SAVE ANGEL...oh, and also...GO AWAY!
Mar. 5th, 2004 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rabid1stDuring a recent sweep of the web I ran across an interesting phenomenon...not directed against me but against people who could easily have BEEN me. I refer you to:
http://www.slayage.com/reviews/000118.html#000118
This is an article by a deeply committed and disappointed fan. And the reaction to it by many in the SAVE ANGEL crowd was...HOW DARE YOU? How dare you voice your lack of enthusiasm and let us know why you are leaving our fandom? And most amazingly..."What I don't understand is why you don't just stop watching the show if you hate it so much?"
Uhm...I think...that is the point we are all trying to make...we don't HATE the show...we want to love it. But, the big important news here is: people ARE going to stop watching AtS! People who loved, even worshiped, Joss Whedon are no longer happy with his work! And what that means is ANGEL won't be SAVED! Disenchanted, long term viewers need to be encouraged to support a flagging show...not driven off by a dwindling jingoistic fanbase. Cards and letters won't save Angel...more people watching WOULD!
This reviewer is not some fly-by-night fan...this is someone who spent hours of his time, time he did NOT have to spare, writing articles for the fanbase, reviewing and praising BtVS and AtS for YEARS. He has watched, like I have, since the very beginning of the series. He knows of what he speaks re: Storyline and Whedon's Talent. And he is saying: Joss made some big mistakes and the result of those mistakes is I no longer care enough to watch! This should WORRY the save Angel folks...but it doesn't.
Instead of asking WHY this person, who has been an active fan for YEARS and YEARS, is suddenly so disheartened, they lash out. Instead of thinking, HEY, maybe we should try to fix the problem, contact JW, let him know he has gone astray and people are leaving in droves and that exodus may cost the show its future...all too many of the SAVE ANGEL crew, pout and shout, "GO AWAY! STOP SAYING BAD THINGS ABOUT MY SHOW!"
Guess what? Too many of the long term fans DID go away...and the direct result of that is: AtS is going away, too!
Raeann
http://www.slayage.com/reviews/000118.html#000118
This is an article by a deeply committed and disappointed fan. And the reaction to it by many in the SAVE ANGEL crowd was...HOW DARE YOU? How dare you voice your lack of enthusiasm and let us know why you are leaving our fandom? And most amazingly..."What I don't understand is why you don't just stop watching the show if you hate it so much?"
Uhm...I think...that is the point we are all trying to make...we don't HATE the show...we want to love it. But, the big important news here is: people ARE going to stop watching AtS! People who loved, even worshiped, Joss Whedon are no longer happy with his work! And what that means is ANGEL won't be SAVED! Disenchanted, long term viewers need to be encouraged to support a flagging show...not driven off by a dwindling jingoistic fanbase. Cards and letters won't save Angel...more people watching WOULD!
This reviewer is not some fly-by-night fan...this is someone who spent hours of his time, time he did NOT have to spare, writing articles for the fanbase, reviewing and praising BtVS and AtS for YEARS. He has watched, like I have, since the very beginning of the series. He knows of what he speaks re: Storyline and Whedon's Talent. And he is saying: Joss made some big mistakes and the result of those mistakes is I no longer care enough to watch! This should WORRY the save Angel folks...but it doesn't.
Instead of asking WHY this person, who has been an active fan for YEARS and YEARS, is suddenly so disheartened, they lash out. Instead of thinking, HEY, maybe we should try to fix the problem, contact JW, let him know he has gone astray and people are leaving in droves and that exodus may cost the show its future...all too many of the SAVE ANGEL crew, pout and shout, "GO AWAY! STOP SAYING BAD THINGS ABOUT MY SHOW!"
Guess what? Too many of the long term fans DID go away...and the direct result of that is: AtS is going away, too!
Raeann
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-05 09:10 am (UTC)COWARD! Rabid sticks out her tongue...
Date: 2004-03-05 10:06 am (UTC)But at the same time...to predict something WOULD happen last year (when James was signed...which I did...)and then to see it happen with a sort of grinding inevitablity while listening to people chatter on about SAVING ANGEL on one hand even as they make sure the show will fail on the other...irks me.
Joss needed to listen to the people he was disappointing...he needed to do some course correction...and instead he went blithely along with a herd of YESMEN(and women) patting him on the back...and telling him he's a genius...and look where that got him...his show is history...and if he doesn't end it well...it will be forgotten history by this time next year.
