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2002-05-10 Entry: "Buffy, Angel, Scaffolding and Staircases"

We're nearing the end of another series of Buffy and Angel. Both are gearing up for their final few episodes (although Buffy is two episodes ahead, so we've got a couple of fillers in the Angel storyline to look forward to). And what do they do?

Well, Buffy seems to have killed off the only likeable member of the cast this series. When the rest of the cast have become either whiny (Buffy), monumentally stupid (Xander), pathetic (erm, Spike, Willow, Anya), or just generally annoying (Dawn, obviously), that only left one character who acted even vaguely reasonably. So obviously she has to be killed. Randomly. Just to drive Willow off the deep end. And who wrote this drivel?! Based on what I've read of what's to come, there's no way Willow can atone for what she's done. Yes, there'll be a lot of "atonement" and general self-flagellation for the first half of the next series, but otherwise she'll get off rather lightly for turning Warren into a crispy critter.

They're going to have to pull out quite a lot of stops to make this series even remotely likeable. And I don't think they're going to be able to do it. A lot of spoilers have been pointing towards a "Big Reset Button" in the last episode, which would be a major cop-out for writing the show into the ground. Nope, the best thing to do would be to put someone who actually liked the characters in charge of the show and let them run with it.

Meanwhile Angel continues to improve, although you'd think by now that they'd have learned the first lesson of the Buffyverse - if something bad is going to happen, or you've done something stupid, tell everyone. Broadcast it from the rooftops if you have to, but don't keep it to yourself and think you can resolve it. Wesley, lets be fair, acted like a complete dolt in not telling anyone else about the prophecy. He may have had everyone's best interests at heart but surely Gunn or Fred could have helped sort things out? So now they've got half a dozen episodes in which to get Wesley back to a point where he could rejoin the team, and hopefully to kill off a few cast members.

Angel has fallen into the trap Buffy did - the central cast is growing out of all proportion and there isn't screen time to cover it. Currently, or shortly at large are:
Angel, Cordelia, Gunn, Fred, Wesley, the Groosalugg, Lorne, Connor, Holtz, Justine, Lilah, Linwood, Gavin, Sahjahn.
Erm, I'm not sure even Buffy managed that many... where did they have the biggest cast? Season 2? Which would have been:
Buffy, Angel, Xander, Cordelia, Willow, Oz, Giles, Jenny, Spike, Drusilla (plus hangers on - Joyce, Larry, Jonathan)...
Nope, still not close... so I guess Angel needs to lose a few. Just not sure who - Gavin seems to be completely pointless, Sahjahn will be dead by the end of the series no doubt, and the Groosalugg seems to be serving as nothing more than comic foil.

Meanwhile, at work, we've had the main staircase out of action for two weeks so far - it was supposed to be one week to put up scaffolding and do something with the windows. Well, people came and put up scaffolding, but I've yet to see anyone actually working on the windows. It's a bit stupid when the building only has the one main staircase to have it out of action for quite so long but the scaffolding is quite impressive and the lifts (when they work and aren't arbitrarily buzzing at you with doors stuck open) are getting a good workout. The bunch coming to play with the windows are obviously typical builder types and have another job that they've got to finish first (and which has overrun, or pays better), but it does leave us resigned to the far less scenic fire escapes or lifts.