areacode212

That EOnline! article is by Kristin. I'll sell your post: That's why you should do what I do and copy your posts (CTRL-A, CTRL-C is your friend) before you click on "Add Reply". It was probably just really startling to see this normal-looking guy up & punch some dude through the chest. I mean, we were all expecting something to happen to that redshirt security guard, but they probably didn't see that coming. Plus, Harmony scares pretty easily (remember Phantom Dennis?). I think some of the questions will be answered, but I'm cool with not everything being revealed. It doesn't really matter to me how Lindsey got the amulet, or whatever the stupid "final failsafe" was in "You're Welcome" (I'm trying to forget all the Lindsey stuff from that ep anyway). As for the mystery of who brought him back from hell...I'm comfortable with the Jasmine explanation, but again, I'm cool with it remaining vague. I'm more interested in what Angel thinks it means than what the "true" explanation is.

Why did you stop? Just go ahead and watch the rest of them.

She's doing the When Harry Met Sally Meg Ryan diner scene. This bugged the shit out of me. They should've played that opening scene a little less light-heartedly. It's pretty annoying to watch an episode like "Heartthrob", which is all about Angel's issues over Buffy's death. Then we have Cordy's death, which doesn't seem to affect anyone at all. I haven't thought about it much (only saw it last night), and I need to see it again, but I think Lawson was a lot like pre-W&H Angel...he was taking orders with the idea that there was some kind of purpose & meaning behind them. Then, in order to save his men, he ended up changing into something else, and "the mission" changed. Kind of like taking over Wolfram & Hart. Or something like that. I'm too sleepy to be coherent. I enjoyed the Initiative reference.

I guess BtVS & AtS just had different time frames at that point. Don't forget they were on different networks by then, and Angel debuted a week earlier (9/24) than BtVS did (10/2). I assume matching up the episodes between the two shows wasn't such a big priority.

I've heard of people who ordered it from Amazon already receiving their Season 3 DVDs. I'll be getting it from CC tomorrow morning though.

There's some interesting casting news floating around that put a big cheesy grin on my face. Yep, (spoiler)Julie Benz has been in every season of the show so far(/spoiler), and it looks like season 5 is no exception (unless this turns out to be false, which it could be). I was pretty excited when I read that. It's always good times when they're around.

You left out: CHAPPELLE: "Give it to Kim" KIM: "WHAT?!?!"

OK, for those of you who are like me and are going insane counting down the minutes before WB shows the 100th episode, everyone's favorite episode downloading site has the "You're Welcome" teaser up right now. I can see them uploading Act 1 as I type this, but it looks like it's being uploaded on a 56k modem because it's progressing REALLY SLOOOWWWLY. By the time it finishes, 9 p.m. won't be far off anyway. Anyway, I was really, really hoping for a "The Gift"-style previously, but the version I downloaded didn't have one.

Bulletproof vest? She was shot in the hand, then returned to custody until all that bomb crap was over. Few people believe this will actually happen. Probably not, but for me, it's gone from Appointment TV to just another show to snark on. Some teenager is carrying a virus? Who cares? Kiefer was playing everyone from the start and is really a triple-agent who's still working for CTU? What the fuck ever! Chase being tortured? Good, he's the Riley Finn of 24, only not as cool as the original. I just find myself not caring this season. Partly because I'm jaded to the whole gimmick, but also because 24 is such a plot-driven show that when you don't care about the plot, why watch? I don't care about most of the characters since they're so boring & one-dimensional. I never really cared about Michelle, so why should I give a shit if her marriage is on the rocks? Yeah, it's cool to see Nina & Lady Mac again, and the whole Gina Torres storyline is so stupid, it's fun, but honestly--I finish watching an episode, and I'm like, "huh, that was interesting. I wonder what'll happen next. Oh, whatever", then I'll go and not think about 24 again until I see the next ep. I just watch to see what's going to happen (and for Chloe's comic relief), but I'm not nearly as invested in this show as I used to be.

The way I'm interpreting it (I have to watch those episodes again), whenever there was a reference to the "Powers That Be", it was Jasmine all along. Didn't she say something like, "the powers don't care about humanity; they never did" ? She was behind everything...his return from hell, the snow, the visions, Darla's pregnancy. It was all part of her plan to bring about Connor, then herself. It's possible that Jasmine & Skip were lying about this, but what *really* happened isn't that important: The important part is this is what Angel thinks. In "Amends", he ends up thinking that the Powers that Be do have a higher purpose for him. At the end of last season, he realizes that he was nothing more than a tool. Why did he even bother doing good for the past 4 years? Well, not all of them (like Holland), but a lot of those guys were.

