(no subject)

[doyle]

Buffy, Fool For Love

I have all seven seasons on DVD, and *this* disc had to be the only one that won't play... Anyway, the shot that reappears in the Angel episode Darla, the Fanged Four striding in slo-mo through the burning street in the middle of the Boxer Rebellion.

Angel, Home

Well, there's rampant Wes/Lilah shagging in Ground State, or anything with the Angelpuppet or... ahem. Just one, okay. Angel and Connor's final scene in the shopping mall kills me. Boreanaz and Kartheiser hit it out of the park and then some.

Smallville, Hourglass

The vision of Lex's future, so horrific it kills the old woman who sees it: President Luthor in a field of sunflowers that crumble away to ash when he touches one; blood raining from the sky, the ground covered in bones, and Lex just keeps up that creepy little smile. I'm not even much of a Superman geek but I loved the continuity nod in Lex wearing one black glove.

Firefly, Objects in Space

The opener, with River's surreal walk through the ship, is so beautiful and strange. Now I'm torn between that one and River's speech when she tells Early she's become Serenity.

You're wrong about River. River's not on the ship. They didn't want her here, but she couldn't make herself leave. So she melted... Melted away. I'm not on the ship. I'm in the ship. I am the ship.


Queer as Folk UK, episode 1.8

"You're supposed to ask if I love him."
"You can't. You can't even respect him. He loves Vince Tyler and that makes him stupid."
"No, it's nothing like that! It's just... me, though? I can't be the best shag he's ever had, he's Australian! I don't even know if I'm a good kisser, how'd you know if you're a good kisser?"
"You just know."
"It's not like I've ever done... anything."
"You've done nothing, Vince. You go to work, you sit and watch cheap science fiction. What is there that's special about that, what is there to love?"
"...yeah."
"It was good enough for me."

That dialogue may not be exact seeing as it's from memory, having seen the show once in the last five years, but the acting in that scene is amazing.

Comments

[kita0610.livejournal.com]

Fanged Four: Oh yes. William who has just become Spike's jump over the box, and the blood all over his face and Dru in ballerina slippers, and Darla and Angelus silently at war with one another and themselves while the carnage piles up around their feet. Christ yes.

Home: I swear to god I can't watch that scene without crying. Anyone who gives Dave shit about his acting needs to look at the one moment when he raises the knife. He doesn't say a word but there's 18 years of father and love he never got to give in that one look.

SV: I've seen maybe ten episodes but that one I've seen three times. That scene squicks the fuck out of me. So well done.

Yea. God I miss my show.

[stella-stardust.livejournal.com]

My favouritest queer as folk scene ever too.

Just beautiful and squirmy and sad and joyful all at the same time.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I adore that scene because Stuart, being Stuart, never tells Vince he loves him (even though he says as much to Hazel at the wedding) and this is as close as he ever gets and it's so perfect for both characters.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

There are flashier scenes that are also quite dear and memorable, ("I am that arse bandit, I lift those shirts I'm a faggot arse, fudge packing, shit stabbing uphill gardener, I dine at the downstairs restaurant, I dance at the other end of the ballroom, I'm Moses in the parting of the red cheeks ..."), but none of them are as touching as that one. And to me this just elevates QAF UK above anything the American version seems capable of ever doing.

[queenofthorns.livejournal.com]

That QAF scene makes me all misty-eyed and gives me a lump in my throat - I love it so much ... As your previous commentor said, I love how Stuart tells Vince he loves him without actually ever SAYING it... (Now I feel the need to rewatch!)

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I need to rewatch too, I haven't seen that in far too long, and there's so much that's good from that episode, from Stuart's emotional meltdown to the reappearance of the guy who left Phil to die and the dance at the end...

[cosmic.livejournal.com]

If there's any scene in Angel that kills me, it's that scene from Home. It's just horrifyingly sad and poignant and Angel loves Connor so much and. *sniff* I can't even write about it without getting teary-eyed.

Also? *Word* about that scene of QaF. QAF UK is full of little scenes like that, these perfect, perfect scenes that are perfect and I sometimes forget that Stuart is the best, the cockiest (tee-hee-hee), the nicest in his own secret way guy out there in Fiction Land, because I always end up loving QAF US just a little bit more for its season one finale, the shocking brutality of it, that I forget just how much more awesome QAF UK was. (Except parts of series two. Those were crap.)

[metalphoenix.livejournal.com]

I love that scene in Fool for Love because in two different shows, it gives different information each time. Same scene, different perspective.

I'm happy to say I've actually seen that Smallville episode. I used to watch every week back then, and I remember when they did that, I stood up with my jaw open and was in awe. It was amazing. He's just standing there. In that field of flowers.. and the blood, with so much contrast.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

That scene really did make me keep watching -- up until then, I thought, god, they're just rehashing old X-Files plots, whatEVER, but that scene gave the show its identity.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

I'm so pleased you didn't go for the trite (no Hush, no The Body, no Once More With Feeling). Those are great episodes with great moments in them, but they've been picked over so much and adored so thoroughly that it's essential to gaze specifically at some moments in other episodes, moments which show the depth and beauty of the Whedonverse just as thoroughly and emotionally as those better-known episodes (if not more so).

The Fool for Love imagery is so strong and meaningful, especially in the context of the overall imagery used by Mutant Enemy. Their favorite iconic Hero and scooby Group moments are carefully culled from the episodes and are shown every week during the musical introduction. The imagery of a band of Heroes marching or sallying purposefully on toward their Destiny is so common as to be trite, but the imagery is powerful and lasting and is used for that very reason. Striding along with the rocket launcher, striding toward the Initiative in Primeval, moving purposefully through the halls of that nursing home on AtS. A Hero alone also accomplishes this -- Angel's sweepy coat never loses its effectiveness for all its repetition and potential for triteness.

To take that same visual composition and capture the anti-heroes rather than the heroes, at their most complex, their most horrible, their most base and fallen, and yet also a pinnacle, and to repeat that image, is to give it significant importance and weight. Because that moment encompasses so much complexity and because it contains within itself so much contraction about who these people are/were/will be (heroes, anti-heroes, strugglers on the path of redemption), it is an essentially more powerful image and more powerful representative of the Whedonverse, than the simpler ones of the Fang Gang or the Scoobies. The slow-motion and the lighting only emphasize this more, burn it futher into our brains, make us think about it more deeply.

The Home scene is a whole other kettle of fish, and doubles in importance when you think about how pivotal that episode is in the entire shaping of Season Five and of Angel's psychological and emotional approach to the W & H compromise. Few episodes retrospectively carry so much emotional weight, which is why re-watching that episode and that scene only deepen those emotions.

[chicken-cem.livejournal.com]

The opener, with River's surreal walk through the ship, is so beautiful and strange. Now I'm torn between that one and River's speech when she tells Early she's become Serenity.

The masterful way the scripts play with time and with perception and POV in both Objects in Space and Out of Gas are so awe-inspiring that they really stick in your mind for weeks, months, and probably years after seeing them. The way these concepts are brought to screen are so gorgeous and so visually unusual that it isn't hyperbole to call them fantastic in every sense of the word. And as you say, surreal. I'd add haunting. Itt's so masterful that they actually manage to make it all look very easy -- quite a feat when you consider how very difficult it is (esp. after listening to the DVD commentary).

Yes, Best QAF Scene Ever!

[wannabebrit.livejournal.com]

I adore that scene, so much. Perfect Stuart. And I think you've got the dialogue spot on. See, your memory isn't so bad. :)

I've always wanted a fic where Vince actually doesn't let Stuart get off so easy in that scene. Strange no one's written it!