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Angel: Bachelor Party

Cordelia: "All of a sudden, rich and handsome isn't enough for me?"

Finally, what I've been waiting for, an episode about Doyle – and I didn't like it all that much. It was funny and different, but if they said "eat his brains" once, they said it ten times.

So what did I like about it? I enjoyed learning a lot more about Doyle: his first name (Francis), his age, his background, his taste in women. I liked Cordelia finally seeing that there was more to Doyle than she was seeing on his surface. I hadn't even noticed that Doyle is something like Xander until it was mentioned in this episode – duh. I enjoyed the whole demonology thing, too, and Doyle going demon, and why he doesn't like to do it.

What didn't I like about it? It was predictable. We all knew that even though the Animobic demons were supposed to be culturally assimilated into humanity, something was off about them. I mean, what kind of restaurant owners would sit down to a dinner of Kentucky Fried Chicken?


The fight scene during the party with everyone, including Angel and Doyle, in demon-face, was certainly something you don't see every day. The only thing during that hour that was stranger were those new Old Navy Performance Fleece commercials, which I always find bizarre.

A couple of bits:

— I haven't mentioned it yet, but I really like the flash backwards and flash forwards during the scene changes. They're effective and grab my attention.

— A demon mixer? If I thought I could meet someone like Angel at one, I'd go. With my luck, I'd end up with an Amimobic demon, though.

Quotes:

Harry: "He's got a good heart, Francis, just like you."
Doyle: "Yeah, maybe, but the container, eh? Can I get a side of bland with that bland?"


Harry: "Richard wanted a moment alone with Doyle to ask him to his bachelor party."
Cordelia: "Bachelor party? Why, is he afraid he ordered too much beer?"

Aunt Martha: "Come on girls, it's pornographic Pictionary time."
Harry: (to Cordelia) "Their ways are not our ways."

Harry: "And since when does your family follow the ancient teachings?"
Uncle: "We don't flaunt our beliefs, but they're very dear to us."
Harry: "Oh, please, Uncle John! When is the last time you pried yourself away from ESPN long enough to spill the blood of a she-goat?"

Brother: "You don't need her anyway."
Cousin: "Yeah, who wants a wife whose knees only bend the one way?"

Let's say one out of four stakes. Or maybe two. Okay, 1.5,

Billie
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Billie Doux reviewed all of Buffy and Angel, so she knows the plural of apocalypse.

7 comments:

  1. I enjoyed it about as much as you, Billie. It was fun and also interesting to get a little into Doyle's back story. I'm wishing we could get a balance between Buffy's galloping pace and the slow wandering steps they seem to be taking with Angel.

    In general I'm enjoying Angel the more of the two. Maybe because I'm comparing Season 4 of Buffy to the really entertaining 2 & 3, whereas I'm content to let Angel find its identity in their first season. Or maybe its just the shallow fun of watching Angel brood and Cordy be Cordy.

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  2. I mostly agree with your review Billie, I'm not too keen on the demon family storyline. Learning more about Doyle, and seeing the further development of Cordy does lift the episode up quite a bit for me so I'd have rated it at least 2.5, or maybe 3.

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  3. Watching Buffy and Angel back to back, I can see how Angel has the reputation it does. Compared with its corresponding Buffy episode, Bachelor Party is not great.

    I like it on its own. Particularly the fight scene. "You invited a vampire to my brother's bachelor party?" Also, I use "their ways are not our ways" all the time. :)

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  4. This episode does show the differences between the two shows. The Buffy episode this week had so much going on; this one was a bit quieter.

    Having said that, I like this one as it continues to set up the first season. Cordy is growing and it is shown beautifully in how bored she is on her date. Doyle is more than we have been led to believe; there is a lot going on beneath the surface.

    I like the end of this episode. Good mini cliffhanger.

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  5. I actually enjoyed this episode because it was just that little bit off-kilter. Wild woman marries boring guy who is actually a killer is pretty standard fare but I loved the way it was done in such a "normal" way. Of course eating your ex's brains is part of the deal - why wouldn't it be. You have to deal with that first marriage in some way. The bits about the wrong fork and the lobster bib were great. I thought it was a clever comment on the way we often do awful things and normalize them. This was underscored with the comments about being racist and the "stripper" being the thing that they all thought was naughty. Just your average middle-class American brain eating demon family.

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  6. I suspect the idea was to poke fun at booze-and-strippers bachelor parties as being an old fashioned custom, but the jokes fell a bit flat for me. I think it might have served better as a B plot. I mean, I'd rather learn more about Doyle than about his ex-wife, and especially her new annoying husband.

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  7. This (fun) episode made me wonder about series lore. Okay, so it's been established (in what I've watched so far) that it's unusual for a vampire to have a soul; outside of the curse, they never seem to have one, though Spike seems to have some characteristics of one.

    This family of demons however (same with Doyle) seems to act as though they have souls - despite it doing little good. So apparently some demons do come with souls, and it seems to be hereditary?

    I'm probably thinking too much. Maybe I should ask a demonethnocologist.

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