1x01 - City Of

There are a lot of reasons why I never got into the whole Angel series thing until the third or fourth season, and I’m afraid City of <insert_blank> pretty much exemplifies most of the reasons why... I mean, I admit I eventually got used to the over-dramatic vision quests and the insertion of pointless flashing moments between scene changes, but...

C’mon already! Doesn’t anyone notice just how damn pretentious "City Of" really was?... It was like the Angel writers were trying too damn hard to make the show into an "adult, mature" television series, whatever the hell that may be... It was like the writers were trying so damn hard to make the show into something not Buffy, that they completely lost everything that made the Buffyverse into something special in the first place (even for Buffy haters like me).

Thank God they finally got the right feeling back in the later seasons...

But really, there are only slight glimmers of hope in City Of... The only times I actually did enjoy this episode, were the comedic moments where it was making fun of itself. I still love Doyle’s hypocritical statements (nobody ever forgets him helping the homeless), and the final scenes of the episode did show a bit of chemistry between Glenn Quinn and Cordelia Chase. And Cordy herself didn’t have much to do this episode, although probably my most fond memory was of her ever so casual discovery that she was in a room with a vampire...

But besides all that really? I really couldn’t give a damn about this episode, and I’m confounded why it’s still a favourite in so many Angel fans’ eyes. Nostalgia, perhaps?...

Where was the comedy really, besides the few moments I already mentioned (and some decent scenes with Angel horribly hitting on Tina...)?... Why did the episode have to be so serious, with uber-cool double stakes here and Batman grappling hooks there?... What’s with the dark and disturbed montage at the beginning? What’s with Angel feeling so distant from humanity, when he certainly seemed alright at the end of Buffy season three?... and, well... at least Doyle didn’t act all unnecessarily evil or something, which is more than I can say about Angel when he debuted on Buffy...

I’ll give credit to this episode, for having the guts to have the good guy lose for once, and for introducing Lindsay and Wolfram and Hart. And in a way, although I felt it was just sprung on us out of nowhere, I do realize that the "one drink away" blood alcoholic kind of metaphor for Angel did work in later episodes... But overall, I just could not enjoy City Of, thanks to its goddam over-pretentious nature. Hell, even its title sounds pretentious...

But at least Doyle was cool. God rest his soul...

1x02 - Lonely Heart

Okay, I despise this episode just as much as I was bored out of my mind with City Of, simply because this episode was trying to be so damn dark and so damn mature, that it simply wasn’t funny anymore... Just listen to the music during the "connection" montage scene. Sure, I thought the music did fit the scene, but it completely did not fit the mood of the Buffyverse, and it completely did not match the mood of the later seasons of Angel either... Lonely Heart will forever be lonely in that aspect at least, as an episode trying too hard to make a new connection with the audience...

Now, even though I kind of still hate her guts with a passion, I did enjoy this episode somewhat thanks to the introduction of Kate... I wish I was on the forums at the time when this episode aired, because I later heard the backlash against poor Officer Lockley was just as bad as it ever was for Riley (which was bad, might I add...)... But the thing is, it seems to me that David Boreanaz only has chemistry with natural blondes! I mean, he had some passion with Buffy in Becoming. And in season two of Angel, I could actually sense the television sizzling off the silk of Darla’s blouse... But in Lonely Heart? I actually felt a possible connection between Angel and Kate as well. Their opening conversation in the bar did feel a bit forced, but the look of mutual trust at the end of the episode sort of pointed out to me that I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing Kate in a Buffyverse movie one of these days...

As for the rest of the episode, it was just a cheesy hack, body snatching episode that tried too hard to be serious and mature... On one hand, we had some great scenes with Doyle and Cordy. Doyle was finally not trying to act all smartass like he was in City Of, but rather feeling pathetically inadequate in Cordy’s eyes, like he should feel. And Cordelia herself was amusing with the whole running gag of the Angel business cards (although honestly, how the heck is that thing not an Angel?...)... Angel himself wasn’t the best of characters though. Once again, he acted too serious for the plotline that he was in. The only scenes he did shine in were the ones with Kate, even if he was kicking ass and taking names at the time...

Probably the only thing I actually really enjoyed about this episode, was laughing at evil "Raknor" at the bar... Yes, the episode was just that damn laughable in the end... And if this were Buffy? The show would’ve at least made fun of how damn cheesy the plotline was. But at the beginning episodes of Angel at least, the writers just didn’t seem to have a clue at how damn much of a joke it was to be that damn serious...

Didn’t they ever watch Buffy? Oh were they really lonely enough to never figure out what made their writing work?...

1x03 - In the Dark

Now, although I hated the above two episodes of Angel, I admit I didn’t actually watch them until after falling in love with the series in the third and fourth seasons... Officially, the first ever episode that I saw of Angel was In the Dark, obviously because it was a continuation of an episode with Spike (my hero) on Buffy the Vampire Slayer that same night...

And after loving the Buffy episode, and after enjoying Spike’s little dubbing of Angel’s damsel rescue, I watched the rest of In the Dark... and you know what?... I was no longer in the dark – everything I wrote that was wrong with the first two episodes of Angel above, was wrong with this episode as well... It was an epiphany, that for the most part at least, Angel as a show sucked...

I mean, why the heck was it so damn serious in the end? Since when has a Spike episode ever been serious since School Hard (if that can be considered serious, even)?... I mean, sure Spike had a nice fight with Angel after getting bored. But then we had a torture scene with a vampire who was actually trying to be threatening? Then we had a pier fight that somehow just didn’t have the flow of a good Buffy fight?... At least Spike was there most of the time, making fun of the classical music and such. But really, even for a Spike episode, I was so damn disappointed that this episode tried to be so damn... well... dark, in the end...

Spike was the lone saviour of this episode. Nobody else could save it... Like, take Cordy for example. Instead of poking fun at Spike, she does a poorly executed, super duper serious face, claiming that he was serious threat. And Doyle? Well, he was clueless about Spike, so I won’t blame him... I will blame him for caring so damn much about the ring of whatever though. And I blame Angel as well... At least in the Buffy episode that aired the same night, we had Harmony and Anya to lighten the mood. But whenever it came to the lord of the vampire Rings in this episode, it was all "do I deserve it" this, and "will it make me not a champion anymore" that... eye rolling, inner turmoil crap, I mean... I was also expecting some sort of comic relief from Oz, considering his lack of dialogue most times... But in "In the Dark", not only did he have no lines, but he didn’t even do anything that was cool either (except wield double cross bows, I guess)...

I’ll give props to this episode for a) some nice gags about Cordy’s tattered apartment, b) a nice scene with a flaming Angel jumping off the pier into the water, and c) obviously, because of Spike... But once again, I must ask, why were the writers of Angel back then so damn much in the dark about things? It’s no wonder Angel never caught on back in the early days... the show was trying so damn hard to find itself, that it never really realized what its true strengths had always been...

1x04 - I Fall to Pieces

Okay, this episode was just stupid... You have a doctor who could cut and piece himself back together, just through his psychic abilities?... and strangely enough, that was the believable and tolerable part of the episode...

I know I’m sounding like a broken record at times, but once again, this episode suffered from taking itself just too damn seriously for its own good... Just take the interview with the nurse and the whacked out professor as examples. At least in the former, Cordy’s poor note-taking abilities provided some levity. But what about the professor? Do we really need a stern lecture on what it means to truly believe? I almost felt like I was being forced to listen to Morpheus right out of the Matrix again, or some blue pill crap like that...

