Angel - Season 4

At this point in the series, the writers have basically abandoned stand-alone episodes in favor of long-form, serialized storytelling. The second half of season three was dominated by one plot line, and except for maybe one or two brief tangents here, the entire thing is one big, slowly unfolding story. It's probably as strong a single tale as I've seen a Whedon show tell, filled with human elements, deception, and crazy looking monsters. I think it's the longest lasting storyline in any of his shows, and while I think Buffy the Vampire Slayer gradually grew weaker as it went on, Angel really seemed to improve as it went along. His shows don't tend to start off very strong, and Angel has seen the most steady improvement over its years.

A lot of the focus is on Vincent Kartheiser's character, whose fate is central to the vast conspiracy behind many of the events in the show. I like Kartheiser's smug sliminess on Mad Men for some reason, though I can't say I like him too much on Angel. His motivations as a character always seem weak, like he's not bothering to think about what he's doing, and his entire relationship with the rest of the cast is just an unusual one. It's actually interesting, this was my favorite season despite my thinking the series really picked up once the main crew finally came together, and they sort of fall apart this time. They're still together as a group, but the a lot of the individual relationships are broken past the point of repairing. I'll be interested in seeing what else can go wrong in the final season.