Thirty Days of Angel in One

[selenak]

Day 1: Favorite Season

Four, and I will defend it to the death and post mortem appearances. :) No, seriously, the fourth season imo is the most tightly written one, with a relentless arc, it comes full circle at the end and managed to make me from an almost-ready-to-desert fan after season 3 into a wow-I'm-at-times-more-emotionally-invested-in-this-than-in-Buffy fan. There wasn't a single character I didn't feel for, and the twist with the Big Bad - i.e. Jasmine doesn't want the apocalyspe, she brings paradise on earth... at a horrible price - wasn't something either show had done before. Plus, you know, Connor. More about that under favourite male character.

Day 2: Favorite Episode

Argh. I don't have a clear favourite there. Sometimes it's Darla or the season 4 opener, at other times I'm more in the mood for the hilarity of Smile Time, and then there's always Origin for managing to unite several epic plot threads (Angel and Connor, Wesley finds out about the W&H deal and mindwipe) while also bringing on the funny ("Do I look 400?")... Yeah, I think, I'll go with Origin.




Day 3: Favorite Karaoke at Caritas:

It's a tough choice between Angel's Mandy and We are the champions as sung by Cordelia, Wesley and Gunn, but I think I'll go with the later.


Day 4: Favorite Female Character:

Started out being Cordelia and then became Darla, whom I became intrigued by in season 1, fell for when she said God doesn't want you, but I still do and remained hooked on for the rest of the show. She was born long before the time, but she's such an unapologetic Restoration character, and larger than life till the end beyond.



Day 5: Least Favorite Female Character:

You know, I actually don't have one? Some of the ones catching fannish ire for one reason or another, like Kate or Justine, I'm really really fond of. It took me a while to warm up to Fred, but warm up I did, and don't want to hear dissings of her, thank you very much.



Day 6: Favorite Male Character:

Started out being Wesley, whom I had felt immensely sorry for over at BTVS and felt glad to get character development and then some on AtS; then I fell out of love with Wes at the precise point most of fandom well in love with him (though not completely, I still like him, just not as much as various other males on this show anymore), i.e. season 4, and fell in love with Connor. Detailed reasons (as in, a full essay of them) here. Rather to my surprise (because I didn't have strong feelings for him one way or the other over at BTVS) my secondary most favourite male character (i.e. the one who was alreays Number 2., no matter who changed at the No.1 spot) remained constant throughout all five seasons: Angel. I had watched the AtS pilot mainly for Cordelia. However, said pilot already swayed me in Angel's favour, what with scenes like the one where he heroically jumps into the wrong BMW that allowed David Boreanaz to display his comic timing. My fondness for Angel grew, and by time the show finished, I pretty much loved the entire package, from his thing for Barry Manilow through his dysfunctional and intense relationships to Darla and Connor to his friendship with Cordelia pre-awful season 3 love interest phase and with Wesley, ups and downs and fallouts and reconciliations included; the pettiness (take most scenes with Spike, and I'm with Joss there, Angel being petty just cracks me up) as well as the heroism. The fact that he had a vicious streak a mile wide with his soul as well as without and wasn't a hero because but in spite of himself. And lastly? I love Angel for his utter inability to sing. This always makes me empathize.


Day 7: Least Favorite Male Character:

I suppose poor old Gavin, but then he wasn't written as more than Daffy Duck to Lilah's Bugs Bunny, so that's okay. You know I love you in other roles, Daniel Dae Kim.



Day 8: Favorite Friendship:

Angel-Cordelia-Wesley in the second half of season 1. I love, say, the friendship between Gunn, Wesley and Cordelia during their Angel-less time in s2 or Lorne's relationships with each of them in s3-5 as well, but the Angel-Cordy-Wes constellation remains my deepest love as far as friendships go. That moment when Wesley is invited for breakfeast at the end of Expecting remains one of my favourites of the show, and it kills me when in Pylea we find out he has a photo of himself, Cordelia and Angel, and that photo is later in s4 among those Connor retrieves for an amnesiac Cordelia.



