Angel: The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco

"Hermanos! The Devil has built a robot!"

This is, I suppose, as bog standard and disposable as episodes of Angel get. It certainly feels that way. And yet it’s still bloody good telly and masterful in its use of character. As I’ve become fond of saying, if this is a disposable episode then colour me impressed.

The tale of Number Five is heartwarming enough, entertaining, fun, and a good hook for an episode. I’m a little puzzled as to why Holland Manners would headhunt him personally and then have him spend fifty years in a menial job, but meh. And what are these menial internal nail jobs anyway? You see them everywhere in American films and telly but they must surely have been rendered extinct by email. Perhaps even in 2003 they would surely be well on the way out?

Anyway, all the stuff with the wrestlers and Aztec demon is fun, even for those of us who do t live on a country bordering Mexico and who don’t necessarily know much about the culture. It works as an A story. But I think the story is really about Angel and his motivation to keep being a hero. At the start we see him disengaged, a contrast to Gunn who loves getting up in the morning now he can use his lawyer superpowers to do good and make a difference. The problem is, of course, that he’s lost faith in the Shanshu prophecy, but the events of the episode cause him to perhaps rekindle that faith. All this Shanshu stuff is going to be important soon then. And it must apply to Angel, apparently, as Spike is a ghost...

This is perhaps my least favourite episode of the season so far. And it’s still bloody excellent.

Angel: Quickening

"Manifest destiny, the Beach Boys..."

Well, that's me up to date with blogging all the episodes of Angel I've seen so far. Nearly there with Buffy, Cucumber, Grimm and one outstanding film, but im proud of this Angel post. Mainly because I'm writing it with my baby daughter in my arms and feeding her. Anyway...

Angel shows no signs that it's going to stop being first class telly any time soon. We begin with a flashback to York in 1764 although, of course, this being an American programne, no one seems to have a Yorkshire accent. Cue Holtz's family getting mercilessly slaughtered by Angelus. Naturally, Sahjahn chooses this very moment to transport him 237 years forward in time, sworn to kill Angel with his inhuman underlings. And all this at a time when rather a lot is going on. And, into this, plus Darla being up the duff with Angel's child, a possible antichrist, we can also add Wolfram and Hart.

Our evil legal firm are somewhat behind the curve in the whole Darla-being-with-child stakes, although Lilah continues to run rings round the ambitious yet rather stupid Gavin, however much short term advantage he may have at any one time.

Into all this we have the bombshell that is Darla's waters breaking, after having those TV style contractions that only last a couple of hours. Birth and pregnancy on telly are so very neat, and not at all like it was for Mrs Llamastrangler last months. Believe you me, contractions can last muuuuch longer. And the waters breaking us only a vague sign. But, anyway... it's a human. A boy!

What's truly impressive in this episode is the confluence of events to set up so many different things for next episode, which is obviously a big one. There's a real sense of fast-moving excitement here, and yet there's still time for character moments and Wolfram & Hart terminating its psychics' employment contracts with extreme prejudice.

Angel continues to be excellent. I'm genuinely excited about the next episode.

Angel: That Vision Thing

"Time to go visit Daddy!"

Interesting cliffhanger, with pregnant Darla and the above quote, but this is, essentially, a story of the week designed as an arc story; we already know that Cordelia's visions are getting worse, so it's a surprise that this is actually the work of Lilah, using a bit of a dodgy and vaguely racist-ish Asian stereotype to manipulate her into having visions in order to manipulate Angel.

Angel really, really loves Cordy. He's a knight in shining armour to the extent that you just know that they're deliberately using that trope. He will save her, no matter what the cost- and we just know that the bloke he freed from Hell is going to do something which will bite him in the arse. The rules of drama so decree.

That, and Darla, and the establishment of the rivalry between Lilah and Gavin, are the major arc threads here, but it's nice to see Fred coming out of her shell. Slowly. And her crush on Angel is cute.

Oh, and we meet Skip. I love Skip.

This is a rather forgettable episode by Angel's standards, but the subplots are simmering nicely. On with the next.

Marvel`s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Ragtag

"What are you feeling?"

''The universe...''

If you`ll indulge me for a sentence, we`ve just (finally!) got our Sky viewing card today (after switching way back on 28th April...), and for the first time we saw M.A.S. in glorious HD. Wow.

Throughout this episode are flashbacks relating to the relationship between Ward and his father figure, Garrett, which nicely inform the scenes between them in the present. We begin fifteen years ago, as Garrett springs the teenage Ward from juvie, slowly toughening him up and brainwashing him to become the perfect Hydra tool. Ward's relationship with his own family, it is hinted, is unspeakably horrible; he is easy prey for the cynical and charismatic Garrett. There is a slight indication that Ward may not be entirely beyond redemption- he doesn't shoot the dog- but the episode still ends with him dropping Fitz and Simmons, locked in a box, into the waters of the Caribbean. We have to wait a week to see whether they survive.

