Neverending Episode Discussion Thread

[Beck]

Going episode by episode, we'll give our thoughts on Angel Starting with City Of

I thought this was a strong opener, much stronger than Buffy's premiere. The intro summed up Angel's history with Buffy well enough, and I liked how Angel whipped out the stakes from his sleeves. Liked Doyle's and Cordy's introductions, didn't like the girl Angel had to help. She was annoying lol. So yeah, overall, I liked it. 7.5/10

[buffymanic]

I thought it was a very well set out pilot, it introduced us to the four main players for the season (except for Wes) and I think it was accessable to people who have never see Buffy.

The opening scene to my was perfect it explained a little of Angels past, it was thrilling, exciting and immedietly let us know that the show was going to be a lot different to Buffy. Plus how cool was it when Angel killed 2 vamps at once

The main plot was pretty much generic but I think that was best to allow Angel to get set up with Doyle and re-connect with Cordelia; it also brought about the real villans of the entire series Wolfram and Hart.

The one thing that I never really understood though was why Angel was so determined to be disconnected from humans, I get that he didn't want the temptaion of feeding off a human but you would have thought that after being with Buffy he would have trusted himself more.

8/10 from me

[Glenn]

Yeah it was the fact that he had just recently fed off Buffy and had that taste of human still lingering.

I loved City Of i think it is a better Season opener than any Buffy opener. It gave us what we needed, a little bit of a mention to his past thanks to Doyles exposition, showed us a much darker side to the Verse and brought us brilliant characters like Bitchy Cordy, Doyle and Lindsey.
The main theme was quite simple but effective for the opening of a series about a good vampire. We had to see the other side of the coin to really show the parallels between who Angel is and what he fights against. Plus the staking of those vamps was quality and we got to see Vampire Sawyer dusted haha

9/10 love it

[foxmulder]

City Of was a great introduction for the show. It was suspenseful and i knew that the show would be pretty much a detective type of show, with Angel being a private investigator and all. So its very differant than Buffy Thing is, Buffy is a chosen slayer, and Angel is a does it voluntarily, for the sake of redemption. I think as a show Angel was alwyas a bit darker than Buffy. In City Of it was also cool to see Cordelia again. Throughout the show her character definately developed and matured a lot from the conceited bitch she always ways on Buffy.

[Kana]

Doyle's exposition citing the premise of Angel was well done, obviously for all those who hadn't seen Buffy. The drunk metaphor was well done as it gives us that ominous impression that Angel is one 'drink' away from going back to what he was. The fact that he didn't save the girl set the overall darker tone of the show. Unfortunately there is only so much you can do with an opening episode and one of the stronger elements of Angel is the story arc development which wasn't very well established at the beginning of the season as the episodes where very 'And this week on Angel...' very episode of the week which I didn't like that much.

Going back the drunk metaphor or more generally the concept of addiction, City Of can just about get away with it as it is the first episode. My main gripe is that it feels like a pitch to the network rather than appealing to the fans but overall it is a strong opener and definately forces us to respect Boreanaz as a lead.

7/10

[Deleted]

buffymanic said:

I thought it was a very well set out pilot, it introduced us to the four main players for the season (except for Wes) and I think it was accessable to people who have never see Buffy.

The opening scene to my was perfect it explained a little of Angels past, it was thrilling, exciting and immedietly let us know that the show was going to be a lot different to Buffy. Plus how cool was it when Angel killed 2 vamps at once

The main plot was pretty much generic but I think that was best to allow Angel to get set up with Doyle and re-connect with Cordelia; it also brought about the real villans of the entire series Wolfram and Hart.

The one thing that I never really understood though was why Angel was so determined to be disconnected from humans, I get that he didn't want the temptaion of feeding off a human but you would have thought that after being with Buffy he would have trusted himself more.

8/10 from me

Well said!

And I agree with Glenn that his anxiety about being around humans was probably due to the temptation of feeding off one. I also think, though, that it was due largely in part because of Buffy, as well. He had let himself get close and ended up becoming Angelus again and then later fed off Buffy (which, yes, wasn't his choice at first, but you can't say he didn't like it).

And Kana, yes, it was a pitch to the network. But I think it was a pitch that showed as show that would be able to make it on its own with strong lead characters (especially DB).

I'm going to go just a little lower than Tash and give it 7/10.

[Beck]

Anyone else want to share their thoughts?

[Lizzie]

I really enjoyed this episode. Very solid start, sets up a good season. I really like the film noir feeling of the first season(s), and this episode really captured it all. 9/10.

