Castle Vanian Halloween Special: TV Thursday: Angel: "Smile Time"

We just finished watching “Smile Time” and I’m gonna be honest, I can’t stop smiling. This episode is just too much fun. It’s not horror, though, so how did we end up with this as our TV Thursday special?

Well… Angel is a vampire and the series itself is horror… so if that doesn’t make "Smile Time" horror, what does?

For the record, this episode, “Smile Time,” isn’t scary.

No, this episode is a good, comedic episode.

For anyone who isn’t familiar with Angel, give us a quick recap.

Angel is a few hundred-year-old vampire who was originally Buffy’s love interest in Buffy the Vampire Slayer who got his own spinoff when he left that show. He’s a vampire with a soul.

Talk to me about Puppet Angel. (Angel Puppet?)

Muppet? He's definitely more of a muppet.

It was a clever story and so well done. David Boreanaz doing the voice for this puppet/muppet was clever and some of the physical stunts were humorous. 

What about the reactions from the other cast members?

Spike’s was the best. It would be your reaction, wouldn't it, if you saw your friend turned into a puppet/muppet? Fred’s reaction is great, too, because you think she’s going to be concerned but she’s just struck by how cute he is.

I don’t know how they kept straight faces in some of the scenes, especially when they have to do the hero walk down the hall behind this puppet…

Normal Puppet Angel or Vampire Angel Puppet?

Battle damaged. It’s a great scene, when the werewolf attacks him and he’s going, “Bad, Nina!”

Season Five of Angel was pretty damned heavy and extremely dark, darker than anything Buffy did. “Smile Time” was a nice break before things got really dark. Joss Whedon has always been very good at balancing the heavy episodes with things like, say, “Once More With Feeling.” It’s hard these days, knowing what we do about how he’s operated in the past, to compliment Whedon but Angel was a damned good show. Want to weigh in?

Isn’t it interesting? Some of the people I used to look up to – Lucio Fulci, for instance, was an absolute monster – Whedon wasn’t that bad, but from what people have said, he could be quite the bully. For all these years, these things have been covered up… it’s like in Britain with the sex abuse scandals that were hushed up for so many decades. It’s your Weinsteins. Now, you can’t get away with it, no matter how much money you’re making a company, no matter how much talent you have, because there’s the internet, because there are cameras everywhere. It’s sad because it does tarnish your memory of these shows, Buffy and Angel, which were both superb.

Angel was darker but Buffy was basically a kid’s show – and darker than anything I grew up with in the 70s. And, looking back, Hammer and the likes were much darker than anything my father would have grown up with. Every generation gets darker. They have more exposure to horrors on television, maybe because they’re exposed more to real horrors in real life as society gets scarier and scarier.

Anyway, going back to what I was saying… it does taint it. Seven seasons of Buffy and five seasons of Angel. I loved them, still do, but it is on your mind when you watch them.

Were there any other episodes or shows that were in contention for today’s spotlight?

There was “Charlie Boy” from Hammer House of Horror. It’s this tribal statue with a spear and these huge teeth that comes to life. There’s also an episode of Doctor Who, “Terror of the Autons,” where this devil toy comes to life and starts killing people. Evil dolls are a well of great ideas for horror. 

Any last thoughts?

“Smile Time” was so unexpected because the last season was so serious. There was this one and the one where they’re in Italy looking for Buffy. You needed those moments of comic relief in a season that was so, so dark.