Last night was mostly brilliant. It’d been a while since we’d seen the in-laws, so we swung by just to say hey…and to have the husband help out with a little tech support. After he fiddled with his folks’ computer for a bit we went on a spontaneous outing to Grand Shanghai (mmm, mock duck almond ding). We walked in to find some extended family members already there. One of my husband’s sisters, her husband, and her in-laws (who are visiting from Sri Lanka) were grabbing a bite to eat before heading to The Guthrie. The little man was overjoyed to see so many of his favorite folks in one place. After a fine meal we left to a) get a very tired little man to bed and b) get me in front of the teevee in time for Angel. Don’t groan. It’s the only Joss Whedon show still on, and a new episode of it hadn’t aired since November 19th. But it was almost worth the wait. I found the episode most satisfying…and it focused on a character who, until now, had been underutilized. Harm’s Way was all about valleygirl vamp Harmony Kendall. The writers and actors managed to build a lot of empathy for a character I’d been feeling sort of “meh” about. Then there was the breakroom brawl. Hands down the best catfight scene since Harmony and Xander’s second-grade style girlyfight in Buffy’s season four, episode seven, The Initiative. Uh, better stop myself before much more nerdspeak spews out. But next week on Angel…events take a more serious turn in episode 5.10, Soul Purpose, directed by David Boreanaz. For one thing, Spike visits a strip club. But Lindsay is back as our bad guy of the year. Stay tuned.