Angel

NEW DIGS, SAME BITE With Spike Aboard, Angel is Twice the Fun By Matt Roush

A do-gooding vampire who now runs a sinister law firm ? Weird, yes. But as Angel’s bloodsucker of an office assistant says of the benefits, "Who needs dental more than us ?"

Buffy the Vampire Slayer may be cult-TV history, but its spin-off, Angel (WB, Wednesdays, 9 pm/ET), wonderfully preserves creator Joss Whedon’s cheeky-spooky tradition of mayhem. Adding allure this season is the posh new setting, as Angel and his posse settle uneasily into the offices they’ve inherited from Wolfram & Hart, "the law firm that represents most of the evil in the world."

Angel’s crusaders, accustomed to fighting demons in the back alleys of Los Angeles, wonder if they can still do good from within the corridors of corruption. Complicating matters is the arrival of Buffy’s reformed fiend Spike, who, like Angel, is a vampire with a soul.

Violently resurrected from his fiery sacrifice in <>Buffy’s grand finale, Spike is trapped in a mysterious limbo. Even by the end of the second episode, no one knows whether he can be trusted or should be feared.

All that’s clear is that James Marsters, who plays Spike with surly relish, is enjoying each taunt he trades with David Boreanaz as the ever-brooding Angel.

Verbal barbs fly as fast as fists and stakes in this clever thriller. As these vamps go for each other’s throats - metaphorically, anyway - the show begins to feel like a supernatural buddy comedy.

"I must be in hell," growls Spike. But we know better. Funny, scary and completely original, Angel is nirvana for those who enjoy a good scream - and a good laugh.