Customer Reviews

Angel - Season Four

5 star:		(99)
4 star:		(37)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

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 Alexis Denisof (Wes), are brilliant in their performances together as well as with other cast members. I must give extra credit to Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia) in her portrayal of evil Cordy. She does an exceptional job in playing the good girl gone bad without giving away this fact to the other characters. She made it look so easy and it must have been a difficult role to play given that she's used to being good Cordy on Angel. Andy Hallet (Lorne) has a brilliant singing voice as well as a talent for comedy. I love the way he's always speaking to Angel in terms of calling him odd nicknames such as crumb cake or cinnamon buns. It's hard to speak to a very masculine man and yet get away with terms that are very effeminate. He pulls it off beautifully. Amy Acker (Fred) combines a plethora of character traits with amazing talent, playing a sweet, innocent, somewhat crazy (in the beginning of her appearance), brilliant and yet very graceful and sexy woman. These are difficult qualities to combine and make it all believable. She's a really gifted actor. Let us not forget Vincent Kartheiser (Connor) as Angel and Darla's (played by the incomparable Julie Benz) son. For a very young actor he has the natural gift and talent of someone that has been in the business for many years. No matter what incarnation he is playing he does it with absolute believability and gives his all. He has a very bright future should he decide to remain in the business. Joss Whedon once again comes through with continuing to make the show interesting, believable even though it's all fantasy. He does this because he makes the people real and the stories real despite that they are all rooted in non-fiction. I not only highly recommend this Season disk set, but the other four seasons as well. 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 continue your collection. ORDER IMMEDIATELY AND DON'T FORGET TO BUY SEASON FIVE WHILE YOUR AT IT. Season Five adds James Marsters (Spike) to their cast of characters, and per usual he delivers his untouchable portrayal of another vampire with a soul, yet very different from Angel. The only unfortunate loss is Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia), yet she returns for the 100th episode. That in itself is reason enough for buying season five at the same time you buy season four. You'll be very glad you did.

Warning: Multiple Spoilers

Of the seven seasons of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and the five seasons of ANGEL, the former's seventh season and the latter's fourth season were the most frustrating, and most flawed. Many things were spectacularly well done, but there were also ill judged story arcs that threatened to undermine all the good things in the season. It would not be wrong to say that Season Four contained many of the best things ever witnessed in either show, as well as some of the worst things.

What went right? The year started with perhaps the most extraordinary episode in the history of the series, "Deep Down." At the end of Season Three, Connor had taken what he imagined to be revenge on Angel for the death of his foster father Holtz by locking Angel in a heavy metal cage, and dropping it into the Pacific Ocean. The new season begins with a fantasy sequence in which Angel imagines himself to be at a dinner with all his friends, Connor included, only to awaken to realize he was still on the bottom of the ocean. Luckily, his estranged colleague Wesley has undertaken the search for Angel, and eventually manages to locate where he has been dropped. Throughout the season we get the same conflicted, tormented, alienated Wesley we saw at the end of Season Four, and his character is far and away one of the finest things of the season.

What else went right? The season was far less episodic than any of the five seasons of the show. TV execs hate long story arcs, but there is no question that from an aesthetic point of view long arcs make a better show. There is a sense in which Season Four was one long story. Additionally, there was a great new and underutilized character in Alexa Davalos's Gwen Raiden, an outstanding bad guy in "the Beast" (impressively played by towering Czech actor Vladimir Kulich), and a fantastic three-episode arc featuring Eliza Dushku as Faith. The special effects were as good as anything ever seen in television, including some eerie sequences in which it literally rains fire from the sky and the sun is blackened out in L.A. We also witnessed what may have been the funniest episode in the history of the show (with the possible exception of Season Five's "Smile Time"), the outrageously funny "Spin the Bottle." And Angelus returned for a few episodes. The high points were very high indeed.

