The thing I liked about the current eps of Angel, especially last week, is they've done a really good job re-introducing Faith. In fact, even though Faith has been on the show once before, for all purposes, she's been introduced as a new character, especially since most of the cast has never heard of her before. So, you get a good sense of her history, without a lot of exposition. I think I'd be enjoying it even more if I had never heard of Faith before in my life. When Buffy appeared on the first season, they were really lazy about it, rather than imbuing Buffy as someone from Angel's past, and dealing with her as back story, they just relied on the continuity from another show. The way they've treated Faith is like how they treated Darla: we knew Darla sired Angel, and we knew he killed her. Admittedly, that was all there was to Darla at that point. And even more admittedly, I just watched the Faith episode from the first season of Angel where they made major trade of the similarities of Faith's redemption to when Angel gained his soul, and Darla was in that, in I think was her first appearance on Angel (nope, her second, never mind).

I get the sense that even though they're denying plans for a Faith series, the current run on Angel sure as hell seems like what a Faith The Vampire Slayer show would be like. A lot more brutal.

Compare Faith fighting Angel to when Buffy fought Angel in her second season. Jesus. Okay, now when you watch the old Buffy episodes, you can see Angel's stunt double is bald and Buffy's is a fat guy, and the new Angel-Faith fights are totally ripping off Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but man, there's just some brutal shit going on. Buffy and Angel just weren't even trying. Maybe it was characterization: Angel was real big on tormenting them for a while, but just killing them right quick in the actual fight. Maybe Faith is just more of a badass and needs more of a beat down. It was funny how they gave the fanboys a Faith-in-the-shower scene, but made it so horrible nobody could get turned on. I mean, is it just me, or does Sarah Michelle Gellar look cuter with a bruised face? I'm amazed how thay've taken Eliza Dushku's slutty cheerleader features and actually made her look like a girl whose been doing time.

Other comments on the show: I dislike Connor. I dislike fat Cordelia. I dislike Cordelia letting Connor put his greasy mitts all over her. When will it end? And how about the karaoke demon getting added to the credits? Go Lorne!