Going down Swinging

Whedon’s Post-Mortem on Angel:

“The point of the show is that you’re never done; no matter who goes down, the fight goes on.”

Good stuff last night. I was pleased. Sad, but pleased.

But I don’t have the feeling I had with Buffy, which is, ‘We are done. Thank you, goodnight.’ It’s more, ‘Okay, the lights are off, I’d better leave.'”

And here’s a telling bit — perhaps a little anti-network wishful thinking on Joss’ part:

…he’d already conceived a terrific premise for Angel’s sixth year. “When you buck the system, and do your best to make it collapse,” he teases, “what if it does? The next season would have been some serious chaos.”

Personally, I think Angel really rebounded this year in part because Joss really had some things to say about fighting against being just another cog in the machine — in the same way Buffy was about growing up, Angel might have had some very interesting things to say about being an adult.
Damn shame. I’m not jazzed about TV movies or big screen stuff as much, simply because for something like that, you’d be focusing on the myth, not the metaphor, and sometimes the metaphor was the best part.
Anyway.

Last Stand for the Buffyverse


Suddenly it was sundown for five men. Suddenly their day was over. Suddenly the sky was bathed in blood. Five men who came too late and stayed too long… Unchanged men in a changing land. Out of step, out of place and desperately out of time.”

The Wild Bunch by Sam Peckinpah

Tonight’s the night, folks. This is where Joss finally gets his chance to end Angel like the Wild Bunch (something he’s mentioned before). In fact, he’s already started…

“We won’t survive this, and I won’t make any of you do it – it’s your choice. But I want to make [our friend’s] death mean something. Our lives mean something. We won’t be able to take them all out, but we can take out a few. Who’s with me?”

Which was that from? Last week’s Angel or the Wild Bunch? The answer, basically, is “both”.
Tune in. See how it ends. Should be a hell of an ending to a wild ride.

Movie News

FireflyMovie.com – News

“Joss’ script is one of the best I’ve ever read (and I’ve read thousands)… We have our first full read-thru with the whole cast (HOORAY!!!) on monday!”.

–AdamBaldwin

Angel: “Fall seven times, stand up eight.”

As we close in on the end of yet another Whedon show, I have to say that I’m already quite a bit more happy with how this one looks like it’s going to end than I was with Buffy.
“Wipe out every bad guy we can find and burn the house down while we’re still inside.”
Hell yeah. Hell. Yeah. Going out like the Wild Bunch.

There but for the grace of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings

ABC played Disney’s (made-for-TV?) A Wrinkle in Time last night.
I taped it and watched the first hour or so before Justin went to bed (he made me promise to wait to watch the rest with him).
Justin was impressed, I was impressed, and the bits I caught during the rest of the night made me think they did a very good job with the conversion as a whole. Very cool.

Shiny

Serenity takes off soon.

Joss Whedon told SCI FI Wire that he will begin production in three weeks, with all of the original cast members in place.
“The show plays on a very small, personal level. And while I want that to work in the movie, the movie has an epic quality and a resolve that you simply can’t afford in a TV show. Because if you have the epic quality, you run out of money, and if you have the resolve, you run out of ideas. … The movie is really like, if you took a giant hit of the show all at once. It’s very big. Perhaps I should use different imagery.”