What show was he watching this season? Angel has always had disturbing scenes.

Simon | May 19, 19:17 CET

Maybe he couldn't handle the puppet show.

Caroline | May 19, 19:19 CET

No kidding. Pfft. If he was going to stop watching because of "disturbing" scenes, he should have quit when Connor and Cordelia boinked. THAT was disturbing.

I freely admit I stopped watching "religiously" when the whole Connor line started (mid S3-most S4). I didn't really come back until Faith showed up at the end of S4.

cubiclesatan | May 19, 19:19 CET

Well, at least he was quite specific about what was disturbing.

brother_grady | May 19, 19:25 CET

If anything, I think this season was a bit tamer than previous ones. We didn't get any Five by Five (Faith, Wes and fun with glass) or Redifinition (fire bad) scenes. The worst was probably Dana cutting off Spikes hands, but that wasn't shown.

faith1984 | May 19, 19:27 CET

Jaw-droppingly disturbing? Huh? Maybe I'm just thick skinned due to growing up on violent horror movies, but I haven't noticed anything this season that was any more disturbing than season's past. I'm assuming he's talking about 'Hellbound', which did have some wonderfully creepy stuff, but it seems wrong to say the arc never gelled if he jumped out after the 4th episode.

MindPieces | May 19, 19:28 CET

Was the hand-chopping jaw-dropping?

Cuz, other than the fact that the season included muppets and Harmony, I'm really not recalling much in the way of jaw-droppingly disturbing events. (I guess a case could be made for that 500lb Lorne monster from 'Life of the Party'..)

Bad Kitty | May 19, 19:40 CET

I think the reviewer was probably watching Angel in an alternate dimension, this season in IMhO is the tamest so far with regard to being disturbing.
I always stopped watching the whole Angel/Cordelia and Cordelia/Conner thing - now that was disturbing.

magdelena | May 19, 20:31 CET

Yeah, "Hellbound" was the only one to have an advisory before it - at least, as far as I can remember.

FearsomeBrowMop | May 19, 21:42 CET

He writes:

When the character left for Los Angeles, kicking off "Angel" in 1999, Whedon promised even darker, more adult themes.

Whedon added scenes so jaw-droppingly disturbing that at one point the network had to run an advisory. This is not the show I signed up for.

So, Whedon promised darker, more adult themes...but four and half years into it you decide you didn't sign up for those themes...? Am I missing something? I'm with most everyone else here -- I'm not sure what (aside perhaps from "Hell Bound") he found so disturbing. One early episode with an advisory warning really wouldn't be enough to sour me on any series, and I think it was the execption rather than the norm this season.

You know, if anything, I've always sort of thought Angel stayed away from those darker, adult themes it initially promised. It's always been a great show, and I think this has been a very good season, but it's not exactly the darker version of the Buffyverse I think I signed up for. This isn't exactly a criticism, and plenty of dark and adult themes pop up in all of Whedon's work. But the show has changed a lot over the years. The sort of gritty, police-procedural, life-in-the-shadows, life-on-the-streets thing we glimpsed at the beginning has given way to a world where everybody of course knows that demons exist and vampires can run law firms. I can't say it's not a better show for those changes -- I'm not even sure how well I'm explaining myself -- but it's definitely a different show than what it started out as.

Which is, frankly, beside the point. Because if Mr. Levs signed up for a dark and adult show, he can't really complain when one episode delivers precisely that.

[ edited by unreality on 2004-05-19 19:50 ]

unreality | May 19, 21:48 CET

Picking up on your sarcasm, brother g!

Couldn't he have at least told us what was so disturbing? He was talking about this season, and jokes aside, Fred turning into Illy disturbed me for days. I couldn't shake it, it kept popping into my head. Fred's pathetic "Why can't I stay" as her eyes glaze over. Brrr. It still gets to me.

