Rating: 
Summary: **Season Three** ...The third best...
Review: Season three was, from the first couple episodes of the season, the worst in the series. It wasn't until the Darla troligy did things pick at all for me. From there on out the season kept getting better and better, until it finally peaked at the season finale. The addition of Connor was one of the geatest things in Angel history. While I like season four and five better, this season definitly is better than the first and second IMO. The DVD is looking great, planty of featurettes to go around, some bloopers, and even screen tests. Widescreen looked great for season two, so it should look even better this time. Hopefully Fox keeps up its six-month intervals so that season four and five (my favorites) will be out before this time next year. Season four was like watching a season of 24, you never get board, and season five, now with Lindsay's return as a big bad, is going to possibly become my favorite season.
Rating:
Summary: Darla's son grows up
Review: Though season 2 is the best, episodes Offspring, Quickening, and Lullaby make season 3 worth buying. Julie Benz, as always, is simply amazing as Darla, bringing emotional depth to the show, and Lullaby is beautiful. I cry every time. The first two episodes also feature Darla and are worth watching for her presence. Darla's son, Connor, is perfectly adorable when he's a baby, but when he suddenly grows up into a teen, Vincent Kartheiser is just as solid and infatuating as Julie and Darla. The similarities between Darla and Connor are abundent both in physical appearance, personality, and behavior, etc. Like Mother Like Son:) The episode Tomorrow is worth watching specifically for the ending where Connor dumps Angel into the ocean - I cheer every time. Season three is definitely better than the current miserable season 5 - not even Spike can make the show worthwhile. The season 3 DVD does good by including a featurette all about Darla and Vincent Kartheiser's screen test. Bring on season 4 and Inside Out!
Rating: 
Summary: suffocatingly good
Review: Season Three of ANGEL ran contemporaneously with Season Six of its then-estranged sister show, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER (network politics and Hollywood egos had resulted in a channel shift for the latter, and a "ban" on the cross-over episodes that had fueled both shows' previous two seasons). A quick glance at the tone of both shows suggests it must have been a bummer of a year at their parent company, Mutant Enemy: both are extraordinarily bleak, plunging their characters into dark places and difficult emotional situations that reshape nearly everything viewers had come to expect from each program. I should quickly add that both shows are also superb-- BUFFY, in particular, is so powerful, and closes its sixth season with such emotional and thematic finality, that it's hard to view its seventh and final year as anything but a pandering anti-climax (but that's a review for a different time). ANGEL, on the other hand, was just warming up. Season Three is a crucial one for ANGEL, acting as a bridge between the low-key, stand-alone episodes of Seasons One and Two and the intense darkness (and epic narrative) of Season Four. Season Two laid the groundwork for such a shift, by bringing back Angel's old paramour Darla and moving evil law firm Wolfram & Hart to center stage (they'd played a peripheral role in Seaon One), and, especially in its second half, the second season flirts with brilliance. But it is in Season Three when this new narrative style takes full effect, resulting in what is arguably ANGEL's best year. Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt, ANGEL's co-creators, executive producers and chief creative figures, keep a perfect balance between the intimately personal and the excessively epic, reconfiguring several character relationships, introducing crucial new heroes and villains, and throwing the reader into a storyline of love, family, violence and betrayal worthy of Tony Soprano. Of course, Tony Soprano never had to encounter a giant demon named Skip; a ballerina under the spell of an eternal dance (in musical geek whedon's tribute to THE RED SHOES, "Waiting in the Wings"); a vampire hunter named holtz; sex-crazed, karaoke-blessing sirens; or a talking plastic hamburger that holds the secrets of a crucial prophecy. All of these elements remind the viewer that they are in the WhedonVerse, where the sublime and the ridiculous mingle promiscuously, and to great effect. If it's hard for you to reconcile that such fantastic elements can co-exist alongside some of the funniest comedy (the laugh-out-loud sitcom parody at the center of "birthday") and the most moving drama (really the whole year, but especially "forgiving"), well then, perhaps you shouldn't be watching a show about a vampire with a soul (if reductive histrionics and easy answers are what you're after, there's always SIX FEET UNDER). For everyone else, sit back and enjoy some of the best recent television on DVD. All of the writers and directors are at the top of their games here (special mention should also be made of composer Robert Kral's mournful scores, and the superb camerawork), and so is the cast. In a year when all of the leads are having fun adding new shades to their characters.......If you want great action, well-rounded characters, and one of the more striking season-ending cliffhangers on TV, you really can't go wrong with this purchase.
