eason three of Angel represented a departure for the show. Its "sire" series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, had moved from the WB to UPN, and neither network wanted crossovers reminding viewers of the competition. The separation was a bit awkward, coming on the heels of Buffy's death on her own show. This was a momentous event for Angel (Boreanaz), which the producers could address only obliquely. But the separation also freed Angel from Buffy's influence, letting it focus more on its own characters and relationships, and find its own path. That turned out to be a pretty dark path.
With the first episode, "Heartthrob," the producers found a clever way to address Buffy's death emotionally, despite the firewall between shows. The episode gives Angel an echo of that situation to respond to, which also helps set up the season's major story arc. Several fairly normal episodes follow, tied together with quick glimpses of Angel's sire Darla (Julie Benz), who is very pregnant after a liaison with Angel last season. These episodes let the cast, featuring new regular "Fred" (Acker), settle into a routine.
That routine is shattered once Angel discovers he's going to be a father. The supposedly impossible offspring of two vampires is a huge deal for the occult underworld. The baby is the subject of prophecies and a target of factions ranging from messianic vampire cults to evil law firm Wolfram & Hart. One particularly dangerous player is the ruthless vampire hunter Holtz (Keith Szarabajka), an archenemy of Angel's brought forward from the 18th century by a demon with its own agenda.
Much of the rest of the season deals with Angel's efforts to protect various incarnations of his son, Connor. Darla ultimately sacrifices herself to give birth to Connor in "Lullaby." Several episodes dealing with the infant Connor follow, until Holtz gets his hands on the baby and disappears with him into a hell dimension. But, since time works differently there, a teenage Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) soon returns for a four-episode concluding arc that leaves the team sundered seemingly beyond repair.
While the Connor storyline defines the season, it's hardly the only thing happening. Other ongoing subplots include a romantic triangle between Fred, Wesley (Denisof) and Gunn (Richards), another between Angel, Cordelia (Carpenter) and an extra-dimensional warrior prince, the Groosalugg (Mark Lutz), plus Cordelia's spiritual development and adaptation to her visions. But the most harrowing of these arcs is the fall of Wesley. Driven to desperation by prophecies appearing to show that Angel will kill his son, Wesley takes the child—only to deliver him inadvertently into Holtz's hands. Wesley, who'd had a pretty rough season already, finds himself isolated from his friends and at risk of losing his very soul.
This set includes the 22 episodes, in widescreen with Spanish and French dubbing, on six discs. There are commentary tracks for three episodes, two deleted scenes with their own commentary, three behind-the-scenes featurettes and an assortment of outtakes, screen tests and stills.
A solid season that breaks free from Buffy
Taken as a whole, this is a strong season of television drama. It mostly avoids the usual pitfall of ongoing story arcs—leaving behind viewers who haven't kept up. Plus, if an episode's main story has problems, the ongoing plotlines help bolster it. Thus there are few just plain bad episodes in the collection—"Double or Nothing" being an exception. This is a must-have collection for fans.
The extras remain pretty thin. There are commentary tracks for only three episodes, but at least they are well chosen. "Billy" (with producers and episode co-writers Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell), "Lullaby" (with Minear, who wrote the episode, and story editor Mere Smith) and "Waiting in the Wings" (with Joss Whedon making his only appearance this season as writer/director) are three of the season's best outings.
The tracks themselves bat a genre-appropriate .666. On "Billy," Minear and Bell come off as two kids a smart teacher doesn't let sit together in the back of the class. Mere Smith seems to exert a calming influence on Minear, however, and they remain more on topic with "Lullaby." Whedon's solo commentary on "Waiting in the Wings" is the best of the three, not only discussing behind-the-scenes details but bringing out new layers of the story itself.
The other extras, split between discs three and six, are a mixed bag. Both deleted scenes are a blast. The first, from "Birthday" (with commentary from Minear and Smith) is an extended scene from "Cordy!" Cordelia's smash-hit sitcom in an alternate timeline where she didn't take up with Angel. The second, from "Waiting in the Wings" (with commentary by Joss Whedon), is a fantasy dance sequence in which Wesley imagines first Fred and then himself onstage. Whedon's commentary reveals that this deleted scene was in fact the whole reason for the episode. Upon learning that Amy Acker has extensive ballet training, he decided to come up with an episode in which she could dance—and ended up having to cut the scene.
The three featurettes are less of a treat. The best is probably "Page to Screen," which walks the viewer through an episode's production cycle. "Darla: Deliver Us From Evil," a look back at the long evolution of Julie Benz's character, is OK. On the other hand, the "Season 3 Overview" of the storylines seems aimed at people who have bought the box set but lack either the time or the inclination to actually watch it and just want the Cliff's Notes. Rounding out the package are screen tests for Acker and Kartheiser, and the de rigueur stills gallery and cheesy, blown-line outtakes.
While some fans didn't care for the Connor storyline and others wished Joss Whedon (distracted by the short-lived and lamented Firefly) had been more of a presence, Angel's third season remains work that the cast and crew are justifiably proud of. And it must be admitted that the thin supplemental content is actually a small step up from previous Angel box sets. Overall, it's a solid package.
