Watching Angel

[mac_stone]

 Heh. Netflix has all the seasons of Angel - which I've not seen, but tnh  says is better than Buffy in many ways. And I don't have to wait for the DVDs, because they've got 'em streaming!

I'm sort of excited, and suspect I'll be talking about it a lot in the coming weeks. The Tor.com rewatch/reread posts--about everything from Star Trek TOS to Jordan's Wheel of Time books--have me itching to write about pop culture stuff, too, even though it's not properly a rewatch since I've never seen 'em.

Thoughts, recommendations, advice? Please, please tell me I don't have to watch the sixth and seventh seasons of Buffy again, unless it's absolutely crucial to continuity or mythology?

Comments

[mac-stone.livejournal.com]

I actually have a couple of bones to pick with Whedon's depictions of women, and treatment of them, for all his (I suspect sincere) fairly enlightened professions of feminism.

Buffy, Faith, Cordelia, Echo, Willow, Tara, and even whatshername from Dr. Horrible. There's an awful lot of impalement, torture, and metaphoric (and not so metaphoric) rape and impregnation happening as a horrifying thematic thread running through the stories.

[medievalist.livejournal.com]

And through all of Whedon's work, including the Blessed Firefly.

[mac-stone.livejournal.com]

The thing about Firefly, though, is that Zoey, Kaylee and Inara all actually survive the season. Inara gets knocked around and Kaylee gets shot, but otherwise those characters escape relatively unscathed, episode after episode. Secondary characters with the bad luck to be women certainly don't fare as well, though.

[medievalist.livejournal.com]

I think, based, on things that Whedon and Jane Espenson have said, that that's in part because of the fan backlash re: Buffy. I wonder if Jane Espenson says anything about it on her blog?