Angel: The Thin Dead Line (2.14)

I always feel like zombies help raise the bar of the episode they're featured in, even episodes that people seem to violently dislike. The Thin Dead Line, for example, is considered one of the weaker season two stories, just like Dead Man's Party garnered almost universal criticism during Buffy's third year. Both episodes feature some awesomely well-choreographed zombie carnage towards the back end of the script, the main cast and a bunch of extras barricading themselves in-doors while the undead launch a full-blown attack. It's exciting and crazy fun. And unlike Dead Man's Party, I actually liked the principal 'bones' of this story. It has some interesting ideas and features strong use of the core cast, which is always great.

I don't think the separation of Angel Investigations has been as successfully used as it is here. We have Angel on his own but still monitoring his old friends, and we have him teaming up with some of the more ancillary characters. Kate in particularly was pretty effective this week, especially in that graveyard scene. Elsewhere, Wes, Cordy and Gunn tackle another freak mystery at the office, while getting themselves wrapped up in something far bigger. I even liked Anne's involvement here. The show feels so much better with a strong ensemble of characters to follow, rather than the problematic 'three-person detective show' the series began as.

The zombie cops weren't fully realized (and the coda with the smashing of the artifact thingy was pretty weak), but I liked the metaphor of a corrupt police force who use extreme restraint and combat to keep crime down. Some of the 'ghetto' talk was obviously embarrassing ('She speaks true, G.' - Gah!), but I've enjoyed a couple of these Shawn Ryan-scripted episodes this year, all of which usually involve predominantly black areas of Los Angeles. It opens up the world a little and creates some culture-clash shocks.

Finally, there's that great final sequence where Cordelia tells Angel to stay away. It needed to be said, and feels entirely justified considering what he's put them through and how beat-up Wesley is at the time. The show is refusing to bend to easy storytelling. B+

Credits
Guest stars Elisabeth Rohm (Kate Lockley); Julia Lee (Anne Steele); Mushond Lee (Jackson); Jarrod Crawford (Rondell)
Writers Jim Kouf, Shawn Ryan Director Scott McGinnis