Angel – Season 3 (New Packaging) DVD – Amy Acker , David Boreanaz

The complete third series of the popular ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ spin-off. In ‘Heartthrob’ Angel comes into conflict with an old vampire friend from his distant past. ‘That Vision Thing’ sees Cordelia tormented by the physical side-effects of her visions. ‘That Old Gang of Mine’ has Gunn question his own allegiances when some of his old gang head out on a murder spree. ‘Carpe Noctem’ finds Angel unwittingly taking part in a body swap with an old man. ‘Fredless’ sees the team protect Fred from her own parents. ‘Billy’ has Billy cause an outbreak of violence amongst ordinarily peaceable men. ‘Offspring’ finds Darla pregnant and eager to track down the father. ‘Quickening’ sees Angel do his best to protect Darla’s unborn child from the evil advances of Wolfram & Hart. ‘Lullaby’ has Darla worried about the conflict between her maternal feelings and her essentially demonic nature. ‘Dad’ finds the team doing their best to protect Darla’s child from various kidnap threats. In ‘Birthday’, Cordelia’s visions send her into a coma. In ‘Provider’ the team advertise their services and end up with more work than they can handle. ‘Waiting in the Wings’ sees Angel and Cordelia overcome with emotion when they visit the ballet. ‘Couplet’ has Angel feeling jealous when Cordelia receives a visit from Groosalugg, her former prince. ‘Loyalty’ finds Gunn and Fred wandering into a trap when they investigate a rumoured vampire den. ‘Sleep Tight’ sees Angel developing a craving for the blood of his son Connor. ‘Forgiving’ has Angel seeking revenge for Connor’s kidnapping. ‘Double or Nothing’ finds Gunn regretting a demonic pact he made many years before. ‘The Price’ sees the crew deal with an infestation of deadly slugs. ‘A New World’ has an angry Connor return and seek vengeance against his father. ‘Benediction’ finds Cordelia wavering between Angel and Groosalugg. Finally, in ‘Tomorrow’, Connor gets angry again and circumstances threaten Angel and Cordelia’s future together.

In the third season of Angel, the titular vampire with a soul was forced to stand alone thanks to the (temporary) death of his beloved Buffy and her show’s move to a new network, with no crossover between the two allowed. He returns from seeking peace in a demon-haunted monastery to find the L.A. Angel Investigations team fighting supernatural crime in his absence. Fred is still haunted by the nightmare dimension from which they rescued her; Cordelia’s visions get ever more painful and debilitating. The schemes of the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart become every more imaginative and dragon lady Lilah Morgan becomes even more of an enemy when lusting after Angel. Unbelievably, Darla, Angel’s vampire sire and lover, turns up, pregnant with his child and is tortured by inexplicable motherly feelings as well as a raging thirst for human blood. For a few episodes things go pretty well–but Angel’s enemies, both those he has made in his quest for redemption and those he made when he was unadulterated evil, are still out there. Stephanie Romanov comes into her silky own in this series, making Lilah Morgan all the more seductively evil because she is clear about the choices she has made; the satanic law firm of Wolfram and Hart are this show’s most inspired creation. As the season moves to its close, Wesley (Alexis Denisof) has hard choices to make. The devastating climax is compulsive viewing, and this season also contains one of the most impressive single episodes of the entire show: in “Waiting in the Wings,” writer, director and creator Joss Whedon comes up with a classic ghost story as Angel and his crew go to the ballet and find a performance that is literally timeless. –Roz Kaveney