The good folks over at Entertainment Weekly (or as I call them, EW) have made a list of the 25 best Whedonverse episodes – in other words, the best shows of Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse, and Firefly. (And one chapter of Dr. Horrible for good measure.) Now I still haven’t watched Firefly (it’s just been hanging out on my Netflix queue for a very long time, but I feel I’m enough of a Whedon fan to appreciate and pass along the list to anyone who missed it.

I dug the list, though I have to dispute the inclusion of the Angel episode where Angel turned into a puppet. I don’t know, maybe it was a good episode and it was just hard for me to watch it, what with my eyes rolling uncontrollably throughout the 42 minutes. But hey, Joss Whedon is still a freaking genius, and it’s nice to see him getting some love.

And a belated congrats to Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) on becoming a mom – even if it was with that Freddie Prinze guy.

It started out with Angel acting WAY out of character.  In the first few episodes he actually killed some people.  Bad guys, sure, but it still violated his rule of showing mercy to humans.  Then he boinked Eve without any discussion of the consequences.  Sure he was under a spell, but still – everyone knows what can happen when this guy gets lucky, and it isn’t always pretty.  I get that working at Wolfram & Hart affected the way he had to do business, but just totally changing the guy’s code of conduct just seemed a bit too drastic.

Then there were the pretty ridiculous plot points that were used.  The back-story of Numero Cinco?  An episode all about Harmony?  Angel being turned into a freaking puppet??  I mean seriously, a puppet?  That episode made Beer Bad look pretty amazing by comparison.

But I shouldn’t JUST complain, as the season did provide some cool moments.  Wesley shooting his (robot) father was pretty intense.  The resolution of the Cordelia arc was handled well.  Spike’s introduction to the team felt a bit forced at first, but it was nice to see their rivalry play out, especially involving the long-forgotten Shanshu prophecy.  It was also cool to see Lindsey again, but I did wish his motivations had been made a bit clearer; he left W&H, so why the sudden grudge against them?  And of course the tie-ins with Buffy and her crew were a lot of fun even if we didn’t actually see the Slayer.  The episode with the Immortal was pretty slapstick, but well handled over all.

Fred’s death and the rise of Ilyria didn’t make much sense to me at first – didn’t they just do this story, where a character gets taken over and killed by an “old one?”  I was pretty surprised that they made Fred’s death permanent, and Ilyria did make for some interesting moments.  Still, it seemed odd to kill off a main character so close to the series finale.  The finale itself was very well done, and I really enjoyed Angel’s one last “eff-you” to the Senior Partners.  Wesley’s death was as gut-wrenching as Fred’s, and it was sort of sweet how they were both able to die in each other’s arms, though not at the same time.  The show’s final message, that even though the battle may never end, it’s always worth fighting the good fight, was a great way to cap a great show that, at it’s core, was about the search for redemption.

Deep, huh?  So now that I’m done with the Buffy/Angel TV series, I guess I have a lot of comic book reading ahead of me…

Another season with the vampire with the soul. Well, he had a soul for most of it, anyway… The season picked up right where Three left off, with Angel stuck at the bottom of the sea, Cordelia on a higher plane, and Wes an outcast, although the writers didn’t leave things that way for long, thankfully, and set out to get our cast of characters together again.

Cordelia’s amnesia upon her return was pretty annoying, but then I have a pet peeve against amnesia being used as a plot device. And when she did remember who she was, I absolutely could not believe that she would hop into the sack with Connor – I mean, that was just icky and Oedipal and weird and so, so wrong. Of course there were larger reasons behind that which were soon revealed, and it’s a good thing they were because my first impression was that Cordelia was acting way out of character for no damn reason at all.

But as it turned out, there was a reason – to bring forth the Beast Master, Jasmine. Now, before we get to Jasmine, let me say that I really enjoyed the whole storyline with the Beast. The writers made this “end of the world” feel different from the 17 others that had preceded it, and I appreciated the effort. The Beast was strong, smart, and incredibly nasty. I was a little hesitant when the gang decided to bring back Angelus, but they were right in assuming he could destroy the Beast when no one else could. And I really enjoyed seeing Faith get a chance to earn some redemption before doing so in Sunnydale.

