So I didn't record the podcast till Monday night and then I spent all last night watching cracked videos and then went to the gym this morning, so I didn't edit the podcast for you. I deeply apologise. I will edit it tonight and post it up online for Friday. Deal? Deal.
Instead, today I will be talking about a conversation I had yesterday about Buffy and Angel, the demon hunting television shows by Joss Whedon.
Buffy the vampire slayer is quite clearly a coming of age story, showing a series of characters growing up, whether it's the teenagers or the adults they're all finding their place in the world. Buffy, Willow and Xander quite clearly are growing up, they're in High School and they're trying to get by, day by day, but even Giles' story is one of growth. A watcher who's new to his job of looking after a slayer.
They could have gone with a veteran Watcher, perhaps the watcher of the last slayer, but Joss decided not to, partially to give a better series of interactions between Buffy and Giles - the guy that's never dealt with teenagers before having to deal with one of the most teenager of teenagers? Hilarious! - but also - I believe - because the entire show is a story of growth, a coming of age story, including Giles.
Angel is coming to terms with his new role helping the slayer, Oz is coming to terms with his Were-wolf tendencies, Joyce is coming to terms with being a newly single mother... almost every character in the show displays the traditional 'coming of age' issues, while simultaneously kicking ass and keeping it interesting.
On the other hand, of course; Angel is a story of redemption. Each character in that show is seeking redemption from something and I couldn't tell you whether or not they get it.
Angel's looking for redemption for Angellus, Cordelia is looking for Redemption from being a bitch at school, Doyle is looking for redemption for turning away others of his kind and letting them all die, Wesley is looking for redemption for creating Faith, Faith is looking for redemption for everything she did in Buffy, Gunn is looking for redemption for letting his sister die... Fred and Lorne are odd cases, neither of them are looking for Redemption so much as a better life, away from the evil other universe- of course you could argue that Lorne is looking for redemption for coming from a universe where they treat humans as cattle, but you really can't say the same for Fred, however neither of these characters appear to be intended as primary characters from the beginning and, in my opinion, don't count.
(Because they don't fit and ruin my point.)
This, I think, is why the Angel episodes were a lot better than the buffy episodes while the buffy seasons were better than the angel seasons.
Angel was darker day to day, the episodes had more depth, but they didn't really build to anything, while Buffy's day to day episodes were far more angsty it was always building to the end of the season, putting things together to find the right place.
I dunno, I thought it was interesting. Not sure why you guys would... hm...
Cracking-Tubage
- James
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