muninnhuginn | Angel, penultimate (Reply)

As has become our habit, we sat down to watch Angel with a glass of wine and a cat. We had, as ever, missed the beginning. For some reason the reminder feature on our ntl box always switches over to the opening titles of Angel thereby missing the crucial minute or two that opens the episode. (Every other reminder switches over well before the start of the programme. It could be Sky One rather than the box: we don't put up any other reminders for Sky One to eliminate that as a possibility.) In this case we wandered over from the PC in time to see "18 (?) days earlier" signaling the beginning of a long flashback the results of which we had just missed. And no we wouldn't have guessed where it was going to end. In fact, we wouldn't have guessed much at all about anything. We could be especially dense, or maybe the second glass of wine was muddying our perceptions, but so little of what transpired seemed really to have been properly flagged beforehand. We like to pick up more clues. So we were a tad disappointed in the entire episode. But, as it neared its end, we at least felt it was beginning to move towards a climax to te series. Still, we didn't expect to be told that the climax was next week (keep track of episode numbers? too obsessive). Too soon, too perfunctory, And heck, we've only just got back into the habit of watching.

Still, it's doomed all the way, which is as it should be.