Angel is not my favourite Buffyverse vampire.
This shouldn't surprise anyone that knows me. Angel is very broody. He's very gloomy. He's a bit of a drama queen. Which would be fine, if he wasn't like that ALL THE FREAKING TIME. He's never funny. Never happy. His "love" with Buffy was something that I found far too Romeo and Juliet to buy. All he ever does is mope around, find Buffy, decide that they can't be together, find Buffy again, kiss a bit, then cry because they shouldn't have done that because they can't be together. It was extremely boring. It was extremely irritating. And it always seemed unnecessary, as well. Whenever a scene between Buffy and Angel came up, I always hoped it would be over quick so that we could get back to the plot, maybe a scene with Xander in it to counter the doom and gloom.
Or at least, that was Buffy-the-Vampire-Slayer-Angel. After he left that show (because, guess what, he and Buffy can't be together - what a shock, right?) he got his own spin-off, apty titled "Angel", which I expected to be just as boring and dark as the character.
But then.... it wasn't.
In the show's first episode, it was very funny. The first scene has him drunkenly telling someone next to him at the bar about a great girl he had (obviously Buffy), and that they reminded him of her. Because of the hair.
Then it cuts to the person in question, who is a large bald black man. Which made me laugh very hard.
Then along comes Doyle, a character with Whedon's signature brand of humour written all over him. And Cordelia, the Sunnydale biotch/airhead, moved to L.A to become an actress, who somehow teams up with Angel and Doyle. It's very funny.
And then there's Spike's monologue in the third episode of the series, which makes me giggle every single flippin' time I listen to it (just watch the first clip, that's the one I'm talking about. Or watch the others. I find it all pretty damn hilarious):
Anyways.
It was also dark and broody. The difference is, they took it in moderation with this show, which I think is the key. Angel has his broody moments - he destroys the gem of Amarra, which is the only way he can go out in sunlight, because he doesn't think he deserves it. Doyle even references this.
Doyle: You got a real addiction to the brooding part of life. Anyone ever tell you that?
Angel: Once or twice.
But again, they keep his brooding in moderation. And at first I thought the only reason I could stand Angel's show was because of the supporting characters - first Doyle, who's to date one of the characters closest to my heart, and Cordelia, who never fails as the reality check. As Whedon puts it, they needed someone to tell them that they're stupid and it wasn't going to work, and that's Cordelia's job. Which she does quite well. Then Wesley, who starts out quite dorkish and funny and slowly evolves into this dark badass who's no stranger to the brooding part of life himself. Gunn, a street kid and a kind of freelance vampire hunter who ends up working with/for Angel. Fred, this adorkable little girl - with some badass skills that kept her alive in a hell dimension for five years. Lorne, a demon from said hell dimension, who left his dimension because they had no music. He's ridiculously flambuoyant, and despite the fact that all they do in his home dimension is battle and hunt, he's not exactly a fighter, but oh, if he hits that high note, you're out for the count (believe it or not, that weapon's pulled out of his arsenal more than once).
My point being, the supporting characters are kind of the best part of the show - they're interesting, layered, and they all have their moments of badass as well as moments of funny, so understandably, I thought that they were the reason I liked the show, and that it had nothing to do with Angel. But the fact is, they tweaked Angel's character when they decided to give him his own show. It's subtle, but it's there, and it makes the series a lot more bearable.
What always bugged me on Buffy was that Angel was supposedly alone for almost a hundred years already (I think thereabouts - he was with Darla for the century where he was evil and alone for a century, I think), but then as soon as he meets Buffy he just can't be without her. And since the show(s) were in all other aspects about strength, and standing strong even if that means standing strong by yourself, needless to say, I found the dependency a little irritating. Especially because there was a whole lot of crying and whining and all that stuff and little to no scenes in which it shows the two characters actually enjoying each other's company or giving a real reason to be in love in the first place. I always found it hard to believe. (This is the same problem I have with most "tragic" love stories, namely Romeo and Juliet, as well as Marius and Cosette from Les Mis, and countless others). But I digress.
So what I really liked was that, on Angel, it shows that he doesn't always need to be the handsome dark stranger, which is a lot of what he was on Buffy. See, my problem with his character on Buffy was that his character wasn't developed much beyond loving the title character and having a horrifically dark past.
Oh hold on.
I haven't explained Angel's whole thing, have I?
