Saturday, February 19, 2011

Angel in Angel

My first impression of Angel was surprisingly good. I love how it is set in the city rather than in a small town/ high school setting. Even though Sunnydale was located over a Hellmouth and was occupied with some dangerous supernatural creatures, Los Angeles is filled with a lot of different danger. The villains will not only be supernatural monsters but real human criminals who prey on human victims. I also love that Cordillia is a character in Angel. I actually think her selfishness in this episode is kind of endearing. You can tell she is just a lost girl trying to make it in the real world and by the end of the pilot, we see she is trying to grow up.

I am also impressed by the humor of this show. Although I found Buffy to contain funny elements, (mainly Xander) I do think Angel has Buffy beat. Because Angel is socially awkward and does not understand certain human qualities, it is really entertaining to watch him interact with other people. Having only watched this one episode, I suppose I have high expectations for Angel but I am hoping he will develop throughout each episode and become a very dynamic character. While watching Buffy I saw Angel as just a high maintenance vampire who had some issues but I am looking forward to watching him become more human.

One thing I just realized that I really do not like is that the show is called Angel, and the main character is named Angel. It makes it a very confusing show to write about.

7 comments:

Corinne said...

Wow, I just realized I butchered Cordelia's name.

Anna said...

I agree, Angel's character on "Buffy" left something to be desired. But I think you'll see that his character definitely gets some much needed fleshing out in this series. The same goes for Cordelia. I also love the awkward humor. And the scene where he jumps into what he thinks is his car and looks and realizes it's the next one over? Hilarious.

What did you think of Doyle? I found him to be meh.

Anna said...

Oh, and if you click on the pencil, you can go in and make changes.

Hannah Williams said...

I've been thinking about Doyle, and my take is that I can see how he works really well in the Pilot episode. He's high-energy, chatty, humorous--the perfect contrast to the morose, introspective (but still has his funny moments) Angel. Doyle is the perfect guy to do a high-speed recounting of Angel's life to catch us up to speed and set the tone for self-destructive behavior in Los Angeles. Still, I didn't sense too major of a connection between the two men that would last a whole series.

Some people from class have pointed out that he doesn't last long in the show, so maybe already knowing that didn't make me like I should invest in Doyle's character too much. For now, though, I think his character works well.

Phil "PHEAL" Cruz said...

I do enjoy Doyle's character. He embodies that "so you came to the city to make something of yourself" ideal, because he randomly shows up and offers Angel this "job" to redeem himself. He becomes this sort of manager over Angel guiding him the way Giles did Buffy while at the same time allowing him his independence.

Andrew said...

Doyle's character confused me a bit, seeing as he just randomly shows up and starts telling Angel what his next moves should be. Angel and Doyle's camaraderie grows suspiciously quick, and I would like to see how this relationship evolves as the series progresses. Hopefully Doyle will be less shady.

Unknown said...

I saw Doyle as a total plot device, his character was too stock for me, especially in a pilot that I felt contained a lot of other interesting characters like Cordelia and Angel. But he did serve his purpose as a plot furthering device.