But then Jasmine showed up, and it left me wondering why the hell the Beast did anything it did. If she wanted to be born and enslave humanity into a peaceful state, why bother blocking out the sun, making the sky rain fire, and summoning forth Angelus? Aren’t all of those things evil? Jasmine was evil too, but in a nicer way, and the two just don’t jive as far as I’m concerned. Right? Did I miss something in the explanation somewhere?

I was glad to see Lorne become a full cast member, as he became such an integral part of the show keeping him as a special guest star just seemed weird. And even though it was kind of easy to see coming, I was bummed that Fred and Gunn let a small thing like homicide drive a permanent wedge between them. But Connor, damn is that kid annoying! By the end of the season I was really getting ready for the show to be rid of him. All he ever does is disobey Angel, then fight him, apologize, run away, and repeat the process all over again. Yawn. I’d be more relieved with him being sent away to live with his fake family if I thought for half a second he would actually stay there.

Oh well. Overall I thought this was a solid season, and I’m definitely curious to see how Angel Inc. will run with Wolfram & Hart at their disposal, and THE apocalypse looming just on the horizon…

Angel’s a dad! Holy crap! He’s a vampire, how does that work? I gotta admit, I did not see that one coming. But alas, I’m getting a head of myself, here…

This season of Angel worked very well, as ot allowed some really interesting stories to develop, mature, and end, all without feeling either dragged out or rushed, which is no easy feat. I thought that Angel would be more pissed about BUffy having died, but he didn’t seem all that affected. I understand they were broken up and everything, but I just felt like he kind of shrugged off the whole thing a little too easily. But hey, he had his hands full with his own stuff, I suppose.

Like, for instance Cordelia’s visions being hijacked and taking more and more of a toll on her. I didn’t really think that they were going to kill her off, but I liked the fact that they allowed the visions to take more and more of a toll on her, and allowed for the situation to resolve itself, all with the help of demon guide Skip. Who is, by the way, one of my favorite ancillary characters.

The whole storyline with Holtz, Darla, and Connor also worked really well, with things moving at a good pace the whole way through. Holtz was driven by revenge, but you understand why he was doing what he was doing, which made him an interesting nemesis. Justine on the other hand seemed like she was never fully developed, but it didn’t matter much in the end. Sahjhan’s manipulation of the prophecy was a great twist, but it did leave a few unanswered questions: How could Connor kill Sahjhan if he is immaterial? If Sahjhan’s prophecy was false, why did the talking hamburger believe it was true? And why did Angel say that he would have had a snack after the earthquake/fire/blood turn of events? I didn’t really think that Connor was gone for good after Holtz pulled him into the hell dimension, but I will admit the show did sort of make me think it was a possibility with the next few episodes.

There were a lot of romantic subplots going on this year, which made sense with the growing cast of characters around. I totally bought Angel and Cordelia falling for each other, but she seemed to be a little too blind to it as soon as Groo popped back up. Which I get on one level, but Cordie just seemed to be too smart to not see what was so obvious. The Fred-Gunn-Wes triangle was painful to watch, but I guess that’s what Whedon is known for. But man, did they really beat up on poor Wes this year. It’s not bad enough that the object of his affections chose the other guy, but he totally botched the whole “saving Connor” from Angel thing pretty royally. It seems like it won’t be an easy road for him back into the good graces of Angel Investigations.

That’s assuming that AI will continue now that Angel’s at the bottom of the ocean and Cordie is who knows where. But given that there are two more seasons, I have a funny feeling those two will be back fairly quickly in Season Four. Overall, I am continuing to enjoy this show – the plots move quickly, the stories are well written, and it’s just good addicting television. Two more seasons to go…

Angel has previously fallen into one of two categories – either he’s the good guy, fighting the good fight, the vampire that you keep on rooting for, or he is evil Angelus, a sinister killer without the slightest bit of mercy or remorse that you wish someone would stake, and fast. This season introduced a third version of the character – a dark man on a mission, who was still fighting for all the right reasons, but whose methods were so questionable it was hard to really get behind him one way or the other. Sure, he had his reasons, for going all rogue: his old flame Darla was brought back by Wolfram and Hart, and that was just playing low, even by evil lawyer standards.

