Angel (Season 2 Premiere)

Take a character who doesn’t like to speak much, and give him a spinoff. It wasn’t the most promising idea, but Angel has unbeatable chemistry among stars David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, and Alexis Denisof. There’s also a funkier, slightly damaged feel to the Angel regulars—a mordant, painfully shy vampire, a failed, insecure actress, and a hopeless dweeb—banding together to battle demons.

Like most series stars, Boreanaz has the most thankless role on the show. Imperfect as he is, and not without a sense of humor, he’s still the square-jawed hero and ex officio straight man to his two associates. But the balance of action and humor is still a winning one. If anything was lacking last season, it was a Los Angeles influence—these are characters viewers already know from Buffy. Why’d they bother moving, anyway?

Enter J. August Richardson as Charles Gunn, a streetwise vampire hunter. Where Angel and his cohorts might opt for subtlety, stealth, and a shelf full of grimoires, Gunn favors a Jeep-mounted rapid-fire stake shooter. Richardson joins the cast as a series regular with this season premiere, which pits Angel against a crooning demon in a karaoke battle of the bands. Only in Los Angeles.