Angel: Seasons 1-2

(watching Angel and the girl he has just saved) (in a high voice) How can I thank you, you mysterious, black-clad hunk of night thing? (low voice) No need, little lady, your tears of gratitude are enough for me. You see, I was once a badass campire, but love – and a pesky curse – defanged me. Now I’m just a big, fluffy puppy with bad teeth…No, not the hair? Never the hair! (high voice) But there must be some way I can show my appreciation. (low voice) No, helping those in need’s my job, - and working up a load of sexual tension, and prancing away like a magnificent poof is truly thank enough! (high voice) I understand. I have a nephew who is gay, so… (low voice) Gasp! Say no more. Evil’s still afoot! And I’m almost out of that Nancy-boy hair-gel that I like so much! Quickly, to the Angel-mobile, away!

-Spike in In the Dark

The good fight, yeah? - You never know until you've been tested. - I get that now. (knocking Angel over, turns to a kisses Cordelia) Too back we'll never know (morphs into demon face) if this is a face you could learn to love. -Doyle in Hero

Season 1: The first episode of the first season introduces the three main characters who will be the main cast for at least part of the first season. David Boreanaz stars as the titular soul-endowed vampire, Angel; Charisma Carpenter continues her time in the Buffyverse as Cordelia Chase, transplanting herself to L.A. from Sunnydale in an attempt to start a career as an actress; Glenn Quinn stars in the first 10 episodes as half-demon, vision-endowed Allen Francis Doyle, or just Doyle for short; and Alexis Denisof reappears after his short stint on Buffy to star in the last two-thirds of the season as a much softer, but still morally upright Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, now a rogue demon hunter. The series also introduces recurring guest stars Elisabeth Röhm as Detective Kate Lockley; Christian Kane and Stephanie Romanov as Lindsey McDonald and Lilah Morgan, up-and-coming lawyers for the demonic law firm Wolfram and Hart; Sam Anderson as Holland Manners, Lindsey and Lilah's boss; and Julie Benz as Angel’s sire, Darla, returning after being killed by Angel in season 1 of Buffy. The other notable guest stars J. August Richards as future team member Charles Gunn; Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy; Eliza Dushku; Seth Green as Oz; and James Marsters as Spike.

Best Season 1 Episodes:

-City Of—In this fantastic season premier, Angel, having just arrived in L.A., is befriended by and convinced to start a supernatural investigations company that helps people (Angel Investigations) by an Irish half-demon named Doyle who gets visions from the Powers That Be (the PTB) of people in trouble, leading him to a powerful vampire who’s next victim might be Cordelia Chase.

-Lonely Hearts—Angel investigates a demon serial killer. In the process, he meets Detective Kate Lockley who starts to think that Angel is the murder based on circumstantial evidence she continues finding.

-In the Dark—Immediately following the events of the Buffy episode Wild at Heart, Oz comes to town, bringing with him a present from Buffy. Spike also appears trying to steal it away. The cold opening features one of my favorite monologues of the series from James Marsters on a rooftop.

-Rm w/a Vu—Cordy searches for an apartment and buys a haunted one. Sounds cheesy, I know, but just watch it and you’ll see why it’s so great. Also, Doyle dodges a demon loan shark who is a literal shark. Ghost Dennis is introduced.

-Sense & Sensitivity—One of those pretty good episodes elevated by one incredible scene. The episode is mostly just really fun when an evil sensitivity trainer screws with the police force, but one scene at Lockley’s father’s retirement party (he’s a police officer) is absolutely heartwrenching. Röhm does an amazing job with the scene, always showing, but never overplaying, the immense heartbreak her character feels.

-The Bachelor Party—A strange idea for an episode that could have easily crashed and burned, Doyle’s almost ex-wife (she’s a demonologist) returns with her demon fiancé and Doyle agrees to attend his bachelor party. But the bachelor party isn’t everything it seems

-I Will Remember You—Buffy returns to L.A. just as a demon attacks Angel Investigations, leading to hope, but eventual tragedy, leading Angel to make an incredibly difficult decision.

