Perhaps our reservations are the same, and I'm just not so forgiving about the version of Spike that is necessary to pander to juvenile male audiences.
I should say before I give my list that it pains me to be at odds with Lynch on this. He's obviously a nice guy. And he obviously likes Spike. I wanted to like this more than I have. But here it is:
1. The whole business about sordid scenarios and boasting about them with every male in shouting distance. That's just not Spike at all. I don't doubt that Spike has a healthy sexual appetite. And I've no problem with him indulging it. But Spike doesn't have a list of sordid scenarios he's just now getting around to. As he told Buffy, he's been around forever and done everything. And Spike doesn't boast. Teenage boys boast, and while Spike is often immature, he's not immature in that way. The one time Spike boasts about his sex life is in the middle of an argument with Angel about Buffy, and it only comes up because Spike believes that Buffy loves Angel more and the sex thing is the only thing he can use against Angel. In other words, in that one instance, Spike's boasting isn't at all the sort of boasting that we see in the comics. Repeatedly in the comics. Over and over again. It's annoying. And a bit more than annoying if we recall that an essential element of Spike is that he's really after closeness and not raw sexual experience. So portraying him as having a 14-year-old's attitude towards sex is really off about something that's important about Spike.
2. The whole running from trouble thing. That does have some basis in canon. Spike runs from the Loan Shark, for example. But he runs towards fights more often. Especially when others are at stake. So I was willing to let this jarring note slide until we got to the stupid elevator joke in First Night, which not only favors the joke over the character, but which Lynch actually says in his notes is meant to show that Spike is the reluctant hero where Angel is not. Did Lynch even see Damage? The comparison between the two is more complex than portrayed here. This point is more annoying than fatal. But still annoying.
3. Lynch has put the Spike/Angel relationship back to where it was at the beginning of season 5 with no explanation. One senses that he doesn't even realize that there was an arc there. And that leads us to the absences that bug me.
4. I wanted the story about how Angel-Spike develops in light of Angel having acknowledged Spike as a champion, but with Spike's dawning realization that Angel's moral compass is off. Loyalty trumped Spike's own sensibilities in NFA, but I'd have liked to see that tension play out when the negative consequences of Angel's actions are so clear. All we got was one snarky complaint from Spike in his first scene with Angel, that doesn't really have any sense that Angel was MORALLY off in his decision making (as opposed to merely failing to see that LA might get sent to hell as a result of his actions). Of course, Lynch doesn't seem to think that there's anything morally off with Angel, so it shouldn't be too surprising that he's not picking up that thread in the context of Spike and Angel's relationship. Droggyn just didn't happen as far as I can tell.
5. Spike had reclaimed "effulgence" in NFA which is a way of coming to terms with William that he'd never done before. I'd like to have seen if that made any kind of difference for him. But that's just not there at all, since Spike has unaccountably regressed in many ways.
There are things I have liked. Spike: AtF has some good moments for Spike. There are moments when we get glimpses of Spike's depth. And maybe Lynch can even write Spike in a way that overcomes my deep misgivings. But I really don't have any faith in Lynch at this point; which is probably not unlike the lack of faith you all have in Joss.
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Date: 2009-01-13 06:55 pm (UTC)I should say before I give my list that it pains me to be at odds with Lynch on this. He's obviously a nice guy. And he obviously likes Spike. I wanted to like this more than I have. But here it is:
1. The whole business about sordid scenarios and boasting about them with every male in shouting distance. That's just not Spike at all. I don't doubt that Spike has a healthy sexual appetite. And I've no problem with him indulging it. But Spike doesn't have a list of sordid scenarios he's just now getting around to. As he told Buffy, he's been around forever and done everything. And Spike doesn't boast. Teenage boys boast, and while Spike is often immature, he's not immature in that way. The one time Spike boasts about his sex life is in the middle of an argument with Angel about Buffy, and it only comes up because Spike believes that Buffy loves Angel more and the sex thing is the only thing he can use against Angel. In other words, in that one instance, Spike's boasting isn't at all the sort of boasting that we see in the comics. Repeatedly in the comics. Over and over again. It's annoying. And a bit more than annoying if we recall that an essential element of Spike is that he's really after closeness and not raw sexual experience. So portraying him as having a 14-year-old's attitude towards sex is really off about something that's important about Spike.
2. The whole running from trouble thing. That does have some basis in canon. Spike runs from the Loan Shark, for example. But he runs towards fights more often. Especially when others are at stake. So I was willing to let this jarring note slide until we got to the stupid elevator joke in First Night, which not only favors the joke over the character, but which Lynch actually says in his notes is meant to show that Spike is the reluctant hero where Angel is not. Did Lynch even see Damage? The comparison between the two is more complex than portrayed here. This point is more annoying than fatal. But still annoying.
3. Lynch has put the Spike/Angel relationship back to where it was at the beginning of season 5 with no explanation. One senses that he doesn't even realize that there was an arc there. And that leads us to the absences that bug me.
4. I wanted the story about how Angel-Spike develops in light of Angel having acknowledged Spike as a champion, but with Spike's dawning realization that Angel's moral compass is off. Loyalty trumped Spike's own sensibilities in NFA, but I'd have liked to see that tension play out when the negative consequences of Angel's actions are so clear. All we got was one snarky complaint from Spike in his first scene with Angel, that doesn't really have any sense that Angel was MORALLY off in his decision making (as opposed to merely failing to see that LA might get sent to hell as a result of his actions). Of course, Lynch doesn't seem to think that there's anything morally off with Angel, so it shouldn't be too surprising that he's not picking up that thread in the context of Spike and Angel's relationship. Droggyn just didn't happen as far as I can tell.
5. Spike had reclaimed "effulgence" in NFA which is a way of coming to terms with William that he'd never done before. I'd like to have seen if that made any kind of difference for him. But that's just not there at all, since Spike has unaccountably regressed in many ways.
There are things I have liked. Spike: AtF has some good moments for Spike. There are moments when we get glimpses of Spike's depth. And maybe Lynch can even write Spike in a way that overcomes my deep misgivings. But I really don't have any faith in Lynch at this point; which is probably not unlike the lack of faith you all have in Joss.