Really, the weakest point of this episode was the far too much, in-your-face message of girl power and crap... Didn’t we have enough of that on Buffy? At least that was a show for girls, so it made sense... But Kate made me hate her this episode, by forcing us into requisite and cliche scenes of the stalked woman no longer being afraid... I mean, I appreciate the message, but does it really have to ring so damn loudly that it hurts my ears?

Doyle provided some good moments this episode, most notably with his jokes about bungee jumping... And Angel once again had some chemistry with Kate Lockley, as brief as their scenes may have been... And the damsel in distress had some good moments with Cordy as well... but all in all, I really didn’t enjoy watching this episode. I mean, why didn’t the writers just realize that an episode where a man cuts his hands off under the bed covers, is not an episode that we can actually take seriously?...

Honestly... the guy’s damn eyeball was floating around in the apartment... Although the final scene where Angel chokes on himself by just asking for a dollar bill did redeem himself a bit, I don’t really think anything but a full admittance of Beer Bad could’ve kept I Fall to Pieces from falling to pieces, quite frankly...

1x05 - RM W/A VU

... okay, here’s where I get hypocritical...

... even though this episode didn’t take itself too seriously (like all the Angel episodes that came before), I still hated this episode... maybe because it wasn’t anti-serious enough? If that’s a word, at least...

Doyle was amusing, of course. You gotta love his Irish drinking habits, and the look of stunned guilt on his face, when he realized he had gotten Cordy a haunted apartment, was kinda romantic (in a sick sort of way)... And Angel? Well, once again, he had decent chemistry with Kate in the police precinct. He was comfortable with her in ways he never was in Buffy. And I especially enjoyed the moment where Angel tricks Doyle into telling him what’s going on with the money-collecting demon. Also, I suppose the idea of peanut butter on Angel’s bed gets the mind going, especially considering I Will Remember You coming up...

The episode belonged to Cordy though, her first since Homecoming perhaps in Buffy season three. And for the most part, she definitely did not disappoint. Running away from cockroaches, carving up tiles, and leaving wet towels on leather chairs were all patented Cordelia Chase at her finest... But the problem with this episode really came along when it came to the ghost. Not only did the evil mother from hell look like an idiot in her makeup (really should’ve kept her more translucent or partially invisible, I think), but I completely hated how Cordy suddenly became a whimpering idiot in the final scenes with the exorcism... I mean, I understand it was a metaphor for her eventual life-crisis breakdown, but honestly! I loved her reactions to the "DIE" or diet sign in blood on her wall, because it was a Cordy reaction all the way – scared, but nevertheless, she just plain doesn’t care... And I enjoyed the look on her face when "the bitch is back"... But did we really have to put up with a poor fight scene with Cordy just wallowing in shame in the background? For half of the episode, the episode took itself too damn seriously, simply because for the first time ever I think, the writers were trying to give Cordelia some actual character development...

Little moments, like Phantom Dennis having fun at the end, redeemed the episode for its non-intentional stupidity. But overall, while the apartment was Friends beautiful and Doyle did his part again, I would’ve preferred some other episode, with a room with a better view instead...

1x06 - Sense and Sensitivity

Finally! A chance for me to sound like anything BUT a broken record!

Sense and Sensitivity was not only the best Kate Lockley performance of all time, but it was also the first ever episode of Angel that I actually enjoyed... it was also only the second episode of Angel that I ever watched... but even so, at the time, I couldn’t help but find the police station scenes to be amongst the best of the Buffyverse. Writing poems for criminals, and screaming into your phone for your daddy, were amongst the most clever ideas I had seen from Joss Whedon from all of Buffy season four and Angel’s first season.

This episode wasn’t perfect obviously, since it seemed to lack enough great Doyle moments, and the villain was too cheesy, even by Buffyverse standards. And it even grated my ears to have to listen to the talking stick conversation, although that was obviously the point...

But for every moment in this episode where I rolled my eyes in pain, there were at least a dozen other moments where my eyes rolled in absolute hilarity... I already mentioned about Doyle, who’s only good moment was trying to hide his crush on Cordy from an extra sensitive police officer. But Cordelia herself, demanding courtesy from Angel while completely ignoring the Calamari demon behind her, definitely had her fair share of moments...

The episode truly belonged to Angel and Kate though... Finally, Angel starts dressing like the idiot he does in later seasons, with the ever classic tourist look on the pier. And while Kate’s tear-jerking speech to her father was perhaps a bit too much, I absolutely loved the actress when she’s with Angel in the PI headquarters, muttering about his eyes and whining about her father... This was perhaps the only scene that Elizabeth Rohm was ever cute and attractive in the series (she was quite the buttercup as she kept doing whatever she was doing in Angel’s chair), and it definitely shows – it’s also the scene where she seems to have so much chemistry with David Boreanaz, that it actually washed the horrible taste of Angel and Buffy out my mouth (I’m a huge fan of Spike, you know... except for that one time...). And you gotta love a super sensitive bitch who still threatens people with her gun. Elizabeth Rohm truly played a sweet, caressing girl with a gun happy trigger to a T, if there ever was a T for such a thing...

Angel himself wasn’t nearly as convincing as a super sensitive guy though. I loved the hug he gave the team, and I loved the thought of him leaving a note for the broken window. But for the most part, he wasn’t nearly sensitive enough I think – just a bit too stupid and dimwitted, that’s all... But the final fight scene with Toni? The "painbow" line still gets me to this day, and the super gooey hug he gives Kate?... awwwhhh, they’re so cute together, that I almost don’t feel like a man at times... but that’s besides the point...

Sense and Sensitivity showed that finally the Angel writers got some sense bitchslapped into them by Kate, and in turn, they actually produced an episode that was smart, witty, and fun to watch in the end... This was the kind of clever writing that made Buffy a hit. And while the clever writing didn’t really hit Angel again until the latter part of the first season, at least it did finally hit. And the series in later years was definitely better for it...

... sniff sniff... I do get oversensitive about over-serious episodes at times... Thank God for Sense and Sensitivity then (although I really kind of wish they had left the ‘daddy-complex’ thing in this episode where it was funny, and not made it into her full running, eye rolling arc)...

1x07 - The Bachelor Party

... just when I thought Angel was picking up after episodes (or... um... an episode...) like Sense and Sensitivity, the Angel writers shove crap like The Bachelor Party back into our faces. I guess Joss Whedon has a quota – at least two or three obligatory episodes a year that must suck by all standards. And the Bachelor Party was definitely one of them...

I remember watching this episode a long time ago when it first aired. And I also remember being bored to tears by the dialogue... The first meeting between Doyle and his ex-wife was just far too melodramatic to even keep me awake. And my God, the first time I watched that entire bachelor party scene, I think I was bored out of my mind... And after rewatching the episode on DVD? I swear that nothing has changed. I feel a bit more pathos for Doyle now, especially considering Glenn Quinn died. But besides that?... this episode just flat out sucks...

It had a few decent moments, of course. Doyle acting like a pure geek, reliving his heroism before being caught by Cordelia, definitely brought back fond memories of my past and present (besides the actual heroism, at least...). Cordy herself had some great lines, about Xander being a fixer-upper, and how she blames Angel for her wanting interesting men now. But besides these few conversations, there really wasn’t anything to this episode at all... The girly shower had nothing going for it. I didn’t care at all even for the twist at the end, with what’s-her-name caring about the lie more than the brain-eating it seemed. And besides a few sparks between Cordy and Doyle, there’s absolutely nothing to love about this episode whatsoever.

