I walk with heroes. This is my power. Not to let them take me. Not me. Angel Season Five.

Season Four of Angel was by necessity a scrappy, improvisational narrative mess that managed by sheer force of the writing and performances to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. However, it also cleared the decks of a lot of the show’s long-term baggage. The ever-present antisyzygy of Angel/Angelus was dealt with (not that Angelus can never reappear now, just that Angel would seem to have made as much peace with his dark side as he’s going to be able to).

Similarly, the Powers That Be thread of the show’s arc is gone. The Jasmine storyline meant that the PTB no longer have quite in the position of authority they once were. They’re tainted now and interestingly play almost no part in s5, beyond Cordelia’s vision in You’re Welcome. And with Cordelia gone, so is the Vision Quest aspect of the show too.

The only thread really still open at the beginning of Season Five is Wolfram and Hart and their mysterious overlords the Senior Partners. And this is where the show focuses its attention this year. So Season Five starts with essentially a blank slate. And at least for the first half of the season, almost all the major characters have been slightly reset from the dark places that the multi-season Connor arc had taken them.

They’ve essentially had a ‘reverse-Dawn’ pulled on them, with their memories altered to remove any trace of Connor. Thus we get a Wesley who’s a little less screwed-up and badass than the one we saw throughout season four. Although it’s never made clear just how much their memories have been changed. For example, how does Wes account for the massive scar across this throat from his encounter with Justine, which presumably he now has no memory of? And does that mean Fred and Gunn had their romance? Did it still end as badly as seen in s4? Did they still kill the professor? It’s all a bit too much on the vague side and more problematic than the insertion of Dawn into Sunnydale because the Connor arc did not exist in isolation from the other character beats of the likes of Fred/Gunn, Wesley/Lilah and so on. We can’t help but wonder just who our main characters are any more, exactly what they’ve experienced. But it’s a short-term problem as their old memories are brought back as a result of Wesley destroying the memory spell. (Although, interestingly, this whole issue is one that Dollshouse plays with in some detail and just as unsatisfyingly, in my view.)

But aside from the narrative partial reboot, season five looks and feels different. The ‘necro-tempered glass’ means that the now defunct Angel Inc no longer have to skulk in the shadows and in gloomy dimly lit interiors. There’s a lot more sunshine, a lot more open spaces, shiny chrome and glass and brighter colours now. And it helps brighten the look of the show considerably. The Hyperion was a great set — moody and evocative but it was also kind of on the sombre side and in s4 especially we spent rather too much of the time there. It made the season just a bit too dark, with too much of a restricted, muted colour palette.

The tone of the show is a lot brighter too. It is, in fact, a lot more Buffy-like, I’d argue. Gone are the tightly serialised episodes of seasons three and four (a stipulation of the executives for renewal, along with a significant budget cut) with each episode being largely standalone. Part of the fallout of the new standalone policy is that some of the heavy lifting of the arc has to be done through recurring metaphors. Thus we get Lorne and his fractured mirror, his private and public personae divided by the broken glass. We get Fred hollowing out Angel in his dream sequence in Soul Purpose to foreshadow what’s going to happen to her (and we get Gunn growling threateningly in the same scene, perhaps emphasising his betrayal to come). And we get Angel literally transformed into a puppet, just in case we didn’t get the message earlier when Roger Wyndham-Pryce spelled it out for us. It’s not what you’d call subtle.

There’s also a lot more lighter, funnier episodes like Life of the Party, The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco, Harm’s Way, The Girl In Question and Smile Time, with much of the humour being of the broader style of the parent show, rather than the darker, more mordant, stuff we’ve been used to seeing on Angel. For many the comedic highlight of the season is Smile Time and Puppet Angel. I’ve got to admit that while I find this amusing enough, it’s a one-joke story for me and one that slightly outstays its welcome. I far prefer Life of the Party, which has some great jokes (Gunn marking his territory) and some great ‘drunk acting’ from Alexis Denisov and Amy Acker. It also serves to foreshadow Lorne’s character arc for this season and the increasing difficulty he’s having in remaining the joker in the Angel Inc pack.

The whole Buffy vibe of the season is also helped by the sheer number of familiar faces we see this year. From the permanent addition of Spike and Harmony (ably filling the shoes vacated by Cordelia) to a couple of cameos of trainee Watcher Andrew. And, of course, we get one final Cordelia episode. It was nice that Cordelia finally gets a proper send-off after the unpleasantness associated with her character in s4 and it’s interesting that she becomes the only one of the original Scoobies to have an on-screen demise. As mentioned above, the Cordelia role was taken by another long-term Buffiverse favourite Harmony. Harmony at Wolfram & Hart slots into a kind of cross between Cordy and Anya from Buffy and provides many of the lighter moments as Lorne is inexorably dragged into darkness by the season’s events. Harm’s Way is another great comedic episode with lots of great sight gags — most notably, Harm’s ever-filling closet.

Of course, Spike also carries some of the humour as he did on Buffy, but this seems to me to be a slightly different Spike we see here. No longer evil but also shorn of his lovelorn dedication to Buffy, he has to relate to others in a slightly different way. In a way, we focus on another of Spike’s obsessions – his relationship with Angel. This is a profoundly competitive one on both sides, now exacerbated by the fact that they now both have souls. “I wandered in torment for a hundred years,” moans Angel. “You moped in a basement for three weeks.” But this soul rivalry has a more serious edge too and the episode Destiny highlights this as both vampires compete to find a mystical grail, although the real point of the episode is the fight between them.

Spike: Look at you. Fighting for truth, justice, and soccer moms. But you still can’t lay flesh on a cross without smelling like bacon, can you?
Angel: Like you’re any different.
Spike: That’s just it. I am, and you know it. You had a soul forced on you as a curse, make you suffer for all the horrible things you’ve done. But me, I fought for my soul, went through the demon trials. Almost did me in a dozen times over but I kept fighting. ‘Cause I knew it was the right thing to do. It’s my destiny.

