Friday, October 06, 2006
Fredless
A brief ode to the wonderful and talented Amy Acker, the Fred of Fredless
I was just watching the Fredless episode of Angel this morning, and was reminded how very much I miss Joss Whedon’s shows. Not only did he introduce us to great characters who were wonderfully well written; but him and Mutant Enemy managed to bring us wonderful actors as well. So today, I’ll do a brief ode to the wonderful and talented Amy Acker, the Fred of Fredless.
Amy Acker was born and raised in Dallas. The daughter of a lawyer and a housewife, she won the role of “Fred” on “Angel”. In 2001, we were introduced to Amy Acker as Winifred Burkle; and Amy embody Fred. Fred was a character full of intelligence, quirks, and caring. She was easy to love; and it was easy to believe that maybe Amy Acker didn’t have to work to hard as an actor to create Fred. But Joss Whedon is a brilliant man, because after giving us Fred for almost three wonderful years; he did an amazing thing he took Fred away.
Yes, he killed Fred, but kept the talented Amy Acker on the show. It was so painful to mourn the loss of Fred in Episode 104: A Hole in the World (2004), and continually be faced with the vision of what killed her; and have both characters be played by the same actor—Amy Acker. It was also just damn brilliant. It wasn’t until episode 107 (Season 5, Episode 18) titled, Origin; that I really focused on the fact that though Fred was gone Amy Acker remained. For two, two and a half episodes, I mourned the loss of not only the character, Fred, but Amy Acker; before a switch in my brained really allowed me to recognize that while Fred was gone, Amy Acker was definitively, still there. And she was hot, in that cold calculating; but she killed Fred way. It was probably the leather.
Eventually, Illyria, the evil, hell goddess character that killed Fred and was also played by Amy Acker; allowed us to occasionally view remnants of Fred. (Yes, yes, for those of you who are more anal Whedon-verse fans than I; I do know that Illyria was actually a legendary Old Ones—Primordium Age pure demon type, which is good enough to translated into hell-goddess.)
Anyway, while watching Fredless, you can’t help wondering, how far in advance did Joss Whedon create his plans for Fred. Because, for all it’s tender, sticky, sweetness that tugs at the old heart strings; Fredless also offers up a premonition of the future—a future without Fred; and a forewarning of things to come.
Updated: 8 October 2006—Mostly links and images.
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