Spotlight Reviews
 The weakest season of Angel but still great
Angel season 4 is easily the weakest season of Angel throughout it's 5 year run.
The show dropped all pretense of having stand alone plots and became one long 22 episode arc, although to the hardcore fan this should be wonderful news, it doesn't exactly work. The problem is the plot isn't all that strong, it starts great, and than becomes more and more disorganised, Conner, Lorne and Cordelia are all given less than stellar material to work with, and the plot sags a bit near the end. That doesn't mean this season is in anyways bad, a bad angel season is still much stronger than the vast majority of television shows. It is still better than the weakest Buffy seasons (season 4 and 7 in my opinion) and it is still very entertaining even at it's weakest point. If you bought the first 3 seasons this is a must-have, and leads into the phenomenal but different final season.  Flawed, but still Angel
If this season were rated in the context of the show as a whole, it would receive 2 and a half stars. But independently, it deserves at least 4. It's still Angel, and chuck full of the dark comedy/action/horror/drama Whedon fans have come to depend on.
This season probably the worst of the series. Why? -The Connor/Jasmine/Cordelia arc did not mesh well, and did not adhere to the core statement of the show. The story arc was so accomodating to Charisma Carpenter's pregnancy and suffered as a result. Forget about emotional resonance and provocative messages (when's the last time outside of Jerry Springer that a woman was having an affair with both a father and a son?). What it comes down to is that this was a very experimental year. The writers tested what worked and when that didn't, they altered the story line accordingly. Connor and Cordelia too gross? Make Cordelia evil. Charisma Carpenter pregnant? Make her baby evil. The Jasmine story arc was fine, but very disjointed from the rest of the supposedly "tight-knit" story arc because it was originally not intended to take place. Even the Angelus mini-arc was sadly lacking. The character never hurt anyone, merely taunted them like a high school bully. In addition, the writers really dropped the ball when they made Angel and Angelus two different characters. The reason why Angelus is so frightening is because he IS the character we know and love. Flaws from the central arc and Angelus arc aside, it was still great television. The season premiere and finale were well thought out "Live life as it should be to show the world what it could be." Gwen Raiden was an awesome, and sadly underused, new character, Lilah, Wesley, Fred, and Gunn had some of their greatest moments on the show, and the Whedon directed "Spin the Bottle" was a fantastic romp (although very similar to a season six buffy episode). I'd recommend you pick up this DvD only if you are a die-hard fan of the show, because you would have to own the prior seasons to make much sense of what's happening. If you are a casual fan, borrow it from a friend and wait to purchase the fantastic season 5.  Angel
I love Angel and give it a 5 cos' it is excellent but one major annoyance for me is that it kills me that we can't buy the DVD on the States but here in the UK they have all the seasons for sale so much earler on than in the States. Unfortunately even though i live here temporarily (military) i only own a US DVD player. Whats up with this!!! The shows made in the states but you have to go to the UK to pick a copy of it up.
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