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selenakBack from celebrating the Aged Parent's birthday. Due to the recent scare regarding the other Gorgeously Young Looking Parent, this was more extensive than usual. But enough about RL.
I acquired the fourth season of AtS on DVD. It's my second favourite, after season 2, and from a pure writing pov probably the better written one of the two (no Pylea break - from Deep Down to Home, every domino falls after the other and ties back to the beginning). So far, due to earlier mentioned time constraints, I only had the chance to watch some of the extras, but expect more detailed season 4 retrospective stuff once I get to the goodness itself.
The season overview is dull (a mere summary, so you wonder why they bother), the outtakes, otoh, are hilarious, and the "Last Look at the Hyperion" featurette makes me all nostalgic. I loved the Hyperion from Are you now or have you ever been…? onwards. Also, glad to see Joss thinks this is the best season, too.*g*
Being a Darla and a Connor fangirl, the first episode commentary I listened to, naturally, was Stephen DeKnight's on Inside Out. This was the first episode he directed as well as wrote, so he goes into the technical details quite a bit and apologizes for the overuse of the time-saving "one person in the foreground, one in the background" stuff. Regarding fannish analysis and criticism he read on the internet, he says that yes, the Cordy dressed in black and Darla dressed in white bit was a bit heavy-handed, but actually came to happen more or less by coincidence - Cordy had to wear the same dress she wore in the previous episode, as there was no logical point for her to change, and they wanted Darla to looks much as the girl (he calls her Anna, but I'm not sure whether that's the name of the actress or the character) as possible. The girl they dressed in white and pinkish colours to emphasize the innocence and virgin sacrifice aspect, so Darla had to wear similar things.
He raves quite a lot about both Charisma Carpenter (who was eight and a half months when filming this episode, and he says a total trooper about it) and Julie Benz ("the kindest, sweetest, most adorable woman I ever met"; and later "could the camera love Julie Benz more?"). Vincent Kartheiser also gets his share of praise. "Let me tell you about the amazing Vincent Kartheiser. Before this scene, I saw him sitting around in the studio, in tears, and when I asked him what the matter was he said 'Nothing, I'm just preparing'. He also said the physical stuff, the tears, was the easy part - putting yourself into these emotions was the hard one. And ladies and gentleman, when we cut to Darla and don't see Connor, those are takes that sometimes require an hour, but Vincent was there to read his lines to Julie and cry each time."
Stephen DeKnight says that he really wanted to present Connor as a tragic hero with this script. That Connor has been manipulated and lied to his entire life, that we find out in this episode his very existence was a manipulation, and that you root for him to make the right decision, but being a tragic hero, he does not.
The scene, or two scenes (due to the intercutting with the Skip scenes) between Connor and Darla are his favourites of the episode. Some of the stuff cut due to time constraints: originally Darla was supposed to walk around Connor the exact same way Cordy does early in the episode. Also, after "they're treating me like a beast" "only because you behave like one!", and before Darla's "as a vampire, I killed etc.", in the script Connor told her that due to being the child of two vampires, he could not be anything else but a beast, and Darla was to argue that this wasn't true.
Regarding the big question: is what Skip says regarding all of their lives and decisions being part of the manipulation true or part of him playing them? DeKnight cruelly says "we deliberately left that shades of grey".
Jasmine's first form, the tentacly light thing, was supposed to evoke Hindu deities. (When I heard that, I hit my head and moaned "Kali, of course!".) Wesley decyphering the word "fallen" among others in Reign of Fire (which DeKnight calls by its original title, Apocalypse, Nowish) was supposed to be the first clue that the one behind everything was actually a fallen Power. So yes, Jasmine was originally one of the Powers, as she says later. (Being a B5 fan, I was reminded of the Vorlons again, though.)
Wesley and Angel in Angel's office: "And now we get the tender reconciliation scene between our two heroes", DeKnight said. The phrasing can be used as evidence that by this point of the show, Alexis Denisof had become the other leading man.*g*
I acquired the fourth season of AtS on DVD. It's my second favourite, after season 2, and from a pure writing pov probably the better written one of the two (no Pylea break - from Deep Down to Home, every domino falls after the other and ties back to the beginning). So far, due to earlier mentioned time constraints, I only had the chance to watch some of the extras, but expect more detailed season 4 retrospective stuff once I get to the goodness itself.
The season overview is dull (a mere summary, so you wonder why they bother), the outtakes, otoh, are hilarious, and the "Last Look at the Hyperion" featurette makes me all nostalgic. I loved the Hyperion from Are you now or have you ever been…? onwards. Also, glad to see Joss thinks this is the best season, too.*g*
Being a Darla and a Connor fangirl, the first episode commentary I listened to, naturally, was Stephen DeKnight's on Inside Out. This was the first episode he directed as well as wrote, so he goes into the technical details quite a bit and apologizes for the overuse of the time-saving "one person in the foreground, one in the background" stuff. Regarding fannish analysis and criticism he read on the internet, he says that yes, the Cordy dressed in black and Darla dressed in white bit was a bit heavy-handed, but actually came to happen more or less by coincidence - Cordy had to wear the same dress she wore in the previous episode, as there was no logical point for her to change, and they wanted Darla to looks much as the girl (he calls her Anna, but I'm not sure whether that's the name of the actress or the character) as possible. The girl they dressed in white and pinkish colours to emphasize the innocence and virgin sacrifice aspect, so Darla had to wear similar things.
