Angel/YMMV

• Anvilicious: "Nothing in this world is the way it oughta be", season 4.
• Complete Monster: Angelus. So much so that, compared to every other Vampire in history, he was considered the worst.
  • While most villains on the show manage some level of entertainment to fall more into categories such as Magnificent Bastard of Faux Affably Evil than this, there are some exceptions. Examples include Billy Blim (a half-demon young man who lives for no reason than to inspire brutal and sadistic misogyny in males), Vocuh (a demon associate of Wolfram & Hart who murdered anyone who stood in his way callously and used Mind Rape as a key tactic), Cyrus Vail (an aging demon sorcerer who blackmailed people in doing things to his benefit by threatening their families), Ryan Anderson (a psychotic young boy so evil that the demon who possessed him begged Angel for rescue), and Darin McNamara (a human who ran an underground fight ring where demons were forced to fight to the death only for amusement, and coldly murdered his brother rather than allow him to become a hostage that might work to Angel's advantage). Matthias Pavayne should be mentioned, too - despite his rather nasty exit, the man tortured the souls of the departed and fed them to hell in order to stave off his own damnation. He was, however, played by Simon Templeman.
• Crazy Awesome: Faith's second run in the series. How does Angelus saving the world grab you? Or Faith fighting him while higher than a kite, allowing herself to be fed on so he gets so drugged out he hallucinates the good acts he's done, much to his horror?
• Crowning Music of Awesome: The theme tune.
  • Lindsey singing "L.A. song" - recorded in real life by Christian Kane, the actor who played Lindsey.
  • Lorne singing.
  • Subverted any time Angel sings.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: Doyle and Lorne.
• Foe Yay: Angel and Lindsey. Angel and Eve. Angel and Spike, which is practically Word of God ("Angel and I were never [intimate]...well, just that once."). PLUS Angel and Lilah. The guy gets around.
  • From the last episode, "Not Fade Away":

Angel: I want you Lindsey. (Beat) Thinking about rephrasing that.
Lindsey: Yeah, I think I'd be more comfortable if you did.

• • Also referenced in "Darla"

Darla: It's not me you want to screw.
Lindsey: What?
Darla: It's him.

• • Does Drusilla stroking Lilah's face while threatening to bite her count?
• God Mode Sue: Illyria, though she does get de-powered eventually.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The interviews Joss Whedon gave before the premiere stating that the show would be more of a "case of the week" show focusing more on guest stars and that it was less of a Soap Opera like Buffy. It turned out Whedon and his writers were not suited to writing those type of stories and the show eventually evolved and became a bigger soap opera than Buffy!
• Ho Yay: Angel/Spike, Angel/Wesley, Angel/Lindsey, Gunn/Wesley -- most of which is just over-interpretation by fans, although the writers were very much aware of this, especially Angel/Spike (cf: Spike stating that he and Angel have never been intimate 'except that once', which Joss Whedon refers to on a DVD episode commentary -- "do you think they never? Come on!")
  • What about Darla and Drusilla? They take baths together, have a threesome with The Immortal, a man who witnesses their reunion refers to it as a "make out session" and calls Dru Darla's girlfriend and Drusilla calls Darla "my sweet" which is what she called Spike when he was her boyfriend. Julie Benz confirmed the Les Yay between them in her afterellen.com interview.
  • This becomes Incest Subtext when you consider Drusilla's tendency to refer to Darla as both her "grandmother" and her "daughter."
• Idiot Ball: From "The Prodigal", yeah Angel banging on someone's door and frantically yelling for him to invite you in when you'd threatened him the last time you saw him is a really good idea.
• Jerkass Woobie: Connor.
• Les Yay: Darla and Drusilla (later confirmed by Word of God).
  • Played at with a scene in "Disharmony". Harmony attempts to attack Cordelia in her sleep but is stopped when Cordy wakes up. Their ensuing conversation lays heavily on this.
  • Fred and Willow when Willow arrives to re-ensoul Angel. Mostly on Willow's part and mostly played for comedy. Fred, like everyone else, is comically confused by Willow's behaviour.
• Like You Would Really Do It: Illyria herding every member of Angel Inc. into a room and effortlessly killing them all. ("Time Bomb")
• Magnificent Bastard: Holland Manners. Angelus is as close to this as any Complete Monster can get.
• Mary Sue Classic: The Immortal. Loved by his friends, respected by his enemies, made fools of Angelus and Spike, had a threesome with Darla and Drusilla, and is in a relationship with one of the fake Buffys.
  • And even that last was a Retcon in the comics. It was originally presented as the real Buffy.
• Moral Event Horizon: Holtz may not a truly evil person, but killing yourself, pinning it on the good guy, and effectively ruining your "son"'s life? Not cool dude.
• Nightmare Fuel: Multiple points in the series, although this troper finds the beginning of "Smile Time" to be especially so (probably due to the subtext of sexual molestation).

