Buffy The Vampire Slayer

ANGEL: SEASON TWO - 90

9-10-03 By Nick Nunziata Contributing sources:

BUY IT AT AMAZON: CLICK HERE STUDIO: Fox MSRP: $59.98 RATED: NR RUNNING TIME: 999 minutes SPECIAL FEATURES: · Commentary by Tim Minear on ’Are You Now or Have You Ever Been’ · Commentary by Fred Keller on ’Over the Rainbow’ · Scripts for ’Darla’ and ’Disharmony’ · Featurettes · Still gallery · Blueprints

Discuss this review RIGHT HERE on our message boards.

In my review for the first season of Joss Whedon’s Angel television show (read it here so you’re prepared for references to characters and situations), I went on and on about the differences and similarities between Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and how much I liked the darker tone and style of the David Boreanaz spin-off.

Season one was a terrific debut, but the test of whether the show would be a neat one year exercise or something that evolved into something great remained to be seen. Now that I’ve seen all of the second year of Angel, my mind is at peace. Read on…

The act of rubbing Thaddeus’ head for good luck never brought much luck, but it did eventually reveal that if you did it for 32 minutes straight ol’ Thad would temporarily digitize and offer clues for Super Mario Sunshine.

The Flick

Mark and Lutz were excellent breasts, fully deserving of their billing in the opening credits despite their subsequent decision to leave the show to do Rosencrantz & Guildensterns’ Tits are Dead off Broadway.

Season two begins the way most horror shows do, with demons singing karaoke. Passionately singing karaoke, in fact. That’s the beauty of these shows (ie: Buffy and Angel). You never know what you’re in store for as the writers unload a mixture of expected genre staples (vampires, werewolves, demons) and surprisingly fresh new facets (singing karaoke to learn your future, lawyers with evil hands, demonic informants without tongues) in each episode. It’s refreshing that the Joss Whedon magic carries over successfully even without his daily presence.

Where we last left the gang, former watcher Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Alexis Denisof) had gone from being a rogue demon hunter (and bragging about it whenever he could) to becoming the third cog in the wheel of Angel’s little investigation company. Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) had come to grips with the ghost living in her apartment and was enjoying her role in the organization. Wolfram & Hart had started to realize the full extent of their adversary and his friends’ talents and Angel himself (David Boreanaz) had found his true calling and become a vampire detective. The groundwork laid, the fun begins…

"So my request to see the largest pile of firewood in the United States was too far a detour on this road trip but the Ted Williams Autograph Show was a must see?"

Introduced in the latter half of the first season, the character of street savvy monster battler Charles Gunn (played by J. August Richards) has been added to the ranks, an addition that at first feels like a politically correct measure but something that ends up adding another layer of depth to the cast as Gunn becomes considerably more than the token black character. When the human characters are split from Angel, the addition of Gunn makes them a whole lot more effective as a fighting unit and Richards can hold his own with both the physical, dramatic, and comedic requirements asked of him.

The lion’s share of the plot of the second season revolves around the machinations of Wolfram & Hart and the arrival of longtime Angel vampire accessories Darla and Drusilla to cloud the mix. While the story is stretched a little too long and the resolution doesn’t really end on a satisfactory note, the plotline develops the show wonderfully. As portrayed by the lovely Julie Benz, Darla is a sexy and classy counter to Angel and their back and forth sparring both verbally and physically keeps the show moving. It also drives a rift between Angel and his friends and allows the shows to be two shows at once for a while. Also, the fact that the villainous law firm is pulling the strings with the now human Darla and her reemergence (she was slaughtered in a Buffy episode a few years back) makes it only more intriguing. Benz gets to play her heart out in this season and for a while it almost seemed as if Darla would become a regular character on the show as she provides a great resource to fall back on whenever the "A" plot of a particular episode isn’t clicking. Additionally, the characters of Lilah, Lindsey, and Holland (character actor Sam Anderson) were so interesting, I actually longed for the scenes involving Wolfram & Hart and the sign of a good show is when the peripheral characters all leave you wanting more. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’d spend good money for an ongoing Wolfram & Hart series should folks ever get tired of wisecracking heroes in designer clothes.

"Funny, I don’t remember sitting on this. Seventy-two times in a row. While screaming out the name of Wallace Shawn."

In addition to the struggle between Angel and his principal enemies, a bunch of new layers are peeled back in the series. There’s an interdimensional excursion the crew takes for the seasons’ last three episodes that often feels like a long lost Star Trek episode, but in a good way. There are jaunts to Angel’s past in different centuries as well as in our not-too-distant past, there’s a plethora of excruciating karaoke performances, there’s a vampire motivational speaker, dozens of foul headed beasts, and bunches more. Lots to love, folks.

Though his music career has dwindled, Kurt Cobain enjoys a profitable second career as a model for Karl’s Authentic 24 Carat Halo.

The show, like Buffy… cruises along and each character becomes more and more fun to watch and easier to love. I knew going into this season that Lorne (Andy Halle) the karaoke singing host of the lounge was a popular character and a regular up through the current seasons, but all I’d seen were pictures of him and I was not impressed. Also, the first few times he appeared on the show I just wasn’t into him at all. His singing voice was a bit annoying and his combination of gaudy clothes, Bea Arthur face, and Sunset Strip queen tendencies didn’t gel. As the season progresses and we see more about Lorne’s story, culminating with a three-parter set on his homeworld, he’s just another character to enjoy and savor and a testament to the acute grasp of material the shows’ creators have. Buffy’s "starting five" of Xander, Willow, Buffy, Giles, and Anya is untouchable, but their supporting cast doesn’t have the chops and depth of Angel’s. Also, the Los Angeles setting allows for so much more scope and potential than Sunnydale. As a result, the melting pot city can provide and endless supply of weirdoes and freaks. Oh, and demons, warlocks, and shamans as well. So, when the rare character surfaces who doesn’t warrant the time like the bland Kate Lockley (Elisabeth Rohm) character, she’s offset by a multitude of colorful supporting faces. This far into the Angel mythos, they hit the mark a whole lot more than they miss.