But this fight between the two of them also highlights the core of the conflict between them.

 Spike: ‘Cause every time you look at me, you see all the dirty little things I’ve done, all the lives I’ve taken… because of you! Drusilla sired me, but you… you made me a monster.
Angel: I didn’t make you, Spike. I just opened up the door, and let the real you out.
Spike: You never knew the real me. Too busy trying to see your own reflection, praying there was someone as disgusting as you in the world, so you could stand to live with yourself. Take a long look, hero. I’m nothing like you!

This also brings the Shanshu prophecy of s1 back into play but with a new twist in that there are now two candidates for the ‘reward’. Or there are until Not Fade Away when Angel signs away his right to it, meaning that should they survive the apocalypse, it is Spike, not Angel, who will be the ensouled champion who claims the reward. Which is a brave and typically downbeat note for the series to introduce in its final episode. But more of that below. A brief word on Lorne. Aside from the brief jaunt to Pylea to get a glimpse of his origins, in s2-4 we don’t really learn a lot more about Lorne. He’s the equivalent of Buffy’s ‘get Willow to do a spell’ in that he’s the go-to plot device. Lorne will have an underworld contact to keep the story moving usually. This year, however, he does have an arc. As I said, it’s first raised in Life of the Party that Lorne too feels the pressures of life. This has actually always been there – how often do we see Lorne without a drink in his hand, for example?

But this year we see him propping up the bar as the morose, defeated drunk. We’re constantly reminded that the chipper, all-singing, all dancing Lorne is a façade he creates for the world. And after Fred’s death, that façade is increasingly seen less and less frequently. There’s something slightly shocking about the sight of Lorne punching Eve. He’s the one member of Angel Inc who you couldn’t imagine doling out violence like that. And it reaches its endpoint in Not Fade Away when Lorne is given the task of executing Lindsay. It’s another bleak scene, only slightly offset by the humour of Lindsay’s outrage at being “offed by a flunky”. And with that, Lorne walks away from the show, not with a smile or a joke or a song, but in utter emotional defeat. I think it’s fair to say that Lorne’s association with Angel Inc has left him pretty much destroyed as an individual.

Which brings us nicely onto Fred. Fred’s role in the first half of the season is to once again bring the torment and thwarted romantic desire to Wesley. And despite her not-terribly serious dalliance with Knox but it’s pretty clear that she and Wes are finally going to get it together and the relief is palpable because it’s been a serious long time coming. But not so fast. This is a Whedon show, ain’t it? So their relationship bliss lasts for one episode before Fred is infected by Illyria. (Has there ever been a more luckless character in the Buffiverse than Wes? Shot in s2, throat cut in s3, has to decapitate his lover and has a general trip to emotional torment-land in s4, has to gun down his overbearing father in s5 and now finally wins the love of his life only to lose her again and end up mortally stabbed to death in the finale). I’ve been consistently impressed by Denisof’s work in the Buffinverse ever since he arrived in s3 of Buffy. And if it were ever decided that it was time for an American Doctor I don’t think he would be a remotely terrible choice.

A Hole in the World is to me one of the best ever episodes of the Buffiverse. It’s certainly the character death I found the hardest to take. Anya’s, Tara’s, even Buffy’s, deaths were all surprises and all heroic so that we only process them as part of the wider narrative events of the episode. But here, Fred is ‘killed’ in the first act and the rest of the episode is taken up largely with watching her die. And Acker and Denisof hit it out the park here, both putting in amazing performances. Is there anything quite as heart-breaking as Fred’s final plaintive “Wesley, why can’t I stay?”.

And now as Illyria, Acker puts in a whole new performance which is just as terrific as the work she put in as Fred. Her jerky movements, only slowly re-discovering a regal grace, the coldness, the needlessly but unthinkingly cruel way she interacts with others are all done brilliantly. It’s a real shame that we only really got a handful of episodes of the Wes/Illyria dynamic because they don’t really feel like enough and there was still a lot more mileage in it.

Which brings us to the finale. Lack of cash meant that you were never going to get the CGI-fest, Lord of the Rings type thing that saw Buffy out. And that really would have been missing the point of Angel to go in that direction. Instead we get something that takes The Godfather as its reference point. Some have argued that Angel provoking the wrath of the Senior Partners kind of undoes the lesson learned in s2 after his descent in the lift with Holland Manners, that we get more Superhero Exceptionalism in the form of one large, violent act being able to wipe out the effect of lots of small ones.. I understand what they mean but I’m not sure I really buy it. I think Fred’s death was a wake-up call of just how compromised the Angel Inc team had become. To me, that argument would only ring true if the Angel Inc team was presented with a victory in the end. But they’re not. At best, it’s a Pyrrhic victory. At worse, it’s a defeat that just happens to take place shortly after the episode ends.

How you react to the finale depends very much on your attitude to the news of the show’s cancellation. I believe it ended at the right time. The plans for the direction of s6 are interesting but I think they were better served by the graphic novel* continuation than they would have been on TV. No, I think Angel went out at just the right time. It went out on a high and I find Not Fade Away a far more satisfying denouement than Chosen in Buffy. I always work on the assumption that what’s left of the team assembling in the alley (that alley again!) are facing their deaths. But they’re going out fighting. Which is the point. As highlighted way back in s2, it’s not about the winning, it’s about the continuing to fight, until you can fight no longer. It’s the best, indeed, the only logical way that the show could end. Angel, I’d argue, ended at the top of its game in a way that Buffy didn’t.

I argued on the Buffy threads that the Scoobies after s5 limped on in a curiously disappointing form, having failed to live up to their earlier potential. By s7 they’ve diminished as characters rather than grown. I think the opposite is true for Angel. They’ve all very much grown and are more than when we first met them — those that are still with us, that is. That doesn’t mean they’re better for it, of course (see Lorne above, for example). And it’s interesting to note that by the end of the series, there’s not one member of the core Angel characters who hasn’t taken a human life — the oft-invoked ‘red line’ that can’t be crossed in the Buffiverse.

