Angel

Angel: Season Five The show that’s never stopped fighting finishes off with a great set. February 14, 2005 - Nobody, not the producers, not the actors, and certainly not the fans could have predicted where this show would go. Where it could go. After all, this is an hour-long fantasy about a guy who spends so much time sitting in the shadows and brooding so much he would give Batman a run for his money. Or utility belt, as the case may be. So why is it that after five years and over a hundred episodes this show was still one of the freshest on TV? Simple: this is a story about something.

What started off as just a Buffy spin-off has ended up as a massive epic that challenges, if not surpasses, its parent show. It’s a story about friendship, hardship, and, well, fightmanship. This thing’s got some of the best action pieces to grace television screens. Throw all of these elements together and you’ve got one hell of a show.

Unfortunately, the WB didn’t think so. After giving the producers a hard time and insisting on several changes, the network decided to bring the show back for a fifth, and what would be its final year.

Yes, as a fan of the Whedonverse, I’m bitter at Angel’s end. And yes, when I sit back to think about it, I also realize that it’s not that bad. We got five great years out of Angel and company and I’d rather see the show go out on top and not fade away - as the final episode reminds us.

So, in previous seasons we’ve had operatic apocalypses (apocalypsai?), quests for meaning, and our hero even went evil for a while. There’s only one place left to go. Into the belly of the beast, into hell itself: a law firm. Did I mention this show has a great sense of humor?

Based on the out-of-left-field plot twist that was thrown at Angel and the gang in previous season’s finale, the team is now in charge of the evil law firm that they’ve spent the entire series battling. The trick then becomes changing the system from the inside, all the while making sure that it doesn’t change them.

 Fox Home Entertainment Whenever something pissed him off, Wes Payne would enter bullet-time. Or shoot out knee-caps. Either one seemed fine by him.

Unfortunately when the network decided to renew the show for a fifth year, there were conditions. First and foremost, it had to be more stand-alone. No more back-to-back cliffhangers. Next, the budget was cut. And finally, to sweeten the deal, the producers decided to bring over Spike - who was barbequed in the Buffy finale - in the hopes that his fans would follow.

These changes weren’t so great. Obviously a cut in the budget is never good, but it’s a credit to the showrunners that they managed to maintain the "superhero" scale they had established in the past, even if it did mean spending a lot of time on one set.

Luckily the introduction of Spike worked out well. He added a nice flavor to the show and helped flesh out Angel’s character in a way that nobody else could have. The punky vampire brought out the worst in our hero, which ended up resulting in some great comedy. Even if this Spike was different from whom he became on Buffy, he made for a nice addition.

 Fox Home Entertainment An Angel Season Five DVD menu.

The most unwelcome change was the standalone mandate. Yes, it can work, but it’s just not as good. The greatest strength of this show has always been its own history and tying the hands of the writers was a mistake. It resulted in a bump in the show’s overall flow.

Even though it seems rushed, things tie up nicely and the finale certainly puts the "grand" in grandiose; now there’s a balls-to-the wall showstopper for you. Most people will agree that the show finished with perfect thematic closure. These characters fight an impossible fight knowing they’ll probably lose, but that’s not the point. They fight, not to win, but because that’s who they are. They don’t give up. No matter what.

More than any other season, these last stories reminds us, as Angel says, there’s only one way to live life. You need the willpower to say, "Let’s go to work." And then you do it.

Score: 8 out of 10

 Fox Home Entertainment Nobody was particularly happy to see Spike. Almost nobody.

The Video

The Angel transfers have always been beautiful and this set is the best thus far. All of the episodes are presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and, really, everything is excellent. Colors come through bright and clear and there is not a speck of grain in sight. You’ll swear it was shot in Hi-Def.

That being said, there is a slight issue. The image does appear a tad soft at times. This isn’t a real problem per se, but it is the main reason I hesitate from giving it a perfect score. That and there is slight haloing, but only around very dark objects which are set against a white background. These are very minor issues and are easily forgiven for what is otherwise some fantastic looking episodes.

Score: 9 out of 10
 Fox Home Entertainment Genius. Pure genius.

Languages and Audio

Just like the video, Fox always gives these sets a great audio treatment and here we have yet another excellent sounding twenty-two episodes. The only thing keeping me from giving the show a higher score is the fact that it is in Dolby Surround 2.0. Although, at times you’d swear that it was a 5.1 mix.

