Angel

My favorite moment is easily Spike's rooftop appraisal of Angel ("To the Angel-mobile!" "Not the hair!").

And I'm sure I'm only the first of several that will name "Smile Time" as their fave episode. I'm rather fond of "Why We Fight," too (the introductions kill me: "Nostroyo, Spike, Father of Lies"...).

I don't know how true it is, but rumor had it that Whedon was furious because Charisma Carpenter became pregnant, forcing the show to scrap a year's worth of storylines. Bye-bye, Cordy, although she was brought back to resolve her story arc in the final season.

"Lets go to work." It's a great ending.

The transformation of Wes from pussy to bad ass. His line about the bucket when looking for Angel still cracks me up.

The final scene with Wes and "Fred".

Makes me want to watch the final season again.

*The Welcome Faith sign Angelus uses is great.

Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan! I loved the Pylea episodes. And Angel ended on a perfect note.

I'll probably get shit for derailing this, but my room-mate is a classic case of 'loves the Angel ending, but hates the Sopranos ending'. I argue that they're essentially the same thing, he argues that Tony had to get die. I counterargue that the entire series dropped massive hints about Angel becoming human and it didn't pay off. And on and on.

So basically, am I crazy? Is he crazy? I love the ending to 'Angel', it's pitch perfect for the series and was wondering all your thoughts on it, given the similarities.

Wesley: "I'm a rogue demon hunter."
Cordie (I think): "You're after a rogue demon?"

Oh and Doc, as for me, Angel's ending promised more action. I'm not entirely sure what Soprano's ending was going for. But I like them both.

One of my favorite moments was in season 4, episode Apocalypse Nowish. The fight against The Beast was extremely badass, and the heroes pulled out all the stops but all got their asses handed to them.

Of course Smile Time was awesome as well.

The fact that Sawyer from Lost is the first vampire that Angel dusts in the series is also a cool little tidbit.

"And yet, somehow, I just can't seem to care."

The series finale might be my favorite final episode of any show ever. As far as favorite moments go:

- Angel singing "Mandy" (Actually anytime Angel's love of "Mandy was mentioned)
- Gunn killing Fred's asshole Professor
- "Spin the Bottle"
- "You're a bloody puppet!"
- The appearance of Spike at the beginning of season five, setting the course for arguably Whedon's best season of television

I always liked Spike and Angel's adventure in Italy, also learning that the Immortal sent Spike to prison for tax evasion.

Angel: Wes, did you ever hear that the devil built a robot?
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce: [in awe] El Diablo Robotico.
[pause]
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce: Why?
Angel: Nobody ever tells me anything.

"El Diablo Robotico" was going to be mine!

Also, "Numffar, do the dance of shame."

"Ciao"

Yea, I definietly loved the way the show ended. The last two episodes were fantastic. And I loved the fact they killed half the cast off. Only seen a handful of Buffy, just could never get into it, but asides from Angels weak first season, it was pretty great.

I only watched the Last season and every interaction between Angel and Spike was pure gloriousness

I actually like Lorne's arc more than Wes'. It's a total downer, but so well-written.

The only major stumble the show made was in completely blanding Cordy out in season 3 in order to make her suitable as a love interest for Angel. Rare that a show's final season is far and away its best, too.

I actually think Angel and Cordy had better (and more beliveble) chemistry than Buffy and Angel.

Cordy got the shaft from Whedon over her pregnancy thats for sure. But her farewell eppisode is one of my favorate.

I'm actually just about to start the first season of this, so wish me luck. I think I might end up liking this even more than Buffy.

Cordy, as written in seasons 1 and 2, was great. She also had AMAZING chemistry with Wes, and I think I would have rather seen a strange romance between those two in season 3 than warrior-woman Cordy and Angel hooking up. But that's just me.

Anyone know what the plans were before Carpenter's pregnancy?

Everyone was sad when Fred died but we trusted in the Weadon, after all we knew how much he loved Acker and Fred.

- As mentioned it was the pregnancy that caused her to be sidelined not to mention budgeting. It was amazing they were able to keep all the people they did for as long as they did... Lorne, Lindsey, Darla, etc.. considering the WB hosed them year after year on budgets.

