Angel - Season Two Reviews

The second season contains many stellar episodes, and the best guest stars the show has ever seen: Eliza Dusku (Faith), Andy Hallet (Lorne), Julie Benz (Darla), and Juliet Landau (Drusilla) to name a few.

The season included the wonderful episodes: Judgement, ARe you now or have you ever been, First Impressions, Untouched, Dear Boy, Guise will be Guise, Darla, The Shroud of Rahmon, The Trail, Reunion, REdefinition, Happy Anniversary, the Thing Dead Line, Reprise, Epiphany, Disharmony, Dead End, Belonging, Over the RAinbow, Throught he Lookinglass, and There's no place like Plrtz Glrb.

If your a fan of great television, or horror this is the box set for you. And if you have any intention of buying the 3rd season this season is a must see to understand much the 3rd and 4th season plot lines.

Rating: 4 - Off To The Dark Side
The best thing you can say about the second season of this wonderful show, is that after it's first season, the show finally found it's footing here. The first year was very good, but didn't quite yet know what exactly it was. The second season is stronger in that area. Personally, I liked the first season better. We are off to a rolicking start with "Judgment", and then the classic episode, "Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been". A flashback episode that details Angel in the 1950's staying at the Hyperion Hotel, amid a number of colorful characters. This hotel also becomes the setting for the show. Darla is back. She has been resurrected by evil law firm Wolfram And Hart. The plan for Darla is for her to toy with Angel and to lure him back into being Angelus. "Dear Boy" is the first episode where that arc really kicks in. Where Angel finds out, after seeing Darla in his dreams, that she is real. An epic episode called "Darla", is a real butt kicker. It is a continuation of the 'Buffy' season 5 episode, "Fool For Love". It chronicles the history between Angel/Angelus and Darla thru the years. Old fiends Spike and Drusilla appear as well. It's a massive episode that is completely on a grand scale. Darla learns that she, now back as a human, is dying from the disease that she was dying from back when she was human, before The Master turned her. Angel tries to save her in "The Trial", but learns that it is hopeless. That ending is a shocker when Drusilla comes back, courtesy of Wolfram And Hart, to sire Darla back. The result of this is in "Reunion", the season's best episode. Darla is back and she and Drusilla are on the rampage. This ep also sets in stage the rest of the season. Angel has slipped into darkness and has fired Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn. He is a man on a mission and goes it alone. It comes to a head in "Redefinition" when Angel confronts Darla and Dru, in a rather gruesome way. Also a thorn in Angel's side is lawyer Lindsey McDonald(Christian Kane), who has developed a love for Darla. By the time the situation has been handled and Angel and company are back together, the show shifts in tone. The 4 final episodes of the season have nothing to do with what has come before in the season. It's a 4 episode arc beginning with "Belonging", where the team investigate a portal to another dimension named Pylea, where the host Lorne(Andy Hallett), is from. They try to discover what happened to a young woman named Winifred when Cordelia is sucked into the portal into Pylea. "Over The Rainbow", "Through The Looking Glass", and the season finale, "There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb", continue this story as the rest of the gang go to Pylea to rescue Cordy, who has become a princess in this other dimension. There are a fair number of bad episodes here. "First Impressions" and "Happy Anniversary" are not only the worst episodes of the season, they are the two worst episodes of the entire series. Just awful. "Guise Will Be Guise" is only watchable thanks to a comedic Wesley performance. "The Shroud Of Rahmon" is boring and uninteresting. Many familiar faces return here. The Master, Faith(in an uncredited cameo), Willow, Harmony(in the hilarious episode "Disharmony"), Anne(who first appeared as Chantaralle in 'Buffy' ep "Lie To Me", and then in the third season premiere, "Anne"), and Detective Kate Lockley. The writing is still sharp and superb. The characters have grown and are fleshed out a lot more. This season was a lot darker than the first. At times, it got too dark and was almost a pain to watch. It was still good, but kind of depressing. David Boreanaz has grown a lot as Angel since his "Buffy" days. He knows the character and how the character would act and react to things. He's becoming a better actor. Andy Hallet joins the show as a telepathic demon named Lorne. He runs a karaoke bar and can read people's minds when they sing. He becomes a trusted and welcomed ally to the gang. Wes has continued to grow as well. He is still Wesley here, but the guy changes more than anyone else in the third season. Season two of "Angel" is a lot of fun. Some brilliant work. It's my least favorite season, but it's up against some stiff competition with seasons 3 and 4. Especially 3. Essential.

Rating: 5 - The Very Best of Angel
Season 2 of Angel is definitely the best, and I've seen all of Season 3 and all that has aired of Season 4. Why is Season 2 the best? It has the best cast of recurring characters, almost all of whom are gone by the end of episode 18. And it has a definite arc, although some freestanding episodes are interspersed in among the progressing shows. One of the very best of the freestanding episodes is Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been, which is a true masterpiece (and has echoes of the original Twilight Zone episode The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street!). Disharmony is also an excellent stand-alone episode, but this is one of the funniest episodes yet as Mercedes McNab reprises her role as Harmony the ditzy vampire from Sunnydale. She is a riot! This season also provides the strongest conflict between Angel Investigations and its nemesis, the evil law firm of Wolfram & Hart, as Angel's sire Darla is brought back from the dead (at the cost of Lindsey's right hand) to beguile and bedevil Angel. Lorne the empathetic demon is a welcome addition to the cast from the first episode, and the addition of Fred in the last four episodes (and also The Groosalugg, who will be around in the beginning of Season 3) is a touch of genius.

However, the highlight of Season 2 is the Angel/Darla/Lindsey conflict, with the brilliant contributions of two gorgeous and remarkably talented actors, Julie Benz and Christian Kane. They were a devastating loss to the show when the storyline ended (although Benz makes a few appearances in Season 3 and one in Season 4). Drusilla enters in The Trial and, along with Stephanie Romanov (Lindsey's evil colleague Lilah), Sam Anderson (their boss Holland Manners), and Gerry Becker (his replacement Nathan Reed) provide the counterpoint to the Angel Investigations theme. These magnificent actors are gone from the show much too soon, with the exception of Romanov. And the storyline peaks in Reunion, an episode with an ending that must be seen to be believed.

Elisabeth Rohm (Kate Lockley) is another brilliant cast member who leaves the show at the end of this season, and Julia Lee (Anne Steele, who had called herself first Chanterelle and then Lily on two episodes of Buffy) appears too briefly.

Other highlights include songs by Andy Hallett (Lorne), Julie Benz, and Christian Kane, all of whom sing very well, and songs by David Boreanaz and the trio of Wes, Cordy, and Gunn, who don't! And the bookish Wes becomes a true hero as the season develops. In the last four (Pylea) episodes, he becomes a leader. There is also a very brief appearance by Eliza Dushku as Faith.

Buy this, watch this, and cherish this. You'll never see its like again. This is definitely the best of Angel.

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Angel - Season Two