…I could see that as a Beatrice line, actually.

Story of Wesley's life.

@avclub-d019eb089e65903455cc52308f00b997:disqus I just thought he was happy because he was supposed to be happy, because that was the point, so the suffering hurt more. Like in a way all his actions were mapped out, and so was how he would feel about them.

Oddly, it left me rather cold on my first viewing - I simply didn't buy the connection between Angel and Darla until we had lived it through the episodes of that season. By Reprise, I was absolutely on board, but it was only on a rewatch that it became apparent to me how amazingly Darla was brought back and used to…

I just googled it and now I know where it's from but I'm still missing the context somehow (or have forgotten it) because… [what are the things in brackets that relate to it?]

And now I want Much Ado About Nothing even more.

…yes. 'Hot enough to be melted' is our standard-atmospheric-pressure view of things. Crank the pressure up, and melting points rise.

I sure as hell liked Connor a lot more when I went back for a rewatch, knowing what he was capable of being if only everything hadn't gone so wrong.

I always think season 4 of Angel is my favourite, probably followed by season 3. But then something reminds me of this absolutely stunning stuff in the latter half of season 5, and I'm all confused again.

Shit yes.

Yes, I was about to say the same thing myself. That was another brilliant summation by Noel of… things.

I'd forgotten all about it, but it's wonderful. The show really does go all-out fantasy/existential weirdness towards the end of this season, and I love it.

Me too. I think Illyria needed some character-building for us to allow her to become part of the world at this late stage, and shutting her up with someone who drinks too much and calls her a Smurf is an excellent way to get her talking.

Connor, I assume, but I think the whole point is that this reasonably well-adjusted Connor can finally see what Angel was trying to do all along.

…are you saying Ben and Glory are connected somehow?

Huh, I had never heard of that. Clearly I am not a massive enough Sondheim fan.

Battleship sank (*groan*) Cabin In The Woods here in the UK last month. Which was expected, but depressing.

Ah, see I was the opposite - I was convinced it couldn't possibly work, and thus pleasantly surprised that it almost did. (Please let no-one ever try to film Into The Woods, though.)

I don't know that I'd call Up 'better' than the early albums, but it's more me. So it's best for me to listen to. And man, I love the early albums, all the albums (yes, Around The Sun and Reveal are the only two I don't play often), so saying REM isn't really the band for me if I respond best to Up… no, that's not…

Definitely agree with the 'it's where you were when you engaged with them' angle. I was a latecomer to them as a band, getting into them and the whole back catalogue in the period between Up and Reveal (yeah, talk about timing), but I bought my own copy of Up in a week where everything was going badly, I was generally…