Angel Marathon

Angel: Season 5

Angel Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon

Deutsche Version | Season 4

Disc 1

Conviction

Synopsis: The gang tries to settle in with their new lives at Wolfram & Hart. Angels new assistant is Harmony who doesn’t know yet about the fate of her friend Cordelia. Gunn is being re-clothed. And then there is this client of W&H’s who threatens to kill all the people of California if he gets convicted for the crimes he has done.

My Opinion: Cordelia has left the show. 🙁 On the other hand, Spike isn’t as dead as it looked like at the end of Buffy – ok “not as dead” as a vampire can be who additionally is a ghost now. While I liked the season opener, it’s pity that they lift Angel’s restirctions more and more. The show loses its dark touch a bit. The idea to upload a lawyer’s knowledge directly into Gunn’s brain was very matrix-y but really cool.

Just Rewards

Synopsis: The gang uses the resources of W&H to find out what happend to Spike who isn’t happy with his life as a ghost at all. Despite their mutual despise, Angel and Spike work together to stop a necromancer who gets his dead bodies via W&H.

My Opinion: One can feel how they both really like each other. I liked Spike back in Buffy and I like how he badgers Angel – this season has to be good.

Unleashed

Synopsis: A young femal jogger is bitten by a werewolf and the full moon will be up for another two days. Spike on the other hand has the problem that his essence is more frequently and longer being pulled into the direction of hell. He asks Fred for her help, to return him into a body of his own.

My Opinion: Spike won’t be a ghost for the entire season, that much is certain now – in my opinion. I presume that he will return to his body within the next few episodes. The story about the werewolf was ok, but currently I am more interested in Spike. Unfortunately Angel has again abandoned a human – even if he had a werewolf bite – even though he knew that he would die. I still don’t like that.

Hell Bound

Synopsis: Suddenly Spike is not only a ghost, now he is a ghost no one can see or hear. And he starts to see dead people who are disfigured.

My Opinion: “I never told anyone this, but I liked your poems.” – “You like Barry Manilow.” Yes, Spike gives the show a new spice. This foru episodes have already made me forget the last season and even Harmony fits in. I am just a bit sad that Angel doesn’t believe in his mission anymore.
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Angel: Season 4

Angel Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon

Deutsche Version | Season 3 | Season 5

Disc 1

Deep Down

Synopsis: Cordelia and Angel have vanished from the face of the Earth, Lorne is in Las Vegas, Wesley has a life of his own now. Three month have passed and Gunn and Fred try to keep the business running and to care for Connor. But they have never given up the search for their friends – neither has Wesley.

My Opinion: I really like the dark Wesley much more than the duffer he was back in Buffy and in the beginning of Angel. That Angel would be found was obvious. At first I thought he would need some time to recover but they’ve found a nice way to remind us that he has spend a century in a hell dimension between the Buffy seasons 2 and 3.

Ground State

Synopsis: To find Cordelia, Angel plans to steal the “Axis of Pythia”, a mystical object to find a soul no matter what dimension it is in. Gunn and Fred are of course helping. But there is another player involved who wants the Axis.

My Opinion: She looked like as if she’d belong to Magneto’s group rather than Xavier’s. 😉 I liked it.

The House Always Wins

Synopsis: Angel decides to go to Las Vegas to visit Lorne and to convince him to return to L.A.. Unfortunately Lorne has got an offer he couldn’t reject and soon Angel finds himself irresistibly attrected to the slot machines.

My Opinion: Angel is a Blues Brother! He puts the band back together! Only Wesley is missing but I have the feeling that it still may take a while before he comes back. It was an interesting list of people that Angel claimed to have met. And Andy Hallett’s (Lorne) singing was gorgeous again.

Slouching Toward Bethlehem

Synopsis: Cordelia is back, but she has amnesia. She has no idea who or what Angel is or who she is. The gang cautiously tries to re-awaken the memories without going like a bull at a gate. Wolfram & Hart also learn of her return.

My Opinion: It was a lose-lose situation. If they would have been upfront I presume she would have run screaming. Let’s see what Connor’s plans for Cordelia are. I don’t trust him and I have the suspicion that he’ll do something to hurt Angel. Wesley blew it once again but as I said I like him as an outsider.
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Angel: Season 3

Angel Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon

Deutsche Version | Angel: Season 2 | Angel: Season 4

Disc 1

Heartthrob

Synopsis: Angel skips about the same time as Buffy did. Buffy has been dead for three months and Angel has been mourning in a monastery in Sri Lanka for about the same time. Now he’s back and on his first hunt he kills an acquainted vampire before he recognizes her. But he also knows her boyfriend James and he wants vengeance.

