Customer Reviews
a very good start to a successful spin off show - By: S. J. Pinder, 21 Jul 2008 
season 1 of Angel had some competition to the(superior)Buffy the vampire slayer,but it near enough got as good as the parent series,while it does have a few duds its the best season of the show for a while...before it was criminally taken off air:(.
eppy guide-
City Of-5/5-meet cordelia(from Buffy),and Doyle as they team up with Angel to take on evilin L.A.
Lonely Hearts-3/5
In The Dark-4/5-Spike wrecks havoc.
i fall to pieces-3/5
Rm W/A Vu-4/5
Sense & sensitivity-3/5
Bachelor Party-2/5
I will remember you-5/5-Buffy comes to L.A.
Hero-5/5-Goodbye Doyle.
Parting Gifts-4/5-welcome to Wesley.
Somnambulist-4/5
Expecting-4/5
She-2/5
Under my skin-5/5-the exorcist meets Angel.
The Prodigal-4/5
The Ring-4/5
Eternity-4/5
Five By Five-4/5-Faith comes to L.A.
Sanctuary*-5/5-Buffy comes to L.A to bring Faith to justice but Angel has other plans,in what has to be(for a while)the best episode of the show.
War Zone-3/5
Blind Date-3/5
To shanshuin L.A-5/5-a grim & brutal finale that sums up the show as a whole.
allin all a very good season of Angel that only beats this standardin its final seasons...buy now.
angelic - By: Rebecca Roberts, 04 Feb 2008 
Call me crazy but I actually prefer Angel to Buffy, i find it more funny, better written & the characters are more intriging. Particularly Cordelia who has grown as a person while still keeping that attitude that people lovedin Buffy. My favourite episode of this series focuses on Cordy & is "Rm w/a Vu" featuring Phantom Dennis (who has some short but memorable mentions laterin the series like when Cordy is prgnant or Faith breaks in).
Another standout episode is "I Will Remember You" which is a Buffy crossover & is positivelty heartbreaking as Angel becomes human but gives it back for the greater good.
Another good feature is the recurring villains that are Wolfram & Heart, lawyers to evil!! They are such a good creation & really bring a different dynamic to the good v evil fight.
I also love the way that previous Buffy are characters have been given more depth, I already mentioned Cordelia but Wesley becomes strangely adorable as the series progresses & we get to explore people from Angel's past like Darla & Drusilla.
If you love Buffy then this is a must for you!!
Blade+ Buffy+Batman= Angel - By: Jim Kay, 23 Dec 2007 This season is an exploration into the dark, melancholic, brooding character of Angel, the Vampire with a soul. Doyle, his sidekick, introduces Angel to the underworld of L.A. through 'heaven sent' visions, which provide the hero with damsels to save. Cordelia, is the light entertainment & brings the Buffy jokes to the season. Together they form a detective agency to help people. Whedon delves into Angel's long past,e.g. the death of his parents (similar to Batman), & introduces viewers to the darker side of society i.e. drugs, prostitution, money (reminiscent of Blade). He also, plays on contextual issues, such as racial tensions, suicide, abuse, STDs to name a few. As well as the storyline being relevant, the arcane, smooth nature of Angel is captured through violent action sequences & demure camera pans of the Dark Knight. The 'cheesy' nature of Buffy is almost absentin this season, & every episode makes you want to watch another. Therefore, for a dark, serious series with the occasional joke it is the best of its kind.
Goes downhill after episode 9... - By: Sophie E, 14 Nov 2007 
I'm sure most people reading this will already have watched buffy, so you will be familiar with the whole vampire with a soul thing, i probably don't need to go into that! You want to know what the show's like. There is the introduction of the Angel character, &in the first episode it gives you a recap anyway, so you don't really need to have seen buffy. The character Cordelia joins the show- she was alsoin buffy. So far so typical buffy spin off. However, with the introduction of the character Doyle( played by Irishman Glenn Quinn)- a gorgeous, Irish, half-demon half-human who provides the much needed comic relief with the brooding presence of Angel & the self absorbed Cordelia. He's the one thing that stops it being just a buffy spin off. Unfortunately, due to the script writers infinite wisdom, he is killed offin the 9th episode 'Hero', apparently to create the 'anything could happen' feeling, making the show too dark & depressing to watch at times. Then, as a Doyle replacement, (if there can ever really be a replacement for Doyle) Wesley is introduced- another buffy character. And not even a good one at that. This is when it really starts to get bad. However, i would recommend buying this set, even if it is purely to watch the first nine episodes- they are Glenn Quinn history now, as he sadly passed away at the too-young age of 32in 2002.
Season two is also a lot better with the introduction of several new, interesting characters, so it's worth watching season one to catch up.
So,in conclusion- buy it! (Especially if you like irish accents!)
Great season of a great show - By: Sam Anders, 26 Oct 2007 Angel is a show that's hard to categorize, it's part dark & violent horror, part humorous farce, part melodrama, & part pop-culture satire. One thing it's easy to classify is that this is absolutely brilliant television.
The story follows Angel, a vampire cursed with a soul (and thus a conscience) as revenge for one of his many murder victims, now struggling with an overwhelming guilt & drive for redemption. Angel moves to L.A. (having left his inferior parent show Buffy)in search of a way to atone for his sins & 'fight the good fight' to save his soul. Angel is just hands down a far more interesting character than Buffy, this isn't a bright-eyed young heroine struggling with the problems of an American teenager, this is a man who faces daily guilt & struggle with his darker impulses (he's got a soul, but still all the blood-drinking urges of a vampire) livingin constant fear of himself as much as any demon he faces. And dutifully the show follows it's character away from Buffy into something much darker, more violent, & adult.
Having said that, the show never loses it's sense of fun. Comedic relief is provided mainly by the characters working with Angel on their own personal quest for atonement - Cordelia (spoilt rich girlin Buffy, she now develops into a far more complex character, particularly near the end of the season), Doyle (a new character, he's initially a lovable rogue he quickly becomes a man whose own mistakes haunt him & drive him to help Angel) & Wesley (a later edition to the cast, he doesn't move far from the stiff-upper-lip buffoon from Buffy but we do get hints at something more beneath the surface near the end). The humor is essential to the show & often badly needed when things take a turn (as they often do) for the darker.
The demons that form the supernatural population of L.A. for the most part look excellent, though the onein "Expecting" does look a bit silly when it moves. The show follows a very self-contained approach, each episode not really linked much with the others exceptin character development. The only continuing villains (bar of course Angel's dark side) are Wolfram &Hart, an evil law firm (essentially if you sell your soul, these guys write the contract) protecting the interests of their (mainly evil) clients at all costs, & therefore not happy when Angel starts killing them off. Wolfram&Hart are a good opponent but they don't get much screen time exceptin the final episodes of this season, but already by that point they're forming into the near-unbeatable enemies they become later onin the show.
The writing for Angel is excellent, the dialog is diamond sharp & the characters are well drawn, many of the plots are well paced & refuse to conform to norms when the story could do better without them. Joss Whedon made the right decision splitting Angel from Buffy, giving the character a real chance to come into his own & - eventually - become the focus of a far better show.
In conclusion, Angel delivers a solidly entertaining & at times quite thoughtful piece of television that anyone who gives it a chance is all but guaranteed to enjoy.
