As 2009 is drawing to a close I thought I'd look back on the last 12 months and highlight the main things that happened this year (main as far as I'm concerned that is). I wouldn't say 2009 was the best year ever or anything, but there was a lot to love about it, so let's get started!

TV

I'm not going to dwell on this section too much as I've done multiple blogs and reviews so most of what I'm about to cover would otherwise end up with me repeating myself. The heavy hitters for me in the TV world are Smallville, Supernatural and Lost. As I'm just covering 2009 here: The second half of season 8 of Smallville didn't quite continue the awesome quality of the first and ended very badly, however so far season 9 has been great. Supernatural continued to be awesome and that season 5 has been no different has cemented the show's place as my favourite show currently airing. Then there's Lost which is the only one of the three to have had it's whole season this year. Uneven is the best word for it. Some of the series best episodes as well as some of the worst. I think I'm alone in thinking this, but the finale was rubbish. I sometimes feel Lost gets a free ride a bit and people ignore its faults, but I take the show one episode at a time and if that individual ep didn't have me on the edge of my seat the whole way then I'm going to complain! Of course that doesn't mean I don't still love the show; second favourite show currently airing.

Other shows included the conclusion of Scrubs, only for it return with pretty much the entire cast at least having small parts for Scrubs: Med School. House had a strong finish to season 5 and despite a couple of missteps season 6 has been good so far too. Then there's Heroes and The Big Bang Theory which are decent enough to watch, but I'm not going to go out of my way for them. As for the new shows this season I can't think of one I still care about, which is a shame as Flashforward in particular had a lot of potential. And special mention to Doctor Who where David Tennant's time as the Time Lord ends at the end of the year (or maybe at the start of next year, I'm not sure exactly when part two is airing) which will hopefully be awesome!

Films

It wasn't the best year for summer blockbusters with Watchmen getting us underway early in the year (therefore technically not making it a big summer movie, but bare with me) and unfortunately wasn't as good as everyone hoped it'd be. Great action, but not the most engrossing. The fact characters were still sharing their backstories within the last hour of the movie showed that just because something works in one medium doesn't mean it will work in another. That said it was still entertaining and far from bad.

Of the big summer movies (Wolverine, Terminator: Salvation, Transformers and Star Trek) Star Trek was probably the best of an average bunch. While the story was naff there was enough humour and loveable characters to keep things interesting. Although despite the claims they were making the series cool again the fact they saved the day using pure techno-babble annoyed me. The next biggest one was probably Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Now unlike everyone else on the planet who would actually discuss its quality I didn't hate it. That's not to say I liked it though. It basically had everything from the first film done even bigger, whether that was a good thing or not. So the action was bigger, clearer and a lot more impressive, but the cringe-worthy "comedy" side also returned and then some. Where the first film was charming in its own way (at least I thought so) this one was just irritating. Big robots and hot girls are great for a popcorn movie; but if that's what this was then why was it over two hours long?

As for Wolverine and Terminator: Salvation to be honest they weren't good or bad enough to really be worth talking much about. So let's dive into the other movies this year of note. I unfortunately missed District 9 so let's talk about the most expensive movie ever made: Avatar. It looked brilliant (even the 3D kinda worked) and Pandora was brilliantly realised as well as the [Navi], both visually and in how the planet worked. Unfortunately I didn't find myself really caring about any of the characters and the story was incredibly predictable. Still despite being three hours+ it didn't really outstay it's welcome. So although my backside went numb I was never bored by the movie so if you haven't seen it I'd say it's at least worth a look. And did I mention it looked awesome?

But my favourite film of the year was Zombieland. Basically an American Shaun of the Dead, which is definitely a compliment. Funny, violent, scary and genuinely moving this was a great surprise. The cast was great and the visual text tricks, something I usually hate, worked really well and were very funny. A film that both parodies and embraces zombie clichés at the same time and if you haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favour and go check it out!

Games

Well it's been a big year for games, but to save this blog being too long I'll just concentrate on the PS3 (as I've barley played games on any other console this year!). Resident Evil near the start of the year was a great title and despite having very little if anything different from RE4 and the terrible AI for Sheva it was a lot of fun. Works well in both single and co-op mode and was basically the equivalent of a popcorn movie. Not much new or revolutionary, but great production values and thoroughly entertaining while it lasted.

My other favourite games from this year were Uncharted: Among Thieves, which was great and looked amazing even if it was fairly forgettable once it was over, and Batman: Arkham Asylum. It's well documented that games based on comics are rarely great. There are exceptions to this rule, usually Spider-Man games, but this was definitely the greatest comic book game ever made! Superb action, a battle system that perfectly balanced fighting and stealth and generally made you feel like Batman. A very cool story that incorporated many villains with all of them working nicely into the plot and it, also, looked amazing. Despite the weak ending to the game I'd still give it my game of the year award!

And the rest

It's been a mixed year for myself, as while work continues to go well (I'm now on a full-time contract) my beloved Newcastle were relegated to the second tier of English football. Which if you're unfamiliar with football was akin to losing a limb. However in the Championship they are doing very well and are currently 10 points clear at the top of the table.

And that's really all the excitement. Since graduating from university things are a fairly mundane case of working interspersed with going out. Which definitely isn't a bad thing, just doesn't give me much exciting to write about.

So all that's left is to wish you all a very merry Christmas and I'll be back in the new year.

Well the draw for next summer's World Cup in South Africa has been made and the main group of interest is Group C: ENGLAND, USA, Algeria, Slovenia.

Yes we have been drawn against our friends from across the pond and not only that but it'll be both teams first game of the tournament! I know football isn't the US' main sport but I would've thought that match up will bring about some interest.

Other groups of interest include the so-called "Group of Death" (the name given to the group with theoretically the best teams in it despite the seeding system) which has Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal. On paper North Korea are the weak link there but you never know. After cheating their way to the finals France have arguably the easiest group alongside South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay. South Africa are only top seed due to them hosting the tournament and therefore are theoretically the weakest of the top teams.

I'd link the full draw but it'll be everywhere so if you're interested it won't be hard to find! So instead here's a nice picture of the draw featuring FIFA Secretary Jerome Valcke (who looks worryingly like England manager Cappello) alongside the lovely Charlize Theron who did her best to feign interest while presenting and David Beckham in the background.

In other news season 9 of Scrubs started this week (or season 1 of Scrubs: Med School depending on your opinion)! And slightly surprisingly it was really good. Have a look at what I made of the episode here if you're interested. Despite loosing most of the main cast for this year (although every ex main character except Carla was in the premiere) it still feels like the great show it always was. Time will tell if the new characters can fill the void when JD finally moves on, but for now it's still a great watch.

As well as new main characters the background cast has been expanded a bit, the most noticeable inclusion is a stunning Australian girl who's character name I can't actually remember (I wonder if she's happy with the group the Aussies got in the World Cup?). She's of interest not only because she's super-hot but because she was on Aussie soap Neighbours a couple of years ago which is a fairly big show over here in the UK. And for proof that Australia produces the most gorgeous women here's nice picture of her.

In other news Scotland's really, really cold! Ok it always has been but you kind of forget over the summer/autumn. Still if the cold weather means it's almost Christmas I'm happy with it! Shame we haven't had any snow here yet though.

Well thanks for reading and hope you all have a great weekend!

Just a quick blog to point out that we're into the last month of the year! Only three and a half weeks until Christmas, I hope you've all started your Christmas shopping (not that I have).

To be honest there's not much else to add.... Following on from my last blog my reviews for the fall finale episodes of Supernatural and Smallville are here and here. Feel free to let me know what you make of them if you have time to read them.

I'll be back on before long, maybe with a 2009 recap blog or something. Until then, enjoy December!

It only just seems like last week that the new TV season was starting and yet here we are with a few having finished for Christmas. Which I guess is another way of saying it's almost Christmas! But I'll leave the more festive blog for another time, this one is about TV. And I've even got some pretty pictures for you too!

So what brought about this blog mainly was that Smallville and Supernatural finished for the calendar year last week, and they were awesome! Smallville has a nasty habit of building up then falling flat, but this episode was great. It showed a very cool, dark future which was a great episode in its own right, as well as nicely emphasising how dangerous Zod is by showing what might happen if he gets his way.

Major (not General yet) Zod in Smallville played by Callum Blue

While I don't want to get too ahead of myself this season really is gearing up to be the best one in a long time!

Supernatural was also great. I could go on about it but think I'll save it for a review that I'll post later in the week. Exciting stuff, eh!

Over here on the TV front we had the latest Doctor Who special The Waters of Mars. I don't want to give too much away for those that haven't seen it and plan to but basically it was a good episode, despite taking about 45mins for anything to happen....

There's not long left for the legendary David Tennant as the Doctor

And finally I'm going to talk a little bit about Lost. A press release came out this week, and while it didn't have any info about the story of the season (for obvious reasons) it did reveal the cast list for season 6. If you don't want to know who's gonna be on the show next year and my opinions of it I'd advise you stop reading here. (If you do thanks for stopping by)

How will the final season play out?

ABC announces the premiere of the sixth and final season of "Lost," with a special all-night event on Tuesday, February 2. A recap special will kick
off the night from 8:00-9:00 p.m., ET, followed by the much anticipated two-hour premiere from 9:00-11:00 p.m.

The series will then air in its regular time period - Tuesday nights from 9:00-10:00 p.m., ET - beginning the following week, on February 9.

"Lost" stars Naveen Andrews as Sayid, Nestor Carbonell as Richard Alpert, Emilie de Ravin as Claire, Michael Emerson as Ben, Jeff Fahey as Frank
Lapidus, Matthew Fox as Jack, Jorge Garcia as Hurley, Josh Holloway as Sawyer, Daniel Dae Kim as Jin, Yunjin Kim as Sun, Ken Leung as Miles,
Evangeline Lilly as Kate, Terry O'Quinn as Locke and Zuleikha Robinson as Ilana.

"Lost" was created by Jeffrey Lieber and J.J. Abrams & Damon Lindelof. Abrams, Lindelof, Bryan Burk, Jack Bender, Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Jean Higgins and Carlton Cuse serve as executive producers. "Lost." which is filmed entirely on location in Hawaii and premiered on September 22,2004, is from ABC Studios.

First thing to notice is that there are a few new additions to the cast. Season 5 was the only season not to add any extra main characters which thankfully has been rectified here. Although none of the new faces are completely new (they were all recurring characters that've been bumped up) it's still good to have some new blood. While I can't imagine there's too much of Frank's story to tell it's good that he'll have a big part this year. I'm not sure about Ilana though; I had nothing against her last year but she didn't strike me as that great a character (despite her obvious ties to Jacob that seems to make her important). Then there's Richard and I think it's fair to say it's about time they answered what the deal is with him, so making him a regular makes sense.

Also of interest of the recurring characters is Sayid. Despite being dead I knew Locke would still be on the show in some form, but last we saw Sayid he was dying from a gunshot wound. Sure there's the possibility of the entire show being overwritten by Juliet detonating the hydrogen bomb but I still thought it was interesting. Speaking of it's obvious Juliet won't be a regular this season (mainly due to her role on V) but the person missing that interests me the most is Desmond. Obviously it was a disgrace how he was treated last season, so if they still can't manage to fit him into the story it's probably for the best they write him out. Still it's a shame it's had to come to this for such a superb character. And hopefully he'll still have a small part to finish off his story this year. I still wanna know what he did in the military to get thrown in jail.

Well that's pretty much it. Thanks for reading and I'll be back before long!

Yeah this blog was meant to go up yesterday but my computer wasn't behaving itself so I've had to wait until today. I could've changed the title but I couldn't think of anything else. So I guess that was my bad luck for yesterday, anyone else have any?

Anyway, onto the rest of the update.

Well another week down, we're getting closer and closer to Christmas. It's exciting stuff! It's been a pretty busy one so I've not had time to write reviews for last week's Supernatural or Smallville. So I'll mention them quickly here. Put simply both were awesome! Loved the way they incorporated the Trickster into the overarching story on Supernatural and it was great to get an explanation for the Kandorians on Smallville. An interesting take on the bottled city of Kandor but it worked for the show.

And in other news we finally have a release date for Final Fantasy XIII in both America and Europe! And even better for once we're getting it over here at the same time as you guys! March 9th can't come soon enough. Trailer's here with all the info if you wanna see it for yourself (and haven't already). http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14266574/final-fantasy-xiii/videos/finalfantasy13_trl_video_111209.html;jsessionid=2ng4ts3fcrkaj

Well that's it from me for now. Have a great weekend and I'll be back online before too long. Later

Wow, two updates in the space of a week! Crazy stuff.

So I'm back on here to speak about the new TV season and the shows that I've been watching. I would've added pretty pictures or Gifs as I have in the past but I'm afraid I don't have enough time right now to do all that (doing a quick Google image search sometimes just isn't enough!).

Well let's start with the good stuff, and by good I mean great! Supernatural was the first show of interest to me that was back on the screens this fall and it was also the best premiere this year. The opening followed on from the great ending to season 4 with the same quality storytelling and humour as well as a bit more action than had been in the finale making for an awesome episode (review here). The season the got even stronger and despite the last few episodes only being good instead of awesome, I still think this year could be even better than the last one.

My 2nd Favourite show this season is none other than Smallville. You could argue at season 9 it should've had its day by now, but considering seasons 5-7 were pretty much rubbish the show's only just egtting into it. Despite a bit of a weak start this season is proving very good indeed. A smaller cast seems to mean more money for the FX department because they've had some awesome stuff, from a train flying off its rails to Clark melting a round from an uzi. On top of that all the characters have been great to watch (except maybe Chloe), Clark's embraced his destiny, complete with proto-Superman outfit and they've managed to make Lois and Clark getting together work! As long as they can keep Mark Snow's offensive soundtrack in check this could be one of the best seasons of the show in a long while.

Then there's the rest. I'll start with House which had a great two hour opener that acted more like a TV-movie. A complete break from the normal formula in pretty much every way made for one of the best things on TV in recent memory. Since then the show seems to be trying to keep House's recoery story going, resisting going back to the old statis quo. The ususal strong and funny writing is here but it remains to be seen if the show can get that extra bit of quality it's shown in previous seasons to make the jump from great show to excellent show.

Other returning shows I'm watching are Heroes and The Big Bang Theory. Despite saying I'd give up on Heroes after the awful season 3 additions like Robert Knepper's carnivale leader intregued me enough tostick with it. And while not great it's once again watchable. I might not be too bothered about missing the odd episode but it's entertaining while it's on. TBBT continues being funny enough and having enough charm to overcome the fact it is really only n above average comedy. Sheldon's as brilliant as ever and Penny's still one of the hotest girls on TV and the subject matter (an assortment of geek references from obscure TV shows to video games) is handledvery well. Still many of the jokes are obvious or overplayed but this is never going to be on par with the likes of Friends or Scrubs.

Finally a brief word on the one new show I'm watching at the moment; FlashForward. The Lost analogies are obvious but rather than comparing it to that (far superior) show I'll try to be unbiased. The characters don't have enough to them to really care, the writing isn't great and no one seems to care that a global disaster took out a good portion of the population. Still it does have some redeeming features, mainly the mystery surrounding the visions, or FlashForwards as they call them. There's enough there to hold my interest for now, but the show better start actually getting good before too long.

And there it is. I might give V a look when (if) it starts over here but other than that this is pretty muchwhat I'll be watching. One last thing if you're interested in what I thought of this weeks Supernatural and Smallville episodes have a look here and here. Thanks for reading. Later!

Been ages since I last updated this so here's a quick blog to say hello.

Well it's Halloween today which is always a lot of fun. Saw a couple of costumes about yesterday; mainly zombies and the Joker as you'd expect. But hopefully there'll be a good bit of variety out tonight. Anyone here going as anything cool (or gone as by the time I check this again it'll be tomorrow while I'm hungover!).

Other than that the main thing is obviously that the new TV season has started and is well underway! I've got a few reviews up for some of this season's Supernatural and Smallville if you wanna have a look here.Will have reviews up for the most recent episodes later in the week.

And there you have it. Whatever you're doing tonight hope you all have a great one!

Sorry it's taken so long to get this final part out, I've recently moved flat and only just got internet access. So a bit overdue here is the final part of my Angel countdown. I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think of my top 10!

1. City Of

Series Premiere

So my very favourite episode of Angel is the very first one. That's not to say the show went downhill from here, far from it, but as far as fully satisfying individual episodes go this is about as good as it gets! The opening was perfect by being very funny and having a great fight scene (with future Sawyer Josh Holloway) before turning very dark when Angel focused on the woman's blood. It superbly set up the tone for the entire series in a mere few minutes. Considering the episode had to introduce everything it worked very well. Doyle was great from the start and handily recapped Angel's back-story for anyone who didn't watch Buffy while Cordelia was nicely woven into the story as the second damsel in distress. The villain of the episode may have been a vampire, but was a very different vampire than had been seen on Buffy with owning his own company. Adding more to the overall mythology was great and he worked as a very cool opening nemesis for Angel. That Angel didn't save Tina was also great, showing that this wasn't always going to be a happy show. There was a good bit of humour here, most of which was at Angel's expense. But it didn't make a mockery of him, instead humanised him more making him a better lead character. And of course there was absolutely superb action from start to finish. From fight scenes to cool stunts to Russell falling from a skyscraper while incinerating. This episode had it all and you cant ask for any more than that!

