Partcynic's Angel Review Thread

[partcynic]

4x14 "Release"

This is when I started worrying about the season. The year took the smart approach of focusing on a big arc to dodge all the character and relationship problems that S3 created, and until this point, it seemed like the writers knew what they were doing. Things were always moving and steadily exciting, but this ep drops all of that for 42 minutes of yapping about nothing.

Likes

- Angelus' fake amulet. A cute touch that fit his character.

- Connor being affected by the sanctuary spell. I wouldn't have minded this being a springboard for learning more about who/what he is. Nice bit with him making faces in the mirror, too.

- Too much time's spent on Connor/Cordy, but her manipulations are believable.

- Wes stabbing the annoying junkie girl.

- Angelus biting Faith at the end. Shocking on first viewing, and the orpheus drug is foreshadowed well.

Dislikes

- Horrible pacing. This episode moves at a crawl.

- The voyeuristic filming with Faith in the shower.

- More unfunny, slapstick demons.

- So much talking, so little being said. It's fine for characters to chat, but they need to be saying things that are clever, funny, or develop either themselves or the story. It became near-comical when even the fight scenes got interrupted for blather. It takes a special kind of anti-talent to make a battle between Faith and a shotgun-wielding Angelus dull, but the writers found a way!

- Fred and Gunn. For a moment, it looked like we might get some proper development/closure on their relationship, but then it went nowhere.

- As much as I hate to say it, Faith. In "Salvage", she was a powerful presence who significantly changed things, but here she was wallpaper. That being beaten up once would shake her confidence was ridiculous (I could buy it if it were a regular vamp, but she did fine considering that she took on Angelus and the Beast simultaneously), and the ensuing natter about her attitude said nothing. Angelus' 'you're rotten to the core' speech was particularly bad - Faith has had plenty of time to dwell on this stuff, and should know better than to listen to someone she knows is evil, cunning and manipulative. Compare the dramatic tension in the last ten minutes of "Five By Five" versus the last ten minutes here, and you can see how much skill has been lost.

- Wesley. His 'I will be violent because you don't have the guts to do it yourself' speeches were pulled straight from "Buffy". Wasn't "Angel" making fun of this kind of thing a few episodes ago?

- Angelus. No longer funny, scary or interesting. He started off so well, but now I'm looking forward to being rid of him. And why does he keep letting Team Angel live? He had clean, easy kills available for Fred, Wes and Faith, and should have taken them.

- Jasmine-Cordy's chats with Angelus weren't attention-worthy to start with, let alone when you know they mean nothing. And Jasmine does her crystal-talk-spell without even locking the bedroom door?

- The drug twist is cool, but doesn't make sense. We see from the next ep that Angelus is dropped after only a couple of gulps of Faith's blood, yet Faith herself is fine for a long time, despite having far more of the drug in her system.

Summary

The worst S4 ep since "Supersymmetry", deflating much of the arc's tension in the service of nothing in particular.

[partcynic]

4x15 "Orpheus"

Significantly better than "Release", though by this point the show needs to be done with dreams/fantasies.

Likes

- A clever twist with Faith drugging herself to take Angelus down.

- Lorne hasn't had much to do, but what he got here worked. It was great to see him back in his guide/knowledge role, and he was good when caring for Faith and criticising Wesley for letting her be so rash.

- Willow was the episode's highlight - her scenes were the freshest and funniest, and Alyson Hannigan worked well with every cast member. I know that there's little way for this Willow and the Willow of "Buffy" S7 to mesh, but I'll happily take this one - she was powerful and likeable while still being her shy, quirky self. Loved her interactions with Wesley (comparing their 'dark' actions), Cordy, and Fred ("I'm seeing someone").

- Fred geeking out with Willow and being generally adorable. I also liked her asking if anyone else found Connor/Cordy icky.

- After "Release" turned them both into nonentities, Angelus and Faith were improved, with restored sharpness and better lines.

- Tied to the last three points, the dialogue included more wit, and managed to balance comedy and drama (plus sweet continuity with Angel playing "Mandy").

- An entertaining magic battle (especially "I bit my tongue").

- Faith beating Connor up - so satisfying.

Dislikes

- Too much of the episode was dedicated to the Faith/Angel mind trip. Though the early parts were funny (Angelus' disgust at Angel saving the puppy), it started dragging soonafter. The raison d'etre of this material was development for Faith that didn't actually develop anything - this ep and "Release" repeatedly insist that she wants to give up, but nothing in her actions has indicated that. She went soft on Angelus in "Salvage" because it was a capture mission, and her struggles here are because she's been given a huge dose of a dangerous drug. The sole moment of interest was our learning that Angel drank from the dead diner man, but I'd be willing to sacrifice that if it meant being spared the cheese-dripping Angel/Angelus fight.

- Lorne clearly states that Faith is dying from the effects of the magic superdrug... but it turns out all she needed was a pep talk, fully recovering in perfect time to save Angel from Connor.

