I got burned by Babylon 5. I got the season 1 discs after never having seen an episode, based on the popularity that show has here. Disc 1 was weak, but based on such stellar recommendations, I kept watching. After disc 4, having seen one pretty good episode a couple of mediocre ones and a bunch of dreck, I gave up, a dozen hours of entertainment time gone. I sent back discs 5 and 6 unwatched.
I’m a big Buffy fan, but have never watched Angel due to a scheduling conflict. With the release of the season 1 dvd’s, I decided to check it out, and put them on my Netflix queue. I have discs 1-3 now, and just finished watching disc 1 (episodes 1-4). I have been less than impressed. The pilot was mediocre, with just two good moments (Cordelia thinking out loud as she realizes she’s on a date with a vampire; the final scene), the magic ring episode was just bad, followed by a couple of medicre episodes. I’m unsure if I should invest more time. I know that Buffy didn’t really hit its stride until Season 2, but two of the three leads on Angel are well-established characters, so the writers shouldn’t have the normal growing pains a new series usually suffers through.
Does it get better? Do they continue with the Monster of the Week plots, or are they eventually going to develop some season-long continuity, ala Buffy? Would I be better off sending them back unwatched and getting The Black Adder discs instead?
Meanwhile, I just received “The Whole Bean” boxed set (bought that one), so I have enough to occupy me for a few days at least.
The magic ring episode featured possibly one of the best spike bits ever, when he’s making fun of Angel’s haircut from a top a high building. It’s hilarious, especially if you know the history of both characters
I never really saw season 1, except for the very last ep. I do know that Season 1 doesn’t have the sort of full season arc that Season 4 has been having, but then, Season 4 has retroactively revealed a SERIES long arc plot, including some events in Season 1. I think that Wolfram & Hart is the closest thing there is to a season-long arc.
I didn’t find the torture scenes the least bit effective. I should be flinching when the hero gets tortured, as with the many torture scenes in this seasons “24”. Wasn’t even close. It’s difficult to create any dramatic tension when you know the good guy will survive virtually unscathed, but won’t get to kill the bad guy. It turned out to be little more than an episode long cameo.
But my problems with that episode had more to do with the plot. In the pilot, Angel’s first client is killed because she flees his office and he can’t follow her into the sunlight. At the end of this one, he destroys a ring that would have allowed him to save her because he “belongs in the night”. It’s the oft used, never convincing “This weapon is too powerful for anyone to posess so it must be destroyed” cliche. When the entire plot is telegraphed in the first few moments, it’s poorly done.
Angel is one of the few series out there that gets continually, gradually better. I kinda liked first season, but if I’d had a life at the time I wouldn’t have watched much. By this season, I can’t miss an episode. And it really depends heavily on its sequential nature; much of what happened in Season 1 is referred back to frequently.
So, yeah. It’s worth it. Even though they hit some really dull spots in Season 1.
Nonsense. In it’s first season - which I myself wasn’t especially fond of - the show was trying to find its voice. It was trying to establish itself as being more than just “that Buffy spinoff” and it did so at least in part in the first season by avoiding the sort of “Big Bad” propelled season-long arc that had become synonymous with Buffy. Also remember that Angel and Cordelia, though esablished characters, were mostly established in terms of their history with the other characters on Buffy. Without any of that to work with, the writers were forced to use established characters in new ways and to send them in new directions. In that kind of situation, it would probably actually be easier to have new characters, with no previously established history, than to have to work with existing ones.
In season two the series definately picks up, with a sort laid-back season arc that though nice, doesn’t drive things along the way the season arcs on Buffy do and is actually abandoned in the last three episodes.
In season 3 and especially season 4 we finally get “big bad” driven full-season arcs, though still its still in some days different than those on Buffy as both have proven to defy expectations of building to a big final confrontation of the sort that, with one exception, have ended every season of Buffy. Indeed, season 3 & 4 (and developments in season 2) are almost one big ars, and ultimately that’s what sets Angel apart from Buffy. Where Buffy has had self-contained seasons that tell a story with a beginning, middle and end, stuff from even the first season of Angel is still having major repercussions on the series. Angel has fully established itself, as a whole, as a series in a way that Buffy never did, which isn’t meant to suggest that one way or the other is better, both are different and work in different ways.
