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selenakAka the post I thought I'd written a long time ago. When I was prompted, however, I checked the tags, and it seems while I've written about the episodes themselves and individual aspects of AtS, Season 4 - for example my lengthy Connor essay (though that one covers bits of s3 and s5 as well for obvious reasons) - I haven't yet put my thoughts as to why this particular season of Angel: The Series is on my opinion the best in one coherent post.
To start with the most obvious, it's the most tightly written and plotted season of the entire show. Season 1 was the try out. I love it a lot, but you can tell that the writers were still finding their feet with the spin-off, wanting it to be its own thing yet recognizably in the same 'verse as Buffy, trying various formats and character combinations. Season 2 started off splendidly with the Darla arc, but after Reunion this spluttered out into an uneven conclusion, and then we got the three Pylea episodes which were by themselves amusing crack but as a conclusion of this particular season just had me scratching my head. Season 3 continued with the uneven theme, only more so. The three Darla episodes, the three episodes focused around Wesley's well intentioned fall from grace, any scene involving Holtz and Justine, especially Benediction: loved them. The rest: argh. The season 3 finale, Tomorrow, was the worst offender (if I never have to watch Groo, Lorne and Cordelia's mirror all telling Angel and Cordy they're meant for each other, it'll be too soon) - well, except for the Connor scenes -, but there were a lot of previouslies. I was on the verge of quitting the show altogether after season 3. But the fact that the s4 opener would be Steven DeKnight's AtS debut (after he'd written some of the most compelling s6 of BTVS episodes) and the fact I was curious about how the Connor and Angel storyline on the one and the Wesley one on the other would continue brought me back, and I am ever glad it did. Season 4, rightly or wrongly, feels like the first one (and retrospectively the only one, because s5 has its virtues, but you can't tell me the last few eps weren't the direct result of getting the "you're cancelled" news) which was mapped out with a plan and storylines in mind, from the beginning to the end. We open with Angel's dream-turning-nightmare of a "family dinner" (i.e. all his friends plus Connor) and close with Angel watching Connor having dinner with his family, which is both nightmare and dream on a whole different level, and you can see the line leading from the very first to the very last scene of the season running straight through.
Not least because S4 is the most serialized of any of the AtS seasons. There are only two episodes that feel like (almost) standalones, The House Always Wins in the first half and Players in the second, and while they have self contained adventures (Angel and friends in Las Vegas, Gunn and Gwen doing a heist), they're still connected to the larger arcs (The House Always Wins ends in Lorne back in Los Angeles, and, as it turns out, Cordelia; Players, in addition to the Gunn/Gwenn A-Plot has the B-Plot where the gang finally discovers what Possessed!Cordelia has been up to). Every other episode of the season, otoh, only consists of arc plots, and they usually lead directly into another. (Someone once did the maths and concluded season 4 can only take place in a couple of weeks.)
It's the darkest of seasons, both in terms of looks and content. You have the mutual falling of pedestals with Fred and Gunn, you have Wesley who spent the hiatus between seasons 3 and 4 keeping a woman prisoner in his closet and whose relationship with Lilah actually has more (admitted) emotional investment on her part than his, and who only realises that he felt more once she's gone, you have the relentless Greek tragedy that is Connor's storyline (about which I've written in great detail before, click on the link above if you want to read). Which is why I love that the seasons ultimate Big Bad isn't a "classical" villain into destroying the world, but essentially Galadriel who has taken the Ring and wants to make everyone on Earth happy, and if a few die to sustain her, well, they shall love her and despair. Jasmine ties with Holtz as my favourite AtS villain, but ultimately she has the edge because she has the better season. Also because The Powers That Be in season 1 as the origin of the visions were a blatant deus (or rather dei) ex machina concept, but Jasmine as a fallen Power whose monstrosity lies in the fact that she wants world peace and universal bliss at the price of free will and individual lives made it all worth it.
And yet for all that darkness, s4 is by no means missing in the wit that was also a Jossverse trademark. And I'm not just talking about Lilah's one liners. The "Angel and Connor singingMandy Jasmine" scene has me in stitches every time, for example. S4 also uses its ensemble well, including recurring guest stars like Faith, whose appearance emphasizes what I mean by "serialized" and is the very opposite of "popular guest character with no actual reason to be on the show". Faith's relationships with Angel (which is very much a sponsee/sponsor relationship minus the alcohol), with Wesley (both the brief and utter failure in Sunnydale and her torturing him in s1 of AtS) and Wesley's with Angel are what drives her appearance here, and it's fitting that Faith, arguably the most successful fall-and-redemption story the two first Jossverse shows did (since she came to both sans loss or regaining of soul, and not for love, either), here in this darkest of seasons for the first time takes on savior role - not disguised as anyone else, or in anyone else's place, simply as herself.
