And behind door number 22... a guide to some music of the more traditional kind
Catherine Munn and Jacob Martin list their Top 5 programmes to watch over the festive period.
And behind door number nine... some dazzling musical delights
The complete arts guide, for week 9
About a year ago, I finished watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the first time. Shortly afterwards, I wrote up my thoughts on the show right here on The Yorker. I anticipated, at the time, that I would watch the Buffy spin-off, Angel, relatively quickly but, for a number of reasons, I only recently finished catching up on it.
In the most simplified form, my immediate feelings on Angel are the exact same as my thoughts on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. What I mean by that is that I think both shows are really exceptional and worth watching if you haven’t seen them before. (Even if you have, why not watch the whole thing over again? You know you want to.) For all the similarities they share, Angel is perhaps a more mature show than Buffy, and it exemplifies Joss Whedon’s distinct narrative style at its most brutal and captivating.
The plot of Angel picks up shortly after the end of Buffy’s third season, Angel (aka: the only vampire with a soul) has moved from Sunnydale to LA, and is of course fighting evil in whatever way he can. Honestly, the first observation that I had about the show is that it has the most incredible opening theme music of anything, ever (OK, I may be going a little over the top, but it’s really cool). Theme music aside, it’s easy to see that it has a significantly darker tone than Buffy (although Buffy does get very dark from mid-season 5 onwards) whilst retaining much of its style.
The themes of Angel, though, become very different to those in Buffy. The Scooby Gang’s adventures in Sunnydale serve as an exploration of what it means to grow up. Angel is far less easy to read, although what I find the most interesting in it is the idea that Angel will live forever, and that his quest for redemption will never end. In short - he can never truly win, but he will also never give up... his fight is for eternity. Angel is also concerned with notions of humanity and responsibility whilst it has touches of moral ambiguity (particularly in its fifth season) that Buffy arguably has less of.
One aspect of the series that is especially impressive is its character development. In fact, I think the show should be compulsory viewing for all aspiring television showrunners just to watch the development of characters like Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter), Charles Gunn (J. August Richards) and Wesley Wyndham-Price (Alexis Denisof). The strong, and unwavering, emphasis on character in Angel is something that elevates it above a lot of other shows. The roles are also well-acted; playing Angel is something that works well for David Boreanaz (he’s notably good at being broody), whilst Amy Acker’s and Denisof’s performances (as Fred Burkle and Wesley respectively) are some of the most compelling that you’ll find.
On reflection, the show’s fifth and final season is probably my favourite. It displays Angel at its most experimental and interesting and it also signifies a dramatic shift in the narrative and format of the show. The show’s actual ending, while perhaps a bit earlier than the producers would have liked, is one of the most fitting endings to a television series that I have seen. It effectively echoes the themes of the series, has a succession of gripping fight sequences and brings the show’s most emotionally exhausting season to a perfect conclusion.
Now that I’m finished with both Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, I really can’t sing their praises highly enough. Angel is a show that plays very well when catching up on DVD, and if you’re a Buffy fan, or even just a fan of great television, this is a show that you simply have to watch.
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