2. In The Dark

Season 1 Episode 3

While The Harsh Light of Day was good, this episode completely dwarfs it! We got a couple of good crossovers here with both Spike and Oz going to LA which helped to make an amazing episode. Spike's impersonation of Angel and Rachel was priceless and makes me laugh every time. The whole episode was great, even with Angel out of the picture being tortured for much of it. When Angel and Spike are on screen together it's amazing and its no different here. The action here was great with some good fight scenes, but it was the rescue of Angel that topped it all. Using Oz's can to burst in and get Angel was a great moment, and Angel then telling them to go after Marcus was a superb hero moment. Despite being badly injured he couldn't let the vampire get away. This led to the epic moment where Angel ran into direct sunlight and burst into flames to stop Marcus. It looked absolutely superb and was a real cheer moment. The logic Angel had for destroying the ring just worked, but the real reason was simply the show would've been too easy if he was invincible. Still it was a nicely written conversation with Doyle while watching the sunset so it worked to end a brilliant episode.

3. Forgiving

Season 3 Episode 17

With Connor now trapped in a Hell dimension Angel tried any way he could to get in and find him. That it was near impossible to open a gateway there worked well and obviously added to the hopelessness of the situation. Angel's despair turned pretty violent here and it was great to see. He wasn't the hero here, he was a guy who had tragically lost his son. They brought Sahjhan into the story more by making him corporeal, allowing him to get a fight scene. The explanation of his species from the creepy girl in the white room was done well, as was the white room in general. Angel's fight with Sahjhan was very cool, although I dint get why he reverted to his human face just before he was about to get staked. Of course the best moment was the mind blowing ending. Angel was seemingly forgiving Wesley, and he clearly genuinely did understand why Wesley had taken Connor. However that wasn't enough. That Angel tried to kill one of his closest friends was an epic moment that made for truly brilliant TV.

4. I Will Remember You

Season 1 Episode 8

Throughout the first two seasons of Angel there were a few two part crossover episodes with Buffy and this episode is proof that they were a lot more than just a ratings ploy. The Buffy and Angel relationship is probably one of the best that has been on TV. Both actors work brilliantly together and you can really believe how they feel for each other. While they start out fighting Angel very quickly turns human and the mood of the show changes dramatically. Angel turning human was done well and didn't feel like a cop out. The demon was powerful enough that it worked. Considering all the misery these two had gone through seeing them happy for once was great. Of course it wasn't going to last. Angel going to kill the Mohra demon himself might not have been very bright but it made sense. The fight scene was done very well and appropriately more brutal with Angel now being human. But Buffy managed to save the day and it seemed that the two could still be together. However Angel knew this couldn't happen. That Angel chose to give up his humanity for Buffy made it all the more legitimate. Had it been an outside event that had caused him to revert it would've felt cheap. His final scene with Buffy before the day was reset was absolutely heart-breaking, making for fantastic television.

5. Conviction

Season 5 Premiere

As you may have guessed from this list season 4 was a bit of a disappointment for me and so I was happy with the idea of revamping the show for its fifth season. And my optimism paid off with an absolutely superb episode! No previously sequence meant we were right into the action with an opening that was as awesome (complete with a CGI Angel) as it was hilarious. The balance between drama and comedy here was perfect and while I was laughing all the way through the main story still worked as being deadly serious. Everyone was reintroduced brilliantly along with why they were at Wolfram & Hart. That the sub plots in the episode all came together at the end with the main story was brilliantly done. The whole episode was brilliantly written and paced perfectly, which was even more impressive considering how much exposition they needed. Not a second of screen time was wasted here with great jokes, character moments and a very cool different action sequence for Angel against W&H's mercenaries. Despite being a brilliant stand-alone episode we were still given a great cliffhanger ending to keep us excited for the next episode and the rest of the season.

6. Hero

Season 1 Episode 9

Firstly having this right after I Will Remember You felt like they were trying to kill us with the sad episodes! Although only in nine episodes Doyle managed to be a great character. He was very different from anyone that'd been on Buffy and really helped to initially separate Angel from its parent show. We'd been given snippets about his past but here we found out what it was he needed to atone for. That gave The Scourge a strong emotional connection to one of the main characters making them more than the usual enemies. The demon clan they were protecting were also well characterised allowing us to specifically get involved with a couple of them. Although it was only a small number of people in danger rather than the apocalypse, it still had the same emotional impact. Of course raising the stakes that high meant there needed to be a strong pay-off, which there was. Doyle's sacrifice was as heart-breaking as it was brutal. Seeing him disintegrate wasn't a pretty sight and the gore of it helped the scene. The episode ending on Doyle's Angel Investigations advert was a brilliant way to encapsulate what he meant to the team, and the show, without needing any dialogue.

7. Loyalty

Season 3 Episode 15

The reveal of "The father will kill the son" started the main arc in season 3 in which Wesley was terrified that Angel would feed off Connor. A simple dream sequence nicely set up everything and from there we got to see the beginning of Wesley's departure from the team. His scene with Holtz was nicely done with a cool badass moment from Wes. The Angel and Connor stuff nicely portrayed his love for his son, which reflected Wes' fear brilliantly. His journey to the Oracle that took the form of a hamburger was equal parts funny and terrifying (and visually impressive too). Meanwhile Fred and Gunn fell into Holtz's trap for them, but thanks to Fred showing she's a lot more than just a damsel in distress they managed to get out of it very nicely. The end scene with the earthquake was a great way to end the episode, as not only had all of the portends come true but Angel's throw-away comment was enough to convince Wesley that the prophecy was true. A great and tragic ending seeing as he'd seemed to completely dismiss the possibility of Angel killing his son.

8. Lullaby

Season 3 Episode 9

For all intensive purposes Darla's story ended here, and it was awesome. Everything was looking bad at the start with Angel caught by Holtz and Darla going into labour. Despite the fact a grenade going off in your face should've done some damage even to a vampire, Angel's escape was pretty cool, allowing him to rejoin the gang just after Darla had driven off. The reveal that the baby's soul had been leaking into Darla was a great one and fully explained how a previously evil creature could care for her son. From there you knew there couldn't be a happy ending and Darla begging Angel to prevent her from hurting her son was heartbreaking. Then we found it that, being a vampire, Darla couldn't give birth which made things look even grimmer. And it only got worse with Holtz blowing up Caritas forcing the gang to escape through the back. Rain coming down, Angel staying with a weakened Darla, it doesn't come more epic than that. But then despite the fact I should've seen it coming Darla sacrificing herself caught me completely by surprise and managed to give a bitter sweet ending to a fantastic episode.

9. Time Bomb

Season 5 Episode 19

Illyria had been around for a few episodes now since she tried to take over the world, so it was about time her story was brought to the front of the episode. Her time shifts were well handled throughout the episode both artistically and visually. There wasn't too many to get jarring but enough to fully get the idea of what she was going through. The action here was also top notch with a great opening that lead to an awesome moment when she'd put Gunn's amulet on the torture demon. But the real highlight of the episode, if not the season, was when she took out Spike, Wesley, Lorne and Angel. The way she dispatched them like Angel would to a bunch of minor demons was great and brilliantly showed the difference in their power. The scene was that little bit more brutal than usual, with shots like seeing right through Wesley, which added to the awesomeness. While we knew it would all get reset somehow there was a moment when I thought that maybe the crew had taken the news of the show being cancelled very badly! The end resolution worked brilliantly despite the convenient weapon to take her out as it worked with the story. The only slight complaint I have is the ending with Angel taking the demon case. Obviously it was needed to begin the push towards the end of the series but it came out of nowhere a bit. Still it wasn't enough to mar this fantastic episode.

10. Origin

Season 5 Episode 18

When I first saw this it was before I'd begun seeking out episode spoilers and internet info so Connor's return was a huge surprise and a fantastic moment. The best thing about the episode was that Connor was actually really great, and not annoying at all! If he'd been like that all through season 4 he could well have been one of the show's best characters. Seeing Angel try to be a mentor/father figure to him whilst having to hold back his true feelings was ace to watch and really well portrayed. Introducing the character of Cyvus Vail and legitamising the epic spell was a very nice touch (although did raise the question of how only three monks managed a similar trick in Buffy). It was an episode for returns as Sahjhan came back too. I didn't feel like his story really needed any more closure but he was a cool character to bring back. His an Connor's fight scene happening alongside Angel and Wesley's brilliant conversation was excellently done. The way Connor won the battle after the box smashed was played very well and worked that he acted as though he didn't get his memories back. The final scene between Angel and Connor was brilliantly handled and the ending giving more than just a hint that his memories had returned was excellent.

Here for your enjoyment is the penultimate part of my Angel countdown.

11. A New World

Season 3 Episode 20

Connor's return was one of the many highlights of season 3 (just a shame how season 4 went because of it), and gave a fantastic episode to reintroduce him. So he returned a teenager due to time moving differently in Quor-Toth sporting a very Jumanji-type outfit. It was expected that bullet-time (or projectile stake-time) would appear on Angel eventually, but it worked brilliantly with the fight scene and managed to give it a bit more than the usual which helped enhance the fact they were fighting Connor. Similarly seeing Angel run into the sunlight after Connor was a great visual way of showing how much he meant to him. Connor's (or Steven's) confusion about the world was nicely handled and thankfully didn't come off as cheesy. It was great that he did manage to connect with someone, a junkie named Sunny, but unfortunately couldn't stop her from ODing. When Angel eventually found him their conversation was excellently written and very well played out, even ending with a cool shoot out. With the episode seemingly ending positively between Angel and Connor it was a nice touch to reveal that Holtz had managed to come through from Quor-Toth too, nicely leading us in to the final part of the season.

12. Sanctuary

Season 1 episode 19

This was the major episode for Faith that saw her change and it was handled superbly. Having her legitimately and realistically turn good(ish) again was a hard thing to pull off, and it helped that she'd always been characterised as not really wanting to be evil, just finding that easier. With Cordelia absent for most of the episode it meant that more focus could be placed on Wes and his reaction to being tortured. While fully condemning her at the start of the episode he had come around by the end, mainly thanks to the Watchers' Council's mercenaries. They were far more entertaining to watch here than they were in Buffy as I felt they were characterised a bit better. One of the best things about this episode was that we finally got to see Buffy and Faith air out all their issues which was brilliantly written. That the scene was on Angel rather than Buffy I actually thought worked really well. Despite starting on Buffy, Faith's rehabilitation felt more in tone with Angel and worked better there. Then we got an awesome action sequence against the mercs. It was great and the helicopter helped make it very different from anything seen before. It culminated fantastically with Angel's super-jump through the skylight and forcing the chopper to land. It was one of the best action sequences the show's ever done, and that's saying something! On top of all that Wolfram & Hart and Kate all had major roles which all added to make an absolutely superb episode.

13. Sleep Tight

Season 3 Episode 16

This wasn't exactly the happiest episode, but it was a brilliant one. There was a lot happening here and it all worked together brilliantly. Wesley's worries of Angel killing Connor came to a head here as he planned to abduct the baby. Meanwhile Angel started acting very strange due to his pig's blood being spiked with Connor's by Lilah and Sahjhan. On top of this Holtz was getting ready to make his move and attack Angel Investigations. The brilliance of Wes' story is that while you can see he's making the wrong choice, from his perspective he really was trapped. He couldn't tell Angel where Holtz was for fear of what he'd do and similarly couldn't tell him about the prophecy that he'd kill Connor. While the episode was fantastic throughout it was after Connor was abducted that it really took off. Angel stopping at nothing to find Holtz was great and genuinely looked like he was ready to tear Holtz's men apart. Justine slitting Wesley's throat was a hugely stunning twist, and while I'm still not sure someone could survive that, it was an amazing moment. The climactic ending perfectly finished off the episode. Wolfram & Hart marines and Angel facing off against Holtz and Sahjhan was great to see. Holtz running into Quor-Toth with Connor was devastating and an incredibly emotional moment to end the episode on.

14. War Zone

Season 1 episode 20

Here we're introduced to Gunn and his vampire fighting gang. It was a good idea that extended the show's mythology nicely. It made sense that there would be other demon fighters and it's well established that the gang had been doing this for a long time. The obvious analogy of wealth and poverty was clearly on display here as the gang of homeless kids were fighting vampires while Angel's case of the week was a billionaire worried about photos of him in a demon brothel getting out. However both stories worked very well by being a lot more than just stereotypes. David Nabbit was very likeable which, despite the seediness of his case, made Angel and co seem like they were doing the right thing helping him and it wasn't just for the money. Similarly Gunn's gang clearly weren't helpless as they're fighting vampires. There was a lot of great action in this episode, but it was all fully relevant to the plot. Seeing various members of Gunn's gang getting killed gave a real-life feel to the violence that is sometimes missing. There was some great stuff between Gunn and Angel too as he was clearly confused about the good vampire. Despite only being introduced this episode Alonna's death was very meaningful, as was Gunn having to stake her. On top of that there were some great funny moments as well as the joint awesomeness of Angel both being beat down and being a total badass all in the one episode. Simply brilliant.

15. Lonely Hearts

Season 1 Episode 2

This episode introduced us to the formula that most season 1 episodes would take, and by doing so provided us with a very exciting episode. As only the second episode of the show it still seemed to be trying to make sure its image was very different from Buffy's and did so very well. The bar setting was a good one and worked well for the story. It was very different from The Bronze and that everyone in the bar seemed very lost and lonely reinforced the show's main theme. The murder-mystery aspect of the episode was done well and Tahlmer worked as a good resolution as it burrowed from victim to victim. We also got introduced to Kate here, nicely setting up a superb recurring character. Her part in the story is great, from thinking she could be the next victim, all the way to her ending up saving the day. As for the action all the fight scenes were brilliant and showed that the quality from Buffy would continue on Angel. All in all this was a very successful second episode for this incredible show.

16. Not Fade Away

Series Finale

The very last episode of Angel, which while not as epic as Buffy or having the same satisfying ending, was still a fantastic ending to the series. The Circle of the Black Thorn seemed to come out of nowhere a bit in the previous episode, but their link to the senior partners and that they were comprised of most all the villains that had been seen over the season made them a legitimate enemy for the season finale. While Angel's plan of "kill everyone" may have been a fairly simple one, it was the idea behind it and the characters that were important here. The "perfect day" everyone had (while ripping off Armageddon) were all done very nicely including the great return of Connor and a surprise reappearance of Anne. Once the individual battles kicked off the episode really got into gear. While only showing small segments of many of the action sequences it was enough to get the idea that this was a major attack on all fronts. The most focus went on Wesley as he took on Vail which ended in him being stabbed. This led to the spectacularly emotional scene between him and Illyria in Fred's form where she admitted her love for him. The exceptional scene was then brilliantly punctuated by her literally punching Vail's face in which looked awesome! Having Connor come to Angel's rescue was a great way to show how their relationship had evolved and how Angel killed Hamilton was superb. That it wasn't his strength but drinking blood, the main concept of being a vampire and what he thought was his curse, that won the battle was amazing. It was a great note for both the show and the character. Despite ending on an annoying cliffhanger there was really no other way the show could've gone. It managed to superbly sum up both the situation the show found itself in as it was cancelled and the main theme brilliantly.

17. Harm's Way

Season 5 Episode 9

Considering that Disharmony was my lowest rated episode it might seem odd that Harm's other feature episode is so high. The main reason is that this episode is simply better written, better executed and a Hell of a lot more fun! The story was a nice little murder mystery involving Harmony thinking she'd killed a guy after a drunken night. Through her eyes we also got to see how Angel handled demons who didn't follow his rules, which is what resulted in her trying to solve the case on her own. There was a lot of fun stuff here and it was great to see Harmony on edge throughout the episode. While not the deepest character (even before becoming a vampire) she'd always been a nice secondary character. Not every character needs to be dark and tormented and this episode was a great way of showing that. The end reveal of the vampire who had set Harmony up worked well enough and gave a very nice fight scene. That said fight scene saved the truce in the B-story was a great and funny resolution. Also the episode opened with a hysterical Wolfram & Hart company video which helped bump this episode up an extra few places.

18. You're Welcome

Season 5 Episode 12

Cordelia returned here with the mission of setting Angel back on his path. There's lots of fun here with the return of Cordy. Her charm and humour, that had been sorely lacking for almost two years by this point, were great to see. Her reaction to them being at Wolfram & Hart was great and she was even more appalled than any of the cast were in Home. Lindsey's plan came to a head here brilliantly too. Sending Spike to Angel may have seemed a bit dumb as they'd obviously start talking and put the pieces together; but Lindsey's plan was almost at its final stage so it all worked. To be able to bring not only Cordy, but Doyle too in a way into the 100th episode really made it feel like something more than a usual mid season episode. Lindsey's demon strength thing seemed like a bit of a cheat at first, but ended up working nicely so he could have a good brawl with Angel. With the plot nicely wrapped up it was for Cordelia to say her final goodbye to Angel, which was done very nicely with a (seemingly) spontaneous kiss. On first viewing I was annoyed with the way they killed her off, but after taking a step back and watching it again I realised it was actually a fantastic way to end her story. They clearly didn't expect her to be awake at the start and they had said that there was almost no chance of her surviving Jasmine's birth. So ultimately we got a clever and great ending to Cordelia Chase's story.

