On Tue, 1 Jul 2003, Matt Ruff wrote:
> Terry Pratchett wrote:
> >
> > But authors in any genre face a problem here. You've got to test the
> > envelope or go mad. Yet you are made well aware that there's plenty
of
> > fans out there who want more of the same -- they want to see the same
> > characters acting like they did in the last book.
>
> To steal a line from Joss Whedon, your job isn't to give them what they
> want, it's to give them what they *need.*
I just watched the commentary on season two, and Whedon says flat out that
Jennie Callendar was NOT originally a gypsy, planted to watch Angel to
make sure he never found happiness. This single revelation has soured me
on Whedon's judgement as to what an audience "needs". It was obvious to
me, watching the DVDs, that the episode in which her "betrayal" of
the gang was revealed was a ridiculous retcon. The character was one
thing one episode, and another the next, just because they needed to
"shake up the audience". One thing an audience "needs" is to believe that
the events in a show progress naturally, and this means being faithful
to characters as they've been ****trayed, since the constancy of
character in real life is pretty much a given.
Whedon may be an imaginative fellow, but some of his shortcuts to
the "interesting' (of the shortcuts of his writing team) undercut the very
believability that sup****ts any show.
And that willingness to carve up and retcon known characters is a
running problem with the show.
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