Lorraine: This was a lot of fun to put together. I feel much better about this list than I do my worst of list. Not much to add here except...
Things got a little bit away from me.
Last night, after watching Sweeney's great video, I became a lean, mean, ranking machine. I ranked story arcs and characters and episodes, and also what's here in the video below. I tried to squeeze in my bottom 10 episodes as well, but there was just no way that was going to happen time-wise, which is why the video ends kind of abruptly.
Also cut for time, an explanation about how there was more of a debate during my Buffy rankings about what was the best, quality wise, and what was the best to me.
Last night, after watching Sweeney's great video, I became a lean, mean, ranking machine. I ranked story arcs and characters and episodes, and also what's here in the video below. I tried to squeeze in my bottom 10 episodes as well, but there was just no way that was going to happen time-wise, which is why the video ends kind of abruptly.
Also cut for time, an explanation about how there was more of a debate during my Buffy rankings about what was the best, quality wise, and what was the best to me.
More finale flaily fun times! Let's celebrate with more gifs from She:
Anyway, that being said, there is something strange and surreal about this. It's weird to imagine this blog without the Buffyverse and it's over this week. Or, as Lorraine put it in her Buffy "Best Of" video - "this is the end, except for the part where it's not" because we will undoubtedly continue to pick it back up here and there. It also, of course, colors everything else we do here, so there's that.
We've made no secret of the fact that we find this the weaker of the two shows. That said, I think I probably enjoyed it the most of the three of us and actually can see myself rewatching some of this. One day. In the future.
Anyway, that being said, there is something strange and surreal about this. It's weird to imagine this blog without the Buffyverse and it's over this week. Or, as Lorraine put it in her Buffy "Best Of" video - "this is the end, except for the part where it's not" because we will undoubtedly continue to pick it back up here and there. It also, of course, colors everything else we do here, so there's that.
We've made no secret of the fact that we find this the weaker of the two shows. That said, I think I probably enjoyed it the most of the three of us and actually can see myself rewatching some of this. One day. In the future.
Know what's better for the Snark Ladies than celebrating one end of something? CELEBRATING TWO ENDS OF SOMETHING. WE DID IT!
Season 1 of Angel took some time trying to find its footing, though very little of it was worse than boring. We were reluctant to take on this new project and long commitment, but all said and done, I'm super glad we did.
If the first seasons of Buffy were about using about using the supernatural to metaphorically represent high school, the beginning episodes of Angel were all, "by the way, graduating high school is hell too."
Season 1 of Angel took some time trying to find its footing, though very little of it was worse than boring. We were reluctant to take on this new project and long commitment, but all said and done, I'm super glad we did.
If the first seasons of Buffy were about using about using the supernatural to metaphorically represent high school, the beginning episodes of Angel were all, "by the way, graduating high school is hell too."
Previously: Angel broke into Wolfram & Hart to steal files that would rescue some kids, and The Powers That Be Contriving encouraged him to grab an ancient prophecy about himself...
Kirsti: We open in a dark street, where a shady looking guy is selling a couple of way-too-young-to-be-out-alone-after-dark kids some crappy looking toys. A young blind woman in a VERY unflattering outfit is walking down the street with a cane. (L: K, girl, she's blind.) The shady guy stops her so that he can move his crappy looking toys out of her way. This scene apparently serves almost no purpose because we seizure cut - LESS THAN A MINUTE IN - to Angel fighting some vampires.
Lorraine: I'm pretty sure the point of the scene was to bash us over the head with how completely blind this woman is.
Lorraine: I'm pretty sure the point of the scene was to bash us over the head with how completely blind this woman is.
If fighting in a cemetery is Buffy's go-to opening (with dream sequences being a not-too-far second place) a woman worriedly walking down a street at night is Angel's go-to. That's how we start our episode today. Worried Walking Woman is being followed by three nefarious looking guys and she soon breaks out into a worried jog. She reaches a dead end, and we see the nefarious guys are in fact vampires. She looks pretty SOL until we hear footsteps approaching. One vamp is all, "YOU!" and the music swells and the lying camera zooms in on the YOU!'s feet, so we know it isn't who we expect it to be, despite the black and billowy coat. It is not Angel. It's a black male wearing a bandana. He asks if the vamp was expecting someone else, just as a jeep full of back-up rolls into the shot.
Roll credits.
Roll credits.
The episode begins more or less right after the last, as it's a two-parter. Angel is returning to the Brooding Basement with a very beat up Faith. He gives her a towel and puts her to bed. She says nothing until he starts to walk away. She says his name and we see her beating him up, but it was just in her head. He asks her what she wants. "Nothing," she says. Roll electric cellos.