Taken all in all, despite a rocky patch in its middle, Angel often outstrips and outsmarts its parent show. It often irks me that it never gets the credit it really deserves. Buffy is remembered partially because it has to take the blame for the massive resurgence of vampires in our popular culture and also because Buffy herself is an iconic figure in terms of the heroic representation of women in popular culture. And Angel never really had breakaway episodes like The Body or Once More With Feeling. But it did have smarts, it did have some of the best writing on TV and it did have some of the best character work too. But there does seem to be something slightly off-putting about it for many – notice how fewer voices have engaged with the Angel discussions than with the Buffy ones here. Is this because its erratic scheduling meant that people just never got to see it at the time and it missed its window of opportunity? Or was it too dark/grown-up for teens but still too childish for adults? Was it too male? Angel actually has a pretty good gender split, but it’s iconography is all the male loner atop rooftops and perhaps this leads the casual viewer to think it’s just more of the ‘same old thing’. I honestly don’t know the answer to that one but, as I say, I do often find myself rather irked by the way that the show is often passed over and ignored.

But anyway, here we are at the end. Congratulations if you’ve made it through seven seasons of Buffy and five of Angel. And thanks for sticking with the blogs too. It’s been really enjoyable to read your comments. And if there’s anyone out there who hasn’t actually watched the shows yet, I implore you to go out and do so. There is one more essential masterwork in Joss Whedon’s TV work to go – Firefly. And perhaps we’ll return to take a look at that at some point. But until then, let’s leave it with Angel’s essential mission statement, which I think is a good one:

All I want to do is help. I want to help because I don’t think people should suffer as they do, because if there’s no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world

And put more simply in the last words of the series:

 Personally, I just want to slay the dragon.

(*WARNING. SPOILERS FOR ANGEL: AFTER THE FALL series of graphic novels. After The Fall is a canonical series of graphic novels that follow on directly from s5 of Angel and which Joss has acknowledged follow roughly the path intended for s6.  Put simply, LA was to be dragged down to Hell as a result of the wrath of the senior partners. Angel would continue to fight the good fight in the demon-infested ruins of the city, with Gwen, Connor and Nina operating as a resistance movement. Spike was to have become the Lord High of LA, protected by Illyria, Wesley would have been working at Wolfram and Hart on an eternal contract a la Lilah and Gunn, vamped in his attack on the Senator in Not Fade Away, was to become the Big Bad to be fought by these various factions.)


19 comments

  1. @JimTheFish @pedant @CathAnnabel

    It has been a pleasure to watch Angel and Buffy and I thank you and @pedant for introducing me to this American show -and for putting up with my morose and squawking comments about Acker or Anya (probably jealousy, really!) and my minute by minute ‘analysis’ involving lots of “oh, no, not Wes” and “OMG, he has a gun: a child has a massive 12 gauge!” etc..

    I point out the ‘American’ part of this show because when I first saw advertisements for Buffy, back in the nineties, I had a typical cringe associated with much of the American drivel that came out during that time and I simply saw this as another action motivated show with little real dramatic impact. Instead, both programmes (Buffy certainly) broke stereotypes and proved that shows, largely about ‘monsters’ could have marvellous repercussions for the way writers approached a story line using analogies and metaphors, and dispelling the myths that ancient legends, paganism and knowledge of Greek and Egyptian gods were somehow uncool.

    Here, using monsters as the starting place, there’s a veritable feast of ideas and compelling metaphors which encourage a tremendous discussion about how humans have advanced, to what extent we can really fight evil without taking on elements of that evil itself, the nature of compromise and how, as an educated, scientific society we can still observe circumstance and connect its consequence to faith. In other words, should we take empirical reason as our sole measure of understanding and is faith a bit like magic – it requires a little blindness to experience it fully.

    At the time of Buffy’s release I saw these types of monster shows as something I needed to virtually boycott and since I couldn’t really do that -as students and teachers were involved in modules which discussed ‘post modern television and the rise of vampiric culture bal bla’, I felt I could at least minimise my exposure to it. But I wish I hadn’t. I wonder what my perceptions of the Bangelverse had been if I’d just given it a try? No doubt I would have been blown away.

    With the stern explication by @pedant not to go anywhere near the internet looking for interviews/panels and nutty youtube videos on the Spuffy angle, I managed to avoid most of the fan blasts as did Boy Ilion -so we were clean skin watchers from the beginning. That’s almost impossible today and I’m so glad we followed those particular entreaties.

    I enjoyed this final season and felt, too, that it was an appropriate time to end the show completely -although the non-canonical cartoons (or should I call that something else, now?) causes the show to endure, which is great. There’s a certain inevitability working for such a firm and had the show continued, the endless and unwinnable fight with the senior partners would have meant either more standalone episodes, a new Big Bad (and we’d done that to death)  or a continuing re-discovery of where the senior partners lived and how to finally “end them” (to quote Twilight Book 4. Forgive me? I’ll do penance!).

    The season for both Angel and Wes reminded me of these phrases: ” I have paid my price to live with myself on the terms I have willed”. Also, “yet, well, if here would end the misery, I deserved it and would end my own deservings.” Angel, I think, with the destruction of Angelus has recognised that fighting that eponymous good fight is the only way we can make peace with our personal devils and that triumph comes through those individual battles rather than a war where one side’s victorious. Nonetheless, that price is terribly high for Wes who changes more than any other character in the Buffyverse, I’m reminded of his first appearance: bumbling, stuttering, perfectly knotted English tie and cufflinks completely unable to hold a pile of books let alone a sword. I recall Giles balancing a large tome and fencing with Wes – who is losing defiantly – whilst Giles was content to read and talk with the Scoobies about how to end yet another monster’s life.

