Review of Angel: The Vampire Anthology - Fred

Introduction

Vampires were pretty stale by the eighties and early nineties, consigned to the Hammer movies of the seventies with stereotypical Transylvanian accents pronouncing, `I vant to drink your blood`. But where television and film seemed to be descending into parody, the vampire myth in literature was flourishing as never before. As was inevitable, Vampires were re-invented and re-conceptualised for the cinema, and the early nineties onwards saw films like Bram Stoker`s Dracula, Interview With A Vampire and Blade make the bloodsuckers cool again. It was one less successful movie that led to the genre`s success on the small screen as never before. Joss Whedon`s Buffy The Vampire Slayer never really scored as a box office draw, but its spin-off television series of the same name made a star of Sarah Michelle Gellar, and was one of the biggest genre hits of the nineties, running for seven years as the residents of Sunnydale California fell victim to vampires, werewolves and countless end-of-the-world scenarios.

Buffy`s sidekick in slaying was a reformed vampire, Angel. As Angelus this particular vampire was the worst bloodsucker of them all, but he fed upon the wrong gypsy girl, and her family cursed him with the restoration of his soul, and to suffer all the pain he had caused, all the guilt he deserved for eternity. The curse would be broken when he had a moment of perfect happiness, his soul removed and Angelus returned to wreak havoc on the world again. Fighting evil to atone for his crimes didn`t provide that much happiness for Angel, but getting close to Buffy did, letting Angelus back into the world. When his soul was eventually restored, he realised that he couldn`t stay near Buffy anymore, so he went to Los Angeles to clean that town up instead. Which was the perfect excuse for a spin-off series. Angel lasted five seasons before being cancelled, and gave the vampire seeking redemption a more mature spin than Buffy had. With Fox re-releasing a whole slew of cult television later this year including Angel, now would be the ideal time for a little customer awareness, which has led to the release of the Vampire Anthology discs. Taking the four supporting characters from the show, Cordelia, Wesley, Gunn and Fred, each of these discs gathers four episodes that highlights a character and adds a brief featurette too.

Winifred `Fred` Burkle had a late introduction to the team, coming at the end of the second season. A physicist who got sucked through a portal into a hell dimension, she had spent five years serving demons as a slave before Angel rescued her and brought her back to Los Angeles. Her experiences had left her withdrawn and reclusive, but her new friends slowly brought her out of her shell to reveal a scatty and unconventional personality. Soon she was an invaluable member of the team, and Wesley and Gunn were competing for her affections. The four episodes on this disc are detailed below.

Over The Rainbow (4:3 regular)
Cordelia has been sucked into a hell dimension and is running for her life from a hell beast. Angel, Wesley, Lorne and Gunn have to figure out a way to follow her into Lorne`s home world and rescue her, but as Lorne explains, his people don`t look kindly on humans. Cordelia finds this out first hand, when she is captured and sold as a cow. While slaving away in a stable she meets Fred, who had vanished 5 years previously. She doesn`t have long to chat, when the local constable catches Fred, worse Cordy has revealed that she has the sight, and everyone assumes she is cursed. Meanwhile, the team find a way to open a portal, and to Angel`s surprise, he finds that he isn`t flammable here. Note: you can see the final episode of this story on the Cordelia Anthology disc. As for the middle episode, you`ll need the Season boxset, or wait for it to be broadcast again.

Fredless (1.78:1 anamorphic)
Fred is beginning to get used to the real world, but it`s been a slow process. She feels that she is finally beginning to fit in with the group, which is when her parents show up, ready to take her home. How can she explain that she has spent five years in a hell dimension though?

Supersymmetry (1.78:1 anamorphic)
Cordelia is back from communing with the Powers That Be, suffering from amnesia and shacking up with Angel`s son Connor. Evil is due to arrive in the world, and Wolfram & Hart want a part of it. Speaking of which, evil lawyer Lilah is having an affair with traitor Wesley. Not that any of this matters to Fred, who is excited about getting back into theoretical Physics, having just had a paper published. She`s over the moon when invited to speak at a conference, but at this conference she meets her old professor, a professor who has a working knowledge of dimensional portals, and feels threatened by smart students. That Fred spent five years in a hell dimension can`t be a coincidence.

