New to Angel, and I'm having this problem...
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Sunday, June 4, 2006 12:55
VIEWED: 15893
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I started having this problem during Buffy's fourth season viewing, and now I've identified it during my rental of AtS S1, they try so hard to gut you, pull your emotional strings, and make you feel for the characters, yet it's a show about monsters, vampires, and guys with latex masks and body-suits doing martial arts.
I'm all about martial arts, but is every demon outta Hell a black belt? The premise is almost too silly to argue about- reality must be checked at the door. But in doing so, I seem to lose that 'real' connection to the characters, and their troubles...
Firefly is real to me, every single time a character felt something, I was there, too. When Jayne says, " Don't tell em what I did, make something up...", I get a genuine LUMP in my throat! And Mal doesn't pull a Bruce Lee on Early, who is a professionally trained assasin. Little doses of reality on a space show that draws you in, makes you believe what's happening.
The last show of Angel featuring Doyle should've had me in tears for long after it's end, yet I felt a contrived and quite limited grief. The plot devices and general unbelievability of the situations on the show give it a very fanciful edge, and it can be gorram funny, but the pathos is lost on me.
On Buffy, I don't have as much of that problem, Xander is the saving grace for me, I like it MOSTLY for the funny.
Am I alone in this feeling?
And more importantly, are there any guns aimed in my direction for this thread?
Trepidacious Chrisisall
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You aren't wrong.
BtVS & Ats are fantasies...and the fanciful nature of the shows is from the most basic level.
After Angel ended Joss, at a Q&A at Chicago's Wizard World, said he was sick of vampires.
Personally I thought that that statement related to the fact that Joss had no use for aliens in his sci-fi. When you have things that are clearly made up then the world you've created is much less real.
I have to say that I have no trouble with wacky sci-fi filled with aliens (Farscape was definitely wacky!), or fantasy with alll the demons and witches and all, so long as the writing is wonderful and the characters are compelling. I loved Buffy & Angel, and I feel that they represent something really special and creative (you'll never get a musical of Firefly/Serenity because it wouldn't be 'real').
But I do agree that Firefly/Serenity is the very best of Joss' work, no argument on that head.
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Yeah, have the same problem with Buffy. It doesn't bother me quite as much on Angel for some reason. I kind of remember there was at least one episode where they self-referentially made fun of the fact that all vampires rise from the graves the first time with innate martial arts skills...
Jayne, your mouth is talkin. Might want to look into that.
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Well, on the other hand, you have Babylon 5, and while many of my best friends lauded the series as the best thing since (and sometimes better than) Star Trek, I personally found it to be boring and dry- too real for it's own good (funky aliens excluded).
So my view is definitly only one particular view...(plus: I'd take wacky over dry any day of the week).
All in all, I AM enjoying AtS, though.
Chrisisall
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The parts of "Hero" that explain Doyle's character more and the ending work for me. I wasn't crazy about the plot itself and I thought the Scourge was a bad idea stupidly executed. As season one moves along, it becomes more intriguing as W&H plays a bigger role. And the character development and stories get more interesting. Hang in there, it gets better. Especially S2.
As to the martial arts exptertise of 99% of the vampires and every demon whose costume doesn't restrict him? You notice it. You kind of make fun of it. Just as you do when you notice the abundance of wood that seems to be readily available in Sunnydale. But for me, that stuff is so minor compared to what's good that I can suspend disbelief.
But if it interferes with your connection to the characters then it just does and you're entitled to feel that way.
That kind of omnipresent fighting ability wouldn't work on FIREFLY because of its more realistic setting, tone, etc. But if FIREFLY had gone on long enough it probably would have developed some sort of idiosyncracy that might have challenged suspension of disbelief.
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Quote:Maybe, but the set-up would have limited it, I think. The no-aliens thing for one. No bumpy headed monsters were ever gonna show up to 'take over the Alliance', and prove a greater threat *que omninous music*
Originally posted by batmarlowe:
But if FIREFLY had gone on long enough it probably would have developed some sort of idiosyncracy that might have challenged suspension of disbelief.
Don't get me wrong, some of my best friends are aliens Chrisisall
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If I can suspend belief enough to accept a world populated by vampires, demons, and a high school girl with superpowers, then I have no trouble with the high degree of fighting skills of said-monsters.
The shows are really about the characters and the stories surrounding them; the demons are just a tool for helping to tell those stories.
Plus, the fights are always so well-choreographed and acted that I find them so much fun to watch. The one in "Destiny" (Angel S5) which takes up nearly two full acts is as epic as anything ever done on one of Joss's shows. 
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I, too, wish that Whedon had been able to create a Network TV show about teen-twenty sex and drugs without having to dress them up as vampires and magic, but that's showbiz I guess. Having a heroine saving the World many times was probably more acceptable than serial abortions; if you don't think babies are apocalyptic, ask your Mom and Dad 
I thought that the fights on Firefly were an homage to 'Sixties TV Westerns rather than an attempt at realism - must be the way I fight 
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"Destiny" has the absolute best fight in all of Buffy/Angeldom!
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