Angel - Season 1 impressions (episode 1)
Nov. 10th, 2005 07:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thalia_seawoodI decided to not only keep up with my Buffy impressions, but also make notes of my thoughts regarding Angel.
Perhaps I include summaries from this website from now on for everyone who enjoys reading the entries, but doesn't exactly remember what happened in which episode.
City Of ...
Summary for City Of ...
Angel (David Boreanaz) moves to L.A., unaware of his purpose in the City of Angels. There, he meets Doyle (Glenn Quinn), his half-man, half-demon spiritual advisor, who gives him much-needed direction. Doyle leads Angel to Russell Winters, a rich and powerful vampire, preying on aspiring actresses. When Winters sets his eyes on Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), Angel springs into action and saves her.
My impressions
I really like the title of this episode. Angel moving to the "City of Angels" is fitting in a way; and, of course, we see right away that Los Angeles is also inhabited by vampires, demons and amoral human beings.
In the first scene, we get to see a different side of Angel. I thought at first that he had reverted back to his Liam personality (getting drunk in a bar and making inane comments is just very Liam), but it turns out that he uses his former personality as a camouflage to fight crime.
karabair and I talked about Wesley and his different personas in one of the LJ threads and it seems to me that many characters on Buffy and Angel have different personas and are trying to find out who they really are. (Of course, everyone has different personas in Real Life as well: You act different around your parents than at work, etc. But these shows take it to the extreme sometimes. :-))
Angel draws from his experiences as Liam and Angelus - and has to merge all these experiences and become someone who's not only driven by guilt.
Angel with his dark trenchcoat totally reminded me a "avenging Darcy" from the Pride & Prejudice version of the BBC, i.e. the scenes where Darcy strides to the streets of London to find Wickham and thereby save Elizabeth's honour. They both have the long black coat and the striding and the fight for the good cause. :-)
I liked the flashback scenes in this episode: The writers of the show found a good way to give some of Angel's back story to viewers who hadn't watched Buffy.
Doyle, the demon, is fun, but so far I'm not really invested in his character.
He shares the Irish accent with Angel. I guess Irish accent equals sexy and therefore you can't have enough of it in a show. :-)
I enjoyed watching Angel interacting with people aside from Buffy.
We see that in his Angel persona his social skills are quite rusty and he's unsure of how to connect to others. (Liam or Angelus wouldn't have problems chatting up someone at all. But then Liam would go for a roll in the hay with the person and Angelus ... well, we know what he would do.
I also liked that Angel has some snark. He's not just dark, brooding and oh so sensitive. (Well, that's how he comes across at times. The perfect modern man: Strong, silent and sensitive. :-)) Thank heavens, because this type of man would be boring as hell after a while.
So his final remark in this little scene made me laugh. And Cordelia's "grrrr" impression is priceless, too.
Angel: "You're acting?"
Cordelia: "Can you believe it? I mean I just started it to make some quick cash, and then boom, it was like my life! - So are you still (holds up her hands like claws and makes a face) -- grrr?"
Angel: "Yeah, there's not actually - a cure for that."
Cordelia: "Right. But you're not evil, I mean your not here to bite people?"
Angel: "No, I'm here with a friend."
Cordelia: "Oh, good. Well, it was nice seeing you, but I've got to get mingly. I really should be talking to people that *are* somebody." Walks away.
Angel to himself: "It's nice that she's grown as a person."
I felt sorry for Tina. I liked her. And she's the type of blonde woman that totally gets Angel in the protector mode.
In this episode, you get to see why you should keep your flat tidy and throw things away. Angel, why did you hold onto to Doyle's note?! Okay. He feels guilty enough as it is so no need for me to put the guilt trip on him.
Favorite fun moment:
Cordelia: "Oh, god. I'm sorry! I'm getting all weepy in front of you. I probably look really scary. (gets up and looks around the room) I finally get invited to a nice place - with no mirrors, - and lots of curtains - hey, you're a vampire!"
Russell: "What? No, I'm not."
Cordelia: "Are too!"
Russell: "I don't know what you're talking about."
Cordelia: "Hey, I'm from Sunnydale. We had our own Hellmouth! I think I know a vampire when I'm - alone with him - in his fortress-like home. And you know, I think I'm just feeling a little light headed from hunger. I'm just wacky. And kidding! Ha, ha."
We get to see the evil lawyers of Wolfram & Hart.selenak had shown me some Angel episodes so I know they are evil lawyers extraordinaire.
And to round it off, we get Angel without his shirt on and being in pain. Which equals two drinks in my own personal Buffy & Angel drinking game.
His method to kill Winters is - shall we say - unconventional.
Perhaps I include summaries from this website from now on for everyone who enjoys reading the entries, but doesn't exactly remember what happened in which episode.
City Of ...
Summary for City Of ...
Angel (David Boreanaz) moves to L.A., unaware of his purpose in the City of Angels. There, he meets Doyle (Glenn Quinn), his half-man, half-demon spiritual advisor, who gives him much-needed direction. Doyle leads Angel to Russell Winters, a rich and powerful vampire, preying on aspiring actresses. When Winters sets his eyes on Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), Angel springs into action and saves her.
