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Angel
Episode Air Date 9/24/01
Angel returns, ready to move on to a new unlife.
And so the new era begins. Separated from his true love not just by death but by financial negotiations with another network, Angel now walks his heroic path more alone than ever. As long as you don't count Cordelia, Gunn, and Wesley. Oh, and The Host. And Fred. For a loner, Angel sure has a lot of friends.
Since Buffy's death at the end of last season, our hero has spent three months on retreat in a monastery somewhere in Asia. (Though Gunn suggests Vegas and booze.) Unfortunately, he picks a monastery inhabited by life-sucking demon monks, and so the new season starts off with a bang before getting to the main storyline.
While saving a couple of college students from a pack of vampires, Angel kills a female vampire with ties to his past. Once again, we get an extended flashback to his days as Angelus, running with Darla and two "new" (or heretofore unknown) vamps in his brood. More interestingly, we catch a glimpse of Holszt, a vampire killer who is rumored to be on the horizon for this season. How can a mortal man survive from the 18th century to hunt Angel in the 21st? Leave that to Joss Whedon.
Or more likely, his staff. This season Whedon will be taking a less active role in the development of the show, which only makes sense since he will be developing Ripper for the BBC, writing comics for Dark Horse, and possibly working on the Iron Man film. He has left Angel in good hands, however.
What we have is a show very capable of standing on its own from Buffy The Vampire Slayer. With Buffy's death, Angel has to face that his undead life goes on, and it may be time to leave the brooding act behind.
He also has to contend with Fred, the woman he rescued from Pyleah last season. Separated from humans for five years, she has made herself a shut-in in Angel's hotel headquarters. His attempts at coaxing her out belie the humanity he constantly denies himself, while underscoring his true role as a redeemer of mankind - one soul at a time.
And while it's clear that Fred has somewhat of a crush on Angel, one unrequited relationship has started getting creepy. Does anyone else suspect that Cordelia's ghost Dennis certainly gets a frightening amount of leeway for a dead heterosexual virgin who is "…just friends?" It will be interesting to see that one blow up this year.
Thankfully, too, in this era of everyone trying to jump on the Hong Kong Cinema bandwagon, Angel's fight scenes still just look like messy fights. If any show had an excuse to do extensive wire work, it would be this one, but still they do it the old-fashioned way as much as possible, even when dealing with demon monks.
So far, so good, especially with the added bonus of the Lord of the Rings trailer.
