Conversations with Dead People
TV & Film
The sun has set on Sunnydale, and so now we leave behind the hell of the small town and head into the Big Bad City. Stacey Abbott, Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Roehampton University, editor of Reading Angel: The TV Spin-Off With a Soul, and author of Celluloid Vampires: Life After Death In The Modern World and Near Dark (BFI Film Classics) joins me to usher in the era of Angel, the/a vampire with a soul. We talk for a bit about how she was, for years, a shining beacon of Angel Studies at many, many of the Slayage Conferences, being the only person willing and eager to present on the spinoff series, before FINALLY diving into our discussion of the first two episodes.
“City Of” introduces the new paradigm of the film noir Los Angeles setting, with it’s dark alleys, buzzing neon, and rapid-edit transitions. We’re also introduced to a new player in half-demon “sidekick” Doyle, sent by the Powers That Be (“Powers that be what?”) to be Angel’s sponsor on his quest for redemption. And we get the very welcome return of Cordelia Chase, although she’s slightly different in this new setting than when we last saw her. And lastly, the notion of a Big Bad seems like it might not mean quite the same thing in this series as it did in the last one.
After the first episode sets the cast and stage, “Lonely Hearts” (or is it “Heart” singular?!?) begins to show us how this show will explore themes of heroism, good vs. evil, savior complexes, and helping the helpless. And one more damaged character joins the dramatis personae as Kate Lockley, the “cop contact sympathetic to the private eye” noir trope, enters the picture.
NEXT: Stephanie Graves follows us from the graveyard to the morgue as we discuss episodes 103, “In the Dark,” 104, “I Fall to Pieces,” and 105, “Rm w/a Vu.”
BREAKDOWN
00:00:55 - Intro / Guest
00:18:08 - Main Topic
01:27:06 - Outro / Next
LIBRARY
Reading Angel: The TV Spin-off With a Soul, edited by Stacey Abbott
Angel (TV Milestones Series) by Stacey Abbott
Celluloid Vampires: Life After Death in the Modern World, by Stacey Abbott
Near Dark (BFI Film Classics), by Stacey Abbott
LINKS
Monstrum: A Peer-Reviewed Journal of Studies in Horror
MUSIC
“Conversations (feat. Wesley Mead)” by Azura (2017)
“Touched” by VAST, Visual Audio Sensory Theater (1998)
Episode 82 - Disharmony / Dead End / Belonging (feat. Melanie Scala)
Episode 81 - Reprise / Epiphany (feat. Eric Sipple)
Episode 80 - Blood Money / Happy Anniversary / The Thin Dead Line (feat. Johny Ho)
Episode 79 - Reunion / Redefinition (feat. Sarah Kosheff)
Episode 78 - Darla / The Shroud of Rahmon / The Trial (feat. Wesley Mead)
Episode 77 - Untouched / Dear Boy / Guise Will Be Guise (feat. Michael Holland)
Episode 76 - Judgment / Are You Now or Have You Ever Been / First Impressions (feat. Melanie Scala)
Episode 75 - War Zone / Blind Date / To Shanshu in L.A. (feat. Elizabeth Rambo)
Episode 74 - Five by Five / Sanctuary (feat. Eric Sipple)
Episode 73 - The Ring / Eternity (feat. Michael Holland)
Episode 72 - She / I’ve Got You Under My Skin / The Prodigal (feat. Stacey Abbott)
Episode 71 - Parting Gifts / Somnambulist / Expecting (feat. Johny Ho)
Episode 70 - I Will Remember You / Hero (feat. Matthieu Cravatte)
Episode 69 - Sense & Sensitivity / Bachelor Party (feat. Michael Holland)
Episode 68 - In the Dark / I Fall to Pieces / Rm w/a Vu (feat. Dale Guffey)
Episode 67 - A Very Special Episode of Conversations with Dead People (feat. Nikki Stafford and Dale Guffey)
Episode 65 - Fray (feat. Dale Guffey and Vickie Willis Navarra)
Episode 64 - Chosen (feat. Nikki Stafford, Elizabeth Rambo, and Arlo Wiley)
Episode 63 - Touched / End of Days (feat. Dale Guffey)
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