Little tid bit for you... when the show was shit canned, it was on a ratings high and it was more about revenge for having lost Buffy to UPN and they had a deal that if the WB ever were to cancel Angel they would pick it up... that of course ended if Buffy were to end... and that is why the 5th season was the last season. The WB later admitted a couple years later it was probably a mistake to have canceled the show.

What a great show that was. Uneven, but still... Loved the Wesley arc, Spike coming in, and Fred were nice addtion. Loved Lindsay and Lorne as character, and probably the best TV series ending along with The Wire.

Hey, Expo, do you mind if I use this thread for reviewing the show episode-by-episode?

Unfortunately Gunn started off as a dreadful stereotype, but they got their act together with him pretty quick. Hey, another great arc!

Lorne killing Lindsey at the end. "YOU kill me!? You're... you're just a flunky!" or something to that effect were some of Lindsey's final bewildered words.

Also, Lorne's "it's just become so... unsavory" as he did the deed, and left the team at the end.

The slow walk of all the main characters towards the screen in Smile Time, and then the camera pans down to get puppet Angel in the shot.

One random hilarious moment was I believe in season 1, where angel has the weird daydream about himself dancing at the party, which was then played up even more hilariously in the end credits with Wesley also doing the ridiculous spazztastic dancing.

Wow... I really need to do a rewatch of this show. I own all the DVD's but have never touched them. I think it's only trumped by Lost as my favorite show of all time. Season 4 gets a lot of hate, but I really liked that season. I'm a big fan of the continuous arc, and that season felt like one really long awesome movie.

"Goodnight, folks".

"I do not have puppet cancer!"

The thing is though Angel didn't really end on ambiguity. It addressed his humanity by him signing it away to get on the board of evil, and it let you know what was about to happen. The team would fight thse miniions of evil, and some may die (some more likely than others), and some may live, but they would make their stand. They even address whether or not their stand even matters in the grand scheme, whether or not it will actually change the world in a significant way. It wouldn't, because humanity is weak and they'd always be susceptible, but it was enough (and thematically satisfying) for the characters we'd been following to make that stand. Sopranos though strives for complete ambiguity in what happens immediately after the final scene we are with Tony. And I'd argue a far more banal final scene for the main character than Angel does. Sopranos: he's eating an appetizer, awesome (part of Chase's point, I'd say). Angel: "I want to fight the dragon." But really they're two different kinds of shows, and I'm not sure it's fair to compare them.

All right, time to start my Angel episode reviews, right from the top. Thanks again to Expo for letting me do this. Let's begin with "City of...":
-The opening scene is a great indicator of how this series will be progressing: Dark, stylish, and funny. Is Josh Holloway the vamp in the orange jacket, incidentally? I've never seen Lost...
-Fight scenes are always fun in Whedon series (but then, I'm very much a sucker for old-fashioned martial arts), and I like both of the ones we get here, and Angel's stake gauntlets are a neat little touch.
-The exposition about Angel's backstory is pretty blatant, but Glenn Quinn delivers it well (yes, I know what happens to Doyle eventually, as well as Quinn in real life).
-Cordelia figuring out that Russell is a vampire is a quite funny, typically Whedonian scene. So is Angel's solution at the end of the episode, which is just badass ("Can you fly?").
-I really love Robert Kral's music already (he did some great work on the Superman Doomsday and Green Lantern: First Flight DTVs), and I think I like the opening theme better than Buffy's.

I think I'm gonna like this show.

Spike: She's evil, you gormless tit!
Cordelia: Excuse me? Who bit whom?
Angel: Did you call me a tit?
Cordelia: I thought he had a soul.
Spike: I thought she didn't.
Cordelia: I do.
Spike: So do I.
Cordelia: Well, clearly mine's better.

I'll try to keep up as well as I restarted watching from the beginning.

"City of"
It feels like the show is trying to find some footing. It introduces the characters in a nice way and Angel starts out as a quasi Batman/vampire detective. I guess I never fully understood Angel's powers consistency. While sneaking into the bad guy's mansion (same bad guy from the Rush Hour films), he can jump the fence, but then later uses a grappling hook? Kinda creepy that he has access to bombs to disable his security system. Still somehow Angel has a pretty sweet dig, but how does one afford something like that in LA?

