022. Smile Time (Angel)

"Yeah, I'm a puppet! Doesn't mean you don't have work to do"

ORIGINAL AIRDATE: 18th February 2004

EPISODE NUMBER: Season 5, Episode 14

WRITTEN BY: Ben Edlund & Joss Whedon

Smile Time is an absolutely bonkers premise, but brilliant because of its absurdity. It started with the writers wanting to do an evil Sesame Street, by having a group of evil puppets sucking the brain power out of children (like all TV shows, amirite?). That's weird enough but then Angel later becomes a puppet himself. It's an episode that really has to be seen to be believed.

It's a genius idea that proved how inventive the show could be, as many laughs come from the situation - not least a hysterical slapstick fight between Spike and puppet Angel. Typical action tropes are subverted, such as Angel's badass walk in the scene above, which loses a lot of its intimidation for obvious reasons. A lot of the time, Angel is accused of being much darker than Buffy, but this episode showed a softer, lighter side to the series. It's the kind of bizarre humour that only Joss could pull off.

The final battle where Gunn starts using a shovel on the puppet is a riot, and the whole episode is just so much fun. I don't know how they found the time to fit in a romantic subplot between Wesley and Fred who finally become an item, but it doesn't detract from the felt-flinging fun.

Despite being really silly, Smile Time is an all-time favorite of mine, just because it's all so much fun.