Angel: Smile Time

"You're a wee little puppet man!"

This is obviously the best episode ever. Let’s get that right out there. I mean, what’s not to adore? A bunch of evil Sesame Street puppets plotting to steal the life force of innocent kids for to sell to Hell for a massive profit; puppets controlling the puppeteer, played by David Fury himself... oh, and of course there’s little puppet Angel. And the trying-not-to-laugh reactions of the hand. And Spike’s reaction. Especially Spike’s reaction.

But that’s not all. There’s an interesting scene where the puppeteer skews Gunn and Lorne (finally getting a decent role) for working for an organisation that gets guilty people off and is, shall we say, somewhat lacking in ethics. We have Gunn continuing to have his legal upgrade fade away, taking away his purpose in life and leading to, as it gets called, Flowers for Algernon syndrome. He gets offered a deal with the devil for a permanent upgrade and next time we see him he seems to be lawyered up again- what happened?

Then there’s Nina, back again as it’s that time of the month, and besotted with Angel, whose awkward handling of this is quite hilarious, as is the scene where Wes tells him like it is, while himself completely failing to notice that Fred has now dumped Knox and is blatantly signalling at him. So it’s heartearming to see Angel and Nina finally agreeing to a date, and the punch the air moment that is that kiss between Fred and Wes.

Now, Mr. Whedon... I can’t help remembering what you did after Willow and Rara got back together so joyously in Buffy. You’re not about to do anything, well, evil are you?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Gone

"There was a voice, before. It made my coffee dance."

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a serious and harrowing episode of Buffy must be followed by a silly and light-hearted one. Hence this little romp where Buffy has a lot of fun being invisible and eventually even cheers up to the point where she no longer has a death wish.

Not that the whole episode is silly, though: Willow may be a magnificent sleuth here, but this is where her cold turkey from the crude drug addiction metaphor of recent episodes really begins. Buffy gets a visit from a social worker at the worst possible time, and her custody of Dawn is under threat.. but, fortunately, due to hi-jinks the clock us reset on that one. Phew. 

The sex scene between invisible Buffy and Spike is fun (once again it seems Buffy is rather rough and dominant in bed: wonder if Riley is visiting dominatrixes now?), but what happens afterwards is new: Spike actually kicks Buffy out because she's just using him for sex. Wow.

And we end with the Scoobies finally realising that Andrew, Warren and, of all people, Jonathan seem to be this season's big bad. Enough to make you miss Glory...

Angel: Disharmony

"Man... atonement`s a bitch!"

Things have been a little heavy lately, so it`s time for a light-hearted episode before the run-up to the season finale. Enter Harmony who, in a little foretaste of Season 5, has a go at pretending not to be evil.

 Of course, the episode also has a function in the ongoing season arc, namely in establishing that Angel may have rejoined Angel Investigations, but not as its leader; he is now Wesley`s underling and at the bottom of the pecking order, making the coffee. Things are more than a little awkward; Cordelia, direct as ever, tells him that "You and I- we`re not friends."

Into this awkward situation comes a delightfully self-obsessed Harmony who, this being a crossover episode, describes her experience in the last episode of Buffy as "Just got out of a really smothering relationship." Bless. She`s so delightfuly self-centred and, well, Californian. She omits, of course, to actually tell anybody that she is now of the undead persuasion, but she and Cordelia are soon enjoying their little school reunion.

 Cordy, being Cordy, knows that something is up but simply assumes that Harmony has a bit of a lesbian thing for her going on. Hilariously, Cordy hears the vampiric truth via a phone call from Willow, also (of course) managing to put her foot in it regarding Willow`s own Sapphic orientation. How can anyone not love Cordelia, the Lucille Ball of the Buffyverse?

There is, of course, also a fairly generic bunch of vampire baddies who exist, plot-wise, only so that we, the audience, can try and guess which side Harmony will take. They too, in a rather witty twist, are very contemporary and Californian; I love the concept of a vampire pyramid scheme.

Which side does Harmony take? Well, er, she`s evil. Of course she betrays her friends who, rather decently (unless you`re one of her near-future victims), do no more than kick her out of LA. Still, at least Angel and Cordy are beginning to bond again...
 

Angel: Parting Gifts

"I'm evil.  But hey, I'm not, you know, evil."

In the time-honoured Whedon-verse tradition, we get a nice, light-hearted episode to help us get over the emotional turmoil of last episode and, in that very same tradition, it's bloody good. Plus, you know, Wesley.