Angel's Whole Thing: Vampires don't have souls. Angel does. But he wasn't always that way. Before he was a vampire, he was kind of a good-for-nothing who would just get drunk and flirt and all that. Then Darla shows up and offers to show him the world, to which he immediately agrees, which prompts Darla (who is a vampire) to turn him vampy. To Darla's surprise, this good-for-nothing of a person turns out to be much more productive as a vampire. And of course by productive I mean he was the worst of the worst. He wouldn't just kill and drink people, he would kill their whole family first, mentally (or maybe physically) torture them a bit, THEN kill them. He actually gave himself the name "Angelus", because when his little sister saw him at their door, apparently returned from the grave, she thought he was an angel. Then he killed her. And the rest of the family. So he and Darla, who kinda became his vampire girlfriend, traveled the world, wreaking havoc - Angelus sired Drusilla (not before stalking her, killing everyone she loved, slaughtering every nun at the convent she was at and driving her totally, unspeakably insane) who then sired Spike, and they were a bit of a gang, and I think it's implied somewhere that they actually caused the Boxer Rebellion in China. Anyways, somewhere along the line Angelus kills a gypsy girl, so the gypsies curse him with a soul. So now he's haunted by all the people he'd ever killed as Angelus, which is a whole freaking lot, which drives him a little cuckoo for a century or so, until eventually he decides that he can't just wallow (though, again, he does a lot of that), he has to actively atone. Except, whoops - this was where phlebotinum kinda overtook logic for a while here, because the gypsy curse doesn't make any sense - if Angel has one moment of true happiness, his soul gets taken away from him, and he becomes Angelus again. So, y'know, not good. But that's a crash course in Angel's history.
Sidebar: Liam was the human name of Angel (who was originally Irish). William was the human name of Spike (who was obviously English, duh). Which, if you're nerdy like me, you would know that Liam is actually the Irish mutation of the name William. I figured out before that Spike and Angel were supposed to contrast each other and be each other's counterparts, but man, the writers were THINKING when they made this show, eh? I just thought that was a really clever thing to drop in there and it makes me very happy.
So anyways, what was I talking about? Oh right - why I actually enjoy the show Angel even though I hated the character on Buffy. The main reason being that they developed the character Angel beyond the tragic love story. Actually, they kinda make fun of themselves on Angel about the Buffy drama - there's a clip where Wesley and Cordelia start mocking it. It's pretty great. And accurate. Lemme see if I can find it... found it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzr7JSUIIQE
But what I find interesting about Angel is that they didn't tweak the character all that much. It's just that being away from Buffy made him that much more interesting. And when he got a love interest on his own show - namely Cordelia, whoops, spoiler, sorry not sorry - it wasn't anything like the Buffy drama. And I like to think this is because Cordelia had a sense of humour, and she was also a lot less traditionally nice (she will not let a thought cross her brain without saying it out loud). Whenever Angel started to get all broody and wallow-y, Cordelia would jump in, all like, "Don't give me that crap, what good are you going to do whining in a shadowy corner ya big baby?" whereas Buffy would sink into that stupor with him which would inevitably make me go UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH -
Anyways.
At the same time, what we've learned about Angel by now is that you cannot leave the guy alone for any length of time. He totally leans on everyone around him, even though he's supposedly the leader, which sounds wimpy, but I find it an interesting character trait, and it's not one he had on Buffy, because on Buffy he was never left alone for any length of time. But when he left Buffy, he was gettin' drunk and ranting to large bald black men about how they reminded him of his little blonde cheerleader girlfriend. When he isolated himself from his friends later in the series - he fired Cordelia and Wesley and Gunn because they rightfully believed him to be acting like a moron who lost the point of their mission in the first place - he went pretty dark, showing that there was a fine line between Angelus and Angel. He locked a group of lawyers in a room with a bunch of vampires who wanted to massacre them all. He not only let the massacre happen, he ensured it, because the lawyers in question were working for a firm owned by demons who insisted on constantly screwing with him. And then he slept with Darla in an attempt to lose his soul. Point being, you cannot leave the guy alone for any length of time without him turning into a reckless idiot.
Endearing trait? Well, no, not in the traditional sense. As a character, though, it makes him a lot more interesting, and therefore easier to watch. (You may have noticed by my endless character studies of Spike that the more interesting/conflicted/layered a character is, the more I like them. I don't just love Spike 'cause he's hilariously snarky, after all - though it does help).
They also allowed themselves to have a sense of humour with Angel on his own show, which also makes it much more fun to watch. There are times when Angel goes from being dead serious to childishly petty. Which is pretty hilarious. (Seriously, don't call him a eunuch. Sure, he can't have sex without the danger of losing his soul and going nightmarishly evil, but he's not a eunuch! The curse wasn't even that clear!) (Also, he started it. The whole having a soul. Before it the was the cool new thing.) [Pssst - italics means quotes]. Also, they comment on Angel's singing ability multiple times, since he often needs to know his "path", and Lorne can read it in his aura if he sings. Hilarity ensues. Apparently Angel has a soft spot for Barry Manilow.