- It would have been nice for there to be a bit of frostiness between Willow and Faith. I don't expect "Angel" to devote an excessive amount of time to "Buffy" squabbles, but it should be acknowledged that the two are hardly close, even if they're smart enough to put their differences aside.

- Faith/Willow aren't curious enough to want to know about the still-active Big Bad, nor willing to offer Team Angel their help in stopping it?

- It feels like it's been longer than three eps since we discovered Cordy was evil - I'm glad the gang figures it out soon. And Cordy's scenes with Connor are nothing special.

Summary

A good ending to the Angelus mini-arc with a fantastic part for Willow/Alyson Hannigan. Shorten and/or tighten up the dream, and "Orpheus" would certainly be one of the better eps of the season.

[partcynic]

4x16 "Players"

In the context of a year that's been centred on its arc, it's odd yet pleasing to have a story separate from Jasmine's scheming. "Players"' heist plot isn't particularly good, but its issues can be minimised by focusing on the solid material for Gunn and Gwen, as well as the long-overdue Cordy reveal.

Likes

- Gunn. I know I complain about him more often than not, but the character was very successful here - in fact, this is his best episode since S2. Instead of a corny boyfriend or pouting ex, he got to be a suave, intelligent and cunning man who was in touch with his roots as a leader. J. August Richards has charisma, and after watching this, it's hard not to be annoyed that the show wasted his talents for so long. Gwen was spot-on when she noted that Gunn (and the writers!) had taken his label as 'the muscle' too much to heart - shame it didn't go any further, as we were only a hair's breadth away from real character development.

- Gwen. As always, the electric girl concept is stupid, but the character was nicely shown and developed, and she had excellent chemistry with Gunn. They were believable in their final couple of scenes, and their intimate moment together worked.

- Good fight choreography and stuntwork.

- The shot of Cordy's undulating belly - creepy!

- Fred continuing to point out how gross Connor/Cordy is.

- The ending trap. It was great for the characters to realise Cordy was evil (secrets held from them can only be interesting for so long, and we needed the plot to progress), and the magic eight-ball gag was funny.

Dislikes

- The actual story of the Gunn/Gwen segment was a nonentity. Considering that the other eps this year have usually had some kind of point (no matter how badly delivered), it's weird to suddenly have a story that isn't about anything (since Gwen disappears after this, the stuff with LISA has little importance).

- Much foolishiness in the heist. It was unbelievable that the gift tiger move would work (a powerful, targeted magnate lets strangers with a suspect invitation into his home because of one nice-ish gesture?), and Gunn's post-kidnap fight was weak. The men with quarterstaffs smacked of racial stereotyping, and why didn't they just swarm (or shoot!) him instead of battling one-on-one?

- After the fight, Gunn manages to find Gwen, despite having no idea where in the compound she is, and the place presumably being crawling with security guards, all of whom are hunting for him after he grabbed Morimoto's daughter. And then they stop to have a long chat when they should both be getting the hell out of there?

- Did Gwen kill Morimoto and the guards, or just knock them out? If he's still alive, wouldn't Morimoto want revenge on the people that stole his prototype and endangered his child? Gunn's made himself a significant enemy, who knows his full name and has the power and means to harm him - this should have had consequences.

- The material with Angel and co. is fine, but there's nothing that good until the finale. And even that's silly - why would Cordy go after Lorne with a knife instead of using her magical powers, and why did Team Angel assume she'd make a physical strike?

- Is there any ancient language that Wesley can't understand/translate?

Summary

An entertaining way to spend 42 minutes, with the mediocrity of the plotting compensated by some nice character moments for Gunn and Gwen.

[partcynic]

4x17 "Inside Out"

As the year's exposition dump, this was the most important ep of the season - but they fumbled it. Half of "Inside Out" is wasted on a drab moral dilemma for Connor, and the other half is unsatisfying plot progression that dismisses most of the year with a shrug.

Likes

- Finally solving a number of the year's mysteries.

- Skip was funny at points - loved his sarcasm about 'higher being' Cordy.

- Respectable fight scenes. Wesley continues to be entertaining with his guns.

- Cordy giving birth to a tentacled thing that then became an adult woman. I was interested in seeing where the story would go.

Dislikes

- Lots of talking and little action/happening.

- Connor dropping in to save Cordy was predictable (and he wins the ensuing fight despite it being five-on-one, as the gang chooses to attack him one member at a time).

- Poor dialogue. None of the characters sounded real - they were humourless and spewed either cliches or verbose nothingness.

- Connected to the dialogue issue was the pretentiousness. Cordy, Darla and Gunn were all presented as saying deep, meaningful things, but none of it was interesting or new.

- Overdone slow motion in some fight scenes.

- Evil-Cordy is no longer interesting. All of her stuff with Connor (the manipulation, the belly-touching etc) was material we'd seen multiple times before.

