Emotional Catharsis
A Two parter because I’m trying to speed time up until I must turn something in.
Do you ever hear a song that just sends chills up your spine? While I was attempting to avoid a heat stroke on the way to work today, I popped the Rent soundtrack into my cassette tape player…
Oh and for the curious, this is my car.
I not even sure there was air conditioning for cars back in 1967. Plus mine hasn’t been updated since about 96 when cassette players were big so…yeah
So back to the Rent soundtrack being in my cassette player…
If you haven’t seen the play, please do treat yourself and pick up the movie from your local Blockbuster/Movie Gallery/Hollywood Video/movie rental place of your choice. I promise, you won’t be disappointed. (Also be sure to watch the feature on the show’s creator Jonathan Larsen first. It’s long, but it’ll make you appreciate the movie so much more.)
There’s one song toward the end of the movie that is one of the most cathartic songs I’ve ever heard in life. Every time I see that part of the movie or every time I listen to the song, it honestly sends chills up my spine, makes me cry, and just everything. I’ll link to it here.
I mentioned the regular version of this song a while ago. That one is good too, but this one…oh this one…*tear. It may be one of those songs you have to see performed in the context though. It comes at a very pivotal and emotional part of the movie/play.
In other news…
Angel.
I mentioned the other day that I was doing an all night marathon. Turns out that this show is a bit too heavy to watch consecutively. I’d forgotten that this show differs from its predecessor (Buffy) in that it’s much darker. It’s more than them killing the demon or vampire of the moment, it’s really going into the human psyche and talking about things that are deep in there and not available to the public for a reason.
For example, there was an episode where Angel rescued a demon from a special prison in Heck to appease a rival and save one of his colleagues. It turned out that this demon was so imprisoned because he brought out misogynist feelings from men and caused them to kill women.
Okay you might say, that’s pretty messed up, so what?
I’ll tell you what. There was a part of the show where one of the main characters who fought for good was possessed by the demon’s power. He was chasing the person he loved and making some really misogynistic comments, but the things about it was, me, being a pretty feminist person myself, was almost convinced that his comments were justified. I mean, he was REALLY convincing and if I were a male and as bitter as I am as a female, I would probably say the same things.
It’s scary, but also relatable.
That’s the thing about Angel. It talks about things that bother people and really makes it human.
Another episode, though not directly relatable. For the uninformed, Angel is a vampire with a soul. (Vampires don’t usually have souls thus they can kill and maim without guilt.) He and a soulless vampire got it on and produced a child. The child turned out to have a soul as well and altered the feelings of his mother while she carried him. She, one of the most ruthless vampires in the history of the show (even since Buffy) came to love her child as the soul of her offspring was affecting her. She was afraid though that once the child was born, she would lose the loving feelings and try to kill or hurt her son. She visibly struggles with this for an episode and later kills herself for the sake of her baby.
See?! These episodes are much deeper than Buffy with the boo vampire, witty comment, kill the vampire, and everyone’s happy again plots.
I’m going to try to finish the rest of these Angel episodes tonight. I apologise for any future moodiness that might result from such a marathon.
Maybe I should lesson to that song to de-emote…
P.S. Did anyone catch Moral Orel Sunday Night on Adult Swim? Was that out of control or what?! I didn’t know whether to be appalled or thoroughly amused…
