Strange Angel

In a world of immediate gratification and Marvel super powered attention getters. It's refreshing to see a show that was written with dynamic range (and somewhat lower "jolt" count editing). I'm so over the "This one goes to eleven" concept in story telling. Strange Angel is a step back in the direction of proper story telling. It should mature nicely.

The is an excellent show that I desperately hope finds its audience. It is an excellent portrayal of late1930s/early 1940s California--as well as the seeds of the counter-culture movement and the ground-work for the evolutionary technological leaps made in California's aerospace industry (and ,later, silicon valley). It is told through an examination of Jack Parsons, a 'real-life' founder of the Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) at Cal tech that would go on to become the center of the intellectual world for all things related space exploration.

Much like Kerouac's New York of the 1950s, California in the 30s was chafing against the "High Church" Protestant paradigm of what it meant to be 'American'. It was a hotbed of spiritualist movements, with reading groups and acolytes of Blavatsky, Gurdjieff, and a variety Rosicrucian/Kabalist/Hermeticist, teachings, popping up on every corner.

Into this mix, add the influx of serious intellect from Europe as it sought to escape Hitler's rise, and you have an extremely fertile ground for open-minded questioning of 'established truth' and important intellectual break-throughs. You also have the ingredients of what may become a ground-breaking tv show.

One thing that truly sets this series apart is that whenever this period of exploration into the Western mystical tradition is treated at all (in TV or Movies), it usually turns into a cheap excuse for regurgitating tired "Manson Family" tropes. Eastern Spiritual traditions = Good; Western Spiritual Traditions = satanic/bad. This show offers hope for avoiding this dichotomy as it explores the spiritual yearnings of occult seekers as essential to their creativity in the non-spiritual (real-world) realm.

I do worry a bit it will eventually play up the sensationalist, 'manson family/satanic panic', trope; If for nothing else, simply to attract more eyeballs. But at least the first handful of episodes are truly an excellent exploration of a unique cauldron of sociological, historical, and spiritual ingredients that work in California at the time.

This was the most intriguing show I've seen in years. To bad the powers that be have no confidence in those that watch. The acting was very good and the production excellent. The pace was a little slow and the storyline super complex. Kudos to the writers for their handling of the start of space travel, occultism, WWII, complex personalities and out and out madness so well.

The main character, Jack Parsons, was one of the most intelligent and odd people who were most influential to the future of America during the late 30s and early 40s. I think the series did a great job with extremely difficult subject matter. I had no problem following the story.

Compared with most TV series today points out some huge obstacles for this series. Watching this requires a longer attention span than Spongebob and more intelligence than the family dog. The writers had a LOT of very different subjects to educate themselves about - Then they had to educate the audience. Everyone involved obviously worked very hard to produce a series worth the time to watch. I wish that Hollywood thought better of their audience or maybe realized that curious Intelligent people are consumers too.

Maybe if we are lucky someone else will pick this series up and finish out the originally planned five seasons. I'm not holding my breath.

It's a shame the only few bad reviews left here are unrealistically low to the point that they obviously have a problem giving credit where it's due. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but a 1 or 2 rating for a show that clearly is deserving of more only exposes the fact that these people lack the attention span to read a novel or even a comic book all the way to the end. They are likely best suited to read the funnies section in a newspaper and that's about it.

Strange Angel is only 2 episodes in and it's a slow build so far but an intriguing one. If you have any interest in scientific history or the occult, there is more than enough here to keep you interested.

Parsons is a rebel and free thinker at heart forced by societal and financial conditions to maintain a pretense of normalcy for the time being. You really get the sense however that it's all eating at him and he only needs to be presented with the right opportunity to become reacquainted with his true self.

Enter the quirky unpredictable neighbor "Ernest" who lives by his own rules. He's not your typical rebel without a cause however, quite clearly he is driven by a deeper philosophy. On the surface Jack feigns rejection and they clash a little in the first couple of episodes though there's something about him that Jack finds undeniably compelling.

I'm looking forward to seeing where this story leads as Jack is inevitably introduced to Aleister Crowley the infamous British Occultist & Philosopher. This will be where things get interesting and the story will truly take off.

I don't know what's going on with the people that score that tv show so poorly. It so obvious when you give it a try that this show is being created with real creativity, a story line super interesting, the quality of image undeniable, where actors are good at what they portray...the way the fantasy mixes with reality is not overdone but brings a definite plus to the watcher. I hope even with the low rating it will remain as this show is awesome! Give it try!