19. That Old Gang Of Mine

Season 3 Episode 3

During season 2 Gunn was a full member of the Angel Investigations team, but still had clear ties to his old gang. While these were addressed in a few episodes a clean break from them was needed. Here we saw Gunn fully leaving his old gang and it was great to watch. Having been a snitch for Angel for most of season 2 it was a bit surprising to see Merl killed here. However it was a great way to set up episode, by having the first victim be someone we knew but wouldn't really miss. Gunn's loyalties and beliefs are brought right to the front of this episode and it's handled brilliantly. While the various demon species had been characterised brilliantly over the course of Angel it made sense for Gunn to question whether stopping these demon killers was the right thing to do. Add to that Gunn is also stuck with divided loyalties which leaves him even more confused as to what he should do. The episode culminated brilliantly in Caritas as Gunn's old gang burst in and started killing various demons and vampires before holding everyone else hostage. This allowed Gunn's loyalty to be stretched to the limit when he was given the ultimatum of whether or not to kill Angel. It was a superb and powerful scene and Gunn's monologue was great. The end resolution of the protection spell being lifted and the giant CGI demon taking out Gio worked well enough to give a satisfying ending to an awesome episode.

20. Shells

Season 5 Episode 16

While the previous episode was very heavy on emotion, this one had action, a great resolution to the initial Illyria storyline and still managed to get in a fair bit of emotion. Again special mention needs to go to Alexis Denisof's acting in this episode. He was just as brilliant as in A Hole In The World with the love of his life now gone. While it did seem feasible that Fred could've been brought back that they confirmed that was impossible early on was a good touch. By being able to accept that she was gone meant the focus could switch to stopping Illyria. While her stop-time effect didn't look quite as good as on Smallville, it still did the job nicely and gave her more threat than just another demon with super-strength. That her army was destroyed seemed like a bit of a cop out at first, but made sense when you thought about it. After tens of thousands of years without a leader it was unlikely they'd still all be as they were before she died. That Illyria was left alive after this episode was a great way, as one episode wouldn't have been enough for her story.

Hello all! Getting near the end of the list now, so some true greats of modern television are on this list. Speaking of modern TV there's a trailer out for the new season of Smallville which looks awesome! Of course the trailers tend to look great, but after last year I'm confident about season 9. Trailer's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZnHsJkOSXc

Anyway I hope you enjoy this next part of my list.

21. Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been

Season 2 Episode 2

Over the course of Angel it was great to see various moments from the lead's life before Buffy. Arguably some of the more interesting ones are after he regained his soul. This is such an episode that is great from the opening with the bellman terrified of a hotel occupant that turns out to be Angel. From there we get to see part of how Angel lived during the 20th century as he tried his best to keep his head down. However this doesn't work and he ends up helping a young woman named Judy. It's done well that Angel doesn't immediately offer to help her and instead it requires her coming to him on several occasions. That Judy was "passing" for white gave a nice connection to Angel, as he was passing for human. This helped to accept that a man who wanted nothing to do with humanity would help someone. Of course his actions ended up costing him when he was betrayed by her before being beaten and hung for his troubles. It was a fantastically brutal scene that worked very well, and also managed to look very cool when Angel lifted himself out of the noose after they all left. The fear demon was a very cool idea and well executed in both 1952 and the present. The end action sequence was decent enough, but the main moment of the episode was seeing Angel turning his back on the world, and nothing could stop that being awesome!

22. Smile Time

Season 5 Episode 14

One of the cool things about the final season was the range of episode types it had. While some were a bit hit or miss, this one definitely delivered! So Angel was turned into a puppet, however unlike Buffy's Once More With Feeling, it made perfect sense within the realms of the show. A line comparing it to a nuclear reactor was enough to buy it and the whole thing with the demon possessed puppets was well thought out. From a technical standpoint the puppet work was top notch, with even a couple of full body scenes of Angel walking while talking which looked very impressive. Naturally for an episode like this there was a lot of humour and many great moments. However there was also a bit of darkness in it with Gunn making a deal to restore his knowledge of the law, which obviously came back to haunt him very quickly. The end action sequence was very well done and somehow managed to avoid being cheesy despite them fighting puppets. Puppet Angel changing to his vampire face was just a superb ending to the scene. On top of that we also had the start of Fred and Wes' relationship as well as Nina naked, all making for a great stand alone episode.

23. Dad

Season 3 Episode 10

Here we got to see the battle for the child of two vampires and really got a great sense of just how epic his birth was. The many different demons coming after the child, as well as Wolfram & Hart, was great. However despite the huge menace there was still time for a lot of great character moments. We got a great scene where Angel managed to stop his son crying by changing to his vampire face and, while being frustrating to the gang, it made perfect sense that Angel was overprotective, and worked brilliantly for the ending reveal. Thinking that Angel had abandoned his team to save his son was a huge moment and the chase scene after it was also very cool. Him eventually revealing that it was all a trick and the baby was the teddy bear with a bomb strapped to it was a great resolution to the threat. It was a superb mislead and excellent to see that Angel really trusted his friends fully with his son. Of course despite many of the enemies being taken out there was still a large threat against them. Using Lindwood to protect his son was great and gave a satisfying ending to the episode before the child being named Connor which was a great beat to end on. My only real complaint with the episode is that while appropriately epic for the most part there were moments that felt a bit cheap. The siege on the hotel only consisted of a few guys and vampires being killed (cheaply offscreen) which seemed a bit poor to me. Still it is one complaint in an otherwise superb episode that excellently wrapped up this story arc.

24. The Trial

Season 2 Episode 9

Despite his claims to Wes and Cordy, Angel had been actively searching for Darla with Gunn's help. They eventually found a cheap motel room she'd been staying in (as well as confirming vampires don't need invitations for such places) before finding her trying to get turned at a seedy bar. The revelation of her dying was cleverly done and made perfect sense. Even before the trial the episode had loads of great stuff, including a great scene between Angel and Lindsey and Cordy and Wes completely undermining Angel telling Darla she wasn't a prisoner. After seeing Lorne, with a very nice performance from Darla to cover up the slightly lazy plot device, they were directed to the titular trial. The trial was awesome with the three tests Angel had to go through all being well thought out and brilliantly visualised. It was done well enough and was so tough that you could buy the fact it would save Darla. However what followed was even more awesome with the reveal that she couldn't be saved having already been brought back to life. A disastrous revelation that was perfect. Just when things didn't look like they could get any worse the episode ended with none other than Drusilla returning to sire Darla which was just this side of epic! My only complaint in the episode is the flashbacks. While very good it always felt cheap that they didn't come up with a reason as to how Angel escaped from Holtz (his first mention here). However it wasn't enough to really take away from this awesome episode.

25. The Ring

Season 1 episode 16

This is what we want to see on an action show, a load of demons in an underground fighting arena. While maybe not the most original idea it worked superbly within the Angel universe. After being tricked by a fake client Angel got caught and thrown into the battle arena. As awesome as the action is, that Angel tried to avoid bloodshed was great. The way he tried to convince the other fighters to stop was done very well and made for a superb episode. The demons themselves were a good mix and had a good bit of personality to them. Of course Wesley and Cordelia weren't just standing by while Angel was in trouble. Them actively trying to rescue Angel gave a great balance to the events in the arena. It also led to the moment Wesley became awesome when he took on the bookie and his armed men with just a crossbow, and fantastically won. It was one of Wes' best moments, and there have been many! The ending was great with a combination of both sides of the story helping to save the day. It was almost backwards with the demons being freed and taking out their human captors, but that it worked just proved how awesome this show is!

26. She

Season 1 episode 13

This episode had a hilarious opening with Angel's superb dancing at Cordy's party. It set up the episode nicely for the case of the week which was a powerful demon princess named Jheira. It was great to see Angel's social ineptitude affect the case as he had trouble getting her to accept his help. Jheira was also quite interesting (and hot) in that while not evil, she was going about things in a questionable way. Despite this her plight was relatable and you felt sorry for her. That the two of them didn't part of good terms was also the right way to end the episode after they'd butted heads throughout. As well as the good story there were plenty of other awesome bits! Angel's description of Manet's painting to avoid the museum guards was great way for him to use his sizeable knowledge of the arts. Wesley also became a proper member of the team here and the story resolved with Angel's awesome "and I'm not human" bit while vamping out to scare of the other demons.

27. Soul Purpose

Season 5 Episode 10

Angel's doubts that he's the true champion came to the surface here as well as worked as a great plot. Lindsey made his first full appearance in years here (uncredited for some reason) going by the name Doyle. Despite the attempts to bring in new viewers it was great for long time fans to get such a cool pay off. The fake missions he sent Spike on were superb and gave one of the best and most hysterical responses from Spike after saving a damsel in distress. Meanwhile Angel was having crazy dreams brought on by a demon Eve planted on him. While most of the dreams were very cool and had a lot of meaning some of the stuff in them seemed to be weird just for the sake of it (guy in a bear costume!?). Spike eventually saving Angel was a cool ending and nicley brought together both storylines in the episode. While telling a great individual episode this also nicely set up some great material for future episodes.

28. Eternity

Season 1 episode 17

The episode opened brilliantly with a great mislead that Angel and Wesley were in mortal danger, only to show them stuck watching Cordelia's poor performance. The action kicked in straight after that with Angel saving an actress, Rebecca, from a speeding car. One thing that set Angel apart from Buffy was its portrayal of the real world. Being set in a real city, and such a famous one, gave some great opportunities for this with Eternity being one of them. The little in-jokes about vampire actors were good but the idea of an actress wanting to stay young forever was a great idea and original idea in the Buffyverse. The stuff between Angel and Rebecca was great and the actress was very good (as most Angel guest stars are). There were some playful scenes which made the moment Angel turned into Angelus even more surprising and awesome! Having been worried about it all episode to actually see it was superb. Although not evil for long it was enough to show how cool and terrifying Angelus is without having any significant fallout that would require multiple episodes to address. The happy pill simply wearing off for him to revert to Angel may have seemed a bit of a cop out, but Wesley's explanation was good enough that it worked well. This was a great episode with loads of great ideas that were brilliantly executed.

29. The Price

Season 3 Episode 19

Despite things seeming to get back to normal after the Connor/Wesley story the threat in this episode comes directly from Angel's attempts to get into Quor-Toth in Forgiving. The CGI slug monsters looked fantastic which helped to get immersed in the story. There was a real feeling of being trapped in the hotel with these monsters, as they couldn't risk them getting out. And despite being small they were still quite powerful and dangerous as well as being loads of them, which really upped the tension nicely. Wesley kept being more badass by knowing how to save Fred without even needing to know anything about the demon infecting her. His scene with Gunn was great to watch and fit in nicely with the action going on at the Hyperion. My only gripe is that Cordy taking out all the demon slugs by glowing was a bit of a cop out. It was an incredibly easy way to get rid of them and always felt very cheap. However the ending did make up for that. That the Destroyer who had been mentioned was none other than a teenage Connor was a brilliant ending that would take us into the season's ending arc.

30. Dear Boy

Season 2 Episode 5

After a few episodes hinting at Wolfram & Hart's master plan for Darla and Angel here we get to see it fully in motion. At first it would seem that Angel is seeing things. Having been dreaming about Darla repeatedly and being constantly tired you couldn't blame Cordy and Wes for doubting him. Of course we all knew it really was Darla which helped to be able to get behind Angel rather than worry that he was losing it. Also brought back into the story was Kate, and it was very well done that she was used as a major part of such a major plot point. We also got some cool flashbacks which expanded on Drusilla's origin a bit from Angel and Darla's perspective. The build up in this episode was great. Angel not being able to work properly (constantly beating on one guy in the opening fight and blowing the adultery case) and the reveal that Darla was human all worked brilliantly to bring us to the final act of the episode. Angel being genuinely ready to kill Darla did work and made sense, as well as being a good sign of how the season would progress. Although he eventually didn't, him knowing that Darla was back was a significant plot point for the season. As well as all that the episode still managed to have some good humour that balanced well with the darker material. Also Cordy's undercover outfit was awesome!

Taken a little bit longer than planned to get this next part out but here it is. Apologies if I haven't gotten round to any of your blogs in the last week or so but I've been a bit busy with work, drinking and the new football season!

I'll try to get to them soon, but in the meantime hope you enjoy the next part of my list.

31. Bachelor Party

Season 1 Episode 7

As the only new main character in the first season there was a fair bit of mystery behind Doyle. One of the great results of that was the surprise of finding out he had a wife, but it not feeling out of place. Harrie turning up was also horribly timed as it seemed that Cordy was finally starting to fall for the Irishman thanks to his heroics earlier when her date ran scared from a vampire. Not only did Doyle have to deal with seeing his ex again, but had to meet her current fiance too. Richard seemed too nice a guy to be for real so the reveal that he was a demon wasn't hugely surprising. What was surprising however was that Harrie knew and accepted this. It was a nice twist and unfortunately proved to Doyle that it wasn't his demon side that made her leave. While the episode had a lot of great characterisation work on Doyle there was also a good bit of action and suspense. Richard needing to eat Doyle's brains was a nice idea and well executed. While it did seem that Angel was easily overpowered at the bachelor party, and that a fall like that has never knocked him out at any other time, it was more than made up for by the awesome fight scene that followed. While it was a huge battle to the death, Harrie and Cordy running in to stop it made it feel more like a drunken brawl which I found quite cool and an appropriately satisfying end to it.

32. Judgment

Season 2 Premiere

A new season with new possibilities for the show and the first episode didn't disappoint. Despite a few glaring reflection gaffs in the widescreen version, the opening scene was a superb way to reintroduce the gang, complete with Angel vamping out to take out the demons. The main story involved Angel accidentally killing the protector of a woman named Jo and her unborn child who was supposed to grow up to become a great saviour. Angel accidentally killing a fellow warrior was a great idea, and while focussing on the guilt side of things could've worked, him concentrating on helping Jo was a better way to go. The idea of a trial over whether the child should be killed or protected was pretty cool and nicely expanded the show's mythology. Angel fighting on horseback was a bit cheesy, but as far as that bit extra for the season premiere went, it worked. This episode also had the first appearance of the Host and Caritas. Again it was great to have the Angel world increased to be able to see a different side to demon lives. To finish off the episode we got a nice little scene between Angel and Faith which was a very cool surprise. It was very nicely written and it's always great to see Faith, even without a low cut top.

33. Hell Bound

Season 5 Episode 4

The episode had a great opening with Fred pretending she didn't know Spike had snuck up on her. It nicely established the relationship between the two of them which was a main part of this episode. The idea of a ghost who was keeping out of Hell by sending other souls was a very cool one. It also nicely worked Pavayne into the origin of the Wolfram & Hart building as he'd been used as a ritual sacrifice on its grounds. Spike slowly loosing touch with reality was brilliantly done and the ghosts he was seeing were appropriately creepy. Seeing him manage to touch things was also very cool, and executed impressively so as not to come off as cheesy. This then led to his fight with Pavayne which was great. After being tortured by Pavayne Spike accepted that he deserved to go to Hell, however his awesome reply of "but not today" was great before he managed to hit him and then will the portal shut and his clothes back. The fight between the two was very well done, seeing them pass through objects as they went. The machine Fred built had enough logic behind it to be believable and Spike sacrificing himself for Fred was super. The ending of Pavayne being put into stasis and locked away was a great resolution to the story which nicely wrapped up Spike's opening arc.

34. Offspring

Season 3 Episode 7

After five episodes we finally see pregnant Darla arrive at the hotel to shock everyone. It was great to see and managed to get a few funny moments in there too. Angel acting like a regular guy would if he suddenly found out his ex was pregnant was great and worked to ground the episode in some kind of reality. Cordy comforting Darla made sense, as did the fact she let her guard down around her because she did look helpless. This obviously proved not to be the case and she attacked Cordy before Angel stopped her. Despite the miracle of Darla being pregnant hardly anyone mentioned it as they were worried it might be something terrible mentioned in the Nyazian scroll. This meant that when Fred pointed it out as Angel was going to kill Darla the moment still worked. The fight between the two of them was well done and had a nice ending when Angel realised his child had a soul. On top of that we got more information on Holtz which justified him arriving in the present day at the end. While on first viewing it felt a little random it was still a cool ending to a great episode.

35. A Hole In The World

Season 5 Episode 15

Having killed off Cordy only three episodes earlier surely they weren't going to do the same to Fred? Tone wise you can see Fred's death coming a mile away. The whole episode was simply too depressing and moving for her not to die at the end. Having a main character slowly die over the course of an entire episode, rather than just suddenly be killed off at the end, worked to really tug at the heartstrings. Angel can do emotional exceptionally well, but it isn't usually forced on the viewer like this. By doing that it worked very well to get fully invested in Fred's predicament. While the episode wasn't the happiest there was also a good bit humour. The cavemen vs astronauts thing was pretty funny and brilliantly highlighted Spike and Angel's relationship. Action wise the main scene was outside the Deeper Well which was nicely done. Drogyn was an interesting character and his hating Spike's questions led to some funny stuff. Still I felt him knowing Angel was a bit convenient for the plot, a bit more explanation there might've been nice. The Deeper Well itself looked awesome and was a great idea. After making a deal in the previous episode it was brilliant to see it come back on Gunn in such a huge way, which was a very clever twist. An episode like this really relied more on the acting talents than some others and in that department everyone was on top of their game, giving a great and very emotional episode.

