Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Angel (1x07)

Angel. Aaaaah what a delicious episode.

See, romance on television is a delicate and terrible thing. I love romance, especially capital-R Romance, and we live in an unromantic age. I get my fix from Dunnett and 19th century poets and the like. Not often from books published as "romance", which are sometimes good but not what I'm looking for, and still less from television. One of the reasons I loved "Doctor Who" so much is that it presented me with one of the best romances ever on television. (The Doctor and Rose, if you're wondering what I'm talking about.)

Knowing Joss Whedon's track record, the last thing I expected from Buffy was really good romance. I expected sexy stuff and lots of action-adventure and humour and heartwarming stuff and good characterization and clever writing, but I didn't expect anything truly romantic because I've learned not to look for that on TV. Ever. And "Firefly" was mostly counter-romantic, but it had its moments. My belief is that Joss likes to present us with wonderful classic romance in the finest heart-wrenching fashion, and then twist it out of shape.

( But here, in  )

I liked it. A lot. In case you didn't already notice.