And here we’ve got write-ups on “Angel,” “West Wing,” and “Tru Calling.”
Also…I’m not adding it to the round up, but did anyone see “Frasier” ths week? I did NOT see the ending coming. The coming attractions looked hilarious. And the possibility that we’ll see Marris now rises. Personally, I thought a TV Guide suggestion was inspired: Juliet Landau. “Drusilla” herself. She’s thin,and I assume she’s diminutive (she was shorter than Spike, and I’m taller than Marsters.) I think she’d be perfect.
ANGEL: Opinions seem split on this one. Personally, I thought it was a hoot. I loved the spotlight on Mexican culture and the entire world of masked wrestling, which is as mythic to Mexicans as…well, Superman or vampires. Angel’s snapping out of his funk at the end seemed kind of pat, but it beats having half a season of increasing gloom that only ends when he shags Darla. A lot of the dialogue was great (ANGEL: Did YOU know the Devil built a robot? WESLEY: El Roboto Satanico! ANGLE: Nobody tells me anything.) I had the sense that groundwork was being laid for future developments with Spike and Angel, which is positive. All in all, a nice little study of the nature of heroism.
WEST WING: It appears they’re trying to go with the concept that the President is suffering a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder…which would explain why he’s in a walking coma. The only spark he displayed was as Martin Sheen in the PSA at show’s end. My concern goes deeper, however. See, the characters of West Wing are all brilliant people. They could be because their writer was brilliant. The folks writing it now? Not so much. So the President doesn’t sound like himself, but is it stress? Is it that he’s upset because Abby’s gone from the opening credits? Or is it that the writers just aren’t bright enough to write him? And yeah, politicians are steamed at Josh. It’s Washington, someone’s always steamed at somebody, and it’s not as if everyone on the team hasn’t screwed the pooch at some point or another. What’s happening to Josh now requires that Josh never took a bullet, never defended Leo during Leo’s drinking, never covered for CJ, never defended the Surgeon General when she implied pot should be legalized, never had to deal with the President’s non-disclosure of his MS. In short, only by ignoring everyone’s history can we then accept the hammering he’s taking by his own team. It’s unconscionable, and it’s pìššìņg me off. These political operators should be better than this because they used to be better than this. The series hasn’t lost its way; it’s lost its mind.
TRU CALLING: So I missed the pilot episode, in which—so I’m told—young Tru (short for “Trudy,” I assume, although her last name isn’t really “Calling”), is at her mother’s funeral and is assured by her mother’s voice that she’s okay. Flash forward ten years and Tru is working in a morgue where corpses ask for her help…at which point we’ve got “Groundhog Day: The TV Series” as she relives the day in hopes of saving them. No real explanation is given for her ability. My assumption is that she inherited it from her mother because, in tonight’s episode, we learn that as of 1993, the city’s death rate was way down. But after 1993, and her mother’s demise, the death rate jumped up. So I’m figuring her mom was doing the same thing Tru is now: Running around like Lola and saving people. Once mom died, no one was averting deaths, and boom. Increased death rate. If it all sounds formulaic, well, it is. But we already see tonight that the formula can be messed with, and that Tru doesn’t always accomplish everything she wants. Besides, after six or seven episodes, they might start mucking with the formula even more, and besides, Eliza Dushku is clearly having a grand old time in the spotlight, and we’re having a grand old time watching her. Without her, this show is canceled by episode two. On the other hand, it’s SF on Fox which means if it hits thirteen episodes, it’ll be a miracle worthy of Tru. And if not…”Faith the Vampire Slayer” anybody?
• 
Is the Leo that said to Josh “as long as I have a job, you have a job” the same Leo that is now turning his back on Josh? I don’t think so.
Well, to be fair, Josh DOES still have a job. It just wouldn’t make sense for Leo to keep sending him out to deal with people who don’t even want to be seen with him right now (remember Wilcox?).
Regarding the scenes from next week’s episode: the Chief Justice who collapses is the same guy who was writing opinions in iambic verse last year, right? I was wondering what happened to that dangling plotline (not to mention a million others…anyone care to guess whatever happened to Carl Lumbly?).
Anyone else think that Hutchinson prìçk is going to become a threat this season?
I’m not quiiiite ready to write this show off yet. Ðámņ close, but not yet.
