Rating: 
Summary: Connor is awful even has a baby
Review: Overall Angel is a great series, and I hesitate to give season three such low marks but lets be honest, Connor was a mistake, such a huge mistake in the current season he is all but forgotten and never mentioned (rarely). Darla having a baby not entirely interesting though Darla is interesting pregenant Darla is whiny and uninteresting. Second, Gunn and Fred love angle, another low point of the entire series, again the obvious love story between Wesley and Fred is put off for this very fake love story between Gunn and Fred. Third, I just can't get it out of my head Angel trying to kill Wesley while he was unconcious, one of the worst scenes ever in the history of Angel, its hard to forget or forgive. The fact I note so many people giving this season such high marks realy ignores these important points, I hope anyone thinking of purchasing this otherwise excellent series will take these points into consideration.
Rating: 
Summary: "You don't get to die. You get to live. Forever."
Review: What I admire about Angel the Series is that each year (until recently) the show has expanded and delved into more complex and darker territory. Season 1 was a basic introduction to Angel (and his constant struggle to find his place in the world), Season 2 dealt with the effects of depression and hopelessness, and Season 3 was the most ambitious yet as it shifted from being a show focused on friendships and became a show about family. It's not just that the writers decided to give Angel a son, they were also smart to realize that by this point Angel and his group of heroes had become a tight-knit family of their own - with a real family's dysfunction, love, and pain. However, Season 3 is ultimately about Angel's son, Connor, and the responses he inspires in the main characters. From the moment Darla (Angel's former vampire lover) shows up, impossibly pregnant, the reality of Angel's offspring is treated with skepticism, horror, joy, and fear. Will his son be a vampire? Or some other sort of abomination? Well, he turns out to be just a normal baby, who unfortunately inspires all of Angel's friends and enemies to imagine many sorts of outcomes for little Connor which lead to betrayal and heartbreak. S3 is uneven (there a few episodes I can cheerfully never see again), but taken as a whole, it fits together nicely. Many people were annoyed by the addition of baby Connor (myself included) but by the time I realized that Angel's son was on the fast track to becoming the most screwed-up character in the Buffyverse (and that's saying something) I quickly started to like him. (Casting the wonderful Vincent Kartheiser to play the teenage version of Connor also helped.) In the end, I view S3 as a great prologue to S4 (AtS's best season) which beautifully sets up the show's defining themes of selfless love, free will, compromise, and loss. I'm excited to watch these episodes again, knowing what will come after. (One addtional note: Unlike the other Angel DVD sets, I'm hoping that the S3 DVDs will have the "previously on Angel" montages. The show doesn't feel complete without them.)
Rating: 
Summary: A series grows
Review: In ever increasing rise of mediocrity on TV these days, Angel bucked the the trend of its spin-off start. The shows that are forced down our throats these days basically seem to follow formulas and are very routine. So the creative team behind Angel, as they did with season two, expanded the show for its third year and it became a creatively superior show, sometimes surpassing Buffy. And while the show could, at times, prevent new viewers from joining in, it still offered enough backstory in the "Previously on Angel" clips to get anyone caught up. So, I blame the laziness of viewers for the more episodic nature of Angel's current fifth season. Anyway, season three really opened the show and every actor was able to grow more comfortable with their characters, with Carisma Carpenter becoming a fully rounded Cordelia, despite the ever changing hairstyle and personal issues that forced her out of 3 very important episodes during the later half of the season. And despite a previous post, her issues where never with Whedon, but with Fox. She wanted to reduce her schedule on the show so she could have a baby, and I think Fox punished her by forcing her to get her personal life together. The only drawback to the season was Connor. The storyline was too daytime television for my taste, and I think it's nebulae nature of the final arc -Carpenter's personal issues -forced the writers into a corner they did not know how to get out of. Still, the series is 1000 times better than most drama's produced these days. And season three would lead into the series 4th -and possibly best creatively -year yet.