[buffymanic]

there must be some more thoughts on Cityof!

[Beck]

Since no one else wants to add their opinion We'll move on at last to Lonely Hearts.

Not one of the better eps imo. I liked the introduction of Kate, but the demon was pretty lame I do like the end where Angel suggests they all go out and the others don't want to. And I LOVE when Doyle tries to defend Cordy's honour when someone thinks she's a whore

[buffymanic]

All the character interaction was great especially the scenes in the club but the demon was terrible and well too icky for me. The introduction to Kate was really good and when she was talking with Angel you could sense a lot of potential that wasn't quite fulfilled which was a shame.

Still it was early days of the series and if you look at purely the dilogue it was well written. Perhaps better special effects could have helped???

overall I'd say 5/10

[Lexie]

I agree with Tash about all the character interaction--it was definitly great. I was practically laughing out loud at poor Angel who was trying to socialize.

[Guy walking away from Angel at the bar]
Angel: No seriously, I wasn't hitting on you!

Angel[to Kate]: No, no, no, I'm just looking for someone to--rescue? Are you maybe in need of some - rescuing?



The dialouge is great, but it kind of pushed the demon into the back ground a bit. And the demon was so, so icky.
I also, suprisingly, agree about the potential between Kate and Angel. There could have been something between them, I think.

So... 6/10, not bad, but pales compared to others in the season.

[Kana]

One thing that bothers me. Tahlmer doesn't need to have a sex act to go from body to body as we witnessed with Kate so why all the body switching? It seemed like the whole ep was lined up so we can see just how difficult connecting can be and when we have one night stand its leaves us hollow inside. We get hints about the demon looking for a connection but there is no follow through and any fear or empathy we're supposed to feel is non existent.

Angel interaction with both the group and others is nice to watch. It's nice to watch eps like these in relation to later eps in which Angel comes out of himself a bit. I did like montage song as well, which is Touched by VAST if anyone is interested.

I can't comment to much on Kate, as I have a lot to say about her in later eps, but at this point it was nice to see the interaction between the two. Without bring up the vampire issue, from Kate's perspective Angel is a vigilante and/or a potential killer so it makes the dynamic interesting, but unfortunately not in this episode where it is not fully explored, but then how can it be.

I'm being harsh because I'm not so keen on these early eps (apart from the next one.) Was it bad? No. Was it great? No. It was ok as Lexie said but in comparison to other eps in the season (the later ones mainly) it falls a little short.

5/10

[Beck]

Anyone else have a review to give?

[Glenn]

What i liked about this ep was that it was so dark and creepy. Again it is a message to the viewers about what direction this show is heading.

GOOD : Angel was particularly good in this ep. You get a real sense of his loneliness and his inability to interact with humans. Doyle was also a bright spot.

BAD : Didnt really like Kate so much, not sure why but there was something about her that bugged me. Also the whole demon thing was silly. It had been around since the dawn of time yet we see it travel through about 5 bodies in a few days. If this was the case we should have been wiped out by this thing by now.

6/10

[Beck]

I liked Kate. I agree about the demon though i think we were supposed to believe that it was running out of time for some reason, getting desperate which is why it tried to jump to Kate even without the "connection".

[Beck]

Moving on to In the Dark

LOVE it. The opening speech of Spike's take on Angel is the funniest speech in the entire series. In fact, in either series. The guy Spike had torture Angel was creepy. The one thing that bugged me no end about this is that Angel destroyed the Gem of Amara. Surely it would help him save people Still, 10/10 for Spikeness.

[Bre]

If Angel was real, he should have kept the ring, but since it's a show I understand it would have made things too easy for Angel and the show would be a bore. Spike was fab as usual. The torturing was creepy, but even though Angel had nasty stakes in his chest, he still looked hot with his shirt off.

9/10

[Laura]

I haven't seen this episode in a while, but I loved it also. It was awesome having the story from Buffy continue to Angel. And I agree Bre, Angel with his shirt off=yummy!

I also loved Spike's speech on the roof , and Angel had a lot of deep moments in this episode. He destroyed the ring in fear of losing his ability to "see", that was deep and selfless.

I'd give it 9/10 as well.

[Allan]

Spike's opening monologue was great, and really introduced the character well for those who know him, and introduced him for people who only started watching with Angel. I thought that as a crossover episode, it worked well - it managed to crossover with Buffy nicely, and hold its ground for people who only watch Angel.

An excellent episode. 9/10