Angel

ANGEL Season Four DVD Collection REVIEW

oss Whedon himself claims Season four to be the best of the Angel series’ five-year run and it’s not hard to understand why. It was an ambitious season that brought fans even deeper into the mythos of the show and rewarded them with some amazing revelations, changes, and shifts in allegiances. With Jeffrey Bell at the reins, he did an outstanding job of keeping the quality intact and making sure the complicated arc stayed the course. It was clearly evident that the team of scribes really gelled and connected with one another. Visually, the look of the show was outstanding. Director of Photography, Ross Berryman, made the look so rich and sumptuous using the saturated blacks and vivid reflective colors of the frequent nighttime settings to full advantage. Rob Hall’s Almost Human Special Effects Studio also pulled out all the makeup stops with a creative array of creepy monsters, zombies, and demons culminating in his stunning design work on The Beast. And stunt coordinator, Mike Massa, had an impressive year choreographing some amazing and eye-popping action sequences in Apocalypse Now-ish, Salvage, Release, and Peace Out.

Angel Season Four DVD Collection from Fox Home Entertainment

Overall, the seasonal arc was building from the moment the series returned. While it was slowly percolating from Deep Down through Spin the Bottle, all hell broke loose (literally) in Apocalypse Now-ish and the freight train storyline never stopped until the end of the season. Joss and company also weaved a myriad of mini-arcs into the main story, which forced fans to pay attention and keep up or be left behind. There were prophecies, old personalities and the mother of all misdirects thrown in as well - enough to make a fan dizzy but it was delicious fun making heads and tails of it throughout the season. It certainly didn’t make for light, frothy fun but it was captivating storytelling of which we won’t see the likes of again on Angel. The episode Home was the foundation for a fundamental shift in direction for the show which is itself, deliciously intriguing. Our champion now runs the monster, which he has battled for four seasons. Angel is head of Wolfram & Hart. No one could have seen that coming after such a devastating year for Angel and his family, one that broke them apart and made them question their trust and loyalties.

 Tara DiLullo (CoA Season Four Overview)

FACTS ET DETAILS

Released on September 7, 2004, the Season Four DVD Collection set from Fox Home Entertainment contains all 22-episodes along with several bonus features and multiple commentaries for a complete running time of 990-minutes, including highlighted interviews with featured cast and crew members. Season four’s main cast: David Boreanaz, Alexis Denisof, Charisma Carpenter, Amy Acker, J. August Richards, Vincent Kartheiser, and Andy Hallett. The supporting cast consisted of: Stephanie Romanov (Lilah Morgan), Alexa Davalos (Gwen Raiden), Vladimir Kulich (The Beast), Eliza Dushku (Faith), Gina Torres (Jasmine), and Alyson Hannigan (Willow Rosenberg).

All 22-episodes of Angel are compiled within a Six Discs set (letter box: aspect ratio 1.78:1).
The following is the breakdown for each Disc:

# Disc One Episodes: Deep Down
Ground State
The House Always Wins with optional commentary by David Fury and Andy Hallett
Slouching Toward Bethlehem

# Disc Two Episodes: Supersymmetry
Spin the Bottle with optional commentary by Joss Whedon and Alexis Denisof
Apocalypse, Now-ish with optional commentary by Vern Gillum and Steven DeKnight
Habeas Corpses
Featurette: Angel and the Apocalypse

# Disc Three Episodes:
Long Day’s Journey
Awakening
Soulless

# Disc Four Episodes:
Calvary
Salvage
Release
Orpheus with optional commentary by Terrence O’Hara and Jeffrey Bell

# Disc Five Episodes:
Players
Inside Out with optional commentary by Steven DeKnight
Shiny Happy People
The Magic Bullet with optional commentary by Jeffrey Bell

