Rating: 
Summary: It grows on you
Review: I started watching Angel late in its fourth season, then after buying seasons one, two, and now three I finally understand what was going on in its fourth season. I was skeptical of how Connor came about, born of two vampires, but after viewing season three I realize that we're not really suppose to understand that. And why would we care to anyway, on a show who's hero is a vampire with a soul there are some things noones going to understand. What I liked most about Season Three was Fred and Cordelia. Over the season you get to see Fred getting less and less crazy and becoming an integral part of the group. Cordelia's story isn't really explained much either, till Season Four, but still compelling after seeing her over the years develop from spoiled brat to hero. What I didn't like about Season Three, Holtz and the suffering of his children. Holtz as a villian was satisfactory at best. I didn't really get a human posing much of a threat to Angel & Darla, but the story covered for it. The worst part about Season 3 is a trifle, and though it is make-believe I really don't like violence towards children, though I will agree that all that was merely implied rather than actually shown, so even the worst of this season, in my opinion, wasn't that bad. All in All Angel Season Three was true to form. If you like Angel, you'll like Season Three. And if your like me and didn't start watching till Season Four, you need to see Season Three to understand Four.
Rating:
Summary: Arc Angel
Review: The third season of Angel features some of the series best work. I actually think, the fact that its sister show Buffy moved from the WB to UPN was the best thing to happen to Angel. Since crossovers between both series, were now a no-no, the charaters and situations had to stand up for themselves. That said, the creative forces decided that season three would borrow the Buffy like story telling technique, having a better defined season long arc than ever before. The gang returns from the world of Pylea, with a very thankfull "Fred" (Amy Acker), who tries to adjust to our world again. Meanwhile, Angel (David Boreanaz) is visited by a very pregnant Darla (Julie Benz) followng their tryst last season, just as he works out his feelings for Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter). While Cordy welcomes another Pylean citizen (Mark Lutz) who has become taken with her. This is all overshadowed by the interdemensional arrival of Holtz (Keith Szarabajka), who is out to kill Angel for past deeds against his family. This vendetta puts a strain on Wesely (Alexis Denisof) and his friendship with Angel. All this, and the folks at the Wolfram and Hart law firm learn of the threats and Angel's impending fatherhood, and hatch a plan of their own. Gunn (J. August Richards) and Lorne (Andy Hallett) are also along for all of the fun as well. And even though series co creator Joss Whedon was off getting Firefly off the ground, he still found time write and direct the standout "Waiting In The Wings" episode. By the end of the year, Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) will shake things up now and in the future. After being disappointed by the sparse extras for the second season DVD box set, the powers that be have made up for that mistake, this time around. Not only do you get all 22 season three episodes, spread over six discs, but you get more supplements to chew on. There are 3 episode commentaries from writers Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell on "Billy", then Minear is joined by Mere Smith on "Lullaby", and while these are fun and informative; it's Joss Whedon's commentary for "Waiting in the Wings" is the best of the three. We also get to see, for the first time, deleted scenes from the show. The episodes "Birthday" and "Waiting in the Wings" are given a unique perspectve with this deleted footage. Whedon, Minear, and Smith offer commentary here as well. There are three eaturettes: "Darla: Deliver Us from Evil,", "Page to Screen", and a season overview. As ususal, you can find out some nice tidbits about the series during this stuff. Rounding out the bonus material are a couple of series outtakes, the screen tests for co stars Amy Acker and Vincent Kartheiser, (Acker proves why she's so good on the show) and the standard season still gallery. If you are regular viewer, the season three set is a must have, for you to own. Highly Recommended
Rating:
Summary: angels even higher
