I finished watching Angel a few days ago. Since then, I've found myself reflecting a little bit on it and deciding what I wanted to say about it. Five seasons, all with exceptional episodes in them. In the end, I think that I've got a solid opinion.
Angel is, perhaps, Joss Wheddon's biggest roller-coaster. I don't think that I can think of another show that was so hit-and-miss. There was a whole bunch of things that seemed very natural in the show, and a whole mess of things that felt very...off. I'm going to explain a whole bunch of them coming up, so again, if you don't like spoilers, GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HERE.
Some of the subplots that I really really enjoyed:
-Faith's return (the first time): When Faith showed up on Angel, fresh off her escape in Season 4 Buffy, I was astonished. I'd always loved Faith's evolution as a character, and I was euphoric to find that her arc continued in her absense from Buffy. The moment when she and Angel fought in the rain, with her screaming “Kill Me, Kill Me!” was perhaps the moment that I was finally sold on this show. The next couple episodes made me positive that I was going to love this show in a long-haul sense.
-Angel and Cordelia: One of the most genuine relationships that I've ever seen develop on television. A big part of that is how long they let it gestate and grow and subtly tell us that it was still there and evolving, until it all of a sudden came to a head and died before it ever really got started. That loss truly felt like a tragedy, made even worse given the rest of the situation. The end of the season was just depressing, and it didn't have to be. Good writing saved it.
-Fred/Illiria: When Fred died (I told you there were going to be major spoilers), I had no idea that they weren't going to get to stop the evil plot associated with it. Even more significantly, even though we only got five episodes with her, I came to love her as a deep, vibrant (blue) character.
-Conner: This character was saved. I hated him from...well, about 10 minutes after he showed up (that fight scene was pretty cool) until his end at the beginning of Season 5. I thought he was out of the show, and when they brought him back, I was even more nervous than I was before. This wasn't a grand experiment, this was a character I knew I didn't like, and here he was again. Great. Turns out that I was wrong, and his return really redeemed the earlier bits a good amount.
-Spike: Thumbs up, period. I was sold. Comedic gold for a season that tried to be much more serious, provided a necessary counterpoint.
-Eve: Great until they got rid of her and made her a minor recurring character without a point. This made me very sad, especially since it clearly wasn't motivated by “Actor leaving the show” or anything like that.
Some of the things, however, that didn't jive with me all too well:
-Jasmine: This plot felt hackneyed, like we knew what was coming from the start. No one in their right mind thought that she was sticking around. She was a villain to be beaten, and that was all she ultimately was. Some nice spotlighting for Fred, but other than that, not much.
-Conner: Conner's birth was another really weird plot line that I didn't care for. When he was gone, I cheered. When he was back, I was sad again. When he turned into a psychopathic killing machine, I was completely not surprised. I was happy when he was gone again, until Joss saved it at the last second, like I mentioned earlier.
Overall, I enjoyed the series on a whole, though not quite as much as Buffy or Firefly or even Dollhouse. It was, in my opinion, Joss's weakest show, but still good on the whole. Not a popular opinion, I'm sure, but I'll stand by it.
Weakest? Really? Personally, it's my favorite Whedon show.
ReplyDeleteAnd Wesley was, by the end, my favorite character in the Buffyverse.
@Tom Dickinson
ReplyDeleteIn fairness, I didn't say much about Wesley, but I think that he was consistently good the entire way through. I hadn't really realized how MUCH he had changed until the episode where they all lose their recent memories, and he reverts to pre-Buffy.
The character annoyed me at some points, where I didn't quite know where he was going, or what he was doing, but in the end, he really shaped up, and his last performances, since Illiria showed up, were truly stellar.
Okay, I just finished it (I know, it took a while).
ReplyDeleteDid I miss something at the end? It ... didn't end. Did they win? Did they lose? Did Angel slay the dragon?
Overall, though, I'd agree with almost everything you said, Andrew. I loved Angel and Cordelia and I was pissed when it didn't actually happen (I think I mentioned it to you on AIM). Spike was amazing. Jasmine pissed me off and I was tempted to skim through that whole arc. I was glad when she finally died.
I didn't, however, like Eve. From the get-go I knew she was going to be trouble and I didn't like her. That's not to say I didn't like what they did with her while she was still liaison, but I didn't like her.
I liked Connor, sometimes. Other times (like the whole Connor/Cordelia thing) just pissed me off. I did very much enjoy him in s5 though.
And I didn't like most of the plot of s5. The vast majority of it annoyed me. I mean, there were other seasons that had episodes that annoyed me (like the entire Jasmine plot), but s5 I vote as one of the worst. It did have redeeming episodes though (like Smile Time and puppet-Angel).
Overall, though, I would say that this was better than Buffy (at least the beginning of Buffy), but not by much. I would say Firefly is the best Joss show (though it didn't last nearly as long as it should have).