In the light of all these delights, what was it that made it a flawed season? First and foremost, an extraordinary error in concocting the character widely known as "Evil Cordy." For whatever demented reason, it was decided originally to make Cordelia the "big bad" of Season Four, a plan that had to be scraped when Charisma Carpenter became pregnant in real life. Since her baby was due at about the time when she would have been required to fight Angel, keeping the original story arc was clearly impossible. Fans will recall that at the end of Season Three, Cordelia had been made a "higher being." In Season Four we would have found that she had been more or less duped, and would be hijacked by evil entities that would return her to do battle with Angel. Instead, they changed the story by having her have sex with Connor ("yeeecccch") and becoming pregnant with his child, who turned out to be not a child but a full grown goddess with a penchant for eating people. For me this very nearly killed all the good things in the season, since I absolutely loved Cordy's transformation from school snob early in BUFFY to heroine who made extraordinary sacrifices in her willingness to fight the good fight. I thought this a horrible misuse of her character. A second major problem with Season Four was Connor, a character that was never very well conceived and never well written. He never really gelled with the rest of the cast, and most of his scenes felt like interruptions in the action. And on top of all this, he had sex with Cordy ("yeeecccch"). It was no surprise when he was nudged out of the show at season's end. The third major flaw in the season was the character of Jasmine (played by the usually marvelous Gina Torres, who I loved in Whedon's Sci-Fi Western that year, FIREFLY). I and many other ANGEL fans found the episodes featuring Jasmine to be utterly unpleasant. Everyone becomes a mindless automaton, blindly serving her needs unless accidentally contaminated with her blood, Fred first, and then Angel, and eventually the others. This was a story line that was developed in the wake of the discovery of Charisma's pregnancy, and it did have the feeling of something that was grafted onto the season, and not an integral part of it.

So, of all the years of ANGEL, this is the one with more fantastically great and horribly wretched elements. Nonetheless, it still was one of the three or four best shows on television this particular season (2002-2003), matched in my opinion by BUFFY (which suffered its own most flawed season), the prematurely cancelled FIREFLY, and the also tragically cancelled FARSCAPE. Which is to say that warts and all, it remains essential viewing.

The Season Four set, which has been previously released in most of the world's regions, contains the largest set of special features yet.