Review: buffys amazing spin off comes to its own as angel must deal with buffys death and ressurection darlAS PREGENET ANDAFTER ANGWELS FOUGHT FOES FOR THE FIRST FEW EPISODES THEN ANGEL PREPARES TO BECOME A FIGHTER WOLFMAN AND HARTS BRINGS BACK ANOTHER ON OF ANGELS FOES FROM HELL HOLTZ THE MAN WHO CONSTANTLY HUNTED HIM AND DARLA PLUS ALL OTHER VAMPIRES HE ALMOSWT GOT THEM A FEW TIMES LEADING TO DARLA KILLING HERSELF TO BRING THE BABY WELL WOLFMAN WANTS CONNER AND FEADS ANGEL HIS BLOOD SO WESLEY WILL BELIEVE THAT HE WILL REA,ARGE AND KILL HIM WESLEY DOES SOV AND KNOCKS OUT LAREN AND DELIEVERS IT BUT HIS THROAT IS SLASHED AND HOLTZ TAKES HIM AND THROWS HIMSELF AND CONER IN A HEL DIENSION WESLEY SRVIVES BUT ANGELS TICKED AND TRIES TO KILL HIM BUT THEY SOON MAKE UP WESLEY AND LILAH ANGELS MORTAL ENEMY LAYER AT WOLFMAN SLEEPS WITH WESLEY AND HE STARTS A LOVE TRIANGLE WITH HER AND CONER COMES BACK PUSHING OUT OF HIS HOME TRO KILL ANGEL AN AMAZING SEASON WITH SO MUCH STORY ANGEL AND CORDT MAKE LOVE SORT OF AFTER BEING POSSESED IN WAITING IN THE WINGS AND WONDER ARE THEY MEANT TO BE GRU ALSO RETURNS AND FRED AND GUNN START A REALSINSHIP WESLEY SECRETLY LOVED HER BUT LATER CAUGHT LILAH A MUST SEE SEASON WITH A CLIFHANGING SEASON FINALE
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST TV WAS ANGEL'S SEASON 3
Review: This season introduced great new characters, new storylines, gradually moving away from BUFFY, to a more ANGEL style. With a great cast & surprising storylines, such as, FRED finding her calling in ANGEL INVESTIGATIONS, GUNN falling in love w/ FRED, WESLEY falling in love w/ FRED (but too late, as we saw in WAITING IN THE WINGS, written/directed by JOSS WHEDON, which marked his return to the series, since he was busy w/ other projects, like BUFFY & FIREFLY), a so called prophecy stating that "the father will kill the sun", WESLEY kidnapping cute adorable baby CONNOR, only for CONNOR to be kidnapped by ANGEL's enemies including HOLTZ, in return for slaughtering his family way back in the day....centuries ago, FRED & GUNN & ANGEL turn on WESLEY, leading to WESLEY being all alone & turning to the dark side, Lilah, towards the end of the season CONNOR returns w/ HOLTZ, but he is now teenage CONNOR, all-pissed-ANGEL-hating-HOLTZ-loving, here for revenge.
Rating:
Summary: David Boreanaz is sooooooo HOT!
Review: This DVD is the best ever. It is thrilling and fun to watch. I love the cast they picked to play the characters in the show. And also, David Boreanaz (Angel) is so HOT!
Rating:
Summary: Angel becomes a daddy and then things get really bad
Review: At the end of the second season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," when Buffy skilled Angel, the series reached its operatic height. The climax was the culmination of everything that had been set up and provided a level of pathos rarely seen in network television. During the third season of "Angel," the counterpart to "BtVS" reached its height in a moment that was stunningly surprising. But then the story arcs that dominated this third season were totally surprising. Season two of "Angel" had ended with the gang returning from Pylea only to learn from Willow that Buffy is dead (How good is Alyson Hannigan? She just looks at Angel, never says a word, and it is clear what has happened). Season three starts with Angel still in a bad mood after a long summer of mourning Buffy, but then three significant threads are revealed. The first is a prophecy in the Nyazian scrolls, that predicts a being or an event that will bring about the end of time. The second is the arrival of an immensely pregnant Darla (Julie Benz), who informs Angel that he is the father. The third is the arrival of Holtz, a mortal enemy of Angelus and Darla, who has been brought from the past by the demon Sahjhan to kill them both. Of course, these threads all collide, and this is only the story arc that dominates the first third of the season. Darla's pregnancy derails any romantic entanglement between Angel and Cordelia, the evidence of the one night stand with Darla adding insult to the injury of the gypsy's curse. Then there are the complications of the pregnancy, which should have been impossible given mommy and daddy are dead vampires, because it turns out the baby has a soul and that Darla cannot deliver naturally (as if that has meaning at this point). This sets up the aforementioned great moment in "Lullaby" when Darla gives birth in the rain in the alley behind Caritas. How great was this moment? I basically told everybody I knew about what happened--we are talking people who never watched the show and had no interest in ever watching it--and they were all impressed by the power of the moment. What impressed me the most was the performance during this season by Julie Benz. When you consider how little there was to Darla during the first season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the change in the character is impressive, but then on "Angel" that is par for the course: witness the transformations of Coredlia Chase and Wesley Wyndham-Pryce. But I still think there was something special about the totally captivating performance by Benz. The Darla plot thread is replaced in the rest of the season by the Connor plot thread, as Angel has to learn how to be a single parent to a baby boy. Holtz is still in pursuit, gathering