The major thing both shows have in common is that both hit their stride in their second seasons, though really Angel didn’t become a truly great show fully out of the shadow of Buffy until its third.
Number Six I watched the first 14 or so episodes of Angel before giving up on the series. It just wasn’t very interesting to me, and they killed off a character, Doyle, that I found rather amusing.
Feeling sad about the void in my Sunday nights after the X-files were cancelled/ended, I decided this past summer to see if the show had gotten any better as tons of people around me kept talking about how good it is. It is a lot better. Not better than Buffy IMO(well, perhaps better than Buffy S4), but it’s a heck of a lot better than it was. Even the end of season one is better than most of the episodes I saw, because they began to get away from the formula of Woman in Danger–>Angel goes to her rescue–> Angel sinks back into his depression.
I’m another who gave up on season one. However, since it got moved in Canada and aired right after Buffy I started watching it again for season two. Way,way, WAY better.
The first seasons had some påroblems with Angel sitting alone in a room, being broody, when not out fighting evil. However, the supporting cast made up for it and always kept my interest. There’s a dark humor that appeals to me. There are the issues the main characters have - Quite a lot of the show has dealt with the self images of these characters and how their perceptions of reality is just plain wrong. Cordy wanting to be rich and famous, Gunn giving payback for what’s happened to him, Wesley trying to get out from his father’s shadow and his prissy English upbringing, by re-inventing himself.
Even the bad guys are compelling and interesting. It’s hard not to like, on a certain level, Lilah Morgan or Lindsey.
And a show with a house ghost called “The phantom Dennis” does have a wry self ironic touch I love.
So yes, from the beginning, some episodes are kinda lame, it doesn’t really get going, until Lorne shows up and from about episode 10 of this year, Angel is, without a doubt, the best thing on television. I would even go so far as to say that in some respect, this season is on par, and sometimes better, than enything, ever on BUffy.
It’s a shame the main character is such a bore, though.
I’d give Babylon 5 another chance as well, there’s a reason the show is so popular with Dopers.It get’s much , much, better from the Second Season onwards.
Keep watching, but don’t expect much. Season 1 of Angel is by far the worst.
Each season of Angel gets better, though none are amazing until the fourth season(the current one).
The magic ring episode is near the top of the list of “worst Buffyverse” episodes period. Just pretend that episode didn’t happen…after all, the characters did.
Keep watching, but don’t expect much. Season 1 of Angel is by far the worst.
Each season of Angel gets better, though none are amazing until the fourth season(the current one).
The magic ring episode is near the top of the list of “worst Buffyverse” episodes period. Just pretend that episode didn’t happen…after all, the characters did.
Angel’s first seasopn left me cold and I only started watching this season because of all the episode dissection threads on the Dope,; so far, I’d say that Angle is really good this season.
Give B5 another chance. The first season seems slow only because J. Michael Stracynski is developing his characters and getting his pieces arranged on the chess board, as it were. Much of what you saw in Season 1 is setting up plot developments that come to fruition in later seasons.
If you are not enjoying it so far I would suggest skipping ahead to the last two episodes, by far the two strongest of the season. They are both really thrilling episodes that give a good indication of where the series is going.
Thanks for the input. I’ll watched episodes 5 and 6 last night, and episode 6 was fairly good (the Sensitivity Training one). I may end up skipping to the final couple of episodes.
I enjoyed the old Angel series, Doyle(the guy whos face changes) was a favourite character of mine… so i think you should keep watching… if you were to folow right throw the Angel series, i would say watch them all, im a fan of both Buffy and Angel, and lately in the newest series, Angels been better…
Enjoy!
oh and yea…they are going ala buffy here with that series… theyve been dealing a whole great evil thing since well ok i cant say without giving away the plot…lets say since darla came into it…and um theres always the running evil with wolfram and heart
Angel’s first season was rocky, but over all I liked. For the dancing, if nothing else. Make sure you watch the last disc if you intend to keep up with the show: it introduces a major new cast member.
And even if you don’t bother watching the rest of B5’s first season, make sure to catch it’s second season to get a taste of what the fans are really talking about when they call this one of the best sf shows in TV history.
There were a lot of stinkers in season one, but the quality improves towards the end. Especially when Faith shows up in episode 18 for a two episode arc. You don’t want to miss that.