The flashbacks with Darla and Angelus, and then with Drusilla and Spike, were fun, but after a while it felt like we had all the back story we needed and were just getting filler. It was still nice to see another blonde with the power to drive Angel crazy, and Julie Benz did a great job with the role. Just when it looked like she was going to get her shot at redemption, W&H had to sweep in and make her a vampire – again – and pull the rug right out from Angel. Which was sad, and they succeeded in getting through to him, but some of his actions after that point were just sort of unbelievable. Not allowing the lawyers to get eaten – I could handle that – but the way he set Dru and Darla on fire, but then failed to finish them off with a quick beheading was just, well, dumb. Drusilla wasn’t really given an end to her arc – she just went off to Sunnydale suddenly, and Darla’s story also felt cut-off abruptly. Why did Angel just let her go? And why did she just take off when he said so? I was hoping for Darla being more of a Big Bad, but once again, the show did without one. And while I’m on the subject of characters were unceremoniously written out of the show, Lindsey and Kate were also given rather unfair send-offs.

But it wasn’t all bad. I loved the introduction of the Host, and the whole karaoke bar made for some great moments. The undead cop episode worked really well, and I think it was the first time zombies were used in the Buffy-verse. Gunn’s integration to the team felt incredibly natural, and Wesley was given some great opportunities to prove how noble he really is. Even Cordelia has come a long way as a character; seeing all that she sees, both in reality and in her visions – have affected her in a profound way. Although the way Angel was able to win back her affections with new clothes was hysterical.

The season-ending trilogy, with the gang going in to the mystical realm of Pylea, was a lot of fun, even though it did feel like it borrowed a lot of elements from Army of Darkness and even Return of the Jedi. But hey, seeing Cordelia in her princess garb was worth it all. The fish out of water scenario worked well, and I loved the connection to Wolfram and Hart on the three book covers. I’m really hoping that is explored further in the seasons to come. I also have to think sending Angel into an alternate dimension was a good way of getting rid of him while Buffy died in her battle with Glory, although that could just be my over-analyzing the situation. But he should be pretty pissed, not only that she’s dead but that he gave up a chance to be human to extend Buffy’s life, and that was what, a year and a half ago? I’d imagine he’s be looking to have some words with the Oracles, if only he could. Or maybe he still can, they are Oracles, after all.

Either way, I’m enjoying the show, and even though it is living up to the warnings of “not as good as Buffy,” it’s still a fun show with some great writing. And so I press on…

(James, I know the whole reason you fixed my site was for more Buffy-related posts, so here you are!)

Well, I finally finished the first season of Buffy’s spin-off show, Angel. Overall I enjoyed the show, and it was nice to get to spend more time with the brooding vampire with a soul. Aw hell, who am I kidding, I really just was happy to see Cordelia again. I mean, what a fox!

I dug the character of Doyle, but I felt that his arc seemed sort of rushed considering his early demise. Without knowing the story behind the scenes, it seemed to me like he might have been replaced with Wesley to have another former Buffy cast-member around. Is that true? I have nothing against Wesley ro anything, I was just sort of sad to see ol’ Doyle go.

The show definitely had some great moments – Doyle’s death was extremely shocking, and I Will Remember You did a great job at teasing a happily-ever-after for Buffy and Angel. The story of an underground demon fighting club was also fun, and the episodes with Faith did a nice job at restoring the character’s humanity. I also like Kate as a cop who has learned a lot about herself, her family, and the things that live in her world. I’m hoping she and Angel can get past their feuding and move on to some loving, but only the kind that makes Angel a little bit sort of glad, and not totally happy.

There were some weaker parts of the show as well, though. Cordelia becoming pregnant with seven demon babies sort of made me roll my eyes (and make me even more jealous of Ken Marino). And the doctor who could remove his body parts for fun was also far more hokey than it was scary. And the lonely celebrity story was a huge cliché, and the way that Angelus was brought back felt forced and sort of stupid. I really hope the show doesn’t have him go back and forth regularly between good and evil, because it takes away from the whole redemption aspect of who Angel is.

I think my biggest complaint with the show though was that it lacked a season-specific “Big Bad” like Buffy had. Granted, I’m not saying I want this show to be a Buffy clone, but that was a nice feature (that many other shows have employed as well) that give the season a wider purpose. Wolfram and Hart, chock full of evil lawyers you just love to hate, were certainly menacing, but they seemed like more of a recurring annoyance than a mortal enemy. But there was a nice set-up of things to come with bringing Darla back, and I think the show has a lot of potential to grown in the next four seasons.