I would like to preface this review by saying that the very first episode of Angel that I ever saw was Release, an episode from the middle of this season. When I saw it, I recognized that this was definitely an amazing show, for Release is one of my very favorite episodes, however I had almost no idea what was going on. I only knew four characters; Angel (David Boreanaz), or maybe I should say Angelus, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Alexis Densiof), Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpentar), who confused me by being evil, and Faith (Eliza Dushku), who confused me by being good. Also, I thought that this was the second part of a three part episode arc involving Angelus, Angel's evil alter-ego. Man, was I wrong. This season's overall arc rivals the arcs used on shows like 24 and Alias; in order to fully understand and appreciate this season, one has to see every episode as well as most of the episodes from previous seasons.
Anyway, the season picks up sort of where we left off last year; Angel is at the bottom of the Pacific, where he was left by his son Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) and vampire hunter Justine Cooper (Laurel Holloman). Cordelia is on the higher plane of existence, Wes has been exiled from the group and is in an unhealthy relationship with Wolfram and Hart lawyer Lilah Morgan (Stephanie Romanov), Lorne (Andy Hallet) is performing in Vegas, and for the three month interim, Gunn (J. August Richards) and Fred (Amy Acker) have been searching for their two missing friends while trying to run Angel Investigations with Connor. For the past few months, Wes has been holding Justine hostage and is using her to find Angel. After Wes rescues Angel, the vamp kicks Connor out of the hotel and begins a search for his lost love Cordelia. The trio of Angel, Gunn, and Fred also start asking Wes for help more and more often. Over the summer it seems that the nerdy ex-Watcher has turned into a suave, dark, 007ish vampire hunter. Then, after a trip to Vegas to clear their heads and help rescue Lorne, the group returns to the Hyperion Hotel to discover Cordelia, who has no memory of her life. Lorne "reads" her and is horrified to see unspeakable evil in her future. Once she gets her memory back, things begin to go to Hell in L.A. Plagues of rats and snakes start occurring all over the city, and then an enormous demon made of solid rock emerges from the Earth... in the exact spot where Darla (Julie Benz) staked herself in order to bring Connor into the world. The Beast (Vladimir Kulich), as the gang calls it, causes the sky to rain fire, the performs a ritual that blocks out the sun. Things get a lot worse when the Angel Team has Angel's soul extracted in order to get information from the evil Angelus, only to learn that the Beast is taking orders from something worse. Soon, Angel's soul is stolen and Angelus escapes and runs rampant through L.A. Finally, we meet the Beastmaster, Jasmine (Gina Torres who has previously worked with Joss Whedon on Firefly), a higher being whose evil master plan is... world peace?
This year, the Angel gang faced numerous changes; Wes is now a dark, tortured, fighter, Gunn and Fred's relationship is tested to the limits, Cordy may no longer be who she used to be, Faith is now a force for good, and the L.A. branch of Wolfram and Hart is completely obliterated! The group also faces two of the most morally ambiguous challenges ever: do human sacrifices and the loss of free will justify world peace, and the other one stems from one of the show's greatest twists to date.
As I said earlier, this season is the most arc-heavy of the entire series (although year 3 is pretty intense, and year 5's arc is ingeniously the lack of an arc, but I'll get into that in the Season 5 review), and for the most part, it worked really well. Things did kind of slow down during a few episodes (in my opinion at least) such as the first Angelus episode and the first couple Jasmine episodes. However these minor problems can easily be overlooked due to the amazing overall story and the amazing individual episodes.
The acting is as good as ever; in fact I think that these actors just keep getting better. I guess the only exception is Kartheiser. He is kind of uneven; he will do very well in one episode, and then in the next one, his performance will be a little dry. Speaking of Connor, while I never truly despised him the way many fans did this season, I will admit that his constant snarl and bad attitude did get a little tiresome. The regulars weren't the only good performers. The guest stars were superb in their various roles, from Dushku's Faith to Torres' Jasmine, and from Kulich's Beast to Alyson Hannigan's Willow, who made an appearance in the episode Orpheus. Speaking of Faith, I still can't believe that she turned down a Faith spin-off show to do Tru Calling. Okay, I enjoy that show, but I believe that a Faith-based show led by Joss would have been amazing. Finally, there was Alexa Davalos, who played Gwen Raiden, a theif with an, um, electric personality. I still can't believe that Davalos didn't get used more. She definitely would have been a welcome addition to the team for Season 5 (along with James Marsters' Spike of course). Oh, and speaking of regulars, Andy Hallet finally made the opening credits after 2 and a half seasons as a guest star! Personally, I think that Hallet has gotten the short end of the stick in a lot of instances, such as being left off the DVD covers, but oh well.
One of the best things about this season was that Buffy cross-overs were allowed to happen again, despite the fact that BtVS was on UPN while this was on The WB, and the writers really made the best possible use of them. We were treated to overlapping stories (Faith and Willow, Angel taking the amulet to Sunnydale) as well as some references (Wesley talking about how the Watcher's Council no longer exists). I guess that the networks realized that this year was the last season of Buffy, so they let them have a few final crossovers.
The special effects and make-up this year probably reached their peak greatness (the show's budget was cut after this year). The Beast, the demons, and the portals all looked great.
This is, in my opinion, the best season so far (my favorite is Season 5, though). This season had great stories, great character development, and of course, great fights. The first fight with the Beast, Angel, Gunn, Wes, and Lorne was spectacular. The duels between Faith, the Beast, and Angelus were not only epic, but they were also kind of funny. And this season had probably my favorite fight of the series: Angel vs. Angelus! I wish that it had been longer. I truly believe that the writers could devote an entire episode to a duel between the two.
Pretty much every episode was good this year, so here are the best of the best: Deep Down. Spin the Bottle (the show's second funniest episode). Apocolypse, Nowish. Long Day's Journey. Awakening. Calvary. Salvage. Release. Orpheus. Inside Out. Sacrifice. Peace Out. Home. Anyway, that's the Season 4 lowdown. One season to go. See you in year 5!

If there's one thing the fourth season of Angel does, it's wear you out. It moves from one "oh my God, what are they going to do?" to the next, and by the time you reach the halfway mark of the season, you're just begging the writers to let up and give you some respite from the rollercoaster ride of emotion.