Day 9: Favorite Romance:

Angel (with and without a soul)/Darla, all the way. Bless their predatory dysfunctional selves. Also, Tim Minear's description of Angel's attitude towards Darla which he gave on a message board in season 2 ("you're my mother and my lover and my damnation, and also, you're really pretty") will never fail to crack me up.



Day 10: Least Favorite Season:

Season 3. It has some great individual episodes - I love the three with Darla, the three dealing with Wesley's good-intentioned fall from grace are great, and Benediction, excepting one single scene, is one of my all time favourites - but it also has so much that annoys me and ticks me off, and I was that close to giving up on the show entirely by the time Tomorrow was broadcast, let me tell you.


Day 11: Least Favorite Romance:

Angel/Cordelia for the way it was developed. I've seen fanfiction that pulls it off in a credible, endearing way, building on their s1 and s2 friendship, but the show itself made a horrible job of it. (With a particular low point being the tell, not show in the s3 finale where the Groosalug and Lorne tell Cordy and Angel respectively how perfect they are for each other, and then Cordelia's mirror tells her as well and it's not meant in a satiric way. Argggh.)


Day 12: Least Favorite Episode:

I think I've mercifully managed to block Provider from my memory, so I'll go with She instead.


Day 13: Favorite Wolfram & Hart Lawyer:

Lilah. I liked her best even back in s1 and s2 when the fandom at large preferred Lindsey. From the 40s noir outfits to the equally 1940s banter to the fact the show made her three dimensional and at times sympathetic without ever woobyfying her, or ignoring just what she did for a living, I loved the character.


Day 14: Favorite Female Villain:

Darla being my overall favourite character, it's Jasmine. Who took the everyone-is-the-hero-in-their-own-story principle to extremes and, if you allow me the fandom excursion, is basically the DS9 Prophets done right, which is why I'm impressed by the former and loathe the later. What I mean is: Jasmine, as a fallen Power, does absolutely horrible things to Cordelia, to Connor, and, err, to that part of the populace that serves as her nourishment. And she doesn't see it; because she's too Other or too wrapped up in herself, or all of the above. She honestly thinks it's all for the greater good and that she loves them. But the show sees it very clearly. We're never meant to believe that what Jasmine did is actually okay because of her goals. Which makes the character for me.

...also she's played by Gina Torres. I mean. Come on.


Day 15: Favorite Male Villain:

Holland Manners has a good start as he pushes my Mayor Wilkins buttons, but he's overtaken and firmly defeated by... Daniel Holtz. No question. Holtz is a villain whom the show (or the characters) never stops acknowledging has really good reasons to want vengeance. How he eventually accomplishes said vengeance is horrifying, and yet it makes sense, it's entirely logical and has an awful karmic resonance. As opposed to, say, Kemp from Being Human (no, I won't let that comparison go any time soon), he's never depicted as ravingly mad or feeling nothing but hate. The full emotional horror of Holtz' vengeance isn't that he uses Connor against Angel but that he did come to love Connor and uses him anyway.


Day 16: Episode You Like That Everyone Else Hates:

As I said in the Buffy meme, there is no "everyone else" in fandom. I mean, season 4 is as far as I know still unpopular but also has a lot of defenders other than me. The Girl in Question from s5 caused ire for mainly two different reasons, a) its placement - the show was nearing its end, and suddenly the dramatic arc is interrupted by an episode of complete fluff, if you except the Wesley and Illyria subplot - and b) the way it makes fun of both the Buffy/Angel and the Buffy/Spike shipperdom. Which is, of course, one reason why I love it. "I signalled her with my eyes" will never stop being funny. "Nuns are your thing. Everyone knows that. Nuns are your thing!" Plus by that time Angel and Spike have their bickering homoerotic buddy act down cold, of course.



Day 17: Character You Relate To The Most:

Really depends on the season and the occasion. Sometimes Cordelia, sometimes Wesley, sometimes Darla or Connor, and I did mention Angel's inability to sing, didn't I?



