My committment to this show can be summed up in the way I finished watching season 2; I got up at 5:45 am so that I could get ready for work in the usual way and still find out how all our heroes made it out of Pylea, Lorne's human-hating home dimension.  I've been forgoing sleep a lot this past week in the name of Angel, and I plan on continuing when I start season 3.  Woo hoo!

Joss Whedon, David Greenwalt and Co.  really hit their stride with season 2.  While I enjoyed season 1, there were too many monster of the week episodes without an underlying arc to firmly establish the show's mythology.  In season 2, with the return of Darla, they revealed the depth of Angel's damaged psyche.  Having Darla return as a fragile human made the relationship between her Angel incredibly and surprisingly heartbreaking.  It was frightening and compelling to see Angel  losing his mind, first in his obsession to save his sire and then with his thrist for vengeance when he fails.  Julie Benz is fantastic and the chemistry she has with David Boreanaz really crackles.  The relationship between those two characters is as twisted as they come.  Darla and Angel were violent lovers as well as mother and son as she continually calls him "my dear boy". 

Some of the scenes featured in their story arc were pretty 'whoa' for network television: the first confrontation scene between Angel and Darla at the convent, Drusilla turning Darla back into a vampire, and of course the violent sexual encounter between Darla and Angel in the episode 'Reprise'.  More than the detail, it's the context that make these scenes so full of...adult content. But of course, who would want it any other way?  I hope this show was on at 9.

This season also made me love Cordelia and Wesley even more than I thought possible, and I really enjoyed Gunn as an addition to the team.  They are such an unlikely trio that I can't get enough of their interactions. 

This whole season is just so epic.  Could it get any more epic?  If it did I think I'd explode.  Can't wait for season 3.

Any other Angel fans out there?