Angel, A Review and Preview

Last season, Angel was forced to move out from under the wings of Buffy and fly on its own.  And, for the most part, I’d have to say that it succeeded.

Now, we come to season four, where hopefully the growing pains of being forced out of the nest would be over with and we could get down to Angel really capitalizing on the glimmers of brilliance it has shown over the course of its first three seasons.

Instead, we got a repeat of what I call the “Angel pattern” that seems to plague each season—one third of the season is bland, one third is good and one third makes you tremble in anticipation of the next new episode.  And season four was more of the same in that department.

Part of that probably wasn’t really Angel’s fault though.  Let’s face it, the behind the scenes events at the Mutant Enemy offices couldn’t have helped make this the most consistent season of Angel—especially to start out.  First, we had one of the visionaries of Angel leave with the exit of David Greenwalt.  Then, Tim Minear, whose output up until now had been hit or miss for me, focused on Firefly.  Add to it that Joss was focused on Firefly, then had to contend with day to day running of Buffy when Marti Noxon was out on maternity leave and then a gaping hole in the leadership of Angel, it’s no wonder the first third or so of the season was pretty much lackluster and, quite frankly, nothing to write home about.

Another part of it was that the first third of the season was saddled with cleaning up the on-going storyline from season three.  Now, I will be honest with you—I like season three, but I also felt that the final third of season three was rushed too much.  Honestly, I wish they’d signed Holtz on for six episodes in season four to really give that plotline the resolution it demanded.  Instead, we had to get Holtz out of the way because the actor who played him wasn’t signed into a deal for season four and I’m sure part of this came down to money.  I strongly believe the best scenario to start season four would have been some type of dramatic resolution of the on-going Angel/Holtz struggle with Connor in the middle of it.

Instead, what we got was Connor acting like a brat, which I think quickly took a character that none of the fans really knew that well and turned him into the character that none of the fans really found that enduring.  So much so that I breathed a sigh of relief when Angel finally gave Connor the perfect life he wanted so badly at the season’s end just so we’d never have to see the character again.  Is that bit harsh, you ask?  Probably so, but then again, we did have to see that damn scene of Connor and Cordy being together over and over and over again to start each episode as the season went along. (How can I be in denial if they keep making me watch it?!?)

One thing that Angel has always addressed as a series is the theme of family and how you build that.  Over the past four years, a great deal of each season has dealt with building up and then tearing down that family.  Indeed, one of the main themes that stands out in looking at season four of Angel as a whole is how the Angel Investigations crew is like a family—and maybe even a far more interesting family than the apparent normal family fantasy that starts and ends the season.  In both cases, we see the apparently traditional, sitting around the table in a scene right out of Leave It To Beaver, but in between we are presented with the harsh reality that family is never quite that simple.  You’ve got the flawed father in Angel who turns abusive.  You’ve got the brothers of Wes and Gunn fighting over the girl, the sage uncle in Lorne and then you’ve got mother-figure Cordelia.  Add to that a stepson in Connor and you’ve got one wacky family dynamic—esp. when you throw in that Connor has a serious yen for Cordelia as does Angel and she’s playing them against each other.  Seriously, this family is in need of some strong therapy.

Indeed, the interesting theme of the season is that Angel and company LIKE being dysfunctional.  Certainly, they choose that over Jasmine’s enforced happiness.  Indeed, the forced happiness of Jasmine is something to be resisted and fought—not savored.  As Lilah points out at the end of the season, Jasmine gave Angel and company what they wanted—world peace. They just couldn’t accept it because they didn’t like the conditions that it was offered under.  OK, sure Jasmine pulled up the follower buffet from time to time, but she also had everyone working together for a universal good—and was that really so scary, after all?  I love the implications of that for Angel and company as we enter the fifth season—they had someone who would make their good fight obsolete and chose to destroy her.  So, now if they suffer more, is it their own fault?

Also, they’ve gone and got in bed with the devil that is Wolfram and Hart.  After years of fighting them, Wolfram and Hart have declared that Angel won—and then turned over offices to him.  So, Angel has now become the evil that he fought—or has he.  Certainly, he made the deal with them because of a father’s love to make his son’s life the one his son wants. But what will be the consequences of that decision?  Will it come back to bite them in the behind?  And what kind of hidden clauses are then in the deal? Certainly we saw two cases this year that Wolfram and Hart doesn’t just let a silly thing like death keep you from fulfilling a contract with them.  Indeed, Lilah is bound to them for all time and we saw an army of Zombies created after the Beast took out their offices.  Man, I hope the signing bonuses are good because the contract life is hell.