The first publicity still for the fall replacement sitcom Prince Noggin’s Fabulous Kingdom finally arrives!

While the stories themselves aren’t any more ambitious than the first season, season two is all about the crew hitting their stride and the three leads are considerably better here. David Boreanaz may never find success outside of the Angel character (choosing to do a Crow movie six years after the character became stale isn’t going to make matters easier), but he is nothing less that a revelation here. What surprised me most about this year’s worth of work was the balance of light and dark he pulled off. During the season’s middle act, where Angel is obsessed with Darla and their once-strong relationship, Boreanaz has the brooding bloodsucker thing down to a science. When he gets to have fun, primarily in the last arc when Angel’s in a dimension where the sun doesn’t hurt him and his reflection is visible, he’s downright hilarious. It baffles me why a film hasn’t managed to capture this side of him. It’s such a no-brainer to me. This guy has more talent in his hair than Ashton Kutcher has in his family tree, yet the powers that be have decided to painfully shoehorn the moppy-haired opportunist into every potential role. Baffling. Regardless, Boreanaz is the real deal, at least as brooding sharp-toothed Batman surrogates go. Whether his career surges or goes Duchovny remains to be seen.

One dressed in red and the other in black, but both woman shared two important characteristics: a deep seeded hatred for the Bulletboys and full knowledge of Gedde Watanabe’s whereabouts at the time we need him most.

I griped about Alexis Denisof in the review for the first season, but he’s nothing but good here. The character of Wesley Wyndam-Pryce originally seemed like a counterbalance to the Giles character on the parent show, but as he gets to play off the cast members and be less of a wimpy bookworm, he gets better each episode. By the time season two was complete, I loved the character and the actor. No small feat. Charisma Carpenter continues her winning ways here, but I have to admit that she didn’t seem quite as sexy this time around, though she does get to parade out in skimpy costumes on a few occasions.

All at once she knew who had paid her a visit, one of the intensely feared members of the cult known as the West Virginian Knuckle Cannibals.

In the end, Angel has emerged as the show I most look forward to future DVD packages of with Buffy a close second. I stand by my claim as it being the superior show and while I’m in the minority I feel the show’s continued growth and setting and tone elevates it to something so rare: a spin-off that doesn’t exist just to leech off the tit of its parent show. If only they’d have kept Christian Kane on board as Lindsey McDonald for the show’s entire run. He was a great character, and it was only made worse by how cool and fun he was in his last episode for the show. Buffy made the mistake of losing the lovely Jenny Calendar and Angel got rid of Lindsey.

Errors both, but the show goes on...

9.0 out of 10

Chestrider Hornsby and Inverted McAssface enjoyed the living hell out of the Neil Sedaka concert and knew it’d be a perfect evening as long as the couple in front of them with the whiskey sour didn’t use their ashtray and fill the air with harmful vapors.

The Look

Both were shattered by the sudden death of their friend Magnets Rasmussen, but they knew they had each other to get through the tough times and that fact coupled with 13-inch NOCTURNAL JACKHAMMER™ in the dresser at home made everything better.

I was rather kind to the first season’s transfer, but this second DVD package eclipses it considerably so perhaps the original score was a bit too high. Instead of a rather muddy fullscreen slap across the bowels, we get a nice 1.78:1 television widescreen transfer and it’s considerably better than the previous season, also shot on film.

There are some episodes which have a better look to them and some that seem a little "off", like the last three... but I owe that more to the individual filmmakers and cinematographers than anything else.

This is an attractive DVD, a step up from the last season and equal to or better than the current Buffy output. What more is there to ask?

9.1 out of 10

Her first decree after becoming ruler of the planet was to have Looseface O’Hanrahan given a full pardon and a job as her assistant. Her second decree involved the DVD release of The Boogens but that is another story...

The Noise

Not much of an improvement in the audio delivery, sadly... but the show isn’t really crafted as a sonic showcase. There are a few decent usages of the 2.0 track here, but mostly it’s just to service the story and not take advantage of your surround setup.

I have a feeling that season three or four may change this aspect of the DVD packages but for now it’s more of the same.

7.0 out of 10

The Goodies

As with the first season, there are a few forgettable featurettes and a couple of commentary tracks, and not much else.

They do not make a huge effort to load these discs with extra features and I honestly wonder if they could have made it a 7 disc set and added at least three or four commentary tracks so that fans can listen to the evolution of a season rather than have two of the more popular episodes get attention and none else.

Also, with the plethora of books, websites, and other resources available on this whole mythology, why isn’t there extensive text about the show, the characters, the actors, the inspirations, ans all that? These discs need to be a resource for years to come, the very best format to see the shows until the next expensive bit of media comes along that we have to adopt. Why didn’t they think it through and give a little more added value?

Nothing stellar in the speacial features department, sadly.

3.0 out of 10

The Artwork

Continued excellence in packaging.

I’ve heard from some folks that the case leads to a lot of scratched discs and broken clasps, but I’ve experienced none as of yet.

Regardless, the way that Fox packages these shows is second to none. There’s plenty of artwork that reflects the show perfectly here, and the classy idea to use quotes from episodes on the discs themselves instead of pictures gives the whole thing an iconic vibe. Really nice work, guys.

9.5 out of 10

THE FLICK: 9.0 THE LOOK: 9.1 THE NOISE: 7.0 THE GOODIES: 3.0 THE ARTWORK: 9.5 OVERALL: 9.0