Angel S01 Wrap Up

Lorraine: Know what’s better for the Snark Ladies than celebrating one end of something? CELEBRATING TWO ENDS OF SOMETHING. WE DID IT!

Season 1 of Angel took some time trying to find its footing, though very little of it was worse than boring. We were reluctant to take on this new project and long commitment, but all said and done, I’m super glad we did.

If the first seasons of Buffy were about using about using the supernatural to metaphorically represent high school, the beginning episodes of Angel were all, “by the way, graduating high school is hell too.” It is very much about growing up and finding your way in sparkly, new adulthood: moving on from your high school love, navigating the dating scene, finding an apartment, an unexpected pregnancy. I’m mostly kidding about that last one, but you get the idea.

Growing up is big in Angel and the best part of season 1 for me was seeing Angel, Cordy, Wesley and Doyle do just that, and grow together as a consequence. They all have things to make up for in their past, ranging from being a serial killer to being the mean girl in high school, and their stories of redemption start here.

1. I Will Remember You – I’M NOT EVEN SORRY. It was both the best and worst thing that could’ve ever happened to any fan of Angel/Buffy. The scene at the end where they were saying goodbye was rough, and I bet if I hear “Angel” calling “Buffy” Sarah right, right now, I’d start crying all over again.
2. Five by Five – Faith’s arc on Angel was one of the biggest surprises for this totally unspoiled girl. It moved quickly, yes, but it really brought her full circle and I think Angel (the series) and Angel (the person) were a perfect fit for Faith’s facing the music.
3. Sanctuary – Probably tied with Five by Five and for the same reasons, with the added element of Buffy’s appearance, all from Angel’s POV.
4. To Sanshu In LA – A solid season ending that did a lot of set-up legwork, but still managed to get a few prime moments of awesome. Mostly, when Angel cut Lindsey’s hand off.
5. Hero – Seems like feels episodes will top this list. An argument can be made for the general idea that Doyle was killed too quickly, but what happened, happened and all said and done, the footage that framed the episode, and Doyle’s finally reaching his idea of redemption were well done.
6. Blind Date – I hate one dimensional villains, so color me surprised when this episode fleshed out a reoccuring baddie and set him up as a fantastic Angel foil.
7. Expecting – I’m just as surprised as you that an episode featuring a magic pregnancy ranks so high, but this is the episode that sold me on the Fang Gang. They were so absolutely cohesive and loving and amazing in this episode and it marked a change for me in the season.
8. In The Dark – Our first taste of crossover magic features one of my TV boyfriends, Oz. And while I don’t get Angel smashing the best ring ever, it was still a solid episode.
9. Rm w/a Vu – Phantom Dennis ends up being a lovely running gag and this introduction to him had equal parts humor, creepiness and excellent Cordelia moments.
10. City of – Pilots are always hard, but this did a solid job of convincing me that Angel was more than a broody shadow lurker. That was a good enough start.
11. Parting Gifts – Fetus Wesley was a little annoying but an empath was an inspired way to deal with Doyle feels.
12. The Prodigal – I know we make lots of fun of bad accents and wigs, but learning more about Angel’s past is always interesting. TOO BAD ABOUT THOSE BAD ACCENTS AND WIGS, YEAH?
13. The Ring – Still at this point in the rankings we’re talking about solidly decent episodes. This one was again helped by fantastic team moments. Who doesn’t remember Cordy and Wesley pretending to be cops?
14. War Zone – I don’t know Gunn so I have no feels there, but the team was again so much fun to watch.
15. The Bachelor Party – Perhaps I’m a little more appreciative of Doyle episodes on this side of the season, but this episode was fun, right? *tears*
16. Lonely Hearts – Socially awkward Angel rates high on my list of things that endear me to him.
17. Somnabulist – You expect me to say something about Jeremy Renner here. I GUESS I JUST DID.
18. I’ve Got You Under My Skin – An interesting premise that in the end didn’t make a whole lot of sense for me, no matter how many ways we tried to fanwank it.
19. Eternity – Ditto the above. I get what the episode wanted to do, but color me unsold on the psychological return of Angelus. Shout out to Cordy’s Oscar-worthy fake out, however.
20. Sense and Sensitivity – A feelings stick makes for a few particularly entertaining moments, though the episode as a whole falls into the middle category that houses the episodes that were still trying to figure out WTF was going on.
21. I Fall to Pieces – A psychic surgeon. A PSYCHIC. SURGEON.
22. She – Unlike Expecting, this metaphor for castration of all things failed and had zero redeeming qualities and Bai Ling on top of all that.