... well, besides Cordy beating on poor Doyle without knowing it, at least...

I understand this episode was trying to be a clever parody of relationship issues. But did they really have to make the script that damn devoid of all semblance of anything interesting?... there may have been a clever premise, but the script itself was drier than a bone. Which is ironic, considering bachelor parties are actually supposed to be drunk and fun, you know... not that a geek like me would ever know first hand, of course...

1x08 - I Will Remember You

Okay, this may sound sappy... But while I Will Remember You may not be the first Angel episode I ever watched, it was definitely the first one that I remembered. And in retrospect, that wasn’t exactly a good thing...

Like the rest of the Buffyverse after watching Pangs, I tuned into Angel for I Will Remember You, expecting some huge fireworks from the Buffy and Angel reunion. And in a way, we got what we wanted... Although I never particularly liked Angel with Buffy, there’s no denying that the two had chemistry while sharing chocolate and peanut butter in bed. And the final scenes, where Buffy refuses to let Angel go, refusing to forget the day they had, I admit were actually quite gripping. Hell, they were probably the best Buffy and Angel moment since Becoming Part 2 (although that’s not saying much, considering Angel was grossly muted and misused in Buffy season three)...

But that’s about where the good compliments end. Because just like almost every other Angel episode before it, I Will Remember You suffered from the same damn problems with over-seriousness that plagued the series to hell... I thought that the return of Buffy would liven things up, but she just wasn’t her old self. Except for her, "that was rude - we should kill it" whimper, she uttered none of her patented Buffy-cute lines. And besides an obviously humorous scene with Angel and Buffy having tea rather than sex, was there really any humour in this episode?... It tried to be all romantic, with Angel refusing to wake Buffy up in the middle of the night. But like I said, I never really saw chemistry between Buffy and Angel ever. I did see forbidden love though, which is a bit too serious and a bit too boring for my male testosterone eyes at least...

Cordy got a few good lines out of this episode, mostly when it came to the prior relationship between Angel and Buffy. And Doyle got some nice moments to confide with Angel, although nothing really memorable... Angel himself didn’t get to pull off many jokes, although I agree with his opinion that yogurt flat out sucks... And while the look on poor David Boreanaz’s face when the Oracles (whom I hate) turned back the clock was rather heartbreaking, it’s just not what I remembered from this episode in the end...

So what did I remember?... Well, how poorly designed and annoying the Oracles were. How completely out of character Buffy felt at times. How Cordy didn’t get nearly enough air time snarking back at Buffy like the good ol’ days. And how stupid it looked for Angel to win that demon fight in the end scene after just a couple of seconds... and besides, outside of the Trek universe, I’ve never really been a fan of reset button episodes...

I remembered I Will Remember You for a very long time, not because it was heart-wrenching, but because it tried too hard to be heart-wrenching.... It reminded me of just why I hated almost every single episode that dealt with the Buffy and Angel relationship on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And it brought up the can of stupidity worms, of why the hell didn’t Angel just keep a jar of the demon blood in hand, just for the day he finally wants to get laid?... in retrospect, both things definitely weren’t good, um... things, from my Oracle point of view at least...

1x09 - Hero

Okay, this is one episode that I really, really, ridiculously feel bad for ridiculing...

I mean, sure it had the same faults as all the episodes above it... It was far too over-dramatic, with goddam demon Nazis for Christ’s sakes. It was goddam too preachy, with the whole ordeal about mixed blood demons and everything. And it was too damn predictable in the end, considering the title and all...

And yet?... even though I do hate this episode... it’s just that...

I feel so bad for hating this episode!... Because how can I honestly loathe the last episode that Glenn Quinn was ever in?... God rest his soul...

Doyle was a great character, even if I never admitted that until after the actor’s death. I loved his Irish drinking ways, just as much as I envied those of Spike. And I always found his geekish hero ways to be far superior to anything Xander had on Buffy... But alas, all of these features were basically missing in Hero. I forget why Glenn Quinn wanted to leave the show so soon, and in all due respect, the writers did somehow make his journey feel rather full circle in such few episodes. Props to them for that...

But Hero was just plain boring to me! Doyle didn’t really get to drink. Doyle didn’t really get to fight. Doyle get to continue his crush on Cordy at least, leading to the best scene of the episode, with Chase bitchslapping the poor man down for lying to her for months... But that was perhaps Doyle’s only good moment in the entire episode. In many ways, I really wish that Hero wasn’t the episode he had to go down on. It just wasn’t my cup of earl gray tea...

Actually, Doyle did have another good scene, when Angel was confiding in him about what happened with Buffy in the day that never was. Glenn Quinn got to pull off some great lines there, about letting others take up the fight, and staying back to keep score... In terms of Buffyverse character development at least, Doyle really changed a lot this episode. He found the courage to ask Cordy out for a date, and then found the courage to kill himself just to avoid that date... I definitely miss Doyle to this day. The video he shot that played at the end of the episode felt cheesy at the time, but it really made me feel nostalgic when the Fifth season’s You’re Welcome aired it again. Because for the first time in a quite a long while, it wasn’t just the character that was dead. It was the actor as well, and that definitely resonated within me... almost as if Glenn Quinn was a hero, you know...

Overall, this episode was pretty damn bad though. Cordy got some good moments with Doyle which I already mentioned. And Angel got to look ridiculous in a Nazi suit at least. But besides that? With boring people to save, a cliche child character who ruins away, evil demon Nazis from the Starship Enterprise, and an ending for Doyle that just seemed so damn forced and sudden at the time... I don’t know – I just can’t really enjoy this episode the way I wanted to... or the way that Glenn Quinn deserves it to...

Doyle got to atone for his past... But in the end, it wasn’t a hero I wanted. I just wanted the character to stay on the show, that’s all...

1x10 - Parting Gifts

Okay dokay... Parting Gifts marks three separate milestones for the Angel series. On one hand, it marked the beginning of the cheesy kind of creative (yet still dark and disturbed) writing that made the show what it was in the later seasons. Second, it marked the beginning of Saint Cordy, with the transfer of the mind numbing visions and all (which was good at first, but became a tragedy starting from the first season finale... and don’t even mention the third season of Angel... bleh...). And lastly, it brought forth what I think is everyone’s favourite character in the show’s history.

Badass Wesley...

... though just Wesley for now, at least...

The writing in this episode was strong, even if I didn’t particularly enjoy it... There were a ton of twists along the way, and I for one was surprised at who the actual villain was in the end. And in a way, I was glad what’s-his-name actually did turn out to be a villain – he really did deserve to die after all that annoying, empathic preaching and speechifying, you know...

Cordelia had some powerful scenes. How can you not love her audition for the stain remover? And hell, even her sappy as hell scene at the end, where she frames the blob she drew, feels true now (considering Glenn Quinn is actually gone...). This was Charisma Carpenter’s episode, and I especially enjoyed how pissed off she got during the whole auction thing. It was smart that she was trying to delay the whole process – it was also quite in character that she’d think she’s worth at least thirty thousand dollars... Heck, the episode even brought Wolfram and Hart to the forefront for once. Sure Lindsay was featured in City Of, and Lee got to act particularly evil in Sense and Sensitivity. But it was in this episode that the threat finally felt real, probably because it was the first time the lawyers finally registered Angel as a blip on their radar...

