Got it today along with Buffy season 3 (and thankfully “Homecoming” is undamaged contrary to the unfortunate experience of others here). I’ve watched about half of the season, up through “Expecting.” The season’s better than I remember it being when it was broadcast, although “I Fall To Pieces” is still the worst episode ever.
Somehow I’d gotten the impression that the events of season 1 were actually the first two seasons. For example, I was sure Gunn was introduced in season 2 and I’d totally forgotten that evil lawyer Lindsay was in the pilot. I was also firmly convinced that Kate didn’t find out about Angel’s vampirism until season 2. Interesting to see how Angel has been portrayed as less technically savvy from season to season to play up the “man out of time” aspect of the character. In season 1 he did research by computer and sent email, a far cry from “they talk about me in the chatty rooms?”
The special features so far are totally lame. A “featurette,” a stills gallery, set blueprints and cast biographies. the bios were done before Glenn Quinn’s death as he’s discussed in the present tense in his bio. The last disc has three “featurettes” that I haven’t gotten to yet. There are commentaries for a couple of episodes out of the first 12 which I haven’t listened to yet; don’t know yet if there are any for the last ten. I don’t understand why creative teams that put together such great shows offer up such weak bonus material.
I have the collection, and my thoughts are similar to yours.
“I Fall to Pieces” was a terrible episode.
I also thought Gunn appeared later, and the same about Darla’s resurrection.
The featurettes are as lame and the packaging is as bad as on the three Buffy collections (there’s no indication in the table of contents, for example, of where the bonus features and commentaries lie).
Faith’s appearance in the last half of the season was as incandescently wonderful as I’d remembered it.
Sarah Michelle Gellar’s performance in “I Will Remember You” was as great as I’d remembered too. It’s what I think of when people try to tell me Sarah can’t act.
Including the script to an episode is the stupidest “feature” imaginable. Who cares about reading a script on their TV?
Oh, I gotta disagree with you about SMG’s performance in that ep. Nothing any different than any other Buffy performance and the woman can’t cry on screen to save her life. I hate it when they have her cry because she has no sense of nuance. It’s screw up the face, squint the eyes and bawl.
Did you notice any static while watching “I’ve Got You Under My Skin”? Mine looks like a high-end non-cable broadcast.
I agree about the special features. What’s strange, is that SMG is not in a single interview on any of the boxes I have (Buffy 1-4, Angel 1&2). Not even the box for season one, which would be obvious. The ‘featurette’ is with David B and JW talking about Buffy. Why not a good interview with SMG?
From watching season 1, I think it’s obvious that Ats has gone from OK, to very very good. The arc is weak. The whole subplot with Kate is annoying.
Have watched up through the episode where Cordy gets her own poltergeisty apartment. I didn’t watch Angel when it first came out so it’s enjoyable to catch up. “I Fall to Pieces” is incredibly bad, though, I agree.
I know that Doyle was offed in mid-season but I wonder if it was planned that way from the beginning or if the actor caused problems of some sort. I am enjoying his character and will miss him when he goes.
Enjoyed David Greenwalt and Joss Whedon’s commentary on the pilot. It’s obvious they’re good friends because they rib each other. “And here is the scene filmed in one of the most beautiful spots in L.A. It was very expensive to shoot here. Of course, you can’t actually SEE any of the great views and it looks like it was filmed on a back lot because of Joss’s fine directorial work.”
I know that Doyle was offed in mid-season but I wonder if it was planned that way from the beginning or if the actor caused problems of some sort.
According to what I’ve read (confirmed here in a 1999 article), Joss planned it from the beginning.
It kind of goes back to the character of Jesse in the first episode of Buffy. Joss wanted to make it clear that this wasn’t a show in which everything was neatly tied up in 60 minutes, and that sometimes good people died unexpectedly. No one was safe. He wanted to illustrate the point with the character of Jesse, who looks like a regular, but dies in the first episode. The only problem was that they couldn’t afford two versions of the opening credits - one with him and one without, so it made him look like a “red shirt” all along.
He did it again with Doyle, but this time did it right. Nine eps, and Doyle was gone for good.
I just finished watching my set. I can’t believe I resisted watching Angel for so long. I was never very fond of his character on BtVS, and couldn’t imagine watching an hour long brood-a-thon. I could have been enjoying AtS instead of hating Riley!
It also made me realise how sad the loss Glenn Quinn was. I think he was a really good actor, I wouldn’t hesitate to say maybe the best one in the series.
See, I kinda liked “I Fall to Pieces”–just because of the fake-y chattering teeth that bit someone’s arm near the end.