It's the season to defy expectations. Lorne's attempt to restore Cordelia's memories to her instead is what allows Jasmine to posses her completely. It's Angelus who defeats the Beast. It's Cordelia, not Angelus, who kills Lilah. Darla - her ghost, or the other Powers using her shape, we never find out and it doesn't really matter - tries to savae her son from himself, in vain. Jasmine isn't prevented and Our Heroes at first all adore her completely; Jasmine doesn't want world doom, she wants world peace - at a price. It's Connor, not Angel, who ultimately kills Jasmine. And finally: main series villains Wolfram and Hart make their comeback by offering Angel & Co. the keys to the kingdom - and they take them. (Sidenote: they do this before the Connor-related mindwipe occurs, so I feel justified in saying "they", not just Angel himself.) Each of these twists are good reasons why it pays off to watch the show unspoiled - well, except for the episode Awakenings, which for an unspoiled viewer has to feel as if the writers are doing bad fanfic until you realise it's actually Angel's idea of a perfect day, and then it's hilarious (and enlightening - note that Angel's version of Wesley has the glasses, the goofiness and the stubble free chin of Wesley's early season self) - but none of them feel false in retrospect.
(Sidenote: re: the obvious objection as to the choice of (possessed) Cordelia-as-villain - I've written an entire post as to why I think the problems with the writing for Cordelia start long before s4 - in later s2, if you want the brief version -, and why s4 if anything was a salvage operation on that front.)
Lastly, of course, s4's place in your affections probably rises or falls depending on your investment in two particular relationships: Wesley/Lilah - which is classic noir in its dissillusioned-yet-still-fighting-the-good-fight hero/ shady femme fatale and businesswoman combination - and Angel-Connor. I found both very compelling. (Though was put off by the Wes/Lilah shippers who took it overboard by hating Fred and declaring Lilah was in fact the sole functional relationship Wesley ever had. Have we forgotten Virginia, friends?) In one of the s5 of BTVS related audio commentaries or interviews, Joss and fellow scribes said they decided early on Buffy's "love interest" for the fifth season should be her sister Dawn (love interest in the sense of driving and most intensely written relationship). For Angel on season 4, it's his son Connor. Because Connor was raised in a hell dimension by a vengeance obsessed adoptive father, and Angel, at the best of times, is a repentant serial killer with a tendency to obsess, questionable taste in music and a barely surpressed vicious temper, this was bound to result in less than happy circumstances even if Galadriel-with-the-Ring hadn't additionally mindmessed with them all. (Though for all of said mindmessing, it's important to the season and why I like it so much that everyone still has a choice. Including and especially Connor and Angel.) What Angel does at the end of the season has been very controversial and I've often season posts calling it him taking the easy way out. I disagree. Not because I agree with his decision, but because I think that at the moment he makes it, for him it is the only thing he can do, and that he truly believes this is the only way he can save his son. (I also think this, not late s5, is where he gives up on ever being saved himself. Angel does know what a deal with the devil means.) The last conversation between Connor and Angel in Home breaks my heart more than any other individual scene on this show, and because sometimes I like my heart broken in a creative way, this, too, makes season 4 so very very good in my eyes.
December Talking Meme: the other days
To start with the most obvious, it's the most tightly written and plotted season of the entire show. Season 1 was the try out. I love it a lot, but you can tell that the writers were still finding their feet with the spin-off, wanting it to be its own thing yet recognizably in the same 'verse as Buffy, trying various formats and character combinations. Season 2 started off splendidly with the Darla arc, but after Reunion this spluttered out into an uneven conclusion, and then we got the three Pylea episodes which were by themselves amusing crack but as a conclusion of this particular season just had me scratching my head. Season 3 continued with the uneven theme, only more so. The three Darla episodes, the three episodes focused around Wesley's well intentioned fall from grace, any scene involving Holtz and Justine, especially Benediction: loved them. The rest: argh. The season 3 finale, Tomorrow, was the worst offender (if I never have to watch Groo, Lorne and Cordelia's mirror all telling Angel and Cordy they're meant for each other, it'll be too soon) - well, except for the Connor scenes -, but there were a lot of previouslies. I was on the verge of quitting the show altogether after season 3. But the fact that the s4 opener would be Steven DeKnight's AtS debut (after he'd written some of the most compelling s6 of BTVS episodes) and the fact I was curious about how the Connor and Angel storyline on the one and the Wesley one on the other would continue brought me back, and I am ever glad it did. Season 4, rightly or wrongly, feels like the first one (and retrospectively the only one, because s5 has its virtues, but you can't tell me the last few eps weren't the direct result of getting the "you're cancelled" news) which was mapped out with a plan and storylines in mind, from the beginning to the end. We open with Angel's dream-turning-nightmare of a "family dinner" (i.e. all his friends plus Connor) and close with Angel watching Connor having dinner with his family, which is both nightmare and dream on a whole different level, and you can see the line leading from the very first to the very last scene of the season running straight through.
Not least because S4 is the most serialized of any of the AtS seasons. There are only two episodes that feel like (almost) standalones, The House Always Wins in the first half and Players in the second, and while they have self contained adventures (Angel and friends in Las Vegas, Gunn and Gwen doing a heist), they're still connected to the larger arcs (The House Always Wins ends in Lorne back in Los Angeles, and, as it turns out, Cordelia; Players, in addition to the Gunn/Gwenn A-Plot has the B-Plot where the gang finally discovers what Possessed!Cordelia has been up to). Every other episode of the season, otoh, only consists of arc plots, and they usually lead directly into another. (Someone once did the maths and concluded season 4 can only take place in a couple of weeks.)