Puppet: (talking to child through TV) You know Smile Time isn't free. Get over here and touch me!
(child gets up, touches TV)
Puppet: Oooooh, ohhhhh!
(child collapses with CREEPY Joker grin on face)

• • From the same episode, "talk to the hand!"
• Painful Rhyme: In the series finale, Spike reads off this little poem:

My soul is wrath in harsh repose
Midnight descends in raven colored clothes
But soft, behold! A sunlight beam
Cutting a swath of glimmering gleam
My heart expands, 'tis grown a bulge in't,
Inspired by your beauty effulgent

• • This is a continuity gag to the Buffy episode "Fool for Love" which tells Spike's origin story as a nebbish twit, nicknamed "William the Bloody" for his bloody awful poetry. He reads the poem to a girl he's in love with at a party and is publicly derided as a laughing stock shortly before being rejected. So the fact that he's rereading it with confidence at a contemporary poetry slam and the crowd actually loves him is pretty awesome.
• Replacement Scrappy: Eve, for Lilah.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: She is at one time, derisively called "Lilah, Jr".
• Romantic Plot Tumor: Was there any real love behind Cordy and Connor's relationship, or was it just "I want to bone you" on Connor's side and " I need you to impregnate me so that I can bring about the end of the world as we know it" on Cordy's side?
• Seasonal Rot: Season 4's inoperable romance tumor, Nausea Fuel and Idiot Ball basketball makes it this.
• Squick: Alot of people's opinion of the above-mentioned Cordelia-Conor Romantic Plot Tumor, especially considering that Cordelia is virtually Conor's mother and (from her perspective) she was changing his diapers just a few months earlier.
• Ugly Cute: The squid-hound thing named Pancakes that becomes Illyria's pet in her Haunted miniseries.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: "If astronauts and cavemen got into a fight, who would win?"
• Unfortunate Implications: "Billy" reveals that on a deep psychological level all men hate women. Or he transposes his own hatred of women into others.
  • Considering the reason why his powers didn't work on Angel, both seem unlikely.
    • It's a Whedon show, so it's bound to come with the Lifetime Movie of the Week-episode included somewhere along the line.
• Wangst: A lot of Season Three. Most of the time when Darla is around.
  • Considering the Romantic Plot Tumor, Season Four actually comes off as worse in this regard. Seriously guys... Fighting over Fred when Angelus is sitting in a cage right below your feet and listening to every word you're saying? Really now...
• What Do You Mean It's Not Political?: Okay, cheap shot: NewsCorp is a client of Wolfram & Hart.
  • Helen Brucker. A blond she-demon senator who wants to become President in 2008 by earning the "chick vote." It's fairly close to how Hillary Clinton's detractors view her.
  • What, was it written by a time traveler?
    • Perhaps not, but certainly would qualify for a Hilarious in Hindsight.
• The Woobie: This is a Whedon show, which means that just about every protagonist fits this trope at some point. The biggest Woobies in the show, though, are Angel himself, Fred, Wesley, and Connor. Even Illyria qualifies, if you're into that sort of thing.