Strange Angel

This show is fascinating and top notch in every way script/acting/production. I hope it is finding its audience and gets to finish telling it's amazing story!

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.

It's a vanishingly rare occurrence for the occult to crop up in popular entertainment outside of the horror genre, but "Strange Angel" is that rare breed.

If you dial back a few decades from the birth of the 1960's counter-culture in California and look for the precursors of psychedelia, LSD & Hippies, you could trace some of its parentage to the bohemian experimentalists in "Strange Angel".

It's 1939 and as William Gibson would say, the future just isn't very evenly distributed yet. Jack Parsons can see the future is in space. That still sounds futuristic when Elon Musk talks about it in 2018 and like Musk, Parsons wants to do something to make it happen. What happens next is the true story of the man who helped spark that future and his unlikely tutelage under the teachings of Aleister Crowley.

One episode in and this is already looking good. I'm especially enjoying Rupert Friend's turn as a wild eyed mercurial next door neigbour, who initiates/baptises Jack into the Crowleian mysteries via a swimming pool.

I'll be curious to see how this show does. The real Parsons died at age 37 under mysterious circumstances, but certainly packed enough drama into his short life to fill out several seasons if it all works out for "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.

Forget the ridiculously low reviews, this is a well done, interesting and imaginative show, most of the complaints are about the slow pace, which for most grown-ups who do not suffer from some form of ADD, is just fine. The three main characters are well played, the plot based on a true story has great potential, and the fantasy sequences are superb. And we haven't even started with the cult business yet which, based on Crowley's sexually charged form of occultism, will surely give us some compelling cinematography.