Angel
Season Three (2001)
cast: David Boreanaz, Charisma
Carpenter
Our rating:
2 out of 5
Rated: not rated (content equal to
PG13)
reviewed by: Charity
Bishop
Every city must have a hero, someone to combat the forces of darkness
that threaten to steal the joy from our lives. In the successful
television series Angel, we are introduced to quite another brand
of hero: a vampire with a soul. A member of Angel Investigations, an
elite group of demon-slayers that protect the streets of LA,
Angel (David Boreanaz) is attempting to come to grips
with the loss of his beloved Buffy. Spending three months recovering in
a European monastery, Angel returns to his crime-fighting team, made up
of book-addict Wesley (Alexis Denisof), perky Cordelia (Charisma
Carpender), who has powers of precognition that
allow her to foresee deadly future events, and street-boy Charles Gunn
(J. August Richards).
The organization faces a new series of challenges as
they attempt to unravel the devious dealings of
their greatest rival, Wolfran & Hart, a sleazy law
office who works with the criminal underground. When
Cordelia begins to suffer physical manifestations of
her violent visions, Angel is forced to alliance
with their enemies in order to purchase her sanity.
Traveling into a demonic dimension, he brings back
to earth an evil human being ensnared in a hellish
punishment for crimes against humanity. This
individual threatens their existence several months
later when a series of woman-battering crimes
plagues the streets. Angel and his associates have
taken into their keeping Winfred (Amy Arker), a
young woman who spent most of her childhood
imprisoned in a second dimension as a slave. Fred
suffers from paranoia and won't set foot outside her
bedroom door. Eventually she begins to show promise
in assisting them to battle the forces of evil,
using her mathematical mind to reach logical
conclusions, but her heart is set on Angel, her
eternal hero.
Her faith in her dark guardian is shaken when Darla
(Julie Benz) arrives, Angel's former flame from the
1700's and recent one-night fling during one of
Angel's sporadic periods of depression. The
beautiful blonde vampire is extremely pregnant and
although she's made every attempt to get rid of the
thing growing inside of her, something is protecting
the child. Shamans and mystics are unable to
determine what it is, or what it means, but Wesley
believes it is part of a prophecy concerning Angel
and the impending end of the world. What transpires
is a weak season to begin with, but once we're
midway through, takes some fascinating twists and
turns. All of the characters are evolving. Cordelia
becomes a higher being. Angel deals with the
emotions that come with fatherhood. Wesley betrays
his friends and suffers emotionally, and Gun falls
in love with the young, sweet Fred, who is a breath
of fresh air to the show.
Focusing more on the structure of a plot line rather
than individual events, Angel does have an
intelligent plot. I wasn't as keen on this season
because it's much more focused on sex. A lecherous
old man body-jumps with various victims, bringing
out sexual aggressiveness. In youthful form, he's
shown in a hotel room with two scantily-clad
hookers. When occupying Angel's body, he makes
suggestive remarks to all the girls in the agency
and cavorts with a woman on a desk (they tear at one
another's clothes; before they can go too far, his
vampire instinct kicks in and he bites her). A
colleague of the woman later uses a tape of this
escapade to blackmail her. A graphic flashback shows
Angel and Darla (half-undressed) in the throes of
passion. Angel and Cordelia enter a room flooded
with sexual chemistry and begin to reenact a love
story that took place a hundred years before: they
engage in passionate kissing, making out on the
couch, and sexual dialogue. It's implied that
Cordy's top comes off (only her shoulders and part
of her stomach are seen). Cordy pleads with Angel to
find her a potion so she can sleep with her
boyfriend from another dimension. This boy lives
with her for awhile. Wesley is shown in bed with
Lila. Her bare back is seen as she gets dressed.
Sexual dialogue such as "screwed" and "boned" are
occasionally used.
There's some profanity (numerous uses of a** and
b***h). Violence is more
extreme this time around, with numerous decapitated
demon heads, a high body count, and spattering green
blood and goo. Demons are dismembered and slain,
humans are attacked, thrown through walls, drained
of their blood, and melt out of their skin. A shaman
removes his hat to reveal half of his brain; it
moves and bubbles. He's later shown with a stake
driven through his head. Fred chops in half a
severed demon head, spilling cockroaches into the
room. Cordelia suffers from grotesque slashes across
her body after a vision splits reality. Vampires are
dispatched with stakes. There's also an element of
dark magic. Demons are both good and evil; one of
the good guys is Lorne (Andy Hallett), a seer who
can read people's minds if they sing. Cordelia
becomes half-demon, giving her supernatural
abilities (for good). Desperate to pass into another
world, Angel uses witchcraft and paints a pentagram
on the office floor. Six months later, they still
can't get it off (he suffers vile repercussions for
using dark magic).
The supernatural elements aren't as disconcerting as
the sexual ones. Fans of the show might be
disappointed that the brooding vampire with a soul
has lightened up and become a little more... normal.
The wonderful thing about the former character of
Angel is that he was unique in his limitations. Most
of those issues have been stripped away, leaving a
hero that's a little too human in his approach.
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