Angel Season Four= Best. Season. Ever.

POSTED BY: Lexan
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 05:48
VIEWED: 9686
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DEEPGIRL187

Thursday, January 18, 2007 3:54 PM

I will agree that the Jasmine part of the story arc was done well, but not for the characters or even the story. What I felt was well done was the metaphors that were used in the storyline. It's similar to the bible in some ways. Here is Jasmine, a messiah-type character created from an impossible birth, who is destined to enlighten the world. She is betrayed by a Judas-like character (Fred), which leads to her eventual death.

On a more basic level, you deal with the issue of happiness. Is true happiness everything it's cracked up to be? Is ignorance really bliss? Is it worth it to sacrifice free will for happiness? And as a side note, if what Jasmine gave to people was true happiness, then Angel should have reverted to Angelus.

Season four still isn't my favorite season, But I think I enjoy it because more so than any season, it makes you think.

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"I suppose if we couldn't laugh at things that don't make sense, we couldn't react to a lot of life."

GROOSALUGG

Thursday, January 18, 2007 7:09 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Lexan:

The Beast, Angelus and blotting out the sun actually were very relevant when it came to Jasmine's ultimate plan... everything was meant to make sure all occurences were 'nudged in the right direction'. The Beast was designed to be a distraction from Jasmine's ultimate plan (and he was a very good distraction too...). Angelus was also designed as a distraction... This was used in ensuring Lorne would not read Cordy and impairing his powers of reading minds. I can name numerous other reasons as to why these characters were brought into the mix but I thought they were pretty obvious...

Then I'll borrow a quote from Xander over on BtVS: "Big overture... little show".

Honestly, I've heard that rationalization before, and yeah, it works, fine, but to me, that's still all it is: rationalization. Someone trying to go back after-the-fact and explain how these to completely disparate storylines actually tie together: "Oh, it was all a distraction to keep the gang busy while she was pregnant." Sorry--just not a satisfying enough payoff for events that seemed to be approaching epic-scale status. When you raise up an almost-unkillable monster (the Beast), rain fire on downtown Los Angeles, resurrect the baddest badass of the entire Whedonverse (Angelus), break Faith out of prison, and get Willow down from Sunnydale, telling me later on that "Oh, that was all just mis-direction" isn't going to cut it--it's gonna take way more justification that that, or I'm going to be left feeling like I didn't get my money's worth.

But even if I accept for a moment that that's true, then I still just can't seem to get past the plothole that there had to be an easier way for Evil Cordy to give birth to herself as Jasmine without anyone finding out. We see several times that she's very magickally-inclined, as powerful--if not more so--than Willow. So why not grab Connor (like he'd ever resist

), hop in the car, do a concealment spell so that the Fang Gang could never locate them, and drive off to Battle Creek, Michigan (or somewhere even more obscure), and let the pregnancy take its course? Obviously, because that wouldn't have made as interesting a show, but like I said, it's a plot hole I just can't ignore if I accept the "It was all a distraction" logic.

And I merely pointed out the arrow thing as one small bit of evidence that the writers weren't necessarily paying a lot of attention to the details of previous episodes. So how about some proof that they weren't paying too much attention to future episodes, either (IOW, were "making it up as they went along", to quote Angel in reference to the Beast's master and 'his' plan)? Go back and watch the start of episode 7, "Apocalypse, Nowish". After a brief Angel/Lorne scene, it starts with Cordy and Connor, in his loft. He's bringing her food, she's watching TV, she's scared, he comforts her, blah-blah-blah. Suddenly you hear the Beast's voice, she gasps and looks up, and there it is, standing before her. It grabs her by the throat, lifts her up, and she wakes up. So I put this before the court: since she turns out to be the evil master in control of this thing, why is she having a nightmare about it?

I know that people who dislike S5 of Angel mainly complain that it didn't have much of a major story arc, that it was too many standalone episodes. But honestly, after S7 of Buffy and S4 of Angel, I'd pretty much lost all faith in the Mutant Enemy writers' ability to tell a season-long story that was concise, consistent, and made complete sense...

CHRISISALL

Thursday, January 18, 2007 9:44 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Groosalugg:
But honestly, after S7 of Buffy and S4 of Angel, I'd pretty much lost all faith in the Mutant Enemy writers' ability to tell a season-long story that was concise, consistent, and made complete sense...

Season 7 of Buffy ruled, and made total sense, oh you of the uneven-challenged.
It had only ONE meh ep, and when it was good, it was GREAT!!!<----see the caps? That means I'm right!

On a Sunnydale high Chrisisall

GROOSALUGG

Thursday, January 18, 2007 9:52 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Season 7 of Buffy ruled, and made total sense

I envy you for being able to convince yourself of that, Chris.

Just going back and re-reading Lexan's last post, the line "In comparison to Buffy season seven, Angel season four is ten times better, predominantly in regard to continuity..." kinda sticks out, and gives me a little chuckle. If there were ever the definition of 'damning with faint praise', saying "It made more consistent sense than Buffy S7" certainly qualifies...

DESKTOPHIPPIE

Thursday, January 18, 2007 10:01 PM

I recognise this season's flaws, but it still winds up being one of my all time favourites. Yes, it was patchy, yes it was weird, yes the Connor/Cordy thing was shudder inducing - and I speak as someone who loves both characters.

