??? Part 1 of what is up where? :P If you're talking about part 1 of the Imposter's ep is up online for download, please post this in the Episodes On Computer Thread. :)

edit: Oh, a story. You should have clarified. :) And maybe you should post a link to it here; one day this forum will be so full of posts that people won't be able to find it easily.

It's in the fanfic section. I personally don't care about episodes online now that the season DVDs are coming out. I'll post a link when I'm finished.

I was just thinking. Goofball wasn't that awful to Frankie. Yes, he made her extremely miserable, but he did tell her that she took good care of him at the very end of the episode. At least give him credit for that.

It's been a while since I last watched the episode, but was it ever clarified why Goofball was afraid of taking off his red nose? That annoyed me throughout the entire episode; there was no reason why he couldn't just show Frankie his elephant nose (while talking with her and Mr. Herriman within the PRIVACY of the latter's office) and be done with it.

I fail to see how a quick throwaway compliment is supposed to make up for all the undeserved torture she endured that day. Unless the day comes that Goofball apologizes to Frankie and takes her to see one of her favorite bands in concert as penance, I'm not giving him any credit at all.

Because, like I already said, the whole "human or imaginary" plot was just an excuse to hide the fact that the episode's real purpose was to be as cruel and malicious to Frankie as possible.

I don't think the creators were purposely, knowlingly, and intentionally trying to "be as cruel and malicious to Frankie as possible." I am unable to fathom why they would do that to their own creation. I think the interactions between Goofball and Frankie were originally meant as comedy, but they were not perceived as humorous. Goofball did give Frankie a horrible time, and I can see why you dislike him with great intensity. You can bash Goofball and I wouldn't really care, but I find that saying "the episode's real purpose was to be as cruel and malicious to Frankie as possible" is a little harsh and one-sided. If I have offended you in any way, I'm sorry.

I sense something bad coming....

I agree; I do not believe at all that the creators purposely tried to be as cruel to Frankie as they possibly could. The writers on the show clearly care about the characters, so I don't believe that was their intent.

It has happened before. TV creators have been purposely harsh on their characters, sometimes for reasons probably more deeper then ratings or plot points. Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy, Angel, and Firefly has a similar trait.

He's a sadist to his characters, especially in Angel's show, you notice things always seem to get worse for certain characters more and more. Who knows whether or not this was an attack on Frankie or not, there's no way to know.

I don't think it was but I can certainly see a strong arguement that it could be. It happened in "Batman Beyond" and "Extreme Ghostbusters" and "Ranma 1/2", trust me it's happened.

I think the writers did try to write a funny episode but it backfired completely. Maybe they got carried away with the Frankie bashing aspect of the "story" and lost perspective, I don't know. I do know that they deserve credit for making Frankie someone that's so easy to care about, and as much as I hate the episode and as horrible as it made me feel, I tip my hat to them for creating a character that can make me feel that strongly about anything.

I'm pretty sure that was done to soften up Goofball after being guaranteed immediate dislike from viewers throughout the entire episode. The actual goal here was to get us to absolutely ABHOR the guy (which they did successfully) and wish for someone to pull the rug from under him at the end. Things turned out completely different; he wasn't a phony, but Frankie still missed her concert and put up with his demands and attitude.
Had I been in Frankie's place, that IF would have been nursing a black eye by the time he left. But that's just me.