"The pain...the pain!"

[sinanju]

No, not my headaches, which have mostly disappeared. I'm talking about Buffy the Vampire Layer--uh, Slayer. That show will be lurching into richly-deserved, long-delayed and well-earned oblivion next week. Oh how the mighty have fallen. What was once a pleasure to watch deteriorated into an appalling mess. Incoherent plots, talky but hapless villains, unlikeable heroes and heroines, utter disregard for continuity and backstory (to say nothing of logic).... It's really very sad.

And Angel, which was no less incoherent but was at least more interesting this season, is going to be saddled with twenty-two (22!) episodes of Spike! next season. Will "Angel" turn into "All Spike, All The Time!" next season like Buffy did? Maybe not. But the deification of Spike, the blatant pandering to his fans by keeping him around and putting him centerstage when there's no good reason why he shouldn't have been staked years ago, doesn't bode well.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: the introduction of Dawn was the presenting symptom of the rot that ultimately destroyed BtVS, and which shows every sign of destroying Angel. (And the flame wars in alt.tv.angel have already started, with the Spike! fanatics doing handsprings while the Spike-haters are horrified.)

Comments

[snippy]

I think a show about Spike (his history, some of which we were shown on Buffy) would be a better use of both the character and his fan base. Leave out life since Buffy started, do a Highlander-type show with historical eps (not necessarily in chronological order).

[sinanju.livejournal.com]

The problem with that is that a) we know Spike survives to the present, so a lot of the life-n-death drama (the kind most TV "suits" seem to think is crucial) is out the window from Day 1, and b) Spike is a villain--and villains don't seem to do well as the stars of a television show most of the time. J.R. Ewing on Dallas was definitely the star (eventually), but it was still an ensemble show and basically a big-budget soap (where, of course, villains can be successful for decades).