Episode 85: Angel the Series (Seasons 1-2)
Monia, the Exiled Fan, returns for another discussion of the Jossverse and its influence on contemporary fandom and contemporary fandom practices. You can listen to our previous discussion on Buffy: The Vampire Slayer here and here and read Monia’s in-depth look at the Buffy/Angel-verse fandom here.
While Buffy: The Vampire Slayer began as a teen show set in high school, Angel: The Series began as a Los Angeles-based noir. It kept the supernatural elements and the characters from Buffy but dropped them into a dark, dank, hard-boiled detective story. I loved it. Quite a few of the characters from Buffy would find their way over to Angel including the titular Angel, the vampire with a soul… or rather, a vampire with a soul, which we’ll get to in our discussion of Season Five. Cordelia, Wesley, Spike, Harmony, Darla, Drusilla, Faith, and Anne/Chanterelle all wash up on the mean streets of L.A.
Towards the end of this part, we veer into a discussion on why people may or may not enjoy Joss’s work—aside from his cancelation a few years ago, which you can read more on here. I point to the “Dance of Joy” (Season 2, episode 21), a running joke which is rooted in a very specific type of nerdy humor that pops up throughout Joss’s work. And by “nerdy humor” here I don’t mean stuff like The Big Bang Theory, which is a show about nerds but is not particularly nerdy in content or storytelling. “The Dance of Joy” is rooted in the absurdist humor of Monty Python beloved by nerds around the world and filtered through an American theater kid sensibility. In other words, it’s the kind of annoying gag that you almost certainly heard quoted—and danced—by really nerdy nerds for years after the show went off the air. And no shade to the nerds because I absolutely am one but I understand that this type of thing can be annoying to the normies out there.
Monia points to the use of fan fiction tropes throughout Joss’s work with the Buffy/Angel-verse, including tropes like “Fuck or Die” which is both a tag on AO3 and the plot of an episode of Buffy (Season 4, Episode 18). Body swaps, memory loss, doubling down on ships popular and unpopular, alternate universes, fix-its, copious amounts of slash, character resurrection, bad guy character redemption, good guy character assassination, the addition of Mary Sue characters out of nowhere… and I think for sure the Omegaverse would have been waiting for us if Angel had gotten a season 6 and 7.
Some of the things we discuss are:
The Angel cast reunion from Entertainment Weekly.
Why did Doyle (Glenn Quinn) leave the show? Sadly, Glenn was only 32 when he passed away.
I don’t find Wesley’s accent particularly convincing. He always just sounded “American doing an English accent” to me. Here is a fun video demonstrating the wide variety of accents in the UK. I believe Wesley is intended to have the “RP” or “BBC” accent but I always thought he should have sounded more like this.
Christian Kane can sing and play the guitar.
RIP Andy Hallett. By all accounts he was a lovely person and is much missed.
“Are you now or have you ever been…” is a reference to the question Senator Joe McCarthy would ask people brought before the Permanent Subcommittee of Investigations under suspicion of communism. The episode (Season 2, Episode 2) deals with paranoia. JP Manoux, who played the bellhop in the episode, was reported to have violated the privacy of his tenants with a hidden camera.
Pon Far is the Vulcan “time of mating” in the Star Trek universe. On AO3 you might also tag this “Fuck or Die” or if it’s an Omegaverse fic, then you might call it going into heat.
The songs played are:
“Mandy” by Barry Manilow (Angel’s favorite song. That is canon.)
“Jasmine” [Season Four, Episode 19]
“Mandy” [Season Two, Episode 2]
“Is that it? Am I done?” [Season One, Episode 9]
“Living Dead Girl” by Rob Zombie [Season One, Episode 18]
“And that’s why I became a rogue demon hunter.” [Season One, Episode 10]
“I’m not much of a talker, I’m more of a do-er.” [Season One, Episode 18]
“Strangelove Addiction” by Supreme Beings of Leisure [Season One, Episode 13]
“I Will Survive” performed by Andy Hallett [Season Two, Episode 1]
“Take ‘em all.” [Season Two, Episode 2]
“I remember when a few bob got you a good meal, a bottle and a tavern wench.” [Season Two, Episode 19]
“I’m ringing all over.” [Season Two, Episode 10]
“Spank us ‘til Thursday.” [Season Two, Episode 10]
“Hey Rico! Top off my sea breeze.” [Season Two, Episode 5]
“LA Song” by Christian Kane [Season Two, Episode 18]
“Numfar, do the ‘Dance of Joy.’” [Season Two, Episode 21]