Final Angel

[calimac]

(not by David del Tredici - never mind, obscure music joke)

As a dedicated Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan I followed its spinoff, Angel, for a while, but it was never as good as the original, and I stopped watching altogether when the vampire sometime-detective signed up to work for his nemesis, Wolfram & Hart, and the writers dredged up the discarded BTVS characters of Spike and Harmony for no better reason than that they could.

However, I got home from class last night in time to catch the last half-hour of the final episode, already being watched by wild_patience and, with somewhat less interest, two cats.

Jumping back in after a gap caused me to note the reappearance on Angel of a couple of beloved Buffy tropes:

1. There will be an extra-special super villain, preferably played by a surplussed actor from Firefly, identified by his ability to pick up the hero by the neck and throw him or her across the room. (Actually there was a whole series of extra-special villains on Buffy with that penchant.)

2. There will be a not-exactly-human female character whose robotic voice will express puzzlement at the discovery that strange things called emotions are coursing through her system. (In Buffy, Anya; in Angel, She-who-is-no-longer-Fred - and yes, I am making an Edward Eager reference there.)

I'm to be on a panel at Baycon on "Grieving for Lost TV Shows," simultaneously with cynthia1960 being on an identical panel at Wiscon. Our panel is asking the question, "Did they die prematurely?", and in the case of Joss Whedon's 3 sfnal shows, I would say no. I liked these shows - they're the only tv series that had commanded my allegiance in the last 30 years; not even TNG or B5 could get me to watch consistently - but Buffy and Angel both went on too long, and I suspect the surprisingly outstanding Firefly may have died just in time to preserve its sterling reputation.

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[supergee.livejournal.com]

As they said about Elvis's death: good career move.