In Angel, Doyle's death was planned from the start as part of the story. He killed Connor to get him out, and Cordelia was killed because her actress screwed up the plans for season four by getting pregnant. Fred's death is the only one that stands out as a signature Joss death for me, and she did get to come back as a different version of her character. Wes died at the end, but again, that's the very end. It seems to me that by the end, the show had a feel of a "guys make a last stand" sort of show, and that's why Fred was replaced with a less human, less feminine version of herself, eliminating the last bastion of femininity on the show before the endgame.
that Doyle's death was forced by circumstances (the actor's major drug issues, he died of an overdose what, a year after his last appearance on the show?). If it was planned, that certainly lowers my appreciation of season one, because frankly it hurt the season quite a bit, having to bring in a new supporting cast member (even if was one with a prior history on Buffy).
Didn't know that about Cordy (well, about Charisma Carpenter, I guess), interesting. The Fred-Illyria switch was very strange, I'm still not sure what the point of it was, other than Josh's love for cute petite women going on violent streaks, preferably with spectacularly coloured hair (I guess River at least has fairly ordinary hair...).
So five signature deaths in five shows and nothing outside of those shows. I think everyone deserves at least one emotional, unreversable major character death per show. But it's defintely true that he's known for character deaths. I just don't think it's quite one-trick-pony material, because he doesn't fall back on it every time. But it's close, and it's a fair point, because you can pretty much guarantee that someone is going to die in a Joss show. But I think that most (not all) of his deaths have valid story-effect-driven reasons for happening.
It's really just Tara that's unforgiveable.
Most of all the way he killed her in the very first episode in which she finally became a main cast member - and in such a stupid, meaningless way. Her death made sense for Willow's character development, of course, much like Joyce's did for Buffy's, but still.
And you though Joss Whedon was a one-trick pony? An older show by the "Glee" creator..
- 21/09/2011 12:16:14 AM
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Whedon's a one-trick pony? Other than his dialogue writing, he's pretty varied, I'd say
- 21/09/2011 03:11:22 PM
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There is one trick you can accuse Whedon of repeating.
- 21/09/2011 04:00:28 PM
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Angel had Cordy
- 21/09/2011 07:16:59 PM
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well two tricks
- 22/09/2011 02:48:49 PM
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True, in a way.
- 22/09/2011 03:43:06 PM
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spoilers
- 22/09/2011 09:52:31 PM
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Huh. I was convinced...
- 22/09/2011 11:39:04 PM
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Re: And you though Joss Whedon was a one-trick pony? An older show by the "Glee" creator..
- 21/09/2011 06:05:39 PM
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Chalk another score up for private schools then.
- 21/09/2011 11:54:09 PM
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I must have attended the best public schools in the world.
- 22/09/2011 02:12:25 PM
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I'm gonna guess the "little" was sarcasm... *NM*
- 22/09/2011 11:40:26 PM
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I know of a degree of these problems in private schools as well
- 22/09/2011 02:38:54 PM
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The Mean Girl comment makes me wonder if coed is the problem.
- 23/09/2011 12:23:13 AM
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Yes.
- 23/09/2011 12:49:08 PM
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That seems a bit exaggerated.
- 23/09/2011 07:32:33 PM
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My brothers went to an all boys school. That was their experience. *NM*
- 28/09/2011 08:37:15 AM
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