3rd August 2002 Channel Four 23:00 - 23:50 Angel

It's the episode where Darla discovers she is terminally ill and Angel embarks on three trials to save her "soul".

I had some difficulty getting my head round the premise and the programme demands a certain amount of knowledge of established history. This is one of the factors that discourages me from watching such series. In this episode Angel dives into a swimming pool and emerges in another dimension. There he faces three trials and is helped and hindered by a mysterious butler-styled figure. This bloke is easily the best thing in it and quickly establishes himself as an intriguing character of whom I wished to know more. As usually happens his time on screen is lamentably short, returning me to what appears to be the norm for this programme.

The worst thing in this is the Angel's two cohorts. One is a dark-haired woman who is never content at any time on screen. She is forever whining about something. Her companion is English or whatever passes for English in America. When asked how a man-to-man discussion went with Angel he wittered on about asking him whether he required more sugar in his tea - this later becomes known as the "tea-thing" which he states is how these things are done in England. What a load of old b*ll*cks.

Some good stuff - alternate dimension - but counterpointed by some poor stuff and typical American conceit that everyone who's anyone will have watched from day one and so plotting can be as complex as possible.

10th August 2002 Channel Four 23:05 - 23:55 Angel

Continuing from the previous week. When Angel "liquidated" his team, I sensed this was a plot twist of mind-blowing proportions but it didn't really mean anything to me. None of those characters has endeared themselves to me at all. That "English" geezer along with Druscilla should be given the elbow and replaced with really-English actors who don't spend half their time concentrating on their accents instead of their acting. They don't even do a good job of that. That Druscilla drifts dangerously close to Dick-Van-Dyke-Cockney at times - there can be no excuse for that. I think if it's possible to "look" American then they do. That tells me that make-up and costume plus body-language are not exuding "British".

On the plus front, I really hope that Lindsey survives cos his character is intriguing. Although he's been "sparkling" in the background of every scene he's been in, his "spotlight" was when Darla confronted him about his fear or lack of it. He says he is frightened of death but that it just doesn't matter to him. I was fascinated by that. In fact that whole basement scene with the lawyers was well-staged. Obviously another mind-blowing twist when Angel refuses to get involved. I think in a series of this kind, Good verses Evil is very clear-cut and I imagine a time, possibly in the next episode, where Angel's integrity is restored which will be a bit sad really. In real life, however "good" someone might be they will act in response to their "evil" side at times, so why shouldn't Angel decide to let them have it, safe in the knowledge that he can get Darla and Druscilla later?

17th August 2002 Channel Four 23:20 - 00:10 Angel

Angel has a habit of passing comment on itself. When Wesley, Cordelia and that other geezer are fired, Cordelia says "Can someone explain to me what just happened here?" - I'm sorry love I wish I knew. Cordelia sums up the trio "I would just like to point out the patheticness that is us". Cordelia was on the jealousy bandwagon again, complaining that Angel's downfalls were always caused by dumb blondes. Still what would you expect from someone who names herself Charisma Carpenter. A case of from the ridiculous - Charisma - to the sublime - Carpenter. Wesley bemoaned his unemployment. I don't know why when there's a school just up the road crying out for his anti-vampiric skills. In fact they seem to be as overrun with these fiends as LA. The other bloke seems totally superfluous, so unmemorable that I don't recall his name. They murdered Queen's "We are the Champions" - nice choice - which later became most applicable when they took some villain on. They seemed to sober up incredibly quickly and certainly needed to be on their metal.

Druscilla continued her Eliza Doolittle impression - "Ten little soldiers all in a loine, A shot rings out - down to noine". Couple this mangling of the "British" language with a lot of writhing and cavorting - I can only assume this is intended to turn on the male viewing population - and I thought Kate Bush had made a comeback. Meanwhile Darla was drifting toward the USA High School stereotype perpetuated (or should that be perpetrated?) by Buffy, USA High, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, etc. It sadly degraded what had earlier seemed an interesting character.

Talking of interesting characters, Lindsey survived the massacre - there's a surprise. His character is fascinating and is meant to be. His co-survivor is not - why Mila was spared is beyond me not just because I don't see any point but also because Darla and Druscilla wouldn't.

Considering how much screen time had been devoted to Angel's preparation including two full-scale battles with some rather unsavoury looking characters, the demise he selected for the gruesome twosome amused me. Earlier, Wesley and co had dispensed justice Angel-less style and survived - just. Angel's cremation of Darla and Druscilla could quite easily have been dispensed by the mortal trio and was all the refreshing for its simplicity. I'd anticipated an elaborate fight-sequence but was pleasantly surprised. I imagine a load of die-hard fans were well-disappointed though.

Finale - just as I was thinking the show was gonna cop-out and deliver Angel back to the agency relenting, it didn't - great. This is just the sort of plot-twist that is required to avoid predictability creeping in. I predict some episodes with Angel fighting his "war" and the agency fighting their "good fight" until they get into trouble and then Angel will rescue them and return to their fold.

In summary - there's a lot of potential to this series. The good stuff is premise, scripting, humour, production values, Lindsey and Angel himself. For me the millstones are the terrible trio, "pansy-ass British" characters, convoluted plotting and over-reliance on knowledge of previous episodes. I might just stick with it out of curiosity so perhaps it's done its job of enticing me into its world.