It's a profoundly disturbing season, and achieves horror in a way that neither Angel or Buffy ever have. Joss Whedon calls it emotional horror, the horror that comes not from having a scary thing pop around a corner or blood and guts splattered all over the pavement, but rather from characters we know and love having terrible things happen to them and acting in awful ways.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's a draining, exhausting thing, but it's not necessarily bad.

What is bad is the disjointed, messy plot of the season. In a season that has almost no episodes that stand on their own, outside of the plot, it's devastating that the plot is never clear and never makes sense.

It's not all the writers' fault. It was a troublesome season of television for both Buffy and Angel--Joss Whedon was off working on Firefly, and both shows suffered from difficulties regarding their regular actors. In Angel's case, the primary problem was Charisma Carpenter's (Cordelia) pregnancy. You get the sense that it forced the writers to make changes in the story on the fly, breaking earlier plotting and destroying an already convoluted and overly complex storyline.

The season isn't all lows, don't get me wrong. It is a thrill ride, jumping from one horrific situation to the next, each further pounding the Fang Gang into the ground. The Beast remains, in my opinion, one of the most effectively frightening villains in the history of the Buffyverse. Connor, while easy to loathe, is also fascinating in a sick, voyeuristic sort of way. Other villains, including (and especially) the return of an old "friend", provide even more horror and difficulty, mostly in a very entertaining fashion.

And the season starts out at top form. The resolution to the cliffhanger that ended season three, "Deep Down", was nearly perfect, answering most of the immediate questions from last season and leaving more open to explore throughout season 4. What follows is a short series of excellent stand-alone episodes (including the introduction of the fascinating, X-Men-esque Gwen) before Cordelia's inevitable return and the start of the season's thrill ride of a plot.

But the season's conclusion, which spans over four or five episodes, is terrible. The explanation for the convoluted storyline of the season is insufficient to say the least, and if it doesn't leave you confused, it'll still leave you gaping in disbelief. Not disbelief at any sort of surprise, but disbelief that the writers would explain things in such an inept and inadequate fashion.

But the season doesn't end there. It runs off into something entirely different in tone and unrelated to the type of emotional horror we've been constantly experiencing, and only loosely tied (by the previously mentioned inadequate explanation) to the previous events of the season. It's, if anything, even more disturbing, but in a way that will leave you more detached and confused than involved and frightened.

And once that ends, a completely unexpected and completely unrelated season finale caps off the season with even more confusion. It seems to serve only as a jumping point for the fifth season, which it serves as adequately (despite initial disbelief in the plausibility of a certain law firm's motivations). What it doesn't do is give us anymore satisfaction than the already unsatisfying ending provided in the episode preceding it.

It's a shame this season was such a mess. It showed great promise, and perhaps if the writers had gotten a clear, well-developed plot worked out and stuck with it all the way through, it would have been one of the best and most disturbing seasons of Angel or Buffy. As it stands, it's only a testament to the disorganized nature of both Buffyverse shows' writing staffs during this tumultuous season of television, a season that produced two of the weakest season plot arcs (this season of Angel and Buffy's corresponding season 7) ever to grace a Joss Whedon show.

Is it worth the money? Yes, because the journey is intense and contains many entertaining and worthwhile developments, and is written well other than the convuluted season's plot. The cast also gives it their all, with the possible exception of Charisma Carpenter, whose lackluster performance in the second half of the season can be excused by her advanced pregnancy and the ridiculousness of the plotline forced upon her character.

All of that said, I hold the opinion that this was the worst season of Angel, never delivering on its promises or matching its suspense and intensity with clarity and logical plotting. Buffy and Angel fans, buy it and enjoy the intense journey, but be forewarned about the lackluster plot and do not expect a satisfying conclusion. It will leave you disappointed.

This season is probably tied with Season Five as my favorite season. Some people couldn't stand this season, however I loved it beyond words. Whereas Season Seven of Buffy was putting me to sleep with the long speeches and massive amounts of whiney teenagers with random plotlines spinning off into thin air, Angel Season Four was much different. It actually got my blood flowing. I laughed, I screamed, I yelled, I felt SOMETHING! The point is, this season is supposed to make you angry, it's supposed to make you gag over the relations between Cordy and Connor! That's TV at it's finest! When you are so emotionally attached to the characters that it can effect you in such a strong way.