# Disc Six Episodes:
Sacrifice
Peace Out
Home with optional commentary by Tim Minear

Additional Featurettes include:
Prophecies: Season 4 Overview
Unplugged: Season 4 Outtakes
Last Looks: The Hyperion Hotel
Fatal Beauty and the Beast
Malice in Wonderland: Wolfram & Hart

VIDEO QUALITY: Region 1 formatting (U.S. and Canada only), Angel’s Aspect Ratio (1.78:1), having changed over the first three seasons, is presented for Season four in Anamorphic Widescreen in this DVD set. The video quality remains exceptionally good with vibrant colors and the ability to maintain the dark noir mood of the series as broadcast. The only area lacking in video quality are the outtakes which tend to be grainy. Depending on your personal DVD system the tour of the Hyperion can tend to push the red tones a little. The set is in full-color, and provides closed-captions.

AUDIO QUALITY: Layers: 1. Available subtitles: English, French, Spanish - all in Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround Sound. The sound editors have made for exciting audio accompaniment to viewing by providing ambient and special effects covered by secondary speakers while the dialogue are focused on the main speakers. The score tracks are also intermingled and pan the speakers to follow the action and offer dramatic effect.

FROM THE EQUINE’S MAW

The House Always Wins Episode three with David Fury & Andy Hallett

Fury, who wrote and produced this Lorne-centric episode, begins his commentary by explaining that The House Always Wins establishes the characters early on ’emotionally’ and that the episode was a way to remind viewers that Connor, although not integral to the story, is indeed Angel Jr. The viewer will enjoy the humorous recounts of filming in Vegas that David and Andy offer; one being the Lorne Vegas sign: "When I showed up for the shoot it said, ’The Velvet Green Frog,’" recalls David, "and I said, ’No, that’s not quite what I had in mind - velvet fog melt away, velvet green frog, that’s Kermit the Frog." Joining in, Andy laughs, "Oh, I would have died if I had saw frog! That is hysterical." As David talks about the mini-musical, when we first see Lorne on stage singing, watch for the first over-the-shoulder shot into the audience. In the front row are Fury himself with Petra Jorgensen (Angel’s script supervisor). "I’m holding a little miniature Kelly Manners, our producer. Someone had made a little, miniature bobble-head Kelly." Andy admits, "This is my favorite moment of all, when the curtains open. I remember when we were recording, I said, ’I have to hit the highest note here, I will not let these girls sing over me,’" he laughs.

"She’s the best screamer I ever had." Joss on Charisma in Spin the Bottle "We shot from six at night to six in the morning for five nights," recalls David. "And it was really extra exciting because of the live energy in Vegas. People watching us on the street," adds Andy. David admits, "It was like a movie shoot, we were real stars, people recognizing you guys." Also giving props to the fans, Andy informs, "I also thought it was neat that some of the real dedicated viewers knew we were going there and planned trips to be there at the same time." In the opening of the second Act we see Wesley in his apartment, David explains that he come up a few minutes short in the episode so Joss wrote this added scene to fill in the needed slot. One highlight revolved around Amy, as a Lornette, during Lorne’s dressing room escape scene. Andy explains, "We talked a great deal before she did this. She did this a bunch of time and she kept coming back and saying, ’Andy I have to over act and act bad can you give me any tips?’" he laughs. Take notice in Act three, during the soul-trading room scene on the scrolling banner that reads: DEAL WITH DISNEY TO RUN NEW ABC SERIES... "That was specifically a little ’shout out’ to David Greenwalt who had left Angel to go run a series for Disney on ABC," tells Fury of this inside joke.