And maybe I’m a hopeless Buffy/Angel together fan, but I loved “I will remember you,”–I cried and cried at the end (yes, I am a big loser…why do you ask?)
I just got into Buffy in the past three months, and I’ve been watching the DVDs in order. I didn’t have much hope for Angel, but I’m enjoying it a little more than Buffy, I think. (I’m about to start season 6 of Buffy, and I’m halfway through Season 2 of Angel…thank goodness for amazon.co.uk!)
End of Season 1 spoiler:
And the moment where Angel throws the ax or whatever, and slices Lindsay’s hand off? Amazing! It was so unexpected that I just jumped in my seat–it was one of those “did he really do that?” moment. Plus it was incredibly cool.
IMHO, the first season of Angel isn’t just it’s weakest, it is leaps and bounds worse than the last 2 1/2 years. The show was very confused early; they didn’t know what they wanted to be.
The more separate they got from BTVS, the better it has gotten, ending with the last two seasons, which have been better than the first two.
In reality, I’m amazed I stuck with the show in its first year. It was terrible.
I quite liked these episodes – I haven’t seen any other Angel so I don’t know what it’ll be like in the future, but I was pretty happy with the monster-of-the-week feel. But most of all – I am so happy to be seeing Cordelia again! I’ve missed her terribly from Buffy and she’s really a breath of fresh air. And even though her character has some more depth to it than it ever did on Buffy (except the occasional scene late in S2 or early in S3), it doesn’t seem forced, like someone grafted gravitas on to her, but rather that she came to it honestly, without changing her central personality.
TPWombat, the last time we saw Kate she’d been fired from the police force, partly because of her obsession with the supernatural. I think this was at the end of season two.
She tried to commit suicide by taking pills, but was saved at the last minute by Angel, who burst into her home, woke her up, induced vomiting, put her under the shower etc.
Angel doesn’t want to leave, afraid she’ll try to kill herself again, but Kate promises that won’t happen because she knows something bigger than either of them is going on now. Angel asks her how she knows this, and she says
“Because I never invited you in.”
Then we never saw Kate again, because the actress who played her got a regular gig on a big-network crime show (I don’t recall which one).
It’s just as well; I always thought she had zero chemistry with Boreanaz.
I didn’t put in the rest of the quote, because I guess it’s a spoiler. But I don’t know why it’s a spoiler since they never did anything with it. Which is number 2 on my long list of complaints against “Angel” – they are constantly setting stuff up and then they never pay off. I’m always bitching about the show on this message board, but I had forgotten all about that episode and had totally forgotten that they never mentioned that “plot point” again. At least, as far as I know – I stopped watching soon after.
Number 1, for the curious, is that the tone of the show is all over the place. At least early on in “Buffy,” they seemed to be able to balance the comedy, melodrama, and action. “Angel” just seems like they can’t decide whether it’s dark’n’edgy or light’n’goofy, so they just bounce back and forth.
And Number 3 relates to that – they take one gag and run it completely into the ground. I can’t count how many times they’ve had the exact same scene: bad stuff is going on, a giant, fearsome demon appears, the dramatic music swells, the camera slowly pans up the scary demon and settles on its face, then pauses. And then the demon says some wacky contemporary comment like “That spell was the shiznit” or something. Cut to commercial.
While I’m at it, Number 4 was the character of Lindsay and the whole Wolfram & Hart subplot. Number 5 is Lorne, who thankfully is less annoying now than he was when they first introduced him.
But then, that two-parter episode with Faith was just excellent. So I can never give up on the show completely. Feh.
Joss talks about this on the commentary for “Welcome to the Hellmouth.” But he adds, “A lot of people seemed really pissed off at me for that, so maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.”
Season 1 Angel isn’t terrifically consistant, but it has some excellent moments, and I like the dry humor they developed from the very beginning. “I Will Remember You” and the Faith arc are both really fabulous episodes the first season of a show. I’m enjoying my DVDs - some of these episodes I missed the first time round completely, and it’s been so long I’ve forgotten a lot about even the ones I had seen before.
Although Joss insists that Doyle was always set to leave the show, it has always been rumored that Glenn Quinn was fired because he was a sever alcoholic. This is ultimately what killed him as well, which is a shame.
It was nice to see an episode dedicated to his memory, though.
Got through another disc and a half over the last couple of days and gee, did “Eternity” ever point up a problem with the current plotline that I’d forgotten all about. Instead of ripping Angel’s soul out of him, they could have just doped him up.
