Her name is barely mentioned, but Buffy's presence is all over this season premiere. Heartthrob is about losing somebody you love, and the explosive reactions that death brings out of you. Where the story kind of falters is James' insistence that Angel never loved, but merely 'existed'. Yeah, that's not true at all. Angel's reaction to Buffy's death involves him cutting ties with everybody and running away to find some kind of sanctuary and peace. James' reaction to losing Elizabeth is to literally rip out his heart and pursue revenge. Neither reflects how much they loved, but simply how they are as people. James had always been cray-cray, and Angel has always been somber and mournful. It's how they roll, people.Heartthrob also sees Angel as a series stepping out of Buffy's shadow via Buffy's departure from the WB, so we get a lot of dialogue explaining the show's premise and its characters. With that in mind, it's not a totally absorbing episode for long-term fans, even if it does seem to restructure the show. Cordelia gets a lot more to do, and gets some interesting conversations with Angel as a result. But it's at the expense of Wes and Gunn, who drift around on the periphery for most of the episode. Fred, too, is stuck in her room all hour, but Amy Acker gets to be cute and adorable so it's not all bad on that front.
I really liked James' heart-removal operation, and the subsequent Terminator-ish chase through the sewers and the subway station. I love that the Buffyverse still gets creative with vampires, even after seven respective seasons. On that note, Darla's pregnant! Damn. That's a great cliffhanger to end the episode on.
Heartthrob isn't entirely successful, but it's a mostly fine opener to the year. Enough ideas are raised throughout to keep things interesting, and some of the stories they're setting up for the season appear mightily intriguing right now. B-
Credits
Guest stars Julie Benz (Darla); Andy Hallett (Lorne); Ron Melendez (James); Kate Norby (Elizabeth); Keith Szarabajka (Daniel Holtz)
Writer David Greenwalt Director David Greenwalt
I found a bit too cheesy, suddenly being forced to have this mystique around James's Lover (didn't even remember her name...) and be interested, but I was turned around in the end, because of the scenarios it led to. Nice interpretation, James's differences in grief were interesting but James would insist that purely because he was crazy- Terminator (!) chase scenes are so scary! Just the right amount of tension, I thought the conditions for the heart surgery not lasting forever was really cool too.
ReplyDeleteThey're very much forcing Cordelia and Angel together, was a little bit desperate when she started going on about 'being alone'! but oh well. You mentioned some scorn people have at the idea of them being together but I think it's nice, it's especially interesting for Cordelia's character so I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with it!
Darla's big reveal was unintentionally (perhaps) hilarious! The music just sounded so planetary. Interesting that vampires can get pregnant though. Totally agree with your closing words, that b- is needed!
I agree that the James/Elizabeth stuff felt a little un-earned, since they're so casually dropped into history here. But, yeah, the later scenes are fun.
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree about the Angel/Cordy relationship, but if anything it sort of harms Cordelia's character in the long run. She becomes crazily annoying this season, which is unfortunate.