- Wasting Julie Benz on a dull mother/son chat. Why did the Powers have Darla saying tosh about 'listening to your heart' instead of explaining what was really going on? And did her dialogue sound like anything Darla would actually say? I know there's a difference between her vampire self and the spirit we saw here, but you could use that to justify anything. Between this, the Wes / Lilah chat in "Salvage" and "Buffy"'s S7 shenanigans, we've had more than enough conversations with dead people.

- Darla, dressed in white, good. Cordy, dressed in black, bad.

- Connor's dilemma is a flop. This character has never been given any substance, depth or likeability, and the audience has never been given a reason to care about him beyond his being Angel's son. Add the weak acting, and you have a waste of time.

- Dismissing much of the arc as 'misdirection'. Jasmine-Cordy herself said that Angelus was "crucial to my plan" - so what was the plan? The events of "Apocalypse, Nowish" through "Orpheus" (the better part of eight episodes!) should not be ignored with a couple of glib words, especially when Jasmine could have made her arrival even easier if she hadn't drawn attention to herself/Cordy in the first place! Why blot out the sun and release Angelus when she could have just stayed with Connor, seduced him and then disappeared, cloaking her location with magic and quietly giving birth to herself(!) a little later?

- Why is Skip working for Jasmine? What does he get out of their partnership?

- All of the retconning. It was ridiculous to claim that Jasmine set up Billy's release, Doyle / Alonna's death and Fred / Lorne's portals, especially when they couldn't even justify this season's happenings. Would anyone be naive enough to believe the writers had this arc planned from S1? And I thought Fred's professor sent her to Pylea - now we're back to the original concept of her reading from the wrong book.

- Convenient timing with Angel's arrival / Jasmine's birth synchronising almost perfectly.

Summary

Messy. This ep was a crucial point in the season and needed to be well-written and flawlessly executed, and we didn't get either (if Joss was going to write/direct one show this year, it should have been this and not "Spin the Bottle"). It's at least more watchable than "Release", but "Inside Out" is otherwise towards the bottom of the season.

[partcynic]

4x18 "Shiny Happy People"

About average for S4. Nothing in "Shiny Happy People" is bad, but not enough happened to make it that good.

Likes

- Gina Torres as Jasmine. She has the charisma and beauty to be a very believable god. And love the concept of one of the Powers that Be returning to bring peace by force.

- Team Angel as acolytes. Connor was at his best yet, and I thought it was a neat touch that Angel's wardrobe underwent a 'happiness' change.

- Attempting to explain Connor. I don't buy it (there's no way "The Trial" was written with him in mind), but it succeeds as acknowledgement of one of S3's biggest problems.

- Bowling with severed heads.

- Bits of character insight, with Jasmine talking to Gunn and Wesley about their shared love of Fred, and Angel's fear that his happiness would cause him to lose his soul.

- Fred was the ep's most interesting and watchable character. Once she saw Jasmine's true face, things picked up, and I started caring about what was going to happen. Good scenes with the hospital visit, the silent drive/crying, and the excellent, creepy finale at the diner.

Dislikes

- Too slow in the first half. Nothing was bad, but we had a surplus of Jasmine's 'love and peace' proclamations. More of a plot would have helped, such as Fred finding out about Jasmine in the context of a monster of the week story.

- Connor's behaviour doesn't fit with the later reveal that he's always seen the real Jasmine - he seems as brainwashed as anyone else, with no hints of pretending or confusion as to everyone else's change in personality.

- Continuing to handwave much of the year. Last time it was 'misdirection', now it's 'birthing pains'. We need real reasons for the rain of fire, sun-blotting and summoning/releasing Angelus.

- Some of Fred's dialogue needed work. Amy Acker seemed to be stumbling over some contrived 'awkward' lines (like when Fred's backing away after the Jasmine reveal), and the 'father's brother' stuff at the hospital was too transparent for a medical professional to believe it.

- It was obvious that Wesley was going to betray Fred's confidence. It's not a problem that he did, but the moment shouldn't have been played for tension when there was no doubting what would happen.

Summary

A shorter review this time, as this episode didn't give me much to hate, nor much to rave about. Condense everything that happened into the first twenty-five minutes/half-hour and create more of a narrative, and this would be pretty good - otherwise, it joins most of its brethren in being a decent fantasy show.

[partcynic]

4x19 "The Magic Bullet"

An entertaining offering that's content to stick with the pack. Continuing from "Shiny Happy People", Fred's story is compelling, but the plot's too linear and gets spoiled by some cheap shocks.

Likes

- Excellent, Beach Boys-assisted opening with a newly-utopian LA, which is promptly interrupted by the Fred chase.

- Another ep with Fred being deeply cool. This story is tailor-made for her, as she's always been at her best when exhibiting the courage hidden beneath her meekness. Good emotion with her hiding in the sewers, taking that lonely walk and her parking lot confession to Angel - it was disappointing when the others were 'cured' and she had to go back to being part of an ensemble.

