I had bought the dvd set of the entire 5 seasons of Angel and started watching them as soon as I came home Wednesday afternoon. I just finished watching the first dvd, Season 1, by 9 pm today. Ofcourse being at home on my staycation leaves me with plenty of time to do whatever I want. So we see Angel setting up shop in Los Angeles, becoming an ‘unlicensed’ P.I. and he is joined by Doyle, a demon-human half breed, who has been sent to help him atone for his crimes and who sees ‘visions’ of people in trouble and the places where Angel must go to find them. They are joined by Cordelia Chase, who is struggling to get auditions for acting roles and the three of them form ‘Angel Investigations’. The first episode sets the theme for most of the season – an innocent girl who is stalked by a baddie vampire. Angel befriends her and tries to help her but she runs away when confronted with a little detail that Angel forgot to tell her – that he is a vampire too! And he is too late in saving her as baddie vamp kills her but he can still save Cordy from the evil bloodsucker’s clutches.

Angel meets up with police detective Kate Lockely, who sometimes helps him with information he needs and who freaks out a bit when she finds out that he is a vampire and that there are things like demons. She ends up being bitter with him however, after her father is killed by vampires and blames Angel for it. Meanwhile Oz bring a magical ring to Angel for safe keeping – the ring makes the wearer invincible, meaning a vampire who wears it is safe from any harm, even sunlight. Angel also has a run-in with Spike in this episode. We find out that Cordy gets an new apartment along with a roommate – a friendly ghost the trio helps to break free.

Angel gets his mortality back and spends a romantic 24 hours with Buffy but has to relinquish it to continue in his ways to save humanity from evil. Doyle sacrifices himself to save a group of half-demons but passes on his ‘seer’ abilities to Cordelia. Then Wesley Price comes into their lives and provides a lot of comic relief for the remainder of the season. I rather like this character as Wesley will later change from a bookish nerd clumsy oaf type to a dark & melancholic character as the series progresses. By the end of season 1, the offices of Angel Investigations have been destroyed by a bomb and we see the pair having lunch in Cordy’s apartment.