It's been so long since the series first aired that a new generation is mostly unaware of the program and it's been interesting for me to see Youtube reaction videos by people discovering the series for the first time. In watching their reactions I've been able to find a way to articulate what were some of my problems with the series. And so, while I do like Angel quite a bit, I want to highlight three of the problems I had with the program. We'll start with Fred & Gunn.
Both Fred and Gunn were introduced near the end of a season of Angel, then became a regular at the start of the subsequent season. Charles Gunn (played by J. August Richards) was introduced in "War Zone" (season 1x20) and joined the cast at the start of season 2; Winifred "Fred" Burkle (played by Amy Acker) appeared as a cameo in "Belonging" (season 2x19), fully in "Over the Rainbow" (2x20), then joined the cast for season 3.
I have no problems with Gunn and Fred on their own - but during season 3 they became a couple and I think I'm now able to express why their relationship didn't work for me. Early episodes of season 3 teased the idea of them pairing up, sometimes as a joke (ie, "I've been forking with Gunn" in "That Vision Thing", 3x2); at various times both Gunn and Wesley Wyndham-Pryce (played by Alexis Denisof) expressed an interest in Fred and it became clear in "Provider" (3x12) that it was a full-blown love triangle; Gunn and Fred admitted their feelings for each other in "Waiting in the Wings" (3x13) and from then on were a couple.
But this being a show executive produced by Joss Whedon, they weren't together very long all things considered. Starting in "Supersymmetry" (4x5) their relationship started a long, slow death after Gunn murdered a man in order to prevent Fred from doing the same thing. For several episodes they were tense and Gunn even struck her in "Soulless" (4x11), which is definitely not a great moment in his character development. They broke up in "Calvary" (4x12).
Yet at the time, I didn't even realize that was the moment they broke up - their relationship's slow dissolve had been going on for so long that I didn't think it was over - it was only when Fred brought up their relationship in the past tense during "Release" (4x14) that I realized their break-up in "Calvary" truly was the end of the Gunn-Fred relationship.
Their relationship went on against what was one of the darkest periods of the series, which is saying something! Just one episode after "Waiting in the Wings", Wesley decodes a prophecy declaring "The father will kill the son" which sets into motion events which will cause Wesley to have his throat slit and Angel's son kidnapped and raised by Angel's nemesis, Holtz. And at the same time that Gunn & Fred's relationship was falling apart it was during an extremely long arc in which the apocalypse was being ushered in and virtually all of the lead characters were upset and barely speaking to each other. The Gunn-Fred break-up was just one more relationship destroyed during that season 4 arc.
Many of the creators on Angel also toiled on Buffy the Vampire Slayer; love triangles and crumbling relationships had been done plenty of times on that series, but Angel had been mostly free of relationship drama until its 3rd season: Doyle had been attracted to Cordelia in season 1, but died mere minutes after admitting it; Wesley and Cordelia had love interests (Virginia, the Groosalugg) but mostly as a means of character development; Kate Lockley was introduced as a love interest for Angel, but the series never actually paired them up.
Suddenly, season 3 delved headfirst into relationship drama among the mains and supporting characters: Angel is in love with Cordelia; Cordelia is back with the Groosalugg; Fred and Gunn are in love; Wesley is also in love with Fred; Wesley gets into a relationship with Lilah Morgan. Season 3 was also a season which was very heavy on arc-based storytelling with fewer stand-alone episodes than the previous two seasons (and season 4 doubled-down on that). Most of the season is given over to the storyline involving Darla's pregnancy, Connor's birth, Connor's kidnapping and Connor's return as Angel's new foe.
One of the problems with arc-heavy seasons is that not every character has a role to play. Rewatching season 3, I noticed that when Darla arrived in "Offspring" (3x7), it led to about 4 episodes where the only people who could affect the plot were Angel, Darla, Holtz, and Wolfram & Hart's lawyers. Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Cordelia, Lorne - they were all present, but with less focus or agency than usual. To be sure, they each had their moments between "Offspring" and "Dad" (3x10), but it heralded what would become a much greater problem in season 4 when an even longer storyarc would mostly ignore the characters who couldn't affect the plot (Gunn, Fred, Lorne).
Where am I going with this? Back on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the series' first truly dark storyline (that of Angel becoming Angelus in season 2) happened at the same time that the characters Willow & Oz became a couple, as well as Xander & Cordelia. With all the angst which went on in the lives of Buffy and Giles during that season, it was pleasant to be able to shift into lighter, brighter fare with the program's two happy couples.
