Hey there guys and gals. I’m TheCannon, bringing you another edition of Cannon Fodder. It’s only been almost 3 months, I think that’s a decent amount of time in between editions. In case you’ve forgotten or didn’t read the first one, Cannon Fodder is basically a little thing I write up where I pick a few topics to talk about and give my thoughts on them. If there’s anything you’d like to hear my thoughts on, feel free to suggest it and chances are it’ll probably be talked about (unless it’s too religious, political, or sexual).
Before I get started, I feel there’s two things I want to quickly cover. The first being why it’s been so long since I got one of these up. Well, it’s mostly because I didn’t have much to talk about. I had one thing I considered covering before deciding it was best not to say anything about, but other than that I had nothing to say that wouldn’t just be random stuff like my favorite Buffy characters. I didn’t see much of a point in writing if I had nothing I wanted to talk about, so I just kept getting some ideas then later deciding not to do it, and I eventually got to this.
Now, before we begin, I’m gonna be completely honesty with you: I had 3 or so other things I was gonna talk about (Marvel’s 2015 events, DC’s newly announced movies, & the new Age of Ultron trailer are coming to mind), but as I writing I just realized my heart wasn’t in it and I just didn’t feel up to writing about them. So I decided to only discuss one thing here: My thoughts on the complete series of Angel.
Angel
Angel is the spin-off series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, focusing on (surprisingly enough) Angel. Anyone who knows me recently knows that I’ve become a huge Buffy fan since last summer. Everything about the show I loved. The characters, the writing (most of the time), the humor, the emotion, the soundtrack, everything was just brilliant. After watching Buffy, I felt like I had to watch Angel, but I wasn’t entirely sure about it going in. While I loved Buffy, Angel was one of the few characters I didn’t like (with the exception of Season 2). There was nothing wrong with him, but I just found him boring outside of his backstory. I was still willing to give the show a chance though, and got the first season on DVD around the same time as Buffy Season 5, but I obviously finished Buffy first. When I was done with Buffy, I felt like I should move on to Angel and started it a day or so later. And I had some trouble with it. It wasn’t bad at all, but something about it just wasn’t clicking with me. So I stopped watching it a few episodes in and moved on to doing other stuff, with intentions of going back to give it another try down the line.
About a month ago, I was bored one day and decided I was gonna put on a DVD, and decided I want to watch a TV show. I ended up deciding not to watch Buffy since I wanted something new. I was torn between Angel or Firefly and decided to go with Angel. And I ended up making the right call.
Angel was just simply an amazing series that I’m not sure how to put into words. It was beautifully written, beautifully acted, beautifully shot, and was overall just an amazing and beautiful series. I understand how vague that is, so I’ll try and be a bit more specific (don’t worry, spoiler free).
The premise to the series is that following the end of Buffy Season 3 where Angel leaves Sunnydale, he moves to Los Angeles. There, Angel opens up what’s basically a Detective Agency to “help the helpless.” I’m not doing a good job at pitching this (IMO), but maybe someone who’s seen the show can pitch it better in the comments. The premise may not sound good the way I describe it, but trust me, it’s very enjoyable to watch and gives the show it’s own unique feeling to separate it from Buffy.
The characters on this show are also amazing. The main character is Angel obviously. Now, I wasn’t a big fan of Angel on Buffy. As mentioned before, I found him generally boring (outside of Season 2). On this show however, he’s become one of my favorite characters. Not just on the show, but if I was making a Top 50 favorite fictional characters of all time list, I can guarantee Angel would now be on there. When he’s not tied down to the romance with Buffy and is able to become his own character, he’s just flat out great. It takes a little bit of time for him to start to become a good character, but I loved him after a little bit. This probably doesn’t apply to most since Angel (from what I’ve seen) had a pretty good fanbase from Buffy, but I know at least one other person out there doesn’t like him. If you didn’t like Angel on Buffy, I’d still recommend checking this show out because Angel becomes likeable (in addition to other characters).
Outside of Angel, some other characters get plenty of screen time and are likeable. Former Buffy characters such as Cordelia and Wesley appear and have their characters developed amazing. It picks up where Buffy left off with the characters, but they forge their own path enough that you mostly forget the originated on Buffy. Wesley might be the best example of character development I’ve ever seen. The show isn’t just about ex-Buffy characters though. Several new characters are introduced in this series that are just great. Doyle, Lorne, Gunn, & Fred are all great, and some non-main characters are also good like Holtz, Lindsey, and various others that escape me at the moment. Even some characters I didn’t like or found boring always found a way for me to like them in the end. So, even if you still don’t like Angel, the other characters make this whole series worth a watch.
Some of the story arcs are great for the series. I really loved one that went on in Season 2, one that came up at the end of Season 2, one that went on in Season 3 (even if I didn’t like what it led to), and pretty much all of Season 5 (which did feel a bit rushed at the end, but to be fair they did find out half way through the series they were canceled). The show just had some fantastic overall story arcs that always kept me interested and I think were honestly better than Buffy’s Season long arcs (yes, including Seasons 3 & 5).
