Angel

Previously. On “Angel”:
“Hamilton!”
“He’s not my boyfriend! I mean, I certainly didn’t betray you!”
“Drop the act, Harm. I knew you’d turn on me. I just didn’t know when.”
“What do you mean you ‘knew’?”
“Loyalty? Really isn’t high on your list.”
“Oh, is that right? I’ll have you know I am damn loyal, dumbass!”
“You betrayed me. You are betraying me now even as we are talking."
“Because you never have any confidence in me!”
“No, because you have no soul.”
“I would, if you had confidence in me!”
“Get out of the building.”
“Are you firing me??”
“Among other things, yes.”
“Do you think I could get a recommendation?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“But, you see, if you don’t so much live as the other thing, how ... ?”
“It’s already on the desk.”
“You’re the best! Good luck. Um, may the best man win?”
“So.”
“Yeah.”
“Did that hurt at all?”
“Little bit. But it’s all part of the job. The senior partners spent an awful lot of time and resources on you. Personally, I would have told them not to bother. You’re gutter trash. That’s where you should have stayed. Drinking and whoring your way through an unremarkable life. But the fates stepped in and made you a vampire. With a soul no less. Champion. Hero of the people. And yet you still managed to fail everyone around you. Doyle. Cordelia. Fred. They’re all gone. It’s time you followed.”
It’d be tricky to count the number of missteps, blunders and outrages committed by The WB over the past decade, but the hardest to swallow is still its boneheaded cancellation of “Angel” at the peak of the show’s creative power.
It was always a great show, made my top-ten list every year it was on, made me tune in every single week for five years.
But its fifth and final season, collected on a DVD set that goes on sale today, was one of the best seasons of televised entertainment ever broadcast.
The only Mutant Enemy series in production last season, "Angel" benefited mightily from creator Joss Whedon’s less-divided attention - to say nothing of the additions of actors James Marsters and Mercedes McNab, and veteran Mutant Enemy writers Ben Edlund (“The Tick,” “Firefly”) and Drew Goddard (“Buffy”), to its fold. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, the spinoff’s fifth season rivaled in terms of quality even the best seasons of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” and I have no greater compliment to bestow.
Cordelia Chase departed for good, Harmony fretted, Connor redeemed, Gunn sacrificed, Knox was vanquished, Andrew and an army of slayers descended, Krevlornswath of the Deathwok Clan became this enormous badass and there were puppets, lots of puppets.
The first half of the season generated many many swell episodes: Spike’s resurrection in 5.1, the introduction of the peepee demon in 5.5, the Harmony-centric fun of 5.9 were all highlights.
But once the show was cancelled, Team Whedon came on like it had something to prove. The final eight installments boast no fewer than four astonishing five-star episodes: “A Hole in the World” (Fred bids Wes goodbye), Underneath (Hamilton, the new Wolfram & Hart liaison, arrives), “The Girl in Question” (Angel and Spike learn Buffy Summers has moved on) and “Not Fade Away” (Wesley Wyndam-Pryce shuffles off his mortal coil).
Like I said when I put “Angel” atop my 2004 top-ten list: The Whedon owns all our asses. Even yours.