It's the darkest of seasons, both in terms of looks and content. You have the mutual falling of pedestals with Fred and Gunn, you have Wesley who spent the hiatus between seasons 3 and 4 keeping a woman prisoner in his closet and whose relationship with Lilah actually has more (admitted) emotional investment on her part than his, and who only realises that he felt more once she's gone, you have the relentless Greek tragedy that is Connor's storyline (about which I've written in great detail before, click on the link above if you want to read). Which is why I love that the seasons ultimate Big Bad isn't a "classical" villain into destroying the world, but essentially Galadriel who has taken the Ring and wants to make everyone on Earth happy, and if a few die to sustain her, well, they shall love her and despair. Jasmine ties with Holtz as my favourite AtS villain, but ultimately she has the edge because she has the better season. Also because The Powers That Be in season 1 as the origin of the visions were a blatant deus (or rather dei) ex machina concept, but Jasmine as a fallen Power whose monstrosity lies in the fact that she wants world peace and universal bliss at the price of free will and individual lives made it all worth it.
And yet for all that darkness, s4 is by no means missing in the wit that was also a Jossverse trademark. And I'm not just talking about Lilah's one liners. The "Angel and Connor singing
It's the season to defy expectations. Lorne's attempt to restore Cordelia's memories to her instead is what allows Jasmine to posses her completely. It's Angelus who defeats the Beast. It's Cordelia, not Angelus, who kills Lilah. Darla - her ghost, or the other Powers using her shape, we never find out and it doesn't really matter - tries to savae her son from himself, in vain. Jasmine isn't prevented and Our Heroes at first all adore her completely; Jasmine doesn't want world doom, she wants world peace - at a price. It's Connor, not Angel, who ultimately kills Jasmine. And finally: main series villains Wolfram and Hart make their comeback by offering Angel & Co. the keys to the kingdom - and they take them. (Sidenote: they do this before the Connor-related mindwipe occurs, so I feel justified in saying "they", not just Angel himself.) Each of these twists are good reasons why it pays off to watch the show unspoiled - well, except for the episode Awakenings, which for an unspoiled viewer has to feel as if the writers are doing bad fanfic until you realise it's actually Angel's idea of a perfect day, and then it's hilarious (and enlightening - note that Angel's version of Wesley has the glasses, the goofiness and the stubble free chin of Wesley's early season self) - but none of them feel false in retrospect.
(Sidenote: re: the obvious objection as to the choice of (possessed) Cordelia-as-villain - I've written an entire post as to why I think the problems with the writing for Cordelia start long before s4 - in later s2, if you want the brief version -, and why s4 if anything was a salvage operation on that front.)
Lastly, of course, s4's place in your affections probably rises or falls depending on your investment in two particular relationships: Wesley/Lilah - which is classic noir in its dissillusioned-yet-still-fighting-the-good-fight hero/ shady femme fatale and businesswoman combination - and Angel-Connor. I found both very compelling. (Though was put off by the Wes/Lilah shippers who took it overboard by hating Fred and declaring Lilah was in fact the sole functional relationship Wesley ever had. Have we forgotten Virginia, friends?) In one of the s5 of BTVS related audio commentaries or interviews, Joss and fellow scribes said they decided early on Buffy's "love interest" for the fifth season should be her sister Dawn (love interest in the sense of driving and most intensely written relationship). For Angel on season 4, it's his son Connor. Because Connor was raised in a hell dimension by a vengeance obsessed adoptive father, and Angel, at the best of times, is a repentant serial killer with a tendency to obsess, questionable taste in music and a barely surpressed vicious temper, this was bound to result in less than happy circumstances even if Galadriel-with-the-Ring hadn't additionally mindmessed with them all. (Though for all of said mindmessing, it's important to the season and why I like it so much that everyone still has a choice. Including and especially Connor and Angel.) What Angel does at the end of the season has been very controversial and I've often season posts calling it him taking the easy way out. I disagree. Not because I agree with his decision, but because I think that at the moment he makes it, for him it is the only thing he can do, and that he truly believes this is the only way he can save his son. (I also think this, not late s5, is where he gives up on ever being saved himself. Angel does know what a deal with the devil means.) The last conversation between Connor and Angel in Home breaks my heart more than any other individual scene on this show, and because sometimes I like my heart broken in a creative way, this, too, makes season 4 so very very good in my eyes.
December Talking Meme: the other days
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Date: 2014-12-03 05:41 pm (UTC)Word at the time was that the plan was for Dru and Darla to come back for the final three episodes. But they didn't get the contracts nailed down and one or both of them couldn't make the schedule work. So Pylea was kind of done on the fly. It is an odd ending to a pretty good season, but sometimes real life and not moving fast enough on getting actors to commit means they don't get the endings they wanted.
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Date: 2014-12-04 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-03 09:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-04 04:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-04 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-12-04 04:23 pm (UTC)