I Read Smut

I should really start watching series during their latter seasons. I only started warming up to the show, House, not by its pilot, with reasons such that their re-training of rationalism for the West doesn’t really suit well with the medical environment I’ve experienced in my own country. With latter seasons, they begin challenging the Almighty that is House, and I guess beating down the hero (or anti-hero for this matter) is really my cup of tea.

That said, that’s how I liked my Angel, and then Buffy, which funny enough, I used to dislike and close to loathing when it first started. I start getting hooked always in the middle of the story.

Starting from the middle and working my way back to the beginning is fun because you get to see things that they’re only establishing (characters, mysteries, etc.) way back. And you probably won’t see them if you started in the most formal chronological manner. The evolution of themes is funner to track down. And if at first, they sucked, it wouldn’t really matter that much because, hey, during the latter seasons, the themes get grand and complex. You kind of get to see sucky themes in their holistic environment, making them totally un-sucky. Even up to the point that it gets cooler than the latter seasons, because you get delusional that this was all pre-destined by the writers–to stage more grand and complex themes in the latter seasons.

This random (or is it…? Maybe it’s pre-destined! Dundundun!)* burst of babble sprang from finally downloading the complete first season of Angel. Yes, after realizing that I don’t have to scavenge pirated DVDs for a copy, I started downloading complete episodes I unfortunately haven’t watched (because I keep missing it on Sci-Fi channel, because Destiny cable got screwy for a time and I always end up starting to watch season 2. Or was that 3?) when I started working on my thesis and the download only finished yesterday.

It was worth the wait. I get to see David Boreanaz when he was still cute and finally know who Glen Quinn is (RIP :c ).

Aside from little technical complaints (one example is the overimposing background music, like how it spells H-E-R-O-I-C every time Angel does something hero-like), the series pilot is a good pick-up of what Buffy paved for other television shows. Gender-wise anyway.

The pilot implies Joss Whedon’s usual play on feminism by now focusing on how feminism would be if men would be the focus (and not beat-men-with-a-stick focus). In Buffy’s season 1 to 3, gender reversal has always been the technique (where men play sidekicks and it’s the women who kick ass). In Angel’s pilot, Joss Whedon decides to work on an existing masculinity image–Knight in Shining Armor Saves Damsel-in-Distress–and instead of reversing it, he pushes it forward.

The pilot starts with Angel saving blond women and then afterwards, telling them to piss-off. He distances himself from those he saves (because he does not want to endanger them, being a vampire himself). But cutting off from social interaction isn’t really a key to anything, and would only makes things worse, according to Doyle, a demon sent by The Powers That Be. By not involving himself with other people, the tempation of drinking their blood would be harder to resist. Because of course, which is harder: drinking blood of your friends or of total strangers?

So Angel’s first mission: get involved. And then blah blah blah. Action scenes, blah blah blah. Angel learns that getting involved and actually caring about the victim bring a whole new light to defeating villains. Ooops, sorry for the slight euphimism. By defeating, I meant, killing them–in the most bad ass way everrrrrr!

Feminism-wise, it’s Teh Moral Lesson** is simply: don’t objectify. Before Doyle told him to get involved, women were just wimpy objects to be saved. By actually knowing a squat about them, women started becoming wimpy people to be saved.

Kidding. Heh.

Hey, it’s just one episode of five-season series. Give it chance to develop. It will actually feature women who aren’t wimpy and feature men who are as much as wimpy as Angel is.

Anyway, let’s do that again: Before Doyle told him to get involved, women were just wimpy objects to be saved. By actually knowing a squat about them, from a male-gaze angle, women are actual human beings, who live, dream, fail, cry, smiles\, and struggle as much as any human being does. The Man will find it easier to not be tempted of drinking the The Woman’s blood because The Man lives, dreams, fails, cries, and struggle too.

It seemed like Joss Whedon leads masculinity by the hand and show what it could be without actually having to step on anyone else, actualizing power without treating fellow humans as objects.

Of course, this reading can still be sexist in other ways, but like a friend keeps telling me, the revolution wasn’t done overnight (err, something like that…). And pushing masculinity to its less macho shit side needs all the springboard it could muster.

*Watch how the show Angel obsesses with destiny to actually get this joke. I’m also sorry for the disclaimer, I’m trying to cut down on it.
**For the nth time, I’m using this phrase conciously, for the love of god. Don’t leave comments trying to debate me on moral lessons. This phrase is an inside joke only me and me could fully appreciate. And it’s not as if you’re alternative label “insight” is any better.