The press release said they let Joss know it’d be " The last season on the WB," meaning it’s the network that wants to call it quits, not the creator. So if Joss wanted to, couldn’t he shop around and see if someone else wants to pick it up like with Buffy and Roswell? One of his babies found a new home, so it’s not like the idea would be novel…
Damn. This is sick of me to say, but I wish that, if this had to happen, it had happened at the beginning of the season. Joss and team stated from working on Firefly that they did their best work knowing they were under the axe: it forced them to look at every precious moment of airtime and think, “What do we absolutely need to say?” Perhaps that mindset would have kept them from clunkers like “Life of the Party” and whatever the hell that werewolf-girl episode was called. In the last four or five episodes, I’ve really felt like Angel has been pulling out of its slump and getting back into the arcs that made it great. (Although I reserve the right to change my opinion after the puppet episode coming up.) I hope UPN scoops Angel up and gives it at least another season, though. I think it’s got it left in it.
Well, at least I can put my television back under the bed now. Angel was the only reason I got the thing, and the WB is the only channel it gets. I was starting to watch Smallville, though, and Gilmore Girls and the Surreal Life. But now? Never mind.
Stunning news. I’m a big Angel fan…in fact, I was riveted by last season, and have been extremely satisfied by all of this season’s shows.
That said, I must give kudos to the WB for the class it has. Most show don’t know until May if they’ll be picked up. So we could have been faced with finding out that Angel has been cancelled after the season finale had been filmed and broadcast. We could have gotten a *season-*finale instead of a *series-*finale.
This way the rest of the season can be approached in a different way. All the unshot episodes can now lead the show to a more graceful, and hopefully–satisfying end. They can wrap things up properly instead of being abruptly cut off.
As for the potential of Angel moving to another network–I consider that very unlikely. Angel is by no means a “hit” show, nor is it seen as a “prestige” show for the network. It wouldn’t benefit another network to pick up “damaged goods”. Perhaps a cable network such as the Sci-Fi network could rescue it. But it would only do so at a significantly reduced cost…which would mean severe cut-backs in the cast and the special effects. I doubt that this would appeal much to the producers (or cast!)
The biggest ray of hope in the press release is the fact that there’s discussion of some TV movies next season. This would be great! Even if Boreanaz doesn’t appear in them, they could produce something that combined the co-stars of Buffy and Angel, fleshing out the “Buffyverse” in new & interesting directions. Or maybe this will lead to the inevitable Spike movie, which could serve as a TV pilot.
I just think that the “cult of the Buffyverse” is so strong, that we will see it resurrected in one form or another within the next few years. Let not your hearts be troubled, my friends!
Maybe, just maybe they’ll be able to craft a last episode which finally deals with Angel and his Sans Shoes prophecy. I hear he has incredible feet.
You know, I hadn’t considered that. If they make made for TV movies, they can have some of the folk from both casts make appearances. That could lend itself to very interesting television.
Oh, what am I saying? They’re cancelling Angel. Fuck them.
This is what Joss posted at the Bronze Beta. It’s legit. The writers regularly post there.
Interesting. My first thought on hearing this news, please hold the pitchforks, was “Good.” Watching Buffy die slowly like a suffering senile old relative was just so painful, and Angel this season has felt to me like it’s starting to dodder and mumble as well: nothing in this season has come close to grabbing me by the collar and shaking me in the way that last season did. I’m actually rather pleased that the show will go out with a bang instead of a whimper.
That said, I was expecting that Joss felt the same way: his heart just hasn’t felt in it this season. Or perhaps I should say that his PEN hasn’t felt in it this season: he writes very few episodes, and it shows. The ones he writes leave me giggling and gasping, but the ones he doesn’t write feel formulaic and flaccid. I was thinking that he’s putting all his attention into Firefly, that he’s thoroughly sick of the Buffyverse by now and wants to be doing something else with his creative energy. And who can blame him?
I love watching shows that Joss Whedon writes. I don’t so much care for watching shows that Joss Whedon produces.
I’m sorry that he’s disappointed; I wish that he and the cast were ready for the show to be done. But I hope also that this’ll free his energies up for new projects, ones where his passion will shine through more clearly.
Okay, you can get on with the pitchforks now.
Daniel
What Left Hand said. The show had, what, six years? That’s a pretty good run. It’d be great if the show could have gone on forever, each season as good or better than the previous one, but that’s never going to happen. The show’s already getting pretty shaky this season. I’m glad to see it go before it ends up like the last season of Buffy.
Well, shit.
Well. Dammit. Poor Joss.
It was nice of them to at least give him this much warning. I don’t know how many eps they had left to shoot, but at least he’ll be able to rework the storyline to wrap things up, I hope.
They have five eps left to shoot. They just started 17 this week.
Yeah. This sucks. The WB sucks. Wasn’t Angel enjoying it’s best ratings ever? Or at least close to it?
I’ve heard Joss is pitching the show to other networks. I’m not getting my hopes up, though.
It sounds like Joss isn’t going to do much different now that he knows its over (how could he really, there are so few eps left to shoot, and I’m sure they’re all pretty much written).
Its nice how the WB announced it on the Friday before a 3-day weekend, they must have been scared of the reaction.
When Buffy ended, at least we could say “we still have Angel”.
Please act as though my redundant OP was me posting here.
Thank you and yes, this sucks.
Crap, goddamn it.
At least they didn’t “Fox” it, small blessing in that I guess.
Oh well, more time to read or ride my bike.
Y’know, I think it Mutant Enemy really wants to keep this show going, I’d think they have more than ample opportunity to do so.
Surely Angel is a hot enough commodity to have some other networks interested in it.
My hope is it ends up on a network like Sci Fi, and NOT on UPN like Buffy. For some reason, the UPN affiliate here in Phoenix is excessively dark, and for a show like Angel…well, I’d probably spend half the hour trying to figure out what’s going on.
Not to mention UPN’s propensity to cut “teaser” commercials for Buffy that played up the “wacky” elements. :rolleyes:
My best friend and I just spent our weekend locked in my apartment, watching the whole third season on DVD.
Now I’m all bummed.
And I don’t want to have to call her and tell her.
Yup, but… they also just hit the “magic number” – 100 episodes. Syndication, rah, rah. Now WB can run it 5 days a week and still profit from it without investing in the costs of creating new episodes. (Strange, that thought makes me hear a daemonic “mwah-ha-ha-haaaaaa…”)
I kinda had a feeling this might happen.
Here is an article from aintitcool.com I do not know how accurate it is but, it at least sounds interesting:
In a coincidence that now looks like a political statement, jeevmon and I are getting a new dog on the 27th; her name is to be Willow Rosenberg.
We had the name picked out already but we’ll tell everyone it is in protest. (Yes, I know that Willow was on Buffy and not Angel, but Cordy and Fred just didn’t seem like good names for her.)