Charisma Carpenter.
Opening titles and theme.
Um, can I say Cordelia Chase?
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Angel |
good vampire tries to atone for his past crimes
Type of Series: Action-Adventure; Fantasy;
Similar Shows: Forever Knight and Buffy.
Angel is virtually identical in premise to Forever Knight.
The Pilot: Angel is moping around Los Angeles, staking vampires by night, then returning to his very own "bat cave" for R&R. But a mysterious psychic shows up and steers him towards someone in distress. Angel tries to help her. But fails. So he avenges her.
Strengths: Charisma Carpenter; strong script; slick visual style; humour;
Weaknesses: A stunt double who looks nothing like the show's star. A forced Irish accent on Glenn Quinn.
Impressive Characters: Angel.
Impressive Actors: Charisma Carpenter.
Impressive Moments: Cordelia versus the Bad Vampire was the highlight for me. The scene went from heart rending to hilarious and thrilling as fast as the viewer could blink.
Cordelia looked so pitiful as the scene started, telling her tale of woe about life in L.A. when you realised that she seemed (almost) prepared to sleep with the sleazy guy, you were almost in tears. But the tears turned to laughter when she realised what he was, blurted it out and then tried to pass herself off as "wacky" and "kidding" in order to cover it up.
Charisma Carpenter is superb in this scene. It's the kind of scene she should put on her show-reel. It reminds me of a wonderful scene from early Moonlighting, where Bruce Willis ran a huge gamut of emotions in the space of three or four lines, and I sat screaming at the screen: "My God! That man is a genius!"
Now, I'm looking at Charisma Carpenter, thinking she may well have a very bright future ahead of her.
Good.
Impressive Writers: Joss Whedon wrote and directed this pilot. As he has proved down the years on Buffy, he is a master story teller.
Impressive Dialogue: Loads. Angel utters lots of tough-guy cool dialogue.
But...
My favourite line is Cordelia's: "I'm wacky... and kidding!" Carpenters delivery is perfect.
Less-Than-Impressive Characters: None. Every major character in the pilot was good.
Less-Than-Impressive Actors: Okay, what is the story with Glenn Quinn and that accent? Quinn's good, but the accent has to go!
Less-Than-Impressive Moments: The fight scene near the end when we can clearly see that it's not David.
Less-Than-Impressive Dialogue: The words are fine, but Glenn Quinn's accent got on my nerves.
Continuity: It looks as if there will be week-to-week continuity. Just like Buffy. Good.
Rewatchability: Yes, I'd happily rewatch this pilot. And probably will.
Hooked: Yes, I'll watch the series. But then, that was a no-brainer. Buffy is one of the very best shows on TV. Angel would have to be totally dire for me to give up after the pilot!
Episode Guide: EpGuides.Com is the best place to go for Episode Guides.
Reviews: Try The City Of Angel or Mighty Big TV
Other Info:
Three Things I Really Like About This Pilot:
Charisma Carpenter.
Opening titles and theme.
Um, can I say Cordelia Chase?
Three Things I Really Don't Like About This Pilot:
The whole women-in-jeopardy thing. Although the death of the damsel-in-distress packed a punch and quickly established the dark tone of the series, on another level it was just the latest example of an audience being manipulated into cheering the male hero on, because a (disposable) female character had just met a gruesome end.
Glenn Quinn's accent.
Cordelia accomplished nothing. She was helpless from start to finish.
Miscellaneous Comments: January 7th, 2000
I was looking forward to this.
And I enjoyed it even more than I though I would.
I've adored Charisma Carpenter for years, and she was simply wonderful here. Never mind her acting talents, just the dress she wore in her first scene alone was enough to make me fall in love!
GRADE: A
Review by Michael Leddy
Comments are welcome: rikerdonegal@hotmail.com
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A BRIEFING WITH MICHAEL |
SECTION V: TV REVIEWS |
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