Angel Review – “Soul Purpose”

It seems David Boreanez is a director now.

Cast and Crew

David
Boreanez
as
Angel

Alexis
Denisof
as
Wesley Wyndham-Pryce

J.
August Richards

as Charles Gunn

Amy
Acker
as Fred
Burkle

Andy
Hallett
as
Lorne

James
Marsters
as
Spike

Written by Brent Fletcher.

Directed by David Boreanez.

Original Airdate

Soul Surprise originally aired on Wednesday,
January 21, 2004.

Synopsis

Angel has to deal with some personal nastiness while
Spike begins to
act as a champion.

High Point

Spike’s first meeting with his benefactor.

Low Point

Who decided to play those segments for comedy? They
should have been
surreal and disturbing, not marginally comedic.

The Review

The originality of this episode isn’t that
great. We’ve seen
the “new champion” when the new slayer showed up on
Buffy, and we’ve
seen the rest back on Star Trek: The Next
Generation
.
Spike’s reaction to the cryptic information was fresh
and priceless,
though. I give it 4 out of 6.

The effects were minimal, but they were
effective. The little
robot deals looked like little robots, though. (The
camera angles
seemed to imply hydraulic controls off-screen.) I
give it
4 out of 6.

The story was interesting. The ideas were
excellent, except
for the inappropriate comedic stuff. I give it 4 out
of 6.

The acting from most of the cast was pretty
good. The
in-character moments were generally good,
particularly for Spike.
David Boreanez’ work was weaker than usual. I don’t
think he should
be directing himself. I give it 4 out of 6.

The emotional response was, again, mixed.
The Peppermint
Stick and apartment scenes worked very well, as did
the homage to the
pilot. The scenes about Angel were bland and
irritating. I give it 4
out of 6.

The production was weak. David Boreanez,
sadly, should stick
to acting. The direction wasn’t horrible, but there
was nothing
particularly interesting in the first, say, 58
minutes. (The aura was
a nice touch, admittedly. It was a neat visual, but
I’m still not
sure what it was meant to accomplish.) I give it 3
out of 6.

Overall, it’s an important episode for fans
to watch, but it
only stands out as a piece of the puzzle. I give it
4 out of 6.

In total, Soul Purpose receives 27 out of
42.

17 replies on “Angel Review – “Soul Purpose””

  1. I’m hungry.
    Goldfish… raisins… man, now I’m hungry. And not even for blood.

    (That’s about all I saw, since the office called. But I was highly amused.)

  2. Oh!
    And when he cuts the cake, but the cake is really Troi, and she’s
    screaming out in pain…man, that was awsome! ;-)

    • Re: Oh!

      And when he cuts the cake, but the cake is really Troi, and she’s screaming out in pain…man, that was awsome! ;-)

      My brother and I said, at some point during the episode:

      “Cellular peptide cake.”

      “With mint frosting.”

      Still, I was more engaged with this episode than I was with “Harm’s Way”. But, I’m sick of not seeing Lorne for more than 30 seconds. They need to either use him, or get rid of him. At this point we’ve seen much more of Harmony.

    • Re: Oh!

      And when he cuts the cake, but the cake is really Troi, and she’s
      screaming out in pain…man, that was awsome! ;-)

      Errr…. wasn’t that really when Tom Petty cut into the cake that was really
      Alice?

  3. Stinker
    I don’t think i’ve ever said this but this one was a stinker. I almost fell asleep it just did nothing for me.

  4. hmm…

    Still bored, but not quite so much as with last week’s episode.

    Lindsey is intriguing, and my ears really perked up when he said
    “Call me Doyle.” I’m not sure I like where this plot is going, but that is
    probably just because Spike is sucking the life out of everything. Still, I’m
    intrigued enough to stick around a while longer.

    That creature thing was just bad. Like “Bad Eggs”-creature bad.

    Agree about the comedic slant to the hallucinations. That was just
    weird.