-Hero—Another case of a pretty good episode capped by an immensely powerful scene, Hero is centered on a band of half-blood demons being hunted down by the Scourge, a group of violent racial supremacists intent on killing them because they’re not pure-blooded. The entire episode is pretty good. But the second-to-last scene is incredibly emotionally powerful and the final scene is absolutely heartbreaking. Glenn Quinn deserved an Emmy nomination for this and I’ll swear by that statement till my dying day.

-Parting Gifts—Wesley shows up by chance, helping Angel and Cordy track down a demonic bounty hunter.

-Somnambulist—Featuring a great performance by a younger Jeremy Renner as a vamp that Angel sired and mentored long ago, Somnambulist is an incredible episode. Renner’s vamp, Penn, is a serial killer who kills using Angelus’s old MO, but Angel is having dreams/hallucinations (or are they really?) that he’s actually killing everyone. Lockley also discovers that Angel is a vamp, forever altering their relationship.

-Expecting—This is not, by any means, a great, or even a pretty good, episode. It is merely good, but some of its scenes are quite demonstrative of what I keep saying about the great emotion that this season has. The scenes with the whole team are touching.

-I’ve Got You Under My Skin—The Exorcist, Angel-style, and not clichéd.

-The Prodigal—Kate’s father is caught up in some crazy shit, causing Angel to remember his own final conflict with his tyrannical father the day he was sired.

-Eternity—A movie star from a Beverly Hills, 90210-esque series enlists Angels help for protection, but her attraction to him soon goes overboard.

-Five by Five—Directly following the events of This Year’s Girl and Who Are You, Faith comes to L.A. and is immediately hired by Wolfram and Hart to assassinate Angel, harkening Angel back to his failed attempts at redemption. This is a truly excellent episode.

-Sanctuary—The second part of the Faith duo continues with Angel’s flashbacks. Everybody, and I mean everybody, well, except for Angel, is out to get Faith, and Angel’s the only one that can stop them.

-War Zone—While tracking down a geeky millionaire’s blackmailer, Angel finds a group of teens, led by Charles Gunn, who protect their neighborhood from vamps.

-Blind Date—Lindsey, in one of his intermittent good-guy spells, helps Angel break into Wolfram and Hart where Angel finds a scroll he feels oddly connected to and steals it.

-To Shanshu in L.A.—In a nearly perfect episode, Wolfram and Hart raises a demon to take out Angel. Eventually, events lead to the reveal of a prophecy of monumental importance. Also, an old acquaintance of Angel’s is resurrected.

Overall Review of Season 1: The first season is one of the series’ best, with three essentially perfect episodes, a ton of excellent ones, a bunch of decent episodes with one or two emotionally powerful scenes in them, a few unnecessary filler episodes, and only one truly bad episode. The season is incredibly effective at establishing the mission of Angel Investigations. It’s detractors dislike it because it doesn’t really have an overarching storyline like the other seasons of Angel have or like all of Buffy’s did (with the Big Bads), but I think that helps it rather than hurts it. Angel the Series needed to find its own identity, and it did so by straying from the season-long story arc path and focusing instead on strengthening Angel the character and brilliantly examining Angel’s never-ending goal, redemption, and some of its facets. The entire series examines different aspects of redemption, and season 1 really focuses on belonging and finding yourself, on developing who you are as a person, and it does an excellent job at it.

Not only does Angel search for redemption, but so do pretty much all of the other major characters. Cordelia begins regretting her self-centered attitude and materialistic outlook on life while in high school during this season. Her most important characterization developments come in later seasons (especially 3 and somewhat in 4), but it all starts here. Wesley, after the disastrous events and effect on his Watcher career in Buffy, is looking to carve out a new path for himself. He gets some character development this season, but he eventually becomes the most changed and probably most complex character by the end of the entire series. Kate Lockley is a fantastic character and Elisabeth Röhm, underrated actress that she is, does a brilliant job with her. Her entire story arc is terrifically well done, so much so that I wish she had found some way to join the main cast instead of going and starring for a few seasons on Law & Order.

