Far be it from me to pick a fight with Joss Whedon. I mean the man created TV's Buffy so he should be close to sainted for that alone. But I have to really disagree with his evaluation of Season 4 as the best of Angel's first 4 seasons (he said this in one of the dvd extras - I'm currently catching up on episodes of the show, which I really like, that I missed). I can understand why he might say that as the creator of the show. The production team was certainly doing some very grand things that season, and it was in many senses a bigger season than the earlier years. But in a way I think that's why it, especially the second half of the year involving Jasmine, is to my mind the weakest period of the first 4 years of the show. To me the whole Jasmine thing just didn't work. It seems a terribly impersonal reason for Connor's existence. And the notion of fighting with one of the powers ... I hate to call such a concept contrived since the whole show is a huge fantasy ... but quite frankly most of that was ridiculous, and not even in especially fun or threatening ways.
There were some good things in season 4 to be sure. The return of Angelus and the darker Wesley added a lot to the show. Evil/possessed Cordy/Jasmine fighting Willow was very entertaining. And there was Stephanie Romanov, who prior to season 4 had been a bit of a 2-dimensional drip, gaining a good deal of pathos as they humanized her. Her relationship with Wesley was very entertaining and touching if always tinged with sadness. And as to her performance in the season finale - that was probably the best comedy all season.
So it's not like season 4 was bad. Angel is (was) still far better than most TV. But bigger is not necessarily better, and I think they really got sidetracked in the show's mythology late in that year.
Posted by armand at May 23, 2005 09:50 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Media