his own collection of warriors to go up against Angel and his gang, and getting ever closer. But the key development turns out to be the prophecy in the Nyazian scrolls, which is finally translated by Wesley. The former Watcher discovers that the prophecy says that Angel is going to kill his own son, and with Wolfram & Hart spiking Angel's blood supply with blood from Connor so that the baby starts smelling like food to him, Wesley has to take things into his own hands and in "Sleep Tight" we have what you would have thought was a great season finale, but there are still six episodes to go. The final story arc has Angel dealing with the loss of Connor and then the surprise when his son returns, but not as a teenage demon fighter. However, having spent years in a demon dimension being taught to hate Angelus by Holtz, this is not a happy reunion and it is payback time in "Tomorrow." You look back at this third season and it is pretty impressive how much happened in these twenty-two episodes. One of the reasons this season was so strong was that there was so much going on in terms of the show's subplots. Having brought Fred back from Pylea, she develops an early crush on Angel only to become involved in a love triangle with Wesley and Gunn. Then there is Lilah Morgan (Stephanie Romanov), who comes into her own at Wolfram & Hart now that she is no longer in Lindsey McDonald's shadow (e.g., "Billy"). The make it or break it part of this season is the return of Connor all grown up. I have to admit that I understand the grain of salt with which it needs to be taken with regards to how long can Angel take care of a baby? Rachel has a baby on "Friends" and you can see how often anybody even remembers to talk about Emma. So from a writing standpoint I think this a good move, as understandable as when Pam woke up and found Bobby alive in the shower on "Dallas" (it was the easiest way of getting things back the way they were). Besides, Josh Whedon, Tim Minear and the rest of the writing staff were just pouring things on fast and furious by that point. The only part that I had trouble with was Cordelia's ascension as a higher being. The extras are getting better on these DVD sets. There is the expected commentary on "Lullaby," as well as on "Billy" and "Waiting in the Wings." There are a few deleted scenes, outtakes, and screen tests for the new kids on the block, Amy Acker and Vincent Kartheiser. But the chief extra features are the featurettes, which include a "Season 3 Overview," a piece on "Page to Screen," and, my obvious favorite, a celebration of Julie Benz's performance in "Darla: Deliver Us from Evil."
Rating:
Summary: Angel Came to Life
Review: During season one of Angel, they did a lot of formulaic 'monster-of-the-week' kind of stuff, which was okay, but it needed a strong story arc. That's what us Buffy fans usually want, afterall. They did finally get more into a story arc later into the season, but the show was still young and finding its own voice. And so, Angel started digging deeper during its second season, which came to a very cool turnning point. The writing became extremely well, and they really made Drusilla and Darla scary. The last three episodes of that season were very good; in fact, I'd say they were some of the show's best ever, but there was still something looming: Buffy. The show still bended towards its sister show at the very end, making Angel ultimately take a second seat to his ex girlfriend. And then, the third season came ... Wow, they really sort of outdid themselves with season three. The prophecies, the fake prophecies, the plot twists, the biting baby scene, etc. Angel became much darker than it ever had before in season three, which made it feel more sophisticated than Buffy. Because there were no crossovers that year, there was no ex-lover, which actually was a plus for the show. The show just needed that time alone. Finally, the strings were gone, and Angel came to life. Season three is a wonderful season to sit down and watch the whole way through because each episode almost compliments the next. So whenever you have about a thousand minutes to spare, I say do the right thing: spare those minutes for Angel, Season 3. With that said, I have to admit, one thing I didn't like was the Fred and Gunn storyline. While Wesley's story was huge, Fred and Gunn were sitting in some cafe telling each other how pretty they were. Okay, so it wasn't like that all season, but as much as I like Fred and Gunn, they could have been used a tad better during parts of this season. It seemed like everything else worked though. I enjoyed what they did with Cordelia, and I wasn't so mad at the whole Cordelia-Angel love theme that they had going on. We all knew it wasn't going to be, so there was no harm in a little flirtation. Season 3 set up season 4, which, to me, was the best season the show has had yet. You really should consider buying it.
