Of course, I dig darkness and insanity in my entertainment, so Angel works well for me. Sure, there are many cringe-worthy attempts at humor throughout the show that just don’t make it (it is a Joss Whedon show, after all!) and some sickeningly gaggable lovey-dovey moments that made me feel embarrassed in the privacy of my own home, but the cool stuff definitely makes up for all of that twaddle.
Angel: Season 3
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| Dark, Brooding… Daddy? |
So I feel like I’ve just crashed a party.
I kinda know three of the party-goers but the setting is completely foreign. There are two people there that I’ve never met before, which combined with the fact that everybody’s been boozing it up for the last seven hours and I’m completely stone sober makes me feel a little uneasy. But, hey, I’m a sucker for a good party so I hang with the crew, am often confused about conversations that go on, but soon settle into a nice but never quite comfortable evening of vampire slaying, demon hunting, and hell dimensions.
That’s how I felt being dropped into the world of Angel at the beginning of Season Three without having ever seen an episode of the show. Ok, my party analogy kinda lost it there at the end with the vampire slaying and all, but I think you get the picture.
I was familiar with the characters of Angel, Cordelia, and Wesley from Buffy, but even a few things had changed about them. So when the hell did Cordelia start getting visions? Why is there a ghost that draws her bath? And the “new” people (well, new to me) – why is there some skinny hick chick babbling on about formulas and stuff and writing all over her walls? Etc.
After Alan filled me out on this stuff, I settled into what has probably become my new favorite show. Buffy is still great, but judging on what I’ve seen in Season Three of Angel, this bastard stepchild of a series isn’t too far behind. It has an underlying sense of darkness and perversity coursing through its veins that Buffy only had in its sixth season, but with much more cruelty and insano situations arising for the characters to deal with. Maybe I’ve forgotten what watching twenty three episodes of Buffy in a very short span of time is like, but the main feeling I get after watching an entire season of Angel in just a few days is that its storyline has a greater complexity than its parent show.
Of course, I dig darkness and insanity in my entertainment, so Angel works well for me. Sure, there are many cringe-worthy attempts at humor throughout the show that just don’t make it (it is a Joss Whedon show, after all!) and some sickeningly gaggable lovey-dovey moments that made me feel embarrassed in the privacy of my own home, but the cool stuff definitely makes up for all of that twaddle.
Anyway, for me Angel (the show) is a winner. I was leery at first because of the clash of the familiar and unfamiliar, but everything worked out in the end. I really can’t wait to bum the other seasons off of Alan (that’s a plea, man) and immerse myself in the silly and wonderful world of this wacky show. I’d better stop now before I pass out from the adrenaline rush the last episode just gave me. Thanks for reading, and keep reading what our other fine Razorfine writers have to say about the wild world of Joss Whedon.