Customer Reviews
A fine show ruined by poor quality discs - By: K. Cruickshank, 26 Dec 2007 
This is the third copy of this boxset I've had the fist was not working on arrival the second failed after a month or two & now the third has failed after two years. I'm careful with my discs & don't abuse them, but the discs must be cheap rubbish I've tried contacting Fox to find a replacement as £55 is a fair bit of money, but they ignore all attempts at contact.
This is not the only Fox DVD I've had problems with other Buffy & Angel DVDs have had similar problems.
Love the show & enjoyed watching the discs, but now I can no longer watch the last disc.
A season too far - By: Jonathan Oakey, 03 Apr 2006 The 5th season of Angel saw the writers desperately seeking inspiration. At times they found it, but all too often they didn't. The first half of the season is a slog, with a number of poor, unexciting episodes. Smile Time was an entertaining diversion, but the show only struggled back onto its feet with the prelude to & appearance of Illyria about 2/3 of the way through. The latter part of the season has some cracking episodes, but on the whole it is the weakest season.
I am still keenly interestedin what Joss Whedon does next, as he has some excellent & creative ideas - but network TV being what it is, these are milked until they go sour.
Champion required, apply within... - By: IJ, 06 Jan 2006 
Absolutely (underlined) NO spoilers. Well, that’s it. It’s all over…I’ve just watched the last ever episode of ‘Angel’, violins literally playing as the credits rolled & now I’m wishing I hadn’t. I managed to wait over a year from the terrestrial transmission of the last episode (‘Home’) of Season 4 before I began this 5th season on DVD, don’t ask me how, but I did manage it & now I’m truly gutted that I’ll never again be spellbound by the action-packed & thrilling adventures of Team Angel. Unfortunately, the loss is compounded by the fact that (for me, at least)…this is one of the weakest seasons of the unrivalled, vampire spin-off show.
The potential for this season was off the scale, but not only does it fail to deliverin the first half a dozen episodes, it also fails to deliver consistently throughout the season- only brief glimpses of brilliance occasionally hint at what could have been. IF ONLY there had been another season! But perhaps it’s best to end it here before it shrinks too deeply into the shadow of Season 3. It’s not just the lack of humour, warmth, spark or solidarityin Team Angel that’s a disappointment here, it’s the transformation of these characters from what was familiar & from those people I'd come to know & lovein 4 years of loyal viewing & into something much less aspirational & a lot more human.
In previous seasons of ‘Angel’ I was often left wondering why creator Joss Whedon felt it necessary to fix a formula that I never thought was brokenin the first place with radical location & character changes & similarly, I was also left wondering why at the end of Season 4 (and Lilah’s extraordinary proposition) Whedon decided to mix things up to such a degree. But what I realise now is that ‘home’ for Team-Angel is wherever they happen to be, as long as they’re together (corny, but true) & this season proved to me to be no exception. But while they’re still together, fighting evil & making the world a safer placein the process…it’s inescapable that they HAVE sold out &in the fifth & final season of ‘Angel’ I was never quite convinced that that was possible, let alone the basis for an entire season. The makers also struggle considerably with the tone of many of the episodes, too often descending into science-fiction & horror territory for my liking & moving away from the fantasy aspect of the show that had proved such a huge successin previous seasons. And after so much hype (as far exceeding its counterpart ‘Buffy’in its attempt to conclude the story of these characters who we’d journeyed with for so long) ‘Don’t Fade Away’ was an extreme disappointment to me, not just leaving me bewildered, but also a little angry (in much the same way as the last episode of 'Farscape' had a couple of years ago) & feeling that somehow, as an avid & devoted follower of the programme…I deserved more. Having watched as much fantasy & science-fiction as I have I'm quite accustomed to being leftin the dark & never learning the answers to many questions posedin regards to character & story, even after years of loyal viewing, but with 'Angel' being left so ignorant & about so much just didn't ring true for me.
However, this season is by no means a wash-out & however many gripes I might have with the central theme of the season, there were more than a handful of moments when my head, my heart & my funny bone were each stimulated way beyond their previous thresholds, or more accurately… moments when I was scratching my head like a madman, crying like a baby & howling with laughter, but alwaysin appreciation of an exceptional example of television.
A Bittersweet Goodbye - By: , 26 Oct 2005 
What a shame 'the Powers That Be' decided to end this series just as it was comingin to its own & finally coming out of the shadow of BTVS. Spike's arrival & the subsequent petty feuding between dark 'n' broody & bleached 'n' bolshie was a joy to watch. Angel took a comic tone which contrasted nicely with the menace of Wolfram & Hart & the theme of appearance & reality seemed to come straight from Macbeth 'fair is foul' & all that! The 'muppet' episode is compulsive viewing, it's absolutely inspired & deserves an award! My only gripe is the ending - I didn't want it to happen!!
Rent first. Buy later. - By: music-mad, 20 Jun 2005 
I have been a fan of this show since i first got hooked into watching the Buffy repeats on BBC2. I now own all the dvd boxsets of both series apart from Angel season Five. Why?
I watched this season on Sky from beginning to end- hoping it would get better. Instead each episode only proved more & more how far the standards for 'Angel' had slipped down. Obvioulsy i am not alone of this opinon, if this was not true, the show would never have been cancelled.
One of the main problems for this season was that there was no story arc which spanned across all 22 episodes & held everything together. As a result characters acted out of character & spent their time sitting around staring at the walls of Wolfram + Hart & wondering like the viewers if anything would ever happen.
Another problem was the axing of principle characters Cordelia & Connor. Getting rid of Cordelia was a big mistake as she gave light & humour to an overall dark tv series as well as the character of Angel himself. Bringingin Spike as a replacement was no substitute. While with Connor - so many possibilities left unexplored!
In my opinion, it seems this season has been getting overall good reviews only because the show was axed but this is not a good enough reason which is why i have wrote this reviewin the first place.
Save your money & buy Joss Whedon's 'Firefly' instead or if you have to watch this season- rent it first & then decide for yourself if you still want to buy it.
