Angel Rewatch Season One

[I Heart Dirt]

Originally Posted by Livvie

And the coffee drinking. Remember when he said coffee made him jittery in BTVS. Seems to have overcome that.

I'm glad someone mentioned this! Because I watched that episode of BtVS about a month ago and couldn't but think "What? Jittery? But the fics...and Cordy's bad coffee. Is it all a lie." Of course it wasn't actually like that, but you get my jist lol.

[Livvie]

SUMMARY

Doyle (Glenn Quinn) receives a new vision that sends the group to the club scene. They soon learn they are looking for a serial killer who seeks his prey from D'Oblique, a chi-chi singles bar. While perusing the crowd, Angel meets Kate (Elisabeth Rohm), an L.A. police detective and D'Oblique regular. Though they initially bond, Angel is pre-occupied by his mission and devotes his effortsto pursuing the killer. After a violent confrontation, Angel discovers the suspect is a demon parasite. Doyle and Cordelia bond as they learn more about the identity and behaviors of the demon and Kate and Angel soon work together to catch the killer.

-From Buffyworld

Zee totally optional discussion questions:

What was your favorite scene?
What was your least favorite scene?
What was your favorite line?
What line made you roll your eyes?
What would you change if you could?
C/A factor?
Anything that just sticks in your craw?

[Livvie]

So once again Nikki and I watched at the same time. Again, if anyone wants, I will set up a time and chat room for Friday night viewing if we all want to organize a time. Anything you guys want, I can do. (Well not ANYTHING LOL)

My favorite scene is probably when Cordelia brings in the business cards. The sheer look of joy on Angel's face. He is all excited cause weee! Legit business man! My favorite line...tough one. Not that many stick out for me.

The least favorite scene? Probably any when Angel is all stumbly over his words when he gets around Kate. I realize she is Buffy 2.0 (tiny green eyed blonde) but come on! Not to mention Kate is probably one of the worst cops ever. She is supposed to be undercover but she spends her whole time sitting at the bar or talking to ONE person about HERSELF instead of gathering info. She searches Angel's place without a warrant. Oh, then when they are trapped in the basement, she only remembers her gun to shoot the lock AFTER Angel tries his grappling hook. And um, you might have wanted to arrest Angel simply for resisting arrest and assaulting an officer, you know?

Worst line/exchange, hands down:
Kate: “Well, I’ll tell you what: I can go where ever I want and ah, - you can go to hell.”
Angel watches her walk into the bar: “Been there, done that.”

My goddaughter could write a better line than that. It makes me just roll my eyes.

C/A-ness: Again, probably two scenes stand out. The one where Cordy gets the business cards and Angel smiles. And then again, when the bar is closing and she is so blunt about Angel's curse and he just smiles again. Love it when Angel smiles.

Inconsistencies: Probably just the Kate issues. Oh, and the fact that on BTVS, we see that Cordy has some drawing skills (see Go Fish: http://i50.tinypic.com/24ci5o7.jpg) but then they have to make fun of her logo? Hello, looks like an angel to me. Lame way to get laughs.

Fashion Choices: Debateable if the sweater Angel wore to the club was black or dark dark green (it looks green in some light) but he was for sure wearing a wine colored button up when they were looking up the club info.

[AngryScientist]

Daily, awesome. I'll prolly miss the chats so here's some thoughts from my rewatch last week.

I love the Vast song montage.

And laugh at the "been there" line.

The business cards = so so awesome! The logo gags got old fast, poor Cordy never caught a break with that.

Hated how Angel was so taken by the dumb and fugly chick trying to pick him up after the fight. LAME.

The demon was pretty disgusting, that type of monster is classic.

[nikkiwawa]

What was your favorite scene?
My fave scene is also the business card sequence. It was just a really cute scene. Doyle and Angel trying to figure out what the logo was lmao Cordy, wanting to smack them over the head.

What was your least favorite scene?
The first Kate scene. It just did nothing for me. I felt like they were setting her up to be a Buffy part 2 love interest. Can we just get back to the case, please?

What was your favorite line?
From Cordy:
“I’m an actress, a student of the human animal. I don’t need to talk to people to know their story.”

“You see jazz-hands over there? Mama’s boy. Peter Pan complex. (points at a short haired blonde) Self-absorbed closet-dud, with a big ‘the world owes me’ chip on her shoulder. (points to Sharon leaving with Kevin) Check out Sarah-plain-and-tall. Has or comes from big money.”

What line made you roll your eyes?
from Kate:
“Depends on how many Daiquiris I’ve had. Oh, god, way to come off like a drunken slut. Slut’s better then a hypocrite though, right? I’m moving up.”

WTF GTFO

C/A factor?
There wasn't much of a C/A factor but I loved how Cordy is taking care of the business with getting the business cards, promoting(very well, I might add) at the club getting the word out. She genuinely wants Angel Investigations to get off the ground and get business rolling. It shows a lot of effort on her part and I'm sure Angel is grateful.

