I had a lot of fun (almost too much 
) maintaining an ongoing thread earlier this year when I watched "Battlestar Galactica" for the first time, so I've been thinking about doing the same for "Angel", which I've been watching for the first time for about two weeks now.
I don't know if I'll post in here as much as I posted in that BSG thread, but I think it would be nice to pop in here in once in awhile after a few episodes. I put "my" in brackets so people would know this thread isn't about the episode of the same name (which I have just seen), but rather the series as a whole.
I'm a huge fan of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", like most of "Dollhouse" and "Dr. Horrible" very much, and thought "Firefly" was okay (didn't love it as much as most fans seem to), but I never saw this show because during the years when it was on, I just didn't watch serialized drama much and was averse to spin-offs.
Now I'm diving into it, and it's been a rough ride so far, but not nearly as rough as the beginning of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". I think the best way to explain my problems with this show so far is to say that it reminds me of "The X-Files" being split between "Monster of the Week" episodes and "Mythology" episodes, but in this case, I usually prefer one type over the other. With "The X-Files", I tended to like episodes that belonged to either category.
With "Angel", I find myself frustrated by many of the more self-contained episodes. There are a LOT of episodes where Angel is just investigating some case that involves him trying to help someone dealing with some supernatural phenomenon. These often bore me and feel kind of pointless in the end, because their ideas come across as uninspired to me and they don't pay off very much in later episodes. In general, what I like most are the more world-building and character-building episodes with stronger continuity connections in which I get to know more about characters who are recurring or regulars.
I've just begun season 2, and the highlights for me so far are the Buffy crossover episodes, and the ones that deal with the relationships Angel has with Kate as well as Wolfram & Hart. I'd seen the Buffy crossover episodes years ago before I started this series because I had to see anything involving "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" characters, but I find the episodes even more powerful now that I'm more familiar with the cast and world of "Angel".
I've seen the Faith episodes several times, but watching her two parter in order with this series made it have more impact with me. I was actually moved to tears by the end of "Five by Five" for the first time. "I Will Remember You" of course has always made me tear up and probably always will.
I want to share a few comments and questions after watching the first season and beginning of the second. I hope more knowledgeable fans will respond with answers to the questions and some of their own opinions...
About Doyle...
How does everybody feel about Doyle being killed off? It really bummed me out. I think it was done beautifully, and is probably the best, most satisfyingly heroic way a main character could have been killed off, but he was immediately my favourite character and I was sad to see him go. Wesley is becoming more appealing with every episode, but I still think I would have preferred Doyle staying instead of basically being replaced by him. Doyle was so sweet and funny. His line, "how does she feel about a man with an Irish accent?" was adorable.
Does anyone know the real story of why Doyle was killed off? I've read that Joss planned to kill a main character who is in the credits from the beginning (just for the hell of it?) and also that the actor playing him had drug problems and his character was killed off because of that. The fact that he died of a drug overdose seems to confirm this, but I'm not sure which story to believe or if both are true.
About Wesley and Cordelia
Before going into this series I was very curious about how it would expand Wesley and Cordelia from the one-dimensional stereotypes they used to be....
Wesley is coming along nicely. Very slowly, subtly, and believably he's become a lot cooler and more respectable. I like how he's able to constantly argue with and express concerns to Angel without just sounding whiny and pompous like he used to. Now he just comes across as cautious and mature.
Cordelia, on the other hand...I don't know about her. She's still an annoying loudmouth and there are many times when she's going on and on blabbering and I've wished Angel would just tell her to shut the hell up (of course, he has the patience of a saint and never would).
At the same time, she's been surprisingly effective as a sympathetic figure at times. There have been situations where she's been in danger and I've genuinely felt bad for her, but she isn't quite likable yet.
It's like half the time she's insufferably self-involved and insensitive, and half the time, she's appealing only because she's vulnerable. On the plus side, I see potential in her to be a lot more admirable than she ever was in Sunnydale. She seems to be taking steps towards becoming a deeper, more thoughtful, and caring individual, but it's hard to completely root for her because she inevitably ends up going back to being shrill and shallow by the end of every episode.
