My Missing Whedon: "Angel"
Friday, August 26, 2011 at 12:41PM This morning I read all 3,040 words of "Angel by the Numbers" an essay by Dan Kerns, who started on Joss Whedon's vampire series Angel as Best Boy and worked his way up to Gaffer. I discovered the article through Whedonesque and I heartily recommend it. During the reading I consumed ½ a cup of coffee (I've successfully narrowed down my daily consumption to 2 cups!), ignored the urge to pee twice, and thought of 4 other television shows: my beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which sits comfortable at #1 of my all time favorite tv shows), one-of-a-kind Firefly, fascinating but uneven Dollhouse, and the non-Whedon series Dexter because "Darla" (Julie Benz) was mentioned and I just watched the first three episodes of Season 5 and it's just not the same without her... (and maybe it's the kind of repetitive series that should've wrapped with Season 4?)
Buffy, Angel and Faith.
Before I move on to work on 4 pending articles, I feel the need to admit that I've only seen 19 episodes of Angel, despite seeing literally every other episode -- even the unaired ones including the aborted Buffy pilot where Willow was not Alyson Hannigan (!) -- of every other Joss Whedon series and all of his movie work, too! Hell, I've even seen that animated sci-fi bomb Titan A.E. (2000). I've never understood why I couldn't work up much interest in Angel as a series but perhaps it was the procedural stand-alone nature of the early episodes which are the bulk of what I saw. Maybe I was just angry that Buffy received only 1 spinoff and not 2 (At least twice a year I impatiently dream of a 4 season run of "Faith the F*cked Up Vampire Slayer"). Of the 19 episodes I remember only about 6: the one where Oz visits to give him the Ring of Amara, the one where Willow drops in to restore Angelus soul, and any of the times that Eliza Dushku stopped in for a little big city ass-kicking. You get the picture: Crossovers! I tried again 2 times in later seasons and could not understand what the hell was going on.
Buffy, Cinematography, Dexter, Eliza Dushku, Joss Whedon, TV, sci-fi fantasy horror, vampires
Reader Comments (18)
Season 5 of Dexter gets better as it goes. It ends up being one of the most cohesive and exciting seasons yet. Watched it recently and was surprised, as I assumed it could only go downhill after that explosive Season 4 finale.
I STILL need to finish Buffy. I got into the dvds before I went abroad, finished Season 3 right before I left and haven't gotten back to it. Shameful.
If you haven't seen "I Will Remember You" from Angel, you NEED to right now. It is easily one of the best and most heartbreaking episodes in the Buffyverse.
As a fellow Whedonite, I will say I had the same issue with Angel. It took me about a year to get through season one, but I can honestly say it does finally hit its stride in season two with an extended cameo from Julie Benz. And then it's just as mesmerizing as the rest of Whedon's shows, a horrendous season 4 aside. It drops the procedural style and becomes more about the interpersonal relationships of the characters, which is of course what everyone wanted in the first place.
I liked "Angel" better than "Buffy". Partly because they didn't have to have the high school/college background. And (I know it's heresy) I found Buffy to be kind of whiny and mannered (sorry). I liked Angel and Cordelia better.
My opinion on Dexter Season 5 couldn't be any more different than Drew's...it was horrible. Poorly written, poor antagonist, way too much time spent on Angel and Laguerta (and frankly too much time spent on characters not named Dexter), and a nonsensical way to wrap the whole thing up. When Michael C Hall is on the screen, everything is fine and dandy, otherwise the show flounders these days. I really hope the new showrunner takes it in a more exciting direction. Edward James Olmos is a good start, but I thought the same thing about Peter Weller.
Angel...it's pretty good. I think Season 5 is the show at its best, where you get wonderful chemistry between Angel and Spike and alot of "done in one" episodes that add up to a big overarching plot (much like my favorite tv show currently, Doctor Who) I would have loved to have seen that continuing story. Alas it was not to be.
Nat, my favorite Angel episodes are in season 2- Are You Now or Have You Ever Been which works in some great homages to Nicholas Ray and Alfred Hitchcock (in addition to being great for other reasons) and the fabulous existential one-two punch of Reprise and Epiphany.
DrewB, Buffy peaked in season 3 and had a slow downhill climb after that. Seasons 4 and 5 are okay but 6 and 7 are pretty bad, in my opinion (save a few musical episodes here and there, mind you).
It's funny. Although Angel was a spin-off of Buffy, I didn't get into Buffy until I started watching Angel. In fact, Seasons Five thru Seven are the only Seasons of Buffy I've watched and I don't have any plans to watch the rest anytime soon. Anyway, I went into Angel without any prior knowledge of the Buffy-verse and I loved it from the first minute.
