Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / Touched by an Angel

Go To

  • Archive Panic: The overall series contains 9 seasons with around 25 episodes each (though the first only has 11) for a grand total of 211 episodes, with each episode being 48-minutes long. Watching the entire series back-to-back with no breaks would take a little bit over a week. Plus, the series was on the air for 9 years, just missing the minimum for qualifying as a Long Runner. Either way, we wish you the best of luck if you plan on watching the entire series.
  • Awesome Music: The show's opening theme "I'll Walk with You" sung by actress Della Reese is quite uplifting and catchy. And the end credits music too, containing the faint sounds of when the angels glow.
  • Award Snub: The series was nominated for 11 Emmys, including Best Actress (Downey) and Best Supporting Actress (Reese), but won none.
  • Complete Monster: Satan is the source of all evil and darkness, and seeks to tempt those into falling to sin. In "In the Name of God", he attempted to incite a race war while disguised as an authority figure, causing one angel, Tess, to lose her powers and be temporarily replaced. In "Breaking Bread", he entices two white supremacists to brutally beat a black man, then further manipulates the townspeople into either turning on each other or doing nothing. In "Netherlands", he attempted to corrupt a weakened Monica after a terrorist bombing killed dozens of people. In the series finale, he causes an explosion within a school, killing dozens of children and several teachers. He then accuses an innocent man named Zack (really God in disguise) of being the culprit. Arrogant and prideful, Satan desired nothing less but to destroy everything that God valued out of petty spite.
  • Critical Dissonance: Critics dismissed it when it first came out. Viewers disagreed.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Monica's crisis of faith and temptation by Satan in "Netherlands" is the direct result of her witnessing a building being destroyed by a bomb, killing many. It aired May 6, 2001, and a repeat had to be pulled from CBS' schedule in the wake of 9/11 later that year.
    • The first season of the show had an angel of death named Adam as a recurring character. He was played by Charles Rocket, who committed suicide in 2005.
    • Season 3 had an episode "Sins of the Father", where a character played by Robert Ri'Chard has, and takes, the chance to walk away from gang life after being tempted to kill a man. Four seasons later, Ri'Chard would star in an episode where his character kills a former mentor and is sent to prison for at least 25 years.
    • The 1998 episode, "The Trigger", features a family torn apart when a woman's sister kills the former's abusive husband and every member, including the couple's young son, display a wide array of emotions (the boy felt a great deal of anger over his Dad's death and hatred towards his mother and is last seen in the episode walking off-screen, still angry and surprisingly this was not resolved by the episode's end). Eight years after the episode aired, the actor who played the boy, Joseph Pichler, went missing and has yet to be found.
    • One episode involved a woman trying to pass the physical trials for the military, and struggling with climbing a certain wall. The sarge in charge tells her she doesn't have to climb it, after failing to drive her off. At the last second, she realizes it's a trick and then climbs it anyway. As of 2015, women in the US military still have much lower physical standards than men.
    • The fact that Phil, a recurring character of a well-regarded angel of reconciliation was played by...Bill Cosby.
    • In the Season 2 finale "Statute of Limitations", Paul Walker plays Jonathan, a high school senior who goes to the prom with his girlfriend Morgan. Unfortunately they end up in a car crash on the way to the prom where Morgan survives thanks to her sister Claudia pulling her out of the wreckage but unfortunately when she tried to pull Jonathan out of the passenger's seat it was too late. Flash forward to 17 years later, Walker would meet his fate in a car crash with a close friend of his and to make it even sadder? He was also the passenger in the car at that time.
    • The Season 6 finale "Pandora's Box", Evan Rachel Wood plays Sarah, a 13-year-old girl who gets tricked online by a child predator named Dean (who plays himself off as 16-year-old boy) into meeting in public and he takes her to his apartment where he nearly drugs her up to rape and possibly kill her. Fortunately Andrew and her dad save her from the worst but the episode can be difficult to watch when you learn that Evan herself has been the victim of rape twice in real life along with other types of abuse from a couple of her former partners.
    • The episode "The Anatomy Lesson" has Dewey Burton die from a heart attack while running to a phone to call for help. The actor portraying him, David Graf aka Sgt. Eugene Tackleberry, would also die of a heart attack just two years later at only 50 years old.
    • Chris Noth playing a rapist in the Season 3 episode "Full Moon" after similar allegations were made against him.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: An episode featured Zachary Quinto as a young man who was abandoned by his father at a young age. He would later go on to play characters whose parental abandonment didn't have such heartwarming conclusions.
  • Most Wonderful Sound: That pretty musical chime that played both whenever the angels appeared on screen to their respective assignments and whenever they eventually revealed their true selves to them.
  • Narm: At the conclusion of "Breaking Bread", Matt Coletti bakes a loaf of bread, then walks out of his store with it and is joined by everyone in town striding towards the auto shop to confront the two guys who murdered a black man in the episode's opening. What's supposed to be an awesome/heartwarming moment of people standing up to evil, just ultimately looks ridiculous.
  • Nightmare Fuel: A surprising amount of it. "The Man Upstairs", "Into the Light", and "The Occupant" come to mind.
    • Anytime the series antagonist The Devil is depicted on-screen. Along with ominous thunderclaps and his chilling cunning appearance.
    • Gregory, just Gregory. Unlike the show's fairly tame portrayal of Satan he was like a demon from a horror movie complete with demonic growls as he was exorcised.