I mean metaphorically, but think of Wolfram & Hart as "the devil" (that's how they were sort of portrayed in the beginning anyway, with everyone (Lindsey McDonald, Lilah Morgan, Linwood Murrow, Lee Mercer) having "L.M." (Lucifer Morningstar) initials). Yeah, they also promised to take care of Connor, but after he realized that everything he was working for was false, why else would he allow himself to work for his arch-enemy? The reveal that Jasmine was behind everything was a huge blow. His "higher purpose" is gone. So when Lilah comes along, offering him all the power of Wolfram & Hart...why not take it? He has nothing left. Basically, he says, "fuck it" and pretty much gives up. He talks a lot about "using W&H to do good", but it never sounds like his heart is in it.

If you liked that, I also had some things to say about "Amends" and last season's Jasmine arc that some of you might find interesting: This is what happens when you have a really long, boring commute to work, and you start thinking about Angel & Buffy.

Thanks. See, I need validation too. Just like Harmony. Yeah, I try to drop in every once in a while, but it's like, there are only so many hours in a day. BTW, if any of you are fans of 24, remember that bitchy girl who was stuck in jail with Kim back in the first season? She'll be playing Dana, next week's psycho slayer.

Hey, nice new Invision software. "Harm's Way" was actually my personal favorite episode of the season so far. And it's not just because I lurve Harmony. Well, OK, it is, but there was a lot more going on in the story than people seem to think. I mean, I enjoyed it perfectly well as a simple Harmony story, or as a metaphor for how being a secretary sucks, but am I the only person to see parallels between Harmony, Angel & Spike, or am I just crazy? I got to thinking of this stuff after seeing what someone wrote about the chick fight being a sendup of Angel/Spike. See, I think "Harm's Way" was basically reflecting the stuff that was going on with Angel & Spike, only on a smaller scale. I typed this stuff up for another board (also, it's a result of drinking too much coffee while thinking of Angel):

More on how stupid they are: http://www.gawker.com/03/05/005754.html http://elizabethspiers.com/files/2003/08/1...trajectory.html

Good god, Mole. It's January 2004. Not only has the trucker hat trend been over for like, 6 months, it was incredibly stupid to begin with. Nobody wears that shit anymore. Save your $75 and buy something worthwhile. Seriously, they were the "in thing" in like Spring/Summer--at this point, nothing screams "fashion victim" like a fucking trucker hat. . Trends like this have a really, really short shelf life because they look so ridiculous.

Hey, congrats Sass. I had no idea about this.

The demo numbers are hard to get, since places like futon critic, Mediaweek and Zap2It just report the total overnight/fast national/final national ratings. I have to rely on other people to analyze the demo breakdowns.

As far as what advertisers care about, the # of total viewers isn't quite as important as the all-powerful 18-34 male demographic. Since there's an overall decline in this demo from last season, and since Angel actually managed to be one of the few shows to improve in this area, at least at the beginning of the season, things aren't quite as bad as Mole seems to think. Also, Wanda/Kristen from E! mentioned a couple of weeks ago that according to "her sources", the WB is happy with the ratings increase this season and that a season 6 renewal is likely. I'd take whatever she says with a grain of salt (her nickname is Wrongda, after all), but it's worth mentioning.

What would've been the point in vamping Faith though? Yeah, VampFaith might be interesting to see in a Wishverse-type scenario, but in the "real world", it would've just been a sad, depressing end to the character, where she never gets the chance to fully earn her redemption by helping Angel or returning to Sunnydale. We've already seen all of Faith's self-loathing/inferiority issues come out without having to resort to a vampire version of her. IMO, it would've just been a retread of BtVS S3, except that the decision to kill her would no longer be morally questionable, since she'd be beyond saving at that point.

Now you (or your girlfriend) can dress like Beth!

Exactly. WB has 2 new 1-hour shows this season (One Tree Hill & Tarzan), and neither of them are doing as well as Angel (though there are some midseason replacements in the queue). The O.C. starts on the 29th. Mark Berman is just a dick. I've been getting his newsletter since last season, and every time ratings came in for Angel, he's always made snide comments about it, but he loves to push crap like The Jamie Kennedy Experiment. Fuck him.

Yeah, that episode did really well (3.6--the last one that did better was Blind Date). Final nationals for this week's ep came out a couple of hours ago---everyone dropped a bit, thanks to the playoffs. From Mediaweek: Also? Mark Berman is an ass.

Maybe DB'll direct the Harmony episode (#9). After reading a major spoiler for episode 7, I've vowed to myself that I'm avoiding detailed spoilers from this point on. But the way I understand it, Angel himself won't be on screen very much in that ep, so it'll be a good opportunity for him to be behind the camera.

True, Greenwalt's episodes veered pretty wildly in one direction or the other. For each gem (Homecoming, FHT, To Shanshu...), there was a "Happy Anniversary" or a "She" (I think Bai Ling was the most annoying part of that ep, though). Still, even his crappy episodes had some great moments.