Spin the Bottle Episode six with Joss Whedon & Alexis Denisof

Alexis talks about the return of Buffy-daze Wesley Joss opens by explaining how this episode came about while talking with Alexis, "We were reminiscing about the days when he was a complete idiot, a bumbling moron [referring to Wesley, of course] and so we thought we wanted to see old-school Wesley but also cool, new-school Wesley." In the opening teaser where Cordy asks Angel if they were in love, Joss points out a little problem in continuity as this scene picks up where the previous episode (Supersymmetry) had left off. Not only had David cut his hair in the time between the two episodes, but a wound on his cheek miraculously had disappeared, much to the chagrin of makeup artist Dayne Johnson who Alexis gives a ribbing to. This episode’s commentary is outstanding from a directorial point-of-view. Both Joss and Alexis explain what shots are used and why, from one-ers (one continuous shot of the camera with no cuts) to pushes (fast moving zoom shot) and screen wipes keeping the feel of the oddness of the story as well as a post-modern creative look. In Act one, just as the spell is delivered, Joss explains, "This was also a way of keeping it somewhat different from Tabula Rasa, the Buffy episode where they lose their memory. Instead of blacking out I decided that they would all do mushrooms." Alexis joins in laughing, "Yes, that was his note, ’Just imagine that the drugs are kicking in. Fred just experiencing the tree."

Joss goes on to compliment our noir-girl Friday, "This was some of the most fun I got to have with Charisma in a long time, because she had become so noble and then tortured and then memory loss and to get her to play the stuff she used to play back in the first couple of years of Buffy was just such a treasure. And you are such a punce! Head-boy," jokes Joss to Alexis. "Yeah, what a prick," admits Alexis of his character, "I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. It was a real challenge for us all to treat each other as if we had no history together," he explains, "Very hard after four years to go back and remove the comfort the characters had developed for each other." In the opening of the third Act, when Angel leaves the hotel only to discover ’shiny demons’ [cars] outside, Joss and Alexis explain that a short three-minute scene took an extra hour and a half to film due to a giggle-fest which took over the cast. "I blame you sir," accuses Alexis. "David and Alexis could not stop laughing," offers Joss, "As a result not one of us, myself included, could not stop laughing. When they talk, they could not look at each other, they literally had to look away and then Amy would lose it." You can see both David and Amy having a hard time keeping composure when Alexis gets punched by J. August. In the closer, Alexis admits, "Towards the end of the shoot, I remember feeling a genuine profound sadness of this week of frivolity and all of us having the fun, going back."

Apocalypse, Now-ish Episode seven with Vern Gillum & Steven DeKnight

Introducing, The Beast. Steve explains, due to scheduling, this episode had to contain a lot more information than originally planned even to the point of the costuming. Both Vern (director) and Steve (writer) give great compliment to Vincent Kartheiser for his professionalism and ability to bring much to his character when on screen as well as off-camera. "You can bet the family fortune on this kid, he can really do it," states Vern. In the opening of Act one, Fred and Gunn are investigating Apocalyptic events around town. "I sadly was not on set for the rat section. By design of course," admits Steve, "How was J. with the rats?" Vern laughs, "J. is terrified by rats, just like his character. This is the nicest guy in the world and it was just torment for him beyond anything you could imagine." Vern is another director who loves a one-er (to see how far he can go with a shot before he has to cut) and both he and Steve will point out interesting shots that enhance both the scene and the characters. In the opening of Act two, more evil omens ascend upon Gunn and Lorne when sparrows kamikaze into the Hyperion front doors. "You wanted J. to touch that bird and he wouldn’t have anything to do with it. Off screen we have people with the bird cannons and other guys with the paintball guns," Steve recalls.