36. Deep Down

Season 4 Premiere

The last season 4 episode on this list is its first one. From the end of season 3 there was a lot to address and one of the best things here was that not all of it was fully rectified. Wesley's betrayal was such a huge thing that it would've undermined it had he rejoined the group too fast. Obvious steps to that end are clearly taken here however as he is the one who rescues Angel, in the process adding to his awesomeness with some great scenes with Justine. Connor, Fred and Gunn appeared to be living quite happily together continuing to fight crime as seen in the awesome opening fight scene. Said fight scene also nicely moved forward the story as it was established that the gang thought they might have found someone who saw what happened to Angel. This did lead to the one awful moment in the episode where the vampire they were after somehow Spider-Man-ed up the side of a building, an ability vampires simply don't have. Surely they could've thought of a better way to get her onto the roof? What did follow made up for that moment a bit as she morphed to human form to try to seduce Connor into not killing her, which didn't work. Of course despite this Angel had been found and returned to the hotel where a great scene between him and Connor took place. Add to that Cordy still stuck in another dimension and Angel's wacky hallucinations and we got a great start to what unfortunately was ultimately not a great season.

37. That Vision Thing

Season 3 Episode 2

Cordelia's damage from the visions had been fairly well documented by this point, so Kal Penn sending her killer visions that manifested on her skin didn't help! Fred managed to be fairly useful here by looking after Cordy despite still being a bit crazy. While we had the emotional side of Cordy being so helpless there was also a load of action to enjoy. The different artefacts that Angel and co were sent after led to some cool fight scenes. Thanks to Lorne it was discovered that Wolfram & Hart were behind the visions. With Lindsey gone it was good to see Lilah step up a bit as the main face of the law firm. Of course she was a bit out of her depth here as Angel was appropriately more vicious than usual due to it being Cordy in danger. This episode also introduced Skip, who was a character that simply wouldn't have worked earlier in the show. A giant looking warrior demon talking about living arrangements could've come off as very cheesy but it'd been well established on the show that the demon world have to live just as humans do so it all worked brilliantly. The ending was also great with Angel's death threat to Lilah perfectly summing up the severity of this episode, as well as why W&H couldn't try the same trick again. On top of all that the effects here were top notch. Both prosthetics (such as Skip) and CGI looked very good here, which really helped to sell the episode.

38. I've Got You Under My Skin

Season 1 episode 14

It had been a couple of episodes since Doyle's death and so it seemed fitting to bring the issue up again. The show may have been out of the grieving period but it felt right for it to be brought up again. As well as this the monster-of-the-week was a possessed boy. The family was very well realised for a one off appearance, which significantly helped the episode. There were a couple of good misleads with the seemingly terrible father who may have been the one possessed, which also brought about the first mention of Wesley's father issues. That not only was the father not the demon he wasn't a bad guy either. The extreme measures he'd taken, like locking his kids in their rooms was necessary due to what they'd been through before. The exorcism was also very well done. Obvious parallels were drawn between Wesley performing it and Doyle's death which nicely went with the episode's theme. After Wes got stabbed in the neck and Ethros p*ssed Angel off by impersonating Doyle we got a very cool moment where Angel exorcised the demon while his hand sizzled from the cross. But the episode still wasn't over. The idea that Ryan was born without a soul was interesting and gave a nice twist on the real reason Seth needed to lock his children in their rooms. It was a cool bittersweet ending to a great episode.

39. Underneath

Season 5 Episode 17

Fred was now well and truly dead, with the opening titles altered to confirm this. While still a major element in this episode the main focus was on Angel as he tried to rescue Lindsey while keeping Eve safe from Adam Baldwin's Hamilton. There was a lot going on in this episode so having Illyria and Wesley's story being completely separate from the rest of the story was a good choice. It allowed all of the other major elements to get enough screentime without it seeming too cramped. Gunn finally got out of his funk, shaved his head and was a useful member of the gang again. So Angel, Spike and Gunn found where Lindsey was being held and went to get him. The constant references to Hell and fire made you think that he'd be in an awesome Mordor-esque world, but obviously the show's budget couldn't have managed that. What we did get was still great and made perfect sense. The action sequence when they rescued Lindsey was very cool and a bit different as they were fighting folk with machine guns (although not sure how they got away with a kid holding an Uzi!). The torture demon was also very cool and the scene ended awesomely with Gunn's sacrifice. Lindsey's speech at the end of the episode about the apocalypse wasn't perfect but did the job to begin setting up the finale.

40. Just Rewards

Season 5 Episode 2

Whether it was a network decision to bring Spike back or a creative one it was a genius idea. While it did undermine his sacrifice in Buffy a little bit the fact he's awesome more than made up for it! In this episode we really only saw the surface of Spike's rivalry with Angel. As the two had hardly interacted since the end of Buffy season 2 their relationship tended to be little more than throwaway comments, however these had kept it alive which meant it always seemed like a vital part of the Buffyverse mythology. Even so in case you didn't know the rivalry gets summed up nicely in the opening scene with Spike vamping out and attacking Angel (also nicely confirming that Spike was indeed still a vampire). The ghost thing was another great idea, as it meant that Spike could be forced to stay in LA without it seeming out of character. The scenes between Spike and Angel were fantastic and the two played brilliantly off each other. It was one of the many things that reinvigorated the show in its final season and always great to watch. The episode also still has a bit of early season shine on it and the plot with necromancer Magnus Hainsley was pretty good. That Spike saved the day was nice, but not sure exactly when he told Angel about his plan (maybe it was all his idea and Angel called it "our plan" to save face with Wesley). Still overall the reintroduction of Spike was done great thanks mainly to some hysterical material and excellent performances.

The new football season kicked off at the weekend and Newcastle managed a decent opening result with a 1-1 draw away to West Brom. As we're now in the second tier of English football it's unlikely anyone outside the UK will recognise the names of any of the teams we'll be playing. Hell, most folk inside the UK might not recognise them!

Anyway, that's enough of that, here's the next part of my Angel countdown.

41. Awakening

Season 4 Episode 10

One of the worst story-telling techniques on TV is the "it was all a dream" ending. It happens when an episode is written into a corner and the writers aren't talented enough to come up with a suitable resolution. Here however that concept was turned completely on its head by having that technique used to brilliantly drive forward the main plot. It was a great mislead that I never saw coming and it made perfect sense that Angel would have to be tricked into feeling perfect happiness for the spell to work. As for the events of the fantasy they all flowed nicely. The magic sword was pushing it a bit, but made enough sense that it didn't spoil the surprise of feel unbelievable. The Indiana Jones type traps worked well and any time Cordelia wants to make jokes about her breasts I'm not going to complain! The way all of Angel's team came together and he made up with Connor could've felt forced, but it all worked great and never felt out of place. So when the end reveal showed that it was all a dream we could've felt slightly cheated, but due to the genius way it brought forth Angelus it just made for one of the best endings of any episode, of any show!

42. Carpe Noctem

Season 3 Episode 4

What would happen if a creepy old man got Angel's body? Well it would give a great episode! The body swap idea is hardly an original one, but instead of just two different people having to live out each others' lives, here Marcus finds himself as a completely different creature. The episode gets a lot of fun out of him discovering the different vampire abilities and strengths and David Boreanaz is on top form playing it. As well as after Marcus discovers his powers there's some great moments like him thinking he and Wesley were gay and being shocked at not having a reflection (which was a nicely done shot). The flip side of the story had Angel stuck in a human body. Having to come to terms with things he'd never thought about, such as needing glasses and heart attacks was done nicely, but Rance Howard's performance as Angel stuck in Marcus's body wasn't on the same level as DB's. Of course to be fair it's a lot to ask of a guest star to pull off, even for an experienced actor like RH. The gang figuring out what had happened was a great ending showing that they're just as capable as Angel of saving the day. There was the secondary story of Fred's infatuation with Angel, which seemed to come to a successful resolution here. Oh and Angel got news of some old girlfriend coming back to life too.

43. Expecting

Season 1 Episode 12

So this episode's victim-of-the-week was in fact Cordelia. That the case involved one of the main characters gave a bit more of a connection to the episode as we already cared about Cordy. This episode could easily have gone the "sex is bad" route, and while you could argue that's in here a bit (they make a joke about it at the end), it wouldn't really fit the theme of the episode. It's well established that Cordy had been out with Wilson a few times so she isn't painted as being easy which could've undermined the story a bit. Seeing how much Angel cared for Cordy was great and humanised him a bit more. When he finally found Wilson we got a great action sequence including a fantastic response from Angel after getting shot. Of course it wasn't just Angel, but Wesley who was working hard on the case, so it was great to see the two being equally useful. The giant demon at the end was a bit cheesy, but as it wasn't the main focus of the episode it didn't really hurt it. While the story revolved around Cordy, and she did have some strong moments, the focus seemed to be more on Angel and Wesley giving a great episode. Also of note is that this is the first time we see Wesley use a gun. While seeming a little out of place here it makes perfect sense given his weapons of choice later in the series.

44. Quickening

Season 3 Episode 8

Already in season 3 we'd discovered that Holtz wanted Angel and Darla dead for killing his family, but here we got to see the heinous act. It was appropriately brutal and scary and hearing the baby crying just capped off the scene. In the present the gang were continuing to try to find out about Angel's baby and what to do with it. Despite the reveal in the previous episode that it had a soul it could still be evil, so seeing that it was a boy on the ultrasound was very nice. The fight scene with the vampires that followed was Ok, but not great. What was the point of the ninja assassin guy who got taken out instantly!? Still Angel taking out the leader before escaping was a cool moment. After the slightly random reveal of Holtz being revived in the present day this episode nicely showed us how that came about. It was handled very well and ended up making perfect sense. Also brought into the story were Wolfram & Hart, who never saw the baby coming. A big deal was made as to how they could've missed this which gave legitimacy to it. There was some good stuff, however some of it seemed a bit random like the doctor with the weird small demon feet thing. Still overall this episode told a cool self containing story that expanded on the arc as well as nicely set up the next part.

45. Salvage

Season 4 Episode 13

Here we got the long awaited return of Faith, and it didn't disappoint! So we now knew that Cordelia was the Beast's boss and yes that story was still poor. What was also a little disappointing was that after three and a half years of always saying they'd kill Angelus if he returned they barely even considered it. However what was considered instead was so awesome that I let it slide. Choosing Faith made perfect sense and didn't just seem like a ratings ploy. Considering what Angel did for her there was no way she would kill him and that was awesome to see. Her breakout from jail was both simplistic and fantastic, brilliantly showing how much she thinks of Angel. Meanwhile Angelus was trying to find the Beast and as usual his scenes were a lot of fun. DB plays Angelus fantastically, the dark humour's always there but you never forget that he'd brutally kill anyone who came near him. Connor was really getting on my nerves by this point, so seeing Faith kick his ass effortlessly was brilliant. It had a superb older sister vibe that worked very well. The gang hunting for Angelus was also very cool with some very cool action sequences as they took out the vampires in the streets. Faith's end fight with the Beast was appropriately brutal, but Angelus taking him out seemed a bit weird at first. Still it made sense that he'd want to finish off Faith himself. Faith showing a nice bit of ingenuity to break the blacked out glass and save herself from Angelus was great too and a superb way to end the fight. Also as a side note this has the single most vampires seen killed in any episode, with a total of six. In case you were interested!

46. To Shanshu In LA

Season 1 Finale

As the first season had been mostly stand alone episodes they'd put a bit more emphasis on Wolfram & Hart in the last two episodes to give a bit more significance to the finale. Specifically this episode introduced Vocah to work as a season ending villain and he did the job. He allowed for a physical force to act out W&H's plans and be a physical match for Angel. The episode was set up nicely with the revelation that Angel would die. This was where Cordy and Wesley worked brilliantly as more than just the side-kicks. Due to Angel not being the most forward person they need to figure out why he wasn't bothered about dying as well as find a way to help him. Of course this got overshadowed a bit by Vocah's attempts to destroy his team. Him unleashing hundreds of visions on Cordy was painful to watch and very dramatic. Wes was the next to get hit as he was in the Angel Investigation offices when they blew up. How he survived I was never quite sure about, but I'll just put it down to him being awesome! With his team disabled it was up to Angel to take out Vocah and get back the Prophecies of Aberjian. A few cool vampire dustings during a ritual and an awesome fight scene later Angel was standing opposite Lindsey who was ready to burn the scroll. Angel slicing off his hand was equal parts awesome action hero and bold statement for the show. Yes Lindsey was human, but that wasn't going to stop Angel saving his friends. The reveal that Angel wasn't going to die and actually become human was done nicely and the error made sense. It was a great way to end his story and nicely wrapped up the season. On top of that we got a cool cliffhanger ending to keep us excited for the second season.

47. Destiny

Season 5 Episode 8

Incorporeal Spike was great but ran the danger of being dragged out a bit. Fortunately that didn't happen and he was back touching things at the start of this episode. The idea that the prophecy could be about either vampire with a soul and that it was having a big affect on the world (or Wolfram & Hart at least) was very cool. The translated prophecy seemed a bit cheesy even by Angel's standards (a magic cup, really) so I was glad when it was revealed to be a set up. Of course the main part of the episode was Angel and Spike's epic battle. After making snide remarks about each other since, well pretty much always, it was about time they came to blows. The fight was superb and rightly took up a good portion of the episode. The two venting their issues worked superbly with the fight as well as some appropriately interspersed flashbacks delving even more into Spike and Angel's relationship. The final scene revealing the return of Lindsey was great (probably would've been better if someone hadn't spoiled it for me) and a great way to end the episode.

48. Orpheus

Season 4 Episode 15

First off I was never a fan of the evil Cordy thing, it felt forced and poorly executed. Her scenes in this episode in particular are quite annoying. Her leading Connor on makes sense but just makes the two of them more irritable and her scenes with Willow were weak too. Still the bad stuff far outweighed the good here, for starters Willow was in it! Ok I have a slight issue with how much powerful magic she used here considering she was terrified of doing anything too strong all throughout Buffy season 7 in fear of going evil. Still with the two shows separated by network at this point it's acceptable. Angel and Faith's mystical mind walk was the highlight of the episode and handled superbly. It could've come off as incredibly cheesy, but worked. That Faith and Angelus couldn't touch each other (at first anyway) made it believable that they'd sit together watching moments from Angel's past. There were moments of humour, horror and drama here which were all great. Angel saving a puppy was hilarious followed by the very dark feeding off a murder victim. The fight between Angel and Angelus at the end looked awesome and was great to see. After the strong evil Angel arc him getting his soul back was a great payoff.

49. The Prodigal

Season 1 episode 15

Seeing Angel sired in the opening scene of Becoming Part 1 was a superb scene and obviously a very iconic one for the character. One of the best things about a TV show is that it can revisit large moments like this and give more to them by showing the events that led to it, as this episode does so well. The story of Angelus being made also involved his bad relationship with his father, which nicely paralleled the present day story of Kate and her father (so many things in that sentence alone have been ripped off by Lost!). Trevor Lockley didn't seem like a bad guy when we met him in Sense & Sensitivity, but here he's seen to be doing dodgy dealings. His justification for it was done well enough that you can still sympathise with him making his death more affective. Of course really it was Kate we felt for as she was the character we'd come to know over the season. It was made more tragic as she seemed to be getting back on terms with Angel until this incident put her over the edge. The episode also had an interesting sub plot about a drug that made demons more powerful. It would've been interesting if this had been developed more as it was a cool concept but sadly not. Either way this episode still had enough with great stories set in both the past and present.

50. Apocalypse Nowish

Season 4 Episode 7

Angel tended to go for the more personal stories than the end of the world ones, so their first proper apocalypse story began partway into season 4. And it started in a great way. The Beast was a very well designed and cool looking enemy. The more old fashioned kind of demon look was cool and he still managed to be very scary. There were a few portents of the coming end with rats bursting out of pipes and birds flying into the hotel. While some of these things had been mentioned on Buffy before apocalypses this was the first time we really saw it. The episode was well set up, but it was the ending battle that was awesome. The large fight against the Beast was brilliantly done and had some great moments. The different characters different ways of attacking were great such as Gunn with his axe and Wes with his pistols and shotgun. While we'd seen Angel injured before, it was never to the point where he was coughing up blood like he did here, really emphasising the defeat. Then things got very end of day-esque with the rain of fire which was very impressive. And if things couldn't get any worse for Angel he saw his own son having sex with the woman he loved. Truly epic stuff throughout.

Yay, TV.com is working properly again! Blogs and comments are showing up on both TV.com and Gamespot again! Well there's not much new with myself, so I'll just get straight into the next part of my countdown.

51. Sense & Sensitivity

Season 1 Episode 6

One of the many impressive things about the first season of Angel was how they fleshed out his character in so many ways. As great as he was in Buffy he was essentially just the mysterious dark loner. Angel delved into that persona and made a much more interesting character out of him. So here we see how dark and mysterious can also mean insensitive. From the opening the setup was obvious, but the way they ran with the idea was great. Going completely over the top with it made for some great comic moments, but it still managed to keep from ending up as too cheesy. This was also a big episode for recurring character Kate Lockley. Seeing her get a couple of good action sequences was cool even though, like Angel, her story was more about her sensitive side. Her father issues were obvious even before the curse took affect and it all worked nicely and believably. And we can't forget Angel dressing in a Hawaiian shirt and hat to try to stall Little Tony, priceless!

