By R. Seehausen
Angel: Season 2 was where the show started to move into it is own ‘formula’, and the opening statement that Angel himself was not devastated by the loss of Buffy served to encompase one fact: the show was on it is own.
Where the basi season fundamentally followed the monster-of-the-week plus occasional storyline episode formula that has been tried and unfeigned on Buffy, Season 2 started to move away from that into the darker, in an emotional manner churning state of being that we viewers have grown so used to in the third and fourth seasons.
The second season of Angel likewise points at the show’s tendency to serve an overarching plot rather than a seasonal “Big Bad”, when it ends with a trip to a dissimilar dimension rather of concluding the Darla storyline (which is finished in the third season).
But even though this season has a darker, more plot-arc oriented spine, it still holds a heap of magnificent reputation and monster-of-the-week episodes. One of these is “Are You Now or Were You Ever?”, thought by fans everyplace as being one of the best sequences of the show. Other greats include “Darla”, “Guise will Beguise”, and “The Shroud of Rahmon”.
There are also portents of the futures of the dissimilar characters interspersed all around the season. This is where Wesley in truth matured, getting a hard-bitten leader rather than a comical sidekick. You may see his reputation being prepared to make the harder selections that cause him to be so dark later on in the series.
Angel himself has a hard time of it all around this season, but then, when does he not? He grows dark, deep-set desperation keeping him from both his mission and his friends. But his salvation is both funny and touching when he returns towards the end of the season.
Cordelia grows immensely for the duration of this season, principally because of her visions. She’s still “tell it like it is” Cordy, but her caring for others grows by leaps and bounds, setting the stage for the Cordelia we recognise later on in the third season.
Charles Gunn likewise joins the Fang Gang, forsaking his old ‘crew’ to aid Angel Investigations in a slow routine that is (fortunately) very believable.
Also in this season we are introduced to two new characters that will later become regulars: Fred and Lorne (the Host). The introductory is a more or less cooky, very intellectual woman who was stuck in Pylea for five years before returning with the Angel Investigations gang. The second, Lorne, is a veritably distinguishable reputation – a demon that sings, and may read a person’s fate when that person sings. Both are magnificent additions to the group, and support to flesh out the dynamic among the characters.
In conclusion, Angel: Season 2 serves as a stage-setter for the third and fourth seasons’ storylines and characters, and holds numerous genuinely unforgettable sequences as well.
44 of 46 people found the following review helpful.
The Very Best of Angel
By D. Bell
Season 2 of Angel is unquestionably the best, and I’ve seen all of Season 3 and all that has aired of Season 4. Why is Season 2 the best? It has the best cast of recurring characters, almost all of whom are gone by the end of episode 18. And it has a definitive arc, though some freestanding sequences are interspersed in amidst the progressing shows. One of the very best of the freestanding sequences is Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been, which is a true masterwork (and has echoes of the original Twilight Zone episode The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street!). Disharmony is likewise an splendid stand-alone episode, but this is one of the funniest sequences yet as Mercedes McNab reprises her role as Harmony the ditzy vampire from Sunnydale. She is a riot! This season likewise provides the firmest conflict amid Angel Investigations and it is nemesis, the evil law firm of Wolfram & Hart, as Angel’s sire Darla is brought back from the dead (at the cost of Lindsey’s right hand) to beguile and bedevil Angel. Lorne the empathetic demon is a welcome addition to the cast from the firstborn episode, and the addition of Fred in the last four sequences (and likewise The Groosalugg, who will be around in the beginning of Season 3) is a touch of genius.
However, the spotlight of Season 2 is the Angel/Darla/Lindsey conflict, with the brilliant contributions of two pretty and to an outstanding degree gifted actors, Julie Benz and Christian Kane. They were a ravaging loss to the show when the storyline ended (although Benz makes a few appearances in Season 3 and one in Season 4). Drusilla enters in The Trial and, along with Stephanie Romanov (Lindsey’s evil colleague Lilah), Sam Anderson (their boss Holland Manners), and Gerry Becker (his substitute Nathan Reed) provide the counterpoint to the Angel Investigations theme. These magnificent actors are gone from the show much too soon, with the exception of Romanov. And the storyline peaks in Reunion, an episode with an ending that must be seen to be believed.
Elisabeth Rohm (Kate Lockley) is another brilliant cast fellow member who leaves the show at the end of this season, and Julia Lee (Anne Steele, who had called herself original Chanterelle and then Lily on two sequences of Buffy) appears too briefly.
Other highlights include songs by Andy Hallett (Lorne), Julie Benz, and Christian Kane, all of whom sing very well, and songs by David Boreanaz and the trio of Wes, Cordy, and Gunn, who don’t! And the bookish Wes becomes a unfeigned hero as the season develops. In the last four (Pylea) episodes, he becomes a leader. There is also a very brief aspect by Eliza Dushku as Faith.
Buy this, watch this, and cherish this. You’ll never see it is like again. This is unquestionably the best of Angel.
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