All that being said, I think this season had some of the strongest episodes and strongest scenes in the entire show. It helps that I do like Connor, and I loved the way we got to see just how much he had suffered and was suffering still. That scene in the sewers when he explains to Angel why he's so good at tracking still chills me every time I watch it.

Then there's Jasmine. I thought she was kickass. I thought she was absolutely the creepiest villain ever on the show. Someone who inspires adoration, who literally can't be defied... that's just amazing. She was able to see through everyone's eyes to try and track Fred down, even make a man who was burning to death stand in front of her and tell her not to be afraid... no other bad guy ever came close to something like that. It also put our heroes in a truly desperate situation. I loved seeing how they all reacted to being on the run.

Apart from that, the season was filled with little gems - the magic bullet store owner, the demon who "befriends" Fred in the dirt hole, Gunn kicking the cage open after hours of effort, Lilah and Wesley, especially Wesley's reaction to Lilah's death and her sudden reappearance, that weird spider demon offering sacrifice to win Jasmine back to his world... And let's not forget Open Mike Night! Who can forget Open Mike Night! Angel and Connor sing "Mandy" - best scene ever!

All in all, while season four does have it's flaws, it still winds up being one of the best in my opinion. It's funny actually, as I feel exactly the same way about Buffy's fourth season, which inspires a similar reaction from fans.

Graphics available at www.desktophippie.com

CHRISISALL

Thursday, January 18, 2007 10:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Groosalugg:
If there were ever the definition of 'damning with faint praise', saying "It made more consistent sense than Buffy S7" certainly qualifies...

Peeps told me that season 6 sucked too...and I find it an absorbing (if somewhat painful) experience. If you want consistant sense from fantasy, then go watch (sorry, nothing comes to mind....)! The characters are of paramount importance to me, and season 7 is rich with the character IMO; if I want everything to be reasonable and make sense at all times, well, I guess that's what Star Trek is for. Believe me, I could pick apart almost every ep of every season of Buffy if I wanted to, but like Dark Angel, the core characters hold my interest above the plot holes and percieved inconsistancies. If Lexan loves S4 of Angel, more power to 'im.

No Jaws 3D Chrisisall

CHRISISALL

Thursday, January 18, 2007 10:06 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DesktopHippie:
It's funny actually, as I feel exactly the same way about Buffy's fourth season, which inspires a similar reaction from fans.

Buffy S4 was cool.

Who's a little fear demon Chrisisall

CHARLIETHEBLOODY

Friday, January 19, 2007 2:23 AM

I'm pretty much of the opinion that angel kept getting better all the way through, so although 5 is my favourite, I also disagree with the people who think season 4 was the worst. it was difficult in places and not the most fun, but it was very good.

buffy 4's my least favourite though. but I love 6 and don't get why people hate that

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"I'm an artist, with an e and a beret."

GROOSALUGG

Friday, January 19, 2007 4:38 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
The characters are of paramount importance to me, and season 7 is rich with the character IMO

See, that's exactly why I don't like S7! LOL! Because I care more about the characters than the mystical, magickal plots unfolding around them, and IMO, S7 was way too heavy on the First Evil arc, and way too light on the characters we'd all grown to know and love over six seasons. If the First Evil/Potentials arc had been engrossing, well-done, and consistent, maybe then I could've forgiven them for getting away from the character exploration, but to me, that storyline was just a directionless mess. It seems (based on watching the DVD special features) that Joss gave the other writers a starting point, ("Lessons") an idea of his planned ending point ("Chosen"), and left them to it (while he went off to work on Firefly), and on their own, they just couldn't figure out a clear, sensible way to get from A to B...

LEXAN

Friday, January 19, 2007 7:42 AM

I have the same opinion…The characters in Buffy season seven just didn't seem to be acting like themselves. For the most part, it seemed as though their personalities had completely vanished and had been replaced by those of mindless zombies (that's a bit of an exaggeration...). The story was so drawn out in most episodes...it seemed as though they didn't know what else they could do and had completely run of ideas. I thought a few more (insightful) character centric episodes could have been included, which actually displayed feelings and partialities true to the characters... I didn't like how most of the characters were used in this season. For example, most of the time Giles is only used for exposition. I wish we had been given more insight into his (and other characters) feelings on the first and its apparent plans of ending the world. Only some episodes dare to delve into this, as if the writers had forgotten what the characters were about...

I think season four of Angel was almost the exact opposite of Buffy season seven (apart from the fact that a lot of episodes in both seasons tended to bleed into each other). The story was a grim and dark one but didn't take itself too seriously (unlike Buffy season seven, which I don't think even managed to be dark, just boring.), the characters were believable (Willow acted more like Willow in that one episode of Angel she appeared in than she had in the entire season of Buffy...) and their feelings deeply explored with irony and profundity, the dialogue was witty and humorous and the action scenes riveting.

By the way, I don’t dislike season five of Angel…at all… I just thought the first half of the season and most of it’s episodes were uninteresting and dull (almost as much as Buffy season seven…). I thought the second half of the season was fantastic, just not fantastic as the fourth season of Angel…

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