But now in MY case, that's why I DO watch the show! I love stuff like that. Making me FEEL without manipulation. Just - "here it is, feel what you will..."

Willowy | May 19, 21:50 CET

He contradicts himself when he writes:"What's most amazing is that you could actually suspend disbelief enough to get into this stuff" and then states that "Angel is technically supposed to look the same age as he did eight years ago. Not quite." First off, that's a cheap shot and second what happened to suspending your disbelief?

bloodflowers | May 19, 22:23 CET

Heh. Apparently some people suspend the suspension of their disbelief.

I agree - Angel could have been way more darker from the get-go. It's been around the net before, but there was an episode in the first season (possibly even the first one?) that was not made because it was "too disturbing". From what I remember, it was how they were originally going to introduce Kate. She was supposed to be doing undercover work, pretending to be a hooker in some kind of case where hookers were getting killed or something. Anyways, v. dark indeed. Having that episode in the first season - now that would have made some people run probably.

cubiclesatan | May 19, 23:11 CET

How can he know if it's good or not, if you stopped after the fourth episode?
This review is lame. LOL.

twiggy | May 19, 23:18 CET

I liked the review.

nychick | May 19, 23:29 CET

Here is a link to an earlier thread about the script cubiclesatan mentioned. That's what sprung to my mind as well.

And one of my pet peeves is when people who are watching sci fi/fantasy stuff pick one little aspect and say, "That would never happen!" even though they had no trouble accepting other aspects such as aliens or vampires or whatever. Drives me nuts!

marmoset | May 19, 23:30 CET

Marmoset, LOL!!!
I once felt like smacking my ex's best friend because while watching an episode with Beast Wars he started going off on how unrealistic it was that some space probe traveled so far. Ok, but you have no problem with the GIANT SENTIENT ROBOTS THAT TRANSFORM INTO ANIMALS!?!?! moron!

Oh, um, I'm back now, sorry, went away there for awhile....

Guess all I can say is some people just don't get Angel. Those would be the dummies that found "The Help" funny!!!

WilliamTheBloody | May 19, 23:35 CET

Okay, all, let me share a "suspension of disbelief" story with you and let me know what you think...

Buffy comic. It was in the Vivas Las Buffy arc (technically should have been Viva "La" Buffy since Buffy is one and singular, not plural Buffies, but that's just nitpicky ain't it?).

This one "big bad" she faced down was a character which was - get this - a conjoined (siamese) twin brother and sister. The brother was turned into a vampire, the sister wasn't.

Now, this is where I had to put my foot down. 1) conjoined twins, unless I'm mistaken, would ALWAYS be the same sex and identical. Reason being, conjoined twins are formed when a fertilized egg does not completely split in two (if it had split, then you would have your regular old "identical" twins). 2)they would also technically share the same blood circulation in at least PART of their bodies, therefore you couldn't have the half-vamp/half-human hybrid.

So, in a way, I get the critic's "Suspension of disbelief" argument, but only when it's just completely and blatantly OBVIOUS like this comic arc I mentioned.

Seriously. It was the stupidest comic ever simply because of that one character.

[ edited by cubiclesatan on 2004-05-19 21:53 ]

cubiclesatan | May 19, 23:51 CET

Well, as a moderately squeamish person, I personally rank the finger-chopping as probably the single most disturbing/grueling Jossverse moment(as opposed to emotionally devastating, which is another matter). Still, it's just a couple of seconds and was fairly appropriate. Some people can't move on, I suppose.

bobster | May 20, 00:04 CET

I know it's been said more than once on this site but nothing ever aired on Angel is more disturbing than watching washed-up ex-strippers eating bugs on Fear Factor.

vpecoraro | May 20, 00:49 CET

"not the show up signed up for"? ? ?

someone tell this moron he didnt sign up for anything.
and yeah, this season has been REALLLLLY disturbing
no Cordelia.
gimme a break

Puppet Cancer | May 20, 06:57 CET