frelling_tralk

I recently finished reading Slayers and Vampires: The Complete Uncensored, Unauthorised, Oral History of Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Angel

The reviews for it seem in the low side, and I suppose the way it’s put together with just assorted bits from various interviews is a bit haphazard, but I really enjoyed it anyway. Even as a longtime Buffy fan, it had quite a bit of new info in there for me.

I found out a lot about Charisma Carpenter especially which I hadn’t been aware of before, she goes into a lot of detail about her anxiety and how hard it made her to learn lines. Apparently even when she was performing in talent shows when she was younger, she would have the routines memorised, but then her mind would just freeze up on the day and she would forget what she was meant to be doing. It was the same with learning lines, she said that people on the set were actually really great about it because they knew that it wasn’t just a case of being unprepared, that she really was trying. I read the authors elsewhere talking about how Sarah *did* give Charisma a hard time for constantly forgetting her lines, and so she was always worrying about being fired, but in the book at least she says that everyone in the cast was very understanding, it was more that she kept worrying about how sick of her they must be. She notes feeling very inadequate when the lead actress was 4 or 5 years younger than her and always knew all her lines without any problems, while Charisma kept struggling over her same few lines, and that it’s a really big deal when you’re costing a production money by not being able to get your lines in one or two takes. She was having meetings with the producers, her agents were being called, and she felt awful about it. She ended up taking anti-anxiety medication, she went to a psychiatrist, and the producers hired an acting coach for her after asking her what else they could do to help. She also struggled a lot with hitting her mark because she was so inexperienced, and one cameraman in particular would make her feel stupid for not getting it.

James Marsters notes that Sarah was great if you knew all your lines, hit your marks, and were prepared, but it was very hard for her because they were regularly filming up to 16/17/18 hours a day, it would often go up to 20 hours even and they would rarely see the sun. The show was known as Buffy The Weekend Slayer in the industry as they were filming for such unusually long hours, and it was especially draining on Sarah as she had to carry so much of the show.


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10 episodes of Angel that show how it was more than Buffy redux”

Episodes listed are To Shanshu In L.A from season 1, Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been from season 2, Fredless, Birthday, Waiting In The Wings, AND Forgiving from season 3, Soulless from season 4, and finally Smile Time, A Hole In The World, and Not Fade Away from season 5.

To me that that list is seriously failing when it comes to season 2, what about episodes like Darla and Reunion?!? Home from season 4 also deserves a mention IMO, as well as You're Welcome from season 5. Fredless is a cute episode and all, but is it really comparable to the best episodes of the series?

The writer of the article talks about season 3 clearly being the overall best season, "As with Buffy, fans of Angel argue over which is the best season. Is it the second, which properly begins the larger story and gives it scope? The fifth, which wraps up that story with some hard but inspiring lessons? Or the third, which… okay, there shouldn’t really be any contest here. It’s the third. Most of Whedon’s top-shelf writers were heavily involved in season three (including Greenwalt, Minear, Noxon, and Fury), as the plotting became more complex and sophisticated, with the characters making crucial decisions that didn’t always pan out. Most importantly, the third season properly introduces Fred, who soon becomes the clever, sunny, quirky fan favourite

I don't remember season 3 being a particular fan favourite, but then I was thinking about it and I'm not sure that Angel does have universally (well more or less) agreed "best seasons" like Buffy does? Some people really love season 4 and the heavy serialisation there, while some absolutely hate it for what it does to Cordelia's character. Some really love the darker moments of season 3 with Holtz and Wesley, but then I saw a lot of dislike for "Soap Opera elements" at the time when season 3 was first airing, the Angel/Cordelia romance, dorky Angel, and the birth of Conner were by no means universally popular. With Buffy it's generally pretty easy to point to seasons 2, 3, and 5 as the clear favourites, but every Angel season seems to get a LOT of debate between love or hate from what I've seen.

To go off on a tangent for a moment, it seems like most of the hate for season 4 is because of Cordelia's character being lost that year, but I'd argue that already started happening in season 3. The first half of season 3 was great for portraying a more mature Cordelia, but the more they pushed the Angel/Cordelia romance, the more they started writing Cordelia as a Saint and Mother figure for Conner which just didn't work IMO and rang really false. Again at the time I remember a ton of controversy at how Cordelia was being written, especially all the fan jokes on the season 3 finale when she's carried off to the Heavens with twinkly lights, so it's interesting that season 4 takes all the blame for "ruining her character". Technically season 4 was not Cordelia any more, so there's actually more of a justification for the writing of her that year, in comparison to the saintly blonde that Double Or Nothing introduced to us. I remember speculation at the time was that it was down to David Greenwalt getting too carried away with seeing Cordelia as perfect, but I'm wondering now if it was more about fast-tracking Cordelia character arc to becoming a higher being, and thus wrapping up her journey? I remember at the end of season 4 that Joss said something to that effect of having nowhere else to take Cordelia's character at that point

It seemed that Joss allowed behind the scenes drama to affect the writing for Cordelia in quite negative ways unfortunately. I've noticed that posters on ohnotheydidnt get super-defensive if you imply that the treatment of Charisma was about anything other than Joss firing her for getting pregnant, but I would argue there were a lot of weird vibes in season 3 as well, there was definitely speculation at the time as to whether the Ascension was a way of writing Cordelia out. It's just a shame that Joss allowed whatever BTS drama there was to make its way onto the writing of the character

And this entry is starting to get really O/T, so maybe I should stop there :P But here's a poll anyway for favourite Angel season!

[Poll #2017986]

"The WB 20th anniversary: Ranking all 32 of the network's dramas from worst to best "

I thoroughly approve of Buffy, Dawson's Creek, and Gilmore Girls being the top three <3 And hmm Felicity is #4, I never actually watched that show, but I've been wondering lately if it might be worth checking out as a lot of people seem to like it? There have been soooo many high-school based shows, it might be a nice change of pace to watch one focused on the college years for a change :P (Oh and Angel is #5, Smallville is #6, Roswell is #10, and Supernatural is #11)

Andy Hallett is dead :/



Andy Hallett, who starred as Lorne ("the Host") on the TV series Angel, died of heart failure last night at age 33, according to his longtime agent and friend Pat Brady. The actor passed away at Cedars-Sinai Hospital after a five-year battle with heart disease, with his father Dave Hallett by his side


http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/watch_with_kristin/b106789_angel_star_andy_hallett_dies_of_heart.html