In the scene where Angel confronts Lilah at Wolfram & Hart, take notice of what David is holding in his hand. "You see that David is holding his script in his left hand," exposes Vern, "that little day-runner. Every time we would cut he’d open that up." Steve admits, "He is ingenious." You can see David glance at this script as he delivers his last line of the scene. Where we see the arrival of The Beast, Steve explains, "The Beast is in a pit and he comes up on a scissor lift and we had to cut around it because he bursts up." Scott Workman is in the full-suit shots while Vladimir Kulich was in the close-ups for this scene. Another point to take into consideration in the fight scene was the fact that Charisma was pregnant and had to be very careful with her stunts. Where the Angel Investigation gang puts the pieces of the W&H papers puzzle together and Lorne shows a matching symbol on the map of L.A., Steve laughs, "Here comes my one artistic contribution to the episode, I actually put the dots on that map. Notice my fine, fine dot work." The final fight scene took two full days to shoot and certainly a highlight is a stunt by Mike Massa (stunt coordinator) as explained by Steve, "We thought that Mike would have to do the flip up onto the ledge, we thought we’d have to do it in pieces and he comes to us and say, ’No, I can do it in one take,’ and sure enough, take after take, he flips backward up on that wire. Everybody was just dumbfounded, just truly amazing."

Orpheus Episode 15 with Terrence O’Hara & Jeffrey Bell

Orpheus, written by Mere Smith, picks up as the second-parter to Release where Angelus, having battled a recently released Faith, has just bitten her. "This whole big fight was shot in an abandoned bank downtown," explains Jeff, regarding the opening teaser. "We wanted to do a very different fight, something more vertical and so we brought along the scaffolding and had the fight so it would feel different then what we did in the past." Terrence (director) admits, "It’s probably my favorite just because of the content of the show and the difficulty, the most challenging." In the opening scene of Act one Terrence points out Alexis’ bad back and although Eliza doesn’t weigh very much, the show-motion shot of him carrying her to the bad was a difficult one but showed his dedication. "I really also think Rob Kral’s score is really effective in this episode," Jeff points out, "not something you always hear, but you really feel and I think it sets the whole mood and tone. It really helped to tie in different time periods together." In the flash back sequences Terrence talks about the filming on Stage 5 and the bringing to life of Ellis Island. "The fun thing about these scenes was trying to get David as both Angelus and Angel and then setting up the split screens and of course he had to go through full makeup to change."

Moving onto Chicago in the 20’s was filmed on the back lot of Universal Studios. "This was a lot of fun just because of all the old cars. There are some occasions you’ll see in close-ups cars moving by where the grips are actually pushing them because they were very noisy," Terrence admits. Unfortunately, a flashback of Angel and Faith walking into scenes of the Hyperion during the 50’s from the episode Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been from Season three had to be cut due to length. A highlight of this episode was an idea Tim Minear tabled which was to bring Willow [Alyson Hannigan] to be the catalyst for re-ensouling Angel. While Alyson’s availability was limited, she was working on Buffy as well as filming American Pie, her two days on the set made it even more enjoyable because she and Alexis were engaged at the time. "It was a lot of fun working with these two together in this scene since they are a couple. You can see how much care that Alexis has for her. It was really quite nice to see and they work well together," Terrence recalls. Terrence points out in the donut shop scene with Angel and Faith that, "The gunman here is actually Eliza’s brother Nate."

In Act three when Willow and Cordelia battle spell casting, Jeff jokes about the visual effects, "For all you video game fans we apologize for the big, stupid floaty head. We had really great hopes for it and it just became something you’d see on It’s A Small World in Disneyland. Just not quite as scary as we had hoped." Another major accomplishment of the episode was the ultimate Good vs. Evil. "We’ve been waiting to do this for four years," admits Jeff, "Angel verses Angelus." Terrence explains the Act four opening fight scene in the alley was created by, "A split screen, a camera lock-off and we played back to match shot for shot. He was hitting space." The entire scene took two days and was certainly a dynamic highlight of the season. Terrence explains that in the final shot of Faith and Angel on the terrace, Eliza came to the set with laryngitis in the morning and could not speak. "This scene was supposed to be first up and I begged Kelly Manners to keep it to the end of the day and let her recover, and she did." In the closer, "I think this is a Hallmark of a Joss Whedon show," admits Jeff, "it’s all the good-byes and the sentiments without anyone ever getting sentimental."

