Home

TV Zone Special#53 - 11/09/03

TV Zone Special #53
(transcribed by Setje)

Can Spike boost Angel’s ratings even further?

With Buffy now a fond memory creator Joss Whedon can concentrate on its spin-off
Angel.

Grant Kempster asks if this is a new beginning or a final flourish?

It is no secret that the very essence of surviving as a Vampire is the
extraction and consumption of blood. To this end a Vampire must draw enough of
this life-sustaining scarlet nectar from the body of its victim until, finally,
the body is cold and lifeless.

But it isn’t always over. Should the vampire choose to, it has the power to
resurrect the corpse of its victim, injecting its own life-giving blood into the
veins and restore to undead life something which had at first, appeared to have
come to the end of its natural life. The result is a more powerful, sharp and
rejuvenated being that is, for all intents and purposes, immortal.

“I’m really proud of the years that we’ve done, but I also feel the show has a
lot of life in it and has more years in it.”

For Joss Whedon’s Vampire series Angel, it is entirely possible that this
analogy can be applied to the spin-off show which began in 1999 when David
Boreanaz and Charisma Carpenter packed up their bags and left Sunnydale for the
big city. For the next four years the series would draw strength from the
imaginations of its viewers, hungry for more of Whedon’s world of Vampires and
demons and heroes that fight to make the world (or at least California) a safer
place. But as the fourth season of Angel drew to a close, many (including the
Network responsible for producing the show) were unsure whether the show had
extracted all it could from the genre. In a sense, the question was being asked
; had Angel come to the end of its natural life? With Buffy finally off the air,
could Whedon’s darker and undoubtedly more adult spin-off continue to live on?
It is at this point that creator Joss Whedon enforced his position of the
Vampire in our analogy. Having yelled ‘Cut’ for the final time on his
career-making series Buffy The Vampire Slayer and with his third series –
Firefly – vanquished from the schedules, the writer/director/producer and recent
father was able to turn his full attention to Angel. For the first time since
the series, (Pilot episode, City of, Whedon decided to write and direct the
season opener for Season five? And with the promise of further involvement to
come, the series was given the new blood it needed to not only continue, but to
be revived and potentially survive indefinitely. Thus Angel has been
resurrected.

The renaissance of Angel isn’t purely about returning a familiar format to our
screens however, as with the closer involvement of Whedon comes a new look
revised direction and an altered format that, many are hoping, will not only
enhance the story and characters that fans have come to love, but also will also
bring new viewers to the show.

At the close of Season four? With the season’s Big Bad (the God_like Jasmine)
conquered, Cordelia in a coma and Angel’s son installed in his new peaceful
existence, a most unexpected offer was made to the members of Angel, Inc. The
five-strong team were given the chance to assume control of the very company
that they had spent the best part of four years trying to bring down – the LA
branch of the evil multi-dimensional law firm, Wolfram & Hart. It was a decision
not taken lightly, but one that was nonetheless accepted almost immediately.
The result is not only a new location for the show but a new attitude forwards
fighting evil, as the ensemble discover when they start their fist day on the
job in the season opener, Conviction.

Whereas previously the battle had always appeared to be black and white, their
involvement with Wolfram & Hart shows each of them that the fight for good over
evil is all about the grey areas. Their first case is a prime example. An evil
client, Corbin Fries, is about to go down and Angel and co are given the
unenviable task of stopping him going to jail. Going against everything they
have learned the group must come to terms with the fact that, to stop evil they
have to let some things slide, adding a new layer of moral dilemmas and
dissension among the often precarious camaraderie.

The altered attitude also means a slight change to the format of the show, with
an emphasis on stronger stand-alone episodes rather than ongoing plot arcs which
had been known to bog down the show and exclude the ore causal viewer.
The WB is very anxious that people who haven’t seen the show get a chance to see
it,” Whedon elaborates of the series’ new mission statement. “So what I want for
the first episodes is to prove that with self-contained episodes we can still
get as much emotional resonance as we did with the more soap operatic style that
we had last year.”

While the first half of Angel’s fifth season will be filled with hour-long tales
of female werewolves (Unleashed), necromancers (Just Rewards) evil Aztec
warriors (The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco) and Wesley’s disappointed farther
there will, however, still be the trademark ongoing plot arcs that Angel fans
love to get their teeth into.