Nice to see Wolfman & Hart get their intro in the first episode as well. Wonder if they'll play a recurring roll...

...oh yeah I watched up to season 3. Forgot to mention that.

To clear up one thing -- it wasn't the fact Carpenter got pregnant, it was the fact she waited an incredibly long time to tell Whedon, meaning they couldn't change many of their plans.

The original ending was supposed to mirror Buffy Season 2, with Evil Cordy (Jasmine) vs. Angel. Or some such.

Season 5 of this may just be my favorite season of any tv show ever. I've only watched the entire series through once (mostly in chronological tandem with it's sister show at the time - boy that was fun, probably the most satisfying months of TV watching I've ever experienced, those 12 seasons of Buffy and Angel), but whenever a season 5 episode comes on cable I can't help but watch it.

Hell a couple of months ago I was a bottle of wine in and A Hole In The World came on and by the end I was in buckets of tears. Thats what I love about season five in particular; it's so varied. Sure, there are some utterly delightful and hilarious jaunts like Smile Time or The Girl In Question or even Harm's Way - but then you'd get an episode that could quite literally tear your heart out - and then of course you get that ending.

The whole series - but season 5 in particular - is damn-near as good as TV can get for my money.

Agreed on season 5. It was fun and creative right out of the gate. The move to Wolfram and Hart was the shot in the arm the series needed. My interest had began to wane by the end of season 3 (which is strange considering how engaged I was with the Holtz storyline initially), and I'd pretty much stopped tuning into the show by the middle of season four despite enjoying Wes's arc.

Wesley: She still thinks she's the God-King of the Universe.
Gunn: So she's like a TV star?
Wesley: No, nothing that bad. Bit more violent, though.

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Fred: Oh, my God! Angel, you're... Cute!
Puppet Angel: Fred, don't...
Fred: But the little hands! And the hair! [scratches his head]
Puppet Angel: Hey! You're fired.

------------

Spike's a hero and you're CEO of Hell, Incorporated. What frickin' bizzaro world did I wake up in?

I've always loved the opening theme to angel. Great little piece of music that totally fits the show, and the little montage that they put together really fits it too, especially when they get it polished later in the season/coming seasons. It gets me in the perfect mood for the show.

Angel's powers--and those of vampires in the Buffyverse generally--are about as consistent as those of Buffy and the Slayers. Which is to say not at all.

I didn't like "Lonely Hearts" as much as the pilot (it takes way too long to get started), but it's still a good episode, and Kate looks like she'll be an interesting character. I also liked the continual misdirection with the burrower and who it was currently inhabiting. The ending was perfect: "Or we can go home." "And you can sit alone in the dark." "God, yes. Thank you."

A note about the special effects: Much like Buffy, they remain firmly at the level of "charmingly cheesy", although the makeup tends to better than the CGI. Anyone else agree?

God, Kate. Probably Angel's most punchable character.

I don't know. Connor (now with Teen Angst!!!) is pretty damn punchable.

Ah, to be young and naive and watching ANGEL for the first time.

I'm actually a little jealous. I started watching BUFFY at the beginning of season two and pretty much never missed an episode of it or ANGEL from that point on. Seems like so long ago. Good times.

I almost put "...after Connor" at the end of my post, but then at least Connor boned Cordelia. And he was plenty fun in season five, I thought. Kate's just one relentless slog of pissy self-righteousness.

The Vamp make up in the first few episodes of Angel are bad. They changed the look for Angel for a bit but went back to the look vamps had in Buffy.

best S1 Angel episodes in chronological order
City of(1), In the Dark(3), Room w/a Vu(5), I Will Remember You(8), Hero(9), Five by Five(18), Sanctuary(19), To Shanshu in L.A.(22)

She(13) has to be the worst. Really picks up in S2.

The only thing that redeems She is either the outtakes or during the credits, you see Angel doing his little dance. That was HIlarious.

Agreed. Connor's character was redeemed by later episodes, but deeply in need of a punching throughout the 3rd season and most of the 4th.

I hate Connor's first appearance, where he comes back from Quortoth looking like Peter Pan. He's not as irritating as Kate, but he's probably the biggest failure of a Whedon show character so far. Even Riley Finn was more likeable.

I'd say that Riley was less overtly irritating; he was just boring.