Home Episode 22 with Tim Minear

As part of another in-joke, Tim Minear (writer/producer/director) explains that he had to find a way to conclude what had happened previously; Angel and the gang had ended world peace by killing Jasmine, and that Lilah was back from the dead to offer them the L.A. branch of W&H. Tim chose the latter to happened off-screen during the commercial and opening sequence so that when the viewer returned the offer had already been made, causing a long moment of silence within the characters and also proving how ridiculously long the opening credits on Angel were. "I watched the clock for 40 or 50 seconds and have each actor just shift uncomfortably for about a minuet. It got pretty hilarious after awhile but I got all the pieces. And Stephanie just kicked it out. So once my name is clear of the screen," Tim laughs, "someone will speak." Tim admits this his episode was close to being ten minutes over which is huge in terms of shooting scripts. Listening to his commentary gives a tremendous insight to the story for the various scenes and additional dialogue that he had to edit out of this final episode of the season. And if there is one person who can carry an entire episode commentary by himself and make it enjoyable for the listener it is certainly Tim Minear. Act two opens with our first introduction to the new W&H offices as Tim explains, "This location I believe is in Thousand Oaks. It’s a very large business complex that I think houses many different companies. They were kind enough to let us come in on a working day and bring in our giant film crew and all of our equipment and our actors and we shot it while they were working. It was a great location, had a lot of depth and we did very little dressing for it."

In the opening of Act three, where Lilah and Angel are discussing deals, the scene was actually shot on two separate days, "I didn’t give him [David] anything to do in terms of reacting and making a choice so on a day of pick-ups and a day Stephanie wasn’t there - showing how great David is - this shot here David is playing to the wall." Tim admits the most terrifying night of his life was the scene of the White Room. "We got this leopard," he recalls, "and in fact, when we put these two shots together that’s green-screen - it’s a split screen. The endless room is CGI, and the cat is on the same stage that J. is on but they’re on at different times and then we put the two cuts together. But it kind of got out of its chain and J. thankfully didn’t tell me until the shot was done and they had it back in its chain because I would have run screaming from the room like a girl." In the sporting goods store scene, Tim points out the shot of Cordelia, "My shot of Charisma, she came in for this shot, she’d just given birth and she was great. She came in just to do that for me." In the final scene in the store Tim explains, "Angel comes down with the knife and the prophecy is fulfilled, the father will kill the son. I’m really proud of the last four seasons of the show but I do think it was time to shake up the pyridine a little bit that could continue the novel approach. We also felt that we finally found the metaphor for young adulthood."

FEATURETTES:

Prophecies: Season 4 Overview 39:00 minutes

A variety of cast and crew come together to discuss and recount the events during the course of Season four. Joss, David Fury, Steve and David Boreanaz recap the opening of the season with J. August, Alexis, and Jeff offering where each of their characters are at this point in the series. Wesley locates Angel at the bottom of the sea. "Luckily for both of them he does find him and drags him up, recovers him and brings him back using his own blood which is a sort of beautiful twist in a way," recounts Alexis while Amy explains that Fred and Gunn keeping the organization functioning while Wesley was off looking for Angel. Connor is playing the good dutiful son, when in reality he had sent his father to his death and when Angel returns he sets the score straight. "He confronts his son and tells him to leave the hotel and finds things out for himself," explains David B. Commenting on Fred and Gunn’s relationship, Amy says, "We started off pretty strong, going into six months of going out, which I think is long for a Joss Whedon show," Jeff offers that their characters don’t kill people, only demons, and so Fred’s desire to kill Professor Seidel, who sent her to Pylia, was for Gunn to kill him thinking he would save her. "One thing I love about Joss shows is that there are moral consequences. If you take an action there is a consequence to that action," admits Jeff.

