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).
I'm only going by what Joss says in the commentary for the first episode of Angel, on the DVD set. He says that when he first made Buffy, he wanted to put Xander's friend Jessie in the opening credits so that people would be surprised when he died so quickly. But that would have meant making two versions of the credits, and they didn't have the budget for it. So when he started Angel, he made two versions of the credits so that he could kill off a main character and keep people on their toes.
It's possible there were other issues that he didn't talk about, but he made it sound as if it was a planned move.
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...).
From what I've heard, Carpenter kept her pregnancy a secret from Joss and the cast until it couldn't be hid any longer, and then the writers were forced to do a series of last-minute changes to the season arc to incorporate the pregnancy, ultimately leading to the out-of-left-field sequence that ended the season. I don't think Joss did anything or said anything against her publicly, but all of a sudden she was removed from the show, and only brought back for the closure episode for the fans' sake. Her romance with Angel had been fairly unpopular with fans too, so it's possible they couldn't think of anything good to do with her character at that point either.
Fred's death broke my heart when I first saw it. I think it was Joss swinging to an "all male" show for the last bit so that it had a dark feel with all the sacrifice and such. Illyria wasn't male of course, but she had a male sort of energy with her accent and her violence and her presence.
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.
![:P](/site_media/images/smilies/tongue.gif)
Poor Tara. :( It was definitely done for Willow's character development though. But Joss certainly did go for the sudden, brutal, unexpected impact, same as he did with Wash. At least Fred got a whole episode for us to hope they would save her at the last minute.
Warder to starry_nite
Chapterfish — Nate's Writing Blog
http://chapterfish.wordpress.com
Chapterfish — Nate's Writing Blog
http://chapterfish.wordpress.com
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
- 675 Views
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
- 618 Views
well two tricks
22/09/2011 02:48:49 PM
- 735 Views
True, in a way.
22/09/2011 03:43:06 PM
- 651 Views
spoilers
22/09/2011 09:52:31 PM
- 692 Views
Huh. I was convinced...
22/09/2011 11:39:04 PM
- 743 Views
Re: Huh. I was convinced...
23/09/2011 01:41:15 PM
- 677 Views
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
- 693 Views
Chalk another score up for private schools then.
21/09/2011 11:54:09 PM
- 796 Views
I must have attended the best public schools in the world.
22/09/2011 02:12:25 PM
- 573 Views
I'm gonna guess the "little" was sarcasm... *NM*
22/09/2011 11:40:26 PM
- 318 Views
I know of a degree of these problems in private schools as well
22/09/2011 02:38:54 PM
- 628 Views
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
- 633 Views
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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