Angel had his moments too, feeling all disconnected the way that Doyle had warned him he was. But the real star of the show was obviously Wesley, right from the get go... Although his wimpy act was a bit too revealing at times (plus, the leather pants were just a bit too much...), it did provide for some pretty damn good comedy, the kind of which the series had been sorely lacking since its very incarnation... I hated the requisite scene of Wesley feeling like a sack of shit and all. I also thought a rogue demon hunter would’ve been able to at least pull a knife out against a rogue demon... But the final scene in the episode made up for it at least. Wesley refusing to leave, almost as if he was a starving puppy dog, somehow complimented the coldness of Angel and Cordy in a way that even Doyle never could. Call me bias from the latter seasons if you will, but I always found Doyle, Angel, and Cordy to be nothing more than friends... yet Angel, Wesley, and Cordelia somehow feel like a family...

I don’t know... I appreciated the strong writing in this episode. Hell, I even appreciated the first kiss between Angel and Cordy, even if I thought they had no chemistry whatsoever in later seasons... But a weak villain, an overly bumbling Wesley, and the fact he didn’t wield a goddam shotgun, all helped make this episode into nothing more than average in the end...

... but an average joe episode sure feels like a gift, compared to the overly serious crap I was forced to endure from the rest of the first half of the season at least...

1x11 - Somnambulist

Aside from the episode name that I simply cannot understand, I must admit... finally, Angel produced an episode for the ages...

Somnambulist is perhaps the first ever, classic episode from the writers behind Angel.

It was a breakthrough for Kate Lockley (and the last one for her, I’m afraid)... I’ll always prefer Elizabeth Rohm in Sense and Sensitivity, but for the actual character she plays, Somnambulist was perhaps her strongest performance... Here we have a woman of nothing but law, dealing with creatures that the law does not govern. Her behaviour in the series was a startling (and refreshing) contrast to the ease that Cordy accepted the truth about Doyle. And it all started with the moment between Kate and Angel outside her apartment (possibly the best serious Kate moment in the entire series as well)... It was just so strange for the Buffyverse at the time, you know? She said so many times that very episode alone that she trusted him, and yet here she was, refusing to invite the vampire in, and even threatening to stake him the next time she sees him?... From that moment on, it was all downhill for the character in the series, both figuratively and literally. From her weak-at-the-knee-ness during the fight against Penn, to the fact it took her so damn long just to ram a 2-by-4 through Angel’s chest, Kate just wasn’t the same after this episode... Never again would Elizabeth Rohm get to capture the chemistry she had with Angel before moving on to Law and Order. And quite a shame too... guess she lost all sense of sensitivity, once she read the title, "Somnambulist", and couldn’t figure out what the hell it meant...

And what the heck was up with the four foot nine fighting machine in the police precinct? Why couldn’t see use her Stargate training to take down Penn?... but that’s a story for another day...

The best scene in the episode was by far the Kate and Angel encounter outside of her apartment. But there were so many other great moments in this episode, that it’s almost hard to keep track... Angel being chained to the bed for one. Cordy’s in-your-face giddyness at the sight of the murder news the morning after was great. And her twist of loyalty when Angel thought he had perhaps turned evil? Priceless Cordy all the way... I forget if Wesley had any great scenes or not. He got to look shocked at the stolen police radio at least, which was a plus in my books...

And Angel? The flashback scenes were a bit weak, but his dynamic duo with the modern day Penn was undeniable. Almost to the point where you wish Penn hadn’t just died after a single episode or so... I still laugh at the sunlit faceoff between the two to this very day. The poor look on Penn’s face, when Angel calls him a cheesy hack with a wall of newspaper clippings, was simply priceless. It was nice he beat the bad guy the Angelus way – find your enemy’s psychological weakness and exploit it..... And although I’m not sure if it was meant to be funny or not, I still get a chuckle every time I hear Kate dress down the other officers about the suspect, blaming the murders on a bad break up or some crap like that... Angel and Penn also put on the best one-on-one fight scene in the history of the show, up until the return of Faith and the Jedi at least. The finish, with Kate and the 2-by-4 at least, was definitely something a viewer doesn’t forget for a long time...

Somnambulist was a mixed blessing, when history is taken into account though... On one hand, it marked the decline of the Kate character into absolute annoying tedium and medium boredom. And plus, I can’t spell the name of the episode title, you know (let alone know what it means, so that I can make fun of it...)... But on the other hand, it was the first truly great Angel episode, with a great villain, great music, a great script, and a serious Angel that actually made sense for once. Plus, the girly audience who watches Angel finally got to witness some vampire bondage, of course...

Somnambulist was indeed some-‘Nam-of-a-blast-ist... or, umm... a summer-of-a-blast-ist, or whatever kind of crap... Either way, no matter what the title breaks down to, the episode was enjoyable all around. And lucky for the viewers, it was just a tiny timbit taste of blood of what would eventually come...

1x12 - Expecting

... okay, I know I said just in the mini-review above that Angel was definitely improving as a series by this point. So to prevent complete hypocrisy, I’ll say this as gently as I can...

... Expecting wasn’t that bad of an episode, considering it was meant to be bad... I think...

The characters all had decent lines this episode afterall. Angel got to beat on poor humans, and, um... do other stuff, I suppose... And Wesley? He got to threaten old folks in the wrong house. And getting kicked around by a spawning demon baby must’ve been fun as well... And Cordy? Well, she got to cry a lot, then she got to go all maternal and hit Wesley over the head with an ugly stick... And even Phantom Dennis got in the role. Shuffling tissues and folding up the covers were decent I suppose, for a guy with no dialogue...

... and besides, how can I not give props to the episode, that placed the first ever gun in Wesley’s more than addicted hands?...

Okay, that was the good... now comes the bad...

First, you have a demon that looks like something out of the original Star Trek, bad special effects and all. Then you have the spawning pit from Species, which only worked well because the girls were naked before. Why not now?... You had a Cordy who was playing her role far too seriously. You had a Wesley who was playing his role far too seriously, next to the blunders in the ultrasound room at least. And then you had Angel, playing all protective over Cordy now that Kate was out of the picture, and the Sunnydale bitch was his only last chance to get some... And then we were forced into some god-awful, ear grating speeches from Cordy about how she trusts both men with her life now... although, well, at least we now know that Cordy goes all matriarchal evil when she has a baby baking in the oven (see season four for details...)....

... wait - okay, I take all the good things I said back... sure, I was expecting bad things from this episode, but not that bad... not season four Cordy bad...

1x13 - She

Thirteen is quite an unlucky number, ain’t it? And episode 13 definitely wasn’t very lucky itself...

At least Expecting didn’t take itself seriously enough to make the episode a complete, mind-numbing bore in the end. But what about She?... the only thing that saved this episode from complete and utter torment in hell (where everyone knows your name apparently), was the promo-pathetic dance that Angel pulled off in his mind... because I sure as hell have to remember his little clapping moves next time a girl ever asks me to dance...

... which is why a girl would never ask me to dance...

"She" had a few promising moments besides the dance scene that everyone still raves about... Wesley shedding a tear and finally joining the team for real was momentous, as She was basically the last episode where the poor sacked Watcher didn’t have any balls (or a gun) on the show. And Angel at least got some good gags in with the introduction of the cell-phone thing, although the voice mail jokes had to wait until later...

