Angel Season 5
Fox Region 1 NTSC DVD)
(2004)
review by Head Cheeze

What do you get when you make the most consistantly entertaining series on television? Well, if you're the WB's Angel, you get cancelled! That's right; despite decent ratings (especially for a show on "the Frog"), Angel was given its walking papers early into season 5, just when the show was hitting what most consider to be its creative zenith! The addition of James Marster's popular Spike character, as well as a rich and involving story arc involving the death of a major character made this the best season yet.

And we haven't even mentioned puppets yet!

With the knowledge that this would be the last season of Angel, the writers wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. What better way to do that than have Angel and his team essentially wipe out evil? And that is precisely what they set out to do, as Angel (using his position as head of Wolfram and Hart's L.A. branch) infiltrates a ring of ultra-baddies, whose deaths would bring about a world of puppy dogs and rainbows- for a couple of hours, anyway.

Mixed in with the season's major story arc is the death of Amy Acker's "Fred", who dies as a result of a shady deal between super smart Gunn and the scientist who embedded the knowledge enhancement chip in his head. This happens just after Fred professes her love for Wesley (Denisof), who has been pining after her since they'd first met. When Fred dies, Wesley becomes a bourbon soaked mess, and a loose cannon, and begins to question his place in the Team Angel hiearchy. While Fred is dead, her body is taken over by an "ancient evil" entity named Ilyria, who, at first, poses a threat to humanity, but soon finds out that the world she used to rule tens of thousands of years ago has outgrown the need for such beings, and she becomes something of a science project/morbid curiosity to Wesley. Her powers are also of some use to Angel, as Ilyria becomes an unwitting part of Team Angel's plan to throw a wrench in the cosmic works of Wolfram and Hart.

Angel Season Five was at once a source of great joy and all-encompassing sadness for me. It was joyous because this was the best season of Whedonverse television ever, filled with laughter, terror, sadness, and loads of kick ass action. It was sad because I knew it was also the end.

The DVD set from FOX features a extra-large serving of supplemental material this time around, including commentary from nearly all of the show's prinicipal players, making-of featurettes, and a retrospective of the show's five seasons.

Angel died in the prime of it's TV life, but it went out with grace, dignity, and one hell of bang!