LIKE 237 YEARS OLDER THAN I AM: Returning to "Blogging Buffy," this week we address "Angel" and "I Robot, You Jane." In last week's comments, there was a lot of antipathy toward the latter, which I quite liked. Yes, the "demon in the system" plotline was trite, and the technology now feels quite antiquated, but there are a lot of nice additions and foreshadowing. I don't know a ton about upcoming story arcs, but I know big picture stuff like the "Dark Willow" plot, and the ease with which Willow falls into Moloch's trap out of a desire for human connection seems to foreshadow that. Like "The Pack," we have another silly and somewhat rushed ending, with robo-demon basically destroying itself rather than being stopped by any action of the Slayer and the Slayerettes. Jenny Calendar is a nice addition, if just for giving someone for Giles to play off of who's both in his world and not in his world.
"Angel," on the other hand, must have been an enormously effective and scary episode when it first aired, but it's unavoidable for anyone who hasn't had their head in the sand popculturally not to be spoiled on it, and the "tormented vampire" shtick has been done one too many times in recent years (White Wolf, Moonlight, Twilight). Sure, it demonstrates (to at least some extent) that Boreanaz can act and have some depth, and demonstrates the real threat that Buffy's slayerdom places on those around her with the Darla attack on Ms. Summers, but there's no shock, which renders it kind of a toothless episode on rewatch.
No comments:
Post a Comment