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Angel: Heartthrob

Angel: "Demon monks. Should have gone to Vegas."

Maybe they should have gone to Vegas. Maybe it was the hype hype hype about the Lord of the Rings trailer. Maybe it was just too chock full of plot elements to make a cohesive whole. And what an ending. Darla is pregnant? Cheese and crackers, what can they be thinking?

I like flashbacks on Angel. I really do. They have that Highlander-like feel, and I used to love the flashbacks on Highlander. (I miss Highlander.) That whole Marseilles thing in 1767 was cool, and the James and Elizabeth plot and James' surgical Terminator takes-a-licking and keeps-on-ticking enhancement was also probably the best part of this episode, and I wouldn't have minded more of that. But of course James had an expiration date, and now we won't. Couldn't we trade this for the Darla pregnant plotline? Pretty please?


What really ticked me off was the way they skated over Angel's reaction to Buffy's death. 250 years old, he's only loved one person in all that time, three months on retreat fighting demon monks and now he's just fine? Hey, I've lost a lot of people I love; it just didn't ring true. I know they're divorcing the two shows now that they're on separate stations, but still.

And Darla's pregnant? I know, I'm repeato-girl, but WHAT COULD THEY BE THINKING?

Bits:

— I hereby declare that it is unnatural to get a new Angel episode without a new Buffy episode in front of it. And what WB genius paired my favorite bloodsucking detective with the ooey gooey 7th Heaven?

— Wide screen. What's with that?

— In this week's hair report, Wesley had more of it while Cordelia seemed to be acquiring Willow's fourth year look. Which may be intentional to emphasize her growing fragility.

— The Host is still a continuing character, which is good. The scene he was in was kind of pointless, though.

— I was sort of intrigued by the hints about an immortal vampire hunter named Holtz. We'll see.

Quotes:

Cordelia: "I understand people who drink too much. I understand people who leave a little note on the parking meter that says it's broken when it's not. I don't understand people who worship demons."
Gunn: "Yeah, especially a lur-ite demon. The stink on that thing. You a prince of the underworld, bro, take a jacuzzi once in a while."

Wesley: "I realize we sacrifice a great deal of our... social lives, but we have to. Work demands it."
Gunn: "True. I mean, who's got time for love when you're out there doin' it with the demons? (Wesley gives him a look) Didn't that come out sad and wrong."

Cordelia: "The ring of Amarra, when you had that, you were invincible. Does he have a ring?"
Angel: "No."
Cordelia: "Did the Amarra people make cufflinks or belt buckles?"

Disappointing. I'm going to watch it again tonight and see if maybe I'm just having a bad day or something,

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

3 comments:

  1. I fast-forwarded through the modern day case-of-the-week in this episode, but at this point I’m used to Whedonverse season premieres not being that good.

    And—even though I’m not a big mystical pregnancy fan (who is?)—I love the Darla pregnancy plot.

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  2. A bit ahead of the re-watch I think, but "Wide screen, what's with that?" made me laugh - how times have changed! And how surprisingly old is this show? It stands up so well - and feels like it wouldn't be out of place in today's schedule.

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  3. I grinned at finding out it was apparently paired with 7th Heaven. I like knowing this stuff, wish I had the experience of watching it weekly (to the point where I've had dreams of catching it on TV, an experience I only had with Buffy and that was in its final season) but maybe that'd mean I'd be less tolerant of episodes like this one.

    Wes looks younger with the fuller head of hair, I like it.

    I was expecting Cordy to accidentally hit Angel with the thrown extinguisher, so when they didn't happen I was actually caught off-guard when her stake toss was the one she messed up and was caught by the Jesse Pinkman-looking guy.

    I liked the little action with the crutches.

    Darla being pregnant didn't seem any more unbelievable to me than her being resurrected, and I'm more tolerant of these kind of wild reveals happening at the beginning than at the end of a season, so it was fine with me.

    ReplyDelete

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