I wrote a thing about Angel! it is full of spoilers! I made myself very mad! I hope y'all will read this one -- I worked very hard on it and I'm super proud of how it came out. - ThreadSky

readingtheend.bsky.social • 35 days ago

I wrote a thing about Angel! it is full of spoilers! I made myself very mad!

I hope y'all will read this one -- I worked very hard on it and I'm super proud of how it came out.

Reposted from Reactor Magazine

25 years later, @readingtheend.bsky.social still loves "Angel"--but we need to acknowledge the series' deeply troubling insistence that sex can't be meaningful or important unless it's hurting people. Let's discuss...

reactormag.com/i-finally-fi...

Comments

debbiemoon.bsky.social•35 days ago

shannonfallon.com•35 days ago

Wow, as someone who's rewatching the series right now, this is very timely!

tgshepherdvan.bsky.social•35 days ago

Really good article. @mcjulie.bsky.social you might wanna take a gander.

mcjulie.bsky.social•35 days ago

Thanks for the rec!
Good read and it helps clarify some stuff that’s always bugged me about Angel

Like, what kind of show KEEPS going back to the mystical pregnancy option? It’s pretty weird, right?

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

thank you!!

casella.bsky.social•35 days ago

extremely good work

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

aw, thanks! that means a lot!

taylesium.bsky.social•35 days ago

Fantastic article! And yeah. YEAH.

rdotspoon.bsky.social•35 days ago

just ran to share this with my friend. i was telling her just last week how teen me bounced off how sex was handled on Buffy. like threw me into a lifelong rage against Joss. 😂

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

ahahahahaa you're so valid for this

rdotspoon.bsky.social•35 days ago

I was like is this man telling me my vag is gonna turn my boyfriend into a demon??????

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

lol but when I tell you it is much much WORSE over on the Angel side of things

rdotspoon.bsky.social•35 days ago

i was in and out of Angel because I loved David. I need to do a rewatch make myself upset all over again.

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

yeah, I mean, look, as I say, I adore Angel, despite all its flaws. you should definitely rewatch! it's so good! (and bad!) I warmly recommend skipping "Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been," an episode I think I should be allowed to sue the Angel team for forcing me to watch

spuffyduds.bsky.social•35 days ago

oof so good

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

thank you so so much <3

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

thank you so so much <3

thomasedmund.bsky.social•35 days ago

Yeeesh! Great deep dive and agree with all points

iamiysha.bsky.social•35 days ago

This: “nobody writing for this show had ever met a Black person; Gunn deserved better, and any episode that tried to talk about race should be swiftly yeeted into the sea.”

Shawn Ryan who went on to create The Shield wrote Thin Dead Line

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

oh shit I didn't know that oh my God

iamiysha.bsky.social•35 days ago

Yeah, it really made me rethink the show, there’s the closeted rookie cop and CCH Pounder who is the cop trying to bring down Vic Mackey.

Better, but not great representation.

petemilan.com•35 days ago

Good stuff. The Dollhouse bit is worse than you remember; it wasn't a client, it was a guy who worked there and was supposed to protect her. When he was busted, he showed zero remorse; what did they expect him to do? Then he's sent off to kill Mellie, who's just had sex with Paul...

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

oof that IS worse than I remember.

petemilan.com•35 days ago

Luckily (?!), Mellie is an undercover doll that Adelle triggers into killing the creep. Then she wakes up with no idea what just happened to her, standing over a corpse and completely traumatized. Joss Whedon, everybody.

tolcser.bsky.social•35 days ago

I am not a Whedon Girl (ugh ™️), I just went though a massive Firefly phase. But largely the glaring reason it doesn't hold up for me on rewatch is the sexual politics (or complete lack of world building or followthrough thereof) of Inara and the whole companion thing.

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

yeah, agreed. it's weird because there are moments in Firefly that are still like, among my favorite moments in all of television (Mal glancing sideways at Kaylee and saying, "Wanna?"), but on every rewatch, it feels like there are fewer episodes I can cleanly enjoy

tolcser.bsky.social•35 days ago

some of the dialogue/timing/jokey bits are still so awesome, but the whole thing is just kind of tainted in a way that makes it a bit unfun now

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

that's it exactly. it doesn't feel good to watch anymore. whereas large swathes of Angel still feel fucking fantastic to me.

tolcser.bsky.social•35 days ago

that's good at least. I casually watched Buffy on reruns, but was never INTO it, and completely missed Angel.

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

I love them both a really lot -- I've still almost never encountered a show that did ensemble work and character development as well as those two.

tolcser.bsky.social•35 days ago

It very much smacks of "Whedon wanted to do a world thing but didn't have the range" mixed with "let's do a sexy thing!" and it comes off so distracting and weird now

lizking.bsky.social•35 days ago

The Companions Guild should have been the Bene Gesserit of the ‘Verse. There was actually a canon note about how many of them went into politics when they ‘retired’. They were a perfect soft power spy assassin influencer set-up. (Saffron was a failed Companion, betcha)

tolcser.bsky.social•35 days ago

yes! but it was like he thought of and implemented half an idea just to have the excuse for a sexy lady. The dialogue says Companions are feared/respected, but no one reacts to them that way!

lizking.bsky.social•35 days ago

One hint when Inara implies a guy will be blacklisted, and when she sails in to spring Mal from jail, but the show never had time to get into the Core vs Rim living styles.

mollytempleton.com•35 days ago

I AM SO EXCITED TO READ THIS

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU TO READ IT, it has been living in my brain for ages and I am really excited to have it out in the world!

mollytempleton.com•35 days ago

it's VERY GOOD also ick also I do love this show and I think about Fred dying all the time, upsettingly, but also ICK ICK ICK

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

dude, like, when I was rewatching it for this article, I had to watch the Fred-dying episode in five minute increments. And I was SO MAD, but also like -- Jesus Christ, it's so effectively tragic and good and heartbreaking and awful. AND I am so mad.

mollytempleton.com•35 days ago

reasons! to be mad! compellingly laid out in your excellent piece!!!

but also puppets

jfc that show really contained multitudes

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

yeah, it was everything. I mean the cast simply could not have been more charming or more compelling. it would be impossible. I wanted to kiss J. August Richards on his little nosey at every single moment.

devanbarlow.bsky.social•35 days ago

Angel is also one of my very most beloved shows, and I share your frustration , and I SO appreciate this essay

ellafraenka.bsky.social•35 days ago

I enjoyed reading this, despite never having watched Angel. Didn't have access to the TV station that broadcast Buffy and Angel at the time and then *gestures* someone turns out to be an asshole and I don't want to dive into their stuff.

joeauerbach.bsky.social•35 days ago

It's a good point. I think it's inherited from the teenage morality of Buffy. Ideally Angel would have been a grown up version of that but it didn't really do it.

readingtheend.bsky.social•35 days ago

Buffy really doesn't do this! it sometimes falls into some of these tropes, but there are plenty of counterbalancing examples of characters having fun, healthy sex because it's fun and they like it.

joeauerbach.bsky.social•35 days ago

That's especially true later on in the series. But in the era where she was dating Angel, there was mostly just sex ending up badly for people.

Or at least for students.

At least that's my recollection. It started to get better.... After Riley I guess but even with him there was a little bit

joeauerbach.bsky.social•35 days ago

Like there was that entire episode where they were stuck in a sex bubble while everybody else was busy almost dying. Which certainly seems like a risk. Even if it turned out okay in the end

Comments

Posting Rules

Reply