spudthedestroyer wrote:maaxpayne2409 wrote: but seriously, can anything other then buffy and angel really get to the depths of sick depravity that is Josh whedon style???? if it can i dont wanna know
He was the only an idea man most of the time for those (although he wrote the buffy movie... now that was what I was talking about). The tv series were just based upon his ideas and written by other people... I'm talking about the monstrousity that was alien freaking four! Take a look at his writing credits on imdb! Absolutely shocking. I'm so glad someone rewrote Toy Story after he got his hick hands on it.
iunno. I certainly could be mistaken here, but I read Joss' mark all over the dark tone of Toy Story. The kid who blows up the toys and the frankenstein toys. I think he adds the "tragic world view" that Nietzsche lamented. there's something sublime about the grotesque.
anyway, he wrote and/or directed most of the really great episodes of buffy. and not all of them were in seasons 1 & 2. which brings me to...
mw2merc wrote:And fall as far as Buffy & Angel did as good gone crappy series?
I do certainly agree that the buffy series lost its momentum and the bulk of the great eps and story arcs were weighted in the beginning, but I also feel compelled to throw in two caveats:
(1) every show is constantly changing, ala life. static images and idealic memories are the ultimate fiction</i>. S2 was a high water mark. no doubt. but...well...things have to keep moving, and once you're at the top, there's only one direction to go. I think the rate of decline was slow with a few spikes each season (literally and figuratively) approaching S2 and a testament to the series' quality. It wasn't until S6 that I found myself saying "wtf" at a lot of the episodes.
(2) I (obviously) won't argue that series don't change, but I also firmly believe that one's attitude toward a series changes, perhaps not more, but more significantly. For my part, I come in and there's Xander. A HS kid at a particular time who says and does particular things. He was ace - the reason I kept tuning back in. but you know what? he's only in the 10th grade once. the 11th grade once. 12th grade once. he cannot stay the same, but paradoxically, I become nostalgic for his awkward, 10th-11th-12th grader insecurities and outlook. You could say the same for the entire show: High School is Hell - literally. Ok. so what do you do after year 3? well the scoobies have to go to college and have different experiences and yada yada yada. but hey, I'm still nostalgic about the HS experience. it doesn't really matter how good the college years are if I draw my emotional connection, first and foremost, to the HS setting. So on the one hand, yeah, of course the show changes. it has to - or you're stuck with the same show each week, month, year. On the other hand, and here I think is the more important change, I insist that the show not be same each week, yet I try to maintain the same emotional attatchment that was established at a point in the past and then lament the fact that the show, which changed because</i> I demanded it, is no longer the same</i> show I was originally drawn to.
Add to this the SW effect, whereby my aesthetics simply change. I would really scoff at E.T. if it was in cinema for the first time today. And SW...well...I have to admit, there are some really stupid lines in all three</i> movies. I mean really really dumb. And the names? Chewbacca? C'mmon. Skywalker? umm. Tauntaun? *me shakes head* Everything C3-PO says? yikes! Well...as much as I love</i> the original trilogy, I know for a fact that I wouldn't like it nearly as much if it premiered today.
won't even address Angel. although I liked it and particularly liked 2 seasons, it wasn't ever really in the same class as Buffy.
). It just happens, they've established success and then there's the risk of characaturing their characters and going for the cheap fix. The only series that end on a high note, it seems, are those that are cancelled midseason or before their prime.
that would piss me off incredibly and it wouldnt be gremlins anymore.