Raeann
(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-05 02:16 pm (UTC)caia
(no subject)
Date: 2004-03-05 04:02 pm (UTC)..."What I don't understand is why you don't just stop watching the show if you hate it so much?"
Yeah I do disagree with that argument cause I do get watching and hoping the show will get better cause that's what I did during season seven. Because in all fairness I was a bitter girl last year and plenty of people said the same thing to me.
With that said, a lot of the things that changed in the show were less Joss's doing then things Mutant Enemy was told they had to do to keep the show on the air. The addition of JM to the cast, stand-alones, no previouslies, and less "dark" were things handed down from the WB last year. One could argue that rather than make that pact Whedon & Co. could have just ended the show with "Home" and be done with it. Though I'm glad they didn't cause I'm really enjoying this season despite some of it's weaknesses (I see so far much the way I do S6 of Btvs. Excellent season with some flaws) and I still find it overall to be stronger than Ats s3.
From what I recall (someone a week or two ago had a post on my FL with the ratings history of Ats can find it now though) the show is performing slightly lower than it was at this time last year (though at the time I think they were winding up the much hyped Faith arc). So the problem isn't so much keeping old viewers (I'd venture the largest exodus of viewers from either show happened in S6/7 of Btvs and S3 of Ats) but the show's inability to bring in new viewers (or viewers of Btvs that hadn't watched Ats. I think the WB thought the addition of JM would do that without realizing that A) Btvs and Ats are at their core very different shows and that once fans realized that they wouldn't stay and B)they were overestimating the appeal of Spike as a character) They show failed to bring in new viewers and that's where the problem is. The strongest disagreement I have with the review writer linked above is the way he's viewing Spike's character, though I've come to accept I'm in the minority of Spike fans in that I'm really enjoying him this season.
Like I do see weaknesses this season so I can look at cancellation as a chance for Ats to go out on top in a way that Btvs did not. The writing could be tighter I think and I think Joss would have been better off leaving Ats to Bell and Fury because Joss has never had the handle on the show that Bell, Greenwalt, and Minnear did. So yeah I guess what I'm getting at is I'm not sure what changes Joss *could* make to the show considering the mandates from above or rather than making those changes should they have allowed the series to have ended with "Home" (which yeah would have also made a perfect ender to the series as well)?
You make a number of very insightful points
Date: 2004-03-05 07:42 pm (UTC)Anyway, I totally agree with you that one of the main problems was someone in authority overestimated the pull of SPIKE the character. The reason they over estimated it is because the fanbase was VERY vocal in loving Spike and hating Buffy for abusing Spike. Coupled with that was the fact that James Marsters is a very good actor (and probably a nice guy as well...good to have on set) and BtVS gave him a chance to shine....I mean...he went and got a SOUL...talk about your Knight Errants.
But what the majority of people loved about Spike was his heart. And most of them didn't even know that...until his heart went to Rome. Unortunately...Spike without his passion is just XANDER...the guy that makes the pithy comments and irritates the vampire hero of the show.
What the Spike on Angel thing demanded was that JW and CO. create another passion for Spike...that in itself would have been a daunting task. Spike as he was on Buffy was way larger than life...and just looking at the BtVS vs. AtS...you can easily see that wasn't going to happen without RADICALLY altering the thrust of AtS. When I said this last year, I said, this wasn't about liking Spuffy better than Bangel or Spander or whatever...this was about the HEART of the character and how a character will continue on their path even if a writer tries to change the direction with plot. It would take a lot of plotting to make Spike have anywhere NEAR the draw on AtS...and you had to ask...was it even worth trying?
Also...Take my hand my sister...I, too, give it up for Jeff Bell (not so much for Fury...but TIM is also my man...and who doesn't love Greenwalt?). I am hoping Bell gives us a good finale...but I do think Joss Whedon is both ABLE to create the necessary environment to nurture the future of the Buffyverse and unfortunately too attached to the idea of expedient storytelling to leave us with a powerful and final finish. In other words, I think you are right...it was the deal he made...and I also think the price (sacrificing the characters of Buffy and Spike and compromising the independent integrity of Angel and possibly ending his franchise) was too high.
Raeann