- Gina Torres continues to do a fine job as Jasmine. Much of the character's dialogue is vapid posturing, but her vibe is great, and I loved her innocent smile after telling Connor she'd eaten her 'guests'.

- Some good dialogue. I enjoyed the deadpan bookstore owner; parts of open mic night; some of the finger-eating demon's lines ("I feel warmth..."); and Lorne's quip about playing Judas.

Dislikes

- Not as scary as it could/should have been. "Shiny Happy People"'s ending was so sinister, but that dissipated here. It didn't help that the second Fred hunt consisted of random onlookers' heads 'evilly' jerking about, accompanied by cheesy stabs from the score music.

- Though parts of it were funny, the segment with the demon was silly. It was too coincidental that Fred would be startled, roll down a hill and crash through a dwarf-sized demon's roof, landing a couple of feet away from an easy-to-grab weapon. On top of that, it was unnecessary - the scene's goal was to make Fred realise that Jasmine's blood might break her spell, but she could have figured that out by being injured from the fall and tending to her own bleeding arm/face (etc).

- I know Fred was desperate, but her plan required too many coincidences. For it to work, she had to count on Jasmine and co personally coming to the bookshop (and doing so peacefully); that Jasmine and Angel would line up perfectly in shot; that the gun she'd seen was still there and loaded; that a bullet from a regular handgun would be able to fully exit Jasmine's body and have enough velocity to still hit Angel; that Jasmine wouldn't do any magic (or Angel do some dodging move) to foil it; and that her own marksmanship would be unphased by hunger/stress/fear.

- Angel/Fred kissing. Yes, it was part of a 'make them think we're just an anonymous couple' scheme, but it's still dumb. Remember when "Buffy" made fun of the concept?

- Too much angsting about cutting Cordy. It's unpleasant, but it's not like they were slitting her throat. A few drops from an unfeeling arm (taken as an absolute last move to prevent the mass enslavement of humanity) isn't that big a deal.

- Cordy grabbing Angel's arm, and it being summarily dismissed thirty seconds later. Pathetic.

- Jasmine's hold over Fred and Angel doesn't break until they look at her, but the rest of the gang only need exposure to blood - why? I get that there might be a difference between Cordy and Jasmine's blood, but shouldn't it be the other way around, with Jasmine's own breaking the spell instantly and the more distantly related Cordy's requiring a look?

Summary

A fun adventure ep that makes a persuasive case as to why more Fred would be to "Angel"'s benefit.

[partcynic]

4x20 "Sacrifice"

Like several eps this year, I enjoyed "Sacrifice" more upon rewatching it. I didn't particularly care about the sewer gang (and found the bug-assisted conclusion to the Jasmine arc unsatisfying), but this remains a good way to pass 42 minutes.

Likes

- The gang in a really tricky situation. 'Us against the world' was better when it was 'Fred against the world', but you can't deny the interest inherent in the heroes having nowhere to hide and no idea what to do.

- Angel beating Connor, and then hurling him onto the car roof.

- Excellent prosthetics/make-up on the bug demon, which was also well-acted. The instant pain of having an interdimensional creature speak English was somewhat negated by its language being broken and erratic, and his humour was good too. I really liked his frustration at 'talky meat', as well as the spell carved in a still-living vampire's flesh.

- Wesley exercising his brain. Not quite sure why he insisted on verbalising his thoughts and angering the dangerous monster (besides spelling everything out for the audience), but good nonetheless.

- Jasmine as Rumplestiltskin.

- Jasmine remains cool. Loved the maniacal laughter as she absorbed and healed her soldiers' injuries, and earlier scene with Connor (nails in the palm) was mildly creepy.

Dislikes

- The repeated 'Jasmine speaks through other characters' bit was cheesy rather than scary.

- Fred's descent into mindless emotion - she was the best part of the show for the last two episodes, and the worst in this one. Getting flustered about leaving Connor (a betrayer who'd have to be dragged kicking and screaming) and Cordy (unconscious dead weight) behind was silly, as was her acting as though Angel was just being callous. She knows how dangerous Jasmine is, and that the Angel team is humanity's last hope - what happened to her intelligence?

- Fred and Gunn's discussion about Siedel. Final confirmation that it was a cliched plot with no depth.

- So-so sewer gang with generic characterisation.

- Huge contrivances with a being from Jasmine's 'test-run' world just happening to be lurking in the sewers, speaking English and being dimwitted enough to be tricked into revealing Jasmine's ultimate weakness.

- Unnecessary complications created by the bugs. Jasmine was apparently able to go from the higher plane to the bug dimension (and back) without issue, but needs Cordy to come to ours. Or did she and Skip set-up a fake ascension with one of the bugs?

Summary

Fun but flawed. I'm glad the season is almost over, so I can return to writing full summaries and not saying the same thing every time.