The protectiveness of Cordy from Angel is shown courtesy of Doyle wanting Angel to put in a good word and Angel's all "I barely know you". I see what you did there, Angel<3

I did like the scene, after the Vast music montage, when Angel returns to Cordy's apartment and notices Cordy laying down on Doyle. Angel looks a little annoyed and slams the door. IDK He might have been annoyed because they fell asleep when they should be researching.

Livvie, I agree so hard about the drawing bit LOL Not only in BtVS but when she draws her first vision in "Parting Gifts" she showed off her drawing skills. So, the fact that they played up the logo gag was moronic on their part.

[Dannyblue]

What was your favorite scene?

Angel, Cordy and Doyle sitting around the bar, just talking. It had such a very, "friends hanging out" vibe to it.

What was your least favorite scene?

I don't like them picking on the logo. I liked it. And ME obviously liked it, or else they wouldn't have used it in their promotions. And I'm sure they could've found another funny way for the boys to tick Cordy off.

What was your favorite line?

“If that was my gift, I’d return it." Considering this is Cordy talking to Doyle about his visions, it's hard not to be tickled by the irony.

What line made you roll your eyes?

Can't think of anything right off. I don't remember being particularly annoyed by the lines others have pointed out, but I can see why they got an eye roll from some.

What would you change if you could?

It's not really a change, I guess, but I'd love to have seen the original, much darker version of this episode.

C/A factor?

Originally Posted by nikkiwawa

I did like the scene, after the Vast music montage, when Angel returns to Cordy's apartment and notices Cordy laying down on Doyle. Angel looks a little annoyed and slams the door.

This. even back before I got bitten by the C/A bug, this got a raised eyebrow out of me. Especially the passive aggressive door slam.

Anything that just sticks in your craw?

It did annoy me that they made Kate so un-coplike at first so that we'd be all shocked and amazed when, after finding Angel at a murder scene, Kate pulls out a gun and a badge. I do remember being shocked, but they went about it in a very transparent way.

As for Kate, I had her pegged as Buffy 2.0 (a.k.a. what Buffy could be like in 10 years) pretty early on, but it didn't really bother me. And I always thought Kate/ER was strikingly gorgeous.

[Livvie]

SUMMARY

Angel (David Boreanaz) moves to L.A., unaware of his purpose in the City of Angels. There, he meets Doyle (Glenn Quinn), his half-man, half-demon spiritual advisor, who gives him much-needed direction. Doyle leads Angel to Russell Winters, a rich and powerful vampire, preying on aspiring actresses. When Winters sets his eyes on Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), Angel springs into action and saves her.

-From Buffyworld



SUMMARY

Doyle (Glenn Quinn) receives a new vision that sends the group to the club scene. They soon learn they are looking for a serial killer who seeks his prey from D'Oblique, a chi-chi singles bar. While perusing the crowd, Angel meets Kate (Elisabeth Rohm), an L.A. police detective and D'Oblique regular. Though they initially bond, Angel is pre-occupied by his mission and devotes his effortsto pursuing the killer. After a violent confrontation, Angel discovers the suspect is a demon parasite. Doyle and Cordelia bond as they learn more about the identity and behaviors of the demon and Kate and Angel soon work together to catch the killer.

-From Buffyworld

[DamnSkippy]

I'm not a big fan of this episode. I pretty much only like the Cordy/Doyle parts because the Kate/Angel interactions were awkward and boring. The dialogue concerning people needing to make a connection went on and on and on. I really wanted to disconnect from these people.

And a silly thing that bugs the crap out of me every time I see this ep, is when we first meet Kate and she's practically hunched back. Seriously, Kate, you expect to attract a man/killer without sitting up straight and pushing those boobs out? You look like a 90 year old grandmother sitting like that.

The demon. Obviously they pulled it from Alien storage. Did they do that on purpose to ride on the scary coat tails of that franchise or was it just cheaper than coming up with a new "donkey" demon? It didn't really scare me so much as take me out of this story and make me want to watch Alien again.

As I said the good parts were Cordy and Doyle. Those two were comedy gold. Every scene in her apartment was fun. While I'm not a fan of the dumbing down of Cordy and using her "ditziness" to be the butt of jokes, I can't help laugh at the donkey demon line. And it made it even funnier when I found out later that a lot of people didn't get it.

One of my favorite lines is:

Cordy: "I believe I covered that with the non-dairy kerplooey."

I'll admit I like smiley Angel. So, for me, his best scenes are the beginning card scene, the scene with C and D in the bar sitting around talking, when he comments on Cordy's awful apartment, and the end when he's grateful that they don't want to go out and he can brood in peace. And Cordy's adorable knowing smile that she gives to Doyle at the end is just...well...adorable.

A small WTF moment was when Kate was searching Angel's place and opened the fridge. There didn't appear to be any blood in there and she closed it quickly. I guess Angel just happened to be out of it, but it looked more like a convenient plot point to keep Kate unaware of his vampirism for a while longer.

Oh, and ITA with everyone about the card logo. It was so obviously an Angel so all the jokes about what it was fell completely flat. It really just made everyone (except Cordy for once) look stupid.