52. Release

Season 4 Episode 14

Despite things looking brighter after the previous episode (literally) the mood was still very dark here. Faith's defeat by the Beast and Angelus had left her physically and emotionally hurt. It was something we hadn't seen her be as open with before and worked very nicely. Seeing evil Angel from his perspective continued to be entertaining to watch. Things like the kind of company he'd keep, how other demons were afraid of him and his twisted sense of humour was really cool. My only complaint about this arc as a whole was that Angel never did anything truly terrible. Due to the circumstances of the story he wasn't really given a chance to as it was more plot based than character, which was a shame. To have seen something like him killing Jenny Calendar from his perspective, rather than his victim's could've given an episode to top this list. Anyway what we did get was still very good. As well as Cordy's sudden pregnancy we found out that Connor was part demon. This seemed like a bit of a cop out answer to his power after everything, but I guess worked as an answer. Seeing Faith and Wesley going about together like Watcher and Slayer was brilliant and just a shame we didn't get more of it. The final confrontation between Faith and Angel was superb and worked incredibly well. My only gripe though is a bit of a superficial one, but when Angel bit Faith they cut around the vampire morph effect. I know it's a money saving trick they use a lot but considering it's huge relevance to the plot I thought it needed to be shown here.

53. Power Play

Season 5 Episode 21

I've never been a fan of the "xxx hours earlier" trick which this episode used, but it did work to give an exciting opening. Angel's turn in favour of demons had come a bit out of left field in Time Bomb so was nice to have it fully addressed here. The gang not trusting him made sense as we as an audience didn't trust him either. The Circle of the Black Thorne thing fit within the episode nicely as it was well established they were a very elite secret society. So despite being so powerful it didn't feel jarring that we'd never heard of them. Amongst the dark nature of the episode there were still a couple of lighter moments, like Drogyn and Illyria playing Crash Bandicoot, which were nice. The final scene where Angel explained everything to the gang played out very nicely. As it was essentially just five minutes of exposition it was well put together and very well written. The ending shot of going from what was actually happening to Hamilton's view of it was great and very nicely capped off a strong penultimate episode.

54. Fredless

Season 3 Episode 5

While I never had anything against Fred when she first joined the show her insane thing was starting to wear a bit thin. Fortunately this is the episode where she pretty much becomes normal again and it was a good one. Other than Angel we'd never seen any of the main characters' parents onscreen, so that Fred's played such a vital role here was a nice change. Her logic for running away from them was a bit iffy. It kind of made sense, but really just seemed like a way to create a mislead for the audience and felt forced. There was a lot of funny stuff in this episode, mainly from the gang trying to prevent the Burkles from finding out about the demon world that they worked in. It worked well so that when the insect demons started attacking and they just told the truth it didn't feel out of place. Hell, when you're being attacked by giant bugs you don't have time to come up with decent excuses for them! Once Fred and her parents made up the episode's focus changed towards the demon threat. That Fred figured it all out was nice and obviously proved she was a valuable member of the team. While this episode could've just been a transition episode for Fred it worked nicely as a character episode with some great humour and action in there too.

55. The Shroud of Rahmon

Season 2 Episode 8

This was a very strong episode that had a fair bit of character development whilst telling a cool individual story. That the majority of the episode was told in flashback worked nicely giving a few good misleads and genuinely making us think Angel had killed someone. As well as the serious nature of the episode there was also a lot of fun stuff. Different personas must've been the order of the day as only two episodes after Wes pretended to be Angel we have Angel pretending to be another vampire, Jay-Don. This allowed Angel to play exuberant which was great fun to see. The heist itself was well put together and gave a lot of suspense. Ok the vault alarm that would go if with any change in temperature was a bit dodgy as it would've changed as soon as the door opened regardless of who went in, but I can let that slide. The shroud's affects on the different characters worked nicely. Its influence on Wes and Cordy was played to comic effect, while Angel and Gunn was a lot more dramatic. I didn't think the yellow eyes thing on Angel was needed; either fully transform into vampire face or don't bother! The influence on Angel combined with his threat to Kate earlier in the episode made it quite believable that he would've killed her. Instead though the reveal that he actually saved her was nicely done. Wesley's worry that Angel's craving for human blood had returned was a fair one even though it didn't really develop anywhere. Still that didn't stop this from being a great and important episode.

56. Ground State

Season 4 Episode 2

Similarly to Bethany in Untouched the origin of Gwen's power isn't explained, maybe the show exists in the same universe as X-Men and they're meant to be mutants, who knows. However it doesn't really matter too much as it still worked. Opening the episode with Gwen as a child helped to set up her character more than if she'd just turned up allowing for us to empathise with her despite essentially being a villain. Her and Angel's stories crossed as they're both after the Axis of Pythia. While Gwen's just in it for the money Angel needed it to find Cordy. Seeing the heist from two different perspectives was nicely done and a bit different to the usual Angel action scenes. Angel also buried the hatchet with Wesley here. Although he seemed to be using it as an excuse to get information about Cordelia it still worked as he was clearly genuine. Gwen's powers were visualised nicely as they didn't overdo the electric effect to the point where it could've looked cheesy. It also led to her restarting Angel's heart, although I wish they'd made it clearer it was only for a moment. For ages I thought he was going about with his heart beating again; maybe I'm just a bit slow! As well as the cool action and nice plot there was also a good bit of humour. Fred's certainty of ending up in prison and Angel's harsh but fair words to Gwen about being a freak were played nicely, giving a great all round episode.

57. Waiting In The Wings

Season 3 Episode 13

I'm going out on a limb and guessing this is a fan favourite episode. While an episode being written and directed by Joss Whedon with a very different setting than usual doesn't guarantee a great episode, this one does deliver. As a relatively stand alone episode in relation to the overarcing story this has a lot of significant character development. The main focus is Angel and Cordelia's possible relationship. To me it felt a bit forced when it was first mentioned in Offspring, but seeing it here it works brilliantly. The love scenes between the two have a great mix of emotion, drama and comedy. However it's not the possessed moments but the subtle ones that really make their story here work, like Angel unwittingly referring to Cordy as the most beautiful woman he's ever seen when suggesting how to get past a security guard. Then of course there was the Gunn, Wesley, Fred love triangle which came to a head here with Fred choosing Gunn. It worked enough to feel what Wes was going through, but as I've already mentioned it wasn't the greatest ongoing story on the show and fortunately it doesn't take up a large portion of the episode. As well as the character stuff the main story was really good too. Quite often in episodes like this the logic behind whatever magic is causing it feels weak, however here it worked really well. Overloading Kurskov's power to find a way out of his illusion was a good way to resolve the story, although I've gotta wonder what the audience thought seeing the show vanish in front of them.

58. Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Season 4 Episode 4

Having not had much to do for the last two episodes it was nice that Connor was a major part of this one, yes he wasn't annoying at the early stage of the season. His awesome opening fight scene which ended with incinerating a vampire might've helped a bit here too! So Cordy had returned, but with no memory. Trying to keep her in the dark about the supernatural seemed like a decent decision and to be honest even if they had been up front with her it's unlikely she wouldn't still have run off. Giving Connor someone he could really connect to worked very well. Although those two's story went downhill from here, their relationship to start with was good. Wolfram & Hart also got wind of Cordelia's return and Lilah was able to use Wesley to get the info needed from Lorne. Despite essentially being evil it was surprising that she tricked Wes like that, but still worked very well within the episode. A well put together story, some very cool action scenes and some nice character interactions made Cordy's return episode a strong one.

59. Benediction

Season 3 Episode 21

With Connor back Angel tried to be a good father to him again. While there was a lot of nice stuff with this the best part was that he was going to be overprotective of Connor. After losing him the way he did it would be understandable if he didn't want him in any dangerous situations. Fortunately instead he encourages Connor to help him take out a group of vampires showing how he wants Connor to become a champion like himself. Of course Connor did still whinge a bit. His relationship with Holtz was played OK, but came across as a bit creepier than it was intended. Him having a problem with Lorne was understandable but fortunately Cordy's glowy trick seemed to sort that out, for now at least. Elsewhere Lilah continued to pursue Wesley and Groo began to realise that Cordy didn't really love him. These were both more of a set up for the finale, but worked nicely within the episode too. The ending worked Ok, but it was never that clear whether Holtz wanted Justine to make it look like Angel had killed him or not. Presumably he did, which unfortunately made for a poor send off for him as he had been a strong villain throughout the season.

60. Five By Five

Season 1 episode 18

We all love Faith, she was not only a great reflection of what Buffy's dark side could be, but a great character in her own right. Also Eliza Dushku is megahot, which never hurts. While evil for a lot of season 3 of Buffy she was always following orders from the Mayor and so there was never a real sense of terror with her. Here however she's alone and directionless and happy to randomly lash out at whoever she wants. This is the first episode where Wolfram & Hart are a major part of the story and not just background players. Them hiring Faith to kill Angel was a great way for the new and old storylines to come together, I guess they hadn't got the memo yet that Angel's on the do-not-kill list. The episode also features flashbacks to the time just after Angel had gotten his soul back. Seeing his story of redemption wasn't as clean cut as he got a soul and stopped killing people was a nice touch (although he told Buffy he'd never fed of anyone since he got his soul back) and nicely mirrored Faith's story. While not subtle it actually helped to realise that Faith would come around by the end of the episode and meant there was a point to all the brutality. My only real complaint about the episode is that some of the fight sequences were a bit lacking. Some of the Matrix-esque superpunches didn't quite do it for me, but still didn't really bring down an otherwise great episode.

Well gotta say I'm still blown away by last weekend's Comic Con. From what I saw of the Smallville and Lost panels they were awesome! Dominic Monaghan on stage and Clark with the famous S on his costume; next season's looking like it could well be fantastic!

But before we get ahead of ourselves, let's continue to look back at another superb show with the next instalment of my Angel list.

61. Somnambulist

Season 1 Episode 11

The episode began with a decent mislead that Angel may well be committing murders again in his sleep. Of course we knew he wouldn't really be doing such things and it was eventually revealed that the real killer was a vampire named Penn and the dreams were just due to Angel's connection to the vampire he sired. It did seem like a slight cop out answer and the fact Penn had never been mentioned before (or since) didn't help to sell it. Still he worked as a strong opponent to Angel mainly due to fully showing off vampire abilities to their fullest for the first time. We may be used to ridiculous super jumps now, but this was the first time we really saw the extent of their powers, as well as one of the very few examples of vampire speed. The other major revelation here was Kate finding out Angel was a vampire. It felt a little bit forced, as he simply got his fangs out right in front of her while fully knowing she was there. Still it was something that had to happen eventually and so I could forgive because of where the episode went from there. The moment Kate killed Penn by going through Angel was great and while they clearly weren't on good terms any more at least some kind of middle ground could be found between the two; At least for now.

62. Reprise

Season 2 Episode 15

Angel's war against Wolfram & Hart pretty much comes to head here as he's going about stopping ritual sacrifices that various employees were making and attempted to get to none other than a Senior Partner. To actually see one of these creatures that had been mentioned for over a year was a great idea, just a shame that its death is never mentioned ever again. Of course at the end of the day the giant demon was almost irrelevant as it came down to the major characters. Angel had been in full on b*****d mode for a while now, but here is the first time we see him threaten to harm any innocent person, in this case Cordy. His decent into darkness continued as he completely ignores the obvious cries for help from a recently fired, pill popping Kate. During the Senior Partner's Review Angel nicely managed to use Darla as a distraction so he can get to the main threat. Killing the demon and crashing into the pavement looked cool, but it was the scene after it that really made the episode. The return of the dead Holland Manners to take Angel down to Hell where he planned to wipe out everything there. It was well beyond just self sacrifice as Holland pointed out in a terrifically written and performed scene. The revelation that the Home Office was Earth could've seemed like a cop out, but instead it worked brilliantly to push Angel over the edge. Him not caring about the consequences of sleeping with Darla was epic and superbly summed up what he was going through, giving a superb ending to a very good episode.

63. Dead End

Season 2 Episode 18

Lindsey was a fantastic character and had a great relationship with Angel, particularly throughout season 2. This episode pretty much sums all of that up and gives Lindsey a fitting send off episode. It began by showing Lindsey's morning ritual which was great to see. Things like the pre-tied ties nicely highlighted how difficult it is to live with just one working hand in a very realistic manner. Therefore we were actually happy for him when he was given a new one, until it started writing "Kill" everywhere. After seeing Lorne he told Angel and Lindsey to team up to solve the case. Boreanaz can play petty Angel fantastically and was on top of his game here. His scenes with Lindsey were all superb and funny while never going over the top. The main story about harvesting human body parts worked OK, although wasn't the best plot ever. Angel letting Lindsey choose for himself whether or not to kill the guy who's hand he had was a nice moment and really it's hard to say if he made the right decision or not. We also saw the first real evidence of the visions hurting Cordy here, nicely setting up future episodes. Lindsey quitting was a great scene which nicely balanced drama and comedy mainly thanks to an excellent performance from Christian Kane. The icing on the cake was his goodbye scene with Angel; a nice moment wonderfully undercut by Angel's "Cops Suck" sign on the back of Lindsey's car.

64. The House Always Wins

Season 4 Episode 3

This episode was great from a production value standpoint. I've never been to Vegas myself unfortunately, but from the looks of things most of the episode seemed to be filmed there, which helped to make the it feel a bit different. Scenes like the gang's escape from the casino and Lorne's show looked fantastic and were great to watch. As far as the story went it worked well. The show managed to successfully poke fun at itself a little bit with Lorne being a huge star despite being a demon, while still making it believable. The mystical device that stole people's destiny made enough sense to work and it getting Angel's was a pretty big moment. Cordelia managing to somehow affect the fruit machine to get Angel into the same room as the rest of the gang was never fully explained, but it didn't really need to be. Him then vamping out and saving them was pretty cool, and Lorne's explanation for it was decent enough. Cordelia's return filled the cliffhanger ending quotient seemingly necessary in season 4, but didn't affect what was a strong stand alone episode.

65. Soulless

Season 4 Episode 11

It had been a couple of episodes since the Sun was blocked out, and even longer since any vampires had been killed so the opening was a nice touch. Seeing Connor even get to crack a few jokes was pretty sweet and made him a bit more relatable. With Angelus now returned the whole gang was on high alert. However the high alert soon turned to infighting between Wesley and Gunn over Fred. I'm not a fan of love triangles at the best of times and this one dragged a bit, certainly over the course of the fourth season. However the episode doesn't dwell on it too much and instead uses it to show the moment Gunn and Fred were pretty much completely over. While Angelus being stuck in a cage didn't make for his most exciting moments, he was still the same wise cracking, terrifying monster he always had been. Cordelia offering herself to him seemed like it was pushing it, still the episode needed a way to get Angelus to talk and it worked well enough for that. Discovering how he knew the Beast made sense and was done nicely, as was the scene that it led to. Connor throwing up after seeing the innocent family butchered humanised him a bit more and the fact that he was useful in the fight that followed made him even more likeable, for now at least. The end reveal that Angel's soul had been taken wasn't exactly a surprise but the evil Angel storyline was looking to have some promise.

66. Double Or Nothing

Season 3 Episode 18

The first episode after "the father will kill the son" arc attempted to return the show to some kind of normality. The best way to do this was to focus on a character other than Angel, which this episode does with Gunn. Seeing a bit of what Gunn was like when we first met him in the flashback was nice, as well as highlighting how much his character had changed since then. That Jenoff was connected to Gunn's past gave that little bit extra to the story, and it also helped that he was an entertaining character. Of course there was still a lot of moping to do, with Cordelia and the Groosalugg returning from their holiday to discover what had happened. While the greif was both appropriate and necessary, it was good that Angel wasn't just a wreck and was able to help save Gunn. I also liked Fred figuring out something was wrong with Gunn after he broke up with her. Despite being a little bit crazy the girl's still a genius and it prevented even more sadness. I have to say the resolution was a bit weak with how Angel killed Jenoff, but it didn't significantly hurt the episode. Angel dismantling Connor's crib was a great ending to show Angel getting on with his life despite his great tragedy. It allowed the viewer to do the same in a way, I mean it wasn't like Connor would show up in the very next episode or anything!

67. Happy Anniversary

Season 2 Episode 13

Unless I'm forgotten something this is Angel's first proper Apocalypse episode. With all the mystical stuff going about in this world it's not unreasonable that some poor guy almost accidentally destroys the world, so the main story worked well. The buddy cop feel to the episode was great, as we got to see Lorne (or the Host at this point) be more directly involved in an episode for the first time. Gene's story was enough to work as a motive for using his time freezing device but also worked as a sad tale in its own right. As far as Angel was concerned we got confirmation as to why he fired his team and it was a nice moment. Despite being the show's hero, seeing him admit that he's not perfect was great and it helped us still root for him knowing he knew what he was doing was essentially wrong. While not the most epic action sequence the resolution to the time stopping device threat worked well enough and, as Lorne put it, seeing Angel able to sit and have a conversation with a normal guy showed the hope that his good side would reveal itself again before long. This episode also had the rest of the crew attempt to reopen Angel Investigations by themselves. This secondary story worked nicely alongside the main one and showed how these guys are fully capable of fighting evil without any super powers, as well as giving some truly hysterical moments.

