(Buffy Season 4, Episodes 5-6)
(Angel Season 1, Episodes 5-6)

Change is brewing already on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A little abrupt, and saddening, but it will push the characters into new emotional territory. Never want them to stagnate too much.

Over on Angel, it was so good to see Angel doing something other than the whole brooding thing. The show is really coming into its own comedy-wise, which is important. I don’t need it as light as Buffy, but you can’t have characters like Cordelia and Doyle and stay that dark forever. Read the rest of this entry »

(Buffy Season 4, Episodes 3-4)
(Angel Season 1, Episodes 3-4)

Now that’s a crossover between two shows. Brilliantly and seamlessly handled. This is why I chose to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel back-to-back like this. I knew Whedon had dropped little treats like this in for his loyal viewers, and now I can pretend to be one, too.

It was also nice to see the return of some familiar faces to both series. As I said last week, the casts are pretty lean. And while I can forgive it as we’re getting settled into our new environments on both shows, it’s time to start stretching out and meeting new people, as well as reconnecting with old friends. Read the rest of this entry »

(Buffy Season 4, Episodes 1-2)
(Angel Season 1, Episodes 1-2)

Welcome to the new and shorter-titled “Diary of a Buffy/Angel Virgin.” I’m a completist by nature, so if I’d been watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer when it was on, I would have surely tuned in to Angel. I’ll bet the vast majority of people who were watching did the same, or at least sampled Angel.

So far, both shows feel a little lean. They took two of the regular cast members of Buffy, and put them on Angel. Buffy is just making do with the smaller number, while Angel added one. After high school so much changes, so it’s pretty cool watching two different shows to see how everybody’s lives are moving in such different directions. Read the rest of this entry »

This example of Hatch Blowing is going to sound familiar, if you read my previous one on Veronica Mars. As I said then, the transformation of Logan Echolls from unlikeable punk to likable suitor for Veronica was remarkable. Along those same lines, Angel had an amazing transformation to behold, with the depussification of Wesley Wyndam-Pryce. However, unlike Veronica Mars’s Logan, the road to bad-ass “rogue demon hunter” Wesley took seasons to accomplish in full.

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(Season 3, Episodes 19-22)

After three years with this gang, the final episodes of season four really were the end of an era. The kids are graduating high school, Angel’s heading off to LA to headline his own show. Truly, nothing will ever be the same again.

And the episodes played out just like that. They had all the emotional importance of such a significant transition for both the characters and the audience. We finally got the culmination of the Mayor’s century of scheming, got a resolution, of sorts, with Faith and saw Buffy take those important first steps into adulthood, by quitting the Council.

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We here at CliqueClack TV are many things: caring, charitable, dashingly handsome (or beautiful), and passionate. Very passionate. We’re so passionate that we make a Harlequin romance novel seem like a teenage sex romp. This is especially true when it comes to Internet “Top xxx” lists. When one comes out with a listing of television series, the proverbial gloves come off.

This time around, it was a list of the Top 100 science fiction/fantasy shows of all time that pissed off produced a lively debate at the CliqueClack offices. Here are a few of the comments made by our fine staff of writers.

KEITH: What a weird list. Some make sense, others are way out of left field. How can they even include a show like Warehouse 13 in the list at all, when the show’s so new? And to put Dollhouse in the top 20 so soon?

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(Season 3, Episodes 15-18)

It looks like the fallout of Faith’s murder of Finch is going to be dire indeed. I’m loving the complexity of her character, especially as we hold her up for comparison to Buffy. Despite her bravado, you can’t help but feel there has to be a confused young girl in there, somewhere … right?

They still don’t quite seem to know what to do with Oz. He never goes on the adventures with the gang, and he mostly sits and stares. I do enjoy that they get into the fact that he rarely talks or shows expression. It’s an interesting facet to his character, but he’s still majorly underutilized. Read the rest of this entry »