War Zone

War Zone
Written by
Directed by

Original Airdate: May 9, 2000

Plot: A software giant hires Angel to help him repossess some incrimianting photos, leading Angel to an encounter with a group of street teen vampire hunters.

Review

Warning: This will be your only warning about the SPOILERS that are just ahead for the latest episode of Angel, "War Zone"

In short: A lackluster effort.

After the last two weeks in which Angel has been perfectly on target in all aspects of the show from writing to acting to direction. So I will admit that when I saw the preview for "War Zone" a part of me inwardly cringed. Namely because after two weeks of pushing the envelope and taking chances with the characters and the series, "War Zone" looked like a just standard episode of the series.

And, unfortunately, it was.

"War Zone" made very little, if no impact on me. I watched it, yes. I spent an hour watching it and trying to get involved in the plotline, but never could.

Part of it may have been that it was so overloaded with cliches. We had the gang of homeless vampire fighters, who for some reason or other are like a mini-Scooby gang (without the wit or compelling characters). They fight vampires, but the reason why was never made clear enough to me to actually be convincing. Yes, vampires are bad, but why did the group feel this compelling need to fight them. And better yet, how did they learn how to fight them and how to fight them effectively?

If there was any indication that this was discussed, I probably missed it.

And that's probably becasue this episode had a huge case of "She"itus. Namley that a large number of the principles on screen mumbled lines. It's hard to follow the dialogue and the details if you can't understand what characters are saying and or trying to do. I found that to be frustrating throughout the entire course of the episode. So much so that I almost had to turn on my closed captioning half-way through in an attempt to find out what was going on.

In many ways, this episode reminded me of the classic Star Trek episode "Miri" In that episode, Kirk and company beam down to find a planet where there's a group of children (ranging in age from about six to barely teens) who are in control of the planet. Adults have died off due to a disease and the children live in hiding, for fear of the "grups." It was an interesting premise on Star Trek (though not one of my favorite classic Trek eps, I will admit) becasue we had variety in the characters. But here, there was little variety. I felt little or no identification with any of the group of vampire hunters. This showed especially when the boy died early on after the vampire attack and I felt nothing for his character.

But, where the real weakness of the episode lay, I think is a lack of focus on the main characters. While Angel had a role to play in this episode, it felt like he and the rest of the Angel investigations crew were shunted to the sidelines for much of the episode. Part of me suspects that this done intentionally to give David Boreanaz a bit of flexibility in his schedule so that he could film his cameo on last night's Buffy....however, you've got Cordy and Wesley who could easily have carried an episode. And after Cordy's been pretty much out of the loop in terms of character time the past few weeks, she could have used an episode that focused on her a bit more.

But, alas, it was not to be.

Not that the episode was a total washout, like, say The Ring. It did have some pionts that were nice. I liked the plotline that got Angel into area of town to cross paths with the vampire hunters. Namley, the rich guy who wants to hide his past. It's nice to see Angel investigations operating as a detective agency and helping those who might need help outside the normal bounds. I enjoyed the millionaire a bit and his plight of having the money he wanted but not the friends and loved ones he really desired.

I also liked the few scenes where Cordy wondered if she could learn to love him. Those worked and it showed a bit more depth to Cordy that was welcomed.

And part of me wonders if this crew of demon hunters will prove useful later. I got the feeling that things were being set up for future episodes. I'm not sure how, or even if I'm interested in seeing it. For now, I'll take the "wait and see" attitude.

Well, that about wraps it up for now. Not a whole lot to really say here. I didn't love this episode, but I didn't despise it either. I'm pretty much neutral about the whole thing...

My rating: 5.0 (out of 10.0)

Next up: Angel encounters a woman who can anticipate his every move....