68. Home

Season 4 Finale

Similarly to the Buffy season 4 finale Restless this episode works as a kind of epilogue to the year's main story. With Jasmine defeated Lilah returned to offer the gang Wolfram & Hart. A very shocking move indeed and yet it felt believable due to how the previous episode ended. This is arguably a transition episode for the show's dramatic change in season 5. However it also needed to work as a series finale in case another season wasn't given to them which was ultimately why it worked quite well. Each main character needed to think seriously about the offer, and in doing so each had some very nice character moments. Wesley trying to save Lilah's soul, Gunn seeing the conduit and Fred being overwhelmed by the science department were all very nicely done. Of course Angel could see through it all, he knew it was a trick, but was willing to take the offer in exchange for Connor's happiness. For the first time ever this episode showed us an honest Connor. Despite being at his most dangerous here it's the time during the fourth season where I felt the worst for him. Angel sacrifice was fantastic and the end scene of him seeing Connor happy was a great way to end the season.

69. Darla

Season 2 Episode 7

I know there's an argument for this to be higher on the list, but because there are so many great Angel episodes we're getting into them already. This episode stands out for a good few reasons, the first being that we get to see Darla sired by none other than the Master. To think two characters that could've easily been one note villains in the first season of Buffy instead gave both shows so much mileage. Another is the fact that this episode crosses over with Buffy's Fool For Love which worked very nicely viewing them together when they originally aired. The episode plays like a flashback episode of Lost really, showing the main parts of Darla's long life interspersed nicely with present day. As I mentioned during the Buffy list, I'm not saying these shows invented the flashbacks, but Lost certainly stole their formula for them! In the present Lindsey finds out that Holland is going to have Darla killed, which results in a security guard being shot. The reveal at the end that it was all a set up to get Darla with Angel was well handled and worked nicely. There was also a lot of good stuff between Angel and Darla, both in the present and the past. My only slight compliant about the episode is that it didn't quite feel epic enough. Along with Dear Boy these are the major episodes the initial arc of season 2 was building to and although very good, it wasn't as fantastic as it should've been.

70. Blood Money

Season 2 Episode 12

If there's one thing the Buffyverse does well (and obviously there are thousands of things) it's continuity. Sure they occasionally reuse actors for different characters but for the most part it works. So when we meet Anne here (last seen in the Buffy episode of the same name) there's a brilliant backstory that for the most part we need to make up ourselves, which actually makes it work even better. Just to see the knock-on affect of Buffy saving someone is great without it needing to be a major part of the episode. As far as the episode itself foes it was an above average one which gave a nice stand alone story while contributing to the overarching plot too. Angel appears to want to help this poor girl's shelter make money, but in the end the main point seemed to be to mess with Wolfram & Hart. Boone was a good villain, as well as it being a nice twist that he and Angel were working together. There were also some funny scenes between Wes, Cordy and Gunn, although I still think it was really cheap that we didn't even get a glimpse of the giant monster they fought. Overall it was a decent episode with some great ideas behind it and a good bit of humour too.

Here's the next part of my list.

71. Parting Gifts

Season 1 Episode 10

This episode had the largely thankless task of combining the grief period for Doyle as well as finding a way to move the main story forward. Considering the previous two episodes had been so devastating the mood for this one had to be a bit lighter. Clearly this was going to be an issue when dealing with a main character's death, but for the most part it worked well enough. Cordelia's reading at her audition was quite funny and led nicely into her first vision. Then there was Wesley who was very surprising to see, although as Angel pointed out most folk probably weren't too bothered if they saw him again. Obviously over the course of the show Wesley became one of the greatest characters ever, but at this point he still had a lot to prove. And to the writing staff's credit he more or less pulled it off here. Despite having some slapstick moments, which were fine, he showed that he could handle himself in combat and was useful to the team. On top of all that there was also a stand alone story which wasn't the best. The idea of a demon auction was Ok, and it broadened the show's world a bit more too. Unfortunately the misleads were a bit poor and Barney was a bit annoying. So although not a great episode it did a good job of creating the show's new status quo so the season could move forward.

72. Blind Date

Season 1 episode 21

Throughout the season Wolfram & Hart had been heavily mentioned, but it wasn't until towards the end of it that they began to play a larger role. This episode begins with Angel being easily fought off by a blind woman, who turns out to work for the law firm. However it isn't until after Lindsey discovers who her next target is that the main focus of the episode reveals itself. As the first W&H lawyer Angel encountered it made sense from a thematic standpoint to have Lindsey be the one who came to him for help. Despite having still only been in a few episodes at this point he was still quite likeable and so getting a bit of backstory on him as well as the possibility of him being redeemed was good to see. Add to that there was some very good action too. The cleverly worked out plan to get into Wolfram & Hart with Gunn's help was great to watch and a very exciting scene. The ending fight between Angel and Vanessa was a bit lacking unfortunately but it still worked. In fact as a villain Vanessa was pretty rubbish really, but it didn't matter too much as she was just a means to propel Angel and Lindsey's main story.

73. Birthday

Season 3 Episode 11

The knowledge that the visions were harming Cordy was first made apparent towards the end of season 2, and through a couple of episodes of season 3 it was clear that they were severely affecting her. This significantly helped the episode rather than if the killer visions had come out of nowhere. The first stage of the episode follows Cordy in an almost horror type episode where she's the only one who can see a shadow apparently stalking her. This shadow eventually turns out to be Skip who then turns out to be her Guardian (which then turns out to b a load of rubbish taking the Jasmine arc into consideration). The main exposition scene in the construct of a mall was very well done complete with some great visual aides to help get the story out, specifically more clearly showing the moment Cordelia got Doyle's visions. From then on the episode played as an alternate reality one and while there were a few issues (like why was the message Cordy wrote on the wall in the alternate reality) in the end it worked nicely. The one armed Wesley and traumatised Angel being highlights. Ultimately the whole episode was just a way to give a reason for the visions not to hurt Cordy anymore. When thought of it that way it's a little anti-climactic, but it was still a good episode.

74. Epiphany

Season 2 Episode 16

That sleeping with Darla actually turned him from his dark path instead of into Angelus was a stroke of genius and easily the best moment of the episode. From there his job was a combination of getting his friends to forgive him as well as save them from a group of three-eyed demons. The reactions to Angel by each of the other main characters were good and worked well. The fact none of them were willing to let him right back in made sense, however considering the peril they were in they weren't going to refuse his help. Elsewhere Lindsey was after Angel out of jealousy more than anything else. While his actions made perfect sense it really annoyed me how Angel could be run down several times and beaten with a sledgehammer before easily getting up at vampire speed as if nothing had happened to him. If a better way had been thought up for him to get the upper hand on Lindsey it would've significantly helped that scene. After rescuing the team Angel asking to work for them rather than getting them to work for him again was a great moment. It showed both his respect for the job they'd been doing without him as well as prevented the status quo from returning so soon after Angel's dark arc. If the group had all forgiven him instantly it would've completely undermined the dark Angel arc.

75. Rm w/a vu

Season 1 Episode 5

So after several episodes of living in a tip Cordelia decides to try to find a decent apartment. Finding a new place is something all of us either have or will go through at some stage and it tends to be a bit of a nightmare. Of course I've never had any kind of trouble with a new place as Cordy does here. This episode does the well known trick of taking a real life situation and giving it a great supernatural twist. The B-story for this episode involves Doyle and sheds a bit more light on his backstory. Again money troubles is something many of us have or will face, however Doyle's story is more about identifying with him than the analogy. Both stories are handled well and come together nicely in the episode's conclusion. Both the detection of the ghost and the ghost herself, Mrs Pearson, were good and worked believably. The twist that she hadn't actually been killed by her son, but rather killed him wasn't bad but did feel unnecessary for this story; although I guess it's a pretty major point for the show overall considering how often Phantom Dennis was in it. Despite the fact Angel did little other than just hit folk didn't hurt this episode much allowing for a fairly strong episode. Also I always liked the episode title!

76. Billy

Season 3 Episode 6

After being freed in That Vision thing it was about time Billy showed up again. His power was an interesting one and allowed for a very different kind of dark storyline than Angel usually does, which was good. This was one of those episodes where there was no real subtext because it was right there plain to see. It also allowed for a different kind of scary after Billy had infected someone. The fact that Wesley didn't receive any extra strength when he was turned against Fred worked better for the story as it would've been too similar to previous possession episodes if he had. The fact he was essentially still Wesley made the thought that some part of him did want to kill Fred very chilling. The other part of the episode involved Angel and Cordelia separately trying to track down Billy. Seeing Cordy actively go after someone wasn't something we'd really seen before so it made for a nice change. Seeing the differences between her and Angel's detective techniques was cleverly done and I particularly like her scene with Lilah. The end battle between Angel and Billy was a decent one, if nothing special. That Billy's power didn't work on Angel made enough sense for it to work without feeling like a cop out. So overall it was a decent episode with nothing really wrong with it, just not consistently at the same level as many other episodes.

77. Guise Will Be Guise

Season 2 Episode 6

There may have been a few issues with this episode, but there was also a lot of good stuff. Angel's obsession with Darla had gotten to the point where he was willing to essentially see a therapist. The scenes with the (fake) Swami were a lot of fun with some great dialogue. Him mocking Angel's focus on his appearance as well as implying that Buffy was just an attempt to get over Darla were great. With Angel gone it fell to Cordelia and Wesley to take care of any clients, which happened to include a rich businessman who needed Angel. Due to his lackey's forceful attempt to hire Angel Wes was forced to pretend to be him. This led to many brilliant scenes and some very funny stuff. Having to drink blood, as well as accidentally touching a cross were just a couple of the hilarious moments played brilliantly by Denisof. Unfortunately the final scene was a bit disappointing. The gang running in to save Virginia wasn't really that impressive and a bit of a let down for what had been an entertaining episode. Still this is one of the funnier Angel episodes just a shame the action couldn't match it.

78. Provider

Season 3 Episode 12

This is a decent mid season stand-alone episode with a nice balance of humour and horror. The gang being split onto the various different cases was done well with each of them being fairly interesting. The best of these was Angel getting conned by a guy who'd lost his friend to a group of vampires (played by future John Winchester, Jeffrey Dean Morgan). This gave a couple of cool fight scenes as well as a great moment when Angel's champion side won out against his entrepreneur side. The other storylines were fine too, but it did feel like there was a little too much going on in this episode. A bit more time and effort spent on the resolutions, particularly regarding Fred's predicament would've been nice. That the whole team just got there at the perfect time still worked but wasn't as cool as it could've been. Still, although there was a little bit of the ongoing main story with Holtz and Justine, this break from the more intense stuff was a nice bit of relief.

79. Players

Season 4 Episode 16

There were two parts to this episode and unfortunately neither of them were too great. Gwen enlisting Gunn's help to get the LISA chip wasn't too bad and did have its moments including a nice little mislead. Also getting to see Gunn have a couple of cool moments that weren't just him being the muscle was good. The rest of the gang were busy trying to find out what the Beast's Master's plan was. Again this had some moments, but there was a lot of exposition involved. Seeing Angel's vampiric photographic memory not being perfect was great to see as I felt they'd made him too powerful by continually throwing in extra abilities, so it was nice to see him humbled a bit. The others were mainly there for exposition, and a lot of it. Then there was Cordelia and Connor who continued to be a bit annoying. While the Gwen and Gunn stuff was a bit of fun this was essentially a transition episode between the Angelus arc and the Jasmine arc that functioned as little else.

80. Tomorrow

Season 3 Finale

While a lot certainly happened in this episode it still wasn't a great finale. With Connor thinking Angel had killed Holtz his drive for the whole thing was to enact vengeance on Angel. Seeing the two of them seemingly bond was nice and a bit tragic seeing as Connor was just using Angel to make him a better fighter. We did get a cool action scene at the drive-in, but other than that the episode was heavily character based. Certainly not a bad thing for an episode but it did drag a bit. Cordy and Groo's thing was done, which was a shame as I had nothing against him but it was time for him to go. Cordy's story in general was a bit poor really. Her talking to herself thing wasn't needed and while the ascension thing made for a decent cliffhanger I wasn't in love with it. Then there was Wesley's descent into darkness by sleeping with Lilah, which was handled pretty well. The main thing though was the ending. Connor and Angel's fight was pretty good, but didn't reach the height you'd expect from such a scene. Angel locked in a coffin and sunk to the bottom of the ocean wasn't a bad ending however, the problem really was that while it left you eagerly waiting for the next season the episode itself wasn't satisfying enough.

It's taken me a little longer than planned to get this next part online. I had been hoping that the bugs with TV.com would've been fixed by now but unfortunately not. So I guess we'll just have to go for it and hope it gets sorted soon.

81. Long Day's Journey

Season 4 Episode 9

Some pretty epic stuff happened here, mystical totems being killed and of course the infamous blocking out of the sun. Unfortunately it didn't all work too great. "The answer is among you" thing was a nice touch and the obvious target was Connor, so to have it actually be Angel (sorry, Angelus) was done well. The return of Gwen was welcome too and it was nice to see Cordy's jealousy, even though it was irrelevant really as it wasn't Cordy. I'm in two minds about the totems thing. On the one hand Manny was great a worked believably within the realms of the show, but on the other it wasn't the best mythical idea the show had ever come up with. The beast was still a cool villain though and was genuinely frightening. Him taking out Connor for the third episode in a row seemed a bit harsh though. The ending battle with him wasn't anything compared to the one two episodes before but still served a purpose. Still not clear on how the Beast managed to get back to Earth so easily after being thrown into another dimension. Still while the episode as a whole wasn't particularly great the ending was impressive. The sun blocked out and the gang suggesting bringing back Angelus all made for a very exciting cliff-hanger.

82. Untouched

Season 2 Episode 4

This episode had one of the first characters who had a supernatural power and yet wasn't a demon. That was a little bit jarring at first as no real explanation was given for it, although I always just took it as being similar to a birth defect. So we're introduced to Bethany who was telekinetic (anyone notice it's always females with superpowers: Bethany, Cassie, Gwen; oh that's right it's a Joss Whedon show). However she was also an abuse victim which Wesley manages to deduce in a moment which is a little bit awesome, despite the usual vampire and sunlight continuity errors. That this was the first time a character like this had been done it also felt a bit out of place, but only a bit. For the most part Bethany was a well executed character, although I did find the ending with her father turning up a bit anti-climactic. But we did still get some good action, a decent chase sequence and a bit more Darla, so overall this was a very entertaining episode.

83. Belonging

Season 2 Episode 19

I won't lie, Cordelia's bikini is probably the main reason this episode is ranked highest out of the Pylea arc, I mean come on can you blame me!? Other than her fantastic figure there was some decent action in this episode. The Drokken demon was decent enough and to finally get some back story on Lorne (as well as learning his name) was also welcome. There was quite a lot going on in this episode, as well as the main threat each main character was dealing with their own personal issues. Cordy seemingly realising her hopes of becoming an actress weren't going to happen, Gunn losing a member of his old team because he wasn't around enough anymore and even Wesley having a few issues with his father and his leadership role. Angel feeling a little left out at the start of the episode felt appropriate as he'd only just returned to the gang, but that quickly wore off as he took charge of the situation. Another reason this is the highest part of the Pylea arc on my list as it is the one that works best as a stand alone episode. If Cordy hadn't been sucked through the portal at the end this could've easily just been a monster-of-the-week storyline, which might've been a better idea.

84. Lineage

Season 5 Episode 7

After being mentioned several times Wesley's father Roger Wyndam-Pryce is finally seen on the show, sort of. The two are great together and their relationship is clear with only a few lines needed to show Wyndam-Price senior's disappointment in Wes. As well as that the episode has a sub-text of Angel still not truly trusting Wesley, which is understandable. However with the two happily working together and back to the dynamic they had before Wes stole Connor it was something that needed to be addressed. There were also a few ongoing storylines that got a bit of screen time including Spike, Eve and Knox, oh and there were cyborg ninjas too. Not the worst villains in the world I guess, but they did come off as a bit random. It also wasn't helped that no explanation was given for their origin. Of course the main moment in the episode was Wesley shooting his own father to save Fred. A shocking moment if the show hadn't copped out and revealed that he was actually also a cyborg ninja. While it may have been a better ending for the sake of the season (how would Wes have functioned for the rest of the year if he'd known he'd killed his own dad) it was very disappointing. A few funny lines of attempted comfort from Angel and Spike couldn't cover that up unfortunately.

85. Calvary

Season 4 Episode 12

Evil Angel, a seemingly unstoppable monster and eternal midnight, so what was wrong with this episode? Well firstly Angel (or Angelus as I should say as they seem to be referred to as two completely different people now) spends most of the episode in a cage, while not much else really happens. Sure for the plot it made sense to have him locked up, but he'd done his Hannibal Lector impersonation in Soulless and so now we just wanted him to get out there and be evil. Meanwhile the gang were just going about trying to find a way to re-ensoul Angel which clearly wasn't going to happen. They weren't going to bring back Angelus just to get rid of him after an episode and a half, so why spend so much of the episode trying to convince us they were? I seem to remember my patience wearing thin for this storyline when first watching it as when Lorne misread Angel I wasn't even expecting any kind of logical explanation as to why it happened (which of course we did eventually get). And Cordelia turning out to be evil just felt like a shock ending for the sake of it.