    Fast forward a few years and Wes has lost everything. Does he, in the end, think Illyria loves him just a little? After Wes has died, she continues to maintain Fred’s form for a little while -including tears, so I wonder? Does Wes have more than just an obsession with Illyria’s abilities and is he, depressed and shocked, developing more than a angry interest in this Great God?

    Certainly, after the addictive giggling of Fred, I found the magisterial countenance of Illyria remarkable. With just a stately turn of her head, Fred was lost and Illyria was ever-present. A remarkable piece of acting, I think, and Fred’s death, as you rightly say, is impressive in every detail. Wes’ emotions are subtle and Fred’s desperation to hang on is very much that fear we all have about what’s around the corner and how we deal with it when it does arrive. To have limitless bravery is impossible; we’re humans, foibles and fears part of our chromosomal structure and yet we’re able to pull in those fears when faced with the dissonance of something so enormous and overwhelming as the death of a loved one. Wes, with eyes so infused with fury they’re like aperture settings, takes in every detail of the present horror. His urge to seek oblivion through fantasy and drink doesn’t end with capitulation when Angel (how Boreanaz has really captured that character to perfection and has grown so much since S1 of Buffy) orders him to “get up”. Wes’ disenchantment, coming from superior knowledge (his recollection of Lilah’s death, his earlier love for Fred and her own love for Gunn) acts as a pointed arrow and distils his rage into the fight he must have. Whilst I thought he might survive (he certainly wanted to: “I have no actual intention of dying tonight:), I understood that his heroics wouldn’t be enough against such a monster. Perhaps those last dying moments were the best he’d experienced in a vast life -at least it seemed it was vast and bleak, in its bitter sorrow.

    Spike’s confidence and his brand of irony and humour were a perfect foil to Angel’s need for forgiveness and atonement. They bounce off the walls with each other and the episode, The Girl in Question, is a stage for their rivalry. I was surprised by this episode, actually, thinking the writing team would have been better served using that 3rd last episode as a kind of trilogy to the ending but I can see Whedon needing a ‘farewell’ to the parent show. Having them on a quest for the capo’s head, all the while seeing Buffy’s blonde twisting hair as she maniacally dances ( a memory of the Bronze ), is as far as they can ever get to her and that sums it up really -neither man could ever have Buffy: perfect happiness for Angel keeps their friendship necessarily platonic and Spike’s disastrous obsession in S6 is a great contraceptive device.

    It serves, though, to underline the concept for me (and Boy Ilion) that the best relationships can exist outside of the skewed complicated and envious ones involving sex. American shows and definitely Australian serials determine love as sex. Platonic friendships seem to devour the essence of what is good -at least that is how these relationships and the people in them are depicted at the moment (see ‘Hiding’). A relationship based on something other than sexual desire can have implications of closeness and depth and I think we saw that as Whedon experimented with the usual stereotypical tropes in Buffy and in Angel where Xander, as ‘strong male’ is a ‘maiden in distress’ and ‘wants’ Buffy. Their relationship, unlike hers and Spike’s or Xander’s and Anya’s is a strong well developed friendship, which reminded me of Seinfeld.  🙂

    I enjoyed the previous seasons of Angel as he had a consistent loyal friendship with Cordelia. I’m not saying everything has to be platonic -certainly the last episode of Cordelia’s, underwrites the great love they would have shared (if Connor hadn’t been there and Cordelia hadn’t carried the spawn of the undead!) had she continued in the show but it required complicated writing to explore the narrative of true and lasting friendships between men and women which can stay platonic. It’s not easy to do and yet I could see the spark of that between say, Spike and Fred, first as she’s trying to make Spike corporeal and later, after her death, with Spike’s determination to fight for her soul  -it also brings in that perfectly timed humour (at a moment when we’re all devastated) with Spike pummelling Illyria half to death -because that’s how he solves just about every problem.

    I certainly loved the ending. Does it suggest they all die? Possibly and probably, but, as you say, it is about the battle not the ending. The good fight goes on serving as majestic parable. The constancy of routines, the loyalty to group (an awful lesson for Gunn certainly), friends as family, never giving in and never giving up (now, that’s familiar!). I don’t think that’s a bad way to live. If we all did that, just occasionally -and this reveals the naivety of my own particular fatal flaw – then there might just be more winnable battles. And Los Angeles wouldn’t be home to demons (or celebrities, which, with their addiction to battles of the cosmetic kind would mean they’d look more human than monster).

    Thank you, Jim, for a terrific set of blogs. Puro.

     

  2. @purofilion

    Right, my web connection reset just as I was posting this, so this will be a hastily reconstructed from memory job.

    RE. Wesley. I think it’s important to remember with Wesley is that the guiding principle of his life was facing up to the hard choices — something that goes way back to s3 of Buffy and his ‘taking the fight to the Mayor’ and continuing through his time in LA. He says to Illyria that he doesn’t want to see Fred manifested because ‘that would be a lie’. And yet in the end this is precisely what he chooses. After a life of facing up to reality, no matter how painful that is, he chooses delusion. After being one of the most determined, hardiest fighters, Wes gives up. It’s not just death he faces, it’s utter defeat.

    I do still think it’s such a shame that we never saw bad-ass Wesley make a trip back to Sunnydale. It would have been nice to see how the Scoobies and Giles reacted to this battle-hardened version. The sheer torment that the character is put through makes him to me one of the most interesting and enduring characters in the Buffiverse. (It was interesting during the s3 Buffy rewatch to see the reactions to him as a new character while myself being jaded by the knowledge of what the future held for him. Same with Faith.)

    On a lighter note, I forgot to mention how much I love Spike’s scene in the poetry slam. Aside from a nice call-back to Buffy’s Fool for Love, it  it proves that Spike isn’t William The Bloody Awful Poet. He’s actually Spike the pretty good poet — it just took the world a 100-odd years to get that.

