In deference to our foreign fans visiting the website, I won’t go into any sort of spoiler detail about the season wrap-up of “Angel” (although I *will* mention, because it’s non-specific, that a cliffhanger of that type is somewhat unprecedented in the show’s history. Until now, the series had always abided by the “Buffy” formula of ending clean. This one ends nasty and ragged. But then, that’s more like life when you get down to it.
What I’ve found interesting is the initial very negative fan reactions I’ve been seeing. I thought it was a pretty good episode, actually, in that it was a logical progression from all that’s gone before. That’s been both the strength and weakness of this season. All that has occurred has gone in a very logical, reasonable manner. Unfortunately, because of that, it’s also been remarkably predictable. The only beat of the Conner storyline I missed was my belief that the time-hopping demon Sahjahn *was* Conner. Other than that, it was pretty much obvious.
TV series always tread a fine line between giving viewers what they want (which invariably then palls on them and they move off) and giving them what they don’t want (which can enrage them but also keep them). “Angel” has tried to embrace the latter while showing a derth of imagination and therefore stumbling into the former. Not its most successful season…and that comes from someone who actually *liked* the three episodes in the other dimension last year.
“Buffy” likewise has been beat-by-beat for anyone who ever read the “Dark Phoenix” stories. In fact, that was signaled from the very first episode. Remember when Willow stood there in the center of the graveyard and telepathically guided all the Scoobies in their slaying? It was remarked back then that they’d turned her into Jean Gray. If they follow Claremont’s original model for the storyline (as opposed to the Shooter-mandated “She must die” ending) then eventually we’ll have Dark Willow going completely nova only to be captured, restrained, and (perhaps voluntarily) undergoing a sort of psychic surgery that will remove her abilities completely forever. We’ll see.
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