Not Fade Away

[lathany]

Last ever Angel review (or so it currently seems).

Well, risking controversy, I'm going to say that I liked this a lot. The entire episode is more smoothly put together than Chosen and is more consistent. Good to see the various bads dealt with and it was great to see Connor (who I hated throughout season four!) again (ditto Anne, Lindsey, Eve).

There were bad moments. Wesley's death - in my view - contradicted the statement that they made saying that they had left the season's outcome unchanged despite knowing it was the last one (I can't believe they'd have done season six without him). Also the whole thing was left on a bit of a cliffhanger (it helped that I knew this in advance) which I personally found rather irritating given that it's all over. Also, whilst this was more or less concluded earlier, I was disappointed that there was no more to Eve than "used to be immortal".

Having said all that... Lorne killing Lindsey was a complete shocker. Only three and a wounded Gunn making it to the end was more realistic than I'd feared (the hardest three as well). The destruction of the various Circle of the Black Thorn members was pleasantly varied and the assignments of heros to villains well chosen. The scene with Angel signing away his possible return to humanity was chilling, particularly when contrasted with Spike's light humour on the subject. Plus Hamilton's weakness was an excellent choice.

So, definitely among my favourites of the season, but the cliffhanger removes it from top spot.

Comments

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Also the whole thing was left on a bit of a cliffhanger

As I mentioned at the time, I don't feel it was a cliffhanger. It's just like the end of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - clearly they all die, but the programme makers wisely decide it would be far worse to actually show it, instead opting to end with the final heroic charge.

If you choose to believe they might have survived, you're silly that's up to you.

[triskellian]

Well, there's talk of TV movies or some such thing, so maybe they did survive somehow. Also, Joss is in favour of fanfic, and not killing them all off onscreen leaves that avenue open for bereft fans ;-)

Spoilers!

[ao-lai.livejournal.com]

Actually, it did occur to me at A Certain Point towards the end that Angel might survive, perhaps alone, but be Evil. You know, due to the whole thing with Hamilton's weakness. Personally, I don't think that the actual ending discounts that idea, but that's just me.

Oh, and - I rather missed a bunch of episodes in the latter half of the season (from about when I stopped really caring about it...) - But what was up with those cyborgs anyway?

[triskellian]

I'm happier about the ending now than I was in its immediate aftermath last night (and at the time, my response was at least partly to do with the awful 'thank you' thing Sky put in before the credits).

My objections were to do with it feeling bitty and disjointed to me, which is partly because I haven't seen Power Play or TGiQ yet, I guess.

I felt that Angel signing away his claim on humanity was rather skimmed over - in fact, at the time, I decided that it was probably a fake signature, or he had some other reason to just sign the paper, knowing it wouldn't affect him. When no more was said on the subject, I was thinking 'Oh. It was real after all. Shouldn't it have felt more serious at the time?', but again, that's probably related to the events of PP.

I didn't like the fact that most of the team spent most of the episode in isolation from each other, but with hindsight, if they'd all been together the whole time (and if the ending had been more resolved), it would just have felt like Chosen redone. But... I loved Chosen, and found it an emotionally satisfying ending to the series, and Not Fade Away just didn't hit my buttons the same way, even though I liked AtS5 more than I liked BtVS7...