    And thanks for wading through both series and the blogs (oddly s4 of both series seem to be something of a slog). I’ve enjoyed writing them and revisiting these shows. And it’s been a real joy to read your reactions to these shows. It’s been terrific to see these shows again through fresh eyes. Can’t say how much I’ve enjoyed that.

    You’re probably all Whedon-ed  — and who could blame you? — out but I really would implore you to take a look at Firefly. It’s got a number of things to recommend it. One, it’s a fairly short hit, with only 13 episodes in total. It’s also got some of Joss’s finest work — and I’d say the last truly great thing he’s produced to date. There are no bad episodes at all here. It also has a nice, funny, tight ensemble that to me is highly reminiscent of the early seasons of Buffy. (Plus it’s fun seeing all those faces we’ve seen pop up over the last months in Buffy/Angel in a new setting,) And while it’s tonally very different, it also covers a lot of the same themes as the vampire shows — family (real and adopted), belonging, ‘monsters are real’, redemption, personal responsibility. Also it’s very funny and sometimes scary as hell.

    Regardless, I’ve just started my own rewatch and will blog on it at some point.

  3. @jimthefish

    I forgot about Spike’s poetry. I shouldn’t have….@pedant reminded me…oh, about three seasons ago that Spike would demo some excellent poetry at last….and when it came..well, then the tears started to fall. But it was all so funny at the same time. No real dribbling pathos.

    I was shocked about poor Lorne. I guess I should say “yay, he lives, still” but at what cost. He was always “you know, killing aint my thing, sweetie” and to hear him plaintively say “good night folks” I wondered: would we see him again? But no, best not. A sad thing in the end taking on W&H & believing they could win.

    When  Eve failed they had to send a strong tough guy and yet, if Eve’s also immortal she should also be as strong as Jayne, no? Presumably not. It would have powered down the story I suppose and perhaps, W&H, threatened,  construct a Power Ranger out of Jayne (if that’s his name: not sure).

    Still thinking.

    Absolutely on Fire Fly. Apparently, Boy Ilion’s teacher loves Firefly and the Whedonverse and we’re keen to move on to that.

    Hopefully JB Hi-Fi will have that next! These weird ‘subscribe to my channels’ never works for me -passwords are usually ‘a fail’ -I’m probably being hacked! I must try Netflix. I actually thought Netflix sold only porn. Clearly not.

  4. @purofilion — yes, Lorne’s end is just wrenching. Given what we’ve known of the character to see him so brutalised and defeated at the end is a kind of ‘worse than death’ scenario. Like Wesley, it’s an utter defeat of his Self. Despite Anya’s death, the Buffy finale ended on a note of triumph, of hope for the future. It’s interesting to note how much the Angel one has defiance and despair threaded through it. Look at the last act, the bad guys are all more or less easily despatched, but that’s not really the point. Lorne (Lorne!!) has committed murder, destroying what’s left of his carefree soul, Wesley has been stabbed to death, choosing delusion over reality in his dying moments, Illyria has finally learned grief (the taste that so disgusted her on her first arrival. She finally learns what it is she has done when she killed Fred), Gunn has become the very thing he hates and the survivors are all waiting in an alley for a fight that they know they’re probably not going to win. There’s not much triumph or hope going on here.

    A sixth season would have been very different. It was to be set in a post-apocalypse LA — one where the demons have overrun and occupied it and with Angel and his crew hiding in the shadows and in the rubble. It would have been very different from everything that came before and while I kinda like the idea of it, I think the show ended on a perfect note. It basically set out its mission statement in season two and s5 and Not Fade Away seem to have done the job of finalising and delivering on that statement. Anything beyond it strikes me as superfluous and potentially diminishing.

    I think Eve says that she’s just a girl and Hamilton clearly isn’t (Jayne is Adam Baldwin’s character in Firefly). I guess the Senior Partners felt they needed to up the game a bit with someone they could trust after Eve’s betrayal.

    Netflix is great, I think btw. My shortlist on it now looks like it will comfortably outlive me by a significant margin. In the UK anyway, it’s also got the AG Who up to the first half of Matt’s final season now. But good to hear you’re up for Firefly. You’ll love it, I think. It’s actually worth getting the boxset, which is cheap as chips anyway, because the commentaries are some of the best Joss has recorded and it’s got a bucketful of other cool extras too.

  5. @purofilion @JimTheFish  Thanks Jim so much for writing these brilliant, insightful blogs – and to Puro for the equally insightful response.  Wonderful to see these series that I love so much through other eyes, and the two viewpoints, Jim steeped in the Whedonverse and Buffy lore, Puro coming to it fresh and responding both analytically and emotionally.  It’s been fabulous, and I kind of hope we’ll be going through a similar process with Firefly if you’ve both got the energy…  We’ve got time to do that before August, yes?

     

  6. @CathAnnabel ooh my, yes to Firefly. I think jim has already started his re-watch and I’ve yet to purchase the box set (doomed to watch till end of time etc..) which Jim explains has some terrific commentaries. Also, there’s Filion and Tores so I can’t wait.

    It has been a joy watching The Buffy Verse -a real imaginative experience. Loved every minute -even the occasional duff episode. Made me think of a proud person watching a little child who is clowning around the stage: you just enjoy it anyway.

    Loved your own responses too. You know much more about it having been steeped in the Buffy Lore for longer. As I explained, November was the first time I knew anything about it!

    Still, fresh eyes on many things.

  7. @cathannabel and @purofilion

    Shiny. And thanks for the kind words.

    Alright, let’s crack on with Firefly then. I’m only one or two episodes in at the moment but already I’m struck by just how sparkling the scripts are. Full of zingy one-liners and great character beats. Having come straight out of later seasons of Buffy and Angel, it feels like maybe the writers, while still doing fine work, were getting a little bored and jaded with those characters and situations and having an entirely new world to play with gave them a real shot in the arm…

  8. @JimTheFish @CathAnnabel

    I had a great phone conversation with the fella at the DVD counter about the Whedon universe. He has a copy of Firefly at the counter so I should have that tomorrow and after that, Serenity? He was born in the later ’90s but has eagerly watched Buffy and Angel and proudly labels himself as a ‘nerd’.

