Investigating the disappearance of a man's brother, apparently taken by demons, Angel is captured and forced to fight in a death match, where only 21 kills will allow him to be released.
First off, it's not as bad as it sounds. However, as it sounds truly dreadful, that's not a major selling point. WWF Wrestling has much to answer for. Not only does the 'Smackdown' pull in a huge group of idiots watching it regularly, wrestling has infiltrated any number of Sci-Fi shows this year, with an unprecedented amount of series having what is essentially the same story: one of the characters is thrown into an encounter with a wrestler of some description.
Voyager, Secret Agent Man (in only its third episode!), and Seven Days, to a degree, have all featured some form of one on one combat. The key point here is: none of the episodes which featured this set-up were any good at all, as two distinct kinds of TV show are forced to combine.
Angel certainly isn't the exception. David Boreanaz is reduced to brooding and posing in a tight t-shirt and there's no real plot to speak of. There's some of the most clichéd and appalling dialogue ever spoken (the demon fighters are called 'slaves' and the usual posing and macho posturing are much in evidence), and halfway through, it suddenly occurs to the viewer that Angel, Wesley and Cordelia are trying to release a group of demons, who will no doubt rush straight out and carry on killing humans. This is the kind of creature Angel has spent the rest of the season trying to stop! The ending sees the team finally realize this, but whereas an ending of this nature has been known to work on Bufffy, here it just draws attention to the sheer stupidity of the entire thing.
The only aspect The Ring has going for it is Wesley and Cordelia. They work well as a team, have some inventive and clever ideas to get what they want (their impersonation of police officers is particularly clever), and although a way to break the cuffs keeping Angel in check is immensely contrived and convenient, it's the only weak part of the pair's investigations, which shows how useful they can be to their boss. Wesley also finally shows some ability when he threatens a gang of thugs, and just as we're sure he's about to get pummelled (as the thugs also believe), he gets the upper hand. It's the few scattered moments like these that improve the episode somewhat, but it's still a long way from good.
**
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