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My Angel... *sniff* Thank you Joss!
bookworm posted this in AOQ's 'final thoughts' thread. I'd never read it before so I thought I'd share:
The ats-special edition (only available in R2) comes with a similar letter by Joss as does the Chosen collection; his final thoughts or something; I thought I'll post it as a completist...
"And she'll have a love interest, a mysterious stranger named Angel who turns out to be a vampire! But a vampire with a *soul*, cursed to walk the night in eternal remorse for his evil deeds..."
No wait. That's way too cheesy. Nobody will ever buy that.
Such were my thoughts as I developed the TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I knew Angel wouldn't (forgive me the pun) fly. I was frantic. And then something wonderful happened.
I totally didn't come up with anything better.
So this guy was born, and not only did people buy him, they loved him. *I* loved him, at least 76 % platonically. I loved him enough to create, with my partner in crime David Greenwalt, his own show. "Angel". And then it got weird. Well weirder.
The thing is, "Buffy" was a simple premise that developed into a complex show. "Angel" was not a simple premise, not for guys like Dave and me. We couldn't just have a noble, handsome, dark hero rush in and save various days. We tried. That ain't life. We found that "Angel" needed to be a show about our darkest journeys, not unlike Buffy except that Buffy had a grounding: she had a destiny, an arc, a posse. We knew where she had to go. We had NO IDEA where Angel had to go. And so he went everywhere, anywhere: up down, good, bad, left, farther left... off the edge of the world and home for supper and the thing is, it ended up being as much more about our own lives than Buffy was. We weren't 'chosen' (not for sports, anyway). We had no destiny. We lived on the edge of chaos, personally, narratively... even as Angel surrounded himself with more and more of a family (and we found more and more wonderful actors for David Boreanaz to play against), that central core of warmth and safety that Buffy enjoyed was missing. The result is before you in toto: The long, strange trip that is five years in the life a vampire. Not long enough, I would argue, but plenty with the strange. For your listy goodness, a few of the moments herein that made my life worth living:
--Angel locking a roomful of lawyers in with two peckish vampire gals.
--Buffy swearing never to forget her time with Angel, right before she does.
--Faith in the rain, begging Angel to kill her.
--Princess Cordelia.
--Darla's horrified accusation: "While Spike - SPIKE - was out killing a Slayer, you were busy saving Missionaries!... From *me*. (True emotional Vampire logic, courtesy of Tim Minear.)
--Lilah dressing up like Fred to seduce Wesley. (Gentlemen, start your therapists!)
--Any and all karaoke.
--Fred and Wesley, deeply drunk.
--Gunn in the White Room, meeting his match.
--The biggest, bloodiest and most personal Spike/Angel fight we've ever shot.
--The silliest, most pointless Spike/Angel argument we've ever shot.
--Dude, *puppets!*
With no star to guide us, we sailed into waters filled with dragons and mermaids and a few really impressive icebergs. We made some of our most compelling television, reinventing season by season, show by show, moment to moment. This is our odd little odyssey, and no, we never did reach the shores of safety, but that's sort of the point. We don't go through the Hell of existence - the pain, the drama, the meaninlessness and confusion - because it's safe, or simple, or will end happily now or ever after. We do it because nobody ever came up with anything better.
So enjoy it. I did.
Joss Whedon
The ats-special edition (only available in R2) comes with a similar letter by Joss as does the Chosen collection; his final thoughts or something; I thought I'll post it as a completist...
"And she'll have a love interest, a mysterious stranger named Angel who turns out to be a vampire! But a vampire with a *soul*, cursed to walk the night in eternal remorse for his evil deeds..."
No wait. That's way too cheesy. Nobody will ever buy that.
Such were my thoughts as I developed the TV show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I knew Angel wouldn't (forgive me the pun) fly. I was frantic. And then something wonderful happened.
I totally didn't come up with anything better.
So this guy was born, and not only did people buy him, they loved him. *I* loved him, at least 76 % platonically. I loved him enough to create, with my partner in crime David Greenwalt, his own show. "Angel". And then it got weird. Well weirder.
