Angel makes a credible stab at being a detective in the fourth episode of Angel season one, "I Fall to Pieces". A teleplay by David Greenwalt comes from a story by he and Joss Whedon about a surgeon who masters the ability to detach his body parts and send them off as minions to harass a woman. It's a decent episode.
The show may not be exclusively about Angel rescuing women but it sure seems to take up the bulk of his time in season one. And once again, Wolfram and Hart are mentioned as the firm helping the rich and powerful man get away with controlling a woman's life.
There are two clever moments in this episode. There's a subplot about Angel (David Boreanaz) finally needing to start asking clients for money. Angel doesn't feel right about it but then Doyle (Glenn Quinn) points out that paying a bill helps the clients feel less indebted to Angel. Suddenly it makes Angel's scruple look more like vanity. Nice bit of nuance.
The second clever bit is when Angel is caught snooping in the office of the villain (Andy Umberger) and gets out of it by quickly weaving a story about how he has a wife that requires the doctor's services immediately. And then Angel uses this pretext to credibly ask questions about the woman's picture on the doctor's desk, who happens to be the victim Angel's trying to help (Tushka Bergen).
There's also a memorable guest appearance by Carlos Carrasco as a former guru from whom the villain gleaned some of his technique. Carrasco is not a famous name. He looked familiar to me but I couldn't remember from where--I checked later and saw he'd been on Buffy and had played three different Klingons on DS9. Here he makes an interesting choice with his mannerisms and puts a kind of twitchiness in his expressions that make it look like his body parts aren't quite securely attached. It's nicely, subtly creepy.
Angel is available on Amazon Prime and also on Disney+ in some countries.
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