It was certainly a long season of Angel—and a whole lot happened in it.  In looking back on season four to do this review, I had to remind myself—oh yeah, we did go to Vegas, Janine was in an episode or two and that there was time when Wes wasn’t exactly loved by Angel and company. I think part of that is that the third third or so of the season is so largely forgettable.  I didn’t find much use in a side trip to Vegas and the mystery of where Cordy was and her memory problems just went on too long.  Add to that the whole “I can’t love you because you were an evil bastard once and I experienced all of it, so I’m going to sleep with Connor” and you can see why I’m not a huge fan of where the season started.

In fact, in a lot of my reviews, I argued that there wasn’t a lot of focus to the early goings—at least until Joss stepped in and took some control over the show.  His episode, “Spin the Bottle” at least was amusing enough and had that Joss feel to it, enough so that it’s easily the best of the first third.  It also sets things into motion for final two thirds of the season—and for the parts that really got good.

We took a long time to set up some things—that there was an apocalypse coming and that Angel would have to reach into his past to find a way to stop it.  And those elements took a lot longer than I liked to get set up.  But once that ball got rolling—and pretty much most of the episodes that aired in 2003 did this—it picked up speed pretty well.  Yes, there were some speed bumps along the way—you will never get me to like “Awakening” simply because it feels like a waste of an hour in the same way that “I Will Remember You” feels like a waste of an hour.  Nothing happens.  We don’t really learn anything new about the characters here—other than we see how ideal Angel would like things to be and it’s kind of odd that in the middle of making love to Cordy, the woman he is allegedly in love with now, he calls out Buffy’s name.  Thankfully, that wasn’t real life or else they’d have to call the show Wesley because Angel would quickly meet the pointy end of a stake.  (I mean, Cordy wishes the entire universe out of kilter because Xander kissed Willow…imagine what she’d do if Angel called out Buffy’s name during a moment of real passion like that.  It would NOT be a pretty thing!)

But once we got past the whole dance around should or shouldn’t we have Angelus come in, the story took off and really hooked me in.  One thing you can say about David Boreanaz is—he loves playing Angelus.  And he does it to a hilt each and every time that he can.  In season two, we got to Angel flirt with going dark Angel, but here we get to see it fully realized and it’s done so well.  And it’s done for a reason, which makes it even better.  Honestly, the biggest criticism I have with season two is that there didn’t seem enough of a catalyst for Angel to want to walk on the dark side as he did.  It felt force and while I like where it took us, the set up for the journey wasn’t what I’d hoped for.

Indeed, the final run of episodes this year had a dramatic intensity to them—so much so that it felt like, at times, Angel was the show coming to a close and not Buffy.  Yes, Buffy had that must see feeling for all the episodes once we knew this would the final season, but so much of the final third of the season was spent wondering if the WB would renew the series that I think it helped me to feel like I should savor the new episodes that much more.

And, they gave us a lot to savor.

From Faith to Jasmine to an episode that defined the entire series storyline, (in one of the best retcon jobs I’ve ever seen on any show….it almost made me believe that Angel was an arc driven show like Babylon Five where the major revelations are all set up from the start and it’s just a matter of the audience going along for the ride).  And then it all came together to give the story a great coda and a new beginning.

In the end, the idea of family is affirmed again.  Angel gives Connor his family and restores his by riding them of the blemish of Connor and the disruptions he brought.  Now, the group has a new mission—and what that is, I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

That said, let’s look at where the characters went this year.

On the successful side, we had Wes, who got the best character development of anyone this year.  Looking back at the season one DVDs, it is simply amazing how Alexis Denisof has grown as an actor and how Wes continues to grow and defy our expectations at every turn.  We saw dark Wes this year, but we also saw the lighter side of him. We saw the conflict of trying to choose between his perceived ideal mate in Fred and the woman he could have in Lilah.  And to see a bit of tenderness when he has to behead Lilah and then try to free her at the end of the season…well, it was just all superbly done.  I am going to say right now that Alexis Denisof was robbed of an Emmy nod this year. He did some great work.

Of course, we know where Angel went and I liked that . I also liked seeing Cordy get to be evil Cordy and certainly in the long run it helped explain some things.  For example, the sixth grader fantasy of “I want you to have something real, so let’s have sex” scene with Connor.  Seeing that Cordy was the evil behind much of the season worked and it certainly made up for some times when Charisma Carpenter seemed to be content to phone it in.

That said, there was some character stuff I didn’t like.  Tops on the list is Fred and Gunn as a couple. Honestly, I couldn’t really buy them together because I never felt any chemistry.  And to see them go through all they went through, it just didn’t’ work.  Add to it that Gunn goes out and sleeps with Gwen within 12 minutes of breaking up with Fred and, well, it just never rings true.  It also doesn’t win him any points with us—one scene he’s trying to get back with Fred, the next he’s getting a booty call with Gwen.   All I can say now is what I said then—what the hell?!?

