City Of...

City of Angels
The Good;
Impressive opening scenes, funny yet moving. Love Angel choosing the wrong car and very suprising that he doesn't save the girl, at least not the guest star (they use the same time difference trick as they did in Helpless to convince you he will). Especially loved him killing Winters at the end, real vicious stick it in and break it off revenge, great stunt, great effect. Cordy realising that Winter's is a vamp and him initally denying it is also fun.
The Bad;
If Winters had all this security at his house how can Angel just walk into his office?

Best line:
Angel; Can you fly?

Jeez, how did they get away with that?
Winters killing the heroine is very brutal. Also the whole sugardaddy/casting couch scenario shows the stark reality behind the Hollywood glamour.

Apocalypses: 4
Angel Cliches
Damsel in distress; 1
Inverting the Hollywood cliche; Doyle rams the gates of the Winter's mansion but they seem suprisingly resilient. Also Angel fails to save the girl.
In disguise; Angel does his rube in the big city act for the first time
DB get's his shirt off; in order to allow Doyle and Cordy to remove the bullets. Yeah, right!

Fang Gang in bondage: no but he knocks out and ties up the guard at the mansion
Cordy: 5
Angel: 4
Wes: 1

Fang gang knocked out: no but Angel knocks out about 4 guys
Cordy: 6
Angel: 6
Wes: 1

Kills:
Cordy: none this ep. 3 vamps, ½ a demon from her time in Sunnydale
Angel: kills 4 vamps in the opening episode which is remarkable as according to Boo's figures he only killed 3 in the whole 3 seasons of Buffy. So that gives Angel 7 vamps, 1 demon, 1 human.

Fang Gang go evil:
Cordy: 1
Angel: 1

Alternate Fang Gang:
Cordy: 1
Angel: 3


Characters killed:
2; Tina and her missing friend Denise (offscreen)

Total number of Angel Investigations:
3, Angel, Doyle and Cordy

Angel Investigations shot:
Angel: 4, pumped full of lead by Winter's bodyguards


Notches on Fang Gang bedpost:
Cordy: 1?
Angel: 1;Buffy

Kinky dinky:
Tina appears to be Winter's kept woman. She describes him as 'liking pain' (his own or other peoples?). Cordy also considers him for a sugardaddy much the same as she'll consider doing later to David Nabbit. Tina offers herself to Angel as a reward for saving her but like the white knight he is he gently turns her down.
Captain Subtext;
Oliver at the party considers Angel a 'beautiful man' but only on a professional basis, he's currently in a long term relationship with a landscape gardener. 'Drunk' Angel also gives the appearance of hitting on the guy in the bar.
Questions and observations;
Doyle drinks Colt .45 beer, the equivalent of Tennants Extra in the UK, pretty much in keeping with the down at heel nature of his character. First appearance of Lindsey, he and Angel are the only characters who appear in both the first and last eps of the series. Angel goes all Punisher finding his way to Winters, not hesitating to beat and threaten his way to his goal. The series already appearing much darker and more adult than Buffy. Angel's narration is similar to Angelus' in Passion and Whistler's in Becoming. It's also reminiscent of the classic noir crime fiction set in LA, could easily be the The Black Dahalia or LA Confidential or Chinatown. When I first saw this I wasn't sure if Winters was a vamp or not, the vamp makeup is subtly different but will eventually fall back into resembling that on Buffy once more. Angel was in Montanna during the depression, maybe Spike's line about vampire cowboy wasn't too far off the mark? Angel tells Cordy there's no cure for vamparism but we'll actually find 3 in the first season alone. Cordy refers to Angel having never developed an investment portfolio but he must get money from somewhere, he seems very well to do. The money he and Darla stole from their victims or does he just have loads of bank accounts with 200 years of interest to collect, Highlander style? Angel shows some knowledge of explosives which he'll also use in Dad but according to the dialogue he's seen 14 wars and Vietnam in his time. Nice crossover when he phones Buffy in Sunnydale.
Marks out of 10; 6/10, good beginning but not compared to the heights Angel will eventually soar to.
 
I liked this episode, it defintley makes me want to watch the rest of the season. And I watched Angel the first time on dvd a couple of years ago.

I give it 6/10.
 
I thought City Of was a great pilot - it pretty much hooked me from the start, but it was when Angel kicked Russell out of the window that I knew I loved this show.
 
Ok, today I started rewatching Angel from the episode one. I've watched Angel only once, when it was airing on tv, and that was many years ago. I never had time, or will, to watch it from the begining, but now I do. So let's comment the episode, while it's still fresh.

Good show opening. I liked how he told the bald guy "She reminds me of you", LOL.
Him commenting on Cordy's behaviour at the party, was funny, so as him switching cars.
I have to admit, all the flashback to BtVS and Bangel times, made me cry. I was like, "Why did you left?"
I love Doyle, he's so cute.
"Can you fly?" moment was epic. So he really did called Buffy, I thought it's my imagination, LOL. 😀
 
G
GrrArghx
aww yay for watching Angel!
BibliophileAnn
BibliophileAnn
Boy if Angel saw Buffy in a bald black man then he must really have been missing her or was really really drunk.LOL
Did not notice Sawyer from Lost will have to watch again to check that out now.
I loved this episode good way to set the tone for the series. One of my favorite scenes in the series is when he says "can you fly" and pushes him.
When I watch these earlier episodes I realize how much I miss Doyle throughout the series.
 