I will say that there are a few things that I didn’t like about the season. First and foremost, of course, is the early death of Doyle. He was such a great character, and Glenn Quinn did an awesome job developing him and I just hated to see him go so soon. Also, the lack of a strong story arc kind of hurt the season because it lacked narrative focus as a result, but at the same I feel like it helped the series gain its own unique footing. In the end, I actually think the lack of story arc helped the season mainly because all of the stand-alone episodes were, to an amazing extent, so well-written and constructed. Looking back on it, I wish Wolfram and Hart had done more in this first season, but I know I didn’t really find much fault with that fact when I initially watched it. And actually, the timing of Angel’s startling discovery mid-way through season 2 meshed perfectly with all of his other character developments, so I struggle to think about how much more they could’ve had Wolfram and Hart do before ruining that great thematic parallel you find in the second season.

As I write my thoughts down right now, I am continually drawn to the fact that I wrote down 20 out of the season’s 22 episodes above, and I begin to think about how truly incredible this season was. Its excellence kind of creeps up on you. It doesn’t have as many amazing and perfect episodes as seasons 2, 3, and 5 of Buffy do, but it’s still really damn great.

Season Score: 9.5/10

Wesley: Angel, you don’t fine me especially paranoid, do you?

Angel: Not especially.

Wesley: Oh, thank god! I was worried.

-exchange in Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?

If there’s no great glorious end to all this, if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do. ‘Cause that’s all there is. What we do. Now. Today. –Angel in Epiphany

Season 2: This essentially perfect season continues to star Boreanaz, Carpenter, and Denisof. J. August Richards joins the regular cast as Charles Gunn. Christian Kane, Stephanie Romanov, Sam Anderson, and Elisabeth Röhm appear in the same roles they portrayed in the first season. Andy Hallett, eventually a future regular member, appears as Lorne in quite a few episodes. Julie Benz is the driving force behind the season-long arc as Darla, and she absolutely delivers. Juliet Landau also appears as Drusilla. Amy Acker appears in a 3-4 episode end-of-season arc as Winifred “Fred” Burkle. Alyson Hannigan also appears as Willow in 2 episodes.

Best Season 2 Episodes:

-Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?—The first four episodes of the season are stand-alones, and this is the best of all of them. The film takes place pretty much entirely in Angel’s past in the 50s. The episode is a fabulous example of production design, photography, and atmosphere creation. I’m not even going to reveal any more plot details because the episode deserves to be watched with as little background as possible.

-Untouched—The fourth season-beginning stand-alone, this is also a great episode. Angel tries to help a girl with telekinetic powers before Wolfram and Hart can control her. Guest star Daisy McCrackin is really great in the episode.

-Dear Boy—An excellent episode. Wolfram and Hart convinces Darla to unbalance Angel enough to get him to become Angelus again.

-Guise Will Be Guise—In a pretty good episode, Angel meets a Swami to end his obsession with Darla while Wesley assumes a fake identity to protect an attractive rich girl.

-Darla—This is a perfect episode, and either my first or second favorite episode of the season. Angel attempts to rescue Darla from Wolfram and Hart and Darla remembers her past.

-The Shroud of Rahmon—A pretty good episode, Angel and Gunn go undercover to prevent a the mind-altering Shroud of Rahmon from ending up with the wrong people.

-The Trial—An excellent episode in which Angel, after discovering that Darla is dying, refuses to vamp her and undertakes a series of gradually more sacrificial mystical ordeals to save her life.

-Reunion—In a perfect episode and probably my third or fourth favorite of this astonishingly brilliant season, Darla and Drusilla hit the streets and Angel is thrown into a tizzy.

-Redefinition—A nearly perfect episode, Angel fires everybody, slipping closer to his inner darkness, and cutting himself from all help, Angel takes on Darla and Dru.

-Blood Money—Angel threatens to reveal Wolfram and Hart for what they really are after he discovers them stealing from a teen shelter.

-Happy Anniversary—A pretty good episode about a brilliant scientist trying to freeze time. It also further develops Angel’s dark outlook on life.

-Reprise—Another perfect episode and probably the third or fourth best of the season, one of Wolfram and Harts Senior Partners is coming for a 75-year review. Angel successfully makes it to W&H’s Home Office, but it isn’t what he expected. The scene of Angel and Holland in the elevator is maybe the best scene in the entire series. Also, Kate’s life falls apart.

