Accouring to Herc, Angel is renewed!
To which, all I can say is WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!SPike and Wes on the same show! Wes and Spike on the same show! Spike and Wes!!!
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I’m quite pleased. Minus Conor, Plus Spike. A definite change for the better. The sky’s the limit.
I just hope they do something with the forgotten storyline of Gunn and Electric Woman, or whatever she’s called.
Good (partial) riddance to Cordelia. I find her tiresome.
Slight Buffy spoiler regarding Spike in the press release (now we know he doesn’t die, which has been a possibility). But hey, I’m not complaining, just glad Team Angel will remain in action!
I suppose that Charisma is gonna be too busy being mom to be around all the time this next season? That’s sad, but hopefully she’ll be able to find a happy family/career mix.
I actually wanted to clarify something that I didn’t make clear in my OP.
You guys all know I’m spoiled. I haven’t made a secret of it. As such, I know what info is spoilery and what is not.
My judgement call was that this is not. Here’s why. Whatever Joss had planned for BtVS was planned literally months before the future of AtS was even decided.
This decision was finalized sometime this weekend. As late as Thursday, Tim Minear said he had absolutely no idea what was going to happen. At the last con, James Marsters seemed very doubtful it would hapen (two weeks ago). Tom Lenk is at the Chicago con this weekend and said he “might be on Angel…if it’s renewed” and he sounded very doubtful about it. Last night!
The final episode was storyboarded months ago, when the spin-off possibilities wre in the works. The final scene was planned last summer.
Chosen was in the can over a month ago, while the future of AtS and a possible spinoff were still very unknown variables.
I guess wat I’m trying to say is…What does or does not happen BtVS has no bearing on what may or may not happen on AtS, for any of the characters. Those decisions were finalized long before AtS became an option.
If however, you still believe the OP contained minor (or major) spoilers for BtVS, I deeply apologize. I wanted to share the good news as soon as I heard it, because I know a lot of people here were intersted in knowing it, and for the reasons listed above, it didn’t occur to me that the spoiler warning may be a requirement.
Beat me to it! And I was going to put the Marsters thing in spolier box too 
But hey: it’s Team Whedon, for all we know, Spike dies AND is on Angel. I mean, it never stopped Buffy or Darla, did it?
And with Smallville as a lead-in, Angel might just have a chance to grow an audience. So a season six may not be entirely a wild, improbable fantasy anymore. The real question is where they’re gonna put the REAL apocalypse: the Shanshu one. If they think season 5 will be it, then does that mean it’ll be this season? If they get cancelled at the end of this season, and that story line hasn’t come to pass, I’ll be sooooooo PO’d.
I wonder if they’ll keep Cordy in a coma for most of next season.
I like Cordy; she gets some of the best dialogue. And the character has displayed amazing personal growth.
Thanks for the good news.
Alot of us had been waiting for a bit of good news for once. The Spike thing was a bit of a spoiler for us “pure as driven snow from spoilers” types, but since I didn’t think they would dust Spike (due to previous discussions of him moving over) no big deal. Anyway, you had the best of intentions, and thats what matters.
As long as he fits into the show the right way, JM should be a nice addition. A full season pick-up with Smallville lead-in.
Woo Hoo!
I’m sorry to see Cordelia leave the show (I agree with Slindorff on her character growth), but I am happy that they kept a place open for Spike.
And is it a sure thing that Connor won’t be a regular character for next season?
I’m totally stoked that Angel will be back. One item disturbes me, though:
Considering that Angel was great this year, and Buffy a bit blah, I don’t know how happy I am that some of Buffy’s writers are coming over.
I think they mean Fury wil lbe there full time, and New!Drew (Goddard) will be there. Goddard is the best writer they have tihs year, and Fury is a consulting producer and writer over there anyway, so I doubt things will change too much. Espenson, Noxon, Krishner, and Petrie all have new jobs for the next season.
I know it’s impossible for various reasons, but I would SO LOVE to see Willow come over to Angel full time and have a hot love affair with Wesley. Their pics at the Wrap Party were just too cute, what an adorable couple!