My Opinion: On one hand I find it a pity that they jumped over these three months, on the other hand we would have only seen a broody and solitary Angel. The episode itself wasn’t that interesting and a bit weak for a season opener.

That Vision Thing

Synopsis: Cordelia now gets visions that physically hurt her and several of it in a very short span of time. It is unclear why the “Powers That Be” would suddenly hurt Cordelia but Angel does anything in his powers to quickly finish the assignments.

My Opinion: I am quite interested in that prisoner. He could be a formidable enemy or we could never see him again, both is possible in Angel. If it was not settled until now, now it’s clear that it is a bad idea to try to blackmail Angel.

That Old Gang of Mine

Synopsis: A number of demons are arbitrarily killed and there is no pattern to be seen. Some of them are dangerous, some of them are totally harmless. As it turns out, Gunn’s old gang is somehow involved in this.

My Opinion: I think it’s historic irony that a group of black people tells other living beings that they don’t belong here, that they have no right to live. Granted, demons are indeed no humans but blacks also were told that they were less worthy. The world is grey, it’s not black/white and neither is it separable into good/evil.

Carpe Noctem

Synopsis: Angel and the gang investigate in a case were a number of men mysteriously died. Everything points to a certain gym – or to the building opposite of it.

My Opinion: I love body-switch episodes. They are always fun because the actors can behave in a way which their usual role doesn’t allow. It’s also nice to see the confusion that comes out of such switches. The best body-switch episode I’ve ever seen was a Farscape episode.
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Angel: Season 2

Angel Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon

Deutsche Version | Season 1 | Season 3

Disc 1

Judgement

Synopsis: After Angel accidentally killed the demon bodyguard of a young, pregnant woman he feels obliged to take his role. But the young woman wants nothing to do with hin. On the other hand she needs a champion for the tribunal she has to face.

My Opinion: Karaoke, I love karaoke. 🙂 It was simply cute to see Angel croaking on that stage. And the jousting on the middle of the main road: great idea. I liked that episode.

Are You Now, Or Have You Ever Been?

Synopsis: Something strange happened in the long-closed Hyperion Hotel. Angel has lived there in the 1950s and something is pulling him back there.

My Opinion: We have seen it in the first season due to Angel’s age we are able to see flashbacks into former times and thus connect the past and the present. I’ve always liked that in Highlander and I did like it here, too.

First Impressions

Synopsis: Cordelia gets a vision of Gunn being in mortal danger, but she can’t reach neither Angel nor Wesley. Because Angel has sweet dreams about Darla.

My Opinion: It looks like Darla is indeed becoming the season enemy and I think that could become very interesting. After all, Angel was the best enemy Buffy ever had.

Untouched

Synopsis: A young woman has extreme telekinetic abilities when she feels herself endangered. Angel tries to help but Wolfram & Hart has also an elaborated interest in her.

My Opinion: The Darla plot continues. But Angel is able to rain on the lawyer’s parade. What I did notice (again) was the fact that in Angel much more humans get killed (I mean the humans that get killed by the good guys) than in Buffy. Granted they are all bad guys but I noticed it anyway.
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Angel: Season 1

Angel Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon

Deutsche Version | Angel Marathon | Season 2

Disc 1

City of

Synopsis: Angel left Buffy and Sunnydale because he can’t be with her. After he moved into his basement apartment in L.A. he encounters Doyle, a half-demon. Doyle gets visions from “The Powers That Be” that show him which lives Angel must touch to find true salvation. It isn’t enough to save lives, he must save the souls as well. During the attempt to help a waitress who is terrorized by a former friend of hers he meets a powerful vampire…

My Opinion: This “The Powers That Be”-arc comes a bit surprisingly because we’ve already known Angel for three years. But they had to find a way for being Angel not just a Buffy-replacement.

Lonely Hearts

Synopsis: A serial killer haunts the single bars of L.A.. It’s a demon who needs a new body on a regular basis until he finds the right one. Angel decides to stop him.

My Opinion: I like this new female cop. It remains to be seen when she will find out who/what Angel really is. But that depends on whether she is a recurring character. I’d like that.

In the Dark

Synopsis: After Buffy took the “Gem of Amara” (a ring that makes a vampire invincible) from Spike she sends it to Angel. But Spike doesn’t give up that easily and he follows the ring to L.A.

My Opinion: Love to see Spike bad-ass-phase again, before he became “Hostile 17”, before the chip. I alos liked the decission to willingly destroy the ring instead of simply getting it lost somehow.

I Fall to Pieces

Synopsis: Angel helps a young woman who is stalked by her ex-boyfriend (strictly speaking they never were a pair). But this man is a surgeon with a very unique amputation technique.

My Opinion: Freak of the Week. Nothing exceptional.
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