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Final, but less than stellar, season of Angel
This is not the best season of Angel. The introduction of Spike, an obvious ploy to attract Buffy fans, actually disrupted the chemistry that existed between the regular Angel cast. Angel no longer seemed like the hero of the series, with his valiant "vampire with a soul" thunder being stolen by the whiny, juvenile presence of Spike (also a "vampire with a soul").
In fact, the scattered characterizations almost ruined the flow that existed in previous seasons. Gunn, in a ridiculous storyline, becomes a lawyer through some crazy experiment. Fred, with the statuesque Cordelia gone, now becomes the hot scientist babe parading in silly short skirts. Lorne, the new music director, became even more useless (the series could have survived without him). Wesley seemed to be the only person that cared about anybody (his continued love for Fred made the complete absence of interaction between Fred and Gunn--who had been romantically involved--even more pronounced). The new character Eve was a total bore, and her performance was just as gnawingly awful as Claire Kramer's in Buffy's fifth season. Harmony, employed as Angel's secretary, was a huge misstep. The wasteful Harmony episode clearly showed that she should be left as a one-dimensional character with as little screen time as possible.
The episodes, clearly manipulated to accommodate Spike's presence, had a run-on quality to them. The stand-alone facet obviously didn't work (as evidenced by the deterioration of character interaction), nor did the comedic efforts--which actually cheapened the suspense and drama that had transpired before. With the exception of only a few episodes (like "You're Welcome," "Not Fade Away," etc.), I would say that this season ultmately became undone by too many unnecessary plots and characters.
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