Just starting my re-watch, coordinating with Season 4 of Buffy.

This is such a fantastic series premiere, better I think than Welcome to the Hellmouth, and certainly miles better than The Freshman in the corresponding Buffy season. From the very first moment you notice the different tone, you can tell it's going to be darker, and I agree, more adult. I thought Doyle's recap was great for folks who might not have watched BtS (nobody here, I know LOL). Sigh, Doyle. I just loved him from the start. Makes it sadder this time around since I know what's going to happen to him. I love the chemistry between all 3 of them.

Favorite line: "The Powers that Be what?" 🙂
 
VisionGirl said:
Just starting my re-watch, coordinating with Season 4 of Buffy.

This is such a fantastic series premiere, better I think than Welcome to the Hellmouth, and certainly miles better than The Freshman in the corresponding Buffy season. From the very first moment you notice the different tone, you can tell it's going to be darker, and I agree, more adult. I thought Doyle's recap was great for folks who might not have watched BtS (nobody here, I know LOL). Sigh, Doyle. I just loved him from the start. Makes it sadder this time around since I know what's going to happen to him. I love the chemistry between all 3 of them.

Favorite line: "The Powers that Be what?" 🙂
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Personally, I think this Pilot was almost too good. Even though I loved every episode of Angel, and it might even be my favorite TV show ever, I think the quality declined after Doyle's death, or more aptly, after they dropped the noir detective angle.

There were amazing episodes in every season, but I think the Angel character was most interesting as an old school detective/vigilante. "City of...," "To Shanshu in LA," and "Redefinition" took themselves so seriously, almost to the absurd, but I really liked them.
 
Buffyverse Fan said:
Personally, I think this Pilot was almost too good. Even though I loved every episode of Angel, and it might even be my favorite TV show ever, I think the quality declined after Doyle's death, or more aptly, after they dropped the noir detective angle.

There were amazing episodes in every season, but I think the Angel character was most interesting as an old school detective/vigilante. "City of...," "To Shanshu in LA," and "Redefinition" took themselves so seriously, almost to the absurd, but I really liked them.
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I agree with you, when exactly do you think that happened?
 
I forgot to add that I like the "Batman" effect: when he jumps off buildings. You didn't see a lot of that pre-AtS. Doyle even references Batman in episode 2.
 
Oh, and one more thing- when Angel gets up from the barstool, did anybody else have a "Oh no, is he Angelus?!" moment?
 
City of

Certainly not me. I could tell from Angel's look and the determined way he walked that he was following vampire/vampires out of the bar. I got excited because I didn't see him carrying a stake in his hand and was curious how he was going to despense the vampire/vampires. Then the cool staking happened. I always liked seeing Angel stake vampires.
 
I like the pilot...I dunno. I've always just been more of a Buffy fan, though when I get into those "Waaah Angel left Buffy T^T" moods I'll pull out my Angel box set.
I feel like Doyle's accent is a bit forced at times, though.
 
SakiKurugi said:
I like the pilot...I dunno. I've always just been more of a Buffy fan, though when I get into those "Waaah Angel left Buffy T^T" moods I'll pull out my Angel box set.
I feel like Doyle's accent is a bit forced at times, though.
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I think that on a Doyle thread, someone said that his accent was actually even thicker than that, and that they had to have him come in and do overdubs because some dialogue was hard to understand.
 
City Of

VisionGirl said:
I forgot to add that I like the "Batman" effect: when he jumps off buildings. You didn't see a lot of that pre-AtS. Doyle even references Batman in episode 2.
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Most likely because there wasn't a lot of opportunities and tall buildings for Angel to jump off of in Sunnydale. Whenever Angel could jump they would have him jump. Even in Innocence Angel jumps down from one platform to the next in the factory. Whenever he did that on ATS I would say Don't die Angel. Of course I knew he would land on his feet and be fine.

---------- Post added at 08:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:34 AM ----------

VisionGirl said:
Just starting my re-watch, coordinating with Season 4 of Buffy.

This is such a fantastic series premiere, better I think than Welcome to the Hellmouth, and certainly miles better than The Freshman in the corresponding Buffy season. From the very first moment you notice the different tone, you can tell it's going to be darker, and I agree, more adult. I thought Doyle's recap was great for folks who might not have watched BtS (nobody here, I know LOL). Sigh, Doyle. I just loved him from the start. Makes it sadder this time around since I know what's going to happen to him. I love the chemistry between all 3 of them.

Favorite line: "The Powers that Be what?" 🙂
Click to expand...

I thought both premieres were great in their own right and did a great job in introducing us the characters on Buffy and Angel. I first knew and grew to love Angel on BTVS which made me want to watch ATS. I don't know if I would have watched ATS if I hadn't had that first esposure to Angel. I agree that Doyle did do a great re-cap. I was sad when they killed him off.
 
VisionGirl said:
I think that on a Doyle thread, someone said that his accent was actually even thicker than that, and that they had to have him come in and do overdubs because some dialogue was hard to understand.
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Really? Did the actor have a natural accent?
I figured it was like Spike, who's actor had to fake one. Though James Marsters did a pretty good job.
 
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