Spike on Angel

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verdantheart

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Not sure there's a topic quite about this. There's been some speculation about him coming to Angel, but now he's been on for several episodes. There's a little article about how the genre shows are doing at zap2it and they mention Angel, specifically Spike's effect:

~~~
"Angel" (The WB, Wednesday): New addition Spike (James Marsters) is so far eating the show, just like he ate most of the "Buffy" subplots (and a large chunk of the main plot). Even when he's not there, he's there. This may become the first buddy-vampire show in TV history.
~~~

Spike: the vampire who ate series . . . Do we call it "The Spike effect"?
:lol:
 
Here's a couple of articles about today's (11/19/03) episode. It sounds like a real don't-miss! (I haven't concealed the minor spoilers . . . so don't read if you want to know nothing!)



A Matt Roush dispatch from TV Guide Online:
~~~
November 19, 2003
Angel's sweeps month ends tonight on a thrilling note, as the rivalry between those vampires with soul, Angel (David Boreanaz) and Spike (James Marsters), reaches a new fever pitch in a wildly entertaining episode titled "Destiny."

I've been enjoying the "revamped" (so to speak) Angel this season, but have grown tired of waiting for Spike to get fully back in the spirit of things. Lurking around the premises, taunting Angel and his team as a spectral ghost, only goes so far.

<!--SPOILER BEGIN--><div onClick="openClose('c787f5cc5e3c728e23eb20645a37152d')" style="font-weight: bold">Click For Spoiler</div><div id="c787f5cc5e3c728e23eb20645a37152d" style="display:none"><!--SPOILER END-->So it's not only wonderful for that particular obstacle to be eradicated in the episode's opening scene — "He's a solid citizen again," declares Gunn — but Spike's transformation sets up<!--SPOILER DIV--></div><!--SPOILER DIV--> . . . a new conflict with Angel that should carry them, and us, through the rest of the season with plenty of merry mayhem.

This episode, written by David Fury and Steven S. DeKnight, is jam-packed with violent clashes, surprising twists and fang-sharp wit. Adding to the fun, we get to revisit, in colorful flashbacks, the early days of the vamps' centuries-long association with each other, when Spike was merely known as William and Angel was the demonic Angelis. As we watch them clash over Drusilla (the wonderful Juliet Landau), the eternally dazed vamp who sired Spike, the seeds of their hostility fester into a bloody battle in the present. The victor, legend has it, will get to sip from a mystical chalice known as the Cup of Perpetual Torment and fulfill the prophecy that can only apply to one CVS (Champion Vampire with Soul).

From startling start to shocking finish, this episode ranks with the best of Buffy. I haven't found myself saying that in a while.
~~~

And, from zap2it, a chat with Juliet Landau:

~~~
LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - In "Destiny," the Wednesday, Nov. 19, episode of The WB's "Angel," the love story of Spike and Drusilla (James Marsters, Juliet Landau) continues ... more or less.

Introduced in season two of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" as the "Sid and Nancy" of the vampire set, the British bloodsuckers' saga has been played out in present-day episodes and flashbacks ever since, both on "Buffy" and its spin-off, "Angel," now in its fifth season.

In the current version of the tale, Angelus (David Boreanaz) -- the name the good-guy vampire Angel goes by when he doesn't have a soul, and is therefore very, very bad -- drove innocent Cockney girl Drusilla mad and then turned her into a vampire. She then turned lovelorn Victorian poet William (Marsters) into a vampire just because he caught her eye on a London street.

This twisted lineage is also a romantic triangle, and that angle gets fleshed out, so to speak, in "Destiny." On top of their competition for Dru, Spike and Angel also shared the affections of the slayer Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar). This has not made for a harmonious situation since Spike has been forced to join Angel and his evil-battling team.

"We've had the Spike-Angel-Dru triangle," Landau says, "and we've had the Spike-Angel-Buffy triangle."

"Destiny" heads back in time to show what happened the first time the two vampires (both of whom now have souls) fought over a woman.

"It's always fun to visit London 1880," Landau says. "I have some different wardrobe that's really gorgeous. I'm always excited to go back and work, and this is a particularly fun episode, because I'm back with the boys."

Is Dru being a bad girl again? "Well, you know," Landau says, "you'll have to see. It's not exactly like that. There's the vampire rules and all that, but Spike touches me in a different way, so it's kind of nice ... figuratively," she hastily adds.

"That's the part that's so fun about the role. There are so many different colors and dimensions. Even though we are the villains ad we are evil, there always has been this very sweet love story between us."

Although she's appeared in flashbacks and as one of the guises of the incorporeal First Evil on "Buffy," Drusilla's last appearance in present day was in a February 2001 episode of "Buffy" called "Crush."

After being set on fire and driven out of Los Angeles on "Angel," Dru headed back to Sunnydale in hopes of rekindling old embers with Spike.

"I see he's too far gone on Buffy," Landau says, "and I leave. I haven't reappeared anywhere, so I'm obviously somewhere else at the moment, still undead and kicking."

Which means she could return. "They have actually talked about it," Landau says, "but I don't know of any concrete thing. It is definitely a possibility. It would be fun."
~~~
;)
 
That was a really good episode! I love the historical flashbacks. But I wish they'd allowed Drusilla a little more screen time. Juliet Landau is so great in that role, they really should have given her more to do.

But the interaction between Spike and Angel was outstanding. And I never thought about it before, but what Spike said made sense - that Angel hates him so much because he made Spike the monster he became, and he did it because he knew deep down that Spike was better than he was. Just another reason why Spike is now the more layered, dynamic, and compelling of the two vamps with souls!

