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Sunday 12 January 2014

Review: ANGEL (Season 1, Episodes 1-8)

Angel
Season 1, Episodes 1 to 8, Discs 1 & 2
Starring David Boreanaz.
Genre: urban fantasy
Format: dvd box set

About Angel:
At the start of the series, Angel has just moved to Los Angeles. He is soon visited by Doyle, a messenger sent to him on behalf of The Powers That Be. Doyle receives visions that can guide Angel on his mission as a champion of humankind. Angel also encounters Cordelia Chase, who is trying to launch an acting career. The three group together to form Angel Investigations, a detective agency that hopes to "help the helpless." When Doyle dies in the episode "Hero", he passes on his 'visions' to Cordelia with a kiss. Shortly thereafter, the ex-Watcher, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, joins the group. Meanwhile, the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart pay increasing attention to Angel. They tempt him toward darkness when they resurrect Darla, Angel's ex-lover and sire — killed by Angel in the first season of Buffy in the episode "Angel".
Source: Info in the About Angel was taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_%28TV_series%29 on 25/02/2013.

Angel Season 1 Trailer:


Review:
I admit that I only bought the Angel dvd box set Seasons 1 to 5 because I wanted more David Boreanaz goodness, having been addicted to his Special Agent Seeley Booth character! But Angel is not Agent Booth. Rather silly of me to want it to be so! Anyway, I originally planned to have a "5 seasons of Angel" marathon. It didn't quite go as planned. What happened instead was that it took me several months just to get through 2 discs of the first season. WTF! What was that all about?? Hey, I am suppose to be an urban fantasy geek! So why do I like David Boreanaz more as Agent Booth rather than Angel?? What happened??...

By the very nature of the world building in this show it has to incorporate fantastical elements with the more mundane world. And I think the special effects people and cinematographic team needs to be given credit for the great job they did. It looks seamless and believable in the screen. The world building though has a hole in it. Just like any other urban fantasy with hidden supernatural world living alongside the normal one. Simply because there would always be selfish, greedy and/or out-and-out stupid people (supernatural or otherwise) who thinks they can benefit by outing the secret. Some authors/scriptwriters are able to pull it off. I haven't watched Buffy, but I don't think that this issue has been clearly explained in the world of Angel. I am still hoping that they would address this sometime along the series.

I think David Boreanaz fits the character of Angel very well. However I don't really like the character of Cordelia Chase. Oh I think Charisma Carpenter portrayed her well. It's just that Cordelia's character of a down-on-her-luck superbitch do not fit the "superhero team" membership at all. Oh, the show tried, but I don't think it really gelled. It just doesn't ring true. Although I can see that Cordelia doesn't seem to be part of the rest of the Angel show anymore from ?Season 3? onward? Maybe the show makers did do something about it. I'll just have to watch the rest of the dvd box set...

Empirical Evaluation:
Cinematography = 4
Acting = 4
Character development = 3
Story itself = 4
World building = 3
Attention to details = 3.5

Overall Rating: 3.5 out of 5 cherries

5 comments:

Blodeuedd said...

YAY I did like the Angel series

Tales of Whimsy said...

I heart him too. He's so dreamy.

kalasyn said...

I can't take you seriously after you admitted you haven't watched Buffy! Who watches a spin off show before watching the original?

Cherry said...

kalasyn - I sometimes do.

Anne said...

I think he's much better in Angel than Bones. I stopped watching Bones a couple of seasons ago. The character of Cordelia really grows in this series and I have never (and I'm not the sort who does) cried so much as I did in the last season of Angel. If you've bought the whole set, I'd continue to see if you warm up to it. If not, when you feel you might be in the mood to give it another try, I'd see if your library system has the rest so that you don't spend your money on something you may stop watching again.

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