Similarly, during this extremely dark period of Angel's broadcast history it was an opportunity not only to give Gunn & Fred some agency (since they were mostly adjacent to the season 3 & 4 storyarcs) and contrast to what the other characters were experiencing. But I found both then and now that their relationship didn't work.
There are three kinds of Gunn-Fred scenes I've noticed:
- Gunn & Fred eat food; remarks are made about Fred's huge appetite (a running joke which was mostly referencing how thin Amy Acker was, but food is also a time-tested way for fictional people to talk about sex)
- Gunn & Fred have a "lovey dovey" scene
- Gunn & Fred are angsting about the characters' problems
My least favourite of these scenes are the second type. It definitely gave J. August Richards some different material - he'd largely been denied any love interests on the series until season 3 - but boy, the kind of dialogue which seems sweet when uttered by 'teenage' characters on Buffy the Vampire Slayer is just about unbearable on Angel. Gunn in particular is given a lot of extremely earnest dialogue which doesn't sound remotely like his usual 'voice', such as in "Birthday" (3x11) when he stammers "Fred, you are - you are so cool." Some of this dialogue is simply meant to puncture Gunn's usual macho dialogue (Whedon programs frequently undermine 'macho' characters), but it doesn't sound like a man who was then almost 30.
So against the dark events of later season 3 episodes we had a happy couple who were... well, too happy. Too bubbly. Too great of a contrast next to what was happening to the characters.
But ultimately the Gunn-Fred relationship doesn't work because it's introduced as a complication; the show had been placing much more emphasis on Wesley's feelings for Fred, particularly in "Billy" (3x6). When a show presents an unrequited romance, you'd better believe the audience wants to follow that plotline; pairing Fred up with Gunn instead was in part something which gave those characters something to do, but mostly it was a relationship designed to further Wesley's character development.
Indeed, the scene in "Waiting in the Wings" where Fred and Gunn share their first kiss quickly pulls away to show Wesley's reaction. We in the audience are not being invited to share in the warm fuzzy romance of Fred and Gunn, but instead asked to empathize with the heartsick outsider. The very beginning of their relationship is framed as a moment of heartbreak! The Gunn-Fred relationship serves to isolate Wesley from the group; as I noted, the very next episode is where Wesley finds the words "The father will kill the son"; part of why he doesn't share this intelligence with the others is that Gunn & Fred's relationship has made his friendship with both of them socially awkward.
Where, prior to "Waiting in the Wings", were the scenes of Gunn pining for Fred? There were, as I noted, various jokes, admiring glances and wooden, earnest dialogue on the subject. But while we saw Wesley confiding his attraction to Cordelia, who was sharing Gunn's confidence? If this was a romance we viewers at home were supposed to be invested in, why was it framed mostly as a "shocking swerve"?
It feels as though the writers came up with the idea of Fred and Gunn getting together as a way to further Wesley's character development and surprise the audience... but had precious little else to do with the coupling once it had happened.
And there was definitely great potential in the Gunn-Fred relationship, but it only began to be unearthed during their lengthy break-up. Way back in "Fredless" (3x5), Fred had described her friends with various titles; Gunn's was "the muscle". It was a brief moment and a simple phrase, but it came back with a vengeance in "Spin the Bottle" (4x6) as Gunn and Fred's relationship deteriorated. "So I guess I'm the muscle," Gunn reflected glumly in that episode. Gunn's quest to become something 'more' than just 'muscle' leads to his becoming a lawyer in "Conviction" (5x1) and, in an extremely tragic outcome, Fred's death in "A Hole in the World" (5x15).
The idea that Fred's intelligence made Gunn feel dissatisfied with himself, seeking to better himself - that could have been a great development for his character it it had begun a season earlier. If, back in the period where Gunn and Wesley were both pining for Fred, it could have been fun to see Gunn trying to better himself, trying to 'prove' he was more than just 'the muscle', trying to win the confidence that he could be a match for Fred. That might have inspired more anticipation in the audience to see them wind up together. What better thought could you plant in the audience's mind than, "I hope they wind up together"?
Instead, Angel framed the couple as a complication in the Fred-Wesley romance. It's a pity. But it's not the worst thing to happen to Angel...
Tomorrow: Connor
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