But dammit! That’s all there was to this episode! Everything else was just so damn bad, that it’s not even worth writing about!

So what if you have scantily clad women roaming around the streets with glowing dinosaur ridges on the back on their necks? Nothing could’ve saved this episode from sounding overzealous, over-serious, and seriously over-pretentious... It was meant to be all about slavery, introducing a possible new half-villain to the Angelverse. Well, thank God she never reappeared again, because how much of a bore can she be?... She didn’t even crack a joke. All she did was talk about sex this, freedom that. And then we got woman clothed by ice, which may have sounded good in the promos, but dammit, did nothing for me in the actual episode!

Angel was supposed to meet his match in She. Instead, he was lit up like a match and nothing more... There was no chemistry between the two. No sizzle. No nada... Instead, this entire episode was just a bunch of generic fighting here, non-threatening villains there, and a ton of annoying speeches on the side. I would’ve thought that by this point, the Angel writers would’ve realized that episodes with completely stupid plotlines, that take themselves too damn seriously, are just not what made the Buffyverse such a popular place to be in before...

But at least we had Angel dancing as badly as I do... and at least Phantom Dennis sharing a beer always gets props from me, considering he was the lone character sorely missing from the final seasons of Angel...

1x14 - I’ve Got You Under My Skin

Okay, I hate to say that Angel produced three bad episodes in a row, considering a lot of people for some odd reason like this episode... But dammit, I’ve Got You Under My Skin never got under my skin in a good way. It just annoyed the hell out of me, for reasons that I think would be completely obvious by now...

Once again, here we had a completely stupid plotline that only would’ve worked in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, if none of the Slayerettes took it seriously. And we got a few glimpses of that this episode, with Cordy being all smiles and hugs over the child possession in this episode and such...

But this isn’t Buffy. This is Angel, where even the most idiotic and cliche of plotlines somehow gets taken seriously by Angel and co. And honestly, throughout this episode, I was dying for it to become an intentional Exorcist parody, not an accidental one. But my wish was never granted...

Some enjoyed this episode because of the twist at the end. It wasn’t really the demon that possessed the boy, but rather the other way around, in a manner of speaking or whatever sort of crap... And while that did surprise me for a second, the episode was just too damn boring for me to care. And Kate at the end certainly didn’t help the situation. Her eternal, one dimensional bitchiness is what completely ruined her character in season 2, and oddly made her a fan favourite as well for God knows what reason...

Simply put, does any character get decent lines in this episode? Angel got to bring over brownies, after he furrowed his brow some more at a decent scene of Wesley trying to swallow Cordy’s food down... But then the episode just becomes a snoozefest at best. Angel gets all concerned over not being able to carry a cross (took him long enough to realize he could just damn hold the thing in a glove or something). Wesley went all speechy when it came to not being strong enough and self-doubting crap like that. And of course, we were forced into watching obligatory stupid-mom-almost-gets-herself-killed, and evil demon laughs while making the audience want to puke scenes, that every good Exorcism parody requires...

But the problem is, the episode never ever became a parody. Even by the final moments of the episode, Angel was still talking to the Eros demon as if the episode was about the most serious crap in the world. I mean, WTF? Don’t the writers realize that Buffy made a name for itself by mocking and making fun of all the other stupid ass, scary movie ideas out there...

Some would argue that I’ve Got You Under My Skin was indeed a parody though, and a smart one at that... but I rather just say, the only way that this episode got under my skin, was by boring me to death...

1x15 - The Prodigal

Finally!...

... how many times have I written "finally" in this Angel season one review of mine so far?... well, maybe just once or twice, but that’s besides the point...

... either way, The Prodigal does deserve a shout of relief of "finally". Because like a prodigal son, the Angel writers finally came home and did their job, by producing one of the season’s best episodes. Even the asshole idea of a demon drug ring didn’t deter my enjoyment of The Prodigal, if only thanks to the great character development and revelations of the episode...

Now, it wasn’t the greatest hour of Angel television, as flashback episodes normally have an aggravating flaw or two... Like many Buffy episodes in the past, The Prodigal drew parallels between events of the past with events of the present (in this case, Angel’s father vs Kate’s father). And usually this works in rather inventive ways, and I shall always give the writers real props for that... But flashback episodes always end up having some pacing issues in the end. And normally some of the flashback scenes just aren’t as powerful as they ought to be... While Angelus eating his own father had its moments, I can’t say Angel’s rise from the grave actually had dialogue that didn’t make me roll my eyes...

Still, although Sense and Sensitivity and Somnambulist were her best episodes, The Prodigal was absolutely the last Angel episode ever where Kate was bearable to watch. At the start of the episode, it was great how her disdain for the demon corpse contrasted so damn wildly with just how saw-happy Cordy was later on with the same body... And Kate finally became a bit likable again. She had a good scene with her father, where she admitted that Angel was good at her work. And she even confided in Angel later on when she asked to join the team, so to speak... And hell, even when she went all ‘daddy-complex’ and cried about Kel’s auto parts, I still thought Elizabeth Rohm was playing a good role. I thought she handled herself extremely well in that final fight against the vamps, and her reaction afterwards (essentially calling Angel a monster) indeed made her character interesting, until her next episode of one-dimensional bitchiness at least...

She did have the ever classic line about killing a demon and having a cappuccino at least. Which always is a good question in the Buffyverse, where teenagers can murder sentient beings and joke about it a second after...

Angel in the present didn’t get to shine as usual. He went around, threatening Kate’s father, all without being damn smart enough to even ask to be invented in when he wasn’t the man’s nemesis... David Boreanaz did get to shine in the flashback scenes though, as he always does with Darla... The Prodigal was the first Angel episode ever to have the kind of amazingly powerful flashback moments that defined the show in its later seasons. Just from the opening start of the episode, with Liam enticing the one lone servant, I was already left in suspense since we really had no clue he was still human... I already mentioned how powerful his final scene with his father was (too bad it was ruined by Darla’s speechifying a moment after...). And I still snicker at the sight of Darla being fascinated with the pathetic Liam, having a bar fight and getting his ass kicked in the process... I personally thought The Prodigal provided incredible insight and connections into the lives of both Angel and Kate, even if at times the morals of the story felt a bit too pretentious (a word I use all too often in this season one review of mine, I see...).

Cordy and Wesley didn’t get to do much this episode. They both basically sat on the sidelines, giving Angel a rapport of support and advice as they’re always known to do... Wesley showed off his science skills for the first time this episode though, for better or worse, I’m afraid (it wasn’t his fault that Angel turned into more of a technobabble show than Star Trek in later years)... And I’m sure Cordy had some good sniping snarking moments with Angel somewhere down the line. I just can’t remember them anymore, that’s all...

The episode belonged to Kate and Angel, even if they ended off as enemies in arms... It was the last episode that the two ever had chemistry together. Hell, it was the last ever episode I could ever even bear them together on screen...

... but I don’t know... most of the ‘shippers out there may kill me for this... but looking back at episodes like Sense and Sensitivity?... I really wouldn’t mind if Kate came back one day, in a TV movie or something, as the returning prodigal Angel wife or some crap like that... as long as she can act as well as she did in The Prodigal, at least...

1x16 - The Ring

Oh dear God no... and people on the internet actually get all nostalgic about episodes like this?...

Really?...

It’s honestly hard to believe... Because what the hell was wrong with the Angel writers in the first season?...