Rating:
Summary: Moving On Up
Review: Following the trademark ANGEL process of raising the bar from season to season,ANGEL season three really upped the ante and topped the two previous seasons. There is much more emotion, depth in character and it started the sort of epic quality to the series (a quality that season four would raise to new heights and that season five has dropped for the time being). I doubted the baby storyline from the get-go because the baby thing is ALWAYS done. That doubt was completely erased after Loyalty and Sleep Tight aired. I'm sure everyone remembers the excruciatingly long hiatus after Sleep Tight...wow, that was tough. All in all, there are a lot of great episodes in this set. Wesley's character undergoes a very interesting transformation and Holtz is a very fitting villain (especially in mid-season when we learn what Darla and Angelus did to his family and you can't help but sympathize with him a bit). Fred is developed well and fits into the group nicely, Cordy is great as always but goes MIA for awhile, Gunn is underused and feels forced when he is used, Lorne stays green and funny (with a bit more screen time which is good) and Angel gets to go from mourning to joyous to pure anger and all over the place (Boreanaz does his best work so far in this season, I think). The DVD extras are the meatiest we've seen yet from any Buffy/Angel DVD set. From Outtakes, Screen Tests, to the always entertaining and enlightening commentaries, this season is a must-have. Then again, if Fox just put the episodes themselves on DVD's with nothing else, the sets would still be awesome.
Rating:
Summary: Best season yet?
Review: If ever a show has kept continually improving it's this one. Season One was mainly "monster of the Week" episodes, brilliant but not utterly involving or compelling viewing. Season Two, moved away from this and went for dark subject matter, while still brilliant people still felt it was living in it's parent show's rather large shadow. With Season Three the series really comes into it's own. All of the characters have grown to a point where you really care about them and their somewhat unusual lives. While the opening episodes are so-so, when the boring Fred-centric episodes end and the pregnancy story kicks in this show does what Buffy now fails to, entertain, keep the humour up but also keep the tension rising so much that by the end of the season you need to relax and realise it's just a TV show. Great season, great stories, great show with a brilliant cliffhanger at the end too.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of the Best of the Best
Review: Well here it finally is (Drum Roll Please) the Complete Third Season of Angel. This was Angel and it's Peak, and can almost rival that of the second and third seasons of Buffy. Much has changed between the two seasons... Fred (the science nerd that Angel and Co. rescuited from Phlyea) is now a member of the gang, Lorne has recieved his badge of membership in the LA Branch of the Scooby Gang, and Cordelia has found her ture meaning in life. SPOLERS AHEAD!!!!The Seasons starts off with Angel trying to get over the death of his beloved Buffy, but the pitty party is halted when Darla Returns with big new... She's got a Bun in the Oven. When she returns to Angel, the gang doesn't know what to do, and before they knowit Darla is dead and Connor is born. But before anyone can get attached he is stolen and sent to a demon deminsion, only to return two weeks later as a teenager. The Season episodes are...Heartthrob", "That Vision Thing", "That Old Gang Of Mine", "Carpe Noctem", "Fredless", "Billy", "Offspring", "Quickening", "Lullaby", "Dad", "Birthday", "Provider", "Waiting In The Wings", "Couplet", "Loyalty", "Sleep Tight", "Forgiving", "Double Or Nothing", "The Price", "A New World", "Benediction", and "Tomorrow". The Special Features are:Disc 1
None
Disc 2
Commentary by Tim Minear and Jeffrey Bell ("Billy")
Disc 3
Commentary by Tim Minear and Mere Smith ("Lullaby")
Deleted scenes with commentary by Tim Minear and Mere Smith (Cordy Show "Birthday") (Run Time 4:09)
Featurette: "Darla: Deliver Us From Evil" (Run Time 12:11)
Angel Series Outtakes (Run Time 4:30)
Disc 4
Commentary by Joss Whedon ("Waiting in the Wings")
Deleted scenes with commentary by Joss Whedon ("Waiting in the Wings") (Run Time 5:00)
Disc 5
None
Disc 6
Featurette: "Season 3 Overview" (Run Time 32:54)
Featurette: "Page to Screen" (Run Time 13:56)
Screen tests: Amy Acker (2:36) and Vincent Kartheiser (1:48) (Run Time 4:24)
Still Gallery (approx. 50 images) So sit back and enjoy the best of what the buffyverse has to offer...
Rating:
Summary: An incredible season!!
Review: When I first saw this season on TV I thought it was really good but I had my problems, mostly Angel's "relationship" with Cordilia. On re-watching this season is so much better. So much happens this season and at a break neck pace much of the time. Good plots with inteligent and engaging villians (Holtz and Lilah Morgan are standouts) keep the season moving in great directions. The characters grow and evolve in interesting and often unexpected ways. Alexis Denisof as Wesley is a incredible especialy this season; the character is: versitile, multi layered, deeply good, yet hoplessly confilcted. David Boreanaz as Angel also does a great job; his happy times give context to his misery, and make him a more complete character insteed of staying as some two dimentional Buffy boy toy. Another great thing is the action, no other show (even 24) has action as good as "Angel" and this is the season where great attention started really coming into all the fights giving almost every episode a good action center piece; the fight at the begining of the episode "A New World" is better than any fight I've seen on any other show, on this show it's merely one of many greats. All this is great by itself, but this season is also perfect setup to the best season I've seen on TV Angel season 4.
