The second season of Angel saw the cult vampire show finally stand on its own from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, assembling all the members of the show's core cast, transferring the action to a fashionably run-down L.A. hotel, and bringing in a few Buffy characters from Angel's history to further establish the moody vampire's own mythology. Moving their Angel Investigations to posher digs, Angel (David Boreanaz), Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), and Wesley (Alexis Denisof) were soon joined by street fighter (J. August Richards)--and by street fighter, of course we mean demon street fighter. But just as this group was solidifying, up popped Angel's old love, Darla (the fantastic Julie Benz), freshly arrived in L.A. from a hell dimension… just in time to be turned into a vampire again by her old cohort, Drusilla (Juliet Landau), and lure Angel into abandoning his newly formed team. It was the best and worst of times for Angel in its second year, for while the basis was being set for the show's stellar third and fourth seasons, dramatic tension was diluted by Angel's going solo and the necessary (but plot-debilitating) flashbacks to various points in Angel's history. However, just when it seemed everything was about to fly out the window, Angel's creative team threw its characters for a loop--literally--by transporting them to the demon dimension of Pylea, a medieval-style fantasyland populated by monsters and humans alike. It shouldn't have worked, as hokey as it was... but it did, thanks to crack storytelling, sharp dialogue, and the sheer joy the actors unleashed, especially the gifted and fiendishly funny Carpenter. The second half of the season also saw the addition of two of Angel's best characters: the horned Lorne (Andy Hallett), a green demon with a penchant for karaoke, and Fred (Amy Acker), a physicist trapped in Pylea who helped the gang engineer their escape. With these two in tow, Angel began to soar. --Mark Englehart

asin: B000I0QLR8 binding: DVD list price: $39.98 USD amazon price: $17.99 USD other availability:

Posted by Vladimir Thu, 03/22/2007 - 19:04

 

'Impaler' Pledges To Impale Bush

March 14, 2007 (metro.co.uk) - The American Secret Service have launched an investigation into one of the candidates for the presidency in 2008 - after he pledged that as President, one of his first acts would be to impale President George W. Bush.

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The Vampire Chronicles Family Tree

If a vampire turns you into one of his kind, you could say, genealogically, that he or she is your parent. Others who were turned into a bloodsucker by the same vampire would then be your siblings. With this in mind, it is easy to create a genealogy chart of the vampires from Anne Rice's _The Vampire Chronicles_.

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Canadian Vampire Plot

A case in Canada that acquired the moniker, "the vampire murder" during the trial seems to have less to do with vampires than with the public's fascination with vampire-related crimes.

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Vampire electronics suck energy from homes

October 31, 2007 (AP) -- A Dracula-like force is quietly sucking a nickel of every dollar's worth of electricity from homes across America. It's called vampire electronics, and it happens when devices like computers or cell phone chargers are left plugged in or on 'standby,' instead of being completely shut down.

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Owner of Dracula's castle hopes buyers bite on his sale offer

July 3, 2007 (AP / BUCHAREST, Romania) -- An heir of Romania's former royal family put ''Dracula's Castle'' in Transylvania up for sale Monday, hoping to secure a buyer who will respect ''the property and its history.''

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