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DVD : Angel - Seasons 1-5 |
- Arch AngelI believe that Joss Whedon is one of the greatest (and definitely the most underrated) writers of our time. The man is responsible for three of the greatest series of the last decade: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. He helped write Toy Story, wrote and directed the wonderful Serenity (a continuation of Firefly), and is a great comic book writer as well. In his second television series, Angel (which is a spin-off of his critically-acclaimed and cult classic show Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Whedon shows us that he can take a secondary, albeit very interesting, character and develop an entire series around them. It is very rare for spin-offs to be as highly regarded as their predecessors, with Frasier and Angel being notable exceptions. Angel pulls it off, though. Telling a story about redemption, vampires with souls, and life after school, Angel is as entertaining and engaging as its parent series, even if it isn't nearly as known.
*SPOILERS TO FOLLOW*
Prelude
Angel (David Boreanaz)is a 200-year-old vampire who has been cursed with a soul and conscience. Once known as Angelus, he was one of the worst vampires in history. He killed people for the fun of it, and not only killed them, he was a master of torture, both physical and mental. When he killed the daughter of a Gypsy, he paid for his work by getting back his human soul, and he was forced to actually care about the atrocious things that he had done. After about a century of brooding, self-pity, and remorse, he finally hit rock-bottom and was living on the streets in Manhattan, until a benevolent demon known as Whistler (Max Perlich) showed him Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar), the newest vampire slayer. Angel fell for her, and when the two formally met, a paradoxical relationship developed. But when the vampire and the slayer consumated their love, the unthinkable happened; the curse was broken because Angel experienced true happiness for a moment and forgot about the pain he had caused. He reverted back to Angelus and wrought havoc throughout Sunnydale, California. After his soul was returned, he and Buffy tried living in the same city, but it was too hard, and he decided to leave for Los Angeles.
Season 1
A few months after leaving Sunnydale, Angel has started helping people in Los Angeles, trying to redeem himself for what he did as Angelus. After meeting up with fellow Sunnydale exile Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpentar) and another benevolent demon called Doyle (Glenn Quinn) who gets prophetic visions from the "Powers That Be", the trio decide to set up Angel Investigations, a paranormal detective agency. They help people deal with problems such as demonic possessions, vampire attacks, and ghost hauntings. Working with Kate Lockley (Elisabeth Rohm), a contact at the LAPD, Angel and company try to "help the helpless". Unfortunately, Wolfram and Hart, a conduit to pure evil posing as a lawfirm, tends to cause problems for Angel. The company is an outlet for evil, and it uses a lawfirm facade to legitimate its actions, as well as helping demons, warlocks, and other kinds of villains get out of legal trouble. About halfway through the season, Cordelia starts receiving the visions, which start her on a path that changes her from the selfish valley girl of Buffy to a full-fleged hero, and ex-Watcher Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Alexis Denisof) joins the team. The season studies adult issues, such as getting your first job, getting your first apartment, and being a start-up business trying to take on a large corporation. While it is more episodic than most of the other seasons, it still is entertaining, and the final episode leaves us with a great cliffhanger.
Season 2
After learning about the Shanshu prophecy, which states that "the vampire with a soul" will become human again after he has redeemed himself, Angel kind of goes into overdrive trying to save as many people as he can. He also hires Charles Gunn (J. August Richards), a street kid who fights vampires, to help out at Angel Investigations. Meanwhile, Wolfram and Hart has resurrected Darla (Julie Benz), the vampire that sired Angel, and they plan on using her to lure Angel back to the side of evil. Eventually, Angel begins to question if the "little" things he is doing are enough to redeem him, and he has a meltdown. He decides that its time to fight a war, and begins a series of massive attacks against W&H, one of which leaves a large percentage of the senior staff dead. In a sense, he become Angelus, but he still has a soul. It isn't until the near-death of a friend that he realizes the true value of the little things. The season ends with the group traveling to a world called Pylea, which is the home dimension of Lorne the Host (Andy Hallet), a demon who had been helping the team out throughout the year. While there, they meet Winifred "Fred" Burkle (Amy Acker), an LA woman who was sucked into Pylea 5 years prior, and has nearly gone insane living in the world where humans are nothing but beasts of burden.
Season 3
Upon returning from Pylea, the gang found Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan), one of their friends from Sunnydale, who tells them that Buffy is dead. Distraught, Angel spent 3 months in a temple meditating on the issue. Upon his return to LA, he soon learns that Darla is pregnant, which should be an impossibility. Vampires are infertile, and yet he and Darla have set in motion the events of a prophecy stating that two vampires will give birth to a child. This causes all sorts of problems for the group; Wolfram and Hart wants the child to experiment on while vampire cults think that it is some sort of deity. Possibly worst of all, Daniel Holtz (Keith Szarabajka), a vampire hunter from 1700's England who had run-ins with Angel and Darla, has been transported to the present by Sajhaan (Jack Conley), a time-traveling demon, in order to get revenge on the pair for what they did to his family in the 18th century. Employing a group of people who have also been hurt by vampires, Holtz intends to take Connor, Angel's son. Eventually, things get to a point where W&H, Sajhaan, Holtz, and Angel are all battling for Connor, and Holtz takes the baby to a demon dimension, never to be seen again. Due to Wes' indirect role in the kidnapping, Angel tries to kill him, and he is ostrasized from the group. But a few weeks later, a now teenaged Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) due to the fact that time moves differently in the other dimension, breaks back through the barrier back to LA and tries to kill Angel. Holtz raised him to believe that Angel was a monster (which isn't completely false), and it leads to a great cliffhanger ending.