The picture and sound are a hell of alot better on the DVDs and the cinematic feel of this show is something that makes full use of the higher quality. Watching this in syndication it's show in Full frame, but the show was intended to be seen in Widscreen as a result sometimes faces are halfway off the screen during the syndication showings. Buffy was intended to be seen Full frame, but every Angel season except the first season was shot Widescreen. Ranking "Buffy" and "Angel" seasons I rank this up there on level with "Buffy season 2" but just under "Buffy season 3", it's better than any other "Buffy" or "Angel" year except of course for what came on "Angel" afterwards. Sure there is no episode like "Becoming" but the overall year is much better than "Buffy season 2" so it evens out. One of the problems with almost all action shows is they hold way too much back over each season, so they can have mega episodes here and there; on Angel the events aren't held back which quickens the pacing, and makes the overall show much better. I own the R2 DVD so I don't know if there'll be more special features on the Region 1 DVDs, but here's the list of what I got:
Commentary for "Billy" by Tim Minear and Jeffery Bell
Comentary for "Lullaby" by Tim Minear and Mere Smith
A very funny deleted scene from "Birthday"
Featurette on Darla
Really good series outakes reel
Commenary on "Waiting in the Wings" by Joss Whedon
An almost too funny to be believed deleted scene from "Waiting in the Wings"
A fairly banale season overveiw featurette
A funny page to screen Featurette
Some good screen tests for both Amy Acker, and Vincent Kartheiser
And a pictures gallery Overall some really good extras. I'd have liked some more commenataries, but the deleted scenes alone more than make up for that.
Some naysayers might insult this year without ever watching it on DVD, with how much of an improvement the DVD's make they can't judge in a way that is even remotely fair.
Rating: 
Summary: When Angel lost me
Review: As an avid Buffy fan dating back to season 1, I was instantly a rabid Angel fan through Seasons 1 and 2...like to the point that I'd work my social life around it. Somewhere in Season 3, that changed. Because the show did. The show actually changed towards the end of Season 2, when that whole (funny, but distracting) Pylea arc happened. Angel lost his role as the Dark Avenger and became more of a pathetic character. Instead of the respect that S1 & S2 Angel provoked, S3 Angel inspired a lot of empathy and sympathy...not a great thing for a heroic character. Don't get me wrong...some great things happened in S3. The addition of Fred (Amy Acker) kept the show's pulse beating, and Darla (Julie Benz) gave some of her best performances. Probably the best writing of the season involved transforming Wesley (Alexis Denisof) from the bumbling, intellectual side-kick into the tragic hero. This lasted throughout seasons 4 & 5 as well...Wesley never again knew happiness or simplicity, he was a dark character from S3 on. I bought this season, partially because I want a complete set, and partially because there were a few damned good episodes in there (Fredless, Lullaby, Birthday, Waiting in the Wings.) Season 4 I will buy, but only because I'm obsessed with Faith (Eliza Dushku). Otherwise, Angel didn't make me a "fan" again until Season 5...just in time for the network to cancel the show.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best season, but some good stuff and worth having
Review: Initially, I bought the season 3 ANGEL DVDs just to keep the collection complete, not being too enthusuastic about it. I hadn't seen the whole season on TV and some of the episodes I had seen of this season, "Provider" and "Dad" just to name a couple, are among the WORST of the series, in my opinion. That said, in retrospect, there's a lot in this season that sets things up for season 4 and for that reason, it's worth having as a reference if for no other reason. There are also some gems here. "Loyalty", "A New World", "Lullaby" among them, Darla's touching moment of conscience before she sacrifices herself to save her son and protect him from herself, the introduction and the promise of Connor - Angel's son - to the series. I think Connor's story line went badly astray later, but there were some fine performances here. I liked Holtz as the villian of the season, because he wasn't evil so much as misguided and fanatic... a father seeking revenge on the vampires that destroyed his family. His final revenge on Angel, to steal Angel's beloved child and turn Connor against his own father, was both poignant and heartbreakingly tragic. The three episodes following Angel's loss of Connor, his discovery of Wesley's betrayal, his attempt to kill Wesley, and tragic finale in which his hope for reconciliation in his relationship with his son are horribly dashed as Connor sinks him to the bottom of the ocean in "Tommorow" (even though Angel tells him no matter what he does, Angel will aways love him) are some of David Boreanaz's best performances. I thought Sahjahn - the time traveling demon that brings Holtz forward in time, was a riot! His manipulations to