Angel - 2x14 “The Thin Dead Line” FULL REACTION
Added 2020-01-07 20:19:49 +0000 UTCEnjoy!
Comments
1). Liam, perhaps we’ll ‘see’ the eyeball girl again. 2) The ‘bad guy’ inside the shelter was so unnecessary. His few minutes could have been used to flesh out the evil captain a bit more. Note how his Lt. at the desk supported him and whatever they were doing to lower the crime rate (not sure he knew the specifics), like many cops don’t turn in bad cops, even if they (think they) aren’t bad themselves. 3) I guess we all better assume Angel sensed the cop he was fighting wasn’t completely human. Otherwise, our hero just decapitated a police officer for trying to arrest him. 4) I feel horrible for the ambulance driver who died brutally just trying to do his job of saving a life. I feel like his co-worker working on Wesley for the rest of the show would have been WAY more freaked out about that than the actor was showing, even if he was trying to save Wesley. And couldn’t he have called into the hospital and said a dozen cops just blew my partner off the face of the Earth?!
Richard Lucas
2020-01-11 03:58:51 +0000 UTCThis episode definitely has some mixed messages on discrimination/systemic racism as it relates to police brutality. On one hand, they seem intent to highlight the discrimination poc, disproportionately black poc, endure by the police, and how that is wrong. They even include white people of low socioeconomic status (ie many white homeless kids), but the focus, as it should be, is on poor black people’s relationship with the police in this episode. They hinder this intention in possibly a number of ways. One, they make that one guy a one note criminal, and use Gunn as the “You give us a bad name. You can’t blame people for at least profiling us, for them to have stereotypes of us” devils advocate. Why they used Gunn is a different story. (Hint, for the show to be able to use the “he’s black, he can say it” cop out. No pun intended 🤨) In any case, it diminishes not only police brutality being a legitimate problem, but a systemic one. 2) They ALSO don’t help by making Gunn’s group of friends all vocalize “you’ve moved on up off the streets and we resent you greatly for it.” This gives credence to a preconceived notion that poor working class people of color attempt to prevent each other from progressing economically, or socially, by shaming them. Again, two words: SYSTEMIC RACISM. Possible social symptoms of it, like poor black people resenting other poor black people for going higher up into a system that has systemically oppressed them for hundreds of years, is not a root cause, nor is it the problem. And then lastly, Kate’s comment: a short but serious sentiment about murder statistics showing these police greatly reduced crime, implying the idea that this is an effective way of managing crime. It was naive and dangerous to not follow up and counter this idea, one that many Americans, namely right wing politically affiliated ones, believe. One that doesn’t address systemic racism. Systemic racism is a complex beast, which involves oppressive social and economic policies- and then there’s the police and the historically biased and purposefully racist justice system, which carry out these laws. Then there’s the police itself, which in comparison to other developed countries, have very little oversight, very little training, and the kind of training they get doesn’t involve deescalation tactics. Police training in of itself is a disaster. They are taught fight-or-flight, and their fight entails excessive physical abuse or use of their gun. So, yeah, the writers took this critical, complex subject, and handled it fairly sloppily, regardless of whether you’re inclined to believe they meant well.
Alexis Cardarella
2020-01-10 00:27:05 +0000 UTCSorry Liam you have to wait to watch the outtakes where David sneezes and falls off the roof, too many spoiler :)
Paul Gibson
2020-01-09 21:02:48 +0000 UTCI do love Gunn and Wesley's growing bond -- Wesley took a bullet for them. Such a hero. Our baby has come such a long way from giving up everyone to Balthazar in "Bad Girls."
Rachael
2020-01-08 05:47:35 +0000 UTCThe police seemed to scaring the teens to seek sanctuary in Anne's shelter where they could contain them and kill them -- so yeah, shades of the wine cellar and "Hero." Chilling.
Rachael
2020-01-08 05:44:01 +0000 UTCKill everyone that you think deserves to be killed. May as well just lock 'em in a wine cellar with a couple of vampires if that's the way you see things. So what if a few others get hurt too.
Bruce Trogdon
2020-01-08 03:53:35 +0000 UTCKate's worldview was very common in the '80s and '90s, people across the political spectrum valued low crime rates over human rights. It's why the US has a larger prison population than any other country in the world, by far. You betcha we would have used zombie cops if that were an option. I imagine robot cops will be a thing at some point. But think of it this way: extrajudicial police killings definitely aren't being counted in that murder statistic, so it actually probably evens out. Like yeah, police states have low crime rates, that doesn't make them good places to live Kate???
