Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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32 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Angel better than Buffy? YES!, 18 Dec 2006
Angel's fifth season was its final and greatest season; building on four years worth of history the episodes were able to reach new levels and enabled the writers to add vast depth to their already wonderfully realised characters. It does start off at a somewhat unsteady pace; it would seem that the writers were approaching this season with caution as they were close to being cancelled the year before.
As a condition of being renewed for a fifth season Angel suffered large budget cuts and a return to a more 'stand alone episode' formula. Although this was never going to benefit the show, the writers pulled out all the proverbial stops to make this one of the most emotionally explosive and exciting seasons ever! Had this not been the last season I wonder whether Joss Whedon would have had the heart to kill off certain characters; not that I'm complaining. This season hit all the right buttons, in a way no other one did, in fact it is probably better than most, if not all, Buffy the Vampire Slayer seasons and I don't say that lightly! As well as saying goodbye to a number of well loved characters this season, a number of them make a return including; Andrew (geek from Buffy), a much better drawn Connor who is entirely less annoying and dear Cordelia, among a few others.
The season opens with `Conviction', as the gang were handed over the keys to Wolfram and Hart at the end of season 4, this episode was based upon them settling in to their new home and the season sees them progressively getting to grips with their situation. (This leads to many moral quandaries and Angel (quite often) killing his clients!) Despite the slow start, the early episodes are not without merit but when compared with the second part of the season they are evidently nowhere near as good. Weaker episodes, most notably are `Destiny' and `Unleashed'... `Unleashed' being miles worse! Personally I hated that episode; worse was the writers shoe horned attempt at adding a love interest into Angels life so soon after Cordelia: I wasn't impressed. Though thankfully she only appears in around two more episodes and even in those she is only a minor annoyance.
As the season moves into its latter half the stand alone element basically goes out the window and a large number of smaller story arcs appear. More significantly the new character Illyria (yep another god!) means we lose one character that has been with the show for a long while. But this was not done without sentiment and in my opinion the Illyria arc turns season fives conclusion into an epic tragedy shining with brilliance.
In Illyria's wake comes far reaching consequences for all the remaining fang gang, sadly we did not get to explore all of these as the show was cancelled, but for the seven or so episodes she appears in, Illyria shows growth and alteration and even love towards another character (I wont spoil it for you); this is exactly what TV shows should be about.
The inclusion of Spike was both welcome and not, but hey he's around to annoy Angel and to provide some much needed comic relief, which was welcome. Despite trying to muscle in on Angel's territory (they explore the issue of having two vampires with souls in `Soul Purpose' and `Destiny' among others), it remains clear that this is still Angels show and we watch him grow and rekindle his passion for the good fight. By the end of the season we see Angel make a selfless sacrifice in regards to the Shanshu prophecy and then there's the last fight and the overall message that hangs over the season; that the fight goes on. It was indeed a fitting end for what the series was trying to say, but one more season still would have been awesome!!
Season highlights include: The hilarious `Smile Time' in which Angel gets turned into a puppet, `A Hole in the World' where we first glimpse the Goddess Illyria and say goodbye to a main character, `You're Welcome' the milestone 100th episode where we see the return of Cordelia who's thankfully back to her old self; an utterly heart breaking episode and one of the best in the shows history. Probably the most important episode of the season being `Not Fade Away'. It is the best Angel season finale ever hands down; it's also sadly the series finale. Both its scope and emotional content blows the Buffy series finale `Chosen' out of the water.
So should you buy this DVD? Even if you have never really liked nor watched Angel? Yes you should, it may not be for you but it is and always will be one of the greatest television shows ever and in many respects miles better than its parent show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Not often you hear such ringing endorsement for a spin-off show is it?
So if you want intelligent storylines, continuity, humour, philosophical and moral questions, something to stir your emotions and characters you will grow to love then buy this DVD: you will not be disappointed.
10/10
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Angelic, 5 Jun 2006
Probably the bravest of the series so far - Season 5 of Angel ends the saga well. Considering the show's producers were not given a great amount of time before they knew they would not be renewed for another year, they did a sterling job in rounding out the story so well.
Everyone so far has raved on about the inclusion of Spike to the cast, and whilst he does bring his trade mark good humour and has some excellent stories, he is not the best thing in it. He is one of the many strong characters supporting their leader Angel in his neverending fight to rid the world or maybe just LA of evil. Plotting is tight, stories are sharp (with the odd miss-fire like 'Unleashed') and the setting is enticing.
'Smile Time' is the funniest episode but the most tragic and rewarding have to be 'A Hole in the World', 'Shells' and 'Never Fade Away'
If you're a fan you've probably already bought this. If you're not I'd suggest asking a friend to borrow a copy of the first 3 series of Buffy followed by the first 4 of Angel.
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Angel Fan to the Death ! Oh ! God i hope he makes it !, 4 May 2006
I have Angel 1-5 :And for every season that ends the standard for the next Season is set so high , but as usual Joss tops it every time, he always pulls that something special out of the bag ( SPIKE ), yip thats right he's back and ready to make you love to love him all over again. Get ready to laugh , cry ang go through every emotion as this season has it all. I love it when they go back in time and you get to see Angel and Spike's bad ass sides it would have been great to see more of there darker side,but never the less it was a good season, even though it had evey Angel fan depressed at knowing there was no more to follow,i think it was clever of Joss to leave us guessing Did they make it or not, as now they could revive it at a later date if they wanted to!!! This would be a great gift to buy for someone who hasn't watched it on t.v ,as let me tell you young or old it has been a winner throughout my family.
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