And I breathe a great sigh of relief. I have faith in Drew Goddard, the man responsible for “Selfless” and “Conversations With Dead People,” the only Buffy episode ever to have scared me out of my wits, huddled under a blanket and peeking over the edge of the couch.
This is good news indeed. I’m a bit concerned about CC, though. Has the character been thrown away, to make place for Spike. Or is it Charisma’s own decision? I think she belongs in the mix.
And I very much hope Willow will be there from time to time. When you wrote about Tom Lenk, Pepperlandgirl, I got a bit concerned. Has he been concidered for joining the Fang Gang. I can take Confused!Fred. But with confused!Andrew in the mix, it can be too much.
Charisma just had a baby, and this season showed that the rest of the ensemble can carry good stories without her. So it may be a combination of both.
Andrew would be a bad fit, primarily because he has no connection whatsoever to any of the Fang Gang. Hell, Anya has more of a connection with them, having met Wesley once and Angel once. I’d almost prefer to see Anya because she could fill the role of tactless girl that Cordelia vacated about two years ago.
Spike is an intriguing addition, if true. Although he is another vampire with a soul, his attachment to the whole redemption thing is a bit more tenuous than Angel’s. Spike helps the helpless because he thinks that’s what Buffy wants of him. But if Buffy isn’t the influence anymore, what is Spike’s motivation? Maybe Angel is the one to help him find it. (Assuming Angel is inclined - they’re not exactly friends, which could also set up an interesting dynamic). In the hands of someone like Tim Minear, who, of all of the Angel writers save perhaps Joss, understands Angel’s inner turmoil and motivation (IMHO), it could be an interesting season.
Ahhh. Jeevmon. Yes you’re right. However…
Warning! Major plot spoiler about this week’s episode of Buffy:
After seeing what happens this week, I kinda doubt Angel and Spike are gonna be friends. My guess is - not even on speaking terms.
I really can’t see how Spike’s gonna fit in with the Fang Gang.
And it makes me sad if ME puts him there, just 'cause Spike has a lot of fans. If they’ve proved something this year, it’s that they should stick to things that serve the story.
Ok, so I didn’t give anything away, really. But It could be deduced and I don’t want to be held responsible for spoiling anything this close to the finale.
Now, I know this isn’t going to make me the board’s most popular poster, or anything (And I like to think that I used to be :)), but I’m kind of bummed about Spike joining Angel. I mean, it could be done well, because I like(d) Spike, I do (did, when he was evil), but now he’s just a freakin’ fluffy puppy with bad teeth. Last week’s Buffy really sealed the deal, when Spike gave Buffy practically the exact same speech that Angel gave her in Earshot. WTF? Joss promised that soul-y Spike wouldn’t be Angel v2.0, but so far, that’s all I’ve seen.
I suppose as long as Buffy isn’t around to make doe eyes at, he might be tolerable, but I’m really tired of one of my favorite shows being all about our bleached blonde friend. That’s the other problem, really, but hopefully it won’t be too bad if Marti doesn’t take over showrunning on Angel. The same moment that Spike became uninteresting (when he became Buffy’s bitch) was the same one that Marti decided he was the hero of the show and that the entire series should focus on him. Suddenly we didn’t know what was happening with Willow, Xander, and Giles because we had to know all about Spikey and his neverending love for the Slayer. Oh, and all the gratuitous sex scenes.
My other, somewhat more minor, objection to this is that they really don’t need more cast members. They have more than enough-- so many, in fact, that there are plotlines that they leave hanging forever. Gunn and Lightnin’ Chick, anyone?
The only thing that may set up an interesting dynamic between Spike and Angel is that Spike isn’t too hepped up on this whole making-up-for-past-wrongs thing. He feels bad about them, sure, but it seems to me that the only reason he really fights the bad guys is that Buffy expects him to. Without her influence, will he continue to fight the good one? If not, will he therefore clash with Angel?
Oh, and one more thing: This series already has one supposedly immortal vampire whose actor is showing his age. Do we need another one?
Anyway, issues of Spikiness notwithstanding, I’m as psyched as the next guy about Angel’s renewal. After the season they had, they surely deserve it.