[partcynic]

4x21 "Peace Out"

Disappointing. I don't think that anything in "Peace Out" is aggressively bad, but it's as poor as it could have been, especially given the numerous qualities/points of interest we had going into the show. Even as I understand that the "Peace Out"/"Home" pairing was intended to work in much the same way as "Primeval"/"Restless", Jasmine's defeat should have felt like a story climax rather than another humdrum event.

Likes

- The gang being defeated in the opening fight. Loved that the armed guards actually pulled out their firearms, and that they swarmed the team rather than attacking one by one.

- Connor having always seen the real Jasmine. Fits really nicely with the blood explanation (but not with his actual behaviour).

- Jasmine wanting a temple. Gina Torres' delivery/phrasing on that line is perfect.

- Gunn persisting with kicking the cell door and his "Galaxy Quest" quote.

- Jasmine and Angel's conversation on the bridge is the season's prime moment of depth. I don't doubt that Jasmine genuinely cared about humanity and wanted to create a utopia - the issue, as Angel pointed out, was that she was forcing it on everyone/making their choices for them. What's interesting is that in defeating her, Angel did exactly the same thing for the 'freedom of choice' ideology, and in doing so, has ensured that people will continue to suffer and die. And really, is a 'freely chosen' education-job-house-car-marriage-kids middle class lifestyle (the peak achievement for most of humanity, and that's if you're lucky enough to live in a war-free, developed country) any better than what Jasmine was offering? Far more people will die every day as a result of humans' freely chosen, evil actions than Jasmine would have eaten, and she'd have eradicated war, hunger, poverty and disease in the process. Gotta love this shades of grey morality.

- Lilah at the end. It's a treat to see her again, and the idea that Angel has done evil a huge favour in defeating Jasmine (putting W&H back in business) is a great one.

Dislikes

- Poor pacing. Large portions of the episode (the first thirty minutes) drag, the worst offenders being Angel/priest chat-fight, and everything with Connor.

- Connor. All of his problems come to a head in this episode, as its story requires that the viewer truly invest in him. However, the writers have never given us any reason to care about Connor as an individual divorced from Angel, and if he wasn't Angel's son, he'd have been written out long ago (akin to the biggest problem with "Buffy" S5 and Dawn). As I don't care about Connor or what happens to him, his crisis of conscience is dull and his long, interminable monologue to Cordelia means nothing, making about half of the ep dead time.

- So this section doesn't bloat, I'm going to group some miscellaneous 'whys' here. So, why are the bug monsters scared of their own key? Why doesn't the high priest look anything like the other members of his species? Why does he speak perfect English? Why would Jasmine leave her true name behind in the bug dimension? Why would anything even know her true name? Why is the cost of getting the name (and thus 'winning') a simple, boring fight? With the priest and keeper slain, how was Angel able to get the key to open a portal right in the Hyperion (and just in time to have everything captured on global TV)?

- Not enough explanation/background for Jasmine. Is she truly a former Power, or was that just a cover story? Why does her name break her mind control abilities? How does her having done a 'trial run' in a bug dimension fit with the 'stowed away in Cordy' part of the plot (makes it seem like she could jump dimensions at will)?

- Jasmine's undoing is an anticlimax. After a yearlong arc dedicated to bringing us this character, her defeat should have been a big moment. Instead, the gang won via a number of contrived coincidences, and her demise was a bit-part in Connor's story. Throw in an extra down for her death meaning we'll never get a proper explanation for eighty percent of the arc. What was her connection with the Beast? What was the point of the rain of fire and having the gang release Angelus? It can't have just been distraction, as Jasmine tried to get Angelus on-side when she had the Beast approach him in the past. What was her actual plan, then or during the course of this season? I genuinely like the concept of Jasmine, but her part feels bolted on to the season rather than being a natural development. This arc ends up being an X-Files-style mess produced by the writers making things up as they went along.

Summary

Okay, but underwhelming after so much build-up. At least I know "Home" is going to be good.

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4x22 "Home"

What a difference good writing makes! Tim Minear was off for much of S3 (who wasn't?!) and silent this year, but I'm glad he was roped in for this finale. Expecting real resolution to the Jasmine story would have been foolish at this point, and we instead got a highly enjoyable S5 set-up show that even managed to make Connor engaging.

Likes

- Everyone's reactions to Lilah's offer of a lifetime ("well, not mine"). I liked the bewilderment and the ridiculous, overlong silence.

- Much-improved dialogue. Moment-by-moment, this ep was engaging in terms of wit and character interaction, and everybody got something worthwhile to say.

- Lilah's always great - she was smart, funny and philosophical. I really liked her pointing out that the gang had helped evil by stopping Jasmine (makes W&H's willingness to give them the LA branch much more believable), as well as her quip about her head coming off easily when Angel pinned her against the wall.

- Everyone's unease at accepting the offer. A nice conversation outside the limo (with Fred, Wesley, and then Gunn and Angel), capped by the funny reveal that Lorne was already in there.

- The new Wolfram and Hart looks so cool. Shame the mall/set couldn't have been used in S5.