    Onwards! Puro.

  9. After watching 5×16 (Shells), I’m stunned. Season 5 of Angel is close to topping my favorite Buffy S6. Just kidding, but it is the best season of Angel so far, imo.

    Spike’s back!! At first he’s a ghost and can’t do anything… err, Huzzah?? But Ghost Spike is hilarious and so is Harmony. They both give the show a boost when it needed it, mostly because Cordy was gone.

    My least favorite story of the entire run is 5×06 (Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco) – but looking back, that story does make more sense. Just like what happened to Numero Cinco’s brothers, I really thought Angel was turning into the Angel Comedy Hour. Especially after Angel turned into a puppet!! I actually said “What the hell am I watching?!” Then I was glued in wide eyed amazement as puppets turned into the greatest things I’ve ever seen!!

    As if?! Missy is the Dinosaur wasn’t bonkers enough, well, now I’m wishing the Doctor turns into a puppet too! 😕

    When 5×15 started, right after Smile Time (puppets), I was watching Fred’s stuffed rabbit like it was going to do something. Then Angel comes onto the screen with the worst sword joke and I almost turned it off. It started off at the lowest possible expectations and turned out possibly the best 2 episodes.

    Cordy’s story was painful, but mistress of pain was working overtime on Fred!! .

    I can’t believe they cancelled this show after this season. It’s definitely my favorite so far. I’m worried that Angel won’t be able to top 5×16 for the finale, but I can’t wait to see what happens next.

  10. @barnable — yes, I have a lot of love for season five and I think A Hole in the World/Shells is possibly my favourite two episodes of either show. Certainly Fred’s death is the most affecting regular cast death of any show in the Whedonverse for me.

    A puppet Doctor episode? Actually I’d quite like to see that and while it would no doubt be met with howls of protest from the ‘but it’s not proper SF’ brigade, there’s no reason that a show that travelled to the Land of Fiction and has a character called the Dream Lord couldn’t make that work. Especially since only this week SM wasn’t ruling out a musical episode.

    In the meantime, we do have Puppet Doctor though…

    RE. Smile Time though, I’m not as massive a fan as some but it’s still a lovely little episode — worth it alone for Angel’s complaint “I’m made of felt. And my nose comes off’. Know what you mean about Numero Cinco. On my first couple of viewings I never really liked it that much. But on this rewatch, I enjoyed it much more. And, yes, it does a lot of work of foregrounding what’s to come in the latter half of the season. As does Lineage. They’re not as filler-ey as one might first think.

  11. @Barnable @JimTheFish

    “yes, I have a lot of love for season five and I think A Hole in the World/Shells is possibly my favourite two episodes of either show. Certainly Fred’s death is the most affecting regular cast death of any show in the Whedonverse for me.”

    I agree with Jim there: absolutely.

    I loved A Hole in the World. And I’ve only watched the Tale of Numero Cinco once and wasn’t really impressed! But I’m willing to give it another chance -definitely.

    So many of Angel’s episodes left me very sad  but also teary because I was weirdly happy: such marvellous writing does that to me occasionally.

     

     

  12. @jimthefish – thanks for the Doctor Puppet video.

    Smile Time… worth it alone for Angel’s complaint “I’m made of felt. And my nose comes off’.

    Yes! Angel’s puppet is the funniest one. He’s still brooding. LOL

    I think CapDoc would make a great puppet, because he is serious like Angel. If it ever happens, there’s a chance the troll fans will all be speechless from shock.

    Yes! Fred’s send off is the best ever. A Hole in the World/Shells easily wins the mistress-of-pain category in the Whedonverse. I like mistress-of-pain when it’s a surprise, but not so much on re-watch, so I don’t know if it will stay high on my favorite list.

    Fred changing into Illyria is even better than Wesley into Wes. Amy Acker is amazing when she changes back and forth (scary good) in The Girl in Question. But for me, nothing will beat the Oh-shit-factor when Dark Willow shows up. Both win best ever. XD

    I have 2 more episodes of Angel left to watch. . I’m still don’t know how it’s going to end, or even what the story arcs are building towards. Angel’s seasons feel like a roller coaster ride that could fly off the rails anytime. I have no idea where Angel is going, but it’s so much fun that I’m not sure I care. That is making it really tough to rate Angel by the seasons, even though I think there are a lot of Angel episodes that stack up to the best Buffy episodes.

    I thought Lineage was good. The twist ending surprised me and was my favorite part. Although, the story arcs didn’t get affected much, it didn’t seem like filler episode like Numero Cinco did, because it followed up on the loose thread with Wesley and his father.

    There’s a chance my Angel season ratings will go up after watching it again sometime.  I will know where it’s going then and can see if it makes more sense.

  13. The finale made the whole season better, imo and it was already my favorite Angel season. I thought S5 was mostly unconnected stand alone episodes, client of the week, and most of those were comedies. But the comedy was like a disguised DW season arc. Angel S5 didn’t even show there was “a crack” until the penultimate!! That usually makes endings feel like they cheated, or rushed, but not this time. All the clues were there the whole time, and the explanation pulling all the pieces together made sense. So I think that’s fair and impressive.

    My favorite part is how the characters’ threads were resolved. Jimthefish’s explanations for Wes and Lorne are spot on and couldn’t be written better. Please don’t compare my writing to that, but here is my take on Illyria and Angel.

    Angel’s mission statement is.

    All I want to do is help. I want to help because I don’t think people should suffer as they do, because if there’s no bigger meaning, then the smallest act of kindness is the greatest thing in the world.

    I think Illyria fulfills it instead of Angel.

    When Illyria changes into Fred for Wesley that was her small act of kindness, seeing Wesley suffering changed her and she decided all she wanted to do is help people. It was like Cordy passing her vision powers to Angel. Wesley was a tragic character but he also always tried to help people, so that was his superpower that he passed on to Illyria.

