[SPOILERS]Angel 5.1 Discussion

[Sirius_Black]

Buffy was best the first three seasons.

Dead on Analysis Skade!

 

[uv23]

[ramble]
It was an ok season premier. Some good humor for sure - "I have nothing against spanking men" will haunt me for days.

I think Angel's been eating all of Fred's food. She's looking even thinner and he looks to have put on quite a bit of chub. The first comment my gf made when the show came on was how awful his hair looked. But I digress.. must not lower myself to petty gossip about such things.

I hate Harmony. Her character is garbage and I find her appearance on Angel a huge turn off. And Eve has 1% of the charisma of Lila. So I'm not very happy about either of those.

Loved Spike in Buffy but am worried about him being on Angel.

Overall, my concern is that season 5 will be a step back. I don't want campy humor and quick storylines. I love long dark story arcs.

Oh well, nothing lasts forever I suppose...
[/ramble]

 

[KnowTheToe]

Angel was pretty good, but there were several things I disliked. First of all Harmony has always been a bad character. She is fine for one or two episodes, but she has already gone way past that. She tried to kill these guys before, it just does not work.

Angel shouldn't have fought the W&H muscle yet as it brings up the fact that he is not in charge and he could end up playing a role in a lot of bad . Too much too soon.

Fred does need to eat something.

Gunn as super lawyer changes his character 180. Maybe it will be for the best. His role in the group has been thin for awhile.

Wess, did not do much which is fine. He is a great character and gets lots of time throughout the season.

New chick does not interest me, yet.

My biggest concern is the change of the feel of the show. The writing and character interaction was much more like Buffy (campy) than Angel, which is a darker show. I like the difference in feels of the two shows and I hope it does not change to Angel the Vampire Slayer.

There is lots of potential with this season and there are a lot of skilled people involved. I am looking forward to the rest of the season.

My wife also noted the increased budget of the show (sets and fight scenes).

 

[stevelabny]

How long have you been watching the shows? Have you seen the first seasons of Angel at all? More importantly did you only start watching Buffy in the latter seasons? If so, you really need to see the first few season of each. Buffy was best the first three seasons.

I've been watching Buffy since Day 1 and Angel since day 1 for that matter too.
That's why I couldn't understand how anyone watched one without the other (or jumped in late without um, finding the old episodes somewhere)

 

[takyris]

Liked all of it.

Harmony didn't bug me. Now that Cordy is out of the picture (and the credits), they needed to bring in someone who could be ditzy for comic relief. You've got intelligent-and-self-deprecating (Fred), dry wit (Wesley), guy talk (Gunn), goofball-lines (Angel), and fabulousness (Lorne), but you still need the ditz factor. Cordy was great for the first few seasons that way, but then she got all serious and broody too, and then, of course, the events of last season took place, and there you go. No more Cordy.

More importantly, this episode had everything that a good episode of Angel needs -- it had a couple of good fight scenes, some interesting moral quandaries, and some absolutely wonderful funny lines. My wife stopped watching the show last season when it got so dark, but this episode convinced her to come back to it.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Can ANYONE please explain to me how some of you were watching Angel but not Buffy? I just don't get it. They have constant crossovers, the same creative teams, half of the same characters...
it just dont make any sense to my poor little head.

I can only answer for myself, but...

1) I didn't get into Angel until almost three years ago when I met my gf and she would watch it. I got hooked.

2) I tried watching season one of Angel. *snooze* I found it fairly boring to be honest. They were trying too hard to be dark and brooding, with humor injected in, and Cordelia's bitchiness. I guess what I mean is it was all over the place, and didn't seem to have a focus like the latter seasons do.

3) I actually watched Buffy a bit when it was first on, and it didn't impress me either. The writing was tight, yes. I will not argue that. But the subject just didn't hold me interest... ooh, a bunch of high-school kids fight evil and deal with angst. Same reason I don't watch Smallville or it's ilk now. When I met my gf, she tried to get me to watch it, but quite honstly it just was ludicrous, some of the stories. It seemed to me to boil down to a "baddie of the week" show.

So that's how come I watch Angel, but don't watch Buffy at all.

 

[LightPhoenix]

Angel shouldn't have fought the W&H muscle yet as it brings up the fact that he is not in charge and he could end up playing a role in a lot of bad . Too much too soon.

I'm sure this isn't the last we'll see of W&H employees being rebellious. And Angel didn't have a choice in the fight - he either had to take him out, or just roll-over and end it here.

Fred does need to eat something.

Gunn as super lawyer changes his character 180. Maybe it will be for the best. His role in the group has been thin for awhile.

Wess, did not do much which is fine. He is a great character and gets lots of time throughout the season.

New chick does not interest me, yet.

I seriously wonder if the actress is anorexic or something. She's just waaay too thin. I personally think she'd look a lot sexier with some more pounds on her...

If they didn't do something with Gunn's character, they would have had to kill him or something. He seriously had no role in the group at all... something that they brought out more in season four, and did something with now.

And screw Eve, they should have kept Lilah!

My biggest concern is the change of the feel of the show. The writing and character interaction was much more like Buffy (campy) than Angel, which is a darker show. I like the difference in feels of the two shows and I hope it does not change to Angel the Vampire Slayer.

Indeed.

 

[Nightfall]

While I can understand people's concern about it being more "campy" thanks to the Buffy team, I think Joss understands that these guys are "adults" and will not attempt to do what he did to Buffy. At least that's my hope. We'll just have to see.

 

[KnowTheToe]

While I can understand people's concern about it being more "campy" thanks to the Buffy team, I think Joss understands that these guys are "adults" and will not attempt to do what he did to Buffy. At least that's my hope. We'll just have to see.

I agree with your assesment. I think there are lots of opportunities this season with the change of environment, resources and personel. I assume Joss will not let the show lose its identity. After all lots of stuff in Buffy would annoy me and then before it was all done, I would get sucked in and forget about my doubts.

 

[takyris]

I'm a bit skeptical of some of these opinions, frankly. The first season of Angel had a really nice mix of humor and dark parts. The second season, same deal. The third season got darker, the fourth season got pitch-freakin'-black, and now they're headed back toward what they had in the first and second seasons.

Your assessment that Angel's inclusion of comedy is new or bad seems a tad off base. I don't see it as a light show with some dark moments, or as a dark show with some light moments. I see it as a show that does a good job, usually, of mixing both. Losing EITHER of those elements would be a shame. For each full-out-comedy episode, there needs to be a full-out-gut-ripping-hurt episode, and vice versa.