Shiny Happy People (1.78:1 anamorphic)
Cordelia has given birth to the goddess Jasmine, and is now lying in a coma. Jasmine is having an odd effect on all who see her. They fall in love with her, worship her, revere her and obey her unquestioningly, including the staff of Angel Investigations. But Jasmine is hardly a benign goddess, and Fred is the only one who can see the truth.

Video

The first two seasons of Angel were filmed in 4:3 and the remainder in 1.78:1 anamorphic. That is reflected in the variety of screen ratios for the episodes on this disc. It`s all US broadcast quality stuff, with just a hint of grain evident. The image is clear and sharp enough, and as dark and moody as the show is, all the detail and shade is reproduced well in the image.

Audio

You get a choice of DD 2.0 Surround English or French with optional English, French or Dutch subtitles. Once again it`s all broadcast quality, and the dialogue is clear throughout. The surrounds are called into use in conveying the action, but it`s nothing spectacular.

Features

Plenty of non-skippable copyright warnings, and since there is no Play All option; you`ll have to sit through them for every episode on this disc.

There is a trailer for the Buffy and Angel season boxsets, but the meat of the extra features is represented in a 13-minute Fred featurette. This has interviews with Amy Acker among others, and describes the growth of the character season by season with plenty of clips from the shows. There`s no mention of Season 5 though. I did get the feeling that the featurette was edited together from other featurettes, although since I haven`t seen the Season boxsets, I have no way of knowing for certain.

Conclusion

It`s time to don your long coats and walk moodily down a dark alley. It`s always a joy to watch Angel; it like its forebear Buffy is a genre show that combines entertainment, witty writing, action and great characters to excellent effect. As I write, Season 5 is yet to make its way onto terrestrial television, and a small part of me was hoping that some Season 5 episodes would sneak their way onto the anthology discs. It wasn`t to be, although it`s nice to see the episodes uncut for once. Angel`s simple tale of good versus evil is an instant draw, and the sharp dialogue is one of the show`s strong points. It easily makes up for some of the more bizarre story arcs that cropped up in later seasons.

The biggest problem is that Angel is an arc driven show. Every episode does begin with a recap of all that has come before, but watching the episodes alone and out of sequence is hardly as satisfying. For someone coming new to the show, it would be better to start from the beginning and work their way forward in sequence. Showing a Season 3 episode with Angel comforting a baby, then the next year arguing with a recalcitrant teenage son needs a little explaining if you have never seen the show. This problem comes through the strongest with the Fred disc of all the anthologies that I have reviewed. Of all the episodes, only Fredless can really be enjoyed as a stand-alone episode. It shows natural growth for a character that has had a traumatic experience and is in denial about it. Supersymmetry has got a natural progression for the character, but there is so much going on besides that is dependent on story elements established in other episodes, that it feels a very thin story by itself. Shiny Happy People simply doesn`t work as a stand-alone episode, by this time Angel episodes were wholly arc driven, and if you haven`t seen the rest of the story, it`s pretty meaningless. In addition to that, Fred really isn`t central to the story. Speaking of which, the first episode on this disc, Over The Rainbow features the introduction of the character, as do the first episodes on all the other anthology discs. But Fred only has the one scene in this show, and a few minutes of screen time make for a poor showcase for a character whose anthology disc this is.

Committed fans of the show would no doubt spring for the season boxsets, and casual fans may be happy with the broadcasts. I`m not quite sure who the target audience for these discs are. If they are essentially adverts for the season boxsets, then they are expensive indeed, considering that you can get the whole season for around three times the price of this one disc. Of all the anthology discs, Fred`s is the weakest, the shows are either arc dependent stories that don`t stand well alone, or Fred isn`t actually central to the story. However, if you are in the mood for a random episode of Angel taken out of context, this disc should be right up your alley.