    My only complaint, with the finale is Angel saying the line:

    Personally, I just want to slay the dragon.

    That is not Angel. That should have been Spike’s line!

    Well, that’s what I thought at first. But now, it’s not a complaint. I think it makes the ending even better. Here’s what makes that work for me.

    Angel knew that “slaying the dragon” was exactly what Spike was thinking, so Angel was taking one last dig at Spike by stealing his line, just like Spike tried to steal his destiny.

    Spike: I fought for my soul, went through the demon trials. Almost did me in a dozen times over but I kept fighting. ‘Cause I knew it was the right thing to do. It’s my destiny.

    That’s Spike’s story of ‘how he got his soul back’. Things didn’t happen exactly how Spike says it did. Imo, Spike asked the demon to “change him back” into the Vampire he was before he got chipped, and he was surprised to get his soul back instead.
    “I kept fighting. ‘Cause I knew it was the right thing to do. It’s my destiny”. That’s Angel’s thing, Spike just hates to lose is why he kept fighting. So Spike was just trying to piss Angel off by saying that at the grail fight. Spike might have really believed it was his Destiny, but I think the grail fight had more to do with wanting to beat Angel.

    At the finale, Angel definitely knows Spike fights even better with a challenge. That’s how Spike got his soul back (that part of his story was true) and Spike beat Angel to the grail. So Spike would never let Angel get to that Dragon first. The rivalry lives on!!
    I agree @JimtheFish, Angel the show did go out on top, and Buffy’s final season was a step backward. Although in defense of Buffy S7 stepping backward, I think that was not a mistake. The real mistake was cancelling Buffy before the awesome S8 and S9 could be made.

    Apologies for going of topic, but I got to explain why I think cancelling Buffy after S7 was so terrible.

    • Buffy had story arcs that went in trilogies. 1,2,3…4,5,6…7… 8,9 would finish the last trilogy.
    • My ratings of Buffy seasons fit a pattern. S1<S4<S7<S2<S3<S5<S6… next would be S6<S8<S9.

    By this pattern, the first season of the trilogy is always the weakest and takes a step back, but it’s better than the previous first season of the trilogy. For example, S4 was a step back from S3, but it was better than S1.  Compared to S1 and S4, S7 was a great first part of the last trilogy. S1 and S4 set the expectations kinda low then the trilogy built up to great finales like S3 and S6. Since S7 started off so great already, just imagine how awesome S8 and S9 would have been… And they cancelled it?! Arrrgh!!

    Okay, I feel better, back to Angel. XD

    Angel’s ending to S5 had everything in it (except no slayers?! But that’s cool because it was left open ended for dramatic affect. Andrew and the slayers probably showed up to help fight the hoards just as Angel, Spike, Gunn, and Illyria were wearing out. So they definitely win). 🙂

    Now I will have to read the graphic novel to find out what really happened. I’m a little worried about it reaching my expectations though.  I’m gonna wait a while.

  14. @barnable — good points on Illyria. She has definitely learned something since her rebirth and it’s definitely Wes that’s been an influence on her.

    Not sure about the Slayers coming into save the day though. Think I said on another blog that Buffy’s proximity constantly threatened to overshadow Angel. She was still too close geographically for us to wonder why she didn’t jump on a bus any time there was an LA-centric apocalypse on the go. But I think it was important that Buffy or the Slayers didn’t show up and save Angel at the last minute. He has to stand tall and on his own and not be bailed out at the last minute because that would negate the whole point of the show, I think. Indeed, I think SMG was keen to come back in the final episode and have such a function but Joss nixed it because it had to be Angel’s moment, not Buffy’s.

    Besides which, Buffy was always about victories. Even against overwhelming odds, she always wins ‘we just saved the world from ending. I say we party’. Angel, especially at the end, is not about victory. It’s been repeatedly established that victory is not an option. It’s about how you conduct yourself on the battlefield regardless of the outcome.

    Similarly, I get where you’re coming from with the last line too. (And I like the idea that Angel says it just to piss Spike off.) But apart from the fact that Angel has to get the last line because it’s his show (it’d be a bit much if Spike just rocks up in the last season and steals the title character’s big payoff line) but also because it’s consistent with Angel’s attempts (and often failures) to define himself as The Hero.

    But even though it’s not canon with the post s5 graphic novels (which I’m sure you’ll enjoy), I still think they all die at the end.

  15. @Barnable @JimTheFish @CathAnnabel

    I think Buffy had nowhere to go really after S7.

    Even in 7 there was really a boat load of mucking about and ‘waiting’ for a final big, bigger bad -“bigger than ever.” I liked the idea of every girl having the slayer gene and once that was ordained through the special blade and blended with Willow’s new meditative White Witch powers, Buffy was in the final of a marathon run. And it did that brilliantly with the newly consecrated slayers ready to fight the earliest and most tenacious of vampires.

    That Sunnydale had to collapse into its own pit, signified the end.  Rarely, I think does good telly go beyond 7 years (eerm: cough: ignoring Who for a moment).

    Even The West Wing lasted for 7 years with some pretty dramatic changes in characterisation (some for the worst) and other fundamental movements in plot saved by superlative and potent acting by the August Alan Alda. I haven’t seen House beyond Season 5 but I feel ER and Supernatural just repeated themes and memes until dull tedium set in.

    If novels and graphic art helped build Buffydom then that’s a great thing: it allows for professionals in other genres to stimulate something that could be seen as tired and ‘finished’. Speaking of tired, SMG and Alysson Hannigan were totally exhausted: pushed daily from the age of 15 or 16 til 26, SMG commented on how it was her entire life, “there was nothing else; no time for anything else. I had no boyfriends, went to few parties and missed many family anniversaries and events. I was physically wrecked by the end of it and wanted it to be over.  I owe it my life, though.”

