Review of Angel: The Vampire Anthology - Cordelia

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.

Cordelia Chase was another alumnus who escaped Buffy The Vampire Slayer with Angel. She was the quintessential popular high-school girl, chasing designer labels and football jocks in between her cheerleading duties and looking down on the geeks, dweebs and no hopers with her clique of it-girls. That began to change when she was introduced to the world of demons and vampires, but her life really altered when the IRS busted her rich parents for tax evasion. So moving to LA and becoming an actress seemed like a good idea. It isn`t all that successful though, and while waiting for auditions and callbacks, it`s lucky that she has a job with Angel Investigations to pay the bills. The four episodes on this disc are detailed below.

City Of (4:3 regular)
This is the first episode of Angel, and sees the vampire with a soul fighting evil in the City of Angels. He`s become introverted and cut off though, well more introverted than usual. A half-demon called Doyle shows up, claiming to know what Angel`s mission is, and offering his assistance. Doyle is afflicted with visions of the future, and offers to point out which person needs saving next, in exchange for getting the brooding vampire socialising again. Their first mission is a rich and powerful vampire who preys on young wannabe starlets with impunity. The next such wannabe is Cordelia Chase.

There`s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb (4:3 regular)
The gang are all stuck in the demon dimension that Lorne calls home. Humans are kept as slaves, Angel finds a place he can get a suntan, although he has been kept busy rescuing a slave with the unlikely name of Winifred `Fred` Burkle, Gunn and Wesley are about to be executed, and Cordelia has been crowned Princess. It`s a harder job than she expected though, she`s expected to mate with the Groosalugg, and to keep her in line, the priests have cut Lorne`s head off, and he won`t stop complaining about it. Note: This was the final episode in Season 2, the first episode in the arc can be found on the Fred anthology disc.

Birthday (1.78:1 anamorphic)
Doyle`s last gift to Cordelia was to give her his visions of the future. They take a heavy toll on humans though, and they are gradually killing her. She tries to put this to one side as the gang celebrate her birthday, but the next vision is so severe that she is left comatose and suffers an out of body experience. While Angel and the other`s race desperately to help her, a demon called Skip appears to spirit Cordelia to offer her a choice. Keep the visions and face certain death, or rewrite history so that she never meets Angel in LA and becomes a major sitcom star instead.

Waiting In The Wings (1.78:1 anamorphic)
Wesley`s pining for Fred, who may be falling for Gunn, Cordelia is lamenting her single status while Angel… Angel has bought tickets for the ballet. But this ballet is quite literally out of this world, and soon Angel and Cordelia are acting out a tragedy a century old.

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 recreated 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 14-minute Cordelia featurette. This has interviews with Charisma Carpenter 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.

Cordelia was one of my least favourite characters on Buffy, but she flourished on Angel (until one of those bizarre story arcs). She went from shallow bystander damsel to integral cog in the battle against evil. Her character was developed well on this show, and exhibited a compassion and strength that was rarely seen in Buffy. The first episode on this disc shows that growth most strongly. Brought low by her parent`s bankruptcy, she has to seek work as an actress in LA and finds herself prey for a vampire, which is when she meets Angel again. This is the easiest episode to get into, as it sets up the premise for the show. Angel is re-introduced as a loner vigilante, who is `rescued` by Doyle, and when Cordelia joins them, Angel Investigations is born. This episode also introduces us to Wolfram & Hart, who would become Angel`s nemeses. The other episodes are all part of arcs, and require prior knowledge to enjoy fully. There`s No Place Like Plrtz Glrb in particular is the final episode in a 3-episode arc, and while the first episode is on the `Fred` disc, catching up with a `previously on Angel` at the beginning of every show isn`t quite enough. Birthday stands quite well on its own though as Angel`s take on It`s A Wonderful Life, and Waiting In The Wings is a wonderful concept episode, but watching the relationship mayhem can be quite painful at times.

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 on their own 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. 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. 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.