We get excellent side-channel stuff. Doors opening and closing, people getting punched through the head, it comes from all around and it’s great. Your sub will get a nice workout too. Voices and music come through clearly.

As with the other sets, if you speak Spanish or French you’re in luck. You can listen to Angel in both of those languages, however if you want to read it, you’re limited to just English and Spanish. Sorry French people; as Spike would say in a funny Spanish voice, "Te lo perdiste."

Score: 8 out of 10

Packaging and Extras

This set continues Fox’s tradition of giving us some great extras. We’ve got six featurettes, a series-encompassing gag reel, and seven commentaries from actors, directors, and writers.

While the Angel sets are always full of featurettes, they are occasionally fluff-pieces. The DVD producers have an annoying habit of padding out some already short interview segments with lots of stock footage from the show. That being said, this set is one of the better ones.

Among the best is Angel 100, a brief behind the scenes item from the 100th episode. It’s short, but fun. Another good one is Angel: Choreography of a Stunt. I’ve long since grown tired of seeing these "stunt" featurettes, but this was an exception. In this case the stuntman flew through a skyscraper window and dropped to the street below. Getting to see it done is cool.

To Live and Die in L.A.: The Best of Angel runs 10 minutes. It’s similar to a featurette found on the last Buffy collection where series creator Joss Whedon talks about some of his favorite episodes. Oddly, it only goes up to season four.

Playing as somewhat average we’ve got Hey Kids! It’s Smile Time, a short bit on the puppet episode. The interview segments are good, but unfortunately at least half of the whopping five minutes is footage from the show.

 Fox Home Entertainment What really matters is that you never stop fighting, even if you don’t think you can win.

Also coming in at okay but not great is the twenty-five minute, Angel: The Final Season. This is the big season-wide making-of. The interview segments, which were conducted sometime before the last two episodes, are interesting, however much of it is still padded with clips from the show.

Coming in at the bottom of the pack is the 10-minute, Halos and Horns: Recurring Villainy. Unfortunately not only is this useless, but it’s boring. It has clips of fluffy interviews from the three main villain actresses on the show, Julie Benz ("Darla"), Juliet Landau ("Drusilla"), and Stephanie Romanov ("Lilah"). Not only did two of them not even appear this season, but we really don’t need to hear the actresses tell us obvious things about their characters.

While none of the commentaries are stand-out excellent, most are above average. The track for Soul Purpose features lead-actor/director David Boreanaz ("Angel"), actor Christian Kane ("Lindsey"), and writer Brent Fletcher. Boreanaz and Kane come across as good friends and it’s fun to hear them joke around.

 Fox Home Entertainment The creepy fanfic that this relationship has caused will no doubt rival the Kirk/Spock tales of old. Run.

On Underneath we have director Skip Schoolnik, writers Elizabeth Craft and Sarah Fain, and actor Adam Baldwin ("Hamilton"). If Baldwin wasn’t there this wouldn’t have been half the commentary it turned out to be. In addition to being amusing and interesting, he really knows how to guide the others.

For A Hole in the World we get to hear series creator Joss Whedon, actress Amy Acker ("Fred"/"Illyria"), and actor Alexis Denisoff ("Wesley"). This is a very emotional episode so they pause a lot to watch, then say, "We are doing the most boring commentary ever," and then start to laugh. I was expecting more from these three, but what we get is rather amusing; apparently the battle between the astronauts and the cavemen rages on. Whedon’s commentary for the season premiere, Conviction, is back on track. Many interesting ideas there.

The biggest disappointment for me was the track for the final episode, Not Fade Away, done by its co-writer/director Jeffrey Bell. Unfortunately he just comes off as sort of arrogant. He says some interesting stuff and gets a few good jokes in, but he sounds too snarky to keep you from really getting into it.

 Fox Home Entertainment I don’t know how they managed to talk Strong Bad into doing an episode...

You also get commentaries from various writers, directors and actors on Destiny and You’re Welcome. They’re not so great - too subdued and boring.

Finally there’s a six minute long gag reel that covers the entire series. There’s some hilarious stuff that we missed in previous seasons, and it’s nice to have it. Overall we’ve got a nice offering here. Some of it is fluff, but much of it is interesting and entertaining - a fine way for the show to go out.

Score: 8 out of 10