IMDB's one sentence description reads as thus: A rocket scientist in 1940s Los Angeles is secretly the disciple of occultist Aleister Crowley.

Jack Parsons is a little known (but whose reputation is growing due to his multifaceted life) rocket scientist, perhaps as important as Robert Goddard. I learned about Parsons many years ago, after reading "Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons," by John Carter, so when Strange Angel was advertised (based on a different book ("Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons," by George Pendle) I was excited and put a request in for the DVDs of season one from my library. Last week, after having to wait a number of months, the DVDs were made available and I eagerly started watching my long-awaited series.

It was however, a great disappointment. I understand that some literary license has to be taken when covering a real life, but shadowy character, but so much of the series is flawed with minor and major problems. especially for something that is supposed to based in part on fact. Most of the characters who were real-life people seem to have had their names changed and many seem to be composite characters. That is typical for series like this, but the characters are in my mind, unevenly written, depending on who wrote the episode. For instance, the next door neighbor, who is a main character, is played by Rupert Friend, who seems to specialize in playing creepy, annoying parts in cable series. Sometimes his character is a jerk, sometimes a helpful friend, sometimes a creepy stalker.

Don't get me wrong, the acting by all of the actors is superb, they play the roles as written, the problem is almost all the roles are written in a way that makes most of the characters thoroughly unlikeable (though the title character, Jack Parsons, ably played by Irish actor Jack Reynor, is an exception). If you are going to have unlikeable characters, why not just make a one hour documentary using archival footage? Would I recommend the series? Hardly, certainly not enthusiastically. It's not terrible, but there are probably better things to watch. Will I watch the next season? Yes, just to see the continuation (thought it was cancelled after two seasons, which may tell you something).

Overall, I would lukewarmly recommend the series and give it a B-