Angel 5.16 'Shells'

[chicken]

First: Oh my god, Tears, Crying, lots of them. From the moment Wesley choked on his tears onward, I was a total goner. I am such a sucker for the Joss pain.

I know the ending montage was a little on the side of Tearjerker manipulation, but all the rest, all the other crying was well-earned, well-written, deep and true, and not at all shallow or cheaply 'tearjerker'. It was the kind of meaningful sorrow that no other show can come close to producing.

Amy Acker has really taken this opportunity to stretch her acting skills, and I am very impressed. It's not all little girly voice anymore, you know. Her facial expressions, the way she holds her body, all very different and subtler.

A technical/stunt note: bunnyohare noticed that the woman doing Amy's stunts looks a lot like the woman who did a lot of Eliza's stunts. Does anyone else see the resemblance and/or know for a fact whether it is the same woman or not?

After I read keever's observations, I am indeed quite freaked out thinking about the slug episode, 'The Price'. "We're Thirsty!" The way that Gunn has changed and all. The way Angel reacts, and the way Fred would have wanted to sacrifice herself to save many others.

I have a question about Harmony here. Steve clearly adores her and has done an interesting job of giving her some depth, some feeling. I really enjoyed it, especially since her wacky dumb humor was still kind of there, too. However, does anyone else feel that the sudden appearance of these new traits is a bit, well, sudden? And hard to believe? Perhaps her whole experience being a murder suspect served as a sort of transition, but still.

Although the really important bit -- Unicorns! On the desk. Hangin' about. Woo hoo!

They never let the viewers forget that whole 'Why would someone take a unicorn?' and unicorn horn dusting thing. Because, funny.

Finally, Lorne. Why does he get so little screen time? Andy is so under-used. Pout.

Overall, I really loved this ep., it had everything from Spike/Angel slash and humor to dark, teary stretches, to great Wesley and Gunn. It even had the most ridiculous Knox ever. I am still unsure of his motivations -- why, really, would he fall so much in love with Illyria since the age of eleven?

To riff on my comments in the review by mpoetess ...

Cordelia's death: hard to take, emotionally draining & expensive.
Fred's death: just as costly in tears and heartache.
A whole month without eps, and then only six more eps after that: NOT priceless.

Okay, that was lame of me.

Comments

[keever.livejournal.com]

Seriously. When that moment hit him where he sort of let it sink in that she was really gone...ugh. AD rules.

I agree -- the montage bordered on too much. But I felt they kind of earned it with the last shot, especially because they have me truly convinced that she's permanently gone.

I hope they give Andy something else to really chew on before this all ends. I'm having season seven ignore-Xander flashbacks.

[ladyvivien.livejournal.com]

Sharing the Andy Hallett love...Have you seen Chance? He's so good. and so terribly, terribly gay.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

I hope they give Andy something else to really chew on before this all ends. I'm having season seven ignore-Xander flashbacks.

I am of two minds about the 'ignore Xander' syndrome. Because he certainly was ignored, and very sadly so, and then, EYE. Noooooooooo!

But on the other hand, one of the reasons he lost screen time was Andrew. Andrew got to be comic relief guy, and I adore(d) him. But I am not sure why they couldn't let themselves sometimes have two comic relief guys. Were they afraid of it becoming too sitcom-y? Karen and Jack, the tribute?

On AtS, though, they've given Spike a lot of the comic screen time that they used to give to Lorne, and unlike Andrew and Xander, their flavors of comedy differ quite a lot, so I really don't see a compatibility problem here with having two funny guys. It's annoying that they have so abandoned Lorne.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

I have not had the pleasure of seeing Chance, sadly.

I adore Andy, I adore his gayness, and I hope that after Angel he gets cast in lots of yummy gay roles.

[keever.livejournal.com]

If Xander had to lose screen time, I'm glad that he lost it to Andrew. And I think one of the reasons that so many people completely freaked out about the eye was that it seemed cruel that when something big happened to Xander, it was so devastatingly negative. I think some of it was that they probably found it fun (and easier?) to write for a new character that it was clear that both the writers and the fans enjoyed. And I think that they didn't really know what to do with Xander post-Anya. One of my biggest disappointments with season seven has to do with his stagnation and relative invisibility. At least they tended to make the most of the moments that he did get.

I think they abandoned Lorne to some extent, but really, I think it's more that they never did develop him as much as they should have. It's a hole in the show.