Anyone who is a fan of Wesley will love this season because he blossoms. Gunn fans will be hurt his relationship with Fred dissolves, and those like me who are a fan of both Gunn/Fred and Wesley/Fred will be torn the entire season. And of course come Season Five, you'll be heartbroken that they gave up on this love triangle...

Speaking of love triangles never neglect the Angel/Cordy/Connor dilemma. But even through all the romantic problems, this season is far from romantic, and the big bad Jasmine will make sure you feel queasy at least 1/4 of the season. Also we must note the splendid acting from all the characters.

The point is, this is the season where you as a person come to realize what exactly it is you love about each and every character. In Wes, some will miss the geek, others will love the dark side. Most will realize that as they miss Buffy season 1-3 Cordy, even more they miss the beautiful woman she has turned into on Angel. The love for Lorne's humor continues, the weakness in Lilah, the brave girl looking for her hero in Fred, and the man looking for redemption in Gunn.

And as always, the hero will always be our beloved Angel. His sacrifice will move everyone. And it is only in Season Four that you'll begin to understand that any man with muscle can save the world, but it takes a true hero like Angel to save a heart.

Season Four of, as Tim Minear puts it, TV's Angel, is an exercise of brilliance as the result of necessity. Sometime before or during the beginning of Season Four, Charisma Carpenter came to the writers with some news that undoubtedly threw a wrench in their plans for the season: she was pregnant. After the intense events depicted the season before, what were the writers supposed to do? This was the season where Angel had to be brought back from his ocean-depth tomb, as well paying off Cordelia's "ascension" as a higher being. The results should be taught to aspiring students in film school as a how to on contigency planning. Season Four was action-packed. It was hair raising, suprising, edge-of-your-seat television. If Season Three was Angel's perfectly structured high point, then Season Four was the go for broke roller coaster ride. Joss Whedon shows are full of surprises but Season Four takes the metaphorical "holy crap I can't wait for next week!" cake. I know that "the couple" (that's all I'm gonna say, I don't want to be a spoiler for potential buyers) turned many stomachs, but the actors who played the roles were just brilliant. "She" showed a darkness that rivaled Alyson Hannigan's Darlene-a-thon in Season Six of Buffy, while "he" is often unfairly maligned but is really a great actor, giving us a complex, nuanced performace. The DVDs themselves are quite good, with a transfer that is lush and full-looking. And the extras are plentiful, with commentaries by both Alexis Denisof and Andy Hallett (that's more than Buffy's actor commentary count of one, ironically courtesy of the exited Seth Green). There are many other commentaries by the staff, including the always entertaining Steven S. DeKnight and Tim Minear (and, obviously, Joss). There a lot of information to digest this season for newbies, but if you're hungry for truly epic television, it's worth it to do the homework.

Picking up where its amazing 3rd Season left off, Season 4 of TV's Angel was without a doubt the most shocking, dramatic and intriguing. Despite a few creative low points, the cast and crew rose to the challenge of Angel's new full fledged story-arch format, with all 22 episodes weaving together to create one feature-length episode.
The season deals with issues such as fascism, religious persecution and world peace brilliantly, staying subtle, yet getting the message across perfectly. However, the season's real highlight is the shocking relationship between Wesley (Alexis Denisof) and Lilah (Stephanie Romanov), creating one of the series' most eerie, dysfunctional and altogether fascinating relationships.

I never managed to watch a single episode of Angel while it was on television. However, I have been watching the show season per season on the DVD sets just as I have done with Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Up until I saw season four of Angel, I would have given the nod to Buffy as being the better of the two shows. However, season four of Angel was incredible and actually made me like the show more than Buffy. The thing that has impressed me the most about Angel, is that the show has gotten better with each passing season. Going into season four, I had no idea how good it would turn out to be, but by the end of the season I was blown away. For some unknown reason, season four is often thought of is one of the weakest, if not the weakest season of the show. Personally, I do not understand why season four has taken so much heat from fans of the show. In my opinion, it is without a doubt the best season that I have seen so far.