86. I Fall To Pieces

Season 1 Episode 4

The first season 1 episode on this list is a story that probably wouldn't have been out of place on the X-Files. Meltzer was appropriately creepy which nicely allowed him to be a different kind of scary than just if he was a physical match for Angel. Still the case in general wasn't that interesting. There was some rubbish about the client needing to get tough so she could get past the stalker which kind of worked but felt like a clichéd moment. As far as the disembodying himself thing went it kind of worked too. Visually it was very creepy but the logic behind it felt flat. Like I said it felt more like an X-Files story than Angel or Buffy as there wasn't quite enough science to make it believable even within the context of the show. You want us to buy something on this show just claim it was due to a magic spell and we'll happily accept it!

87. There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb

Season 2 Finale

So after the shock ending from the previous episode the show pulls it punches and reveals that Lorne isn't actually dead. I guess the relief of this overshadowed the giant cop-out as no one wanted the green wonder dead. The logic for how he was still alive made sense and the combination of visual effects and the mechanical head looked pretty impressive for a TV budget. Meanwhile Angel was getting friendly with Fred while Wes and Gunn looked to lead an attack on the castle. The Angel and Fred scenes were nice and work better looking back at them now as we know Fred a lot better as a fully rounded character. I wasn't such a fan of the stuff with the rebels. Again the combination of wacky humour and very dark storylines didn't gel well. The final fight with the Groosalugg was decent enough but I was never that impressed that Angel managed to control himself enough not to kill him. Then once they got back to the hotel there was Willow waiting to give the tragic news. Of course looking back now all the final moments of the episode do are remind me how superior the equivalent season finale of Buffy was to this.

88. The Thin Dead Line

Season 2 Episode 14

Another average episode here, with nothing particularly outstanding or bad in it. This episode isn't even really an analogy for Police brutality, it simply shows it in the extreme using zombies. But it does a serviceable job for the plot and makes sense within the realms of the show. The traditional zombie movie type horror section worked nicely and had some good creepy moments. I guess what really worked well was despite Angel being split up from his team they did both end up working on the same case. Another interesting thing about the episode was that after the zombie policemen were defeated it wasn't that happy an ending as Kate read out the crime stats and figures for that area of the city would begin to rise again. Of course one of the major things in the episode was Wesley being shot. It was quite a big moment and very shocking, at least for a little while. The problem was that once he was inside the shelter it was clear he wasn't going to die as despite the mortal wound he seemed quite comfortable waiting for hours before getting to a hospital.

89. Life Of The Party

Season 5 Episode 5

Lorne's feature episode showed what a day in the life of everyone's favourite green demon was like. Seeing him getting stressed out and hallucinating at the start was a great way to begin the episode. So Lorne had to organise the annual Halloween party thus giving us our first and only Halloween episode of Angel. Of course the date didn't really matter, it could've worked as any party event. In fact it might've worked better had it not been Halloween as demons are supposed to find it too crass; although this was addressed with a single line from Spike. It did unfortunately bring up some questions as to how anyone could remember the previous Halloween party as wasn't everyone who worked there killed in season 4? Still for the most part this was a comedy episode and did it well. Once everyone started doing everything Lorne asked them too the belly laughs came thick and fast. Gunn peeing everywhere, Spike super-cheery, Fred and Wes drunk and Angel and Eve constantly having sex were all very funny. I guess the only real problem with this episode is that it doesn't hold up too well to multiple viewings. Comedy episodes are great, but except for some good Lorne moments there isn't much outside them in this episode. And once you know all the jokes it's hard to find them entertaining again.

90. Inside Out

Season 4 Episode 17

The main purpose of the first part of this episode seemed to be to sort out the slightly messy story-telling of the season so far. While everything did seem to make sense when spelt out as it was, the fact they needed to slowly go through all the major points of the season to fully justify them really highlighted how poorly written (by the usual Angel standards anyway) parts of season 4 were. So apparently Skip was in on the Cordy thing all along. I was a bit upset about this as he was a cool character, but I guess he had too small a role for it to be clearly established that he had also been used. As well as seeing Skip again Julie Benz returned as Darla. Her appearing to Connor worked and there were some nice moments in there. Of course it was all irrelevant as the possessed Cordelia still murdered the young woman to use her blood to give birth quicker. While it had its moments this episode summed up the flaws in this season. Evil Cordy was never a good idea and as much as I tried to like Connor, he was a little brat really.

Well thanks for all the comments on the first part, hope you're all enjoying it! Think there could be another couple of controversial episodes in here too, but hopefully my summaries will justify their position. I don't just place popular episodes low to be different, honest!

91. Reunion

Season 2 Episode 10

With Darla on her way to becoming a vampire once again Angel set out to stop it from happening by killing her before she woke up. It was nice to see Drusilla again after such a long absence from the Buffyverse (not including a couple of flashbacks and the end of the previous episode) as she had been missed. Still there was something about this episode that just felt missing. Dru and Darla going about together had moments of both dark humour and full on terror, without ever going to either extreme. If they'd just gone with one tone and kept with it would've worked better. Seeing Angel obsessed with finding the two of them was done nicely and even Cordy's vision couldn't stop him. Speaking of if you look at Cordy during the stunt when the car does a 180 turn you can clearly see that she's a mannequin! The episode isn't bad but it's the ending payoff that it's all about. Angel locking the lawyers in with Darla and Drusilla was the major turning point for him this season and a very dark moment. The scene after when he fired his team pushed him further into it but the one thing that annoyed me about that last moment was that it appeared to be played with a small bit of comedy that felt really out of place. Unless that was just me and my weird sense of humour.

92. Why We Fight

Season 5 Episode 13

First off this undermines Angel's grasping at straws logic in The Trial that him siring Darla might leave her with a soul as he should've known what the effect was from Lawson. My second major compliant is the vampire makeup on the Prince of Lies as he had eyebrows despite being in vamp face. The older looking face kind of makes sense when you think the similar thing happened to The Master and Kakistos, but I'm not forgiving the eyebrows! As far as the rest of the episode goes it was a pretty average one. Trying to use vampires in the war would've made sense within the realms of the show and we even got to see what was most likely the humble beginnings of The Initiative. Still I found the submarine setting a bit boring. Being stuck in a small claustrophobic area with vampires could've worked as a really good horror episode, but they did away with that far too early. I did like seeing vampiric abilities being used in a unique way though, in this case being able to get Angel down to the sub by simply attaching chains to him and letting him sink! Unfortunately the logic for Angel needing to sire Lawson felt forced and wasn't the best story point. On top of that this episode really did not seem like a great way to follow up on the events of the hundredth episode.

93. Supersymmetry

Season 4 Episode 5

So we find out how and why Fred ended up in Pylea, as it turned out her physics professor sent her their. It worked nicely to tie this story into her opening arc and gave a bit more validity as she didn't just end up in Pylea by chance. The dark turn the episode took after Fred found out what Seidel made sense but never really worked for me. I can fully understand why Fred wanted to kill the professor but it felt a bit too much for what was essentially a stand-alone episode. The really dark stuff like this only really works for the bigger story arcs. What I did love was the way Gunn killing Seidel drove him and Fred apart, as an ironic turn on the notion "I'd kill for you" being the highest way to show your love for someone. There were also some other nice moments such as seeing what the outside world knows about Angel through internet forums and the first time we see the vampiric photographic memory. There was also some stuff with Cordy and Connor which dragged the episode in places but also had its moments.

94. Shiny Happy People

Season 4 Episode 18

Well the Jasmine arc is out of the way now on this list (not including Inside Out). It's a shame this story arc wasn't better as Gina Torres put in a great performance throughout. Her obvious ties to the Whedonverse helped the character elevate higher than if any other actress had played her too. This episode is all about the setup before everything went dark and downhill. Seeing the gang all happy and managing to justify Jasmine's responsibility over the horrors of the season as birth pains was nice to see and worked. There were also a few nice fight scenes against some vampires, even if it did seem like the FX team were only doing the dusting effects half-heartedly. Of course the happiness doesn't stay for too long as Fred discovers Jasmine's true form and ends up on the run. As the starting episode of this arc it does show some potential, but there's nothing really gripping about it. Fred being on the run is done well enough and her feeling of being alone is nicely conveyed too. I guess the main problem is that it's the main characters whose eyes we see the show through. So when they're under a spell for an entire episode like this and the stakes are so high it doesn't make it as good to watch.

95. Couplet

Season 3 Episode 14

With the return of the Groosalugg DB got to play jealous Angel for the most part of this episode which is great to watch. Angel was a great dark and mysterious character on Buffy but seeing all the different elements of his character on Angel, including the less champion-like ones, is one of the best things about this show. His pettiness throughout the episode, such as seeing if he's taller or complaining about Groo using his broadsword, is very funny. Still while this episode does have a nice light-hearted tone there are a few moments that fall flat. Why is it that no one minds a demon melting in the middle of a park and the tree demon wasn't the best monster they've ever done. While certainly an entertaining episode there's nothing that really makes it stand out. The one exception being the ending reveal of "The father will kill the son" which although shocking, seems completely out of place tonally in this fairly upbeat episode.

96. Habeas Corpses

Season 4 Episode 8

Zombies are always good and they work pretty well here. Seeing the Beast go in and murder everyone in that place was incredibly brutal and well done. While Angel's always handled gore well, this was above what had been done before which fit the story nicely. The only thing that annoyed me was it's not well explained why the staff turn into zombies. It's addressed with a couple of possibilities which I guess is enough as there were more important issues going on. After seeing Connor and Cordelia having sex Angel was appropriately devastated. What's handled well is that he's only angry at Cordy which makes perfect sense as he couldn't blame Connor for it really. The gang going into Wolfram and Heart to save Connor was good for the most part, despite Angel seemingly clambering up the escape tube Spider-Man-esque. Escaping through the White Room seemed a bit of a cop out and for some reason I really hated the line "Hello, photographic memory!".

97. Peace Out

Season 4 Episode 21

Angel's quest through the demon dimension to find Jasmine's true name wasn't too bad, although the priest was annoying. Was he meant to be reading Angel's mind or did he just know everything? Either way his comments about Connor did work, if being a bit unnecessary. Back in our world Jasmine had the gang captured to use as a bargaining chip against Angel where there were some nice moments between the characters but nothing special. When Angel eventually returns with the demon's head it unveils Jasmine's name and breaks the spell she had over everyone. It worked well enough I guess and seeing all the people scatter in fear and devastation was nicely played. Angel trying to get through to Jasmine rather than take her on was a good moment that felt right for the character, even though she just threw a car at him instead. Their battle was a bit more epic than the usual which was nice; before a distraught Connor killed her. While there was some good stuff in this episode, including Lilah's surprise return, the Jasmine arc was poor so the best thing this episode had going for it was that it finally ended it!

98. Redefinition

Season 2 Episode 11

After the huge cliffhanger ending of the previous episode this one had to deal with the fallout. An interesting point is that unless I'm mistaken Angel doesn't have a single line of spoken dialogue in the entire episode; all of his lines being voiceover. So Wes, Cordy and Gunn go and try to find themselves having been fired and end up getting wasted at Caritas. This allowed for some funny scenes before a well timed vision to put them back on their path. However the main focus of the episode was Angel's story. Seeing him train and take out a group of vampires to get ready to face Darla and Drusilla was pretty cool and nicely showed what he was going through. It was mostly good, but the episode went downhill towards the end. So there's a warehouse full of demons that Angel goes up against and we don't get to see a single second of it! While I can understand they couldn't afford to show all of it just a few moments would've been enough. Then it got worse when Angel set Darla and Drusilla on fire. I don't care what arguments you have about them being powerful vampires or whatever any other vampire would've disintegrated ten times over in the time it took them to douse themselves so I'm not buying that they could've survived. If you could overlook that the episode was probably a really good one, but it completely ruined it for me.

99. The Magic Bullet

Season 4 Episode 19

The episode begins with Fred on the run from her friends as she knows the truth about Jasmine, while they're all still under her control. While not a fan of Jasmine's story arc it did allow for some nice moments between the main characters, particularly Angel and Connor. This was the first time they were really working together and Connor telling Angel about his childhood in Quor'Toth as well as them singing together were both great. Of course it all fell apart when Fred shot Angel, complete with overused bullet-time effect. While having two of the main characters on the run could've been really exciting it just wasn't. Maybe it's just because this storyline felt very weird and out of place for me, something not suited to Angel's usual tone. Angel using Cordelia's blood to break the spell over the others made sense and was explained nicely. Each of the actors did a decent job conveying their reactions to the realisation that Jasmine was a fraud considering what they had to work with. Then there was the cliffhanger ending that, by this point, was getting very tired. Almost every episode in season 4 had a 24-like ending and it seemed like it was getting to the point that they were struggling to think up decent ones.

100. Unleashed

Season 5 Episode 3

While not a bad episode this just wasn't particularly good. So we get introduced to Nina, who is bitten by a werewolf and therefore turns into one herself. One major thing this episode has going for it is that it manages to handle the werewolf issue very differently to Buffy's Phases. While it could've ended up as a retelling of that instead it comes at things from a much darker angle. This ultimately works well and allows Nina to accept herself as a monster right from the outset, which is kind of where Oz's story left off. So not only do Angel and co have to find her but they have to convince her that her life's still worth living. So it all sounds good right? Well despite a few lines of dialogue from Enterprise's John Billingsley it's not explained why the werewolves turn back to their human form when killed, which didn't happen on Buffy. This wouldn't have been an issue if it wasn't used as a major plot point. On top of that some things felt a bit poorly executed, like Spike just happening to walk into the right office to advance the plot. And my final complaint is a bit of a superficial one, but while I'm aware the budget was lowered for the fifth season it really annoyed me that you never saw Nina transform to or from a werewolf. Considering what the episode was about surely they could've managed to get it in there once!?

If any of you were tracking me way back in 2007 you may remember that I did a series of blogs about my 50 favourite computer games. Then last year I did a countdown of all the Buffy episodes, so to follow on from those this year I'm going for an Angel episode countdown. 110 episodes will nicely divide into 11 blogs going from my least favourite episode to the one I judge to be the best.

As Angel is a bit more story arc based than Buffy it's been a bit harder to separate the episodes and judge them on their individual merits. At least that's my excuse if you don't like where I've placed some episodes. Either way here is the first part, enjoy!

101. Spin The Bottle

Season 4 Episode 6

Let's get this out of the way first; if it wasn't for Buffy's Tabula Rasa I'd probably have this episode a bit higher up this list. Although the characters didn't completely lose their memories it was still the same basic idea with characters fully aware of the demon world suddenly know nothing about it. The main difference between this and Tabula Rasa is that the backgrounds of each of the characters here are much more different, and this is where all of the good stuff from this episode came. Seeing Gunn and Wesley as even more exaggerated versions of when we first met them was cool, although Cordelia was a bit annoying. It also shed some light on Fred's childhood years. To find out she used to be a stoner who listened to death metal was a great touch and a lot better than if she'd just been a geek. Unfortunately there was also a lot to complain about. Angel going to and from his vampire face being compared to him having a gentleman's rest was poor and unnecessary, as was Lorne's narration of the episode. Also why didn't the spell affect Lorne? That was a poor way to be able to resolve the episode. Still I can understand the logic behind the episode. As everything kicked off after this it was understandable to have one last fun, silly episode. I just wish it had also been good.

102. Over The Rainbow

Season 2 Episode 20

As already mentioned I didn't think the combination of humour and horror worked too well for the Pylea arc. However that wasn't as much of an issue here as it was in Through The Looking Glass. What was more of an issue is that Pylea came off as a bit too cheesy to begin with. It seemed like they were going too far with the attempts at humour and unnecessary wackiness. Back in our world Angel and co were trying to find a way into Pylea to rescue Cordy and it was done well. The idea of mystical hotspots was a quite clever and worked well within the episode. Once they got to Pylea there were some nice touches with Angel being able to walk in the sunlight. Again the slightly light-hearted nature of the scenes played down Angel's happiness at being able to walk in the daylight, but as usual David Boreanaz's performance was spot on. The fight scene that followed in the town square was entertaining with a great cut to the gang in chains after Wes yelled "I think we're winning". The end reveal of Cordy as Princess was a nice ending too, but overall this episode's tone was too all over the place to be a great one.

103. Damage

Season 5 Episode 11

The basic idea behind this episode was good. As Willow's spell to turn all of the potential slayers into full slayers happened in the finale of Buffy any fallout from it would need to be seen on Angel. Add to that getting some information as to where the Buffy gang ended up after the show and surely this episode should've worked brilliantly. Unfortunately not and there are a few reasons for this, the first one being Andrew. While a great comic relief character on Buffy, and sometimes being a bit more than just that, his type of humour simply didn't work on Angel. Considering he'd meant to have grown up a bit it would've been better if his more silly jokes (like mispronouncing vampire) had been done away with. The other issue is probably something that just annoys me, but I really don't like seeing main characters mutilated, even if Spike did get his hands reattached. It almost felt like they were trying too much with the crazed slayer character as there was too much going on with her for a small one episode role. The episode had a very dark tone to it which sometimes works perfectly but felt out of place for a stand-alone episode like this.

