Angel - Season Four (Slim Set)
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Movie Reviews of Angel - Season Four (Slim Set)
Movie Review: This season is great!!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This box set gives any fan what they want. I love the comentaries as well as the other fan wants. As with anyone I'm sure, the gag reel was just not long enough.Movie Review: The only really bad season of a good show
Summary: 3 Stars
This long review contains numerous spoilers.
I want to cut the writers of season four some slack because Charisma Carpenter's real-life pregnancy interfered with their original plans for this year. But that is no excuse for some of the half-baked things they came up with instead. Making Angel a grandfather when he didn't even have a kid until a year ago? Having Connor and Cordelia sleep together? So many of the plot developments contradicted what we had been shown regarding these characters before.
If you like this season, fine. I won't tell you that your opinion is "wrong." Please just don't try to tell any of us detractors that our negative views are "wrong," either. And it isn't that we don't like it because we're too dull to understand it, as a few of the less literate reviews try to claim.
Relationships were at the heart of season four: some good, some bad, and some inconsistently drawn ones. Gunn and Fred finally have something in common, having collaborated to "execute" her backstabbing former mentor who turns out to have been the one who sent her to Pylia in the first place. But once the couple finally has some common ground, they break up over it. Is it understandable that the killing could cause a separation. Maybe. But those waiting for any more significant ramifications of their vengeance won't find any, either this season or next. Apparently committing a revenge killing together is significant enough to break up over, but not significant enough for anything else (the cops, counseling, etc.)
Wesley and Lilah have one of the most entertainingly "wrong" relationships in the whole Angel saga. Wesley is with her partially to punish himself, as he still feels guilty over his mistake regarding Connor. He is aware that she is trying to use him and seduce him over to the Wolfram & Hart camp, and he likes to think that he is only using her. He ends up caring for her a lot more than he fully realizes until he is gone. The fact that he thinks it is Angelus who had killed her, after Wesley had been duped by Lilah into taking Connor from Angel, only makes the whole thing more poignant. As for Lilah, she remains more likeable than her former W&H rival Lindsey or her current rival Gavin Park.
The Connor and Cordelia pairing is not "forbidden romance" like Buffy + Angel or enemies sleeping together like Wesley + Lilah or a comical mismatch like Cordelia + Xander. It's just plain gross. Even if Cordelia truly doesn't realize how gross it is because she's really just a puppet of the thing that will give birth to itself as Jasmine, and even if Connor doesn't fully realize how gross it is because he doesn't remember how Cordelia used to change his diapers (six months ago!) the audience knows those things too well for our own comfort. And I don't care what Cordelia says about Connor being eighteen; he still looks about eleven and a half. Also, if L.A. really is under siege, Connor and Cordelia's place is out there fighting the Beast, not in bed together. When has anyone on this show ever given up and substituted sex for struggle before?
But the real weakness of the season four plot is the Jasmine storyline. Gina Torres was fine as Zoe on Firefly. But the Jasmine character is too placid to seem threatening, however grotesque her true worm-infested appearance is. Incidentally, Connor completely misses the point about Jasmine's true appearance. It's alarming not because she isn't pretty, but because it's proof that she's been lying to everyone.
Not that that's the only mistake Connor makes. Most people would be a little chastened to find out how thoroughly they'd been duped by Justine and Holtz. They'd be a little more cautious the next time. They'd be a little inclined to give Angel the benefit of the doubt next time, after having unfairly imprisoned him at the bottom of the ocean before. Not Connor. If there's a wrong conclusion to be leapt to, he's still right there to do the leaping. And of course he reflexively does the opposite of whatever Angel wants him to do, and since Angel is generally correct, Connor's generally wrong. The bottom line of course is that Connor is an irritating child. I wish he had been a vampire and that Spike had been around to hoist him into the sunlight. His going postal at season's end was not at all justifiable, but it pretty much summed up this disastrous character's reign of error.
Lorne had become less relevant as season three progressed, and of course by season five he will have nothing to offer. Season four finds him well on the way to irrelevancy. The lounge lizard character never made much sense as a detective agency hanger-on anyway. The gang should either help him rebuild Caritas for a third time, or else kick him loose. He does have one useful vision - but it's promptly stolen from him by Wolfram & Hart. That doesn't give the average viewer much reason to pay attention to the character.
Gunn becomes less important after he and Fred break up. The character's fighting skills have little relevance when facing a threat like Jasmine that has to be figured out instead of just staked to death, as Gunn himself realizes. Wesley's books count for far more than Gunn's weapons. Angelus succeeds in rousing his jealousy of Wesley and Fred, and Gunn plays right into the vampire's hands. The more metaphysical the show became, the less importance its enforcer had.
Fred, however, started to come into her own in season four. In season three she had first been just a recovering victim, then Gunn's girlfriend. In season four, she's actually useful. This is especially important now, as Wesley is no longer a member of Angel Investigations. Fred is especially important when the Jasmine storyline begins, as she is the only one who can see through Jasmine's disguise. She succeeds in opening Angel's eyes, which is the only thing that eventually saves the day.