Rating:
Summary: We're finally getting somewhere
Review: I was sadly disappointed in "Angel Season 2" because it seemed to tell only part of a story. And I was right. Season 3 starts with Angel returning from a grieving period over the death of Buffy (which is worked out else where). Now at first there are some stand alone epiosdes which are alright, but then about the story really gets under way. It seems that Darla is now pregnet after her and Angel's one night stand, which should be impossable; vampires can not procreate. Darla sacrifices herself so that the baby boy, Connor, can live. Now all of Team Angel's enemies have a new target. And enemies seem to come out of the wood work. In addition to Wolfram and Hart (led by Mortica like Lilah Morgan) Angel also has to deal with an 18th Centery vampire hunter named Holts (Keith Szarabajka is cooly evil with a wicked gravely voice) who has sworn vengence against Angelus and Darla for past crimes. Holtz kidnaps Connor with Wesley's unwitting help, raises him in a hell dimension, and returns with a now full grown Connor out for a new vengence aaginst Angel. This one also has something that other seasons of Angel dose not; a cliffhanger at the end of the season. This is a vast improvemnet over last year. The plot threads are starting to come together more tightly, although we still have another year before this story line is complete. Think of Seasons 2, 3, and 4 as a three act play. All the actors are good here. Charisma Carpenter's Corderlia Chase has grown out of her selfish stage. J. August Richards' Gunn gets to show a new side with a love intrest. Amy Acker is cute and adorable as the science nerd Winifred 'Fred' Burckle, Gunn's lover. Andy Hallet dose well as mind reader Lorne the Host. Stephanie Romanov dose a great Sharon Stone-like femme fatel in Lilah Morgan. My favorite character this year was the tortured ex-Watcher Wesley, played excellentlly by Alexis Denisof. Wes was in love with Fred, but watched her fall for Gunn. He then read a prophacy wrong, which cost Angel his son. David Boreanaz is the usual for Angel, he's good, but that part never really changes much. This season was much better than last, but I can't wait for this story arc to end. Joss Wheddon tried to do a huge, epic story line, and while it worked for the most part, three years is just too long to devote to one story.
Rating:
Summary: The season when Angel becomes its own show
Review: Frankly when I heard that Angel (David Boreanaz) was getting his own spin off, I was concerned this character as written . . . until that point would tank in his own series far away from Sunnydale and the Scoobies to provide critical support. As originally written, the Angel character was a helper and then romantic interest to Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who had little additional depth. After all, there is only so much that brooding looks accomplish before viewers start to wonder about any semblance of a plot. With Buffy's departure to the UPN, this marked the season when Angel became it's own show and hermitically sealed itself off from any mention of the parent show. Eliminated cross-over potential did not matter because this show found a balance between humor and horror keeping loyal viewers such as myself hooked, and always coming back for more. Openly celebrating series creator Joss Whedon's feminist degree and politics, The most griping episode is 'Billy' a transparent critique of the William Kennedy Smith rape trial/family culture which had encouraged many Kennedy men to engage in activities causing this event (while pointedly recognizing those men who want to end the 'tradition' but not yet knowing how to begin). According to the plot, sexism is not something men inately have in themselves, but an evil which must be conquered for all members of the human race to live happily with each other. Furthermore, sexism is so deadly that the usually benign Wesley Windham Pryce (Alexis Denishoof) attempts to kill Fred when she refuses his advances after he is touched by Billy. In hindsight, Season Three is truly when Angel became its own show and universe as opposed to something simply trying to cash in on the earlier established (and now fast crumbling!) BTVS empire. Even the superficially aborhent episode "Lullabye" where the previously remorseful Angel becomes a weirdly giggly daddy after becoming a single parent to Connor (previously thought impossible because of his being dead!) were not completly painful because the show had openly established itself as a commentary on the adult world which that earlier show could not hope to master. I also love Andy Halett's Lorne (the host of Caritas) who inevitably gets a larger chunk of time this season to read the minds of Angel Investigations and other visitors. He reminds me of a cross between Kermit the Frog and Uncle Arthur from Bewitched with the openly flamboyant smirk. For the time he was with Angel, Connor was so lucky to have had an awesome uncle like that. Because the show could no longer do cross-overs they further experimented with longer arcs beyond the basic redemption and survival scheme which had marked the earlier seasons. They are still very much outsiders especially when compared to the amassed resources of Wolfram and Hart, but Angel Investigations has become more routinized and sure of itself. Some of the episodes and concepts did not work, such as the vision gift (once a key to the show, but now faded into obscurity) which was supposed to have alerted Angel Investigations to danger, but this same abscence has not hurt the show in any discernable way.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Most Brilliant Seasons
Review: Season 2 was probably the best of the series, but this season comes very close. One of the things I like best about this show is how shocking it can be when you least expect it and there are definitely enough shocking moments throughout season 3. There are also some really great episodes, some of the series' best, such as "Lullaby" and "Waiting in the Wings". This show, much like "Buffy" does what other shows would never do, takes brilliant risks w/ its storylines and characters, all the while remaining extremely clever and entertaining. It doesn't disappoint. I'm also looking forward to the features in this DVD set. It seems as though the features keep getting better and better w/ each new set.
