The point wasn't whether they won or lost (and I think it's pretty obvious they were going to lose), but that, in the face of such insurmountable odds, they chose to fight anyway. That's what heroes do. They fight not for glory, but because someone has to. Even if in the long run it doesn't make anything better, if you can make a positive change even for a day, it's worth it. That's what the series was building up to. It ended on the perfect note.

L8r

5 (love the Wolfram & Hart)
3
2
4 (the annoyances there sink the brilliant stuff)

(pretty big gap)

1

Season 3
Season 2
Season 5


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Season 1



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Season 4

Yes. Season 4 of the show was such a complete trainwreck that I stopped watching that season until the season finale. Actually, if it wasn't for the finale, I wouldn't have cared less if Angel was cancelled or not. Anybody who says that season is the best of the series is not a true fan of the Whedon-verse.

And yet Joss Whedon himself said it featured some of the best work ever done.

Didn't he say that in the Season 4 DVD overview featurette?

Not a true fan...

Care to back that up with evidence?

S4 was the strongest season AtS ever had, in spite of any Cordy-Connor wrongness that transpired. The arc of the season was compelling, nearly every episode ended on a cliffhanger, it had bad ass action (Wesley Fu!), great dialogue, it brought back Angelus, Willow was actually cool again, the Beast was a worthy foe, the portents only heightened the suspense of the season, and the ENDING, my god the ending! S4 was pure serialized bliss. It was rare television. I'm not saying it's perfect, but AtS certainly peaked in its production values, serial nature, character drama (Angel vs. Wes, Wes vs. Gunn, Angel vs. Connor, Connor vs. Himself, Fred trying to keep everyone together, Lorne trying not to get killed) and performances that year.

All of the above exemplifies the Whedonverse. The BtVS equivalent would be Season 5, where from the beginning you could tell there was one place they were headed, the characters all had something interesting going on, the dialogue was sharp, the drama on high, and one thing pretty much lead to another.

Thank god for Angel Season 4. It was enough to take my mind off the lackluster BtVS S7. Angel did most everything right that season. The Buffy crew could have learned a thing or two from them.

L8r

If he didn't say that season 4 was among the best work he's ever done on the Season 4 DVD, then it was on the season 5 DVD.

I'd agree with RogueScribner (as always!; eerie how similar our perspectives are on Buffy/Angel) that this is a pretty ridiculous statement.