104. Sacrifice

Season 4 Episode 20

Another storyline I didn't really like was Jasmine's, and while it's hard to separate the episodes in that arc as they seemed to be one long one, this would be the weakest of them. Finally having a villain that showed itself to more than just the core characters was something original, but I didn't feel that it worked. As far as this episode goes a decent reason is given to explain why Connor was still happy to follow Jasmine even after discovering the truth, and the gang being on the run had some cool moments. Still the Invasion of the Body Snatchers feel didn't really work. After retreating to the sewers it was a nice touch that they ran into some folk that Gunn knew. If anyone was still going to be Jasmine free in the city at this point it would be people from or affiliated with Gunn's old crew. Still that the demon that had been attacking them just happened to be from a dimension that had the key to defeating Jasmine seemed just a bit too convenient. Although it did look pretty sweet and the mutilated vampire was a cool idea too. The ending again just felt like they were dragging this out a bit too long and I just wanted this storyline to be over.

105. Heartthrob

Season 3 Premiere

This was a very disappointing season premiere. To start with the first vampire that gets killed isn't seen disintegrating! I mean they have to at least show the opening dusting surely!? In fact that whole fight scene was a bit poor as you could clearly see the supposedly dead vampires on the ground by the car. As for the main plot I found it hard to accept. If a vampire could become invincible by simply cutting out their heart why did no one know about this? To be fair connecting James with Angel's past worked nicely and they also introduced Holtz who would become the main villain for season 3. Of course the other thing going on was how Buffy's death had affected Angel. The main story did work nicely to run alongside what Angel was going through, even if it was a bit heavy handed. So there was some decent stuff in here, just not enough. Then there was the ending scene with a pregnant Darla (and dodgy looking superimposed vampire face) which is great knowing how that story played out, but at the time just seemed to be weird for the sake of weird.

106. Through The Looking Glass

Season 2 Episode 21

Firstly I love Lorne, he was a great character but the episodes in his home world were a poor way to end the second season. The humour and horror in these episodes both went to extremes and didn't balance well together. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of laughs in the episode, like Numfar's dancing (played by Joss Whedon) and it was good to get more backstory on Lorne. I just wish it could've been done better. Angel becoming a monster when changing into his vampire form was another cool idea, but all the elements of the episode simply didn't mesh well. This was a fairly major one all things considered with Angel meeting Fred for the first time and the introduction of the Groosalugg, which unfortunately just fell flat in so many places. From a production standpoint Pylea was well designed and put together which was impressive. Also you couldn't argue with Cordelia's outfit!

107. First Impressions

Season 2 Episode 3

I don't know if it was because of a tight schedule or budget restraints but almost everything about this episode felt rushed. First off the fight scene with the group of vampires near the start of the episode faded out before it finished. Off-screen dustings I can deal with, but cutting out entire fight sequences was poor. Next issue is when the vampires crash the party despite not being invited. Also Cordelia's visions about Gunn were never expanded on, but I guess that was more a flaw with the episodes after this one really. Of course as usual there was still some good stuff. Combining the supernatural and the darker side of real life is something Angel always did well and here it's seen with something as simple as Angel's car getting stolen. While mainly a plot device to get the characters moving I thought it was a nice touch. Add to that continuing to see Cordy being great in a crisis (here being her helping Gunn's friend after she was put through a pane of glass) was a very good way of expanding her character and she got a couple of other cool moments too. Finally I can't not mention the naked Darla clambering over Angel at the end. Piece of advice: make sure to watch that scene in widescreen mode!

108. The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco

Season 5 Episode 6

Angel teams up with a Mexican wrestler and no one saw the flaw with this? This episode is far too cheesy throughout, from the brothers always being in costume to the super-human strength Number Five had despite seeming to be a normal human. It simply didn't work and his brother's rising from the dead at the end because he was worthy or whatever was poorly done too. The logic behind it didn't really make sense and could've easily been made clearer with a few decent lines of dialogue (after all I get that it was meant to be the Day of the Dead). Even so it still wouldn't have saved the episode. I didn't find Number Five that likeable and did I mention the cheesiness? That said the large demon was pretty cool and the reasoning behind why he didn't want Angel's heart was nicely thought out too, but the main story significantly let it down. On top of that we did get a mention of the Shanshu prophecy which was a nice set up for the rest of the season as well as being its first mention in almost two years.

109. The Girl in Question

Season 5 Episode 20

A Buffy episode was a great idea, unfortunately Sarah Michelle Gellar wasn't able to appear in it. So the logical thing would've been to come up with a new idea, but no, instead they went ahead with the Buffy episode minus Buffy. Considering how much this episode focused on Angel and Spike's love/obsession with her she really needed to be in it, not just have Andrew talk for her. On top of that this was very much a money saving episode in preparation for the finale, so it wasn't the best idea to try to recreate a foreign city on a cheap episode. Editing around explosions and having the same Wolfram and Heart set really hurt the level of immersion the show normally does so superbly. Also while it was fun to see Spike and Angel bicker the episode in general felt out of place considering how close to the last episode it was. Despite a decent B-story with Wesley, Illyria and Fred's parents and Darla and Drusilla in some flashbacks this episode is probably one that shouldn't have been attempted.

110. Disharmony

Season 2 Episode 17

Harmony's a great character when it comes to comic relief, and it doesn't hurt that she's really hot too! However the whole not knowing what to do with her life storyline seemed to undermine the entire vampire mythology a bit. Granted they tried to fix this by having her team up with the vampire cult, but that was the other major problem with this episode. The vampire play on a pyramid scheme was a nice idea but just not executed very well. This was mainly in the final battle where Angel's team managed to take on over fifty vampires and all come out without even a scratch on them. That they only went in with basic weapons, nothing special, completely removed me from the episode. While there may have been some funny stuff and a nice cameo from Willow this episode was simply uninspired. Also simply having Angel buy Cordy a load of clothes to get her to forgive him was a very lazy writing device.

Well now that we're well into summer we can go outside in the glorious sunshine, head to the beach and have barbeques! But before all that I want to reflect on the TV season that has just finished with a (not so) brief recap of each of the major shows I watched.

24

It had been over a year and a half since the previous season, a good thing as it allowed us to forget the mess that was season 6. With so much time apart I was yearning for some more Jack Bauer action and really excited for season 7, which for the most part didn't disappoint. So we had Tony Almeida return as a bad guy, except he wasn't really a bad guy because he was working undercover, except then he was a bad guy after all but not really. That run-on sentence is both accurate and pretty much sums up how a typical season of this show's plot jumps about. So this was more of the same really; Jack being super-cool, various spies in various organisations, new characters, returning characters and lots of explosions.

However while the show followed a familiar formula it helps that most of the characters are likeable and well defined. Jack's always been the heart of the show and Keifer Sutherland manages to superbly elevate the character above just being the action hero. So the decision to give him a fatal disease about halfway through the season wasn't the best one. Almost all emotional impact was lost as we knew Jack would never die!

As far as the other characters went the new President was portrayed well and while nothing compared to David Palmer, was a lot better than Powers Boothe. Her story was interesting and as usual worked alongside the more action orientated stuff and with the exception of her annoying daughter was pretty much all good. Then there's Tony who despite jumping from one side to another throughout the season still worked well. The finale was a bit weird as it didn't really wind down in the same manner most do, but still did the job of giving an exciting conclusion to the season while nicely setting up the next one.

Dollhouse

I think even the most hardcore Joss Whedon fan would be pushing it to say this show was fantastic. It was good, but if it hadn't had the Whedon name attached to it I probably never would've given it a second look. But let's try to judge the first season on its own merits, without comparing it to any of Whedon's other shows or mentioning any problems behind the scenes.

The basic premise of the show is an interesting one, if not completely engaging. Having the cast able to take on different characters each week is entertaining, but not enough to keep ongoing interest. The first few episodes suffered by being too stand-alone, the ongoing attempts to find the Dollhouse barely even a sub-plot. Obviously these episodes were meant to introduce us to this world before everything kicked off and they certainly weren't bad, just not great. I think the crew realised this as there are many shots of Eliza Dushku wearing very little in the opening episodes, and while I'm not complaining, it felt like a cheap attempt to hold the audience.

However after a few episodes the main story kicked in and the show became a fair bit better. Yet despite definite improvements it still wasn't anything to write home about. While none of the characters are outright annoying, very few really had me sympathise with them. Other than Paul Ballard and Boyd Langton the rest of the cast are fairly forgettable, to the point where I can't remember most of their names, and that unfortunately includes Dushku's character. Still there are some good supporting characters, mainly Whedonverse alum, that are fun to watch. Alan Tudyk's major role in the last few episodes being of particular note.

Heroes

This season was quite simply woefully bad. After news of a reshuffle behind the scenes there was hope that the second half of the season could redeem it a bit, but unfortunately it just never happened. Nathan's sudden obsession with rounding up all the people with powers was a nice device for the volume, but didn't really fit for the character. Of course the main problem the show has had for a while is that the characters don't act logically, simply to serve the story. Even if the overall story was stellar on its own it should be the characters we get invested in, but with them jumping from side to side nonsensically you couldn't get behind any of them.

The show's answer to developing older characters seemed to simply be either giving them new powers or taking their old ones away. Without his powers Peter became a shadow of his former self and Hiro just became annoying. Sylar does buck this trend a bit but for the first half of the season you have no idea what direction he's heading in and for the second half he just goes on a road trip which doesn't make for particularly entertaining television. Add to that the unoriginal plot points of characters seeing a horrible future that needs to be averted and someone who can paint the future and you're left with a poorly written and poorly executed show. Such a shame considering this show should really be hitting its prime now.

Lost

As the second last season of the superb show we're almost there and this season had a lot to do and live up to; and for the most part it did I guess. It opened incredibly strongly with possibly the best season premiere the show has ever done. Unfortunately the only way to go from there was down and while the on island action was excellent, the stuff back in the real world wasn't so great. It slowly got weaker until it culminated in the poor Jack episode in which they returned to the island. For such a big occasion it didn't really feel epic enough, and part of that was the fact Jack is boring, as well as that the characters only teleported back in time as opposed to seeing the plane they were on crash.

Thankfully the show bounced right back from this episode and continued to get stronger as the season progressed. A superb Sawyer episode that saw those left behind join the Dharma Initiative and actually getting to see the plane land on the island from Frank the pilot's perspective was all awesome! That said the fact the show had two different timelines going, with flashbacks on top of that, meant for several episodes at a time to go by without getting to see many major characters. While some of this can be forgiven it was annoying to have to wait up to four weeks to get our next piece of Ben or Locke action.

Still, Lost is the kind of show that has to be judged differently from most everything else on TV because it's that good. So petty annoyances aside the second half of the season was great and thoroughly enjoyable with some cool character moments and some major mysteries being addressed. Unfortunately the finale ruined it all by introducing a new major villain far too late in the story and having half of the episode simply being set-up for the poor ending reveal regarding Locke. And that's not even including the terrible last shot of the nuke going off and possibly destroying everything the show has done over the last five seasons! I know I'm probably in the vast minority regarding the finale but it really put a downer on the season for me. Which is a shame because without it the penultimate season of Lost was one of the best this year.

Prison Break

This is a show that should've ended after two seasons at most; I mean it's in the title! So after breaking out of two prisons where could the fourth season go? Fortunately they didn't just go for the "on the run" storyline again and instead the first part of the season involved finding access to something that was the heart of The Company's organisation. The whole A-Team-esq vibe worked quite well and it was certainly enjoyable, but then it took a turn for the worse. At the halfway point the FBI agent turned out to be a bad guy and it was back to everyone double-crossing each other again.

To be fair there was still a lot to like in this final season: most of the main characters were as great and as deep as they had been all along and there were still some clever moments and cool action scenes. The problem is that the show has simply lasted too long. I actually missed the last two episodes when they were on Sky1, but the fact I'm not bothered by that pretty much sums up the season. It's entertaining if you have the time for it, but nothing worth going out of your way for. A huge shame considering how fantastic the first season was.

Smallville

This show had seemingly run its course, after the terrible seventh season I was ready to give up on what was once one of my favourite shows. Yet despite all that I still for some reason had high hopes for the premiere, and to my delight it met them! The change in management behind the scenes turned out to be exactly what the show needed and gave new life to it. With Michael Rosenbaum (Lex) having left the show there was a pretty big void to fill. Fortunately it was done very well with new villains Tess Mercer (a play on Lex's assistant in the cartoons) and Davis Bloome (the eventual Doomsday). On top of that the fantastic Justin Hartley (Green Arrow) was made a series regular too which all worked well to vastly improve the show.

So other than the altered main cast, what made this season great? Well the main reason was that Clark no longer took a back seat on his own show. Ever since Chloe found out his secret it seemed that Clark couldn't do anything without her telling him to. Fortunately the Clark of season 8 was a different creature and began embracing his destiny. While he didn't wear glasses or a cape at any point he did start working at the Daily Planet across from (the gorgeous) Lois Lane and patrolled the streets of Metropolis as his superhero alter-ego. On top of that the episodes felt more distinct and memorable than in previous seasons. There were more action based episodes, more mythology based ones and more Lois ones.

Unfortunately it wasn't all good and while Davis Bloome was a great character, a bit more work was needed on his Doomsday persona. Add to that the poor decision to bring back Lana for a string of episodes which just returned Clark to the whipped schoolboy he used to be. Also despite having a few good storylines I really wish Oliver had been given more to do and the fight scenes still sucked. The real kicker though was the finale. Like Lost it had been built up so much that it really needed a great pay off and just couldn't manage it. Which, again like Lost, really sullied what had been a great season.

Spectacular Spider-Man

As it's only just begun airing in the States and as I've already done a full blog on it I won't say too much more about this fantastic show. Unlike the movies this version gets the character of Spider-Man and what he's all about spot on. Despite being primarily a kids show it's doesn't shy away from darker stories and does them superbly. However it also gives a good sense of the fun that was sorely lacking from the films. Add to that well written dialogue, superb action sequences and relatable characters and you have one of the best shows around in any genre.

Supernatural

Considering how season 3 ended, with Dean being sent to Hell, the forth one had to do something special to get him back. And special it did, and then some! The introduction of Angels into the Supernatural mythology was ultimately a superb idea, especially considering how awesome the main Angel Castiel was! Similarly to the previous year there was a specific end point for this one too; specifically being to stop Lucifer from rising. A great idea that works believably within the Supernatural world due to how well it has been developed over the course of the show.

Of course that didn't mean the season was one long story, far from it. The usual monsters of the week were in there, quite often interspersed well within major mythology episodes. There was also the usual amount of horror, comedy and simply fantastic eps in there too. In fact I'm hard pressed to think of a single episode that was under par. Dean working with the Angels while Sam seemed to slide deeper towards his demon side was handled superbly and allowed for a fantastic confrontation between the two brothers in the penultimate episode. In fact my only real gripe is that the show doesn't always have the funding to show the epicness that the stories are telling. Off-screen effects work to a point to but eventually you just want to see everything that's being hinted at.

Still that's a small complaint which doesn't hinder this brilliant show. The humour, the genius lines and the fantastic performances from both lead actors every week make for excellent television. Season 4 was both the best season of the show so far and, in my opinion, the best show on TV this year.

Wolverine and the X-Men

The second animated show on my list is also a Marvel comics property. With the release of Wolverine at the cinema this year another X-Men cartoon was to be expected. What maybe wasn't expected was how good this show is. Instead of re-telling the X-Men story from the start it is assumed most are familiar with the idea thanks mainly to the four films. Due to this the story begins a good way into the X-Men mythology. The event that kicks everything off and gives the show its initial direction is a strange explosion outside the mansion. It causes Jean Grey and Professor Xavier to vanish, immediately throwing up several questions as to what really happened.

Throughout the course of the season these questions are answered successfully and satisfyingly. However the show is mainly about Wolverine and the remaining X-Men (hence the title). The characters are as well defined as you'd hope and the action sequences (while not quite on par with Spider-Man) are very impressive too. While some episodes are weaker than others (the Wolverine vs The Hulk one springs to mind) the various overarching stories work well to keep you interested. However my favourite thing about this show is how it manages to take from many different X-Men stories allowing for many different types of episodes without it ever seeming like the show is jumping randomly between stories.

For the most part each of the stories work great together and throughout the season you'll see parts of about a dozen well known storylines and many more characters. Obvious characters like Magneto and Mystique make appearances as well as more outthere ones like Apocalypse and Mojo. My only real complaint is that as we're coming into the story halfway through in a way you don't always know who's meant to know who. For example when Mystique first appears no-one recognises her, however everyone is fully familiar with Juggernaut. Also despite generally approving of the many storylines that go on in the show it's not uncommon for one plot to be started and then not revisited again for many episodes which can be a bit frustrating at times. Still despite a few issues this is definitely a show worth checking out which is fully worthy of the X-Men name.

Well there you have it. I've been really busy lately and so it's taken me a while to finish this season review and I might not be on again for a while. However when I do return look out for another episode countdown, similar to the Buffy one I did last year.

All the best, later!