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Angel speaks to our current era better than any other Joss Whedon series

posted 5 years ago by TMC-4 (20149)
5 replies | jump to latest

https://www.vox.com/culture/2020/5/12/21254739/angel-tv-show-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-joss-whedon-david-boreanaz-charisma-carpenter

The 1999-2004 Buffy the Vampire Slayer spinoff might be the "problem son" of the Whedonverse, says Emily VanDerWerff. "What makes Angel such a good fit for this particular moment — and I mean 'this particular moment' beyond just the Covid-19 of it all — is the way in which it talks about capitalism and corporations as a corrupting force," says VanDerWerff. "Across the series’ 110 episodes, Angel and his friends go from outsiders challenging the supernatural order to insiders who’ve been literally co-opted by that system, saying they’re working to change it but also realizing at every turn how badly they’re failing at that."

[–] Fandango (534) 5 years ago

Interesting insight. Thank you for the link.

The issue isn't necessarily capitalism, which fosters innovation and technological progress, but that capitalism absent morality is a dead-end, just like socialism. That's because capitalism's current iteration places money above everything else, ignoring any sort of collective effort to help others.

It wasn't always so.

Capitalism used to have some element of humanity back when pensions existed. We can view a pension as the moral responsibility of an employer to aid its employees in retirement. Pensions went away when morality went away, if it ever existed, because they inhibit a corporation's ability to maximize profit.

[–] twinA (4921) 3 years ago

August 19, 2021 Thursday 12:45 AM ET

Very interesting! Something also to consider:

The seeking of popularity over respect contributed to an overabundance towards materialism, says sociologist David Riesman, observing American morality in the mid 1900s; people buying prestigious stuff trying to impress others in order to get their approval.

[Source: The Lonely Crowd]

~~/o/

[–] Domi90 (283) 5 years ago

I dont think Angel was anti-capitalist. Angel talked more about humanity darkest sides,regardless of the political or social systems like capitalism,comunism,nazism etc.

[–] pioneergrrrl (2408) 4 years ago

Agree with this

Angel himself existed pre-capitalism--and understood good/evil also existed pre-capitalism. He died 1753--before Adam Smith began influencing the world. So Angel was seeing things good vs evil.

[–] scannerdarkly (1380) 3 years ago

Yep, on point!

People pushing the anti-capitalism theory forget who Angel was at his core. The hero didnt care about money as long as it kept him doing what he did best, which was helping people.

They also choose to forget that Angel Investigations was a self-employed business that took off when he got human compatriots helping his cause. There were several instances where making money or having money saved the day! Angel used the bag of old robbery money to buy the Hyperion Hotel. Angel ensured the charity got the full amount of money from the Wolfram and Hart Fundraiser. They used money (freezing the necromancers accounts) to essentially bankrupt the man so he could no longer function in his evil bidding. The money or system itself was never an issue, only who was good or bad!

One of their clients was a "nice-guy billionaire" who got mixed up with a rough crowd and was being blackmailed. Notice too, that he hated Wolfram and Hart, not because it was a rich company, but because it was in the business of putting down innocent people and lifting up and protecting evil people.