★★★★☆
Even after all these years, it still makes me cry.
The Angels Take Manhattan is quite a bit infamous in fan circles for its plotholes, and I convinced myself for years that I cared about those shortcomings and viewed this episode as a middling adventure. There's nothing quite like a rewatch, however, and I realized after having wiped my streaming tears that deep down, I have always loved The Angels Take Manhattan. Location shooting has never been more visually stunning, with 2012 New York being a bustling hub of humanity, love and calm while its 1938 counterpart is a setting straight out of a hard-boiled detective novel. Lighting work is gorgeous in this episode, and the fresh setting seems boost the leads' performances; they're simply electrifying here, and I can't choose a favourite.
Yes, the reason the Doctor can't go to 1938 New York is casually waved aside — a bit like Steven Moffat knows how nonsensical it ultimately is and hopeps to sweep it under the rug to get the hard-hitting drama going. Yes, the Statue of Libery Weeping Angel is so ridiculous that it's not even cool. It has the unfortunate disposition of being one of the only ridiculous elements in Doctor Who adventures that lacks the charm and 'it' factor that would normally cover for an obvious rebuttal against its conception (we clearly see cars roaming around the streets of NYC as Amy and Rory plan to fall, and every building outside the windows has lit-up windows; are you trying to tell me the giant statue managed to avoid the looks of everybody in Manhattan?). However... I still find the episode to be a riveting piece of drama as well as an ingenious use of the Angels (setting up battery farms disguised as an apartment building for time energy). Plus, Amy and Rory's departure is still gut-wrenching, and emotionally well done (if not logically).
*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ
Whether you liked Amy Pond as a character or not, it's hard to deny the sheer emotional downpour of this thing. Murray Gold goes extra hard during the final fifteen minutes of the episode, and I was both blubbering in tears and happy about the fact that I was able to believe in Amy and Rory's love in the end. Karen Gillan gives an all-timer performance here, and so does Arthur Darvill. It's impressive how The Angels Take Manhattan manages to systematically break down the Eleventh Doctor (his quickness to snap if pushed too far being addressed as River and Amy chastise him, his intellect being betrayed by his compassion as he uses his own regeneration energy to heal River, his composure and reliability being tested as Amy decides to accept the Angel's touch on the basis of the one thing the Doctor can never control... love); perhaps an overlooked example of examining the Doctor as an entity. God bless Doctor Who.
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