Angel Reviews

[lathany]

Belated reviews of episodes sixteen, seventeen and eighteen. All include spoilers.

Shells is really the second part of A Hole in the World, but the Angel writers were never into calling episodes "Part 1" and "Part 2". I found it a rather grim piece overall. Fred gone. Permanently it seems. Alongside loads of depression from all and sundry and there was yet another reminder that Buffy and the Scoobies Do Not Trust Angel Any More.

It was good to see Amy Acker take on the role of Illyria (Twelfth Night anyone?) and make a decent job of it. I also liked her new "time-warping" powers as they were an innovation from a team that previously tended to produce harder and harder bad guys each season. Nice to see Eve not looking smug for once. Also the team in general managed to portray dejected and heart-broken beautifully... but we've seen that before. The final scenes were obviously the counterpart to the start of A Hole in the World, just a gentle reminder of where Fred came from.

Overall I got the impression that the Angel team had now received the "End of Angel" news and were starting to wrap up properly. This feeling becomes even more pronounced in the next couple of episodes.



And in Underneath - Welcome back Lindsey! Although was I the only one to feel that his sudden retrieval was only brought in 'cos the series was about to end? No matter. Any episode involving Christian Kane is always a good one. Plus I liked the new title sequence, although I don't regard Harmony as a plus.

The Senior Partners "holding cell" was downright creepy and Gunn's chosen penance even more so. The replacement liaison was rather Terminator-esque, which cut down somewhat on his own "creepy" factor. Eve's existence and the possibility that she might have some answers to the Senior Partners locked into her brain was a nice touch, I hope that they capitalise on it later.

However I found the ending a bit off. To claim that the "apocalypse" had already begun was all very well - but where was the evidence? Oh, and when will Lorne get more than two sentences in an episode?



Connor's back in Origin and he's likable! I never liked him originally, but seeing him here I wished he was going to turn up again sometime (OK, I don't know for certain, but my guess is not). In fact it was very like Riley's return in As You Were for me.

I really enjoyed the episode. A bit of explanation and background to the reality shift made in Home was welcome as was the concluding of the prophecy where Connor kills Sahjhan (I never liked Sahjhan or Holtz). Also, finally the gang get their memories back (I assume this goes for all of them). Plus all the scenes between Connor and Angel were great.

Finally - I thought Connor remembered. Anyone disagree?

Comments

[triskellian]

Argh! Missed an episode while in Cornwall. Damnit. Please may I borrow your copy of the last of those?

[chrisvenus]

I got the impression that the evidence of the apocalypse beginning was the fact that humanity is trashing the planet and being evil and stuff. It made me think that the apocalypse they were taling about wasn't just a "fire will rain from the heavens" kind of thing that could be stopped by killing the bad guy but that it was the fact that humanity was just turning into a bit of a shitty place to live ("bad things happen everywhere" as I think spike said at one point, not just wolfram and hart). It will be interesting if this is the case but I suspect not really. If nothing else because its an apocalypse that they are never goign to truly avert and that will probably leave the series on a wholly depressing ending.

As for who got their memories back, I'm reasonably sure connor did. It *is* possible that he didn't since everything he said and did *could* have been from the point of view of somebody who hadn't got their memories back but I think that is a vastly more tenuous logic chain. And I believe it was only those who were close who were meant to get their memories back. It may be that Gunn and Lorne don't have their memories back. I suspect Gunn will be the one that that is more relevant to though since Lorne, as you say, is just uninteresting at the moment (and didn't do much of great current interest while connor was around really).

But I do agree that Connor was actually cool rather than the irritating and angsty little *&%$ that he used to be. I suspect he may be back for a climactic season finale but he may not.

[chrisvenus]

I have it on Tivo but currently no easy way to get it off the Tivo (unless I go archaic and put it on a video actually...)

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Yep. We also missed it (Telewest reset our box), but my parents videoed it for us. Along with a 24 episode.

[triskellian]

If you wouldn't mind going archaic, that might be easier than transporting Dawn's copy between Feltham and Oxford...?

[chrisvenus]

I think I've got a video around somewhere so shouldn't be too much problem. I'll set it transferring tonight or tomorrow morning so I can drop it off tomorrow evening. Sorry it won't be able to be there before tonight's episode. :)

[triskellian]

I've certainly got videos kicking around, so I can drop one off if that's any help?

Sorry it won't be able to be there before tonight's episode. :)
S'OK. I don't think there's any sensible way of seeing it before tonight's. Maybe I'll have to go read the recaps in advance...

[triskellian]

Thanks, but as you'll have seen by now, I'm going to borrow Chris's, cos he's a bit closer. Glad evil Telewest didn't rob you of your Angelly goodness!

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

I got really annoyed with Shells mainly cos I thought it was a bit of a lame excuse for Illyria hanging around with the Angel mob - even if she is a depressed goddess / power, I still don't see why she'd hang around icky humans who treat her as an equal... But that could just be me thinking it was going to be a really cool episode with all the slo-mo fighting, and then being irked by the ending.

As for The Lawyernator - he's a bit of an in-joke I think. Like Caleb in Buffy and Jasmine from last season, that's a Firefly cast member hamming it up ;-). Since he's also one of the better cast members (as 'Jane' - a low-IQ mercenary who has a strange... relationship... with his rifle) things are boding well for tonight's episode! ;-)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I was quite impressed with the way that it was left genuinely open whether Connor remembered or not. On the one hand there were big clues like "I learned that from my father" and the camerawork around his eyes after the memory jar is broken but on the other hand there's things like his remark about Angel standing in the sunlight, which old Connor would never say (and why bother trying to cover that his memories are back if he later deliberately gives it away ?).

Oh, and just to shock _alanna and al_fruitbat: yes, I actually liked that episode !

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

I'm rarely shocked that anyone likes Angel. It's disliking it that surprises me ;-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/_alanna/]

Actually, I've been less willing to defend the last few episodes against bad reviews, although there have been some nice storylines and humour.