- Remembering Fred's science background. Loved her grabbing the huge gun and then awkwardly trying to shake Knox's hand while wielding it. Knox himself was too close to the 'bumbling nerd' archetype Mutant Enemy is so inexplicably fond of, but I did like his line about being able to make anything with a multi-million dollar budget.

- Wesley and Lilah. A touching moment between them in the contract room, confirming that he truly cared for her.

- Finally dealing with Connor. For the first time since the aged-up character was introduced, I felt for him, and he was finally portrayed as the complete mess you'd expect someone who grew up in a hell dimension to be. I also liked how his lines about his life cut back on whining in favour of truth (okay, there was lots of self-pity, but it was justified). Really nice touch with the fake 'father will kill the son' prophecy coming true after all, and Angel accepting W&H's offer if it meant happiness for Connor and care for Cordy made sense. Plus, the show is now free of its biggest flaw!

Dislikes

- What exactly happened with Gunn and the panther? It looked cool, but more info on what he saw (etc.) would be appreciated.

- Wesley apparently knows the new W&H layout, and is able to fight/sneak his way to the contract room?

- The intro of the deus ex machina amulet/folder for "Chosen".

Summary

A great episode that's too little, too late for S4, but a big shot of optimism for S5. Don't take my limited list of dislikes as indicating my absolute adoration for "Home", but I do think it's one of the best eps of the year, and one of the few I'd consider watching frequently.

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5x01 "Conviction"

A good season opener that's better than much of S3/4, but disappointing for a Joss episode. I'm all for a shift back to monster-of-the-week stories, but the narratives need to be more engaging than the non-event this presents us with.

Likes

- A fun intro, calling back to the classic S1 'Angel saves the girl' scenario, and then having the Wolfram and Hart bureaucracy arrive, replete with forms!

- Good lines in almost every scene, which kept the episode entertaining even when the story flagged.

- Eve's fine, though her scenes/dialogue would have been so much better with Lilah.

- Harmony as Angel's secretary. Aside from "Blondie Bear", none of her material was great, but the concept works, and we sorely need an upbeat/comedy character.

- Gunn's brain upgrade, and his newfound legal knowledge meaning he finally has a unique place in the show (and a reason for being part of Team Angel). Granted, the ensuing legalese in the courtroom scene was dull, but J. August Richards was highly convincing.

- Fun scene with Angel and Spanky.

- Angel killing evil humans without having an emotional breakdown.

Dislikes

- Poor acting from the rescued girl at the start. I was pulled out of the scene every time she spoke.

- No consistency between the Wolfram and Hart of "Home" and the one here.

- Not seizing the opportunity to have W&H's medics restore Cordelia. This show was created with Cordy fulfilling a crucial/core role, and her absence is strongly felt - in every group scene, you could feel the void where she should have been.

- Too much time spent worrying about how the gang will deal with running W&H. It's fine if the discussion produced some kind of progress, but most of it settled for repeatedly stating the obvious.

- The wrong tone. Much of the episode was dour, but the virus plot wasn't emotional, shocking or tense - it was just dull.

- Angel angsting over Connor. It's in-character and makes sense, but it accomplished nothing (besides us discovering that Eve knows the truth). We also need some info on the rest of the gang's memories - Connor was the focal point of the last two years, so we need to know what they now believe happened with Jasmine (etc).

- The special ops team wasn't engaging or threatening in any way.

- The unnecessary addition of Spike, a character largely destroyed by the last two seasons of "Buffy".

Summary

"Conviction"'s structure and dialogue are an improvement from S4, but its plot has little to praise. Overall, it rates above "Deep Down" in terms of season openers, but sinks below "Heartthrob", "Judgement" and (especially) "City Of".

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5x02 "Just Rewards"

Good, and exactly what the show should have been doing at this stage. Nothing in "Just Rewards" is great, but nothing is bad, and it's entertaining on a moment-by-moment basis thanks to consistently good dialogue.

Likes

- Spike. Yes, it's annoying that after his overexposure on "Buffy" we then had to have him on "Angel" too, but he worked well here. Since Cordelia is gone and Lorne is now a nonentity, we needed a character who could see through others' nonsense and speak openly about it. Subsequently, we got a lot of funny and well-observed jabs at Angel becoming a corporate stooge, and the naivete of thinking that an institution like W&H could be turned around. And as always, James Marsters acted well, being a great scene partner for David Boreanaz and showing promise with Amy Acker.

- All of the contrast between Angel and Spike. Maybe not the best idea to have the main character look like a total write-off compared to the supporting one, but there was truth to it - by bringing the IRS into things, Angel has become Gavin.

- Dialogue. Lots of wit, lots of humour and something worth hearing in every scene. Spike was the star, but Harmony was a solid support.

- Gunn is now a brand new character unconnected with the old one, but I like that he finally fits so well in the show.

