I had seen a few episodes of Angel when it was aired and never really liked it. But strong urging from other Buffy fans caused me to rent season one. I liked it, and friends who had just gotten seasons 2-5 mentioned that they were good. So I got the entire series for Christmas.
Season 1- Doyle Go Brahe
The reason I had avoided watching Angel for so long was the characters. I knew that Angel, Cordelia and Wesley were in it, and they were three of my least favorite characters from Buffy. However, what I didn't count on was how quickly the characters changed and how much different they were when in a different setting. Angel is much more clever, funny and personable without being pussy-whipped by Buffy all the time. Cordelia quickly matures, though that doesn't make Charisma Carpenter a good actor. And Wesley also quickly changes, trading in his pomp for a more Giles-like book guy and eventually becoming a substantial fighter.
The main event of the season comes in the middle rather than at the end. And that is the death of Doyle. Wesley takes his place in the very next episode, but it took me a while to warm up to Wesley. The attachment I, and other people I talked to had to Doyle after only 10 episodes or so, was unreal. As I've said before- It's a testament to the show that I was sad when Doyle died, I should be attached to the characters. I certainly should not miss Doyle in every subsequent episode like I do. The little Irish monkey was a huge part of why I liked the first season.
Easily the best season.
The Superhero Decree- The very first thing I noticed about the show was that Angel was completely different than Buffy. Buffy is a show heavily based in theme and metaphor. Angel is a superhero show, plain and simple. It has gadgets, rooftop jumping, sweeping cinematography, and a hero who is remarkably like batman.
The Taunting Problem- Angel, like Buffy, likes to make verbal jabs at his enemies while fighting them. I think that's fine, if not realistic, it adds some comedy to the action. But Angel has the lamest puns known to man.
Season 2- Angel gets Lucky
The second season starts off of a bad premise. The Resurrection of Darla. I hate Resurrection. It takes meaning away from death.
Overall the season was pretty stupid. The first few episodes are OK, but once Angel finds Darla it gets outrageous. Yes, it's pretty cool to see Angel get dark, slaughter lawyers, and set vampires on fire, but the tame darkness doesn't breed comedy. At least not good comedy.
This season also includes the arrival of Lorne and the integration of Gunn. My only problem with Gunn is his weird shaped head. In the coming years he loses the baby fat and it makes me breathe easier. And I like Lorne, but I can't imagine the producers looking at the series and saying 'You know what this show needs? An effeminate karaoke demon.'
Possibly the worst part of the season is the last few episodes in Pylea The primitive world begets a storyline that resembles a bad 80s medieval made-for-TV movie.
The only good news is that Angel finally gets some nookie and doesn't lose his soul.
The History Lesson- a good portion of Angel's past is objectionable. It doesn't fit with what we've learned from Buffy.
The Exception Exception- The way Buffy deals with the supernatural is by setting down ground rules about it and then dealing with the human part of the struggle. The way Angel deals with the supernatural is to set up the ground rules and then show every single exception to them, bending them until they nearly break.
The EuroHero Rule- The standard kind of heroes are: The American hero- an underdog rising against impossible odds. The Asian Hero- An elite, powerful force fighting against even more powerful foes. The Euro Hero- A powerful person who keeps fucking up or getting corrupted. Angel would have done nicely as an Asian Hero, like Buffy. But, no, he is definitely in the realm of EuroHero
Season 3- Why am I Still Watching This?
This is easily the worst season. My thought, after watching this season, is that they were simply running out of ideas. The challenges get more and more wild as time progresses, and most of them don't even have a proper end.
Enter Fred, Enter Holtz, Enter Connor, Enter Skip. Fred came in at the end of the second season, rescued from Pylea. She's very irritating at first, crazy and with a bad Texan accent, but eventually she drops the accent and gets less crazy. Holtz is an old enemy of Angel's, a rather stupid premise. His storyline doesn't help matters, either. Then there is Connor, Angel's son. I don't like the character, I don't like the actor and I don't like the situation. All drawn up to get the high school crowd, I'd bet. And finally Skip. He isn't a main character, but he's hilarious and in a few episodes so I thought I'd throw him in.