All in all, I give this episode 2.5 stars strictly for the Cordy/Doyle and the few other scenes I liked. It was a pretty big let down from the awesome City Of premiere, but I guess it was going to be hard to top that.

Suggestion: If anyone can think of fics that go with the episodes as we watch and can mention or link them, I think that would be fun. Any missing scene fics, or AU's that go off during or after the episode, etc. I can't think of any for this ep off the top of my head or even City Of. Can anyone else?

[Dannyblue]

Originally Posted by DamnSkippy

The demon. Obviously they pulled it from Alien storage. Did they do that on purpose to ride on the scary coat tails of that franchise or was it just cheaper than coming up with a new "donkey" demon? It didn't really scare me so much as take me out of this story and make me want to watch Alien again.

I actually found the demon interesting. It wasn't killing people because it was evil and that's just what evil things do. In fact, people dying was kind of an "unfortunate side effect" of the demon trying to find a cure for it's loneliness rather than the creature's main goal. I kinda liked it because it was different from the norm.

And I've been watching horror/sci-fi for so long that I can look at almost anything and decide it's been ripped of from something else. (Even Alien, which wasn't the first movie that had an "alien" creature getting into people and doing nasty things to them. Just the most famous.) So rather than focus on an idea perhaps being borrowed, I focus on how well (or not) each individual story tackles the idea.

[Bryan]

Yes - there are no new plots - when I was at school we were taught that there are only seven basic plots. It's not what you got it's how you use it!

[DamnSkippy]

Originally Posted by Dannyblue

I actually found the demon interesting. It wasn't killing people because it was evil and that's just what evil things do. In fact, people dying was kind of an "unfortunate side effect" of the demon trying to find a cure for it's loneliness rather than the creature's main goal. I kinda liked it because it was different from the norm.

And I've been watching horror/sci-fi for so long that I can look at almost anything and decide it's been ripped of from something else. (Even Alien, which wasn't the first movie that had an "alien" creature getting into people and doing nasty things to them. Just the most famous.) So rather than focus on an idea perhaps being borrowed, I focus on how well (or not) each individual story tackles the idea.

I agree the demon's motivations were different than most and in that respect it was interesting. But, I wasn't focusing on what the demon was or that it was an eviscerating type of being. I was only speaking about how it looked and the fact that it looked exactly like the Alien creature. And for me that immediately took me out of the TV show I was watching and put me in the Alien headspace which I'm not sure they were going for or not.

[samsmom]

I have to agree with Damnskippy. The monster was generic, and the least interesting thing about this episode. The metaphore of lonely singles, the loney monster in need of a connection, lonely Kate and sad panda Angel was less than subtle.

My enjoyment comes in the moments between the story - Cordelia's cards, Angel's subtle irritation with finding her asleep on Doyle, Angel's judgement of her apartment...etc. Love the way Cordelia profiled all those people, Little Miss Perceptive. And my most favorite part is when they're leaving the bar and Cordy does this little twirl in front of Angel as they're walking out.

There should be a gif.

*waits*

[Dannyblue]

Originally Posted by samsmom

The monster was generic, and the least interesting thing about this episode. The metaphore of lonely singles, the loney monster in need of a connection, lonely Kate and sad panda Angel was less than subtle.

I still think the demon's motivations are interesting, even though the episode itself treated it as your basic MOTW. But I agree that they went a little overboard on the whole loneliness and "making a connection" thing.

[samsmom]

I agree about the demon's motivations. AtS is already beginning to explore those grey themes with it, ambiguous monsters and demons that aren't as soulless as the Watcher's Council would have everyone believe. Lonely Hearts is only the second episode so it gets an automatic pass, but This Old Gang of Mine did a much better job of showing the human motivations of some monsters.

Also, I think they could have waited more than one episode to introduce Buffy 2.0. I wasn't much into Buffy/Angel by that point, but even I was offended by Kate's intro.

[Livvie]

SUMMARY

Oz (guest star Seth Green) pays a visit to Angel (David Boreanaz) and gives him the Gem of Amarra, the vampire's holy grail that grants eternal protection. Doyle (Glenn Quinn) wants Angel to wear it with pride, but Angel opts to play it safe and hidesit in the underground tunnels. He is soon kidnapped by Spike (guest star James Marsters) and tortured by a child-eating vampire named Marcus. While Angel is enduring the torture, Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) and Doyle locate the gem in the tunnels and quickly conspire Angel's rescue. The rescue goes almost according to plan, but in the scuffle, Marcus manages to obtain the gem and heads for the beach. The group follows him and Angel battleswith him to the death. Deciding that no vampire deserves to see the light of day, Angel smashes the ring with a brick.

-From Buffyworld

Food for thought:

What was your favorite scene?
What was your least favorite scene?
What was your favorite line?
What line made you roll your eyes?
What would you change if you could?
C/A factor?
Anything that just sticks in your craw?
Any fics that take place during this episode you'd like to rec?