Angel Pilot: City Of
DVD Season 1
Tara I. – TwoCents Staff Reviewer
tara@thetwocentscorp.com
Angel Broodometer: 6
The City of Angels, or in this case, the City of Angel. In the pilot episode, Angel moves to L.A. and becomes a private investigator. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed Angel until I watched the pilot again. It combines all the great Whedon elements: comedy, martial arts, and, of course, because this is Angel, brooding.
The pilot teaser is the perfect introduction to Angel's character. We're shown someone who, at first, appears to be drunk. It isn't until a suspicious group of men leave with some young, blonde (of course) women that Angel drops his act and turns into a vampire-killing machine. With the help of a few convenient stakes up his sleeve, he prevents the women from becoming vampire kibble. Of course, he's not just any hero, he's Angel, so when one of the young women tries to thank him, he snarls at her (literally) to leave him alone.
Continue brooding...
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Angel
ReplyDeletePilot: "City Of"
DVD Season 1
Tara I. – TwoCents Staff Reviewer
tara@thetwocentscorp.com
Angel Broodometer: 6
The City of Angels, or in this case, the City of Angel. In the pilot episode, Angel moves to L.A. and becomes a private investigator. I'd forgotten how much I enjoyed Angel until I watched the pilot again. It combines all the great Whedon elements: comedy, martial arts, and, of course, because this is Angel, brooding.
The pilot teaser is the perfect introduction to Angel's character. We're shown someone who, at first, appears to be drunk. It isn't until a suspicious group of men leave with some young, blonde (of course) women that Angel drops his act and turns into a vampire-killing machine. With the help of a few convenient stakes up his sleeve, he prevents the women from becoming vampire kibble. Of course, he's not just any hero, he's Angel, so when one of the young women tries to thank him, he snarls at her (literally) to leave him alone.
Snarling and brooding complete, Angel stalks home to his ridiculously large L.A. apartment where we encounter our next main character: Doyle (played by Glenn Quinn). Angel tries the leave-me-alone shtick, but Doyle isn't buying it. Doyle, half-human, half-demon, is a messenger from the Powers that Be (PTB) and he's not about to be dissuaded by a brow furrowing vampire.
Doyle explains to Angel that his job is to communicate missions to Angel from the PTB. This naturally means that Angel's job is to go out and save the people that Doyle sees in his migraine-inducing visions. Wow. That sounds like a very clear communication plan. I bet nothing will go wrong there at all.
Angel's first mission is to help another young blonde woman, Tina (Tracy Middendorf). Tina is being stalked by a vampire named Russell, and while her plight is sad, it's really just a mechanism for us to meet our next important character in the Angel-verse: Cordelia! I'd forgotten how much I liked Cordelia in Season 1. Charisma Carpenter did such a good job playing her. It's a shame that they had to turn her character into an evil, incestuous former God. Okay, maybe the Connor thing wasn't technically incest, but it was still a whole lot of yuck.
Angel, being Angel, manages to reveal his vampire self and terrify Tina. She runs away and gets killed by Russell. Angel takes this about as well as you'd expect and decides to avenge her death. Unfortunately, Russell has now set his sights on Cordy. Russell lures Cordy to his house, where our Sunnydale girl realizes that she's trapped with a vampire.
Fortunately for Cordelia, Angel arrives to save her. They escape, but Angel doesn't manage to kill Russell. While Cordelia decides to make herself at home as the human face of Angel Investigations, Angel decides to make the world safer by killing Russell. He does this by pushing Russell out of a window, but not just any window, a window in a Wolfram & Hart conference room. It's a very long way down, but fortunately for Russell, he burns up long before he hits the ground. This is my favorite scene from the pilot and not just because it introduces Lindsey (played by Christian Kane) a lawyer at the not-so-wonderful law firm Wolfram & Hart.
With that, the motif for the series is set: Angel versus Wolfram & Hart. I've always thought it was one of the best battles in TV Land. Unlike most of the "Big Bads" in Buffy, Wolfram & Hart are around until the very end of the series, and it's debatable who actually wins the war.
My favorite parts of the pilot were the Cordelia and Angel comedy moments and, of course, Russell being shoved through a window. The Angel Broodometer was at a nicely rounded 6—not too much brooding, but certainly enough to remind us that we were watching Angel.
So where do we go from here? It was tough to choose from all the suggestions, but I'm going to recap the much-maligned final season. Most of the major characters reappear in that season, so there will be something for everyone. Next week I'll start by recapping "Conviction".
Now, it's your turn. What did you think of the pilot? What was your favorite scene or character? Write your TwoCents below, and let's watch Angel help the hopeless together!
The last season has the greatest romance, the greatest couple, the greatest love of any Joss Whedon show ever.....Angel and Spike. I love it. I'll also say that in the final season when things get bad, it gets really bad. I think some of the most emotional episodes for me happened once they knew it was the end. I look forward to reading your column. I also loved season four because I like a great season arch better then episode arches.
ReplyDeleteHeh. I agree Mat: Angel and Spike were the best couple!
ReplyDeleteI actually liked most of Season 5, at least, the first time I watched it.
And, I just rewatched Season 4. It wasn't as bad as I remembered, but I just can't get past the icky cordy/connor "love story".
I think Season 4 suffers a lot when it was aired - there were a number of skip weeks that made the bad parts linger linger linger. Watched in a shot, you can let those drift to the back while you enjoy the story.
ReplyDeleteI missed Doyle in the rest of the series.
I missed Doyle too. I was tempted to recap the first season because he was in it, but then I realized that Spike was in Season 5 and that sealed the deal. ;-)
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Doyle - one of my favorite moments in the final season is in "You're Welcome" when Angel and Cordelia discover that Lindsay is messing with Spike and using the name Doyle... the anger in Cordelia could be felt all the way through my TV set. I loved this show and am looking forward to your recaps/reviews!
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