Angel: Judgement

"Are we tracking a real tunnel, or symbolic?"

The first thing we see in this new season is the face of a nasty looking demon, accompanied by a sinister musical cue… then he starts singing and giving of vibes of being rather camp, and a thoroughly nice chap. A nice bit of misdirection, although it probably works better on first viewing, as I immediately recognised Lorne, as we shouldn't yet be calling him, and having sad thoughts about Andy Hallett's untimely death. It'll be interesting to see how often he appears during the first part of the season and when we can start thinking of him as a regular.

Speaking of new regulars… J. August Richards has been promoted to the opening titles, and gets to meet Cordelia and Wesley in a splendidly awkward scene that speaks volumes about the sort of instinctive racial stereotyping that sometimes happens even amongst the most liberal of us. But the opening sequence of this semi-relaunch episode also re-establishes the existing trio. Cordelia, after last season, is now so committed to the cause that she abandons a very promising audition at the beep of a pager (how quaint!), while Wesley is, er, good at darts, and by now a very different character from the klutz he used to be.

There's a little Wolfram and Hart stuff, with a bit of Darla and an introduction to Lindsey's new hand, but this episode is focused more on a weird, extra-dimensional mediaeval court. Interestingly, Angel seems to be moving away from straight horror fantasy to magical, extra-dimensional weirdness with demons that might as well be aliens. It's a distinctive style, very different from Buffy, and I like it, in spite of the occasionally dodgy costumes.

This brings us rather nicely to Lorne's karaoke bar, with its extremely diverse clientele, and the interesting conceit that Lorne can read the emotions and, up to a point, the fate of people when they sing. Already, on his first appearance, he's a great character. Also, we get to see Angel massacre Barry Manilow although, sadly, I don't mean that literally.

Most interesting, of coursed, is Angel. He's brought down from the highs, and possible hubris, of the Shanshu prophecy when he makes a mistake. And yet he redeems himself by literally taking on the role of a modern day knight errant to make amends. A deeply chivalrous man in twentieth century California… again, echoes of Raymond Chandler.

It's deeply satisfying, too, and deeply thematic, to see Angel bonding so well with Faith, in prison. The two of them have so much in common. It's the perfect place to end.