Season four of Angel drags you in from the very beginning and keeps you there until the end of the season. Just when I thought that this season could not get any better, something else would happen to convince me otherwise. This season had so many great elements to it with Angel and his son Connor both falling for Cordelia, Wesley and Lilah having a relationship, Faith and Angelus coming back, the fight to stop a unstoppable demon known as The "Beast" from bringing forth an appocalypse, and much more. A few episodes worth mentioning are "Appocalypse Nowish" which is perhaps the best episode of the show I have ever seen, in which The Beast is introduced, "Spin the Bottle" in which Lorne attempts to help Cordelia regain her memory with a spell, and everyone ends up taking on their personalities of when they were 17 including Angel, "Awakening" which is a superb alternate reality episode, and "Soulless" in which Angelus returns.

Overall, season four of Angel manages to prove why it is one of the best shows you will ever see. However, the DVD set is not only worth owning because of the episodes themselves. It is packed full of great extras. You get four featurettes which includes an overview of season four, a gag reel filled with outtakes, and more.

A solid 5 stars...

This is the season that made me an "Angel" fan who liked "Buffy" as well, instead of the other way around. This is the season that capitalized fully on the potential that Season 3 showed but never accomplished for various reasons.

Don't listen to the naysayers. This is the best "Angel" season. It is a rollar coaster from start to finish that has the intensity of 24 but unlike 24 has fantastic acting (excepting Charisma Carpenter whose dry performance is the only major flaw in the season), fantastic writing and raises questions of morality and free will that Angel fans are still debating to this day. The season begins with a fantastic season premiere resolving some of the plot left hanging in the season 3 finale. There's a couple decent standalones that follow and then in episode 7 the arc (an apocalypse that rivals any of those on its sister show) for the season starts and is not resolved until the end of the season.

I could go on and on in praise of this season, but simply put, buy this DVD. Even if you don't have any other "Angel" DVDs this is the set to have. The DVD format will allow you to keep up with the story much easier than having weeks or months before the next episode when it originally aired.

Spin-off shows from other, more successful TV programs almost never succeed. For every Frasier there are many more Watching Ellies or After MASH. Angel is one of those rare examples of a success: five seasons of high quality episodes with a world and characters that were able to get out from under the shadow of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and establish their own turf. Gone are the sun-soaked locales of Sunnydale-replaced by the mean streets of Los Angeles.

There are six audio commentaries spread out over the six discs in this set. They feature a wide variety of people behind the camera, from writers like David Fury to directors like Terrence O'Hara to cast members like Andy Hallett. For the most part they are all informative and entertaining with the best of the bunch being the one for "Spin the Bottle" featuring Joss Whedon and Alexis Denisof. Joss enjoyed doing this episode because it allowed him to feature the bookish, wimpy Wesley from Buffy with the new, tougher version from Angel. Both men joke with each other in an amusing, entertaining way. Fans of Joss' self-deprecating humour will love this track.

On the second disc is "Angel and the Apocalypse," a featurette on the ambitious special effects for the episode, "Apocalypse, Nowish." In addition to a nice nod to Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) with many birds attacking our heroes, there was also a fantastic rooftop battle that culminated with a strangely beautiful-looking firestorm.

The sixth disc contains the bulk of the extra material. "Prophecies: Season 4 Overview" features Joss, the writers and the cast giving the lowdown on what this season was all about. It's a decent synopsis of the season.

"Unplugged: Season 4 Outtakes" is an amusing collection of the cast blowing their lines, doing pratfalls and generally goofing around in front of the camera.

"Last Looks: Hyperion Hotel" is a guided tour of Angel's base of operations with all of the important sets shown and there fascinating insight into how the look of the show is created.

"Fatal Beauty and the Beast" is the lowdown on the two major bad guys of the season-The Beast and Jasmine. The two actors who play them are interviewed and they talk about their respective approaches to their characters.

Finally, there is "Malice in Wonderland: Wolfram and Hart," a featurette on the evil corporation that has been a thorn in Angel's side from the first season. As someone points out, they are our worst dream: lawyers in league with evil forces, possibly the Devil.

This latest season of Angel comes in an attractive box set with superb transfers of all the episodes (letterboxed!) and a nice collection of extras that fans of this excellent show will enjoy.