Angel of Death Postmortem

You may have noticed the videos that Stefan has been linking to for the past two weeks, Crackle.com's Angel of Death. The web series concluded its 10-episode run today, so I chose to watch every episode as one entire whole, which to some may seem to go against the point of a web series. But I say it's about the same as watching an entire season of 24 in one sitting; it's not for everybody, but it delivers a unique experience. Clocking in at a little over an hour, the series could be seen as a short feature film, though I don't think a series seen as a whole will ever quite have the same feeling as a feature. The storytelling rhythm is just too different.

I was rather surprised at how quick of a run Angel of Death had. Ten episodes isn't bad at all, but most web series would spread that out over just as many weeks; Ed Brubaker's series ran every weekday for two weeks, making it feel almost like a TV miniseries, one of those "special engagements." Nevertheless, it may have been for the better, because I would imagine that it'd be very easy to get into the series in this short burst rather than having to keep up with the plot from week to week (it's bad enough for a 42 minute show; Angel of Death episodes only run about 6 to 11 minutes each).

Zoë Bell is Eve, an assassin (hitwoman?) who we learn is working for a mob family, the Downes. She's sleeping with her handler, Graham, who sends her out on a mission with the new guy, Franklin. Eve is nothing but business. Killing doesn't bother her, it's just a job. On this particular hit, Eve runs into a little bit of trouble after the kill, and ends up being stabbed in the skull with a pretty mean-looking knife. She somehow survives this and escapes, but not before killing her target's teenage daughter with a bullet to the eye (it seems unclear whether this was purely accidental or if the jolt to the head caused some temporary insanity). She goes to a drug-addicted doctor (Doug Jones of Hellboy fame, who, in this role, snorts to steady his hands) and gets the knife out of her head, leaving her with not only a nasty headache, but haunting visions of the teenage girl, missing eye and all.

The series continues from there, taking Eve on missions to kill the wrongdoers that she used to work for as she attempts to rid herself of the ghosts and the guilt. As you can tell, the story is a setup for pure grindhouse entertainment. Lots of blood is spilled in a number of gruesome ways, but it's all in good fun. The plot, also involving the fight for supremacy between two sibling heirs of the crime family, is consistent, though at times confusing. Sometimes it's hard to tell or remember who did what, who's in charge of who.... But watching the series as one whole definitely let me see that Brubaker had a focus and a drive for the story without leaving room for much meandering.

Rather impressive is the production value for the web series. Sure, most scenes and sequences take place indoors in small buildings (which is cheaper to shoot and easier to dress), but the show looks slick, from the snazzy comic book editing to the Tony Scott-style lighting to the impressive stunts (including a few higher-end ones). I really don't know how much was spent on the series, but I hope people take notice. Just because it premieres on the internet doesn't mean it can't look really good. It's also encouraging to see just how entertaining and engaging a relatively small-scale action series like this can be. I've seen plenty of comedy web series, but the hardcore shoot-em-ups are much less frequent.

Zoë Bell is known as a stuntwoman, having done work on Xena: Warrior Princess (Lucy Lawless makes an appearance on Angel of Death, by the way), and perhaps more notably on Kill Bill. She played herself in Tarantino's Death Proof, but here she's got an actual character to become. While Eve doesn't have the motivation that The Bride had, Brubaker is sure not to leave this character one-dimensional. Her "non-relationship" with her handler proves to carry some weight, and Bell manages to pull off the guilt and the torture of her character as well.

I was hoping for another season of Angel of Death, but it appears that these 10 episodes are it, and they'll eventually make their way to DVD. It's not the first web series to do so, but I get the feeling that this is a sort of experiment, almost a proof-of-concept for Brubaker and his group. If things go well, I hope to see more web series like this pretty soon. I encourage all to see this show, preferably while it's still on the web, partially to promote good use of the web medium, and partially because it's just darn fun.