"When I saw myself in the full makeup I started to move the same way the body looked, it’s like Schwarzenegger on steroids." Vladimir "Rarely, if ever, do you get away with something. It may take awhile but eventually it will come back and bite you in the ass." Jeff Bell Vincent recounts Cordelia’s return, albeit memory loss, while David B. tells of Angel’s concerns, "I think you find him in a place of desperation, trying to kind of hold on to something they had in the past and hopefully spark something of her conscience." Connor starts to learn life on his own now falls under the evil spell of Cordelia. They discover the death place of Darla and the birthplace of Connor - when The Beast arrives which causes all the gang to finally come back together. "Wesley comes back to the fold 100% and we take on The Beast," says J. as Steve adds smiling, "And then they rush over to destroy it, somewhat fool heartedly, and The Beast basically kicks every body’s ass single handedly." Alexis also offers, "That was a way to signal to the audience that we’re going to another level with this." The riff continues between Angel and Connor while the Apocalypse goes on, on the outside. "The idea was to bring in a beast who was truly epic and apocalyptic," says Joss, which opens the storyline of bringing back Angelus to the mix and the misplacing of Angel’s soul. But even the actors forget who there are dealing with some of the time. "Angelus’ return to the series was fun for a lot of reasons because it was really great to watch Angel, I’m sorry, ohh, I just called David Angel," laughs J. August, "To watch David relish playing that role."

Then came the return of Faith. Joss states that, "Eliza just brings such incredible intensity and integrity to the screen the moment she’s there." Along with Faith also comes the arrival of Sunnydale’s favorite witch. "Having Willow on the show is really exciting because there’s nobody whose energy is more different than what we do on Angel than Alyson Hannigan," explains Joss. Jeff and Steve explain the arc between Darla and Angel having a child which led to Connor’s affair with Cordelia to bring about this ultimate evil upon the world. Gina Torres introduces us to Jasmine, the omnipotent Goddess who brings her own evil onto Los Angeles. As the gang comes back to reality, Connor and Cordelia are left behind and Angel enters into a Hell dimension in order to defeat Jasmine. "The interesting flip on that is that the apocalypse was actually world peace," explains Fury. "It puts them in a grey area which, hello enter Lilah Morgan again, who offers them the keys to W&H." Offering the gang with every available world access to evil at their fingertips to fight the demons from the inside sets them up for their next adventure. "We’ve got them in the belly of the beast at W&H," concludes Joss, "the question really is can they get through that without getting corrupted themselves."

Fatal Beauty and the Beast 6:00 minutes

Vladimir offers his own insight into the fun of being The Beast

Vladimir Kulich, The Beast himself, introduces the viewer to the character and its creation along with Gina Torres who presents her alter ego, Jasmine. "This kind of a villain, because it was a theatrical thing, is easy because it was fun," admits Vlad, "It’s campy, to me this was a joy to do." A joy that took three and a half hours in makeup, for the face alone, and another 45-minutes for the suit and the body makeup. Gina offers the counter element to ultimate evil by being beautiful and offering world peace to the mix yet being more evil than evil itself. "When Jeff Bell first spoke to me about this character," Gina remembers, "he said, ’We had in mind what we wanted this person to be and we just thought, Gina.’ And to put me in this kind of role where I don’t follow any rules; this strong, woman of color, ’And by the way, when you turn evil, we’re thinking of you throwing cars, how’s that?’" Gina laughs. From Beast to Beauty, evil is in truly the eye of the beholder!

Unplugged: Season 4 Outtakes 3:00 minutes

Outtakes are probably the most anticipated bonus that are offered in DVD sets and, as usual, are far too short. The viewer does get a good sampling though of all the on-set antics often discussed at conventions. We see a nice spattering of David’s hilarious dancing, the extended scene of Wesley from Spin the Bottle as well as the ’shiny car demons’ scene where everyone’s continual laughter is exposed. David flubbing his lines is captured as is Amy ’loosing it’ to the floor, literally. Skipping, yes there is skipping. But the most outstanding outtake award must go to the scene where Angel is being force-fed a cup-o-blood. Seems it went down the wrong pipe and while David tried not to laugh and cough up blood at the same time, although very gross, it is also very funny. Another ’miss’ were the overage scene’s from Tim Minear’s Orpheus episode, especially the Hyperion flashback.

