Saturday 23 April 2011

Angel.

Thanks to the incredibly vague title offered, you may be confused as to what the contents of this post are. I'll save you the bother: It's the Buffy spin off Angel, in which the titular vampire "goes to L.A" in typical spin off style, though in this case it's not to take large amounts of cocaine and wake up every night with a different blonde girl next to him, stare at the camera, and kookily say "uh oh!" No, he's taking his tight fitting black tops and finely chiselled cheekbones to brood elsewhere. He also takes Cordelia from Buffy along for the ride, which allows her (whisper it) Proper Character Development. The first 9 episodes also feature Doyle, an Irish half-demon played by the excellent Glenn Quinn. But sadly, due to drug related problems, he's written about, only to be replaced by Wesley, another Buffy castoff, who again takes advantage of the new format to become a real person, not a shallow cliche. As for the actual format, Angel and pals now run "Angel Investigations", a supernatural detective agency, and solve all manner of ghostly mysteries and cooky adventures (Yes, that second one was a lie). The interesting thing about Angel is that it feels like a show in it's fifth season in the second episode, due to the fact that most of the characters come from another show. But this is why it's better than Buffy. Buffy had to put up with clunky early plotlines and some truly dreadful writing early on. Angel comes straight out of the box as a Proper Show, and barely lets up from there. Despite suffering from Joss Whedon's patented badpenultimateseasonitis, thanks to Connor, who is somehow more annoying that Dawn from Buffy, it's still an excellent show. I'm aware this meant very little, but I'm tired, and what do you expect from me, genuine effort? Professional Writing? This is the best you're getting, sunshine. And Moonshine, but that's another story.

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