Buffy and Angel Rewatch part 40 (BtVS Season 6/Angel Season 3)

Start of Seasons 3/6! A couple of notes to start:

• I stupidly left of my scoring for seasons 5/s overall in the last Buffy/Angel blog. I have updated the post now with some justification added on, but for convenience the overall season scores were Angel: 8.5/10 and Buffy: 9/10.

• I took a small break before starting these seasons, for two reasons really. Firstly a lot of other TV shows started recently I and I found I was short on time to watch everything. Secondly, whilst I love Buffy and Angel I have been watching them non-stop for 6 months and it was a little bit of overkill! So I took a break of about a month. This now also means that I can post episode review blogs as I write them and not quite weeks after like I was doing during seasons 2/5.

As always spoilers ahead!

A3.01 Heartthrob
A fairly decent opener for the season. The writers faced the tricky task of having Angel dealing with Buffy's death but not mentioning her too much due to the restrictions placed on them by the now differing networks. It was very apt that Cordy would help Angel deal with Buffy's death the most seeing as she was the only one around for the Buffy/Angel saga so maybe understands what Angel is going through. It was nice to see that Angel has grown from hi puppy like crush of Buffy, in that he didn't fall apart when she died; his reaction to her death here is what makes Angel in his own show a much more likable character than he was in Buffy.
The flashback story of the other couple was somewhat interesting if only to see the other couple Darla and Angelus teamed up with before Drusilla and Spike, showing that like human couples, vamp couples also need a best friend couple! The present day part of the storyline was less interesting though.
Very little of Wes and Gunn in the episode, and some glimpses of Fred's crazies as she adjusts to life in LA. I loved the 'reappearance' of Dennis, Cordy's ghost. Their scene was actually very sweet, but also good in foreshadowing Cordy's future in terms of the visions. (7/10)

A3.02 That Vision Thing
A nice little episode re-introducing Wolfram and Hart, new and improved (?) as the big bad as well as focusing on Cordy's visions. The idea of Lilah's is a good one and one they have used before (To Shanshu in LA); attack the person Angel cares most about. Clearly this is Cordy now as his actions and concern for her showed. Cordy's little speech to Angel about her importance shows a great deal of growth of Cordy's part, the Cordy of old would never have put up with the agony and physical disfigurements she had to in this episode.
One thing I liked about the episode is that its part of the larger arc, the man Angel saves turns up a few episodes later, as does Skip. There is also some foreshadowing with regards to Gunn and Wes' attraction to Fred and Angel's to Cordy.
Also I liked the appearance of Skip here as he's pretty funny, learning more about Darla's pregnancy and mostly the whole gang working together (including Lorne and Fred this episode). (8/10)

A3.03 That Old Gang of Mine
I enjoyed this episode more than I have on past watchings and its a fairly decent episode for Gunn. For some reason, Gunn centric episodes always revolve around with Gunn being at odds with Angel as vamp, maybe to give the episode some friction. In a way this is an episode which should've happened a little sooner than it did, I'm surprised that Gunn's crew weren't more annoyed that he has got into business with a vampire and didn't shun him earlier. The hostage scene in Caritas goes on a little too long and gets very tiring as the crew make threats and don't actually follow through (which would've at least made things more interesting!)
As Wesley himself, the episode deals with the shades of grey we so often see in Angel. Gunn's crew were killing 'innocent' demons, when they themselves aren't squeaky clean. Gunn struggled with both sides of the coin- killing all demons or just the bad ones and in that way this episode is a good showcase for how he's feeling. However since Gunn's not a talker, we don't get enough exposition from him to really empathise.
Also Lorne is great in this episode using his talent to turn the tables, the Cordy and Fred stuff is nice; we don't get enough of that through the series, and Wesley is brilliant as the diplomatic yet stern leader. (7/10)