Rating:
Summary: Standing on its own two feet
Review: It's all too easy to state of Angel that it's not as good or as innovative as Buffy. Whilst this is true in many respects, Angel Season 3 really sees things pick up pace, with the show no longer standing in the shadow of its sister show and creating a compelling, interesting story arc. The opener, Heart-throb, sees the reappearance of Darla, pregnant with Angel's child no less. The main storyline concerns the birth of Angel's son, followed by his loss and return as a 15 year-old! However, just like on Buffy, Angel makes us care for its supporting players as well and it's notable that the story involving a renegade Wesley forced out of the group is still the show's best. Many fans disapproved of Connor as a teenager, and it's easy to see why. Vincent Kartheiser, though a good actor, doesn't imbue his character with anything that makes you really feel sorry for him and never did for me until his final episode in the Season 4 finale. This comes coupled with Angel's weakest villain yet, Holtz. An old enemy of Angelus, who slaughtered his family years since, had himself brought into the future to wreak the ultimate revenge on Angel by attempting to first kidnap his son, and subsequently to turn him against him. Put simply, he's boring, and we care far less what's going on when he's on-screen than when Lindsey was, or when Lilah's around. However, this season sees some of the stand-out episodes that Buffy was so good at, with Billy and Waiting In The Wings. Billy details Cordelia's increasingly painful visions and a guy who can turn any man into a homicidal mysogynist. Simultaneously fleshing out Cordy's character whilst making a statement about abuse against women is done so assuredly that it comes across as one of the show's most impressive episode. Waiting In The Wings was, of course, written by the master himself - Joss Whedon. The gang take a visit to the ballet together and find themselves in a time flux that they can't get out of. All of this is done with the kind of attention to detail (a classic ghost story, corrupted love versus true love, brilliant dancing) that marks it out as a Whedon episode. Much more so than Buffy, Angel has a lot of surprise endings that really make you hunger for the next episode. In particular, check out Angel's discovery of Wesley's plot to take his son, Wesley's realisation of what he has to do or the finale. If you've never really thought of the character dynamics on Angel, you will after seeing Season 3 and the cast really spark off each other. Above them all comes Alexis Denisof, who invests Wesley with such an interesting character that you completely forget the bookish Watcher from Buffy. This season really gives him a chance to grow though, and for many he's become a favourite character. After a haphazard second season, season 3 really gives Angel a chance to grow as a show and sets things up perfectly for the spectacular season 4. Significantly, Angel's got better with every season, much more confident about its own assets and began to get recognised in its own right rather than just as a spin-off. And it deserves to, after 5 seasons and still going strong, Angel's one of the best TV shows around at the moment.
Rating:
Summary: Angel takes off
Review: It has been said by others, but bears repeating that in this series Angel realises its full potential. The story arcs become bigger and better, which suits a DVD release. The cast have now established themselves and go on to interesting places with their characters. And as with everything from this team of writers (Angel, Buffy, Firefly) the stories leap from genre to genre but always entertain. Who'd have thought Cordelia, "..the Spatula!" and Wesley from their mild Buffy origins could become strong and believable characters. Whilst Holz, Lila and Darla provide dark edges to the show far more interesting than the monster of the week. And Fred becomes one of those Willow-type characters whose scenes never seem to go quite long enough. Like Buffy, this series works very well on DVD and rewards a second (third ..) viewing.
Rating: 
Summary: The packaging causes damage.
Review: While I love the show, and will certainly buy Season Three, it's worth noting that the packaging for the previous two seasons is poorly made and tends to scratch the DVDs. The plastic forms that the DVDs fit into was poorly made and has a sharp spot. Since none of the other reviews have mentioned a change in packaging, I assume this season suffers from the same problem. I don't know about you, but when I pay this much for entertainment, I expect a better quality product. If you do buy Season Three and it arrives unscratched, I recommend immediately removing the discs from the box set and putting them in new jewel cases or padded sleeves.
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