Search - Angel - Season Five on DVD

MaryAnn W. from SAINT LOUIS, MO
Reviewed on 11/29/2013...

Wow! What a great season!

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Dylan W. from LEWISTON, ME
Reviewed on 1/24/2013...

I loved this season, it was the best season i would say cause the unexpected happened. This season will make you laugh make you cry. But it ends at a part that made you think they would continue it. The thing is buffy didn't have a beginning you never knew how she became a slayer. But angel didn't have a ending it ends at a cliffhanger and it really got me mad how they ended it. But it is still awesome the end was not that horrible but you should still watch it. But i think one of the reasons i liked this one the most was because Spike was brought back to life in this one.

ANGEL goes out in style with a marvelous final season

Robert Moore | Chicago, IL USA | 11/03/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Warning: Many, many spoilers!

All good things must come to an end, and unfortunately with Season Five of ANGEL we saw not only the end of one of the great series that TV has produced, but the end of Joss Whedon's Slayerverse. With Whedon's recent announcement that he was closing Mutant Enemy's offices and that he does not intend to do another television show in the foreseeable future, this truly is the end of an era. At least we have 144 episodes of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and 110 episodes of ANGEL to remember these remarkable artistic creations by. And meanwhile we can all hope that Joss will reconsider and decide that he does have another set of stories to tell.

After very nearly getting cancelled at the end of Season Four, the WB renewed ANGEL with the understanding that the show would try to move more towards a format where each episode stood alone (though they did manage to sneak in some great storylines along the way) as well as bringing James Marster's Spike over from BUFFY to try and bring some of that audience over. Artistically, Season Five is a huge rebound from the disappointing Season Four, with a large number of stunning individual episodes, a number of shocking plot developments, and some powerful storylines. I never did feel completely at ease with Angel and Co. taking over the running of the evil law firm of hell, Wolfram and Hart, but despite that they managed to do some amazing things. One reason I didn't like the Wolfram and Hart connection was the presence of the specially treated pane glass windows, which allowed vampires Angel, Spike, and Harmony to bask in sunlight without fear of combustion. But ANGEL was metaphorically always about being in the shadows, and I felt that visually the show didn't work as well in the light. But this was one of my only complaints with the season. The other was that some of the characters didn't receive quite the attention that they deserved. Even Angel moved somewhat out of the center at the beginning of the season, as Spike was brought in and established as a central character, though by mid-season he clearly was once again the star of the show. Wesley, who I always found to be the most interesting character on the show, was far less crucial to the plot for most of the season. Gunn for the most part was relegated to bit parts, while Lorne had almost no role to play at all. On the other hand, Fred became far more important, of which more in a second. Harmony, always a secondary character on BUFFY, became a permanent cast member and managed to inject some comic relief as Angel's secretary, though they didn't have time to blend her fully into the mix. After the initial jar of seeing Spike in L.A. rather than Sunnydale, he managed to become a great addition to the show, and one of the great regrets of the failure of ANGEL to get renewed for Season Six was the wonderful team that he and ANGEL made by season's end.

The season saw a great number of remarkable individual episodes. One of my favorites was "Lineage," where Wesley managed to confront his father (or what passes for his father) in what is one of the most stunning scenes in the five seasons of the show. "Smile Time," written by TICK creator Ben Edlund, was arguably the funniest show in the history of the series, when Angel is transformed magically into a two-foot tall felt puppet. His assault of Spike when the latter makes fun of him and their ensuing fight is one of the great absurd moments I've ever seen on TV. I also enjoyed the episodes that dealt with the demise of Fred and the ascendance and development of Illyria.

Just over halfway through the season, fans of the show were shocked beyond comprehension when one of the major and most popular characters, Fred, the geeky but beautiful scientist whom Angel had rescued from another dimension, died, her body being taken over by a powerful ancient demon Illyria. Although fans were initially angered by her demise, most quickly came to be fascinated by the demon who took over her body, and her bizarre relationship with Wesley, Fred's erstwhile lover, who hesitatingly helped her to live in a world she found completely alien. We know from Jeff Bell, ANGEL's executive producer, that in Season Six they planned to have the apparently dead Fred resurrected by Willow from BUFFY, who was to appear as a guest star. In Season Five we learn that there are remnants of Fred in Illyria, and Fred was apparently going to retrieve Fred, while leaving Illyria alive, allowing Amy Acker to play a double role. The possibilities in that would have been remarkable. For instance, Illyria retained many of Fred's memories, including the fact that she loved Wesley. Illyria had achieved a strange attraction of her own to Wesley, and one can only imagine how she would have responded to seeing Fred and Wesley together. Illyria's attachment to Wesley led to perhaps the most moving moment of the entire season, when Illyria, who could manage an absolutely perfect impersonation of Fred when she needed to, asked a dying Wesley if she wanted her to "lie" to him (i.e., pretend to be Fred). After he says, with a smile on his face, yes, she tries to comfort him by telling him that he is going to be with her very shortly. Immediately after he dies, the sorcerer who killed Wesley, regaining consciousness but not realizing that he was talking to a powerful demon and not a "little girl," tells her to take her best shot at him. She does, and in the season's best visual image, the "little girl" spins, throwing a fist at the sorcerer's head, transforming from human to her demon form as she throws a punch at his head, completely shattering his skull (something a mere human was not capable of doing).