-Epiphany—Yet another perfect episode and probably the best one of the season. Angel wakes up after a night of passion with Darla and has, you guessed it!, an epiphany.

-Disharmony—This isn’t as good as pretty much all of the others I’ve listed, but Harmony comes for an appearance and that’s always noteworthy.

-Dead End—Cordy’s visions worsen and her health comes into question.

-Belonging—An enjoyable episode. More importantly, however, Charisma Carpenter in a bikini. Damn! And she still looks amazing at 42.

-Over the Rainbow—A decent enough episode, I really only included this one because it sets up the next two. Cordy’s just been sucked into Pylea, Lorne’s home dimension, where she’s made to be a slave.

-Through the Looking Glass—Cordy’s the Princess of Pylea and other developments. This was one of the most pleasant surprises of the season.

-There’s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb—A pretty great conclusion to the series’ best season.

Overall Season 2 Review: I know there are fewer episodes listed here than for season 1, but if I were to list every episode that is of the same quality as the ones listed for season 1, literally every single one would be listed.

Thematically, the season explores what it means to be human. At the end of season 1, Angel was given a purpose, a very human thing, but season 2 examines the humanity inside of him. For much of this season, Angel slips deeper and deeper into his inner darkness. At the same time, Cordy, Wesley, and Gunn are developing separately. Darla leads Angel into his own world and he follows, thereby exploring human existence and how damn complex it is. The season has such brilliant inter-related thematic examinations the best and worst humanity has to offer.

The season is really dark, as I haven’t said but hope you’ve been able to guess. That being said, the season is incredibly entertaining at points. Watching David Boreanaz get up and sing for Lorne is both painful and exceedingly entertaining.

The character development, especially of Angel is top-notch. Angel’s descent into caring about nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, but bringing down W&H is infuriating and yet immensely compelling. He no longer finds helping the helpless to be important, but punishing the wicked instead. He uses the helpless to get to W&H, and it hurts to watch. But if the first half of the season is a downer, then Epiphany is a beautiful thing. The episode is hope embodied, and I couldn’t have asked for it in a more well-written package. There is no blunt-instrument metaphor writing here, just pure, true emotion.

We’ll still have to wait for more complete characterizations of Cordy and Wesley in the coming seasons, but Angel’s development and the perfection of Darla’s usage and Julie Benz’s portrayal are absolutely everything I could have hoped for. That being said, Cordy and Wesley, do indeed change, well sort of. They continue to change in relation to their Buffy characters, but not really all that much since the first season. Nevertheless, they have transformed in tiny ways. Cordy’s begun realizing she’s not perfect. She has her flaws, but she can use them for good. Wesley is all about dealing with the self-image issues that have, throughout his life, grown out of his image as a stuck-up, snobbish, prattish, British prick. They develop their roles as emotional and logical center more fully during the season.

This season also furthers, actually it really concretely creates, the Wolfram and Hart we all learn to know and hate with various degrees of fiery passion. For me, the law firm, along with Wesley's amazing Buffyverse character arc, is what makes Angel brilliant. W&H is the greatest gift the writers could have given us, and it's huge amount of fleshing out this season is a huge part of what makes this epic season so, well, epic. The whole idea behind the firm's single-minded evil sounds really good, but is it? They provide the evil because, if there's no evil left in the world, then can there really be any good? The scene in which Angel and Holland are in the elevator and the successive realization that Holland imparts to Angel in Reprise is one of the most chilling revelations and scenes I've ever seen.

I was reading about the series somewhere recently, and I came something I think is telling about this season. Every season of Angel is divisive. Some can’t stand arc-less season 1 while some love it, like me. Some really like season 3, like me, while others think it’s just overly dramatic with too much filler. Season 4 is pretty much agreed to have high goals, but not fully meeting them. Season 5 has a huge number of supporters, including me, by some vitriolic detractors as well. Season 2, however, pretty much has unanimous support. And therein lies its immense strength. It’s a truly perfect season of television that challenges Buffy’s best, and indeed the best of most other series.

Season Score: 10/10