With Wesley in the cast, the mood of Angel did manage to lighten up a bit. And Wesley provided a bit more of slapstick comedy in this episode as well, although he actually provided real brawn for once, going all badass with a gun again... And of course, Cordy had her requisite good lines as well. But besides punking out a rich couple as foobar police officers, I really can’t remember a thing...

The episode was completely about Angel, and quite frankly, it was worse off because of it... Why the heck did the writers keep cramming down our throats, episode after episode, plotlines that make no sense yet the characters involved act as if it were real?... Sure, there were moments of levity in this episode, with cat hair being used to break magical bracelets and crap like that. But for the most part, this episode was just plain plagued was Angel’s "I’m-too-good-for-my-hat" kind of noble speechifying, the likes of which nobody on the face of the planet should ever be able to stand (aside from Star Trek Kirk references, of course)...

The Ring left the audience with a bunch of worthless side characters that nobody would ever care about... I mean, sure Angel was conned by a business man faking his brother’s death. That was decent, only to be followed by a one dimensional villain act after that... And as for Angel’s buddies in the squared circle? They all have one dimensional roles themselves, of following the leader and nothing more than that. It’s nothing we haven’t seen a million times before. It’s not that we couldn’t predict the outcome of with our eyes closed...

Which is exactly why the actors and actresses in this episode really shouldn’t have taken The Ring seriously. And yet we got the complete opposite instead, with dark and brooding lizard demons in the background, thanks to the "dark and broody" atmosphere the Angelverse was supposed to portray...

I got sick of the "I love you, Sam" crap in The Lord of the Rings, and I got especially sick of the "I love you, Angel" crap in The Ring... One episode to rule them all, eh?... with team dynamic almost a complete no-show in The Ring, I’d take WWE wrestling over this episode any day...

1x17 - Eternity

... and I thought I knew what eternity was...

There were a lot of good moments in this episode. I loved the escape from Cordy’s play at the start of the episode. And their squirming out of Cordy critiquing definitely was one of the highs of the show’s first season... And of course, there was the return of Angelus, thanks to a very blissful high, but I’ll get to that in a second...

The problem is, in between these two moments of actual pure happiness, the Angel writers once again left us with an entire eternity of boring crap, none of which I ever really want to watch again... I loved the inside quip that the fans think the actress is the character she plays, Raven (since we all know Buffy pretends to be Sarah Michelle Gellar, and not the other way around...). But besides that, the entire Rebecca Lo-whatever plotline was nothing more than grating on the nerves... First there was the stalker thing, which didn’t even result in a decent fight to the death. And then we had the "you’re a vampire! Cool!" kind of thing, which just lead to an episode that once again took itself too damn seriously for its own good... And then we were given a completely awkward scene with Angel and the actress in his apartment, where they had no chemistry whatsoever, in my opinion at least. I tried to feel bad for the actress at the time, for wanting eternal life so badly without realizing the consequences... and then I felt bad for Xander, Giles, Wesley, and hell, even Spike for their typecasting, considering they’ll probably never be able to play characters other than their Buffyverse selves ever again...

... and then I realized I didn’t give a damn about Raven... I was actually rooting for her to die, Freddy vs Jason kind of style. Quote the Ivan, nevermore...

Wesley was pretty useless this episode, except in the Angelus scene. But Cordy brought at least some life into Eternity, going all giddy about elbows in newspaper clippings, and shopping in stores that get closed for one woman... But if there was any saving grace to the episode as well, it was the ten minute return of Angelus. If season four showed us anything, it’s that the Angel writers really know how to make the poor guy lash at his friends in words, not exactly in fists. And they first proved it in Eternity, when after taking a drug that "synthesizes" bliss, Angel somehow turns all evil rather than just turning into a knocked out junkie...

And I loved all his lines when he was evil. Nailing Wesley in the balls, and finally telling Cordy how much she damn sucks at acting, may not have been the juggler when it came to insults. But I’ll be damned if Angelus didn’t have me rolling on the floor in laughter... And the final scene, where poor Angel is left chained to the bed? It was definitely the kind of slapstick sort of ending that Angel has been doing well since I Fall to Pieces actually... I mean, it’s weird, ain’t it? In my opinion at least, the first season of Angel had awful writing everywhere except for the endings that always contrast the climaxes of the episodes in quality...

... guess I have to give the writers some props for their continuity and consistency there, but I digress...

What I don’t give props to them for, is the crap I always have to endure in the middles of episodes. I don’t appreciate the fact that Angel always gets so damn annoyingly broody whenever he ends up liking a girl (although Nina in the final season of Angel didn’t help things either, even if she did loosen him up...). I don’t appreciate the fact that the girls Angel likes always have to be so goddam dead serious in the end either, both figuratively and literally in this case. And I don’t appreciate the fact that Wolfram and Hart never got the idea of just drugging Angel every single night, but I guess that’s besides the point...

I also don’t appreciate that this episode taught me the real meaning of eternity, just the same way as Angel and Wesley learned it from Cordelia’s play... but at least, this television eternity only lasted me an hour...

1x18 - Five by Five

Catchy title. A good title, even... And a good episode as well...

I can literally count the good episodes of the first season of Angel on a single hand, you know... Up until this point, there was Sense and Sensitivity, Somnambulist, and maybe The Prodigal as well. And just three episodes made with fresh tomatoes, with fourteen rotten ones on the side? Well, that can’t be good for business... that can’t be good for anyone...

Five by Five was truly the turning point of the series though. Because starting from this one episode alone, I don’t think the first season of Angel even had a bad episode (well, Warzone wasn’t pretty, but I digress...)... And what’s there not to like about Five by Five? It combined the most powerful flashback scenes with Julie Benz, making Angel’s past more memorable than I think I ever did remember in the series (except for perhaps the flashbacks with Spike in second season). It brought forth Wolfram and Hart as the true baddies of the Angelverse battlefront. It brought forth some of the strongest acting moments from both Angel and Wesley in the entire series. And hell’s bells, Five by Five brought forth the return of Faith.

How can an episode be anything but five by five with Faith right smack dab in the center?...

Like I already said, there were amazing performances all around from each and every character. Cordelia got the least amount of lines, but I loved her money-loving self when it came to the divorce case. And you gotta admit, she took an elbow shot to the eye pretty damn well... Now, Wesley sure had a hell of a lot of fun this episode, didn’t he? Five by Five was truly the marketed beginning of the greatest storyline to ever grace the Angel universe – the rise and fall of badass Wesley. After being tortured "for hours, for pleasure", as he later put it, Wesley was just never the same. And I think this episode exemplified that more enough, with just his marketed contrast of rooting for the thuggish bad guy at the start of the episode, to rooting with a knife in his hand at the end... I personally think Alexis Denisof did a superb job with the torture sequences, although obviously a lot of the credit has to go to Faith as well. Wesley had some pretty badass lines when hog-tied down, refusing to scream like a little girl, even though he was screaming like one just a couple episodes before from nothing... His loyalty to Angel through the Faith two-parter was undeniable as well. He refused to leave Angel’s side this episode, and even realized in his boss’ eyes that Faith had done something to Buffy... Angel and Wesley, throughout the Angel years, provided a better tandem than any two people have ever accomplished in the Buffyverse. And pretty much, it all started here, five by five...