However, having recently re-watched Season One on DVD, I can understand how its procedural/monster-of-the-week nature can be off-putting. The real reward of that season is to watch the ground work being laid for the series/characters. If you can manage to get past the procedural trappings then you should be able to enjoy it.
BUFFY IS MY #1 TOO!
Kyle: I know I'm in the minority there. Interesting that you bring up the other characters, as they have always annoyed me with their usually useless subplots. All seasons have been offenders in that respect. For some reason it didn't bother me much in S5, and Deb (who I usually can't stand) became somehow likeable and consistent to me (considering who she was w/ for most of the season, I find that miraculous). Also preferred how the episodes were less serialized (few new serial killers of the week for instance). The weekly kills felt more entwined with the overall plot. And I loved Julia Stiles' character. Finally, a meaty female part in Dexter. See above for Deb, and Rita became increasingly one note and awful as the series progressed. Lumen gave the season a nice unforced emotional core. The ending wasn't splashy, but you can't top last years, so why try. Again, realize I'm in the minority on this. Maybe I look for different things from my Dexter than most.
AR: Sad, I've heard similar things before. Part of my lack of motivation. Will still finish, eventually. Currently and slowly working on Lost and Breaking Bad.
i was a Spike/Buffy love story fan so ...Angel...i don't care
I heart SMG...excited for the Ringer...will always love Cruel Intentions.
I'm like you Nathaniel. I've watched all of Whedon's other shows with varying shades of interest to glee to heartbroken enthralment but for some reason never got into Angel. I'll shamefully admit that part of that resistance stems from the impression that every article about Angel (the series) that I read on the internet seems immediately followed with a whole chorus of "I liked Angel better than Buffy" or "Angel was better/darker/deeper/the more 'grown-up' show and they make my residual crazy teen fan hackles rise up in defence. It's terribly petty on my part but I also think that when people frame the two shows under a better/worse hierarchy of quality then it's probably not surprising that I'll defend (to myself) the show I know and love and that it will come at the expense of Angel (even if it's probably just as amazing as some of the best of Buffy).
Also I think Angel just seemed to lack the camp archness and absurd chaos that made Buffy so funny to watch. There's just something so dour-looking about the show. Although I did get the DVDs off a friend and plan to marathon seasons 3-5 to see if I'm just remembering wrong.
I loved Buffy. I loved Angel also. Both my 1 and 2 favorites. I also loved the Firefly series. But, before these two fantastic shows; there was Sisters 3, The Nine gates. It wasn't a show but a fine book series. Of all the shows, my favorites were always the cross-overs.
I've seen the entirety of Angel and it's my least favorite Whedon show. It simultaneously takes itself more seriously than BtVS and comes off as more ridiculous (maybe that's not a coincidence - I always thought Buffy's ability to poke fun at itself made it more possible to take the show seriously when it wanted to be taken seriously). In Season 4 the character Gunn describes their lives as a 'turgid supernatural soap opera' and that's a very fitting description of the show as a whole, imo.
That said, Season 2 was, in my opinion, its best season, though even that I don't love as much as anything on BtVS.
If you don't want to watch all of Angel I'd at least recommend watching all the Faith episodes (2 in Season 1 and 3 in Season 4). And the Joss Whedon episode 'Spin the Bottle' from Season 4.
Season 1 is pretty terrible until the finale. Season 2 really picks up, and season 3/4/5 are truly interesting narratively. Season 2 is also very strong, and like any good season of Buffy.
The show really deepens the wolfram and hart theme in season 2 and onward, and it works.
The best thing Angel ever did was provide an arena for some of Buffy's best supporting characters to flourish in. Not just Angel, Cordelia, Wesley and Spike - whose storylines all benefited from a different setting - but also Harmony and Faith. It was especially gratifying that, given everything that was stuffed into Buffy's final season, that Faith had her own story arc on Angel before returning to its parent show.
With regards to the show itself, Season 1 is episodic, occasionally embarrassing and dated, occasionally fun. Season 2 attempts to introduce longer story arcs that, by season's end, have become interminably dull. From then, it's a slow walk back uphill, with Season 5 being one of the tighter, interesting seasons of television that Whedon has ever produced. Stand-out episodes for me include "Smile Time," where Angel is turned into a Muppet, and "A Hole In The World," which is the sort of three-hanky weepy that stands in good company with Firefly's "The Message" or Buffy's "The Prom" or "New Moon Rising." Unfortunately, nothing will ever beat "Becoming Part 2."
In general I didn't like Angel as much as Buffy, mostly because I don't like David Boreanaz as an actor--once he got over his cute awkwardness at the beginning of Buffy, he settled into a really boring mopishness. However, Angel did provide my absolute favorite monologue from any Whedon show, Lindsay and his evil hand.
The only way I got into Angel was at 5 a.m., while I was forced to be awake feeding my baby. It really only works viewed at that time, in my opinion.