Last night I watched an italian farce starring two out-of-their-element vampires. The Girl in Question was a comedy of stupendous proportions, and there wasn’t a single scene I didn’t laugh at…
…well, except for those cuts back to LA, where Illyria masqueraded as Fred to the dead girl’s visiting parents, in front of Wesley’s horrified eyes…but I’ll get to that in a bit.
This was Angel’s take on The Italian Job, and there were so many good elements that I can’t even begin to list them all. We can start with the two most twistedly funny flashbacks in any Buffy/Angel episode shown to date. These are usually historic epics with dark, nefarious or erotic undertones. But the two flashbacks here were simply hilarious! The momentary Spike/Drusilla/CIAO moment in 60s Rome was delicious on its own, but combined with Darla’s and Dru’s obvious ecstasy at their encounter with the Immortal — and the priceless reactions of Angel and Spike — the end result is instant, classic bedroom comedy. I half expected Peter Sellars to walk into the room at any moment!
The episode is an unending belly laugh. Let us all give a round of applause to the following gems:
The Italian Wolfram & Heart…which inhabits the exact same offices as the LA building, except it’s run by a sexy Italian woman with a thick accent, who spits at gypsies and is obsessed with shoes, leather, and kissng. And why shouldn’t it be run by such a person!
Angel in THAT leather biker coat. There are no words…
The chase on the moped;
The Nightclub fight;
Absolutely ANY scene between Angel and Spike, who FINALLY realize that they’re stuck with each other, whether they like it or not…and that it’s time to move on from Buffy. Along with all the priceless one-liners, we get a-mile-a-minute rehash of Buffy’s cookie dough speech from Chosen, and Spike’s wistfulness over his coat and continuing gameboy obsession;
The final scene in the office, where David Boreanez and James Marsters channel Rowan & Martin;
To top it all off, we don’t even get a real appearance by Buffy (a delightfully bad body double) or the Immortal…only Andrew, who has a few comedy surprises of his own. It’s all brilliant, brilliant, brilliant…
…and then someone had to come along and put in the horrifying subplot of Illyria-masquerading-as-Fred. It’s horrifying not only because it’s moody, heart-wrenching, and a tour de force of subtle acting on the part of both Amy Acker and Alexis Denisoff, but it’s also horrifying that they put this in a comedy episode. In my mind, it unbalances the entire story, and the swings in tone are simply too much to handle.
So we get a masterpiece with a jagged, protruding edge. Perhaps it was a victim of the recent cancellation, but it does feel as if two plot elements were thrown together due to the lack of time left to the program. That’s The Girl In Question’s only real flaw, and it’s a pity they couldn’t stop it from happening.
Only two more to go…