Angel didn’t get many clever lines, although he certainly got to kick some ass... Catching the crossbow bolt may be old news after watching so many seasons, but for the first season of Angel, it was one of the moments I remembered most dearly... And of course, how could I ever forget the final fight scene with Faith? To be honest, I don’t even know when this battle was ever topped. But for sure, Angel and Faith put on the best fight scene of the entire first season in this episode, bar none... And while I never felt romantic vibes between, I can’t deny that there was chemistry between Faith and Angel. I mean, just the look in Faith’s eyes, when she was told by Wolfram and Hart to assassinate the vampire, you could somehow care and almost feel how deep the relationship between the two really dug... Five by Five was filled by amazing Faith moments. Sure, I thought the bar fight was over the top. But even just the little game with the blanks and the gun was enough to make Faith into the best villain of the first season. And the five types of torture? Gotta remember that the next time I go for bondage fun... And she was also possibly the most heartwarming character as well. Because no matter how many times I watch it, I still feel terrible every time I see her cradling in Angel’s arms, screaming that she’s a bad girl who deserves to die. I’m lucky enough never to really know someone who cried for death, but Five by Five just makes me relate to Faith somehow. I guess we all have something to atone for, you know?...

There really wasn’t any flaws with this episode, except perhaps some over the top scenes... Wolfram and Hart finally came to the forefront of the show, and the evil triumvirate chemistry between Lindsay, Lilah, and Lee (nice names...) definitely etched itself into my mind for years. Except for perhaps Lee getting his head bashed in, I loved everything about the lawyers for the first time in the history of the show. I loved their limo riding, jet plane flying, smooth talking, latte ways... And on the subject on evil, Julie Benz as Darla did some of her best work ever in this episode. After watching this episode the first time, I never forgot about her threatening Angel with a stake as he fled from the house with a soul... Hell, I don’t think I even remembered anything clearly from the first season of Angel, save for this one saving grace of a scene alone...

The title, Five by Five, says it all... It’s got Faith. It’s got Darla. It’s got the enemies of Angel finally being the real enemies that they are... It’s got amazing performances by bitchy Cordelia, pre-badass Wesley, and an Angel who’s dark and broody act finally matched the feel of an episode for once... And because of all this, Five by Five was more than just five by five.

Hell, it makes the first season of Angel worth watching.

1x19 - Sanctuary

Five by Five was a great episode, but Sanctuary was absolutely the best episode of Angel’s first season, bar none.

It was the saving private grace of the show for the time... It was the sanctuary which all Angelverse worshippers could finally behold...

While this episode lacked the indelible memory etching that flashback scenes with Darla always manage to provide, great Buffyverse cameos from Buffy and the Watcher’s Council more than made up for the lack of Angel’s past... I personally didn’t really think highly of Buffy this episode though. Not only was she sporting the worst hair that she’s ever had in the history of the show, but her final conversation with Angel just didn’t ring true to me for some odd reason... I know EXes really go for the juggler, but honestly, Angel and Buffy just didn’t seem themselves as they were arguing over nothing... But at least we got to see the reaction on Buffy’s face when Angel was holding Faith. Because of that one scene alone, I actually agreed with Buffy’s sentiment, that Faith was the only one who ever made her a victim (until I remembered Angelus was far worse... apparently Buffy forgot about that as well...)...

Cordelia didn’t play much of a role this episode, oddly making herself scarce after a decently funny scene with paid vacation leave (is she ever there in the first place?...). Wesley though was a revelation in Sanctuary... Rewatching this episode, I personally thought that he would betray Angel, considering I’ve obviously lived through his later days of having an Ocelot addiction to disloyalty... But Wesley really pulled through this episode, largely in part to the best performance of the season by Alexis Denisof. Finally, he was arguing with Angel like he always did in later years. And finally we saw the fierce competition between the two that defined the show in later seasons... And honestly, the scene where he admits his complete and undying loyalty to a vampire? Both to Angel and to the Watcher’s Council (when he forces them not to harm his employer), Wesley really showed he had the conviction and the balls to be something more than just the comic relief on the show... Sometimes I do miss him as the comic relief. But seeing a drunk and depressed Wesley, playing darts and probably wishing he was playing with a shotgun, you just somehow fall in love with the character to the point where you can never go back...

A lot of good moments in Sanctuary were provided by the little characters of the first season as well... Kate got to play her annoying and PMSey self later on with Angel’s arrest. I really rolled my eyes at that... but at least she got a rather humorous scene about "Scully" to offset the stupidity of her character. Although I think this was absolutely the last, decent Kate moment in the first season at least... And at Wolfram and Hart, while Lee got in the way with his emotional ways, I did love his little rant about assassins killing assassins. While I hated the scene with the ugly demon thingy, at least Lindsay truly got to prove his smarts afterwards, showing us with the Kate thing why he became so popular at the law firm for the next year at least... Lilah got to look smokingly evil and hot, yet again. A nice touch to go along with the ever darkening and brooding Wesley in the same episode, of course...

Absolutely my favourite scene in this episode was between Wesley and the Watcher’s Council... Half of my love for the scene came from my own suspense at what the heck Wesley would do. And the other half came from the amazing dialogue in this one scene along, with melodramatic talks of Watcher perversion, and some nice comedic timing when it came to Wesley’s comments about being sacked... There were a ton of strong scenes in the episode though, from Buffy walking in on Faith, to Faith and Buffy back on a rooftop, just for nostalgia’s sake... I’m disappointed that there was no real great fight scene this episode though. I was also disappointed that a guy in a frickin’ helicopter couldn’t even hit two slayers without cover even once with his goddam machine gun...

But I was not disappointed in the Faith and Angel storyline. I was not disappointed in the ending either... Some of the moments between the two were cliche, I admit that. Handing over the knife, and especially Angel’s speech over the microwave, didn’t fit the mood of the episode nearly as much as it would’ve in Five by Five... But just the look on Angel’s face when he learned of Riley was worth it. And turning herself over to the bitchy Kate police did bring some real closure to the Faith storyline, and some rather nice continuation in Angel of season four (though not on Buffy... season seven sucked, for reasons I’m not going to go into...).

Sanctuary was by far the strongest episode of the season, if only because of the strongest performances I can ever recall from Wesley, Faith, and Angel on the side... add in a cameo from Buffy, some incredible scenes of dark comedy with the Watcher’s Council, and a really stellar finish, and what do you have?...

... the true definition of an Angel... and the measure of all things yet to be...

1x20 - War Zone

... hmm.... in the review up above, did I actually say that all episodes after Five by Five were outstanding in quality?...

... if so... I definitely stand corrected...

I can’t even remember any real redeeming qualities of this episode, except for perhaps the introduction of Charles Gunn... now personally, I always thought that Gunn was the least developed character in the series of the show. I mean, sure I enjoyed his antics with the lawyer business stuff in the fifth season, but dating Fred in the fourth? Definitely not my cup of tea...

And I can’t say poor Charles was interesting in his introductory episode either... Just like with Fred a season later, the Angel writers decided to introduce the new regular to the series in the final episodes of the season before. I suppose that way, there wouldn’t be an uproar on the internet how Wesley’s job is being stolen or some crap like that with internet rumours of the next season... But Gunn definitely didn’t make a good impression on me this episode. Besides the moment where he’s forced to slay his sister, is there really anything redeeming about him in the first place? He was just so one dimensional in the end, and too "dark" for my tastes as well... I loved the language he brought to the show in the later seasons. But besides some cool lines and going against The Man, Gunn just didn’t offer anything to the series really.