Oh, and Angel was fan-flippin-tastic. Spike offering to trade powers (walking through walls and picking up mugs), Wesley’s confused weapons check, and the Hermanos’ response to the devil building a robot: “Endale!”
SEAN
I enjoyed Angel for many of the reasons stated above.
On Tru Calling:
I’m beginning to see that it is intentional to show Tru jumping to the wrong conclusion. She wants what she discovers to be the answer. I’m wondering if they’ll show a character arc with her figuring out that the first thing she thinks of may not be right — so as not to go around making people think she’s crazy/wrong. In the first episode she accused 2 guys of having murder on their minds… and maybe wasn’t that far from it, but that wasn’t the answer. In the second episide she accused the janitor of wanting to set a fire to kill his wife. Don’t you think he’ll remember that?
I’d rather not have her “rashness” be her permaent flaw… though she does have the right to think there’s a sense of urgency.
Right now the show seems kind of light-weight, but it may improve.
Angel: If Angel does indeed have a “big bad” this year, I think it’d be cool if it ends up being Angel. He’s already shown that his heart really isn’t in the fight anymore. The Aztec demon didn’t want his heart because he’s not really much of a champion anymore. Maybe Wolfram and Heart’s ultimate goal in giving him the company was to get him to lose faith and hope in the world. Furthermore, we still don’t know the extent of the deal that Angel made to get the massive memory wipe so everyone would forget Connor. Maybe he had to give a piece of his soul to get Connor’s new life (which would explain Angel’s moodiness lately).
Eventually, the rest of the gang will find out about the massive memory wipe, and they’re probably not going to be too happy about it. They may even turn against him.
Then, maybe poor miserable Angel will find himself running an evil law firm without the support of his loved ones. He may remember the pure joy and exhileration he felt as soul-less Angelus (doing what he wanted, killing who he wanted) and opt to have his soul removed because he honestly has nothing left to fight for.
If so, then Angelus will be in charge of the evil law firm, and the rest of the gang (possibly led by Spike, now corporeal) will have to to stop him. I personally would like to see Angel and Spike fighting again, but the roles reversed, with Angel evil, and Spike good.
To be honest, I don’t watch much TV anymore. Angel kinda lured me in, since I just happened to look up and see the mailroom luchadore.
While I can’t claim a vast knowledge of the culture, I’m aware of the high esteem with which masked wrestlers are held in Mexico, and of the popular movie heroes who really *did* wear their masks wherever they went. If Japan hadn’t already beaten them to it, I would’ve said Mexico would be the first to elect a masked wrestler to government. 😀
I think the episode treated the entire luchadore pop culture with respect, and was a nice acknowledgement of the same. (Mexican fans of Angel may disagree with me. 😉 ) The last minute “run-in” save by the dead wrestlers was quite fun, and fitting. I disagree with other votes for the quote of the episode. I was rather fond of “We’re not trying to pin him!… Okay, pinning works…”
As for “wrestling being real in 1976″… Um, wrestling’s *always* been choreographed. The difference between then and now is Vincent K. McMahon, and the “lifting of the veil” as it were.
**While I can’t claim a vast knowledge of the culture, I’m aware of the high esteem with which masked wrestlers are held in Mexico, and of the popular movie heroes who really *did* wear their masks wherever they went. If Japan hadn’t already beaten them to it, I would’ve said Mexico would be the first to elect a masked wrestler to government. 😀
I think the episode treated the entire luchadore pop culture with respect, and was a nice acknowledgement of the same. **
Seems to me that this is the way for white writers to write ethnic characters: with knowledge and respect, without looking down on it [at least not too much].
My reactions to this week’s shows (forgot to catch Tru) seem to have been somewhat different from a lot of those out there. There were actually a lot of things I liked about West Wing this week, at least early on. There were more witticisms, more quickly-paced dialogue, more lines that furthered character rather than just plot, at least in the first several scenes …. I also liked the President going out and meeting the people – didn’t they just have a bit on here a few weeks ago about “we need to know the price of a gallon of milk”? – although, after discussing it with fellow W.W. watcher my Mom, I did better see C.J.’s point about Bartlett hiding out.
And, after reading the above posts, I also realized – the idealism of the Bartlett White House has been lost. This has been the administration we wished we had running the country (not just a slap at the current administration, by the way, but at the general state of politcs and the nature of government in this country for a long time) and that better-than-reality element of the show is gone, you guys are right. Maybe Josh – who would have lost political capital over such a mistake, that I do buy – and Donna and their folder of stuff they’d planned to try to fix, sometime, can bring some of this element back? At any rate, I actually did feel better about the show after this ep than after some of the others this season.