‘With the closer involvement of Whedon comes a new look, revised direction and
an altered format that will enhance the story and bring new viewers’

The arrival of Spike, yet another Vampire with a soul (albeit in non-corporeal
form – see box) is one aspect which has recurring consequences throughout the
show, as is the arrival of Eve, Angel and co’s mysterious contact to Wolfram &
Hart’s 4Senior Partners’. The reinvention of Gunn is also a mysterious and
ever-twisting new plot line as the former muscle of Angel’s operation is given a
cerebral leg-up the corporate ladder thanks to a brain-infusion reminiscent of
Neo’s kung fu lessons in The Matrix, turning him into the Ally McBeal of the
crew.

“I’m told if I join Wolfram & Hart, I will be given the complete knowledge of
the laws of this universe and every other universe that exists,” Richards says
of his new role.

“Basically I become an uber-lawyer, which is funny, because” in college I took
Law 101 as an elective and the professor was a renowned lawyer. We were
constantly going back and forth about everything and finally at the end of the
term he said, ‘Richards, when you’re done with this acting crap, give me a call’
because he wanted me to be a lawyer. He thought I missed my calling.
Ironically, now I get to play one.”

Undoubtedly the most obvious potential turn to the dark side, Gunn’s still by no
means the only one capable of being charmed by Wolfram & Hart. Thanks to an
amazing lab and staff who not only massage her ego but are able to carry out her
wildest calculations and theories, Fred also has the potential of being seduced
by the grandiose facilities available to her. To that end, Lorne looks set as
the head of the Entertainment clients, dealing with Hollywood’s glitterati,
while Wes is understandably impressed with the firm’s immense library. Angel,
however, seems to be the most self-aware of the group, with his many hundreds of
years of experience enabling him to keep his feet on the ground and his eyes
very much focused on the job at hand.

With the facilities of Wolfram & Hart at their control, the upcoming fifth
season is set to be one of the most interesting, exciting and surprising yet,
thanks to what are essentially a new format and a fresh outlook, and as the
series nears its 100th episode midway through the season creator Whedon feels
that the show is undoubtedly at its peak.

“I’m really proud of the years that we’ve done,” Joss exclaims. “And if we get
cancelled I will feel like we’ve fulfilled something but I also feel the show
has a lot of life in it and has more years in it.”

Thanks to a transfusion of new ideas, new writing and new cast members it seems
that Angel has been rejuvenated for its fifth year on air, and with Whedon’s
creative blood pumping through its veins, surely now the show is set to live on
and one.

Newcomers – SPIKE
It's no surprise that Spike has been adopted by Whedon’s Buffy spin-off.
Emerging from the Vampire Slayer’s show as undoubtedly the series ‘most popular
character, James Marsters seemed like a prime candidate for inclusion in Angel’s
new format.

When last we saw the platinum-haired Vampire with a soul, he was saving the
world from the hoards of the Hellmouth thanks to a little trinket passed on from
Angel to Buffy in the series’ penultimate episodes. After evaporating in a fiery
whoosh, Spike emerges in Wolfram & Hart’s offices and is greeted with the
confused looks of Angel’s crew.

But all is not what it seems. Spike may appear to be back, but there is a catch.
He can’t touch anything and is, for all intents and purposes, a ghost.

Worse still, it appears he is slowly being pulled towards Hell.

The animosity between Spike and Angel is tremendous and will make for unmissable
viewing, as will the outcome of his corporeal status as Fred attempts to bring
Spike back into the world of the living (or undead in Spike’s case).

The jewel in Angel Season Five’s crown, Spike is by far the most interesting and
intriguing addition.

Newcomers – HARMONY
Another blast from Sunnydale’s past, Harmony, is back but it appears her dreams
of becoming either Buffy or Angel’s arch nemesis have been put on hold.
With Cordelia still sleeping in coma somewhere out of sight, her old high school
rich-bitch best friend harmony is at hand to fill the void. Hence, the blonde
bimbett who became a Vampires as a consequence of being bitten at Sunnydale
High’s apocalyptic Graduation, is Angel’s new secretary.

Needles to say, there is no love lost between the Angel crew and the vacuous
vamp, thanks to her double-dealing in the Season Two Angel episode Disharmony.
It was here that she tried to chomp down on her old pal Cordy while paying her a
visit and conveniently forgetting to inform her that she was a blood-sucker. To
make matters worse, after the team give her the benefit of the doubt she
attempts to deliver them all to the leader of an evil Vampire pyramid scheme.
Despite her previous misdeeds however, harmony appears to be settling in nicely
to her new role, although the sudden emergence of her previous beau,
Blondie-Bear (aka Spike), has certainly put the wind up her, not least because
of his apparent disinterest in discussing their previous relationship.

"I'm really proud of the years that we’ve done, but I also feel the show has a lot of
life in it and has more years in it.”