DVD Review - Angel, Season 4

In creating an hour-long TV drama, writers customarily have three choices. The first is to have stand-alone main stories each week with a few interpersonal character subplots that carry over multiple weeks with the odd "To Be Continued" multiple episode stories. Examples of this sub-genre might include ER or Without a Trace. The second option is for each episode to be a stand-alone with few or no references to past events. Characters might evolve but if I turned on any CSI, for example, there would be very few things that might confuse me as to characters and their motivation. Of course, the characters evolve but not enough to stop me from enjoying a nice murder scene. The third category and my personal favorite, is essentially a soap opera format. Series with season-long stories that are occasionally interrupted by stand-alone episodes. Some of the most interesting prime time television over the past ten years have been in this format, including BTVS, Angel, Babylon 5 (a series worthy of 10,000 words alone), Gilmore Girls and this season's Desperate Housewives.

What was my point? Oh yeah, Angel season 4, while fantastically enjoyable to watch on the heels of seasons 1-3 sets us up for what we hoped to be at least seasons 5, 6 and 7. Now, we all know that 5 was its finale, and an exploration of the anger and disappointment felt by fans after seeing the series finale will have to wait until the release of that set, but for now, sink your teeth (yikes) into season 4. Granted, Cordelia's spell as a frustrated glow-ey thing upon high was occasionally annoying but Angel consummating his love for Cordy and yet again going all bumpy-headed would be even more off-putting and it's been done before. The important thing to remember about Angel is, he's paying a debt to the universe. He spent more than 200 years brutally murdering or siring thousands of people around the world and helping to save the world a few times and eschewing the drinking of the human blood for a few years doesn't make up for it. He's supposed to feel pain, heartache and loss. All the time.

Fred (Amy Acker) is another character who benefits from Whedon and Greenwalt's pens, as she continues on her path, moving from the almost pathologically shy, withdrawn and shell-shocked former denizen of a hell dimension (albeit one that looks suspiciously like Bronson Canyon in LA) to a self-reliant and opinionated member of the team. Her relationship with Gunn (J. August Richards) runs its course during season 4 and that was to be expected. She was so vulnerable upon her return from Pylea in season 3 that she could have been wooed by Jonathan the geekiest of the Evil Trio, much less the kind and protective testosterone factory that is Gunn.

This brings us to my favorite character on the show, Lorne (known only as "The Host" early in the series). Andy Hallett has made the green, horned demon with the flare for spread collars and pastels his own and brought a welcome dash of "ring-a-ding-ding" to the show. The stand-alone Las Vegas episode early in the season showcased Hallett's singing chops to the point of belting out what I consider to be the definitive post-LaBelle "Lady Marmalade" and also served to illustrate just how money Angel really is. The very core of the character's persona would negate any effort to give him any real Dino swagger but there can be no denying that there is more that a little Rat Pack yearning to break free from the doom and gloom that is our hero's day-to-day.

When BTVS moved to the UPN for season 6, Angel, then entering season 3, lost a natural partner. Of course crossovers were made all the more difficult, but the fact is, none of the other series on the WB were a natural fit for Angel to partner with. Whedon was busy getting rogered by Fox over the brilliant Firefly and after season 5 Angel appeared to meet its very premature end. Not to eulogize the series completely (that will come with the release of season 5 on DVD) but since season 4 is the prime example of what this series could become, it makes sense to refer to its demise. I can only wonder what might have happened had the long-mentioned England-based Giles spinoff gotten off the ground during Angel's penultimate season. Would Angel still be on the air? Would Buffy, Willow and the rest of the Scoobies paid the occasional visit to Giles in Cornwall ("Eeew! Who would make a steak and kidney empanada?" "That's a Cornish pasty, you pillock.")? Would Andrew have completed his transformation from the thinly-veiled homosexual sycophant with daddy issues we know and (occasionally) love to the über-continental, tux-wearing, multi-lingual, potential-wrangling, man-about-town that we glimpsed in Angel season 5? It's likely only fan fic will answer those questions but for those of you who don't indulge in that particular Internet-based time-waster, watch season 4 and while waiting for season 5 ponder the following question: Did they really think taking over Wolfram & Hart would result in anything other than complete disaster?

Ratings:
Season: 5 out of 5

Extras 3/5: "Featurettes" are great and the commentaries are very good, but just like with the BTVS sets, some additional input from series stars in a show like this is imperative (even though it's creepy hearing Wesley speak in an American accent and we hate him for marrying Willow...crossed the line into "scary obsessive land," didn't I?)

DVD quality: 4/5. Everything looks great, but not re-mastering the sound to 5.1 is almost unforgivable.

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Photos (top to bottom): Season 4 box art, Andy Hallett as Lorne ©20th Century Fox