30 Days of Angel - Day Twelve
Aug. 12th, 2010 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
samsomGah, so tired. And so totally devoid of rational thought.
But not so far gone that I can't meme.
Season Five. Anyone surprised?
Didn’t think so.
The biggest reason, of course, is the absence of Cordelia Chase/Charisma Carpenter – the “heart” of AtS. She is my OTC, the POV through which I filtered the show. Being so emotionally invested in one character, there was no way for me to divorce the storytelling from the way CC was fired. Or ignore the glaring need to replace Cordelia with not one but three characters – Eve, the conduit with something unseen but powerful, Harmony the chirpy secretary who didn’t know how to filter what she said, and Spike, who took over Cordy’s position on the DVD covers.
But even if I was able to put aside the atrocious way CC was treated, this season would still have been a no-go with me. When I tuned in to City of…, I was interested in Angel as a vampire, formally evil, with the potential to go evil again, unable to be around humans, unable to communicate with them, but who wanted to help, to find meaning in his existence, and maybe redemption for his evil past.
I loved the Angel who hung out in the shadows, the back alleys, and the sewers. He, and Doyle, Wesley and Cordelia, were outsiders fighting the systematic evil from the streets, one soul at a time. Sunnydale rejects who formed their own small but fiercely loyal family of warriors and mages.
So when I watched Home, I couldn’t help but be horrified and disgusted that the Angel who destroyed the Ring of Amarra in order to help the “unseen” people of the night, was going to be heading up Evil, Inc. from a high rise office behind necro-tempered glass, and trade his black-on-black look for power suits and limos. From what I could discern, that family I loved had fragmented into near strangers with secrets and secret resentments, working together but not a team.
And did I mention the absent heart?
That wasn’t the show I loved anymore, and I will always hate season five for twisting it further into something unrecognizable instead of mending the horror of season four.
But not so far gone that I can't meme.
Season Five. Anyone surprised?
Didn’t think so.
The biggest reason, of course, is the absence of Cordelia Chase/Charisma Carpenter – the “heart” of AtS. She is my OTC, the POV through which I filtered the show. Being so emotionally invested in one character, there was no way for me to divorce the storytelling from the way CC was fired. Or ignore the glaring need to replace Cordelia with not one but three characters – Eve, the conduit with something unseen but powerful, Harmony the chirpy secretary who didn’t know how to filter what she said, and Spike, who took over Cordy’s position on the DVD covers.
But even if I was able to put aside the atrocious way CC was treated, this season would still have been a no-go with me. When I tuned in to City of…, I was interested in Angel as a vampire, formally evil, with the potential to go evil again, unable to be around humans, unable to communicate with them, but who wanted to help, to find meaning in his existence, and maybe redemption for his evil past.
I loved the Angel who hung out in the shadows, the back alleys, and the sewers. He, and Doyle, Wesley and Cordelia, were outsiders fighting the systematic evil from the streets, one soul at a time. Sunnydale rejects who formed their own small but fiercely loyal family of warriors and mages.
So when I watched Home, I couldn’t help but be horrified and disgusted that the Angel who destroyed the Ring of Amarra in order to help the “unseen” people of the night, was going to be heading up Evil, Inc. from a high rise office behind necro-tempered glass, and trade his black-on-black look for power suits and limos. From what I could discern, that family I loved had fragmented into near strangers with secrets and secret resentments, working together but not a team.
And did I mention the absent heart?
That wasn’t the show I loved anymore, and I will always hate season five for twisting it further into something unrecognizable instead of mending the horror of season four.