The Comic Book Clause- Building off of The Exception Exception, Angel starts to seem less like a super hero movie and more like a comic book. The things that happen are so unlikely that they belong in a comic book rather than any respectable medium.
The Soap Opera Principle- Connor, though the means of a hell dimension, ages 17 years in about 4 episodes. The writers must have realized the stupidity of it, because they apologize for it by having Cordelia shine a lantern on it (shining a lantern on something is when a writer jokes about their own writing through a character).
The Cliffhanger Phenomenon- This started in season 2, but it became a real problem in season 3. Every single episode started to end in a cliffhanger, including the season finale of season 3. No episodes could just end. It's a good way to play the ratings, it made me ache to see where the story went, but it isn't good writing. A few cliff hangers a season, sure, it's expected. Appreciated, even. In fact, in a show like this, the episode before the season finale should be a cliffhanger. But using it to much is a crutch, and eventually even nullifies the effect. Nobody cares what happens next because everyone is tired of that question.
Season 4- Redemption
The show finally starts to get better again. I'm not sure if this is why, but there is a mysterious lack of David Greenwalt's name under executive producers.
There are a few reasons the show gets better. First, there are finally some decent villains again. The Beast and Jasmine are actual enemies and not concepts or inner turmoil. Secondly, Angelus makes a brief but fun visit. Thirdly, and I never thought I'd say this, Wesley gets back in the game. And finally, a few episodes into the season 'Spin the Bottle' appears and is probably one of the best episodes of the series. It's a fun episode where they all revert back to an earlier mental state, but it's leaps and bounds better than anything in season 2 or 3. A lot of the humor is predictable and lacks insight, but I can't resist a good 'inappropriately timed erection' metaphor, Fred is completely different than what I expected and Angel's real name is Liam.
The Ending Edict- In part because of The Cliffhanger Phenomenon, no episodes seem to really have an end. You could make Season 2, 3, and 4 all one really, really long episode. When watching Buffy I can tell you the name of the episode, what season it's in and what events fall before and after it. In Angel they all run together. Not a good thing.
The Champion Maxim- I have never heard the word champion so much in my entire life.
Season 5- Spike, Forever a Dick
The reason that I made it through seasons 2 and 3 was because I knew that shining off in the distance was season 5, with Spike in it. I love Spike, and he was back as funny as ever, though a little more evil than I remember.
A lot of this season seems rather pointless, though it is nice to have Spike back. Harmony is back as well, but I never much cared for her. She is, at least funnier than before. Illyria is also new character that has some merit.
The fifth season isn't all I hoped it would be, but it wasn't half bad, either. Something that royally pissed me off was the cliff hanger series finale. These writers are obsessed with that cliffhanger. After I watched it, I went back to listen to the director commentary, and try to find an apology for the ending. What the director said was that it wasn't a cliffhanger. That it didn't matter if they won or lost the fight but that they were going to keep fighting. And if they won the fight that day, there would be another the next day. Well, Jeffery Bell, if you leave important things open, like say- if the remaining main characters live or die, or if Spike or Angel get to become human or not... that is a cliffhanger ending.
The Window Law- Never failing, a window will break in every freakin episode. Apparently Joss Whedon got a bulk deal on stunt glass.
The Buffy Bust- There are 2 episodes that use Buffy in season 5. Neither one had Sarah Michelle Gellar in them. In one of them, Spike and Angel are chasing her around a very stereotyped version of Rome and only glance at her once from a distance. If I didn't know Sarah Michelle Gellar wasn't in it because she was off doing other work, I might not have noticed. But in the other one, it's a hallucination of Angel's. Spike is humping a blond girl in bed next to Angel. When they cut away, they use audio clips from the Buffy series to make it seem like Buffy is there. It's a feeble facade, and I very much doubt anyone was fooled. Just bad TV, there is no excuse for it. It wasn't a dire scene, they could have replaced it with another hallucination.
The Killing Benchmark- For some reason in season 5, I called the deaths of characters as the episodes started. I know how writers think, so I can predict these things rather well, but this was above and beyond what I normally can do. It might be a sign of predictability.
Overall, I'm not sorry I watched through the entire series. I may be sorry I own any seasons other than the first, but I'm a collection person, and I can't own just one season of anything.
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