contrive the prophesy to save his own ass was masterful. Wolfram & Hart are both enacing and humorously inept at times. Lilah is delciously wicked, and the the start of her conflicted and twisted affair with Wesley is both unexpected and perfectly understandable. The development of Wesley's character to the dark, tragic outcast, for believing the false prophesy and faciliting Holtz' final revenge on Angel was very well done and made Wesley one of the most interesting character of the season. The not so good... Although the end of the season, and Angel's reactions and interplay with Connor are excellent but... he acts like a big GOOFBALL for part of the season in a totally out of character and regressive way. I like Angel when he's true to his mission, thoughtful, intelligent and heroic. For a large part of this season, he was completely out of character; materialistic, immature (he's 250+ years old acting like an insecure lovesick school boy) and not the smart, confident warrior and leader he always had been. Which brings me to... Cordelia. The transformation of her character from fun, brash, down-to-earth, and vulnerable sister-figure with a heart of gold, to saintly, floaty/glowing paragon of virtue and wisdom and potential romantic interest for Angel (after years of sisterly behavior) bored and annoyed me to distraction. All the sudden (literally), Cordelia became the wise one, the leader, the one that everyone else turned to for advice. It was almost Angel had a lobotomy whenever Cordelia was arong and his character diminished in relation to hers, and it turned me off. But what's saddest is that it made Cordelia go from a character I liked and sympathized with to one I couldn't care less about. Her final ascent in "Tommorow" was eye-roll worthy. The only saving grace here is after the disclosures of season 4, some of the otherwise improbable behaviors and events (i.e.: in "Birthday") make more sense. A few minor details...I never bought the romantic intensity between Gunn and Fred. I didn't like Holtz's protege, Justine, and Groo, while nice to look at and a more convincing love interest for Cordelia, really is kind of pointless being in as many episodes as he is. Again, these are small details. anyway...while season 3 was not my favorite, I'm pleased to have the DVDS and I'm enjoying them than I thought I would. There about half the episodes that I won't watch except points for later episodes, but if you're a fan of the show, I definitely recommend buying them.
Rating:
Summary: Angel stands alone in excellence
Review: Angel Season Three was one of the best of the stellar show's five seasons. While it wasn't quite the best (wait for fall 2004 and the release of the season 4 DVD and you'll see what i mean), but it did mark the show's divergence from the shadow of its sister show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It also shifted the focus from the more stand-alone episodes of the previous two seasons to the more structured storyline that would continue into the excellent fourth season. The season opens with Heartthrob, an episode that has Angel dealing with the death of Buffy, as well as facing an old friend from his demonic past, who returns as an enemy out for vengeance against Angel for killing his lover. The episode finally allows Angel to put Buffy behind him and move on. The season's main arcs are introduced in the next few episodes, dealing with the worsening of Cordelia's visions, the deepening feelings of Cordelia and Angel for one another, Darla's pregnancy with Angel's son (a birth by two vampires, an unprecedented event), the Wesley-Fred-Gunn love triangle, and the reappearance of the 18th century vampire hunter Daniel Holtz, who makes a pact with the demon Sahjhan to return in the 21st century to avenge his family, who Angel brutally murdered before being re-ensouled. The season is incredibly well-written, showing Angel coming to terms with fatherhood and growing to deeply love his son. It shows Wesley sinking slowly into darkness as he is forced to betray Angel in an effort to do the right thing. It shows Lilah Morgan of Wolfram and Hart finally begin to show glimpses of inner conflict. And it shows Holtz, a potrait of a man consumed by hatred, with nothing left but a thirst for vengeance which he will do anything to satisfy. Although the best part of this season is the main story arc, there are several excellent stand-alone episodes, including That Old Gang of Mine, where Gunn must finally choose between Angel Investigations and his old gang; Billy, where, infected by a demon who Angel freed from hell to save Cordelia, Wesley stalks Fred through the hotel with an axe; and Waiting in the Wings, where Cordelia and Angel fall under a spell and are possessed by the spirits of dead lovers and eventually save a ballerina who has been pulled out of time. Season Three of Angel showed that the show could survive on its own, and since the show has surpassed the show that spawned it with the stellar fourth and fifth seasons. It's a shame this show got cancelled. But this is what the miracle of the digital video disc is for.
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