He raves quite a lot about both Charisma Carpenter (who was eight and a half months when filming this episode, and he says a total trooper about it) and Julie Benz ("the kindest, sweetest, most adorable woman I ever met"; and later "could the camera love Julie Benz more?"). Vincent Kartheiser also gets his share of praise. "Let me tell you about the amazing Vincent Kartheiser. Before this scene, I saw him sitting around in the studio, in tears, and when I asked him what the matter was he said 'Nothing, I'm just preparing'. He also said the physical stuff, the tears, was the easy part - putting yourself into these emotions was the hard one. And ladies and gentleman, when we cut to Darla and don't see Connor, those are takes that sometimes require an hour, but Vincent was there to read his lines to Julie and cry each time."
Stephen DeKnight says that he really wanted to present Connor as a tragic hero with this script. That Connor has been manipulated and lied to his entire life, that we find out in this episode his very existence was a manipulation, and that you root for him to make the right decision, but being a tragic hero, he does not.
The scene, or two scenes (due to the intercutting with the Skip scenes) between Connor and Darla are his favourites of the episode. Some of the stuff cut due to time constraints: originally Darla was supposed to walk around Connor the exact same way Cordy does early in the episode. Also, after "they're treating me like a beast" "only because you behave like one!", and before Darla's "as a vampire, I killed etc.", in the script Connor told her that due to being the child of two vampires, he could not be anything else but a beast, and Darla was to argue that this wasn't true.
Regarding the big question: is what Skip says regarding all of their lives and decisions being part of the manipulation true or part of him playing them? DeKnight cruelly says "we deliberately left that shades of grey".
Jasmine's first form, the tentacly light thing, was supposed to evoke Hindu deities. (When I heard that, I hit my head and moaned "Kali, of course!".) Wesley decyphering the word "fallen" among others in Reign of Fire (which DeKnight calls by its original title, Apocalypse, Nowish) was supposed to be the first clue that the one behind everything was actually a fallen Power. So yes, Jasmine was originally one of the Powers, as she says later. (Being a B5 fan, I was reminded of the Vorlons again, though.)
Wesley and Angel in Angel's office: "And now we get the tender reconciliation scene between our two heroes", DeKnight said. The phrasing can be used as evidence that by this point of the show, Alexis Denisof had become the other leading man.*g*
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no subject
Date: 2004-09-07 10:00 am (UTC)Other? Sorry, a temporary symptom of my Wes-blindness. I've only seen S4 out of order and at odd times, so I think I may not have really appreciated everything that's going on. I also hated Connor at first, but he's started to grow on me. I'm even getting plot bunnies for Connor fic. Hard to resist the sinister attraction. . .
no subject
Date: 2004-09-07 10:24 am (UTC)Connor plot bunnies: give up, resistance is futile. I know. (http://www.fanfiction.net/s/1962559/1/)
no subject
Date: 2004-09-07 12:30 pm (UTC)I know your Darla-Connor story was the first one where I started to like him! It's funny that some characters are better for me in fic than in canon. On the other hand, I like Angel fine in canon but can't deal with him much in fic. Weird.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-07 12:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-07 03:08 pm (UTC)You too huh? Hope the celebrations went well.
Regarding fannish analysis and criticism he read on the internet,
Interesting that he read that. I sometimes wonder whether that was a good or a bad thing and whether it influenced them in some of their story choices or not. It must be very tempting to play to the gallery.
no subject
Date: 2004-09-07 04:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-07 09:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-08 12:47 pm (UTC)Leading Duos ?
Date: 2004-09-09 12:39 am (UTC)When I read the above quoted statement I could not but smile, since your assumption happens to confirm one of my own pet theories about the inner dynamics of AtS *g*
In my opinion, one of the reasons why the show managed to stay fresh and dramaturgically intense for so many years is that the writers, rather than focussing on a single hero, often sticked to "leading duos".
In season 2, we've got Angel and Lindsey. Also, Julie Benz' Darla could easily be called Angel's second leading lady after Charisma Carpenter's Cordelia. In season 4 it's clearly Angel and Wes. And while Wesley's role is toned down for large parts of the season 5, it is Spike who gets established as the show's second hero.
Re: Leading Duos ?
Date: 2004-09-09 04:59 am (UTC)Still, otherwise I agree with your theory, including to Darla and Cordelia as leading ladies in 2. (Actually, I don't think it's a coincidence we don't get a Cordy-centric episode until after Darla has gone in 2; while the Darla arc was present, Darla dominated.)