Speaking of Gwen—if there was a character who they had big plans for but we never saw them come to fruition, it’s got to be her.  OK, so she can throw lightning and she makes Angel’s heart go pitter patter.  She also seduces Gunn and appears at random moments with necessary info, but what use is she?  None really in my book.   We had some great set-up for a back-story for her early on but none of it’s ever really dealt with later.  It almost feels as thought they had big plans for her but quickly forgot what they were and scrapped them, thus making the character entirely useless.  And while I do think we need some acknowledgement of the fact that she and Gunn slept together and how that might affect Fred, I don’t know if it’s worth bringing the character back for.

Then, there was Connor.  I kept trying to like him, but I couldn’t.  I’m not sure how much of this was really Vincent trying to keep up with the master of the brooding that is David Boreanaz. In the final analysis, I understand part of what Connor is supposed to be is a home schooled kid and he has no social skills and no way of fitting in with the world. But he was so whiny, pouty and overall such a blemish in the show, that I honestly hoped Faith would kill him while she was on the show back in February and March.  And then to see that Connor would go along with Jasmine, even though he can see what she really is…not winning any points in my book.

For all the good things that season four did, there were some negative things it did.  And I’m constantly surprised by the buzz on-line that this was Angel’s best season ever.  I’m not convinced and I’ve been turning this over in my mind a lot. I think we got distracted by how good the show was once we got Tim Minear back, freshly from coming into his own on Firefly, and the sense of overwhelming dread that this might be it for Angel in the final few months of the season.  Because, honestly, the first third of this season is nothing to write home about and it shows again and again.  I’d have to say that this was a good season of Angel, but it’s just short of great.

My rating for the entire season: 7.5 (out of 10.0)

So, the question now is—where do we go from here?

In a lot of ways, the upcoming season of Angel reminds me of season three of DS9.  When season three of DS9 started, it was the only Trek franchise on the air.  And now as season five starts Angel is the only Mutant Enemy franchise on the air.  It will the focus of the fans who loved Buffy and Firefly and are looking for some way to enter the universe that Joss built each week.

And while we have Joss’s attention—for now, (I think the Firefly movie will rightfully distract him)—I wonder how long we’ll keep it. Again, Firefly movie—his first big-screen directing.  Add to it that we’ve lost both David Greenwalt and Tim Minear, both of whom had some great vision for the show, and I wonder where we go.  I like Jeffrey Bell and I’ve found his writing to be good, but I’m not convinced if he can be the day to day runner the show needs.  I’m hopeful for him because he has some good writers over there—but none that I sit up and say, “Man, so and so is writing this week’s episode, so it must be good.”

I think this both a good and bad thing.  I like it because it means we’re getting in fresh blood.  If you want to see a franchise collapsing under the weight of a lack of fresh blood, look no farther than Enterprise.  A lack of vision at the top and a willingness to play it safe has made the Star Trek franchise a hollow shell of what it once was.  Yes, there are some good episodes here and there, but overall, I’m still not thrilled by it as I once was. So, I think it’s good that Angel has some new blood in there—it can only help.  Just so long as we don’t get a revolving door up there.  Again, see the Trek franchise and the first two seasons of Next Generation.  Angel can’t struggle to find its voice in the first third of the season this year.

Honestly, I’m hoping that it will finally defy the odds and deliver a whole season that is consistently what I look for from a Mutant Enemy Show.

Angel has to be good out of the gate.  It’s got a killer time slot and it’s got some huge network expectations.  Let’s face it—Smallville is a hell of a lead in and Angel has got to keep a large chunk of the audience that tunes in for that. I  think these two shows are about as compatible as you’ll find on the WB, but the Wednesday at 9 pm  time slot is a killer.

I only hope the WB gets there collective heads together and sticks by the show.  One thing that hurt Angel last year was we never got repeats—and when we did they were sporadic. Of course, part of that is the fault of having one massive storyline, thus making repeats difficult. But I also say that you’ve got to lure in casual fans—and repeats help keep the habit up.

Also, there are some huge expectations on Angel this year because you bring in one of the most popular Mutant Enemy characters of all time with Spike.  That ups the ante as well because you may get some of the Buffy fans who don’t necessarily always watch Angel (why I’m not sure) to tune in.  I am intrigued to see how Spike fits into the dynamic of the show and I think that is the strongest asset this new season has.

That and the new mission.

For Angel, there has to be a balance between an arc heavy story that no new fans can casually drop into and not having any back story at all.  I think Smallville does a great job of this and Angel could certainly follow its lead (no pun intended). Yes, Smallville has a mythology and we do get big episodes that examine it…but we also get smaller ones that look at the characters and how they react to the mythology.   And most importantly, even the smaller episodes feel like a part of the puzzle, but not enough so that you lose the casual fans.  I think Angel could take a page from that book and do really well.

Of course, I also think Angel will be helped by daily repeats on TNT.  It should be fun to catch up on the first four seasons again—assuming that you don’t have the DVDs. J

All that said, I’m excited and ready for Angel to start.  It’s been a long summer and there are high hopes for this season. Let’s just hope the series can live up them.