reviewed by: Charity Bishop
               

Not all vampires are without a soul. This is the premise of Angel, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin off that is arguably better than the original series. 

After discovering that he cannot be physical with Buffy due to the nature of his cursed state (rendering him able to keep his soul and human instincts, thus making him loathe the hunting of humans for nourishment), Angel (David Boreanaz) finds a new home and sense of purpose in LA. Many things convene in the City of Angels. There are the demons, the monsters, things that go bump in the night, and their innocent prey. Determined to fight the forces of evil, Angel teams up with an Irish half-demon, Doyle (Glenn Quinn), with powers of precognition that allow him to foresee dark events before they occur, allowing our night-time-loving, brooding, undead hero to intervene. Along the way they meet up with fellow Sunnydale transplant, Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter). Once Buffy's arch-nemesis and then partner to all things vampire-slaying, Cordelia is a starving thespian waiting for her big break in show business.

After becoming the intended target of a vampire, she's recruited into the ranks of Angel Incorporated, a trio of evil-fighting do-gooders who have trouble paying the monthly rent on their ramshackle office. Cordelia wants them to charge for their services. Doyle wants Cordelia to give him the time of day. Angel wants redemption. He was transformed into a vampire in the 17th century. Without a shred of conscience, he went on the most bloody rampage that Europe had ever known, but after feeding on a gypsy girl, was cursed by her angry parents. The curse returned his soul and conscience to his body. Memories of rampant slaughter and cruelty haunt him, and he's not entirely forgotten in the vampire world. This brings him into contact with many characters from the Buffy universe as he battles evil and occasionally becomes involved in the personal lives of his clients. With a mass murderer on the loose in LA, Angel begins stalking the night club scene. He creates a spark with Kate Locksley (Elisabeth Rohm), a local police detective who doesn't believe in the supernatural. The more she sees of Angel, the more intrigued and suspicious she becomes. 

Together, Angel and his friends (which in the latter half of the season includes Wesley, played by Alexis Denisof, a wisecracking British know-it-all with zero slaying talent) must protect the defenseless from the perils of a city that never sleeps. Too bad he can't walk around in daylight. I thought this show was going to be a cheap "sequel" brand of unoriginality, but it's very good. The characters are well developed, and you begin to understand Angel's torments and motivations as he deals with immense guilt over his past. He's a vampire seeking redemption the only way he knows how. Brooding, dark, pensive, doesn't like to talk a great deal, but is willing to risk his life for another, Angel is marvelous. The world Joss Whedon has created for him is infinitely dark, but never without hope. Angel doesn't just help human beings, he also intervenes for weaker "good monsters" that are under attack. 

Some viewers may not like the show's blend of the supernatural, but it's never occult-flavored. It's simply another world in which imagination takes full flight, and it's not unusual to see a two-headed monster running down the street. The characters are constantly making personal sacrifices for one another, and emotion is the primary lure between the intense sequences, along with a heavy flavoring of dry wit and sarcastic humor. Cordelia adds just the right amount of self-absorbed sweetness, while Doyle and Wesley are all out comics with good hearts. If you're not madly in love with the trio by the end of the first episode, you have no heart. There are some content concerns, but nothing too intense that older teens and adults can't handle. Language is minimal. There are a few mild abuses of deity, occasional profanities, and several instances of women being called b*****. Each episode features graphic and brutal battle violence, with vampires being staked in the heart, and demons being dismembered. Characters are kicked, punched, thrown through walls, thrust out of windows, sent smashing into the underground, hurled from moving trains, shot at, cut up with pieces of glass, and burned alive.

Angel is tortured by having hot pokers driven through his body. Vampires burst into flames and are incinerated by sunlight. A character is vaporized by a heat lamp. One villain has the power to allow body parts to wander around at random; hands appear underneath the door, and eyes float in midair. Goblin "blood" spatters on occasion in the form of green goo. Vampires leave bloody teeth marks in victim's necks, and are shown attacking people. Sometimes the violence is sexualized; such in a series of flashbacks for when Angel became a vampire, when he drinks blood from a woman's bosom, and from a girl's thigh. A vampire's dismembered head bounces across the ground; the same happens to a demon. Cut-up body parts are briefly shown. Sexual content is not an enormous issue for one reason: Angel has to remain celibate. If he becomes intimate with a woman, the sexual high will transform him back into a bloodthirsty fiend. That's a pretty good reason for abstinence, and normally does a good job. There's a flashback of him in bed with Buffy in the first episode. She later comes to LA and, through a twist of events, Angel becomes human for twenty-four hours. They spend most of this time together alone in his apartment (there's a hefty make-out scene before they're shown cuddling in bed). Cordelia is seduced by a guy who impregnates her with demons. Another demon burrows into human bodies and is transferred from one sanctuary to the next after sexual acts. A demon prostitute is seen in revealing undergarments, and makes a mild come-on to Angel. There are some sexual references (Cordelia wisecracks about so not wanting to sleep with Wesley, accuses a girl of being a tramp in trying to seduce Angel, etc), some gay references, and mild innuendos.

What might concern viewers more are the supernatural elements. Most are harmless, and of your average superhero variety. All vampires except for Angel are "bad" because none of them retained their humanity after the transformation. Demons, on the other hand, are both good and evil. There's no parallel to Biblical demons, only green, red, and blue monsters who wander around looking for prey or are perfectly harmless. Doyle receives his visions from "The Powers That Be," whomever they are. They speak through oracles (of the ancient Greek variety; they are merely wise). Most of the episodes are harmless, but one or two did make me uneasy. The first was the menacing ghost of a woman who inhabits Cordelia's apartment. They attempt to cast her out, without success. Another ghost gets rid of her, and remains as a roommate to Cordelia (it's actually a sweet and often funny twist, particularly when he doesn't like her boyfriends). Another features a little boy who is possessed. Angel is forced to perform an exorcism, but a twist reveals that the demon wasn't responsible for the boy's evil-doing.

It's safe to say that while the show does have its flaws, I enjoyed it very much. There are some Buffy crossovers, but by in large it stands on its own two feet. You can even read religious parallels into the subtext if you're looking for them. Angel wants redemption. He doesn't care about money or fame, he wants to protect those weaker than himself. Faces from later seasons of the original show make appearances, including Spike (James Marsters), and a rogue Slayer (Eliza Dushku), who comes back to the side of good over evil. These elements make for a very likable hero, and it's not very often that can be said about a vampire.