    Maybe you could continue Buffy without SMG but I don’t think that’s possible: she was larger than life and grew in perception and consciousness in that role. It was an unforgiving role in many ways; she had to undergo complete change in S6 and by seven was treading water, stomping off and speechifying, so by episode 22 I was waiting for the end as my mind wandered to Angel and my eyes became restless  -but those eyes weren’t dry!

    The last two episodes were nostalgic and sentimental for me. I found myself re-visiting the themes, characters and metaphors which spoke to me, personally and disarmingly, right through S5. Joss was unparalleled at sleight of hand: with little money, young enthusiastic actors and a suspicious set of studio execs, I’m amazed he jumped the obstacles in order to make it at all!

    Considering I’d only heard of it in November, 2015, I was astounded at how much I’d learnt watching Whedon work and picking up on his lovable characters and his choice of actors -the latter to me virtually unknown.

    What I love about Buffy is that it lives on in its provocative discussions: episodes are woven into almost freakish academic treatises which profile the characters and polarise the community of telly watchers and critics. It’s been heralded for its post-modern, feminist, social, ethical, girl-power, undemonising thematic brief as well as being “conservative, Manichean, paternalist, racist, sexist and classist” (and ageist no doubt!). Neal King obliterates any love for the show by salivating about the “vigilante fascist down the street, leading the forces of “good” against a host of “evil” others….” The Scoobies, in King’s belief, are “defenders of a vicious human nationalism that won’t stop goose slaying their way through Sunnydale until every “evil” vamp, demon” etc is dead. And deader.”

    To me Buffy lives on when I hear “goose slaying”. It leaves me muttering about academic nutters who dig about for facts to suit their precious theories but it also makes me laugh hard: and that’s damn fine!

    Buffy’s never over.

  16. @jimthefish – Your post is worth reading if only for

    it’d be a bit much if Spike just rocks up in the last season and steals the title character’s big payoff line.

    Agreed, Spike would’ve ruined the whole show if that happened. Even soulless Spike wouldn’t be that cold to Angel. It really was genius giving that line to Angel and not Spike.

    I’m glad you liked the Illyria theory; I was amazed how good it seemed to fit what happened.

    Angel, especially at the end, is not about victory. It’s been repeatedly established that victory is not an option.

    I think you nailed the difference between Angel and Buffy’s shows. I agree Angel is not about victories like Buffy. They would’ve named it Buffy 2. But even without victory, there are 2 possible outcomes for Angel’s open ending, Death and Draw. If draw is not possible, then it’s not an open ending at all. That would ruin the show because avoiding the deaths would be a copout.

    Angel and his friends (even plus all the slayers) defeating all-the-evil-in-the-universe, might seem like a long shot, maybe it’s only a billion-billion to one. So I admit, you could be right about the death thing. 🙂

    It’s fair to assume the hoards did represent all evil. In that case it would be a copout too, if Angel managed to win, because they didn’t show how Angel and crew managed to do the impossible defeat all evil.

    Angel knows that victory over all-evil-in-the-universe is impossible, they could defeat the hoards and it still wouldn’t be a victory over W&H (all evil). But I think the hoards were just hoards, so a victory over them is possible with some help. That would be a draw, since Angel would still keep fighting against all evil with no chance of winning.

    A draw is a good ending for Angel, because Angel “keeps fighting ‘Cause it was the right thing to do.’ He signed away his destiny already, so his hope of becoming human again is gone and the outcome is irrelevant for Angel. They are all immortal so they could fight forever and ever and ever… (Except Gunn must get vamped? or else he would die).

    Buffy’s proximity constantly threatened to overshadow Angel.

    I didn’t have a hard time believing Buffy was too busy to help out in LA, but I know what you mean; Angel had a hard time getting out from under the shadow of Buffy the show. So I agree, Buffy not showing up to bale Angel out was definitely a good thing.

    Andrew is not a hero like Buffy, so it wouldn’t be the same if he showed up to help. Plus, Buffy didn’t lose her Hero-cred when the slayers helped her defeat a hoard. To me it’s not much different than his other friends helping him fight. But I mainly thought about the slayers helping out because they were part of s5 and didn’t get used.

    That being said, it’s possible the slayers showing up might ruin the show if not done right, just like Spike saying the dragon line would have. That’s why I like that they left it open ended. It is a perfect ending for Angel the show.

    But even though it’s not canon with the post s5 graphic novels (which I’m sure you’ll enjoy), I still think they all die at the end.

    I do understand that, since I think onscreen out weighs written form for TV shows. Thanks for recommending the graphic novels; I will try to read them. If I thought the characters all died on screen, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t. So now I’m just hoping the graphic novels don’t say they all died. 😕

  17. @purofilion I always felt Buffy was complete at the end of S7 . I was quite glad we didn’t really see her in the last series of Angel, although the storyline was tantalising.  It’s not that there were no loose ends, or that everyone we were interested in was dead, but there was a deeply satisfying sense of (I was going to use the word closure which I have come to hate) completion, with the potentials activated (I won’t go into another rhapsody about how glorious that scene is, but hey…) and Sunnydale/hellmouth caved in.  For every series that is guillotined too soon (Firefly) there are others which limp on endlessly after all invention and imaginative spark has expired, and I’m thankful that did not happen to Buffy – my love for the series is unsullied by some later series that one has to try to forget (I’m thinking movie sequels here as well).  I thought Angel had jumped the shark but it was redeemed in the final series and the final episode stands tall and proud.  I have to confess the graphic novels are entirely unexplored territory for me – it’s not snobbery about the medium, it’s at least partly for the reasons noted above.

  18. @CathAnnabel

    I quite agree: I haven’t read any of the Whedonverse in novel form either. I feel Buffy7 was deliciously done -there were the tired episodes and Buffy herself was tired at points but after it finished Angel had its own moment of success and was triumphant – with quite different goals: to fight the good fight because it’s never over. It’s in the campaign; in the fighting that personal success and small group success occurs and within the little victories that human kind is identified

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