Post by stargazer1682 on May 20, 2020 18:55:34 GMT
Man, I really don't like this episode. I don't like this episode so much, that when I saw this was the next episode, I instead chose to binge watch the entire 8 seasons of the original Charmed on Netflix, intermixed with the first half of the series run of Community, before looping back around to this episode.
By the by, anyone else agree that they liked Charm better after
I don't like this episode and not for anything in particular; because it does have some interesting themes that could make for a good episode. But it has has too many things going on and they fail to pick just one concept and develop a strong episode around it. Instead they try to do all of the ideas and end up with a weak episode. They want the gang to find out Cordelia's being hurt by the visions, they want Angel to up against virtual gods to save Cordelia, and they wanted Cordelia to experience how her life might have been had she not received the visions or worked with Angels; and setup making her "part demon" without any great clarity than that. The end product is as much of a clusterfuck as that setup would sound like.
They ignore the fact that they've already tread this path of, "Cordelia's visions are hurting her and she's not telling anyone" with the far superior season 2 episode, "Billy".
Or that Angel's fight-the-gods angle was done better the season 2 episode "The Trial".
It's not until more than halfway into the episode do they get to the, "It's a Wonderful Life" portion of the episode; and as a result they have to shortcut through the resolution of, well, everything. No sooner does Cordelia resolve into this new, alternate life, she's asking to go to the Hyperion, prompted by absolutely nothing. According to the rules of this new reality, Cordelia has no reason to want to go to the Hyperion, there's no motivation; just as it's a plot convenience when she wants the room where she originally left Angel the message. And seeing how things have been overwritten, there should be no message. It shouldn't just be papered over, it shouldn't exist, because in this reality it was never written. And it's all designed so they can skip to Cordelia unwittingly finding the girl from her vision, finding Gunn and Wesley, then Angel and taking the visions back.
And through all of that haste, they ignore or gloss over a lot of crucial things. First and foremost, the premise that Cordelia couldn't handle the visions because she wasn't a demon (and the conceit later that when she becomes part demon, that they no longer cause her pain); when from the very beginning, when Doyle had the visions it was well established how intensely painful he, a part demon, found the visions to be.
There's thought put into the alternate reality portion of the story. Where this could have been the AtS equivalent of "The Wish," this episode falls well short. How is it that the Hyperion is a functioning hotel, when prior to AI taking it over as their headquarters it was falling into disrepair and could never find a permanent owner due to the paranoia demon living there? Did Angel, Gunn and Wesley clear out the Hyperion in this reality too? And was that before or after the visions drove Angel insane? And wait, doesn't this episode establish that someone who's part demon is supposed to be able to handle the visions? So why the fuck do they drive Angel insane? And how did Doyle impart them to Angel?
How does Gunn end up teaming up with Angel and Wesley in this new timeline, if Angel ends up with diminished capacity and Wesley has to start carrying out most of leg work? Would Gunn have really left his crew to help a vampire who's lost his grip?
In the words of Anya Christina Emanuella Jenkins, "What kind of demon is she?" They say they made Cordelia "part demon" - what kind of demon? Again, to quote Anya, "There's a lot of different kinds. Some are very, very evil. And some have been considered to be useful members of society.
"
And then there's the whole bullshit about how, the girl that needed saving from Cordelia's original vision already having been saved, implying that she had been saved in the alternate reality that no longer (if ever) exists. This might suggest the girl was only ever in danger in that alternate reality, which only existed on account of the vision. Ostensibly this was entirely constructed by Skip and the entity that would become known as Jasmine, in order to manipulate Cordelia and further their agenda; especially considering that there are other human, non-part-demon precogs in the Buffyverse whose heads don't explode out the back of their skull and that the danger Cordelia was supposedly in was manufactured by Skip and Jasmine.
By the by, anyone else agree that they liked Charm better after
Prue died?
I don't like this episode and not for anything in particular; because it does have some interesting themes that could make for a good episode. But it has has too many things going on and they fail to pick just one concept and develop a strong episode around it. Instead they try to do all of the ideas and end up with a weak episode. They want the gang to find out Cordelia's being hurt by the visions, they want Angel to up against virtual gods to save Cordelia, and they wanted Cordelia to experience how her life might have been had she not received the visions or worked with Angels; and setup making her "part demon" without any great clarity than that. The end product is as much of a clusterfuck as that setup would sound like.
They ignore the fact that they've already tread this path of, "Cordelia's visions are hurting her and she's not telling anyone" with the far superior season 2 episode, "Billy".
Or that Angel's fight-the-gods angle was done better the season 2 episode "The Trial".
It's not until more than halfway into the episode do they get to the, "It's a Wonderful Life" portion of the episode; and as a result they have to shortcut through the resolution of, well, everything. No sooner does Cordelia resolve into this new, alternate life, she's asking to go to the Hyperion, prompted by absolutely nothing. According to the rules of this new reality, Cordelia has no reason to want to go to the Hyperion, there's no motivation; just as it's a plot convenience when she wants the room where she originally left Angel the message. And seeing how things have been overwritten, there should be no message. It shouldn't just be papered over, it shouldn't exist, because in this reality it was never written. And it's all designed so they can skip to Cordelia unwittingly finding the girl from her vision, finding Gunn and Wesley, then Angel and taking the visions back.
And through all of that haste, they ignore or gloss over a lot of crucial things. First and foremost, the premise that Cordelia couldn't handle the visions because she wasn't a demon (and the conceit later that when she becomes part demon, that they no longer cause her pain); when from the very beginning, when Doyle had the visions it was well established how intensely painful he, a part demon, found the visions to be.
There's thought put into the alternate reality portion of the story. Where this could have been the AtS equivalent of "The Wish," this episode falls well short. How is it that the Hyperion is a functioning hotel, when prior to AI taking it over as their headquarters it was falling into disrepair and could never find a permanent owner due to the paranoia demon living there? Did Angel, Gunn and Wesley clear out the Hyperion in this reality too? And was that before or after the visions drove Angel insane? And wait, doesn't this episode establish that someone who's part demon is supposed to be able to handle the visions? So why the fuck do they drive Angel insane? And how did Doyle impart them to Angel?
How does Gunn end up teaming up with Angel and Wesley in this new timeline, if Angel ends up with diminished capacity and Wesley has to start carrying out most of leg work? Would Gunn have really left his crew to help a vampire who's lost his grip?
In the words of Anya Christina Emanuella Jenkins, "What kind of demon is she?" They say they made Cordelia "part demon" - what kind of demon? Again, to quote Anya, "There's a lot of different kinds. Some are very, very evil. And some have been considered to be useful members of society.
"
And then there's the whole bullshit about how, the girl that needed saving from Cordelia's original vision already having been saved, implying that she had been saved in the alternate reality that no longer (if ever) exists. This might suggest the girl was only ever in danger in that alternate reality, which only existed on account of the vision. Ostensibly this was entirely constructed by Skip and the entity that would become known as Jasmine, in order to manipulate Cordelia and further their agenda; especially considering that there are other human, non-part-demon precogs in the Buffyverse whose heads don't explode out the back of their skull and that the danger Cordelia was supposedly in was manufactured by Skip and Jasmine.