I watched some of Season Two last night--School Hard, Lie To Me, The Dark Age. I'm getting a different sense of these episodes watching them in such a confined manner, on my iBook with headphones. Visual details are popping out, perhaps because of the better quality of the display. School Hard was the only one I had seen before, and Spike seemed much more menacing now, Drusilla more whacked-out and unstable. I even like Angel more, though that isn't saying much--he still leaves me kinda cold.

I really enjoyed The Dark Age for its delving into Giles' misspent youth, yet another indication of how dangerous he had been and could be again.

I have mixed feelings about The Mayor. I thought he was really good in the episodes leading up to his ascension, but I thought the ascension itself was a fizzle. Maybe they ran out of money by season's end--I had heard in one of the commentaries that this was sometimes an issue--and couldn't throw in as many special effects as they really needed, but I thought it lacked.