And to be honest? I don’t even remember anything else about this episode anymore... What did Wesley do? Did Cordy have good lines again? I hope so... Angel got to act all super serious yet again. And I suppose it worked for me, considering the plotline to this episode wasn’t stupid enough to ruin the uber-broody mood... But I was definitely disappointed that there was no final battle scene, especially considering I was really hoping for some flamethrower action... And did anyone care at all about the rest of Gunn’s crew? The ambush on Angel was decent, but I never once felt any suspense there either.

From the title of "War Zone", you’d expect this episode to actually be exciting, wouldn’t you?... but it was completely the emotional opposite of all the wars we’ve all come to know and love, on television at least... until some movie comes out about the Boer war, but I digress...

1x21 - Blind Date

If I didn’t hate the blind she-bitch in this episode, I’d actually think the title was clever...

This episode lacked a decent villain, in my opinion at least. Having a Daredevil rip-off, played by a character nowhere near as hot as Elektra Nachos is supposed to be, was a bad move on behalf of the Angel casters. I mean, it was nice that a relatively normal human could put the hurt on Angel for once. And she did have a creepy sort of feeling to her, whenever she smiled around Lindsay... But c’mon already! That final fight scene with the T-Rex like motion sensing was just painful to watch at times, and not for the reasons the writers intended it to be...

If you haven’t noticed yet, I wasn’t a huge fan of Blind Date, at least from most points of perspective... I didn’t like how Cordy could somehow decrypt corporate zip disks over the goddam phone with Willow. I don’t particularly remember anything Wesley really did this episode, except do some decrypting of his own with the Shanshu scroll Angel lugged home... And Angel himself? Did he have any good lines?... Well, I laughed when he nodded off to Lindsay’s tragic life story. And I loved his little improv when meeting up with a lawyer he never met... But Angel didn’t really grow this episode, did he? Was there any character development, besides perhaps trusting Lindsay for a very short time? And maybe not caring about dying at the end? I really don’t know... This episode was mostly more annoying to me than it was interesting...

But there was one saving grace to Blind Date, a large enough one to actually put it into my plus column for the season (although that’s not saying much)... Christian Kane as Lindsay was absolutely incredible this episode. And I don’t think there was a single scene in the first season of Angel that had me on the edge of my seat, as much as the Wolfram and Hart mind sweep had me this episode...

In terms of coolness factor, Angel’s break-in was pretty damn memorable. I loved how Lindsay played the game, getting Gunn in on the act to get the vampire detector off Angel’s scent. And I don’t know how or why, but I was actually rooting for Lindsay to get out of the building on time, even though I already knew his fate from season two... I’ll still argue to this day though, that Lee’s death was pretty unwarranted, series storytelling wise. But the contrast between Lee’s and Lindsay’s betrayals, and their ultimate "punishments" (if you call being promoted a punishment), still has me thinking happy thoughts to this day... Christian Kane took the ball in this episode and ran all over town with it. Just the look in his eyes when he closes the doors at the end to accept the job, was deserving of all the attention he got in season two compared to season one... I just wish that Lindsay had any chemistry with Angel and his avengers and stuff. The only times Kane really lit up the screen, was when Holland was breathing down his neck... quite literally, I might add...

Blind Date was sort of like a blind date for me... I didn’t know what to expect, and truth be told, I ended up not liking most of what I saw... But this episode was perhaps Christian Kane’s best ever portrayal of the power-hungry Lindsay. And the moral of the story, that a) power is everything, and b) power corrupts, definitely set the tone and precedent of the series for years and character arcs to come...

1x22 - To Shanshu in L.A.

I would try to make fun of the word "Shanshu" here, but "sans shoes" has been used by the internet a trillion times by now... Wong Foo - thanks for everything for that, but I digress...

Now, I don’t really know what Angel’s problem is, as a series that obviously would have season finales I mean... it’s just that, Angel never pulls off good season openers. And except for perhaps the fourth season’s Home, Angel has never pulled off a good season finale either... in my honest opinion, at least...

Regardless of what the internet thinks of this episode, To Shanshu in LA was a complete disappointment... Just like with all the Angel episodes at the start of the season, it simply took itself way too seriously, with not nearly enough comic relief to make the hour go by evenly... Sure, we had Cordy and Wesley trying to root and whine Angel on to want something, or just anything in life. Sure we had Wesley’s infamous "oops" when it came to the meaning of "Shanshu". And sure we got some filler jokes from Gunn, although his comedy always manages to fall out flat... But that’s basically all the comedy that I can even remember from this episode. And that’s not very damn much at all...

I’ll give Shanshu some credit though: it was the true beginning of a lot of character development arcs... although not all of them I enjoyed...

Cordelia got stuck with endless visions for a day or so. And even though there were already signs of it in Parting Gifts, To Shanshu was officially the beginning of the god-awful Saint Cordy transformation of later years... Gunn also got to essentially join the team in this episode, which was a plus considering his interactions with Wesley over the years. But like I’ve already said, Gunn was always the least interesting character on the show to me... Kate just ruined her character in this episode, doing nothing but being an utter one-dimensional bitch of a policing slut after Angel’s frickin’ friend was blown up. Can you say inconsiderate?... and Wesley? Well, I guess he was the only character who truly got the good end of the shaft. Although I suppose getting blown apart and somehow surviving isn’t inherently good, at least it truly set him on the path to the shotgun badassness that defined his career...

Lindsay and Wolfram and Hart had already been given a chance to shine in Five by Five and Blind Date, so it was natural that they would seem so meaningless in this episode... Lindsay had a standoff against Angel, and I’m sure at the time, getting his hand sliced off was interesting to the fans. But this little plot device went nowhere in later years, and I can’t help but hold that grudge against this episode... Wolfram and Hart didn’t do much except complain about the length of ritual chants. Holland had presence, but honestly, WTF was up with his plan? Raising back Darla? Couldn’t he think of something better?... Sure, I loved the Darla of season 2. But she really didn’t accomplish much, now did she? Unless you delve into Jasmine conspiracies and crap like that... But in retrospect, I guess it would’ve seen like a promising cliffhanger at the time...

To Shanshu was meant to be an episode, perhaps the episode for Angel. And while he finally did get to be happy for a moment, after learning the true meaning of the word, "Shanshu", I really can’t say I cared much for Angel this episode either... I feel like this episode was trying to be too much of a direct continuation of City Of. Because once again, Angel was closed off and feeling all disconnected, even though he seemed to be perfectly caring of Cordy and Wesley just a few episodes ago... This was also the episode where his love interest in Cordy started to bloom. And considering I never saw any chemistry between the two of them? Obviously, I gotta hold that grudge against this episode as well...

Hell, To Shanshu didn’t even have a good battle sequence! Why the hell didn’t Angel just take one second to beat down Lindsay during the chant, I will never know... All I do know, is that while To Shanshu in LA will forever be a defining point in the series, for all the focal plotlines and arcs it set into motion, it definitely isn’t an episode defined for its actual quality. It’s definitely not a focal point I’d wanton and willingly look back to...

Nice to know Angel season one ended exactly as it started then: with a boring episode that simply took itself too damn seriously... Nice over-pretentious bookmark for you there, sans shoes of course...

There are a lot of reasons why I never got into the whole Angel series thing until the third or fourth season, and I’m afraid To Shanshu pretty much summed up all the reasons why... Once again, I admit that I eventually did get used to the over-dramatic vision quests and the insertion of pointless flashing moments between scene changes, but...

... I only got over them... when the show got over them as well...