Doyle isn't in this episode, what with being dead and all, but it's a fitting wake to him, though with slightly less potent liquid refreshment than the dead man would have preferred. It's lovely that the episode should start with Angel once again visiting the Oracles, imploring them for his friend's life. He departed with few worldly goods to his name, but there's one precious gift he did indeed bequeath to the one person he deemed worthy: Cordelia now gets the visions, which more firmly establishes her role in Angel Investigations.

I loved Cordelia anyway, but this episode has deepened my love for her even further. She's just so delightfully self-centred, taking ages and ages of moaning before she gets around to describing her vision. Even better than that is her outrage at going for such a low price in the auction. And the comic chemistry between Charisma Carpenter and David Boreanaz is just purring by this point. All things about Cordelia are wonderful.

Still, let's not forget Angel himself, After all, this is where we discovered that he's a great cook, and is fluent in Korean, or at least he is when the plot requires it. There's also an interesting line where he refuses to allow Wesley to go with him into danger because he lost Doyle by doing that. He only refuses once, though.

The plot is fun; a nice, harmless little card cheat demon client who's being pursued by a mysterious but clearly badass figure on a motorbike and a sinister black helmet. But the plot, of course, thickens, with much hilarity ensuing, pausing only for a bit of threatened eye-gouging. Urrrgh.

But, well Wesley! I love the way the tension is gradually ramped up until we discover that this fearsome assassin is, in fact, only him. He's a great, fun character, clearly there to provide the pratfalls, but his scholarly knowledge of demons and whatnot will obviously prove useful to the team.

Interestingly, he now has a bit of hinterland; having failed two Slayers, he's been sacked by the Watcher's Council and, notwithstanding his amusing prancing around as a "rogue demon hunter", he sees himself as a failure and a fraud. Just like every single other heroic character in the show so far, he has something to atone for. But that doesn't mean he can't be comic relief most of the time. The final scene is fantastic in particular. It's so, so good to see Wesley back again, and part of the team. It's immediately obvious, too, what great comic chemistry Alexis Denisof has with the other two.

It's a strange episode I suppose. Right in the middle of the season, it's a combination of a tribute to Doyle and a reboot of sorts, not only replacing one of the original cast with someone else but rearranging peoples' roles.

And who's that who "won" the auction? Wolfram and Hart again…

Angel: Lonely Hearts

"The socialising thing is brutal."

Well, after a great first episode… I'm not really feeling this one, people. It felt rather so-so and by the numbers. I don't thing the theme was developed particularly well; yes, it's hard being in a big scary city amongst strangers, even harder to meet someone to be with, but we need to be shown this in relation to characters we care about. That didn't happen and for me, well, the episode sort of failed to make a connection.

It doesn't help that I just don't like the character of Kate Lockley. It's nothing to do with Elisabeth Rohm, but the character as written comes across as chippy, brittle and profoundly unlikeable. There's nothing wrong with having characters like this, but it's an odd choice of characterisation for someone who's intended to be a series regular, and one of the good guys. It doesn't help that I really, really hate to see dramas resorting to that tired old cliché of the hero being misunderstood by authority figures such as the police; it's frustrating to watch, and it's pretty much always little more than a crude way of padding out the running time for a bit; the plot can hardly advance when this sort of thing is happening. If dramas are going to resort to this then they damn well need to think it through and use it to develop the characters. That didn't happen here; the plot just got pointlessly held up. Plus, even worse, the episode ended with Kate having no idea that there was a supernatural element to the murders or that Angel was a vampire. It's all going to happen again isn't it?

The central idea- a parasite serial killer which seduces people and takes their bodies- is actually a pretty good one, but the fact that there was never any threat to a character we know diluted the idea considerably. The ending is a little awkward, too, with a conveniently placed fire. What was done well was the depiction of how horrible and desperate these places are; everyone hates these places, but it's the only way to meet someone in the big city. What makes it worse is that these people have the misfortune to be in the late '90s. I mean, what do people think they're wearing?

It's interesting, I suppose, that the burrower demon only kills people after sex. I'm not sure there's a metaphor here beyond the literal making a connection, but you have to feel sorry for the poor bloke whose last embarrassed moments are spent apologising for his bad sexual performance.

There's a bit more amusing development of Angel's awkwardness with people and his reluctance to socialise, and David Boreanaz is great with all this. Also, it's interesting to watch Doyle gradually and nervously inch towards asking Cordelia out. But there's not much here regarding characters or the series arc, and the episode is, well, a bit rubbish, and it's worryingly early for this sort of thing. I hope the next episode is better.