At the other end of the episode, Coulson annd his team, now permanently augmented by Howling Commmando descendant Trip, face the fact that they are now just a bunch of vigilantes with no status and no support. They are resourceful, however; Coulson has worked out that Cybertek is behind everything and, armed with some of Tripp`s family heirloom James Bond gadgets and the hilarious sight of Couson and May trying to be scientists, they set out to investigate its HQ.

This whole sequence is hilarious, from Coulson and May channelling Fitz and Simmons via their earpieces (complete with Coulson`s accidental lapse into Caledonian vowels!) to Skye and Trip, hacking equipment at the ready, being told to "Get ready for a large file transfer", only for a file cabinet to crash out of  window, followed by our two infiltrators.

It seems that Garrett was the first Deathlok, back in 1990, and he remains a bionic man. There`a a twist, though; he`s dying, and stands to die within a month or two unless the GH-25 serum works and, after an attack by an outraged Fitz, Raina is forced to use all of her synthesised forum to save his life. What has he become...?

If that wasn`t enough cliffhangers already, we get another; Raina has discovered something big about Skye`s past, something that involves her parents being monsters...! I can hardly wait for the finale.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: T.A.H.I.T.I

"What do you think, Fitz? Can you get us inside?"

"To certain, horrible death? Absolutely!"

Could it be? Two superb episodes in a row, both arc episodes to boot? It seems it could. Joss Whedon may not have written or directed anything since the first episode, but at last this feels like one of his shows.

We begin as we left off, with Skye's life in the balance. The episode takes the form of a quest to find the only possible cure for Skye: whatever it was that S.H.I.E.L.D used to bring back Coulson. There's a catch, though; Ian Quinn is being held prisoner, and he points out that, if the team choose to save Skye, the Clairvoyant will discover what he's been wanting to know. Still, at least Agent May gets to duff him up a bit.

At last the whole team gets to find out what happened to Phil, and we learn that the whole thing is top secret, outside the usual structures, and sanctioned by Nick Fury himself. There are some dodgy ethics involved, surprise surprise. And, most relevantly, we find out where it all happens, so this episode can have a dramatic climax.

Anyway, Skye survives in the end, although possibly not unchanged, in an episode that requires very little acting from Chloe Bennet. But just as interesting  is the introduction of two characters, whom we will obviously see again, in the form of Garrett (played by no less a figure than Bill Paxton!) and Trip, seemingly an old friend of Ward. It is, perhaps, a little convenient that, having arrived to seize Quinn from a disobedient Coulson, they turn out to be so obliging, but they're cool characters of whom I'd like to see more.

Also intriguing is what Couldon finds behind the door marked "T.A.H.I.T.I". What is going on? And if all that isn't enough, it's Lorelei over from Asgard...

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: Eye Spy

"Girl parts and boy parts are different. And our parts aren't penises."

We're a few episodes into the first season and, not that I mean to set alarm bells ringing (Buffy and Angel both started out as somewhat meh: I have faith in the Whedon), it has still to really take off. This episode, yes, is a good bit of television, but it's a story of the week. It's time to declare that I don't feel overly attached to any of the characters, and that is starting to worry me.

Still, as I said, this is a damn good story of the week. The pre-titles teaser, with a load of identically besuited men in the Stockholm underground in their eerie V for Vendetta masks being offed by Akila Anadour, a mysterious yet tragic female assassin straight out of the Whedon playbook. The episode intrigues by developing her tragic story: a former protege of Agent Coulson (and thus a salutary glimpse into Skye's future if it all goes tits up), she went off the rails and is now controlled by some mysterious organisation which has replaced her eye with a bionic camera through which they can a) give her instructions to off people, and b) blow her up if she refuses.

It's a winning conceit, made more compelling by the jaded nobility of the character and her existential indifference to whatever law enforcement hell awaits her at the end, as she is now free in the existential sense. Parallels to The Outsider here, methinks.

We end, rather wonderfully, with the revelation that Akila's handler is himself being controlled in exactly the same way. Perhaps the same is true of his controller, like Russian dolls. Creepily, our ultimate antagonist here must remain faceless. 

Thing is, great though all this stuff is, it's about a guest character, and our main cast desperately needs work to make us care about them more. Yes, Akila is a signifier of Coulson's mysterious past and yes, she is a cautionary tale, of sorts, to Skye. But otherwise we establish little else about our regulars aside from Ward's fluency in Russian and more hints about what happened to Coulson.

What about that alien script, though? I'm sure we will hear of it again...