My impressions
I really like the title of this episode. Angel moving to the "City of Angels" is fitting in a way; and, of course, we see right away that Los Angeles is also inhabited by vampires, demons and amoral human beings.
In the first scene, we get to see a different side of Angel. I thought at first that he had reverted back to his Liam personality (getting drunk in a bar and making inane comments is just very Liam), but it turns out that he uses his former personality as a camouflage to fight crime.
karabair and I talked about Wesley and his different personas in one of the LJ threads and it seems to me that many characters on Buffy and Angel have different personas and are trying to find out who they really are. (Of course, everyone has different personas in Real Life as well: You act different around your parents than at work, etc. But these shows take it to the extreme sometimes. :-))Angel draws from his experiences as Liam and Angelus - and has to merge all these experiences and become someone who's not only driven by guilt.
Angel with his dark trenchcoat totally reminded me a "avenging Darcy" from the Pride & Prejudice version of the BBC, i.e. the scenes where Darcy strides to the streets of London to find Wickham and thereby save Elizabeth's honour. They both have the long black coat and the striding and the fight for the good cause. :-)
I liked the flashback scenes in this episode: The writers of the show found a good way to give some of Angel's back story to viewers who hadn't watched Buffy.
Doyle, the demon, is fun, but so far I'm not really invested in his character.
He shares the Irish accent with Angel. I guess Irish accent equals sexy and therefore you can't have enough of it in a show. :-)
I enjoyed watching Angel interacting with people aside from Buffy.
We see that in his Angel persona his social skills are quite rusty and he's unsure of how to connect to others. (Liam or Angelus wouldn't have problems chatting up someone at all. But then Liam would go for a roll in the hay with the person and Angelus ... well, we know what he would do.
I also liked that Angel has some snark. He's not just dark, brooding and oh so sensitive. (Well, that's how he comes across at times. The perfect modern man: Strong, silent and sensitive. :-)) Thank heavens, because this type of man would be boring as hell after a while.
So his final remark in this little scene made me laugh. And Cordelia's "grrrr" impression is priceless, too.
Angel: "You're acting?"
Cordelia: "Can you believe it? I mean I just started it to make some quick cash, and then boom, it was like my life! - So are you still (holds up her hands like claws and makes a face) -- grrr?"
Angel: "Yeah, there's not actually - a cure for that."
Cordelia: "Right. But you're not evil, I mean your not here to bite people?"
Angel: "No, I'm here with a friend."
Cordelia: "Oh, good. Well, it was nice seeing you, but I've got to get mingly. I really should be talking to people that *are* somebody." Walks away.
Angel to himself: "It's nice that she's grown as a person."
I felt sorry for Tina. I liked her. And she's the type of blonde woman that totally gets Angel in the protector mode.
In this episode, you get to see why you should keep your flat tidy and throw things away. Angel, why did you hold onto to Doyle's note?! Okay. He feels guilty enough as it is so no need for me to put the guilt trip on him.
Favorite fun moment:
Cordelia: "Oh, god. I'm sorry! I'm getting all weepy in front of you. I probably look really scary. (gets up and looks around the room) I finally get invited to a nice place - with no mirrors, - and lots of curtains - hey, you're a vampire!"
Russell: "What? No, I'm not."
Cordelia: "Are too!"
Russell: "I don't know what you're talking about."
Cordelia: "Hey, I'm from Sunnydale. We had our own Hellmouth! I think I know a vampire when I'm - alone with him - in his fortress-like home. And you know, I think I'm just feeling a little light headed from hunger. I'm just wacky. And kidding! Ha, ha."
We get to see the evil lawyers of Wolfram & Hart.
selenak had shown me some Angel episodes so I know they are evil lawyers extraordinaire.And to round it off, we get Angel without his shirt on and being in pain. Which equals two drinks in my own personal Buffy & Angel drinking game.
His method to kill Winters is - shall we say - unconventional.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-11-10 09:16 am (UTC)Quite. And as I told you, this allows his personality to be fleshed out to no end.
Tina: yes. Also, great twist because we expect Angel to save her - his first case - and he doesn't. The actress was one of the three who played Ziyal on DS9.
The evil lawywer we meet in this episode is Lindsey, whom you know from Darla.
Angel's method to kill Winter: also showcases that Angel, when fighting crime, can vent some of his inner bastard in a productive fashion.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-10 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-10 09:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-10 10:07 pm (UTC)He's never gonna be my favorite character, but there are times I really enjoy him, and the first season of Angel is definitely part of that.
It's still the Cordelia show for me in the first few eps.
As for personas (personae?), the way that the charaaters create their own identities is a consistent theme throughout both series, and one of the things I love most about the Buffyverse. The shows are all about, as the BTVS season 2 finale says, "becoming"; none of the characters' personalities are fixed and some of them go through some pretty remarkable changes.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-11 10:19 pm (UTC)Yes, I love how they change and grow and make mistakes along the way, too. The show very often shows us the dark/wild side and the light side of each character and that's something else I find fascinating.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-10 10:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-11 10:36 pm (UTC)