My apologies. There's something about AtF that has frustrated me a great deal. I've been sitting on it for a while, and for some reason am currently in venting mode. Not sure what it's all about, though a lot of it is just a feeling of huge loss in the transition from NFA to AtF. NFA was so rich, not just in terms of morally interesting stuff, or political philosophy, but also psychologically. Lynch might well be telling an interesting story (though I've only seen one post, by Elisi, that made the case for that). It's just not resonating with anything about the story I thought I was watching. But other people have really grooved on it, and that's cool. I can make some peace with it if I think of it as being something other than a continuation of the series.

And maybe also part of the energy I have on it has to do with an unease I've felt about both shows for quite a while. Rahirah did a post on this recently, but it's basically the question of whether the writers inhabit the same moral framework you do. If the writers really did mean for us to see NFA as heroic and nothing but heroic, then I just am not on board. And that would be hard to deal with cause I love the show. Anyway, I find it hard to imagine that NFA was written by people who were entirely unaware of the dark side of what was going on. But AtF really does seem to be unaware of it. Brian really does seem to think that Angel is about a guy who while not perfect is basically a hero, but who is beset by really bad misfortune. So it's nice to finally give him a happy ending. For me, Angel is a classically tragic figure in that his tragedy is rooted in his character. I can't get him to a happy ending when the trajectory of events began with his choice to wipe the memories of his friends and sell out to evil, inc.

I'll definitely be having a look at your meta. I oughtn't to make assumptions about where people are coming from. Especially when I am, for whatever reason, in venting mode.