Playing Catch Up: Angel 1.02 "Lonely Hearts"

I've been avoiding watching Angel because I know I'll get sucked in (see August-February, when I watched all 144 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer) but then I saw this clip and knew it just had to happen.



I watched the pilot earlier this year and wasn't thrilled, but now that I think about it I've never really been all that thrilled with any of Joss's pilots - always a lot of exposition and never enough snark. Sooo, I gave it another try.

"Lonely Hearts" was very classic Joss monster of the week, but much darker than Buffy territory. When Doyle gets a vision that something bad is going to happen at a bar called D'Oblique (I think I spelled that right - Cordy had some issues with that too), the three musketeers go to check it out. Turns out there's a parasitic worm demon frequenting D'Oblique to feed off of people's lonely hearts, switching to a new body every night and killing the last. Cordy does her best Willow impression doing research and Doyle does his best Xander impression making googly eyes at Cordy. Oh, and Angel broods about being lonely. All in a Whedon day's work.

I have to say, I'm a much bigger fan of Angel Cordelia than Buffy Cordelia. She's a bit more grounded (maybe because she's living in a dump) but still has the sass. I hear that Cordelia grows up a lot during Angel so I'm interested to see that. She also chops off her hair at some point. If Angel is anything like Buffy it'll probably be the result of some kind of life-changing decision (e.g. Buffy chops her hair after ending things with Spike in Season 6).

This episode also introduces Elisabeth Rohm as Det. Kate Lockley. I'm guessing she's going to be a recur, because she and David Boreanez have great chemistry. Kate and Angel meet at the bar while they're both looking for the worm demon, although Kate just thinks it's a standard killer. She initially thinks Angel's the culprit, but they ultimately team up to take the thing down. She, like Angel and Doyle, also can't figure out what Cordelia's squiggle on the Angel Investigations business card is (come on, why would there be a lobster on a business card for a guy named "Angel?")

Overall, a good intro into the world of Angel. I'm looking forward to getting addicted to this one too. To watch "Lonely Hearts" on Hulu click here.