    I want to see an episode dealing with Bear, however. He was the
    most interesting thing about tonight’s ep.

    Next week’s episode looks interesting…

    • Re: hmm…

      That creature thing was just bad. Like “Bad Eggs”-creature bad.

      At least “Bad Eggs” had a pretty compelling story (and wicked ending) to make up for the cheesy “facehugger” effects.

    • Re: High Point

      My High Point: Spike Yelling At The Victim.

      Hehe, that was nice.

      I also liked the very disturbing scene in Angel’s bed featuring Spike and
      fake-Buffy.

      • Re: High Point

        I also liked the very disturbing scene in Angel’s bed featuring Spike and
        fake-Buffy.

        I was too distracted by the obviousness of them hiding the girl’s face
        and the weird sound of Buffy’s voice. Although the latter could be
        excused because it was a dream/hallucination. I suppose the former
        could too, but it seems more likely that Angel would see her
        face or that he would see a woman with a blank face. The whole thing
        yanked me out of the narrative as I thought “Hmm,
        they couldn’t get SMG.” Too jarring.

        • Re: High Point

          I was too distracted by the obviousness of them hiding
          the girl’s face
          and the weird sound of Buffy’s voice.

          The hidden face was bloody obvious. The
          oddness in the voice was because they used sound bites
          from old Buffy episodes, so the intonation was intended
          for entirely different situations.

          • Re: High Point

            The hidden face was bloody obvious. The
            oddness in the voice was because they used sound bites
            from old Buffy episodes, so the intonation was intended
            for entirely different situations.

            Then again, its a nightmarish thing to be next to someone you know and
            recognise but you can’t see their face, same goes for weird voices. But
            yeah, it was weak, though its definatly something I can live with. SMG is a
            big shot star now who has other thing to do than come back for a sex
            cameo. So faking her is acceptable, and like someone else pointed out,
            the story called for Buffy to show up in Angel’s nightmares.

            • Re: High Point

              The hidden face was bloody obvious. The
              oddness in the voice was because they used sound bites
              from old Buffy episodes, so the intonation was intended
              for entirely different situations.

              Then again, its a nightmarish thing to be next to someone you know and
              recognise but you can’t see their face, same goes for weird voices. But
              yeah, it was weak, though its definatly something I can live with. SMG is a
              big shot star now who has other thing to do than come back for a sex
              cameo. So faking her is acceptable, and like someone else pointed out,
              the story called for Buffy to show up in Angel’s nightmares.

              The Point Was Less That The Face Was Hidden, More Than It Was A Poorly Done ‘We Don’t have Her for A Cameo, Lets Fake It!’

        • Re: High Point
          Unfortunately, they couldn’t very well do an episode about Angel’s dreams/nightmares without including Buffy. I suspect she stars in them frequently even when he doesn’t have a weird little creature stuck to his abdomen, not to mention the issues he’s got to have knowing that Spike “had her” many times while all he could do was fire away his soul the one time.

        • Re: High Point

          The whole thing
          yanked me out of the narrative as I thought “Hmm,
          they couldn’t get SMG.” Too jarring.

          That Was My Reaction, Too. That’s Probably My Low Point. They could Have At Least Used A Digital Image, Or One OF The Thousands Of People Who Look Kinda Similar, Or Even Just Kept The Person Off Screen. Not To Mentions, There’s Plenty Of Sounds Of Buffy And Spike Being Bouncy, I’m Sure Some Of Those Would Have Fit Better.

          Would Have Been Hillarious If They’d Used Harmony In The Blonde Wig, From When Spike Realizes He Loves Buffy.

          • Re: High Point

            Would Have Been Hillarious If They’d Used Harmony In The Blonde Wig,
            From When Spike Realizes He Loves Buffy.

            Why would Angel dream about that? He doesn’t even know about that…

  5. ZZZZZZz
    Mostly boring, unimaginative and unenganging. Except Spike really. I wouldn’t mind if they fired the lot and turned it into the Spike show from here on – or get better writers/directors.

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