Season 4
The previous season ended with the group in shambles. Lorne left for Las Vegas, Wesley was cut out from the group, Cordelia ascended to a higher plane of existence, and Angel was sealed in a box and dropped to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, Fred and Gunn (who have no idea what happened to Angel or Cordy) look after Connor (who is responsible for Angel, but has no knowledge of where Cordy is) and teach him how to be a good demon fighter. Meanwhile, Wesley kidnapped Justine Holt (Laurel Holloman), Holtz's right-hand woman and lover, and is using her to find Angel. When Angel gets back to the surface, he kicks Connor out and rejoins Fred and Gunn. After finding out where Cordelia is, they go to Vegas to get Lorne back. Upon their return to LA, they find Cordelia back in their hotel, but with no knowledge of who she is or who they are. Soon, Cordy's memories are returned, Wes rejoins the group, and a monstrous Beast rises up from the ground and nearly kills every member of the group. It effectively takes out Wolfram and Hart, and successfully blocks out the sun. To make matters worse, the gang gets information that says that the Beast and Angelus have some sort of connection, and in order to find a way to defeat the Beast, they remove Angel's soul. Angelus causes many more problems than he sovles, and he is soon on the loose after the Beast's mysterious master releases him. Eventually, the goddess Jasmine, who had been pulling all the strings, is born from Cordelia and tries to take over the world... by uniting people under world peace. By the end of the year, the gang receives a monumental offer from a former enemy.
Season 5
As a reward for ending world peace, Angel and his team are offered complete control of the LA branch of Wolfram and Hart to run any way they see fit. They accept in order to use its infinite resources to do good. Things seem overwhelming, but when Spike (James Marsters), another vampire who has been granted a soul, is resurrected after saving the world in the Buffy series finale, things get much more complicated. Angel and Spike can't stand each other, and for a while, Spike is merely a ghost who can't leave W&H, and thus annoys Angel in order to pass the time. But after becoming corporeal again, the two vampires fight over the rights to the Shanshu prophecy, only to have Spike beat Angel in a fight for the first time ever. Fortunately for Angel, the two were set up. Unfortunately for everyone, the man behind the events is one of Angel's old rivals. As the season goes on, the gang find themselves making comprimises left and right, one of which leads to the death of Fred and the rising of Illyria, an ancient demon who uses Fred's body as a vessel on the Earth. Eventually, the gang learns that tehy have been taken in by W&H, and since they are now only reacting to situations, they are no longer the heroes they once were. This season is also fairly episodic, but the fact that there doesn't seem to be an arc turns out to be the arc (only Joss could pull that off). Furthermore, the relationship dynamic between Angel and Spike helps elevate this season to one of the series' best.
Angel is one of the best series you've never seen. It dealt with very real issues through wonderful metaphors. I love how this show, along with Buffy, was more "real" than most other shows, many of which did not involve demons, magic, and monsters. While it got 5 seasons, it still had a lot of stories to tell, and was cut short. The WB made a big mistake cancelling it (especially considering everything that the show had going for it in its final year), but at least we got 5 great years. If you have never seen Angel, now is the time to redeem yourself and catch up with all five seasons.
Rating:
- Low On Extras, But A Solid Five SeasonsI come not to praise Angel, but to bury him (again).
First off, with the exception of the final season, commentaries and extras on these DVDs are very sparse. Then again, some of the commentaries on season five are poorly prepared for and feature large sections of silence, so it's kind of a toss up as to which is worse. I like the show and the creators seem like fun folks, but The Simpsons has spoiled me with the best... commentary... evar. :)
That aside, Angel was a fine show with some of the best fighting and wire work on television. (Mike Massa = uber pimp) It also had good drama with characters who gained a lot of depth as the series progressed. I know TV execs like shows where nothing changes so that new viewers can tune in and immediately know everything that's going on, but I found it so much more effective to see characters with history, knowing what baggage each was bringing to the situation.
Overall, Angel was one of the best escapes on television and a series I am happy to own.
Rating:
- Fabulous!I recently purchased "The Chosen Collection" (Buffy the Vampire Slayer seasons 1-7) as well and I have to say they are both really really good. I'm pretty frugal and had to force myself to make these purchases, but I don't regret it at all.
Angel's series certainly takes a different spin than the Buffy storyline, but I was truly invested in the characters from start to finish.
If you like somewhat bizarre storylines (ie. karaoke singing demons) coupled with great fight scenes and lot's of quirky humor, you will not regret purchasing this bundle either. And quite honestly, David Boreanaz smiles more in this series--so it has to be good, right?
Thank you Joss Whedon for hours of unparalleled entertainment.
Enjoy!
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