The show ended with an utterly remarkably episode entitled "Not Fade Away" (which references great the Buddy Holly song later covered by both the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead). The controversial but to me very beautiful and appropriate ending expressed everything that the show was about. Ultimately, the series was about a man (or vampire) who had more to repent of than he would ever find forgiveness for. He had, therefore, more or less devoted his entire existence to the process of atonement, which the show finally interrupts as an ongoing struggle and not a mere event. As Angel, Illyria, Spike, and a severely injured Gunn rendezvous in an alley in the midst of a heavy downpour, they find themselves being approached by a huge group of demons, including a towering giant and a dragon. The odds look (and possibly are) impossible, but after saying that he wants to slay the dragon, Angel says to the remnants of his team, "Let's get to work." And with those words the episode and the series abruptly ends. I can't imagine a more perfect end. (April 2005 addition: In a new interview, Amy Acker says that Joss Whedon told her that Illyria at least would have survived the fight.)

The WB announced the cancellation ANGEL immediately after their 100th episode. What followed was the most extraordinary campaign to save a show in television history. Fans undertook a large food drive in the show's name, organized blood drives, mailed tens of thousands of post cards, sent cakes to the corporate offices, and even hired a billboard trick to drive around Hollywood, all to no avail. There had been hopes for some made for TV movies and recently it was rumored that the new head of the WB wanted to revive ANGEL for Season Six. But star David Boreanaz and other performers had gone on to other projects, and then came the horrible announcement from Joss Whedon that he was not at present going to work on TV. We can hope that he might change his mind at some point in the future, but I, for one, am profoundly grateful for the two remarkable shows that he gave us. Unlike THE X-FILES, which while brilliant was never able to present a coherent or intelligible narrative about the world it was attempting to narrate, BUFFY and ANGEL gave us not only a tremendous set of characters and a great series of narratives, but a world mythology that was rounded, complete, and convincing. Joss Whedon and his associates raised the bar of what could be done in the medium of television, and as we see new shows like LOST attempting to work along the same paths, we will hopefully continue to benefit in the future from his great vision that started with a petite blonde vampire slayer and ended with a rumble in an alley."

Angel - Vampire/Hero Extraordinaire

Lauren H. Lavine | Cleveland, Ohio | 05/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This six Disk DVD Set is extraordinary. The Picture and Sound quality are so very good that you feel as though you are watching it in a theater. The closed captioning and Audio come in other languages besides English. It's jam packed with all sorts of extra bonus specials. The Brilliant creator, Joss Whedon and other staff members are at their very best, just as they were with their work on Buffy (which is also a must own). I not only highly recommend this Season disk set, but the other four seasons as well. Quite a bit of quality work went into the making of all five seasons. They are a necessary buy for any Angel fan! It's completely impossible to be anything but extremely pleased with this purchase as well as the rest of the series. The writing, acting , directing, etc... are amazing per usual. This is without question once again feature film quality.
The fact that all but the first season is filmed in Letter Box gives it that theater feel. In addition, the closed-captioning is less likely to interfere with the picture. David Boreanaz (Angel) and James Marsters (Spike) are brilliant in their performances together as well as with other cast members. I must credit Alexis Denisof (Wes), Andy Hallet (Lorne) and Amy Acker (Fred and Illyria) gives a wonderful performance playing two different characters. Joss Whedon comes through once again. I not only highly recommend this Season disk set, but the other four seasons as well, for Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) was amazing in her portrayal of the good Cordy, seen in many different incarnations throughout the years. She is sincerely missed in season five. Lucky for us she returns for the 100th episode titled "You're Welcome" when she comes back to wrap up her story line. She never looked more beautiful and did some of her finest work in that one show. Any true Angel fan must complete their set with this one. It's a keeper folks. Purchase this before it gets sold out and you miss your chance to finalize your collection. ORDER IMMEDIATELY OR I PROMISE YOU WILL BE VERY SORRY.
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Innovative until the end

Robin Orlowski | United States | 11/13/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Despite a massive 'Save Angel' campaign which was mounted by fans (such as myself) and a quick retooling of the series (to get it out of soap), Angel was canceled after five glorious seasons. I was sad, but also recognize I got an awesome last season.

It's taken some heat from other people, but I honestly liked Smile Time just because the idea of the 'brooder' as a Muppet character was irresistibly hilarious. If the writers hadn't done overkill with story arcs in earlier seasons (and the series had more confirmed time) a couple of episodes of Angel as a puppet would have been hilarious. Plus, in classic Whedon format, they could have extended the critique of children's television as evil by having Angel beat an insipid dinosaur (you know who I am talking about). The only really bad thing about the episode is the tie-in doll is unbelievably expensive (at least as much as this DVD.

I also liked the ending precisely because it reminded the viewers that everything in the world CANNOT be wrapped up in a cute little package. Life is tough because it has all of those loose ends which are never going to be together no matter how hard we try. Showing Angel's ultimate emotional-intellectual growth, it also is a good message for us at home.

Maybe there will be Angel television movies, maybe not---but this season recovered itself just in time to close with maximum viewer kudos. Because critics were originally skeptical how long this series could actually last before running out of ideas which were separate from BTVS, David Boreanaz and the rest of this cast should be very proud with their work on this series.

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