Angel ep by ep; I FALL TO PIECES
I FALL TO PIECES
The Good;
Great horror concept, you could almost imagine a feature film based upon it, some excellent emotional stuff too and as always Cordy brings the funny. My favourite scene is where Meltzer throws his teeth at Angel and then recoils in pain as Angel smashes them against the wall.
The Bad;
The severed limbs scenes don't really convince, when you see Thing in The Adams Family it's much better
Best line:
Cordy; "Here's this poor girl, she hooks up with a doctor. That's supposed to be a good thing!"
Jeez, how did they get away with that?
Virtually all of the Beast with Five Fingers stuff
Apocalypses: 4
Angel Cliches
Damsel in distress; yep, making 2. However, Doyle says there's 4 in total and 3 very much alive, Presumably the girl from City of Angels is the dead one and the girl from In the Dark is another making 2 more we don't see.
Inverting the Hollywood cliche;
In disguise; 1. Angel poses as a successful businessman but no disguise
DB get's his shirt off; not this ep so still 1
Fang Gang in bondage: no
Cordy: 5
Angel: 4
Wes: 1
Fang gang knocked out: all of them
Cordy: 7
Angel: 7
Wes: 1
Doyle; 1
Kills:
Cordy: none this ep. 3 vamps, ½ a demon from her time in Sunnydale
Angel: 1 human for Angel. So that gives Angel 8 vamps, 2 demons, 2 humans.
Fang Gang go evil:
Cordy: 1
Angel: 1
Alternate Fang Gang:
Cordy: 1
Angel: 3
Characters killed: the poor cop Kate sends to guard the building
10
Total number of Angel Investigations:
3, Angel, Doyle and Cordy
Angel Investigations shot: Angel with the tranquiliser gun (as with Dopplegangland in Buffy why not use that to knock vamps out then cut their heads off?)
Angel: 5,
Notches on Fang Gang bedpost:
Cordy: 1?
Angel: 1;Buffy
Kinky dinky:
What the heck do Meltzer's hands do under the sheets?
Captain Subtext;
Doyle admits that Angel holds a certain attraction to him
Know the face, different character; 1
Andy Umberger who plays Dr Meltzer is also D'Hoffryn on Buffy.
Parking garages; seemingly a staple of the series, one here and in COA
2
Questions and observations;
This is the 4th ep of the series and we're told that Cordy has been working for him for a month so this suggests the series is in real time, one ep per week. Angel drinks coffee now, presumably to keep him up for his cases as he told Joyce he didn't drink it in The Prom. Isn't it a bit unpatriotic for Doyle to drink Scotch, shouldn't he drink whiskey with an e? Cordy gives the Angel Investigations motto 'We help the hopeless'. Oddly here Cordy 'Scullys' Angel, suggesting a non-supernatural solution. He's actually open to the suggestion but points out correctly that Doyle has a vision. Angel just appears to be able to walk into Kate's police station no problem at all. Meltzer actually shows a lot of compassion for Angel's story of his wife. I don't know if it's deliberate but Scrubs has a character called Dr Zeltzer who's also a major weirdo and even looks quite like Dr Meltzer.
It's noticeable that at this stage of Angel the supernatural underworld is just that, it's not out in the open as it will be later, we're still dealing with the everyday clashing with the incredible.
Marks out of 5; 4/5 one of the classic eps of season 1
Currently on Beer Bad over on the Buffy season 4 board so please pop by
