The dialogue written for the show was razor-sharp witty right off the bat.
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Fans of the TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" know that Buffy´s great true love is the vampire Angel (who´s at least two hundred years old). A long time ago, gypsies in Europe cursed Angel by giving him a soul after he attacked a girl in their tribe. Wracked by guilt, Angel finally started on the road to redemption by helping Buffy fight the forces of evil. However, a moment of true happiness (yes, Buffy and Angel had sex) lifted the curse, and Angel became a monster again. After various painful processes restored Angel to his good self, he decided to leave Sunnydale and Buffy´s life so that their love would not be shattered any more.
Thus began Angel´s own adventures in--where else?--Los Angeles. Angel/Angelus (David Boreanaz) sets up shop as a vigilante specializing in helping people plagued by supernatural problems. The first years of "Angel" had our hero engaged mostly with "monster of the week" issues, though the show evolved into a program that tackled story arcs that spanned entire seasons and even several years.
Fox led the way when it came to releasing DVD box sets of complete seasons of TV shows. (However, I wish that everyone would adopt Paramount´s method of releasing entire runs, ala "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", in one calendar year.) Now, "Angel" is making its way on to DVD following a couple of "Buffy" box sets. "Angel" Season One (1999-2000) contains the following episodes:
Disc 1--"City of", "Lonely Heart", "In the Dark", "I Fall to Pieces".
Disc 2--"RM W/A Vu", "Sense and Sensitivity", "The Bachelor Party", "I Will Remember You".
Disc 3--"Hero", "Parting Gifts", "Somnambulist".
Disc 4--"Expecting", "She", "I´ve Got You Under My Skin", "The Prodigal".
Disc 5--"The Ring", "Eternity", "Five by Five", "Sanctuary".
Disc 6--"War Zone", "Blind Date", "To Shanshu in L.A.".
A lot "happens" during Season One, though nothing really bridges the entire season other than the fact that Angel has to get used to life without Buffy while becoming the big guy on campus. Mainly, we get to watch the show´s protagonist gather a new "family" around him in an unfamiliar town. For example, a fellow named Glenn Quinn plays the half-demon Doyle for the first nine episodes of the season. Doyle sees visions of people in danger, a gift given to him by The Powers That Be. He seemed like a good sidekick for Angel until he abruptly dies before the season is even half over! (Quinn left the show for reasons that are still unclear to most people, and he died of a drug overdose in 2002.) Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) left Sunnydale after high school in order to pursue an acting career in L.A. However, since she´s terrible at acting, she winds up working as Angel´s secretary and gives our hero the idea of charging money for his services. (Just before he dies, Doyle is able to give Cordelia his gift of seeing visions.) An ex-member of The Watchers Council, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, also appears in L.A. to try his luck, and he has to shack up with Angel as well in order to regain a sense of purpose. The last major addition to the cast is J. August Richards as Charles Gunn, the leader of a black youth gang that fights vampires.
The most interesting subplots of Season One involve Angel´s predicaments with pretty ladies. There are crossover episodes with "Buffy" that has Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) dropping into town in order to hunt Faith (Eliza Dushku), the rogue Slayer. When Buffy´s not around, Angel develops a rapport with Kate Lockley (Elisabeth Rohm, now on "Law & Order"), a pretty-but-tough blonde cop. If you´re looking for a major villain to emerge, then you don´t have to look beyond the law firm Wolfram & Hart, which is the employer of the legal fatale Lilah Morgan.
The dialogue written for the show was razor-sharp witty right off the bat. For example, Angel Investigation´s slogan is "We help the hopeless", but one of the characters goofs and accidentally answers the phone with, "We hope you´re helpless." Also, "Angel" has one of the funniest scenes in all of television history when the brooding protagonist--always so serious--imagines himself dancing to techno music. This dark playfulness gave "Angel" its own identity the way that "Buffy" stood above the crowd with its heightened emotionalism.
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