General thoughts and ratings for Angel 5.5, "Life Of The Party"

I went out to lunch today with JuliaPrime and Iago. It was neat, even though my day was filled with stress (I hate you, PATH train), and I had to leave so I could come home and tape this here show. And I had a raging headache all day. But it was fun. We saw The Motorcycle Diaries . It was a good little film as far as films go, but I feel it was more artsy than it was substantial. I liked it, but the only thing I really felt when I left the theater was, "Wow, that was pretty." Well, that and "That young man's going to become a revolutionary!"


[Begin Spoiler for Life Of The Party — Highlight to view]

So this is what one calls a filler episode! Not that there's anything wrong with that. I give it maybe 7.5. It was an entertaining little number, but when I looked at the clock and realized that an entire half hour had gone by, I also realized that fuck all had gone on.

I'm shocked that I didn't guess, by the title, that this would be a Lorne-centric episode. And I liked that. I actually like Lorne as one of the main characters, I think he has a sustainable and interesting character. Also, the music they played over the first scene was about to bug me before I watched them work it into the mood. Nice job! Can't say the same about the music at the end, though. What's with all the music??

Nobody annoyed me in this episode, not even Spike, amazingly. He was actually kind of entertaining, yet still unnecessary. More than anything he reminded me that sometimes there's just no room in an episode for characters that contractually need to be in every episode. Also, there was no pointless backstory in this one, which made me very happy. The only thing that might have qualified was Lorne's little spiel about Caritas, but he wasn't saying it to inform, he was saying it to make a point, which he's still totally allowed to do.

I also thought the episode's dilemma was entertaining and not too taxing. Fred and Wesley should be drunk more often. And Gunn's reaction to Lorne's admission ... dude. Totally. I am right there with him. That would be so damn awesome. It would help so much!! The only thing mildly troubling was the sex. Not for the conventional reasons, though. I think it's been pretty well shown that Angel can get laid, he just can't like it very much. He could get great work as a manwhore. Anyway! Angel is lucky he's a vampire, yo. Because I think Eve's last name is "Herpes." Diseases, diseases, diseases. Yeck.

I also liked that they were able to extend Lorne's problem to fit them all, and that the way that they came about learning this very special information was entertaining and not at all preaching. I actually think I should rate this episode higher, but ... I don't really see any real call for me to watch it again. Good enough.

Furthermore, I loved that the demon gent had the ... underling, slave thing. Dude. That was so fucked up and great. And stolen from Anne Rice, but then, so a lot of this stuff.

[End Spoiler]