Sweeney: +1 to all of the celebrating. I am really enjoying this show and found this ranking a lot more challenging than the Buffy ranking. Many of these plots got ridiculous and contrivance runs rampant on this show, but the group dynamics have been so consistently wonderful, with the brief exception of the transition from Doyle (!! FEELS !!) to Wesley, that it has made up for that.

A few things to note up here because I was saying versions of this on nearly all of the episodes: (1) This show is quite different from Buffy in a number of ways and many of the early episodes seemed to be as much about setting up that difference as anything else. (2) While it took Buffy a while to really start viewing the good/evil demon/human thing as complicated (an understandable thing, on that show) a show carried by a vampire needed to set the up right away. I loved this, so hard. It’s a big part of most of my favorites (basically all but 1) and I gave other episodes passes on their shittier elements because of my appreciation for this theme and how it is dealt with here. (3) Another necessary consequence of having a vampire lead was the uptick in people who are in the know about demons. I have less feelings on this matter (pro or con) but it was interesting to watch the various kinds of people-who-know (ethnodemonlogists, demon defense lawyers, and vampire fighting street gangs) and their different reactions (“you’ve gotta love you!” and “some vampires you tried to stop killed my father so I’m going to show up randomly to remind you that I blame you…”) and that has been interesting. It’s interesting particularly as it relates to that good/evil human/demon thing. I’m excited to see where they’re going with all of this. (4) A big part of that “growing up” metaphor is really helped by the very fact of this being a spin-off and it having to answer a lot of questions both on character and meta levels about what Angel’s function/purpose is. Obviously that’s what the finale was about, but it worked so well in part because that’s ultimately what the whole season was about.

1. I Will Remember You – You can’t possibly be surprised. The internet told me this episode was a thing and I agreed to watch this show mostly for this episode. I am also not even the tiniest bit sorry.
2. Sanctuary – The Faith arc across the two shows was amazing, and as a fan of Buffy, this bit of crossover magic was really interesting because we got to see her from another perspective.
3. Five by Five – But seriously, I know Faith has to serve her time and all, but they should have contrived her ass out of there ASAP and made her a series regular, because Faith & Angel were an excellent combination.
4. Hero – DOYLE. The brevity of his time on this show is devastating, but they gave him a brilliant exit.
5. To Shanshu in L.A. – I just really loved those other 4 episodes, but I loved this and the way it handled Angel’s struggle even more.
6. Expecting – I hate the episode premise, but the group dynamics in this episode are flawless and it really helped Cordelia come into her own as a proper supporting character.
7. Blind Date – +1 to what Lor said. Loved the whole theft sequence at Wolfram & Hart, too.
8. Room w/ a vu – PHANTOM DENNIS. Kitty Farmer! I support this episode. Also, A+ creep factor, because Kitty Farmer was a genuine, non-demonic psychopath.
9. Parting Gifts – I like the way they chose to handle the immediate aftermath of Doyle’s death. Wesley’s a disappointment in this episode, to be sure, but when our two major characters never discuss feelings at all, this was a good follow-up choice.
10. In The Dark – Magic crossover magic is magic. The episode end was a little underwhelming (although, I actually get/support the ring smashing itself, just not that scene) which is really the only reason this isn’t higher on my list.
11. War Zone – I loved the vampire hunting gang and the stark contrast between their world and Nabbit’s.
12. The Ring – This episode moved really quickly, but I liked that aspect. Lots of fantastic moments too.
13. The Bachelor Party – DOYLE. Also, one of many interesting introductions of the assorted people who know about demons, a much more common thing on Angel than Buffy.
14. The Prodigal – After Buffy’s wrap-up was so complainy, I should be clear that I’m still liking every episode I add to the list at this point. This episode is mostly demoted for bad accents and the fact that I had to stare at Angel eating his dad on a loop for 20 minutes. Otherwise I love flashback episodes, this one included.
15. City of – This did a great job of establishing that this show was going to have a different tone than Buffy. I liked that.
16. I’ve Got You Under My Skin – This episode had a lot (A LOT) of issues, but I really liked the whole idea that the kid was actually evil, demon possession aside. I like the concept enough to deal with the disappointing execution.
17. Lonely Hearts – +1 to socially awkward Angel being the most endearing Angel.
18. Somnambulist – I know this episode had Jeremy Renner, but I remember nothing else about it, so I’m using it as the dividing line between episodes I enjoyed and those I didn’t.
19. Sense and Sensitivity – I felt this way many times in the Buffy list, but this is one of those, “I’ll take the many gifable moments and skip the episode itself,” things.
20. Eternity – Terrible execution without much to appreciate in the concept.
21. She – I moved this from last to second-to-last solely because museum!Angel was precious. I hate basically everything else about this episode.
22. I Fall to Pieces – Ew.