The thing is, "Buffy" was a simple premise that developed into a complex show. "Angel" was not a simple premise, not for guys like Dave and me. We couldn't just have a noble, handsome, dark hero rush in and save various days. We tried. That ain't life. We found that "Angel" needed to be a show about our darkest journeys, not unlike Buffy except that Buffy had a grounding: she had a destiny, an arc, a posse. We knew where she had to go. We had NO IDEA where Angel had to go. And so he went everywhere, anywhere: up down, good, bad, left, farther left... off the edge of the world and home for supper and the thing is, it ended up being as much more about our own lives than Buffy was. We weren't 'chosen' (not for sports, anyway). We had no destiny. We lived on the edge of chaos, personally, narratively... even as Angel surrounded himself with more and more of a family (and we found more and more wonderful actors for David Boreanaz to play against), that central core of warmth and safety that Buffy enjoyed was missing. The result is before you in toto: The long, strange trip that is five years in the life a vampire. Not long enough, I would argue, but plenty with the strange. For your listy goodness, a few of the moments herein that made my life worth living:
--Angel locking a roomful of lawyers in with two peckish vampire gals.
--Buffy swearing never to forget her time with Angel, right before she does.
--Faith in the rain, begging Angel to kill her.
--Princess Cordelia.
--Darla's horrified accusation: "While Spike - SPIKE - was out killing a Slayer, you were busy saving Missionaries!... From *me*. (True emotional Vampire logic, courtesy of Tim Minear.)
--Lilah dressing up like Fred to seduce Wesley. (Gentlemen, start your therapists!)
--Any and all karaoke.
--Fred and Wesley, deeply drunk.
--Gunn in the White Room, meeting his match.
--The biggest, bloodiest and most personal Spike/Angel fight we've ever shot.
--The silliest, most pointless Spike/Angel argument we've ever shot.
--Dude, *puppets!*
With no star to guide us, we sailed into waters filled with dragons and mermaids and a few really impressive icebergs. We made some of our most compelling television, reinventing season by season, show by show, moment to moment. This is our odd little odyssey, and no, we never did reach the shores of safety, but that's sort of the point. We don't go through the Hell of existence - the pain, the drama, the meaninlessness and confusion - because it's safe, or simple, or will end happily now or ever after. We do it because nobody ever came up with anything better.
So enjoy it. I did.
Joss Whedon
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Thank you for posting this. *memories*
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I know! *deep sigh*
This is what I absolutely loved about the show: It's about life, in all its pain and messiness and uncertainty.
Exactly. Have you read
The first one contains one of my favouritest summaries of Angel ever:
And what I always loved best about the Buffyverse was that it wasn’t always about getting out of the hole. Sometimes you can't get out of the hole, and you can’t sit around waiting until you do. You have to make a difference where you are, as you are. That's the point.
Thank you for posting this. *memories*
I couldn't *not*! And now I want to go find 5 million Angel icons... and write a lot.
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*sniff* Makes me miss Angel even more and hope even harder for the comics.
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*g* I could think of so many things to add to the list as well... and yes, a lot of those would be Wesley moments.
*sniff* Makes me miss Angel even more and hope even harder for the comics.
*crosses fingers like mad*
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The biggest, bloodiest and most personal Spike/Angel fight we've ever shot.
--The silliest, most pointless Spike/Angel argument we've ever shot.
Especially the second one, because, dude, that's everyday life.
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I looked it up on amazon and it's £100. *sigh*
Especially the second one, because, dude, that's everyday life.
Oh yes! :D
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With no star to guide us, we sailed into waters filled with dragons and mermaids and a few really impressive icebergs.
That's probably one of the best descriptions of embarking on a new project I've ever heard.
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My pleasure. :)
That's probably one of the best descriptions of embarking on a new project I've ever heard.
Joss is a master, truly!
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*sniff* My show!!! *sigh*
Thanks for posting this. Everything here, why I loved this show so damn much. (maybe even more than Buffy, gasp). Because a part of me has always seen the Buffy characters as archetypal (with perhaps the exception of Spike) but the Angel cast were the 'normal' people, which made them easier for me to identify with.
I miss my show.
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Oh, I know exactly what you mean! *sniffs too*
Everything here, why I loved this show so damn much. (maybe even more than Buffy, gasp).
Such are my thoughts too these days... not that I don't love Buffy, mind you, but...
the Angel cast were the 'normal' people, which made them easier for me to identify with.
::nods:: I have some thoughts on this that I'll share when I've got them sorted a bit more.
I miss my show.
Oh me too. The news about the S6 comics made me squee *a lot*! (Even though theoretically I feel that NFA was the perfect ending.)