Every story has a beginning, or in Angel's case, a second beginning. Parallel's anyone? Blond damsel in distress runs away from blood sucking fiend only to be rescued by a blood sucking fiend with a double entendre and an indemnification contract to boot. Nice touch, Joss. One thing though.
The hair has got to go!!!! Someone grab some shears and give my boy Boreanaz a haircut. He's a vampire, not an aging human who looks like he's nearing forty. It was utterly distracting.
New Characters
Knox Loved him as a vampire in Buffy and I'm hoping he'll get a chance to shine on this series. I already like the tension he's managed to create just by being Fred's assistant. Wesley isn't too keen on it obviously, and it's apparent that he still wants her but we knew that. Who will she hook up with this season? I'm taking bets...
Eve I think she qualifies as the next Scrappy Doo that deserves to die painfully and horribly. I admit I like the way she was introduced. It was an interesting twist on the whole 'Eve' tale, and you just have to love Joss and co's sense of humor, but I have a feeling she is going to become annoying fairly quick. They need to bring Lilah back.
Harmony She doesn't qualify as new but she is new to the series, and I loved her introduction. Afterall she's just an undead girl trying to make her way in the city. She's the role Cordelia used to play, and it never hurts to have a bit of comic relief injected into the show. Harmony is a good character for this, and I liked how they used her to explain Cordy's whereabouts. Unfortunately, it doesn't mean we'll know if Cordy will ever return from her coma.
Spike "Blondie Bear." My god next week cannot come soon enough. That's all I really have to say between pants and sighs and the laughter that erupted after that line. Angel and Spike duking it out. Only one word can describe it. Sweet.
The story
I admit I have my reservations. I'm not to fond of this new direction Joss is taking his characters. I prefered the hotel or even the small office setting with just a small band of friends helping the helpless. Now it's full scale and they aren't helping the helpless necessarily. You could say, well this is the twist, but it risks on being to open and uninvolved. I don't know. I don't want there to be that many new characters and too many storylines. I don't want the characters that we know and love to change for the sake of gratifying some stupid network.
That's not to say Gunn's change was uncharacteristic. It was, and boy was he ubercool and slick as a lawyer. Praise to my people. It makes you wonder what kind of consequences he'll be facing in the future for the knowledge he posesses.