About other characters...
When does Amy Acker's character show up? As a fan of her work on "Justice League Unlimited" and "Dollhouse", I am anxious to see her. Is her character very popular with fans?
I'm liking Gunn and Lorne a lot so far, though Gunn acts like a bit of a cliche sometimes. I hope that changes. Speaking of Lorne, one of my favourite things about this show so far is how much more it explores the relationship between the demon world and the regular world than "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" did, both with the way the cops and lawyers handle demons, and showing the lighter side of demons with the karaoke bar.
Was anyone else sad to see Lee of Wolfram & Hart killed? I think Lilah and Lindsey are awesome, but as a trio with Lee, they were great in the Faith episodes (the way she beats him up while the other two watch apathetically was hilarious) and I would have liked to see the three together longer. He was such a perfect asshole...I liked him a lot more than their mean boss.
About crossovers...
I was surprised by how little I liked Buffy and Spike on this show. They seemed so out of place and immature compared to the other characters on the show, and as a result, sort of made "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" look weaker by comparison as a series. Did anyone else feel this way? I was really disappointed by how dull Spike was in his crossover appearance (aside from his very funny mocking Angel dialog at the start of his episode).
Buffy was worse. Angel totally owned her in their argument at the end of "Sanctuary" and I was just infuriated when, once she couldn't think of a comeback to what Angel said, she basically just said, "Well I have a new boyfriend now, and he's better than you". What a cruel, childish, conceited bitch move.
Favourite episodes so far...
Buffy crossover episodes, "The Prodigal", "Eternity" (one of the few standalone episodes I really dug, although I also appreciated the show's "Exorcist" riff), "Blind Date", and "To Shanshu in L.A.".
) maintaining an ongoing thread earlier this year when I watched "Battlestar Galactica" for the first time, so I've been thinking about doing the same for "Angel", which I've been watching for the first time for about two weeks now. I don't know if I'll post in here as much as I posted in that BSG thread, but I think it would be nice to pop in here in once in awhile after a few episodes. I put "my" in brackets so people would know this thread isn't about the episode of the same name (which I have just seen), but rather the series as a whole.
I'm a huge fan of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", like most of "Dollhouse" and "Dr. Horrible" very much, and thought "Firefly" was okay (didn't love it as much as most fans seem to), but I never saw this show because during the years when it was on, I just didn't watch serialized drama much and was averse to spin-offs.
Now I'm diving into it, and it's been a rough ride so far, but not nearly as rough as the beginning of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". I think the best way to explain my problems with this show so far is to say that it reminds me of "The X-Files" being split between "Monster of the Week" episodes and "Mythology" episodes, but in this case, I usually prefer one type over the other. With "The X-Files", I tended to like episodes that belonged to either category.
With "Angel", I find myself frustrated by many of the more self-contained episodes. There are a LOT of episodes where Angel is just investigating some case that involves him trying to help someone dealing with some supernatural phenomenon. These often bore me and feel kind of pointless in the end, because their ideas come across as uninspired to me and they don't pay off very much in later episodes. In general, what I like most are the more world-building and character-building episodes with stronger continuity connections in which I get to know more about characters who are recurring or regulars.
I've just begun season 2, and the highlights for me so far are the Buffy crossover episodes, and the ones that deal with the relationships Angel has with Kate as well as Wolfram & Hart. I'd seen the Buffy crossover episodes years ago before I started this series because I had to see anything involving "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" characters, but I find the episodes even more powerful now that I'm more familiar with the cast and world of "Angel".
I've seen the Faith episodes several times, but watching her two parter in order with this series made it have more impact with me. I was actually moved to tears by the end of "Five by Five" for the first time. "I Will Remember You" of course has always made me tear up and probably always will.
