CNN reports that the WB has is cancelling Angel — you know, Buffy-spin off, ’bout the vampire with a soul — after five seasons. Having been a closet, then open, then BUFFY IS THE BEST SHOW ON TV AND I WILL TELL YOU WHY fan, I’ll say it: The end of an era (of good writing, wrapped up with a giant warm-to-the-nerd-soul bow).
Never was a huge fan of Angel, though; something to do with killing off my wife’s favorite character early on.* After that, I never heard the dialog — all I heard was the gal sitting next to me, fulminating (“this would be soooo much better, if only ______ was still around.”)
Consider this a commemorative open thread, to the extent one is needed.
*Doyle. And Buffy’s decline, incidentally, can be traced to the moment that Oz (Seth Green) moved on to better things.
Nah, I already posted about this twice, once yesterday, on my own blog.
Did you notice my news about Alyson Hannigan’s new show?
It appears, however, that, regrettably, there will be a minimum of horrific killing involved.
I was quite pleased by Andrew’s appearance on the 99th episode, bringing news of what each member of the Scooby-gang was now up to, as well as that delicious ending. What did you think?
Great, now I can become one of those annoying “I don’t watch television” people.
Angel had been mostly leaden this year, though with the reappearance of Cordelia it took off again. When she got translated the show’s dynamic stopped working. Before that it was a great ride though – esp. Wesley’s mature arc, esp. the stuff with Lilah (along with the Mayor from Buffy a wonderfully warm portrait of a multidimentsional character who happens to be evil.)
Now I guess they’ll have to scramble to try to bring the last five years of together with some sort of narrative closure, fail, and anyway give up on the character development. Plus the dropped arcs from the Buffy trainwreck. Oh well.
Nah, I already posted about this twice, once yesterday, on my own blog.
Sorry to be late — I just came up for air and looked around.
Whedon seems distracted — propping up Firefly took him away from Buffy, turning the formerly propped up Firefly into a movie took him away from Angel — or maybe he’s just distracted. But this Angel season suffered just like the last Buffy. Odd character arcs, no compelling big bad, and very little episode to episode coherence. Oh, and no love stories.
As for Doyle, a great early character, and tragically, an actor who died last year of an overdose.
Oh. And Buffy’s decline can be pegged to the day Marti Noxon started running the show.
I’m surprised a show I liked lasted this long. Angel was good though the last two seasons have been less good. When they started to de-emphasize Cordelia I began to lose interest. They worked so hard to turn her into a real character and then blew it all. I will mention only in passing how much Fred annoys me.
Can we have the Lorne Variety Show next?
While “Angel” did at first seem to be the show where all of the second-tier Buffy characters went to linger, it has become much more. We have seen an impressive amount of character growth among Angel, Cordelia, Wesley and now even Harmony.
They have created a wonderful reoccurring set of villains in Wolfram & Hart (an evil law firm, who’d thunk it?) and really fleshed out the Buffyverse beyond Sunnydale with new races, new dimensions, characters, and history (a must for we RPG fans).
I have enjoyed most of the story arcs of the series particularly where they recently took over the management of Wolfram & Hart (about the same time that most of the SD6 characters from “Alias” began running the CIA).
Favorite line of all time from “Angel:”
I hope that it will be picked up by another network but I wouldn’t hold out too much hope for it.
Any news on the “Ripper” miniseries?
“Any news on the “Ripper” miniseries?”
That seems to have died a quiet death years ago, with little more than talk ever to it; unlike the dead Buffy animated series which at least produced a bunch of interesting drawings that are online somewhere or other (I linked about 2 years ago).
Thanks for the tip on Ripper, please let me know if you find the links to the BtVS cartoon sketches. I wonder if they might resemble some of the more cartoonish “flashback” artwork they use for some of the BtVS comics.
See here and here.
Have you seen this?
You know, I do blog all this stuff, and much more, on my own blog. 🙂 More prolifically, much of the time, than OW.
Also, there’s this “google” thing you might want to look into. 🙂
HTH!
Thanks Gary. The pics do seem to be the same as I’ve seen on some of the BtVS comics.
I’ll keep your blog in mind. 🙂