I wonder if the writers planned for that to happen? It seems that the story sort of took on a life of its own and got away from them. The character of Angel was initially so original; a vampire with a soul seeking redemption. Maybe they felt that they didn't really flesh out the concept as much as they could have, and with Spike they got a second chance to do a better job (with an actor more capable of handling it?) ^_^

But I was completely shocked by Lindsey at the end. Christian Kane is very cute (and a good actor to boot), so I'm not sad to see him back. And was I the only one mad at Fred when she stopped Gunn from killing Eve?
 
That was terrific!

As a man, of course, William, the sensitive albeit weak mother's boy, was at base a good man and far better than the wastrel that Angel's human incarnation was. Angelus despised Spike because he carried so many of those human qualities into his vampiric form--only Drusilla, with her own warped way of seeing things, would have sired such a creature, especially knowing (as I know she must have) what she was doing. Look at how Angelus despised the human in the vampire--especially when it was himself. After he had become Angel and was returned to Angelus, he could not live with even the memories of his love for Buffy and, instead of simply contenting himself with plaguing the world, now bent himself upon destroying it.

It is true that Spike quested for his soul while Angel was cursed with his. However, that merely gives Spike a jump over Angel in terms of knowing what to do with his. He doesn't have to slog through the mires as long as Angel did. (And, no, I don't agree with Angel that he got his soul "to get into a girl's pants." He did it to be worthy of that "girl's" consideration, which is a different matter entirely. I don't even think he expected to "get" anything from Buffy, except, maybe, hopefully, her forgiveness someday.) Angel is jealous that Spike gets to "be a champion" by this seeming shortcut--but it's not, really, because Spike paid many dues when the human Angel and Angelus were merrily wreaking havok--and, amazingly, more as a tormented and conflicted vampire-without-a-soul.

I was hoping that Spike would "win" (win torment?) only to hand the cup to Angel in the end--but I guess he's not up to that yet . . . But I can't tell you how nice it is to see him come out on top for once. It's hard to see him beaten time after time. But you know why he won, don't you? Because right now, as of this moment in time, he has less doubt than Angel does. It's not that he really is better--either one can be, depending on what's going on with them--no, it's who believes the strongest, who has the strongest will to sacrifice at the moment. They really brought that out. What a battle royale.

But this episode also showed that Angelus/Spike could bond. They seemed to take an instant liking to each other, but Angelus' propensity for exploiting the weak points of those around him for his amusement got the better of him--and William was just too tempting a target--and what with Darla absent . . . It would be nice to see some of that bonding recur as we go along--sort of in spite of themselves.

Kudos! I can't say enough.

Wow.
:D
 
I loved him in last night's episode! He had so many great qoutes! I'm also glad that he came out on top in the fight. I like him so much better than Angel but I like Angel too. When they were fighting, I didn't really cheer for either of them because I like them both. Well, maybe I did cheer a bit for Spike but one time I did go "Ooooh!" (as in ouch) when Angel was thrown through the air and to the ground.
 
Here's what James Marsters has to say about it (from Sci Fi Wire's TV news):

~~~
Marsters OK With Angel

James Marsters, who plays Spike in The WB's Angel, dismissed to SCI FI Wire any perceptions that his vampire-with-a-soul character is taking over the show from David Boreanaz's other vampire-with-a-soul. The tension between Spike and Angel "was in there from the very first, from [the] 'School Hard' [episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which Spike was introduced]," Marsters said in an interview on the show's Los Angeles set. "I think because there's tension between the characters is why this character and not another one from Buffy came over to the show. But yeah, between David and me functionally, there are no sparks at all."

Marsters added that he's a big fan of Boreanaz. "He directed a show this year, and he's so good," Marsters said. "I mean, he doesn't know this really, but he's so good that we forgot that he's a first-time director, and we all got lazy with him, and we kind of left him in the ditch a little bit. We had to remind ourselves, 'S--t, David, we should be here for David, because he's really a first-time director.' But he had the quality of such confidence in knowing what he wanted to do one step at a time."

For his part, Marsters said that he's not interested in directing an episode of Angel himself. "I'm more interested in producing, frankly," he said. "As I see how things work in television, specifically, I think the things that interest me as far as larger arcs of characters, as far as finding larger components to put to each other, as far as deciding what the story is that we're going to tell and how we tell it, I'm kind of leaning towards wanting to do that and hire a director." Angel airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
~~~
Mr Marsters always seems to have the best things to say about his colleagues . . .
 
I cant wait for "The Spike Show" :P Spike definitely makes Angel one of the best shows on TV. Boreanez and Marsters have some of the best chemistry. They play off eachother so well. You get the vibe that they really do hate eachother but somehwere inside both of em they kinda like eachother.
 
Not that this applies to Spike being on Angel, but I didn't want to start another topic and I didn't see this posted anywhere so forgive me if I did miss it. Anyways.... According to this week's Entertainment Weekly, James Marsters will be on the Nov. 3rd episode of "The Mountain" on the WB. I have not seen an episode of that show, but I'll really try to catch it that night.
 
GarnerForEmmy said:
Not that this applies to Spike being on Angel, but I didn't want to start another topic and I didn't see this posted anywhere so forgive me if I did miss it.  Anyways....  According to this week's Entertainment Weekly, James Marsters will be on the Nov. 3rd episode of "The Mountain" on the WB.  I have not seen an episode of that show, but I'll really try to catch it that night.
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A really good actor on (by all accounts) a really bad show. What a waste. :(
 

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