Angel – I did enjoy, but somehow not as much as some of the others this year. The Luchadore heroes was a cool idea, to be sure, and there were some good laughs …. Guido’s remark above, about the humor feeling different from a Joss Whedon written/directed episode, resonated with me. Somehow, as a whole, the ep didn’t quite hit my funnybone as squarely (which only sounds like a bad thing;)) as some have. The whole opening bit, about “Angel attacking No. 5”, did make me laugh, as did “el Robotico Diablo”. And the prophesy talk does look like season-propelling stuff. Who, if anyone, will Shonshu? And you know Wesley will be looking into Angel’s “the father will kill the son” reference (and it does make sense that Angel would have less faith in the Shonshu prophesy after that; I hadn’t made that connection) – assuming he ever has use of his prophesy book again, with the soulful vamp guys both perusing it ….
WEST WING – Scavenger wrote that Sorkin had “bailed” on the show. Not true. Sorkin was ousted. The reason given was that his scripts were often late.
What I find most disheartening about WW this year is that the show is making a deliberate effort to remove characters. Most of the deletions are the female characters. Mrs. Bartlett, Zoe, Toby’s ex, Amy, the President’s secretary. The only three left are Donna, CJ, and Margaret. Margaret is only there for comic relief and for Leo to abuse. Charlie remains, but is only there. He does nothing.
So now the cast is down to Bartlett, Leo, Toby, Josh, CJ, and Donna. Charlie is there, but not there. Josh Molina’s character had about 5 lines, but isn’t even called by name. Now we have a typical television show with melodrama instead of real drama, 7 and 7 only characters, because ‘the general public is too stupid to be able to follow more characters thab 7′, and the soon to be evident falling ratings followed by the analysis that’American tastes are ever changing and they moved away from West Wing’.
Hill Street Blues had a cast of 10 or so. One of the criticisms then was that the cast was too big. It is one of the all-time greats. West wing will be known for its great first seasons, but not anything after that.
More the reason to read more books and watch more movies. Fie on television.
Sorkin chose to left..it might have been a situation where he chose before they axed him, but he made the choice.
As for the “Women being cut”….Tobey’s Ex has been in what 4 or 5 episodes in the show’s history? It was under Sorkin’s reign that the assitants from Season 1 vanished and Mrs. Landingcamp died and wasn’t replaced for a year. Zoe was in a few eps last year after being missing for a few seasons. Mrs Bartlett has always been in maybe half a season’s episodes. As for Amy…She was on last week.
Margaret has always been there as comic relief and for Leo to abuse.
Watch the show, don’t watch the show, but don’t heap blame for stuff that’s not there.
Aw, I just realized…with Will working for the VP, no more writing interns. They were a hoot.
SEAN
West Wing:
There are many theories which try to explain successful dramatic storytelling. One of the most conventional theories is “drama = conflict.” The theory goes that if you force characters to make hard choices and throw hurdle after hurdle at them, this will make for compelling drama. This is by far the most commonplace theory that writers subscribe to, and you see it in the vast majority of dramatic movies and TV shows. Call it the ‘ER’ theory, if you will.
On the other hand, there are some (fewer) writers who believe that an emotional approach is the key to drawing an audience in. It’s a subtly different technique. It requires the characters to feel as many different strong emotions as possible in as short a space of airtime as possible. The more different emotions, and the more powerful they are, the more the viewer is drawn in.
Both techniques are required to generate truly great drama. That was what set Sorkin’s writing apart from the pack; whereas most writers stick faithfully to the ‘ER’ method, Sorkin also made his characters experience rapid varying emotions in quick succession. Next time you watch a Sorkin-written WW scene, notice how a character can swing from anger to relief to disbelief to sorrow to resentment in the space of a short minute. It is this rollercoaster of emotions that drags the viewer through a similar gamut of feelings and emotions, and leaves him with a feeling of emotional connection with the characters.
This is what is lacking so desperately from the current season of WW. The writers are not focussing on emotional internal content, rather they are just cranking up the external conflicts/hurdles/challenges. That’s why new characters are being introduced – because in a WW production meeting somebody asked, how can we make the show more dramatic? And somebody answered with the conventional wisdom – throw more conflict at the characters! How do we do that? Introduce new characters who can confront and oppose our beloved WW staffers! Put Josh on the rack! Have Abby leave Jed!