KT
2020-01-08 01:53:47 +0000 UTCI have to say too, I have been following a lot of police corruption events in the US and the UK, mostly the US, so much is going on even now that is not being reported on, including innocent people getting killed by police and them just justifying it and getting away with it. So this episode to me, may be dressed up in a "fantasy" world, but take out the "zombie" part of it, what I witnessed in the episode is not far from some cases I am following at the moment, especially against black men. I am a white male and I am lucky because i have 3 black male friends who act EXACTLY like me, we are law abiding people, but they have regularly been pursued by cops. One actually sued the police for harassment for £20k, but none of this stuff gets reported
Salv Mancuso
2020-01-08 01:02:06 +0000 UTCLove the Liam eyeball shock face, made the rest of this episode worth watching 🙄🤣...... deliberately avoids the race/corrupt cop issue being discussed above 😏
CeNedra
2020-01-07 23:47:00 +0000 UTCI agree with you about the writing for the black characters. It's painfully obvious that the writers don't know how to write POC, especially underprivileged black kids. Also, having Gunn as the token black character makes for too many white saviors, even if I love it when Anne reappears. I hope the last line of your comment was sarcastic because zombie cops are never the solution especially if they are targeting poor communities of color. Terrifying and murdering "undesirable" communities to "clean up" the city is ethnic cleansing.
Rachael
2020-01-07 23:10:45 +0000 UTCI like this episode also. I just wish they had some black writers on staff to write authentic-sounding dialogue. It's quite cringey at times. But the premise is both topical and terrifying.
Rachael
2020-01-07 22:49:27 +0000 UTCAbby is correct. The LAPD is notorious for profiling and corruption that resulted in the Rodney King riots in 1992, and that played a role in OJ Simpson’s aquittal. The episode title is a play on "The Thin Blue Line," an Errol Morris documentary that resulted in the release of a wrongly-convicted man who was on death row due to police corruption. The title of the documentary was taken from the prosecutor's closing argument that the police are "the thin blue line" that separates society from "anarchy." Shawn Ryan co-wrote this episode, and he went on to create and showrun "The Shield," a show about corrupt police officers who get the job done but at an unacceptable cost. Even at the end, Kate said something that really angered me when she was looking at the crime reports: “Up until three months ago there was a murder every two weeks, a rape every two days, a robbery every hour and a half. And that's what we just gave back to the people of that community." Um, so what’s the solution, Kate? Put cops on the street who kill indiscriminately? Jeez.
Rachael
2020-01-07 22:46:01 +0000 UTCI love this episode—that might be a controversial opinion. BUT OH WELL. When I first watched this episode it was right after Michael Brown was shot and right before the BLM movement really took off, it didn't take me long to understand that this episode was about profiling. These cops murder, without motivation or provocation, and the gang are forced to deal with this fact. IN 2001! That's so astonishing to me! I don't come to Angel for brilliant portrayals of social issues. But when it is done and is handled carefully, I learn to appreciate the show even more. I've been fortunate enough to not be on the receiving end of police brutality, being a white woman gives me a certain level of privilege, so I can't speak for people of color or anyone who's been profiled, but I feel like this episode actually did a great job with its message. Anyone else willing to weigh in, please correct me if you feel differently! Also, the reason that they are zombies is addressed at the end. It's revealed that the cops he chose to reanimate were ones that had been shot on the street. And I think that's very fascinating. Like "just deserts" but from a very corrupt and immoral perspective.
Abby
2020-01-07 22:15:14 +0000 UTCyessss welcome back Liam.. not one of my faves but i bet i see it differently through your eyes lol.. i usually do 🙄
CeNedra
2020-01-07 22:13:49 +0000 UTCThere’s a lot of controversy into which I could wade for this episode. But since I don’t want to do that, I will instead say that 1) That’s one nasty injury for Wesley. 2) Your distaste for people with eyeballs growing out of the back of their heads was surprisingly strong, but also totally reasonable now that I think about it. 3) Occasionally the dialogue could make one’s eyes roll, G. ... Glad to see you back on the Buffyverse trek!
Koz
2020-01-07 22:04:10 +0000 UTCI don't like these episodes with Gunn and his friends. It is always the black characters who has to learn something, and Gunn is the only one who is reasonable enough to learn anything. His friends are always shown to be a bad influence on him. The episode would be so much better if Anne Steele had been black. There is one too many white saints. And the crime rate in that district is so insane that maybe zombie cops isn't such a bad idea.
Moon Logic
2020-01-07 21:43:24 +0000 UTC
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