Angel 1-14-04 (SPOILERS)

[Pielorinho]

Ranger, had I laughed once during the episode, I would've cut it more slack. The complete absence of wit made me a lot less patient with the absurdities.

Believe me, I can dig unlikely stuff. Remember what I said was my favorite movie of all time? A movie involving six narcoleptic idiot clones, siamese-twin leaders of a pickpocket ring, and a scheme to rob a building involving parmesan cheese, a mouse, and a big old magnet tied to the mouse's tail?

I dig the absurd. But it's got to be funny to me. I found this episode to be painfully unfunny.

Daniel

 

[Henry]

Pielorhino, not even the ritual breaking of chopsticks and the escrima poses?

C'mon, that had me giggling! (Well, rolling my eyes and laughing, but laughing nonetheless).


Maybe it takes so little to entertain me because of the state of TV shows the past couple of years, but I still enjoyed this episode. Seeing it through Harm's perspective was fun, and this was possibly the first "fun" episode since the Halloween party.

I think Lightphoenix's observations were spot-on; they don't have control of W & H, and I think Eve and you-know-who are going to end up taking it away from them.

Harmony did not come off as a ditz, especially with her camel research, which surprised me. She DOES want to be useful, and watching people ignoring her was just sad, in a way. I used to be in similar situation years ago (minus being a creature of the night, and stuffing people in a closet), and you try TOO hard in a situation like that, and you stumble, where just being you tends to work out much better. Confidence is not something Harmony has, but it's what everyone needs in order to be comfortable in a social business circumstance. You can have the best ideas in the world, and still execute them poorly if you don't have confidence in yourself.

I'll admit, it's the first time I ever saw vampire "handedness" become an issue before. "Right-biter, see? *hiss* Right-Biter!"

 

[Pielorinho]

Henry, the chopstick scene had funny potential, I thought, but it should've been underplayed. Instead, the joke was made, and then the camera sat there focusing on it while the voiceover said, "Get it? Get it?! They're fighting with chopsticks! See, it's funny because chopsticks aren't really weapons, but they're fighting with them anyway! Laugh, curse you, laugh!"

Same thing with the handedness: I got the joke as soon as she said, "Bitten on the RIGHT?" and it could've been completed with a quick one-liner: "But I'm a left-biter!" Instead, they needlessly complicated the issue by calling her a right-biter and then had her explain the concept, multiple times.

That's sort of how I felt about the whole episode: the parts that could have been funny or clever were so overdone that I just ended up wincing instead.

Funny episodes are good. I adored Numero Cinco and El Diablo Robotico. This one just really, really didn't do it for me.

Daniel

 

[Henry]

Which goes to show that Joss' writers hit the fans' funnybones differently in various episodes. With the exception of the "Devil's Robot," the Luchador episode did nothing for me.

The ep DID do one other thing that no one mentioned - it acknowledged that Fred DOES think about Wes as well as Lab-Boy (Knox). They'll never hook up, of course (Wes and Fred), but it's nice to know his KILLING HIS FATHER FOR HER got noticed...

Hopefully, next week's story will get in the groove, because I'm looking forward to see more of the Champion storyline played out - and I wanna see more of

Spoiler

Leslie McDonald

myself!

 

[Pielorinho]

Definitely, Henry, it's a matter of taste. I was so sure this episode would be universally reviled (especially given the stunned expression on the faces of my brother, wife, and friend), and I was completely wrong.

De gustibus, don'tcha know.

Daniel

 

[Crothian]

Very funny and well done episode. I liked that it focused on Harmony, I think Joss knows how to use her well. I had to wait till tonight to watch it because WB hates me and they air it on THursdays here.

Harmony acted in the only way she knows, she paniced. She's not a long term thinker so she handled the problems well enough. I don't think that KO ing the staff would make Angel made. If she were truely evil and responsible she would have killed them.

 

[coyote6]

I was amused and entertained.

Of course, the references to W&H's illustrious clients (Yoyodyne, Weyland-Yutani, NewsCorp) made for a terrific start.

 

[dravot]

It was far from the best episode I've ever seen, but I was amused by it and I loved seeing the world through Harmony's eyes.

 

[KnowTheToe]

I had a meeting that went late and missed this episode. Harmony centric episode? What I don't get is that vampires are supossed to be evil, hence the need for vampire slayers. How come all of the vamps we meet are nice? First Spike had a soul even before he chose to go fight for one. The chip was supossed to stop him from hurting people, not stop him from wanting to. Now Harmony is struggling to be good. Why? how does this make sense? Did I miss something?

I personally miss old Angel and have not been impressed with the new direction at all. It makes me sad because I really liked the show. Maybe I don't like Josh's new direction, I was not a big fan of Buffy the last few season either.

 

[RangerWickett]

One of the driving forces at Wolfram & Hart now is the new slogan, "Don't kill, and we won't kill you." It's directed at the employees. So the vampires and such have to keep their noses clean or else they'll get staked, beheaded, etc. In fact, even before Angel & co. came to work here, I'd imagine there'd be some company policy discouraging snacking on co-workers.