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Wow, wow, and oh, my completely wow, with gurrrgghh.... gah... wow. Among my purchases of yesterday would be the Angel season 4 part 2 box set. I've just finished watching it. I'm sort of lacking words. Well not actually, because, obviously, I'm somehow managing to write this, but I'm getting the feeling that I'm lacking any suitably expressive or coherent words. The mind-blowingness something that is Joss Whedon is completely re-deified. Like, brainwash me and hand me world peace, I don't know how he does it. I thought I'd learnt to never be complacent watching his shows, I thought I knew what he was about. Sudden shocking changes in plotline don't get to me anymore, character deaths, character undeaths, they all get a chuckle, occasionally a cheer, possibly an I-didn't-see-that-coming, but I suppose I thought I'd got to a point where I understood how the show worked. But no, just when I'm sitting watching comfortably, I'm contemplating the meaning of the latest plot development that I think will be the big thing for that episode/series, he goes and throws something in that makes me sit up and go.... wa...? ba...? How the...? Jaha? As I tried to explain earlier, I 'm having a little trouble finishing syllables. I'm really being very restrained, as my first instinct is to sit and rewatch that particular episode right away. I'm in a bit of a state of shock. In an I-can't-believed-I-just-watched-that kind of way.

To be honest, I wasn't actually that impressed with the season as a whole. I think I prefer season 3. My impression was that they tried to pack too much in. Maybe they should try to stick to one wide-impacting apocalypse per season or something. It was stunningly impressive when they did the first big apocalypse, that they had gone that far with the show. But after that, with the whole every-detail-has-been-planned-for-the-last-half-millenium, it lost credibility a bit. And when you're dealing with science-fantasy/horror, I have this half-baked notion that character and plotline credibility are even more important than in standard fiction. I'm sorry, but I've only watched it once, and hardly had time to think about it at all, and I really don't think it's at all hard to see that there are an overwhelming number of plot-loops for the Cordelia story-arc. And am I the only person that found her so incredibly annoying? I accepted in season 3 that they'd completely wrecked her character, but at least she was still just about bearable then. Angst, angst, wax prosaic, angst, spread the angst, pithy comment, more angst, angst on behalf of someone else, angst for the world in general... Ooops, I'm evil. Honestly, I'm so glad they put her in a coma. It would be nice if they could leave her like that for a while. Obviously they can't kill her, because then they'd have to bring her back again, but if they could just leave her in a coma I'd be more than pleased. Personally I thought she looked just fine in the church.

Also, from a more shallow perspective. Hello? What were they thinking? Were the rest of the characters supposed to just go blind for however long? When was the last time a character wore black beading and was on the side of good? Maybe they were all supposed to be stuck in a stupor over the gleefully flaunted pregnancy (sure sign that it was evil), because that ensemble was just screaming mwahahaha. Maybe it was the suppressed true Cordelia's cry for help, it would be fairly typical of her to try to communicate through fashion. Also, they seemed to have returned Angel to his closer fitting wardrobe of seasons 1 and 2 of buffy. Well, he definitely looks much better in that style. Gunn's wardrobe is however hideous, as were Fred's camel trousers. My main grouch fashion-wise would have to be Lilah's disgusting purple-pink top complete with little bow. I love Lilah, I think she's a brilliant character, and I feel truly sorry for her that they put her in something I would sooner expect to see on Lorne. C'mon, she's an evil genius with fashion sense to go along with, there's no way she'd be seen dead in that. And she was actually dead when wearing it, so that phrase is particularly pertinent.

The other character I found slightly annoying was Connor. That's ok though, because it's a part of his character. He wouldn't be Connor if he wasn't annoying. It'd be unrealistic if he wasn't. So I roll my eyes whenever he goes off about something, but at the end of the day, pat him on the head and nod blandly, because that's just his place on the show. I cheered out loud for Faith, and I thought her bathroom scene was a great piece of acting in what otherwise could have been a fairly predictable and run-of-the-mill appearance. I did find her fight scenes rather boring, though. And whilst I thought they pulled off the Connor put-down scene that was so obviously cooking very well, I'm not sure how the way she completely took charge fitted in with my perception of her character, especially considering how she behaves when she shows up on buffy. Maybe that's just me.

I also wasn't that impressed with Angelus. He was good, he played his part. Sort of. But I didn't feel nearly the sense of impact that I had with previous appearances. There was no wow factor. Him making cutting comments from inside a cage just isn't the same. And him hunting people down outside with not-so-cutting comments doesn't really work for me either. All credit to David Boreanaz, I think that was more a matter of the writing than his acting. But I find myself at the end of the series, trying to remember exactly what role he played in forwarding the storyline. Ah yes, the whole vital information that only Angelus knows. What was that exactly? Because the only significant knowledge he seemed to contribute was the idea that the Beast was working for someone. Which really sounded much more like something he worked out rather than something only he knew. I really think Angel would have worked that out himself without too much more prompting. So yeah, what else did he do. The only other thing he was used for was to show Cordelia's true nature, which they could have managed some other way as well, I'm sure. Oh, and killing the Beast, I'm still not sure exactly why he did that. Unless it was just one of Angelus' slightly whimsical oddities. Which actually I don't find that hard to believe. I think I buy into that more than any more thoughtout purpose. The only other reason I can think of that they would bring Angelus into the equation would be to have an excuse to guest-spot Eliza Dushku and Alyson Hannigan. And it's not like that could be considered playing to the ratings at all. Nope, not at all.

But as I said at the beginning, I am in complete awe of that final episode. What they did with Connor was breath-taking. Maybe I'm unduly obsessed with emotionally numb characters, but I thought this was a brilliant direction to take Connor's character, and to explore some of his psych. I found it truly chilling in a thrilling kind of way. The sort of thing that can send someone into that kind of state, and the type of person that can end up in that state, and whether there even is a type, or if it could be anyone... this is the stuff that fascinates me. It gets me every time. Angel's final reaction to it was also very powerful. The ending, whilst not at all predictable, was somewhat cliched, but still entirely appropriate. I really am going to have to rewatch this very soon.