One of the other benefits of the show's pacing is the constant plot progression in every season. Every season has more than a few pivotal moments where the characters, both physically and emotionally, cross a point of no return. The people you meet in the first season are vastly different than the people you meet in the fifth season. Although, there are still vestiges of those old characters in the new iterations. However, dynamics are constantly changing. In the second season alone, Angel goes from being the figurehead of Angel Investigations, to working by himself, to being subservient to Wesley, Cordelia and Gunn as penance for deserting them. However, each mini-arc is given enough episodes to ensure that the audience not only goes along for the ride, but are also emotionally invested in everything that happens as a result of those changes. Plus, it shows that there are real consequences to the decisions being made from episode to episode. The plots move forward with little to no breaks in between, but nothing feels rushed and it's all given the right amount of time to play out the way that it should. The fourth season, while divisive among fans, is a perfect example of a show that has a lot of story to tell but also has enough dedication to properly tell it. Each episode has a sense of purpose and direction that infuses the entire season with an intensity that cannot be matched. And yet, they still managed to include a purely comical episode amidst the darkness that fits perfectly within the context the story, but doesn't derail any of the momentum that they've built up and, instead, adds to it. It's truly a remarkable feat of plot progression. Then, rather than try and top it for their last season, they took the entire premise of the show and flipped it on its head. Which provided the writers with new avenues to explore and allowed them to tell a variety of different stories instead of just being limited to the same ones that they had done in previous seasons.
Ken is the writer/director of 'School Teen Drama': http://vimeo.com/139489. An avid watcher of movies and television, he currently writes a personal blog on his Facebook called 'Prose And Cons' that details his opinions on everything. In list form. He also infrequently hosts a video podcast on his YouTube Channel, SilverAndFriends. HA HA… Why not?