Now, what criticism is there for the series? For the overall series I really can’t come up with anything. While I can point to specific things in the series I didn’t like (which I will to be fair), that was more a problem with that specific season/episode/moment than the whole series. I had three problems with individual seasons, which I’ll go over.
This is something I had problems with in Season 1. I understand the series is a spin-off from Buffy which was the more popular show, but that doesn’t mean the series can’t form its own path. In Season 1, the show did a good job making its own path and show that felt separate from Buffy, but still kept clinging to Buffy all it could. An early episode in the series follows up a plot from a Buffy episode with Spike temporarily coming to LA to get an item. One episode features a huge guest appearance by Buffy in a secondary role in the episode. A two-part episode features a Buffy character coming to LA and continuing their character development, but they’re not added to the main cast, just the two-parter that while good, felt like they could have done something else and it was just done for a ratings spike. One episode ended literally with a cliffhanger to set up a crossover with Buffy the following week. Outside of Season 1, this show still occasionally had some issues like this, but far less often. The Season 2 finale ends with a Buffy character showing up to tell Angel & the group about something that happened on Buffy. A big plot point in Season 4 is resolved by a Buffy character showing up and helping out. Season 5 did this a little bit, but I’ll let it go there since it was after Buffy ended so they wanted to give you some info on those characters (which I liked), and since it wasn’t as in your face as the first season. The show does eventually get past this thankfully and transforms into its own unique, great thing, but I found it frustrating early on (and I love Buffy).
Another complaint I do have with the show is that Season 4 is f*cking terrible. A few things in it I liked, but overall I just hated it. It butchered characters, put focus on terrible characters, took a plot point that should have been awesome and just made it meh, and just became awful to watch. Thankfully the final episode of the Season is more about setting up Season 5 (which was spectacular), so at least it ended on a good note. But still, Season 4 was just terrible in my opinion, and almost ruined the show before Season 5 saved it.
One final complaint I have I can’t discus without spoilers for both Angel and the series finale of Buffy, so feel free to skip if you haven’t seen either:
Now, I feel filthy for badmouthing in the last few paragraphs, so let’s finish with some positives. The series finale, “Not Fade Away”. The series finale I thought was just amazing, and probably better than Buffy’s finale “Chosen”. The overall episode itself was great, in fact, spectacular. Great, emotional moments, and just everything was right. But the final scene is really what sticks out in my mind as amazing. I won’t say what it is to avoid spoilers obviously, but I loved it. It might be my favorite conclusion to a story in any medium. It was just presented in such a good way, fit the tone of the series, ended the way the series began, and just everything I felt was perfect. I’m actually afraid to read the Angel: After the Fall comics (taking place after the series) just because I’m afraid it’ll ruin the ending. I know some didn’t care for it, specifically when it first aired. I can understand not liking it at first, but if you don’t like it at first, just give it some time and think about it. If you have to, read Joss Whedon’s and David Fury’s comments on the ending, as they basically explain it very well. Just, overall the way the show ended I felt was amazing and a perfect conclusion to the series.
Also, another reason I love Angel (the show)? The fact that this scene happened:
Yeah. Seriously, even if every other moment in the series sucked (which it didn’t obviously), that one scene was worth the whole series.
So, I could talk more if I wanted to about Angel, but I’m just not sure what else to say. I just loved it about as much as I loved Buffy. The characters, writing, stories, filming, atmosphere, humor, and everything was just perfect (minus Season 4 of course). If you asked me what my favorite episode or Season is, I honestly couldn’t tell you (except that it isn’t Season 4). The quality was just always so high I really couldn’t pick any season or episode over another. I can’t even say something that good about Buffy. If you’re a fan of Buffy, you really have no reason not to check this out, even if you didn’t like the character Angel. If you weren’t a fan of Buffy (and if you weren’t, why?), I still think Angel has enough to offer you and is different enough you’d like it. If you haven’t seen Buffy, I’d recommend watching the first two seasons (I don’t care how bad Season 1 is, push through it to get to the end of Season 2) and watching that. If you’re somehow not a fan after Season 2, then I’d recommend reading a summary of Season 3 on Wikipedia or where ever before diving into Angel.
The only other thing about this show I have to say is that it’s inspired me to wear a trenchcoat as my main coat this fall/winter. I look pretty good in it to me. So thanks Angel!
That does it for the marriage proposal disguised as an edition of Cannon Fodder and I hope you enjoyed it. No clue what I’m gonna do after this. Sorry I haven’t gotten any game reviews up. I’ve got a few games I want to review, but I’m really not deep enough in any to be anywhere near close to review them. I’ve got one game I was playing (before I stopped for a little bit cause all I really wanted as to watch Angel) that I could write something for, but I’m not sure how many on the site would care. But if you have any recommendations for what I should talk about in the next edition of Cannon Fodder, feel free to mention it in the comments. I will see you guys later.
Log in to comment