Last Looks: The Hyperion Hotel 5:30 minutes

Stuart Blatt gives a guided tour of Angel’s Hyperion Hotel

Stuart Blass, production designer, gives a wonderful overview tour of the Hyperion hotel set. "It’s pretty great to be involved with a project that so many people have embraced, not just for the story but for the look of. It was really important from the get go for Joss and David Greenwalt that this show had a very real feel to it." In a section-by-section walkthrough by Stuart we learn the back story from Angel’s past with the hotel from the 1950’s interiors which were all shot on Stage 7 to the main lobby, exterior garden, to Angel’s apartment on the second floor. This was the honeymoon suite which was also, during the course of the season, Cordelia’s room as well as Fred’s room. "Here we have the best kept secret of rooms in the hotel, this is Jasmine’s suite. Jasmine lives in the mother of all suites," explains Stuart. "This brings us to Angel’s hotel basement. The basement of the hotel has gone through many changes, it’s been on three different stages, it’s been through three different design processes, always retained the same kind of feel and look of the high brick walls, the upper windows." Along with the upper loft of Connor’s apartment which was also created in the basement. "The hotel set was beautiful and fun to use," closes Joss. One of many Angel sets that will muchly be missed.

Malice in Wonderland: Wolfram & Hart 8:00 minutes

Always a big player in evil we come to what will be the catalyst for the remainder of Angel’s run, "Wolfram & Hart, from the very start my thought was, ’Don’t give him a nemesis, give him a group of nemeses,’" explains Joss, "This is an important thing for a hero story, that the bad guys are legion and the hero is few." Fury explains the differences between the big city of Los Angeles vs. small town Sunnydale, "The evil’s more insidious; it puts on fancy clothes and talks in big words." Steve DeKnight and Stephanie recount Lilah involvement. "I’m the only female W&H lawyer, all the men kept dying which is like genius," Stephanie laughs, "I’m really not bad I’m just written that way." We visit the various players, the moral grey areas for the characters, humanizing their characters, and the relationship between Wesley and Lilah which Alexis comments on. Jeff talks about telling Stephanie that Lilah was going to die. "But that doesn’t mean that you’re gone because this is a Joss show and so since she’s been dead we’ve had her back," offers Jeff. "Having lost the battle and not necessary the war is where W&H is at," says Stephanie, "it could still have the possibility of challenging the good guys with a little bit of bad."

Angel and the Apocalypse 7:00 minutes

Mike Gaspar (special effects coordinator) talks about how busy Season four was for Angel in the effects department, besides demons and gags and invisible people. Vern Gillum, director of Apocalypse Now-ish recalls, "There were a lot of creature shows on Angel and they were trying to separate this one out." Kelly A. Manners (producer) talks about the fight on the rooftop. "It was probably the biggest thing we’d done at the time," admits Jeff Bell. The Beast, being a creature from the center of the Earth, and all the Apocalyptic warnings with birds smashing into windows and the flood of rats, "It was kind of the best of Hitchcock," admits Vern. The stunts in the fight sequence are explained by, a not-seen-enough, Mike Massa (stunt coordinator), "He threw me through a ratchet 45-feet off the roof, air-ram through a pillar, we threw Wesley on a wire up onto a hard deck, we had Gunn on a wire doing gainers to the edge of the roof. Just destructive, brutal, brutal, big knock-out, drag-out stuff," says Mike with a smile. Digitally, Zoic Studios, who does the Angel visual effects, can come up with just about anything Joss can imagine, ’How about a rain of fire, can we do that?’ Sure! One element Joss stated early on and wanted to hold throughout the season was a feel for the Operatic. "This was a sweeping, operatic year for us and I think we certainly delivered on that!" states Steve.