I want to share a few comments and questions after watching the first season and beginning of the second. I hope more knowledgeable fans will respond with answers to the questions and some of their own opinions...
About Doyle...
How does everybody feel about Doyle being killed off? It really bummed me out. I think it was done beautifully, and is probably the best, most satisfyingly heroic way a main character could have been killed off, but he was immediately my favourite character and I was sad to see him go. Wesley is becoming more appealing with every episode, but I still think I would have preferred Doyle staying instead of basically being replaced by him. Doyle was so sweet and funny. His line, "how does she feel about a man with an Irish accent?" was adorable.
Does anyone know the real story of why Doyle was killed off? I've read that Joss planned to kill a main character who is in the credits from the beginning (just for the hell of it?) and also that the actor playing him had drug problems and his character was killed off because of that. The fact that he died of a drug overdose seems to confirm this, but I'm not sure which story to believe or if both are true.
About Wesley and Cordelia
Before going into this series I was very curious about how it would expand Wesley and Cordelia from the one-dimensional stereotypes they used to be....
Wesley is coming along nicely. Very slowly, subtly, and believably he's become a lot cooler and more respectable. I like how he's able to constantly argue with and express concerns to Angel without just sounding whiny and pompous like he used to. Now he just comes across as cautious and mature.
Cordelia, on the other hand...I don't know about her. She's still an annoying loudmouth and there are many times when she's going on and on blabbering and I've wished Angel would just tell her to shut the hell up (of course, he has the patience of a saint and never would).
At the same time, she's been surprisingly effective as a sympathetic figure at times. There have been situations where she's been in danger and I've genuinely felt bad for her, but she isn't quite likable yet.
It's like half the time she's insufferably self-involved and insensitive, and half the time, she's appealing only because she's vulnerable. On the plus side, I see potential in her to be a lot more admirable than she ever was in Sunnydale. She seems to be taking steps towards becoming a deeper, more thoughtful, and caring individual, but it's hard to completely root for her because she inevitably ends up going back to being shrill and shallow by the end of every episode.
About other characters...
When does Amy Acker's character show up? As a fan of her work on "Justice League Unlimited" and "Dollhouse", I am anxious to see her. Is her character very popular with fans?
I'm liking Gunn and Lorne a lot so far, though Gunn acts like a bit of a cliche sometimes. I hope that changes. Speaking of Lorne, one of my favourite things about this show so far is how much more it explores the relationship between the demon world and the regular world than "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" did, both with the way the cops and lawyers handle demons, and showing the lighter side of demons with the karaoke bar.
Was anyone else sad to see Lee of Wolfram & Hart killed? I think Lilah and Lindsey are awesome, but as a trio with Lee, they were great in the Faith episodes (the way she beats him up while the other two watch apathetically was hilarious) and I would have liked to see the three together longer. He was such a perfect asshole...I liked him a lot more than their mean boss.
About crossovers...
I was surprised by how little I liked Buffy and Spike on this show. They seemed so out of place and immature compared to the other characters on the show, and as a result, sort of made "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" look weaker by comparison as a series. Did anyone else feel this way? I was really disappointed by how dull Spike was in his crossover appearance (aside from his very funny mocking Angel dialog at the start of his episode).
Buffy was worse. Angel totally owned her in their argument at the end of "Sanctuary" and I was just infuriated when, once she couldn't think of a comeback to what Angel said, she basically just said, "Well I have a new boyfriend now, and he's better than you". What a cruel, childish, conceited bitch move.
Favourite episodes so far...
Buffy crossover episodes, "The Prodigal", "Eternity" (one of the few standalone episodes I really dug, although I also appreciated the show's "Exorcist" riff), "Blind Date", and "To Shanshu in L.A.".
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Again I am intrigued by how differently characters from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" come across on this show. I always found Druscilla entertaining on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", but when she showed up at Darla's motel room here, that was the first time I ever thought she was really scary. The siring scene was the most disturbing thing she's done since cutting Kendra's throat. 