Can I talk about David Boreanaz (the guy who plays Angel) for a moment? Because he is not by any means the most impressive actor in the Buffyverse, or even on his own show - that can go to Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alexis Denisof, James Marsters - but there is one thing he does extremely well. And that is that he can make the switch from Angel to Angelus, and you CAN NOT them. There is not a hint of the one in the other. And I find that very impressive. Think about it - somber, quiet, broody, and of course the word that apparently no one gets sick of using, a "champion" - to a sadistic, nasty, egotistical, evil, not to mention snarky, supervillain. That can't be an easy switch to pull off, but boy does he. He also makes Angelus very fun to watch.
Just sayin', David Boreanaz doesn't usually impress me to the point where I'm really admiring his acting (like the people I mentioned before - can I add Anthony Stewart Head to that list as well? And Amy Acker?), but when he switches to Angelus, you have to give him credit, because wow.
But, in all honesty, Angel doesn't make the show. It's Team Angel that makes the show. This consists of Angel (duh), Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, and Lorne. Honestly, without the supporting characters, this show would be nothing. As mentioned before, they're everything that stops Angel from turning into a reckless idiot. They're also the heart, the brain, and every other thing you can think of for the show.
Also, their existence supports the whole theme of the show that it started with in the beginning with Doyle. The theme being that Angel needs to stop just saving lives and start saving souls, and he did that for every character, I think. He successfully turned Cordelia from being a shallow airhead into someone who could believably be good enough to be called up to become a power-that-be. Wesley, well, Wesley kinda went to a bad place after he got his throat slit and Angel tried to smother him to death - can you blame him for going to that bad place? - but hello, there's that other theme: atonement. And Angel gave Wesley the oppurtunity to atone - granted, it took him a bit of time, but he got there, and nevermind that, before all that stuff happened, Angel gave Wesley a purpose, a way to make the world better after he got fired from the Watcher's Council. He enlighted Gunn about the shades of grey involved in the good versus evil fight, which Gunn had previously been ignoring, and in doing so, made Gunn a better person for it. (The phrase "shades of grey" is never going to be usable again, is it? Goddamnit.) He saved Fred from a hell dimension and rehabilitated her to this dimension when she was too scared to venture outside and too shy (and incomprehensible) to talk to anyone else. So there's that.
And, okay, Lorne was never specifically saved by Angel, but can I just express my love for Lorne for a moment? He brightens up the show like no one else can. It's also hilarious, because he's a green demon with horns who dresses like Don Cherry, and when people first watch a later episode of the show and they're all taking care of Lorne because people sort of went digging around in his brain (literally)... my Dad literally went "What the hell is this?" and it made me laugh really hard. Also, Lorne makes me laugh. He's a lot like Cordelia, in that he's all about the good and can be pretty stubborn, he's a voice of reason, and has his moments of snark, but he's more flamboyant and a hundred times more... gentle. Yeah, that's a good way to put it. Anyways, I just love him. I cheered when I finally saw him in the opening theme, because he so deserved it and it meant he was here to stay (of course then I remembered that this was a Joss Whedon show and that it probably actually meant that he was going to die really quick - I've been wrong so far, though!).
But anyways. Team Angel is fun, and Angel makes a good leader for them, in spite of my previous judgments about him. I guess Angel's just better as a lead character than a supporting character.
Now hold on - why is that, I wonder?
I think it's because Angel needs support. Seriously, like I said, he's nothing when he's alone. He needs people around him to keep him grounded. Which means that he kind of fails as a supporting character, as the purpose of a supporting character is to help round out the lead, which as far as I'm concerned, he didn't really do that for Buffy. A broody, (yet impulsive) character like Angel rounds out no one, because he needs rounding out.
Analysis is fun.
And finally, it has nothing to do with the character itself, but listen to the theme song. Because it's actually very pretty music. I may just be getting more sensitive to music, but in a totally non-fangirly way, like, as I was skeptically watching the first episode, the theme song was a piece of music that touched me.
The actual full, three-minute song is even prettier, but the excerpt they use as the theme song is a good taste of it. It's called Sanctuary by Darling Violetta, if you wanna look it up.
Look, there are not many spin-offs of great TV shows that are remotely worth watching. But Angel is not only a good show, it is, in its own darker way, equally as good as Buffy. Where Buffy is full of themes that are told through metaphors and symbolism, Angel is much darker, and not just because Angel can only go out at night. Angel gets more into the nitty gritty of good and evil, the shades of grey involved (nope, still not usable), and there was even a very thought-provoking arc in the fourth season about the cost of world peace versus free will. Which was, for a geek like me, a real treat. And both shows have incredible character development. I just love them both equally for different reasons. If you watch Buffy, watch Angel as well. Preferably, as soon as you start the fourth season of Buffy, start the first season of Angel. The more in sync it is, the more fun, because cross-overs happen more than once.
So in conclusion, Angel is a quality show, and not a terrible character either. Yeah, I'm just as surprised as you are.
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