Angel - Season 4 [DVD]

It took me a few years to appreciate how good season 4 of Angel actually is. When it originally aired I wasn't sure how I felt about it--I didn't like the Jasmine storyline, or what they did to Cordelia's character, and I thought the whole thing was slightly confusing.
I know now it definitely needs a second and even third viewing to be properly appreciated. The complexity of the storyline, the descent into darkness, and the numerous changes and surprises are all brilliantly done. It shows the planning that must have gone into the whole thing-- more planning than was given to Buffy Season 7 anyway...but that's a different story...

The season begins with the show's best opening episode, ever-- Angel trapped under the sea, put there by his mentally unstable son; Cordelia mysteriously serving time as a "higher being"; Fred and Gunn manning the Hotel and searching for Angel and Cordy, with the help of a fake-innocent Connor; and Wesley continuing his affair with Lilah, the poster girl for Evil law firm Wolfram and Hart. Events move along pretty quickly, and end up at the beginning of an Apocolypse with the gang in serious trouble. They stoop so low that they decide to bring back Angelus-- who I adore because, after all, we can only take so much of Angel's goodness. I was always surprised that they didn't properly bring back Angelus before now, although it's interesting that they managed to make Angel "dark" without doing it so clear cut as using Angelus.
That's really the brilliant thing about this season; it's not all black and while/ good and evil. There are layers, and when each is stripped back we get a brilliant surprise. We learn that not just this season, but possibly the last two were not what we thought, but planned by a seemingly rogue Power that Was who wanted to come down and control the world.
The writers manage to keep character development high while unravelling the story, which involves one of the gang taken over by an evil stranger; Connor continuing his descent into possible madness; Angel desperately trying to hold everyone and thing together, and Wesley helping without actually being back in the fold. I do think the way they developed Wes's character is one of the best in any show I've ever seen. It's hard to write three and four dimensional characters on TV I think, but they've done it here very well.
I also love Connor, he's a brilliant character. Which is why I was slightly disappointed with the season's finale-I kind of wanted (maybe foolishly) for Connor to finally make peace with Angel and join the family.
The whole season is like a long film, broken down into sections. The whole thing is brilliant-- there are flaws, but I recommend repeated viewings the catch the full scale of what this season means.
Slightly disappointed with the DVD extras, but the episodes are good enough that I'm not complaining about that too much!
It's so good to sit down and watch a series that gets better and better with each season-- unlike most shows lately, that decline after the initial greatness. Which makes it even more perplexing that they cancelled Angel. Guess we'll just have to make do with the comics-- and the re-runs.

One word of warning (ok a few words!) do not watch this season if you have never seen Angel before, it will only confuse and frustrate you. Things will make more sense if you watch the whole series in linear order. This season is only enjoyable if one understands the circumstances surrounding the events that take place within the season; therefore prior knowledge of past seasons is very important. But anyway, on with the review!

Season 4 of Angel was probably the most ambitious and complicated piece of story telling they attempted on the series. Essentially season 4 is a movie stretched over 22 episodes (there are very few stand alone episodes); obviously there are both good points and difficulties in doing this.

The good being the level of detail and character development that comes with executing such an ambitious season, but equally it does suffer in that if you miss an episode it does get rather confusing and the story arc can grow rather tiresome after a certain point; namely Cordelia and Connors contribution, but maybe that's just me.

Despite the negative aspects, if you have the time and patience to watch it you will be greatly rewarded; for the level of continuity running throughout the season and past seasons is lovely, especially if you are an avid viewer, it's like being rewarded for the observance when watching past episodes.

Season 4 does unfold at a steady pace and almost every episode ends with a mini cliff-hanger to help hold ones interest; and believe me it does what it says on the tin. One way to explain the complicated story arc is to break it up into sections: the first section is about resolving the events of the end of season 3, namely finding Cordelia and Angel... which thus leads to the Beast arc, which leads to the Beasts Master, then to Angelus and Faith, then onto Jasmine the `happy shiny' Goddess, and finally the resolve of Connor in the last episode `Home'.

That's the basic season plot (though obviously I didn't give much away), this stretches across the entire 22 episode run and despite having so much continuity and detail to tie in it was handled well by the writers, on the whole this season is very good. Although season 4 is the darkest season which can grate slightly, as one does get tired of having so much angst constantly hanging over the group, but what keeps us going is the knowledge that season 5 is amazing and that season 4 is an entertaining story, even if it is long. Just remember the first viewing of this season is always the best so enjoy it!

Highlights of the season include: `Orpheus' which allows us into Angels mind and sees Willow making a return to L.A to restore Angels soul, while episodes like `Players', `Apocalypse, Nowish', `Spin the Bottle' and `The Magic Bullet' all provide good solid story telling.

8/10 Not the best season, but not the worst: the continuity and creativity of the story is both epic and imaginative, well worth watching.

Following on from the distilled brilliance of series 3 (to my mind the finest series of Buffy or Angel ever to hit our screens) I guess the writers of Angel thought they needed to do something grand and impressive to top it; so far as the grand and impressive part is concerned they succeeded, but not without losing some of the magic. This series, more than any other of Angel, is dominated by one story arc which occupies almost every episode from episode 7 (Apocalypse, Nowish) onwards, and although this storyline is both engaging and exciting, it would definitely have benefited from a few more stand-alone episodes, both to break up the dense plotting and to perhaps provide some light relief from the all-encompassing darkness of the main arc.

It's obvious that the writers still have what it takes to write a good stand-alone episode, as Spin The Bottle (it's telling that this is Joss Whedon's contribution to the series) is one of my all-time favourites, but others are practically non-existent (apart from maybe Players) once the main arc kicks in. Don't get me wrong, however; the arc provides some of the most impressive and exciting "plot" episodes of Angel's run, my favourites being Soulless, Orpheus and The Magic Bullet (where Fred gets a welcome chance to take centre stage).

The character drama is another slightly weak point for me in this series, as the whole Cordy-Connor thing, while essential to the story arc, is also rather irritating (though believable, at least from Connor's point of view), and the downturn in Fred and Gunn's relationship (starting from the episode Supersymmetry) is well-written but difficult to watch, and typifies the underlying feeling of frustration which pervades this series.

I ought, however, to draw special attention to the brilliance of Alexis Denisof in this series, as for my money there is no greater achievement in the Joss Whedon canon than Wesley's tragically convincing descent into darkness; to look at the excessively uptight and rather clownish figure who arrives in Sunnydale in Buffy series 3 (a version of Wesley brilliantly resurrected in Spin The Bottle) and then at the tortured husk of a man who's made his mistakes but been unfairly punished for them one would hardly believe they were the same person, and yet never once did I question the writing or the performance which got us from one to the other.

Looking back on what I've written thus far I realise that it sounds as though I don't really like this series, which is not the case at all, as it's still an excellent addition to the Buffy/Angel cannon with some classic episodes and a gripping central storyline.