- An acceptable plot with the necromancer. The template of 'Angel angers powerful client by trying to change how W&H works' could get stale, but it's a fine baseline. Magnus himself was a decent one-shot villain - I liked his butler, as well as the mildly creepy dead-body showroom.

- Angel once again being okay with killing an evil and actively dangerous human.

Dislikes

- Starting to sideline the main characters. Wesley, Lorne and Fred were barely there, and Spike has taken the place/role that should have been Cordelia's. "Angel" has a talented group of actors, and the characters are still capable of generating stories via their natural development - but instead of that, Alexis, Amy, Andy and J. August are stuck getting bit parts in an interloper's story. And after an episode centred on Spike, our cliffhanger sets up more material for Spike. It's very clear who the writers/network now want the show to focus on.

- The droning noise when the necromancer was doing his spell was grating.

- The main plot was a bit simple/predictable. Did anyone not see the double-double-cross coming? Nonetheless, I'm much happier with this type of narrative than a convoluted arc.

Summary

A fun episode in which nearly everything works. Nothing is amazing, but I'm happy that the show was smart enough to set itself a more modest goal, which it fully reached.

[partcynic]

5x03 "Unleashed"

An okay episode, but the weakest of S5 so far. I didn't exit "Unleashed" thinking that I'd wasted my time, but it felt like something that could have been produced by any supernatural/fantasy show. The premise was fine, but the dialogue was down from "Just Rewards", and there were no significant positives to counterbalance the steady stream of minor annoyances.

Likes

- There are multiple species of werewolf - cool.

- Interesting perspective watching Nina go through those post-'infection' hours. I liked seeing her heightened senses and interest in the raw meat.

- The werewolf make-up isn't great, but it's improved since the Oz days.

- The werewolf-eating group. Nicely unpredictable.

Dislikes

- Wesley acting like a high school brat over Fred and Knox.

- Gunn's touchiness throughout the episode. His friends aren't betraying him by being (rightfully) concerned about his deal with Wolfram and Hart, and his comparison makes no sense - they didn't let dark forces(?) directly into their minds.

- Characters were generally 'off', and the consistently weak dialogue made them sound like exaggerated versions of the themselves (Lorne's pointless pep-talk with Angel; Fred's hyper-nerdiness; Gunn's smackdown at the restaurant).

- Fred being shocked that Spike's fade-outs are getting worse - wasn't the mention of hell last week enough? Spike himself was also a letdown - he went from being a charismatic presence in "Just Rewards" to drab filler, and multiple attempts at jokes fell flat (Wesley and I have a history; the werewolf fight).

- A weak theme about family/belonging, which had no meaningful application to the Angel team. If they'd been drifting apart for months, I could have understood it, but not being in each other's laps as a result of having actual jobs is hardly a shocker.

- Nina wasn't bad, but she wasn't good either. She needed to be more than a generic, 'pretty blonde' victim, and I didn't care about her or her family (and her sister was irritating. Why did we waste time on her ranting?) It doesn't help that her story is cloned from "Phases", and she instantly loses in any competition with Oz.

- Fred finding the drug in the trash after Spike randomly walked through the scientist's office.

- Why do the restauranteurs 'wash' Nina and then remove her clothes? Wouldn't it make more sense to do it the other way around?

- The cloying musical montage at the end.

Summary

Better than the worst of S3, but without much else to commend it.

[partcynic]

5x04 "Hellbound"

This is watchable, but much like "Unleashed", its problems are not from major flaws, but a lack of positives. "Hellbound" offers a couple of cool ghosts and one solid scene - the rest of it's rather bland.

Likes

- A few of the visions are creepy. I liked the sliced fingers, the armless girl who wanted to be held and the glass-in-the-eye woman.

- A worthwhile conversation between Spike and Angel in the latter's loft, which was the only part of the ep that had any weight. It also had the best bit of humour, with the two bickering and Angel then confessing that he liked William's poetry.

- Spike felt more like Spike than last week, and his statement of appreciation for Fred's efforts had a drop of emotion.

- Angel sentencing Pavayne to live forever at the end. Love that the show is now willing to let evil humans suffer.

Dislikes

- Drab dialogue, with no wit and very little humour.

- Why the chat about finances (specifically Fred being way over-budget) if it wasn't going to mean anything? And why was Eve in that scene (nothing about it required her presence)?

- No substance. This ep could have said something meaningful about Spike's past actions (and in turn, Angel's), either by having him struggle to absolve himself before entering Hell, or by pointing out that his soul isn't responsible for the crimes committed by the demon that took his body. But instead of development, we got a superficial story with every slasher-film cliche in the book.

- The ep has pacing problems because of its desire to scare. The first slow pan down an eerie corridor with Spike insisting he wasn't spooked was okay, but the fifth was tedious. Furthermore, little of what happened was frightening, and Pavayne was what Xander would call 'big overture, little show' - we sat through twenty-five minutes of tedious build-up for that?

