My First Note On ‘Angel’

Pathetically, it’s been almost a month since my last post, the Bond Rewatch of Thunderball. Now that summer is winding down, hopefully I’ll get back in the swing of things. There must be something about oppressive, disgusting, cut-through-it-with-a-knife humidity that makes someone not want to do a damn thing. I’ve got the rest of the Bond Rewatch to finish as well as some ideas for on-going columns relating to my pathetically large (and generally un-watched) DVD collection. In any case, I’ll try harder. Thanks for listening. Now on with the reading!

As my friends and family well know, last Thanksgiving I began watching Joss Whedon’s acclaimed horror/sci-fi/action/teen/drama/camp-fest television classic, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I blasted through the seven-season series at the rapid pace of about six months and I came out the other end an excitable Whedon-follower and seeker of more awesome.

The gigantic, Hell Mouth-sized hole that was left in my heart by the end of Buffy was quickly filled by Whedon’s latest television effort, Dollhouse. At some point I’m going to have to write something about Dollhouse because it is a prime example of a network allowing a television show to find it’s legs and really turn into something wonderful (for now). But D-house love aside, I was still left wanting more of my favorite parts of Buffy.

My three favorite characters on Buffy were (in exact order, Christ I suck) Spike, Angel and Giles. Considering how Spike met his end in Buffy’s most exceptional finale–an event that was so traumatizing to my nerd mind it found me pathetically lamenting into a pitcher of Czech beer–and that Whedon has pretty much confirmed there will be no Giles “Ripper” prequel show, my only choice was to turn to Angel as my last hope.

Before even starting the Buffy project I was told by all my friends who were devote Whedon fans that Angel “just wasn’t as good” or that I’d “never get past the first season.” Even my own sister who is a huge Buffy fan and even owns all of Angel on DVD told me that it was only “all right.”  So understandably by the time I got around to popping in the first disc of Angel’s much-hated first season, I was a little on edge. Could it be possible that a character I had loved so dearly on Buffy had gone on to have his own show that sucked? I was (and still am) determined to find out.

You're not gonna suck, right Buddy?

I don’t think it’s logical for me to even attempt to cover every single episode of the show. With five seasons at roughly twenty-two episodes per, that’s approximately 110 blog entries you won’t see me writing. But I figured the least I could do is offer thoughts. Maybe a few on each season or something. I think that’s do-able.

Right now I’m just a little past the half-way point of season one and I have to admit, it’s not Buffy by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s pretty good so far. At first I wasn’t sure how I was going to handle the whole ‘Angel-as-detective-do-gooder’ thing that the show sets up, but it’s not an entirely unworkable premise. It’s a rocky start to a show that stars a character that was so much more mysterious and dangerous the last time he was on t.v. But nonetheless, I will continue to watch.

If you have ever heard me talk about the first three seasons of Buffy you’ll know that one of my most hated characters is that of Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter), the snobby, head cheerleader of Sunnydale High. I always felt that her inclusion into Buffy’s gang of misfits was like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. She never fit in and the more they tried to include her into stories–her relationship with Xander Harris being the worst, most trying part in all of Buffy (well, maybe except that Jonathan-centric episode)–the worse and more annoying it got. So you can see why I was more than frustrated to see Cordelia would be staying on Angel for the majority of the show’s run (thanks for nothing, IMDB!).

::sigh::

But so far Cordelia is actually tolerable. The show really does a lot to sympathize that character and make her more of a human being. The show runners on Buffy tried this toward the end of season three when it was revealed Cordelia’s father lost all their money due to tax fraud and she was just your average middle-class nobody. I didn’t buy it then. But what I will accept is Cordelia moving to L.A. to make it big as an actress and to her surprise and embarrassment, things aren’t going out so well for the Sunnydale Princess. Seeing Cordelia falling on hard times, living in a crappy apartment and not getting any call-backs from auditions was almost pleasurable to me. But in the end, I was able to sympathize with her and I’ve begun to accept her more as a likable character now.

My favorite part of season one has to be the short-lived character of Doyle, played the very talented and badly missed Glenn Quinn. Quinn brought a lot of lighthearted, sidekick humor to Angel and was at the same time also being built up to be a very interesting character. It’s too bad that his bad drug habit and partying ways got him kicked off the show (Quinn himself died of a drug overdose a couple years after being fired from Angel). But before his untimely death in episode 9, “Hero”, Doyle proved to be a great character and welcomed addition to the Whedon universe.

Gone too soon...

Not to let his two main characters flounder for very long without a third party to Angel Investigations, Whedon quickly reintroduced another character from Buffy that I also couldn’t stand at the time. That would of course be Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Alexis Denisof) the new Watcher that is assigned to Buffy in season three when the Watchers Council decides that Giles can no longer do his job. I was never crazy about the stuffy, by-the-book, super-Brit Watcher that Wesley was and I don’t think I’m alone. Then again, you’re not really supposed to like Wesley because the whole point of his existence is for Buffy to realize how lucky she was to have Giles in her life. Regardless, here on Angel Wesley’s annoying persona is toned down quite a bit. He’s still stuffy and super British, but he’s less inclined to play by the book and seems just a bit tougher. And that’s really all I needed at the end of the day. I don’t mind a wimp, but don’t make him an annoying wimp. Wesley will never be whatever it was Doyle could’ve amounted to, but he’s a welcomed addition nonetheless.

I left off on episode twelve, “Expecting”, which is another great episode that humanizes Cordelia just a little more. What I’ve noticed so far about this first season is that there is a very, very loose season arc and many more “Monster of the Week” type episodes. “MoW” episodes were either some of Buffy’s worst episodes (“Teacher’s Pet”)  or best episodes (“Hush). But with Angel almost all the episodes feel like a MoW episode in one way or another. I’ll see what happens with the “Powers that Be” and all that stuff but any kind of Big Bad might have to wait until season two I’m guessing.

It’s not perfect, but I’m sticking with it for now.

We'll see where this goes

~ by allearsalleyesallthetime on August 24, 2009.