Rating:
Summary: Redemption (A very good season of Angel)
Review: I really loved Angel when he was on Buffy. I thought he was the best character on the show. I was really excited when I heard he would get his own show so I was really happy to watch the excellent first season of "Angel." The first season was everything I wished it would be so I was kind of disappointed with the episodes in the second season. The writers changed the simple "Vampire-detective" format from season one and they focused more on Wolfram & Hart and the supporting cast. It seemed (at the time) like the writers didn't know what to do with our favorite "Vampire with a Soul." Season three, in my opinion, sets everything right. It fills in the odd gaps from season two and it makes the overall focus of the series make more sense. It connects to all of the previous seasons perfectly and it really sets ups the fourth season in a excellent way. Wolfram & Hart say (in the first and second seasons of Angel) that a apocalypse is coming. They say that Angel will either save the world or destroy it in the end. Wesley (in the first season finale) says that Angel will become human after this apocalypse. This is more or less the overall story of the series. Season three excellently (and finally) addresses the overall story in the season finale when Cordelia leaves to become a higher being. She comes back (in the fourth season) possessed by a demonic force that Angel battles in the season finale after he finally averts the apocalypse by killing "The Beast." We wouldn't have an end to the four year "coming apocalypse" story if we didn't have the third season finale. The third season really sets up the excellent fourth season very well and it helps end one of the two major overall stories in the Angel series. Angel, in my opinion, has just one more story to resolve and that is the "Shanshu Prophecy" story. Will Angel finally become human or is Spike the Vampire that will find ultimate redemption? We'll have to watch this season and find out. This is a excellent DVD that really (speaking of redemption) redeems the "lost direction" writing from season two. Season two will seem better if you buy it with this DVD and the first season DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Let's speed things up...
Review: First off my reason for writing the review is in the hopes that the production companies for this series and the Buffy series will get a move on. Why it takes 6 months in between season releases I'll never understand. I myself am a programmer and an amature dvd maker and I know it does not take this long to pop these things out. Case in point is the Star Trek series in which they release the whole series over the course of a year... now I'm not saying they have to be that fast but faster none the less. As for the actual season review. This is another fine example that sets this series apart from the Buffy series. Darkness... the torment and dismay that the series ends in is enough to make a person go crazy in anticipation for the next season. Not until the beginning of the rough season 6 could the Buffy series even attempt to be so dark. The characters in that show in my opinion wouldn't be able to play the darkness as well. Not to knock the actors, just the characters they've built up. In Angel however there is so little loyalty required by the group that everything works... all of this leading right into season 4. And now we're in season 5 and loving every minute of it, aside from the locale change. At the beginning of season 5 I wanted to go right back to the hotel... however now... maybe things are going to spice back up.
Rating:
Summary: Season 3 = Best Season Yet
Review: Season 3 is the defining season of "Angel". It was the most consistent and even season so far, and was by far the most enjoyable, thrilling, and entertaining. Some people, like a certain two star review on this page, didn't get it. Oh well, they are probably not real fans anyways. Baby Connor was a great twist. When Connor returns later in the season, it doesn't work as well. I'll admit that. Darla's storyline is fabulous and powerful. The changes she has gone though and the episodes dealing with her in this season about her humanity and redemption are mesmerizing. A stunning story arc for Darla and for the series. "Sleep Tight" was the best episode of the entire series. Thrilling, exciting, and unexpected. An episode that showcases the best of the series. "Forgiving" is the second runner up. The final scene with Angel and Wesley is a jaw dropping shocker. The kind of twist that makes this show, and the Buffyverse in general, so amazing. One of the best and most memorable scenes this season and of the entire series. Once again, misunderstood by others. So, season three is everything "Angel" should be and more. Season 4 came close, but it suffered from being a bit uneven and inconsistent. Season three is a must see.
Rating:
Summary: It just kept getting better...
Review: Season 3 of ANGEL is thoroughly enthralling. From the development of the Wesley character to the introductions of Fred and Connor, this show grew into a masterpiece. The big shock was a pregnant Darla and the blossoming romance between Angel and Cordelia. We got to explore different sides of Lilah and Darla, as well as Angel himself. In all I highly recommend this.
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