Wesley had started to become a more complex and interesting character in season three, and in season four he really takes over the show. From the year's very first episode, where his determination to succeed at all costs enables him to rescue Angel (while Fred and Gunn are just spinning their wheels uselessly), it is Wesley who provides the most interesting moments in season four. When a shocked Gunn, confused by the new Wesley, asks what happened to him, Wesley's matter-of-fact response of, "My throat was cut and all my friends abandoned me," provides one of the high points of the season. That pretty much sums up the new Wesley.
Not that he's always right by any means, just interesting. He does allow himself to be used by Lilah, though there was never any question about Lilah's loyalty to W&H's agenda. Even after his disastrous season three kidnapping of Connor, he's still too prone to insisting upon radical and dangerous possible solutions to problems. Bringing back Angelus to get info on the Beast is a cure that's potentially worse than the disease. Breaking Faith out of prison to help catch Angelus is another example of the same rash thinking - and that one wouldn't even have been necessary if he hadn't brought Angelus back to begin with! But Wes never stops to think how each rash decision forces another one.
Looming over all of Angel's series is the threat of the return of Angelus. This threat is finally realized in season four, though Angelus returns in a more controlled fashion than he had on Buffy. He also doesn't stay free for very long, nor do that much damage while he's around. The whole thing was a bit of a wet firecracker. I was also disappointed that even after Wesley and Cordelia warned them not to let anything Angelus said get to them, the vampire still effortlessly pushed all their buttons - including Wesley's. They were bound to be hurt by some of the things Angelus said, but showing him their hurt was just feeding the monster. Next time, try having a little pride.
Angel himself is more interesting, and his justifiable distress over every aspect of the Cordelia / Connor debacle makes him more sympathetic than he's been in a long time. Losing your girl is bad, losing your young son is worse, and losing your girl to your young son...
Faith's return from prison was probably somewhat premature (the state of California penal system would agree), but that was done as much for her to help with the final apocalypse on Buffy as to aid with Angelus. It was good to see Faith and Wesley reconcile; they had let each other down badly as Slayer and Watcher. Willow makes a needless guest appearance to help re-ensoul Angel. She spends most of her time lusting after Fred instead (wasn't she supposed to be falling for Kennedy at that time?)
Julie Benz as Darla makes a guest appearance to try to persuade Connor not to kill an innocent young girl at Cordelia's behest, so that Cordelia can bring her child into the world immediately. Darla is unsuccessful and so Jasmine is born. Of course, nobody ever throws Connor's part in that poor girl's murder in his face. This is one of the show's inconsistencies that really annoys at times. Why should Faith go to prison for something Connor gets away with? Why must Angel atone for Angelus's killings, while Connor, who is not being controlled by a demon, can kill innocents yet be protected by his father and friends?
Most of the non-Jasmine and non-Angelus episodes were fairly weak also. I'm never a big fan of amnesia spells (too much like old cartoons), and Buffy had already done this idea better than it was performed on Angel. The character of Gwen with a superhero power of electricity and a superhero costume was introduced, but then never much followed up on. She eventually had a one-stand with Gunn, though it had been Angel whom she had first been interested in. At least the Gwen episodes had a minimum of Connor.
The worst aspect of season four was what they did to Cordelia, once the show's best character. They turned her into a mere tool, a puppet of Jasmine's. If they had actually made the character Cordelia evil, I still wouldn't have liked it, but at least viewers could have responded to her as Cordelia. When they tell you that Cordelia's body is doing terrible things, but the real Cordelia is just in limbo somewhere, what is your reaction? Mine was frustration and annoyance.
I enjoy parts of season four because of the continuation of the development of the Wesley and Fred characters, and because it's enjoyable to watch the train wreck of Wesley's relationship with Lilah grow. It's always good to see a little of the true Angelus, though as I said he could have been better. A lot of the individual scenes throughout the season are good, it's just the stories as a whole that disappoint.
Movie Review: ANGEL the Best and the Worst
Summary: 5 Stars
Angel season 4 starts off by resolving the Angel at the bottom of the ocean bit.And bringing Lorne back I never saw that coming.Oh and I loved the Gwen episodes I think her storyline was one of the best.And when Cordy came back with no memory that was hilarios.Even though I Love Cordelia from the moment she killed Lilah I wanted her dead!And the Baest storyline(He whom I originally Thought was going to be the big bad of the season)was probably originally seting him up as the big bad of the season Until off set Charisma announced she was pregnant which then Joss Whedon then(Out of anger set up the whole Cordy,Conner storyline)Making her the big bad,And then they introduced the Jasmine,Conner,Cordelia storyline to wrap up the season.And then in the season finale I realized they set Conner up as the Big Bad(An ecellant choice for a not so exellant character).And thr season leaves off with Cordelia in a Coma(Its So Sad) and Angel Investigations running Wolfram and Hart. Oh P.S. there memorys have been modified so that they remember almost nothing from the corse of events from season 2 through 4 and it was all under Angels Order( No Way!!)Movie Review: Just call him Angel....