- Pavayne's an uninteresting villain. And he's been lurking in Wolfram and Hart for centuries without being noticed by anyone, despite his ability to manipulate reality and move objects?

- Poor lighting. This has actually been an issue since "Conviction", but the large number of dark/night scenes here exacerbated it.

- Sexploitation. It's funny - and telling - that they had James Marsters stripping off by Spike's second proper episode ("Conviction" and "Unleashed" were almost cameos), and though I'm not opposed to naked Fred, her shower scene was empty titillation.

Summary

Like "Inside Out", a nothing episode that could - and should - have meant something. As is, it's just passable genre television.

[partcynic]

5x05 "Life of the Party"

A weird edition that showcases S5's main problem. Because this season's goals are more modest than those of S3/4, the writers rarely have the chance to mess things up - but they don't excel either. It would have really helped if this comedy episode had actually been funny!

Likes

- The first part of the intro, with cheery Lorne and his hyperactive attitude (and the background music) stopping as soon as he entered his office.

- The Archduke and his corked slave-boy. Sneering, arrogant and quite entertaining - I'd be happy to see more of the character.

- Harmony is a ray of sunshine. Glad she'll be getting her own episode soon.

- The two moments with substance (Lorne chatting with Angel in the limo, and later Angel watching over him as he slept) worked.

- Some okay jokes with perky Spike, Angel/Eve sex and drunk Fred.

Dislikes

- No more characters talking to their subconscious selves in mirrors! I'm getting painful "Tomorrow" flashbacks.

- Almost no plot. There's nothing wrong with a humorous ep being light on story (see "Band Candy", "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered" or "Disharmony"), but the characters and comedy have to make up for it - and there's nothing here.

- Poor comedy. As noted in the positives, I liked a few of the jokes, but the humour was nowhere near as good as it should have been. Was Gunn indiscriminately urinating really the best thing the writers could think of? Add another down for the compare and contrast with "Something Blue" - that ep occurred at a time when there was inter-character conflict (and Willow in real distress), yet was amusing throughout, whereas "Life of the Party" has Lorne stressing over a triviality and produces only the feeblest of laughs.

- It's a comedic episode centred on a party, and we don't get Angel dancing? Come on!

- A strange tone. The first half was too glum - even if Lorne's taking the party seriously, the writers shouldn't assume that the audience would too.

- Continually mediocre dialogue. It was better than the last two eps, but still a long way from the good stuff.

- No development. I wasn't concerned with Lorne's dilemma (he states that he doesn't do much for Angel, yet is apparently doing so much he has to have his ability to sleep removed?), and it has no bearing on the character's progression - in fact, isn't he relegated to the occasional line from this point on? The insistence on the Wes/Fred 'will they, won't they' is also annoying - it looked like their drunk chat might lead to something, but then the irritating Knox stuff had to intrude.

Summary

Okay, but undercooked - it felt like I was watching a first draft that had somehow made it to air. Nothing's fundamentally wrong with "Life of the Party", but it does too little with its framework to be good.

[partcynic]

5x06 "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco"

Solid, which was something I needed after the last three eps. "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco" is host to a good deal of silliness and the world's most predictable plot, but can also boast an engaging story that's used to believably analyse and develop the show's main character - something we hadn't had since S2!

Likes

- Acknowledging some important plot-threads (Angel altering everyone's memories; the Shanshu prophecy).

- Better dialogue and pacing.

- An actual, meaningful theme.

- Character insight/development for Angel. The character has been all over the place since S3 (they obviously had no idea what to do with him after he learnt the major lessons of S1/2, hence Connor and fatherhood), but he made sense here. I could understand how going from doing direct good to passive, bureaucratic good (with strings attached) would make him lose sight of who he is and what he wants, and the parallels with Cinco (another fallen hero) were decent. I also liked the suggestion that the demon didn't take Angel's heart because he was no longer a hero with convictions (tying back in to the season opener's theme).

Dislikes

- The story is too linear, with no surprises.

- Rotten lighting.

- Numero Cinco is a regular man (now aged at least seventy), yet he can hurl Angel around like a rag doll, and has no major injuries from being flung across apartments and graveyards?

- The entire wrestling bit. To steal one of this ep's favoured words, the 'disconnect' between Cinco's talk about honour and the visual of supremely fake, choreographed pro-wrestling was disorienting.

- The Number Brothers were portrayed cornily - they felt like comic book superheroes, and not regular men who'd been pushed into demon fighting by need and systemic racism. I understand why Cinco would mythologise his siblings, but we needed to see them as real people who made choices, and not flashy gimmicks.

- Missed opportunity with the blatant parallels between Cinco and Gunn.

- If Wesley can shoot Skip through a tiny hole in his head, he can probably realise that he should aim his gun at the Aztec demon's face, and not its armour.

Summary

Pretty good - rip out the wrestling and humanise the Number Brothers, and we'd be looking at something very respectable. And even with these flaws, "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco" is one of the better-written eps of S5.