"And They Say There are No Seasons in Los Angeles."

I took the weekend to finally go through my Season One DVDs of Angel and Smallville, bringing to mind how subsequent seasons have lost some of my interest. There seemed to be so much more behind the early scripts, with Angel trying to live as a P.I. in L.A. and Clark Kent trying to reconcile his alien origin with the human values he's learned.

While it's true that first seasons of shows are often test runs to see what kinks need working out, I think it's also true that the people behind the shows have the most to prove in the first season. In subsequent seasons, the shows go to new writers, producers, etc. which can sacrifice some of the original vision. Also, forward movement fluctuates with the number of seasons a show is allowed. For much of Smallville's third season, Lana confronted Clark about their relationship and Clark looked at her, dumbfounded--a way to prolong the drama, yes, the worst way.

Angel opted to return to the character's horror roots. The plots involved a vampire hunter who hibernated only to wake up and have his revenge on Angel, Angel and sire Darla's human offspring (kidnapped and raised in a hell dimension by said vengeful vampire hunter), and finally the turning-evil of girl Friday Cordelia Chase (which, to me, was wrong on the same level as the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE movie making Jim Phelps an evil mastermind.)

Would. Not. Happen.