Summary: 4 Stars
After TIVO decided to record a couple of episodes on it's own and me watching, I was hooked. I never watched the show when it originally aired on TV. I certainly missed out. Honestly, what really caught my attention was the theme music of the show. Yes, the music! It is quite haunting and I feel it does a great job in setting the stage and mood of the show.
I think I started watching around the time of Angel's Season 3. Although I had no clue about the characters or storyline, it was easy to piece together many subplots and I don't feel totally lost despite having jumped in during the middle of the game.
I won't bore you with all the episodes and descriptions of each -I think others have already done a fabulous job in detailing them. I will just give you my observation of the characters and how I felt about them in this season:
Gunn - Gunn really started to annoy me, especially because of the whole Fred and their deteriorating relationship. He seemed to be the tough guy, but boy did he come off as weak in this one. I just did not care for him for most of this season. Toward the end, however, I started to like him again.
Fred - Fred really held her own. She was one that annoyed me with her unsure, insecure persona but that opinion totally changed for me when she bought the sandwich to Connor. I thought she was clueless until she gave Connor a jolt from the taser and told him he was going to pay for what he did to his dad. Classic, absolutely classic! Still, I could never quite buy the idea of her being a fighter, with the ability to do damage to whatever monster she was fighting.
Wesley - Despite being on the outs from the group, Wesley became a hero and rescued Angel, cared for him and fed him blood from his own body. That really endeared me to him, and I feel it earned him redemption in my eyes. He also shed the "bookworm" look and really became a tough fighter. I found him to be quite sexy.
Lorne - my second favorite character. I truly enjoy watching him. He's quite funny and and an absolute benefit to the team. One of my most favorite episodes was "The House Always Win, featuring him.
Cordy - I went from loving Cordy to despising her. I guess that was the intent though, right? I did not like what they did to her character, especially the whole Connor thing. YUCK!
Connor - the best part of Season Four was seeing Connor gone. I absolutely detested his character. What an ungrateful, whiney, spoiled jerk he was. I never felt he truly "meshed" with the rest of the cast. He was sullen, derisive and too combative. I would have liked to see some "give" in his character but no. He was still the jerk from the beginning to the end, despite learning that perhaps his father was not entirely the awful person he was led to believe. I also got sick of him being so easily manipulated by Holtz, then the lady that helped him capture and then bury Angel in the water, then Cordy and the Jasmine (once again he annoyed me when we learned he could see Jasmine in her true form - what a dolt!)... I mean come on already! Watching him was like the equivalent of hearing nails scraped across a blackboard. It was too painful. Every scene he was in gave me more and more reason to despise this kid. And then him wanting to blow up the people in the sports store as well as Cordy - what was that all about???? Good riddance to his character.
Angel - ah Angel. I love his character. I especially enjoyed watching him as Angelus. Every scene had me laughing out loud. I did, however, think him letting Faith fight the beast and then subsequently killing it was a little too cut and dry. I don't know what I was expecting, but it certainly was not that. Still I continue to love with character; his quick wit, his strong presence, his leadership and who could forget his dark sexy looks? What is there not to love about that man who saves the day?
Gwen - I truly liked her character, and wish we could see more of her. It was nice to see her and Gunn be together: her for never being touched and him for being wanted despite the impending breakup of him and Fred.
The Beast - well he was certainly big and bad wasn't he? Nice twist on the whole "him being controlled by Cordellia"
Jasmine - I did not like her character at all. I think it was because I found watching her too hard. They kept saying how beautiful she was but I thought she was quite unattractive. I just had a hard time with that. Her storyline was pretty good but maybe if they found a better looking person (like Vanessa Williams) then perhaps I would have enjoyed her character a little more. Instead all I could think was "they think SHE'S beautiful? Ick".
That being said, here are the things I did not enjoy:
Despite the raves from others, I found "Spin the Bottle to be boring and quite silly. I did not enjoy it one bit.
The whole Connor/Cordy thing. Blech.
The fact that Cordy was upstairs spinning her web and not once did anyone go up and see how and what she was doing. Why didn't anyone go up and check on her?
Bringing "Faith" in; I was simply not impressed. Maybe if I saw her before this season I would probably be more appreciative of her appearance but as it stands I was not really impressed.
Did I mention Cordy/Connor - Yuck!
All in all a good season. What I enjoy about this show, really, is the fact that they move things along at a steady pace. This season was certainly no exception. I highly recommend and look forward to viewing Season 5.
Movie Review: outstanding.
Summary: 5 Stars
I swear, they don't make TV shows like THIS anymore! I absolutely LOVED this season of Angel, even more than the others because it was a nonstop thrill ride from beginning to end.