    • "Redeeming Love" from season four has some of this. The episode involves Monica helping a crack addict named Lydia, and viewers are spared nothing when it comes to the withdrawal process. In-universe, Lydia has some nightmares of her own, one involving a giant spider.
    • Any episode involving explosions, guns, or other violence can be this depending on the seriousness of the situation. The same is true for episodes involving mass or graphic death. Season two's "Dear God," involving the Holocaust, and season four's "The Spirit of Liberty Moon," involving the persecution of Chinese dissidents, get special mention.
    • "Black Like Monica" has Monica transformed into a Black woman to understand the struggle they go through. She then finds herself at the mercy of two Klansmen who are pursuing her with the intent of killing her. At one point, she is crouched behind a tree with both of them hot on her trail, crying and begging God to turn her back into a White woman. He does just in the nick of time as they find her.
    • In the aforementioned "Netherlands" episode, after seeing a young girl and her mother walk into a building, Monica, Tess and Gloria watch as Andrew heads into the building, but not before he makes eye contact with the women and is clearly sad about what is about to occur. Then Gloria, who was told by her mentors what his title was, asks how many Angels of Death does it take to complete a job. They then notice that there are dozens of them going into the building. Whereas Gloria is still unaware of the gravity of the situation, Monica and Tess are horrified at this scene and know exactly what is going to happen only seconds before the building explodes.
    • The Season 6 finale "Pandora's Box" has two teenage girls end up being catfished by a kindly coffee shop worker who is really a pedophile. Eventually, he lures the girls away and ends up drugging one of the girls and about to assault her only to be saved Just in Time by Andrew and Monica.
  • Retroactive Recognition: The show featured appearances by many rising stars, including Jack Black, Shia LeBeouf, Brie Larson, James Marsden, Hayden Panettiere, Kirsten Dunst, Paul Walker, Evan Rachael Wood, Thomas Dekker, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Justin Timberlake, Alyson Hannigan, Patrick Fugit, Joseph Cross, Sarah Paulson, Ashley Johnson, Bryan Cranston, Jena Malone, America Ferrera, and Pedro Pascal.
  • Special Effect Failure:
    • Even though it's crucial to be seen at the end of every episode, the image of the flying dove (especially one that transformed from another animal or object) can come off as choppy.
    • A schizophrenic homeless man seemingly jumps to his death in one episode, but the seriousness of the situation is undermined by the bad blue screen and the fact that he’s seemingly dropping feet first straight down. The fact that they replay the shot multiple times when the show comes back from the commercial break doesn’t help.
  • Sweetness Aversion: Sometimes, as the show is filled with many of its heartwarming moments and the titular angels are so very kind. Being a 90's family-centered show focusing on three (eventually four) angels helping various families and other humans see right all set to gospel-pop music sung by actress Della Reese tends to become the end result.
  • Tear Jerker:
    • At the conclusion of "Into The Fire", as Monica has failed to convince the cult leader to come with her, she and Andrew exchange a sad look and Andrew shakes his head before resting his hand on the man's shoulder. It's one of many moments where we see that Andrew's job is often a sad one and that he doesn't enjoy it.
    • Meta examples:
      • The November 20, 2017 death of Della Reese, who played Tess.
      • The 2011 passing of John Dye (Andrew). He was the youngest main cast member, and the first to have died (this was six years before Reese's passing).
    • Jeff of "The Penalty Box" starts out as a spoiled, arrogant and entitled hockey player at the elite St. Crispin's prep school who has his future at Harvard guaranteed. Thanks to some bad investments on his father's part, Jeff ends up transferring to a public high school and forced to leave his friends behind. When he attends a party hosted by one of his friends from St. Crispin's, he realizes that they have moved on without him and he now doesn't belong with them. Keep in mind that these are people Jeff's known since childhood, people he's considered his closest friends...it's a bitter pill to swallow.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Kathleen was a Fallen Angel who was previously Monica's mentor before turning to the dark side prior to the series. She makes 3 appearances in the early seasons where she's shown to still have somewhat of a friendly and caring side towards Monica, and even makes pulls a Heel–Face Turn in her last appearance. Having her make additional appearances, or even joining the main cast would have expanded her relationship with Monica, given her a change to patch things up with her by proving she (Kathleen) still has goodness in herself and atoning for her sins, and in turn Monica would likely go some further growth too. Wishing thinking, right?
  • Values Dissonance: While the episode "Black Like Monica" does make a powerful stance about racism and tolerance, the message of the episode (if not the episode altogether) ends up being strongly undermined by having Monica sport blackface.
  • Values Resonance: The show is fairly progressive and inclusive, presenting homosexuality in a positive light, sympathizing with undocumented immigrants, and making an episode around an appearance by Muhammad Ali (a convert to Islam), for instance. There was even an episode where a couple who had once had an abortion were assured that their infertility was not a punishment for their choice.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Touched By an Angel is constantly labeled as a family series, due to the fact that it centers around angels who show up during darkest moments and bring them hope, advice, and an important message. But don't think the series is completely saccharine; it deals with deep, complex themes and concepts that few family shows dare to address including Parental Abandonment, war trauma, drinking addictions, suicide, Teen Pregnancy, deaths of loved ones, homelessness, and that's just the first season!
  • The Woobie: At least half the characters on the show.
    • Andrew got a couple of moments, like in "'Til Death Do Us Part," when he seriously thought he'd failed an assignment.
    • Even Tess got at least one, her bout with Alzheimer's disease being the biggest.

Top