Original Airdate: October 5, 1999

Plot: Angel moves to LA where he meets up with Quinn, half-human, half-demon who warns him of impending danger to innocent people. First up, Angel does battle with a vampire preying on young actresses and runs into an old friend...

Warning: There is no one here to protect you from SPOILERS for the premiere episode of Angel, "City Of." If you haven't seen it and don't want to have major plot points revealed, please turn back now...

In short: A good set-up....

Spin-offs make me wary. Yes, for every bad one (Joanie Loves Chachi) there's a good one (Star Trek: TNG or DS9). There are even times when having the same crew from a great show (Babylon Five) create and produce the spin-off and it's still a bit lackluster (Crusade). So, I've got to admit that I sat down to watch the very first episode of Angel with a bit of trepedation.

Of course, as most of you know from reading my Buffy reviews, I'm not a huge David Boreanaz fan. I've never been overly impressed with him as an actor, except during season two of Buffy when he played evil-Angel to the full hilt. Otherwise, he's been a bit hit-or-miss in my mind and I wondered if they could build and sustain a series around him.

The answer for now seems to be, yes, they can.

Most of this comes from the fact that Angel as a series is going to be able to take more chances than Buffy was. It's a darker show and it fits in with Broeanaz's acting style a bit more than Buffy did at times last year.

But, overall, I've got to admit that it's going to take a lot more to really hook me into this show in the same way I'm hooked on Buffy.

Not that "City Of" was a bad episode mind you (odds are anything written by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt is gonna be pretty darn good), but it just didn't really grab me. Part of it may be that this is for all intents and purposes a pilot episode and thus, must do certain things. For one, it's got to set-up the characters and the situation for us, give us a sample of what's to come and set-up things for future episodes. Part of what may have drug down the first few minutes for me is that being such a passionate Buffy fan, I already knew Angel's history and so didn't need to be reminded of it. But, I can see that the producers want to give new viewers or those more casual Buffy fans out there a taste of what has come before now and where we're going. So, I can forgive the show for moving slowly early.

Also, it set-up pretty well the role Angel will play on the show. If Buffy is Superman, than Angel is Batman, though on a much more limited budget. (I liked the fact that Joss and Greenwalt made reference to this with one of Quinn's lines early in the script.) Angel's awkwardness at talking to people and getting himself into the good graces of our heroine was nicely done. However, on some levels, I found the plotline from there to be a bit predictable. Namely, we've got a vamp who feeds on the innocent and lures them in by promises of whatever they want or desire. It's interesting, I guess, but not enough time was really devoted to it to make me really care either way. Yes, he was just enough of a jerk to make me want to see him get his in the end, but overall, it didn't leave much of an impresion on me. Part of it may have been that our villain of the week reminded me a lot of the Mayor in just his actions and mannerisms.

As for the law firm, I can only guess as to where this is going. It reminds me a lot of Buffy's early references to the Mayor and how those eventually came to fruition. I can only hope that Joss shows the same foresite here in setting up a long-term plotline.

The other part of the show that had to work was getting us into the minds of the other characters--namely Cordelia and Quinn. Cordy worked fairly well because, again, we already had some insight into her character from Buffy. All that was needed here was a bit of short recap on where she'd been until now. The fact that she was a starving actress in LA wasn't overly surprising, but her willingness to work for Angel was. Of course, you can always chalk it up to the fact that she's had a secret yearning for Angel, maybe because he was one of the few guys in Sunnydale who never paid that much attention to her but instead focused on Buffy. In many ways, you can see a sort of interesting triangle developing here between her, Angel and Quinn. I'm not sure if I want to see that, but if handled well, it could be interesting...

As for Quinn, he is the one character who go the short end of the stick. We didn't really learn much about him except he's half-demon and pretty much served as exposition to get the plot moving. What else is there? Well, I guess we'll have to wait and see in future episodes. Hopefully, we'll have one soon that looks at just who is and his past, if that's possible. I am keeping my fingers crossed becasue this character seems to have some potential. One thing I hope we see is that he's fallible. I see Quinn being in a similar vein as Al on Quantum Leap--a helper, but one who might occasionally get the facts wrong or lead our hero astray. I hope that works out here. Let's give Quinn some depth...

As I stated, there's a lot going on here. So much so that the plotline of the vamp feeding on the young girls seemed a bit rushed and tacked on. Of course, we had to see some way of seeing Angel in the role he will play. It's interesting to see that he was unable to save her here, but he did save Cordy. I hope in future, he'll have a bit more success.

So, for now, I'm satisfied with Angel enough to keep watching. It's got a good start and some real potential. I can only hope it's realized....

So, I guess that's about it except for a few small things...

--Stylistically, I enjoyed the rapid shifts for scene changes. I hope they continue.
--Cordy really added a lot to the show, which surprised me in some ways. I think part of it was that both Cordy and Angel became so underused in the last half of season three of Buffy that it was nice to see them re-emerge here.
--Angel's killing of the villain seemed a bit extreme. Of course, then again, we've seen his evil side and I guess he was pretty annoyed. Did anyone else think it might be because the girl perhaps reminded him of Buffy?

So, that's about it for now. Overall, "City Of" is a good start for the new series. It's certainly got me interested to see where it goes from here...

Rating: 7.0 (out of 10.0)
Next up: Angel tracks a creature looking for the perfect host....