That’s why the show is starting to look like any other TV drama – they’re employing the same writing techniques that they use on any other vanilla TV drama. Conventional thinking leads to conventional writing. They’ll carry the fans for a while, because we still feel the emotional connections that Sorkin wrote for us, but eventually they’ll be forgotten, and WW will be just another hour-long ‘challenge/conflict of the week’ drama.
The one episode this season that truly touched me – ‘Han’ – worked for precisely this reason. This was an episode focussing less on external conflict and more on the powerful and varied emotions felt by Bartlett, CJ and the pianist in particular. They went through a complex sequence of strong and changing emotions and this is what caused empathy in me, the viewer.
I hope the writers figure this out before I lose all the emotional investment I’ve built over the past four seasons, but I’m not optimistic. Even Sorkin himself was guilty of swinging more towards external conflict in season 4, and given the type of shows that the new WW writers are being culled from, I see little hope of anything more than conventional, external, conflict-driven drama in the WW’s future.
I am desperate to be proven wrong.
My one problem: we should have seen some of El Robotico Diabolico.
Knowing the surprising twists, turns and sometimes surprising “bits” thrown in and then brought back at some point in all the years of Buffy whose to say we won’t see it?
For all we know the robot could be sitting inthe basement in some crate or crates or in some warehouse owned by wolfram and hart and since Angel never asked what happened to it……
>>Since Valerie was in the same episode as Frasier’s receptionist I don’t think that will happen<<
Oopsie! When I wrote my first post, I’d taped…but hadn’t watched yet….the Nov. 4 episode of ‘Frasier’. And as of two a.m. on Nov. 10, still haven’t. But soon.
Oh, well.
As Emily Litella used to say: “Never mind.”!!
Hooper
Tru Calling –
Bad bad writing. Unfortunately, I can’t back it up with quutes, since it was pretty forgettable, but there is one blatant plot problem I can mention. (SPOILER)
When the fireman runs into the burning building the last time, he runs in without any gear. At the time, there were several fully equipped firemen right there, who held Tru back instead of holding him back and going in themselves. The explanation? He said that he knew where the girl was. All he knew was that she was under a bed. In the time it took to tell them he knew where she was, he could have said, “look under beds”.
I don’t think that Eliza’s skills and attributes are enough to carry the show.
Eliza Dushku was on ACCESS HOLLYWOOD last night; she made it pretty clear that she’ll be turning up on ANGEL again.
And if not…”Faith the Vampire Slayer” anybody?
I’m waiting for Ripper, myself.
What, no 24 reviews?
Do we need them?
I can’t watch Tru Calling because that would just encourage them not to cancel it and we will have to wait longer for “Faith the Slayer.”
>>I can’t watch Tru Calling because that would just encourage them not to cancel it and we will have to wait longer for “Faith the Slayer.”<<
Yeah, but you know what’ll happen. Elisha will then claim that she’s tired or ‘burnt out’ of doing an hour drama after the cancellation of ‘Tru Calling’, and she’ll try and focus, instead, of the movie career that left off so promisingly with ‘Last Exit’ ( or whatever the hëll that dreck was called! ) !!
Heck, I’ve seen it happen before!
Besides, up until the last episode of ‘Buffy…’, I was pulling for my own idea of: ‘Xander & Anya Harris: Demon Hunters’ to be the spin-off!! They’d be the globe-trotting Nick & Nora Charles of the occult!
See, it starts off on their honeymoon…..
Hooper
“Wrong Turn” was the title of that movie.
And, yes, I KNOW its ‘Eliza’. I was momentarily confusing her with Elisha Cuthbert. After all, tonight’s ’24’ night!!
Tick ( boom ) tick ( boom ) tick ( boom ) tick ( boom ) tick ( boom ) tick ( boom )…….
Hooper
Hey, that Xander and Anya show does sound like a good idea, Hooper. That could have been a lot of fun.
For those of you worried about the fact that Stockard Channing’s name was not in the credits:
Stockard has never been in every episode in a season, and her name is never in the credits of the episodes she’s not in. Her name will be back next week.
Angel
What REALLY happened between Charisma Carpenter and the people behind Angel? Everyone’s being nice in interviews and all that but what really happened between all of them? Anyone know? I’m dying to.