Lorraine: Dude, if she has those murdery scenes playing in her head all the time, it's a wonder she doesn't kill more people.
K: A+
Lorraine: Dude, if she has those murdery scenes playing in her head all the time, it's a wonder she doesn't kill more people.
K: A+
We start under a freeway bridge. A dude in a beanie approaches some guys and asks what they're burning because EW STINKY. The answer? A human arm. And the guys doing the burning aren't so much homeless guys as they are demons with lopsided faces. I'm going to call them the Crooked Smile demons, because if I have to read about ONE MORE YA love interest with a crooked smile, I will scream and I'm secretly hoping this stops all authors from adding it to their stories.
Lorraine: High hopes, my friend, but I approve.
Lorraine: High hopes, my friend, but I approve.
We start with tight shots of Angel's and Wesley's faces alternatively. Denisof really is a handsome man. Boreanaz truly has a prominent brow. The suspenseful music flares up as they realize all the exits are are blocked and they would be spotted right away. Just as Angel suggests shouting fire, we widen the shot to see they are watching Cordelia in a play. Wesley checks his watch: one hour left. Angel: I thought I knew eternity.
K: Punny Angel is punny.
Lor: Roll electric credits.
K: Punny Angel is punny.
Lor: Roll electric credits.
The episode begins with Cordelia and Wesley bickering about all the things. First it's the name of the demon database Cordelia is using (Demons! Demons! Demons!) which is a thing whose existence I love and approve of. As all three Snark Ladies are students who get their research on occasionally, it's amusing to watch the Buffyverse acquire technology. I just hope that nobody scanned any old demonic texts in the making of this database, because that was an awful moment in Buffyverse history that I'd rather not revisit.
K: I recently sat in a class where a lecturer told us about how when online database searching first started, you got charged by the SECOND for using it.
K: I recently sat in a class where a lecturer told us about how when online database searching first started, you got charged by the SECOND for using it.
Kirsti: We open on a sunny morning with a girl in a historically inaccurate costume pouring water from a well into a jug. It's 1753, and we're in Galway. Oh, sorry. Galway, IRELAND, because the show needs to clarify such things for stupid people who don't know where Galway is.
Sweeney: This is an American show. Our people don't know shit about maps or other places. They can't even put half the US states on a map, so expecting them to identify foreign cities without clarification is just too much.
K: And yet someone decided America should be in charge of the world. Go figure...
Sweeney: This is an American show. Our people don't know shit about maps or other places. They can't even put half the US states on a map, so expecting them to identify foreign cities without clarification is just too much.
K: And yet someone decided America should be in charge of the world. Go figure...
Wesley is showing Angel a super special knife, useful for killiig Kek demons, which would be great Angel says, if Kek demons weren't extinct. Wesley holds out hope that there may yet be a sole, hibernating Kek.
The oven buzzes. Cordelia is baking brownies. She enters to collect said brownies as Wesley comments under his breath that he thought what he smelled was something he tracked in. Cordy tells Wesley he's going to love them. Angel is saved from a taste test because his selective eating says so. (S: I'd abuse the shit out of that too.)
The oven buzzes. Cordelia is baking brownies. She enters to collect said brownies as Wesley comments under his breath that he thought what he smelled was something he tracked in. Cordy tells Wesley he's going to love them. Angel is saved from a taste test because his selective eating says so. (S: I'd abuse the shit out of that too.)
Sweeney: This episode begins with a party at Cordelia's and I get excited because I've seen fun gifs of this episode! Cordelia jokes that a party must be Angel's idea of hell and he says, "Actually in hell you tend to know a lot of the people." LOL. A+ for you.
K: I'm going to use that excuse next time I have to go to a party, because Angel at a party = GPO-freaking-Y.
Sweeney: Best excuse ever. Cordelia scurries off to see some guy she's excited about and Angel watches Wesley dance awkwardly and gets the funniest little "You crazy" look ever. I'm so happy about everything that's happening.
K: I'm going to use that excuse next time I have to go to a party, because Angel at a party = GPO-freaking-Y.
Sweeney: Best excuse ever. Cordelia scurries off to see some guy she's excited about and Angel watches Wesley dance awkwardly and gets the funniest little "You crazy" look ever. I'm so happy about everything that's happening.
Cordelia starts us off by using a window as a mirror to apply some lip gloss. Angel startles her when he walks in, and she gives herself a little bit of a Joker mouth. As she cleans herself up, she jokes about being too young and carefree for a heart attack. Angel turns the joke around on her as he sorts through some files, and remarks that she should be less young and carefree with those, as she's placed a Mrs. Benson's file under F. Cordy remembers that she did so because Mrs. Benson is from France, a fact that she relates with her being a pain in the ass. Also, Cordelia is wearing a large bandanna as a top.