Kirsti: In rewatching Angel, I’ve found that I remember more of the overall arc than the individual episodes. You know, Wolfram & Hart = EVIL, Doyle = EXCUSE ME WHILE I CRY ALL THE CRIES, Kate = kind of a massive pain. So it’s been fun to flesh everything out again and see the gang come together as a team.

1. To Shanshu in L.A. – I think the season finale was the first episode that I actually LOVED and would rewatch in a heartbeat. I think we’ve spent so much time this season seeing Angel as someone who’s needed, rather than someone who has needs (NOT LIKE THAT, YOU WEIRDOS). Following his “What’s my place in the world?” breakdown in Blind Date, it was great to see him find it again.
2. Five by Five – Yes, it moved a little quickly for my liking, but it was still great. And it was nice to have Faith’s storyline continue WITHOUT Buffy.
3. Blind Date – I liked that they found a way to give Lindsey’s character depth without resorting to flashbacks or excessive monologuing. Plus, Gunn being generally awesome.
4. Hero – ALL THE FEELS. Yes, the Nazi-y demons were more than a little over the top. But Doyle!!!!
5. Somnambulist – JEREMY RENNER. That is all.
6. Rm w/a Vu – Phantom Dennis and Cordy being a BAMF. Need I say more?!
7. In the Dark – Honestly, between Spike making up the words to Angel’s conversation at the start, and Oz constantly pointing out how pale Angel is, I’m willing to overlook all the buckets o’ ridiculous that happened in the middle.
8. War Zone – Largely a set up episode for Gunn’s character, but it was still nice to have acknowledgement that other people have noticed L.A.’s ridiculous demon problem.
9. Sanctuary – Buffy’s appearance combined with that gravity defying leap to the helicopter made this a pretty meh episode for me.
10. The Ring – Not great, but also not terrible. Of a much higher calibre than a middle of the road Buffy S4 episode. If nothing else, Cordy and Wes having to work together to save Angel was pretty great.
11. City of – Pilots are hard because they’re all backstory and setup. This one did better than a lot of others, plus that whole Angel-throwing-a-vampire-out-of-a-skyscraper thing was pretty great.
12. Parting Gifts – Residual feels, but Wes was kind of a pain.
13. I Will Remember You – Probably no surprises that Team Heartless Cow has this so far down the list. More than anything, it just bugs me that shit gets all “Hey, Angel. Have something else to brood about!”.
14. The Bachelor Party – Kind of fun, but also really stupid.
15. Expecting – As if there wasn’t enough to worry about in life, we add insta-babies to the equation.
16. I’ve Got You Under My Skin – Interesting idea, not great in terms of execution.
17. Eternity – We broke all kinds of vampire rules, AND got a character who didn’t understand that being a vampire probably wouldn’t help her acting career. Ugh.
18. The Prodigal – Terrible wig flashbacks abound, and Kate’s dad is a dick. Nope.
19. Lonely Hearts – A public service announcement against picking up at trendy bars. You never know when sexytimes may lead to your body being taken over by a demonic parasite.
20. Sense & Sensitivity – Yes, it gave us Angel in a Hawaiian shirt. But it was also legitimately insane and the more I think about it, the more awful Elisabeth Rohm’s acting was.
21. She – An unexpected castration storyline plus Bai Ling? Big barrels of nope.
22. I Fall to Pieces – Body parts that float around of their own accord, break into your house and feel you up while you sleep? JFC, as if I didn’t have enough neuroses already…

How’d we do? Don’t forget to list your favorites in the comments and A+ to you all who pushed us toward covering the series.

See you in season 2!

Marines (all posts)

I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.

Nicole Sweeney (all posts)

Nicole is the co-captain of Snark Squad and these days she spends most of her time editing podcasts. She spends too much time on Twitter and very occasionally vlogs and blogs. In her day job she's a producer, editor, director, and sometimes host of educational YouTube channels. She loves travel, maps, panda gifs, and semicolons. Writing biographies stresses her out; she crowd sourced this one years ago and has been using a version of it ever since. She would like to thank Twitter for their help.

K (all posts)

I'm a 30-something librarian and I still live with my parents because I'm super broke. Leader of Team Heartless Cow. I have an inexplicable love for 90s television, eat too much chocolate, and read more than is good for me.