Day 18: Character Who Didn’t Get Enough Screen Time:

Not a question of screen time, technically (he was on screen, alright), but for a while, it seemed the only character development Gunn would ever get repeats of the "Gunn has to choose between his old life and his new life" plot. This thankfully changed during the last two seasons of the show, but still, seasons 2 and 3 in regards to Gunn gave me an "we've made him a regular, now what do we actually do with him?" impression.

Definitely a question of screen time: while I'm okay with Kate's last conversation with Angel as an exit scene, I always regretted we didn't see her again. Also I wanted to know what the hell Justine remembered her life to be post- mindwipe in season 5.


Day 19: Character You Like That Everyone Else Hates:

As stated several times, there is no "everyone" in fandom. Connor, Kate and Justine all show up on a lot of people's hate lists, though.



Day 20: Best Cordelia-centric Episode:

Room w/a View. Showcases both Cordy's strenghs and weaknesses, has one of those character defining lines stolen from a certain sci fi epic, and is one of the few times Jane Espenson wrote for AtS. I love it.


Day 21: Best Wesley-centric Episode:

I'm torn between Loyalty (no matter whether I think "poor Wesley" or "damm it, Wesley!" while watching it, and that depends, it's a great episode and Alexis Denisof, fantastic throughout the show, is even more outstanding than usual here) and Deep Down, which showcases Wesley's dark side (yes, she cut his throat, but three months of keeping Justine in a closet is Abu Ghaib-like torture) like few do as well as the depth of his feelings for Angel, and manages to give us the sexy dysfunctionality of Wesley/Lilah besides. Hm. Can't make up my mind between these two.



Day 22: Best Gunn-centric Episode:

First Impressions, probably, but I have a soft spot for Players with its twist on the heist movie, and Gunn & Gwen sparking off each other, err, literally.



Day 23: Best Fred-centric Episode:

Supersymmetry, no question about it. Probably Amy Acker's best acting before Illyria came along, and it uses Fred's time in Pylea impacting her current day life really really well.


Day 24: Favorite Use of Vampire Game Face:

Puppet!Angel getting into same in Smile Time. Best Special Effect Ever On This Show. (Runner-up: Cordelia asking Angel "are you still, you know?", doing a game face imitation in the pilot.)


Day 25: Favorite Angelverse quote: "He learned at the feet of the master of dumb planning" (Cordelia re: Gunn and Angel) competing with "I am not a eunuch." (Guess who about himself) I'm also fond of: "I like your poems." "You like Barry Manilow." (Angel trying to be nice to Spike for a change and Spike not taking it well.)


Day 26: Favorite Team Moment:

For sheer "awwww"ness, the already mentioned ending of Expecting wherein Angel invites Wesley to stay (both to have breakfeast with Cordelia and for good) in season 1. For hilarity, the ending of the teaser from the s5 opener, wherein everyone, including Harmony, reacts to Spike's sudden appearance: "Spike?" "Spike" "Spike!" "Blondie Bear?".

Day 27: Cutest Moment:

Puppet!Angel finally asks Nina out on a date. Smile Time is ever so useful for this meme.


Day 28: Character You Love To Hate:

Don't have one on this show, either.

Day 29: Episode You Hate That Everyone Else Loves:

See above, re: "everyone". There is one very popular episode - "You're Welcome" in season 5 - which I don't love as much as many do (short version: it's a nice showcase for Charisma Carpenter, and yes, it's also nice to see Cordelia as her old self again one more time, but there is a lot that makes absolutely no sense in terms of both how Cordelia acts and how this episode in general ties with the rest of the season), but I definitely don't hate it.

Day 30: What You Think Made Angel So Great:

Instead of just relying on the success of the parent show, it tried to find its own tone from the start. While using the strengths of BTVS - the combination of good writing and good acting - it also quickly created its own character ensemble and mythology. Most importantly, the characters developed and changed. (I may not always have been on board with the change in question, but I appreciate AtS was never afraid of it.) Los Angeles as a setting impacted the show in a way I don't think the fictional Sunnydale did on BTVS, and became essential to its character. Lastly? Demon. Karaoke. There were and are lots of other shows/books/films with redemption-minded vampires in them (though I maintain Angel is the most layered of these guys), but none that managed to come up with this one.