Fans of Joss Whedon's Angel were saddened to learn yesterday that the WB has indicated that it will not be picking up the show, now in its fifth year, for a sixth season. A spinoff from the cult favorite Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel was the story of a vampire who had been cursed with a soul by Gypsies for his evil deeds, trying to find redemption helping the hopeless on the streets of Los Angeles (where else?). Dark, moody, and broody, the show was never merely a retread of Buffy, but a noirish exploration of good, evil, and everything in between with complicated plot arcs and dialogue you could eat with a fork. No wonder network executives couldn't stand it! This fifth season has been a kind of meta-commentary on Joss' problems finding his place in the world of prime time: having just rid the Earth of an all-powerful demon, Angel and his crew are presented with the Devil's bargain of selling their souls to nameless infernal powers (a.k.a., the "Senior Partners" of Wolfram and Hart, an L.A. law firm that actually is pure evil) for the sake of doing greater good. Or at least that's what they told themselves at the time. The dramatic change in venue was done at the behest of the WB, who made the show's continuation beyond last year's season finale contingent upon making the series more action-oriented and accessible to the non-fanatic viewer, but it probably didn't take the WB too long to figure out that the joke was on them - Joss Whedon may have turned Angel on its head in a superficial sense, but when the smoke cleared and the dust settled the show was more complicated than ever as it tried to wrestle with the question of whether it's possible to be a champion and a sellout at the same time.

Well at least the "Senior Partners" over at the WB gave Joss and Co. enough lead time to make this season's finale an appropriate series finale, which of course begs the ultimate question: will Sarah Michelle Gellar return in the Spring to reprise her role as Buffy? After all, both Angel and Spike - the other vampire with a soul (it's a long story) - were Buffy's beaus at one time or another. And with everything coming to an end, it's only appropriate that one of them should be allowed to ride off into the sunset with the Slayer of Sunnydale, a la Carol Hathaway running off to be with Dr. Ross and his fabulous Pacific Northwest houseboat on E.R. Smart money would be on Angel eventually reuniting with the Buffster, despite the fact that when we last saw her she was declaring her undying love for Spike. After all, Angel is the title character, and he's suffered enough; whereas Spike's adventures as a hero are only just beginning. You can raise a lot more hell when you're single, anyway!