 31, 2017 10:16:54 GMT -8
I just watched "You're Welcome"
Good episode, although, it is telling that the best episode of Season Five is the one that says "hey guys, remember Season One"
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Aug 18, 2017 10:51:13 GMT -8
Took a little break from this, but just now watched "Why We Fight" and "Smile Time"
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Aug 18, 2017 12:12:42 GMT -8
Woah! I just discovered an internal memo from the Angel writers room that gave me some real insight on how they structured the episodes this season. Check it out!
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Post by Jay on Aug 18, 2017 13:08:09 GMT -8
Took a little break from this, but just now watched "Why We Fight" and "Smile Time" Show us on the puppet what score you gave "Smile Time."
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Post by Jeremy on Aug 18, 2017 13:22:11 GMT -8
Woah! I just discovered an internal memo from the Angel writers room that gave me some real insight on how they structured the episodes this season. Check it out!If you think this memo applies perfectly to Angel S5, just wait'll you see the last season of TNG.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Aug 18, 2017 13:22:33 GMT -8
Took a little break from this, but just now watched "Why We Fight" and "Smile Time" Show us on the puppet what score you gave "Smile Time." It was exactly the level of brilliance I expected from an episode with the central premise "what if Alien but the alien is the kids from The Puzzle Place" e.g. a fucking MASTERPIECE Woah! I just discovered an internal memo from the Angel writers room that gave me some real insight on how they structured the episodes this season. Check it out!If you think this memo applies perfectly to Angel S5, just wait'll you see the last season of TNG. If you think I'm watching 178 episodes of TNG...
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Post by Jeremy on Aug 18, 2017 13:36:31 GMT -8
Well, that's why they have Star Trek skip guides. (Totes unrelated, but did you guys know I once wrote a Star Trek skip guide?)
Are you doing more write-ups? I need to see if your reviews of "Soul Purpose" and "Damage" could possibly be better than the ones on CT.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Aug 18, 2017 14:02:39 GMT -8
I don't really like skip guides. If I'm going to skip half the episodes of a show, what's the point of watching it sequentially instead of watching a few sample episodes?
And probably yes, although frankly I've already completely forgotten everything about "Damage" and "You're Welcome."
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Post by Incandescence 112 on Aug 18, 2017 15:20:16 GMT -8
I don't really like skip guides. If I'm going to skip half the episodes of a show, what's the point of watching it sequentially instead of watching a few sample episodes? Well if you're watching a good show, the majority of the episodes are going to be worth watching. Plus generally the episodes skipped are poor standalones with no plot/character relevance. Therefore, you're not missing much. Though I do wish more had Jeremy's 'recommended but not required' designation.
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Aug 19, 2017 16:49:02 GMT -8
"Soul Purpose" [5x10] Writer: Brent Fletcher Director: David Boreanaz
HARMONY: Act like we care? Good plan!
As with every Angel episode, the immediate impetus is to compare it to the similar Buffy episode it's inferior to. Jeremy's (quite good) review dedicated two paragraphs to comparisons between "Soul Purpose" and "Restless" (spoiler: "Restless" is the superior episode). Personally, I'd rather compare it to the Farscape episode "Won't Get Fooled Again." Both episodes are continuity-laden but not strictly interested in foreshadowing or character development beyond establishing that the protagonist is a puppet of villainous forces; and more importantly, most of the flashbacks are explicitly comedic. That the Farscape episode is funnier is indicative of Farscape's willingness to go all-in on its bizarre elements and Angel's preference for tepid jokes at the expense of guys in goofy prosthetics.
Brent Fletcher turns in his first script here, and David Boreanaz directs his first episode of television, which explains a lot: I always got the impression that Boreanaz's preferred mode of acting is hammy, so the especially broad line-readings from Denisof and Marsters are probably Boreanaz's doing. And, given that this is Fletcher's first episode of television ever, I completely understand why the episode is based around dream sequences, which don't require in-depth understanding of character. I mean, that's what Tracey Forbes did over on Buffy: come up with three distinct contrived scenarios in which she wouldn't have to write Buffy in-character. Hence, hammy caricatures of Fred, Gunn, and Wes, and "random" humor more befitting of a DeviantArt user with alternating tildes and asterisks in their username than it is of a Whedonverse script.
Still, said script does display basic competence. There are some clever parallels running throughout the script: Fred puts her ear up to Angel's empty body as if it were a conch shell in one scene, and in the next, she happily listens in on a mortal Spike's heartbeat. Angel pushes a mail cart through Wolfram and Hart like Numero Cinco. And of course, the entire "Doyle" plot hearkens back to Season 1, with explicit references to Angel's early days of damsel-saving. Unfortunately, not content with merely referencing the damsel-saving of Angel's early days, "Soul Purpose" elects to resurrect the patronizing attitudes towards women too. Seriously-- the main through line of this episode is that women are dumdums that are obsessed with clothes and cosmetics. I'm not even kidding. Eve gets caught not because she's shifty and obviously evil, but because she wears earrings. Harmony isn't allowed any agency because she spends company dime on bath bombs (and she confuses Machiavelli with Matchabelli but that gets a pass on account of the line being funny). Fred pulls costume jewelry out of Angel's belly and starts wearing it-- since when has Fred cared about jewelry? And most alarmingly, Spike slut-shames the damsel he rescues, straight-up telling her she deserved to get attacked by vampires because she wore heels. Broads, am I right?
That really does seem to be the implication here, as I'll talk about in "You're Welcome." As for this episode, the only good thing to come out of it is Eve getting unceremoniously dumped.
40/100
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Quiara
Grade School
Posts: 775
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Post by Quiara on Aug 20, 2017 10:54:42 GMT -8
"Damage" [5x11] Writer: Steven S. DeKnight & Drew Goddard Director: Jefferson Kibbee
"Damage" asks the vitally important question, "what if female empowerment was bad!?!?"
I'm kidding. I honestly have next-to-nothing to say about this episode, which gets some surprising pathos out of Spike, but largely strikes me as an inferior echo of "Sanctuary." No doubt this is because Dana is no Faith, and Andrew is no Buffy. One powerful scene at the end does not justify an episode dedicated to broad Andrew antics. By the way, what happened to Andrew's atoning for his past crimes? You'd think that'd come up given the episode's subject matter? Whatever. This had the potential to be an all-time classic, but instead we got an... okay standalone.
75/100
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