Were-Nina

I'm three episodes in on Angel season five. Last night I watched "Unleashed", an episode about a young woman called Nina (Jenny Mollen) who becomes a werewolf. The episode was written by Sarah Fain and Elizabeth Craft and directed by Marita Grabiak, so written and directed entirely by women, which is significant given how much the episode seems to be about a woman's perspective. Nina's presented as a target of male predation with the sexuality of such a story replaced by the conventions of a piece of werewolf fiction, with the creative addition of Nina being stalked by a group that regards werewolf meat as a delicacy.

I've been a fan of werewolves since I was a kid but I've never seen them truly done justice on screen. Here, again, is another top heavy, unwieldy werewolf costume, a lumbering spectacle one has trouble imagining effectively chasing its prey. Meanwhile, Jenny Mollen is pretty but the episode is more focused on the concept than on fleshing her out.

Series regular Fred (Amy Acker) gets better character stuff in this episode and her perspective is key both in interacting with Nina and in the Spike (James Marsters) subplot. Spike, whose obsession with Buffy was apparently driving viewership on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, somewhat to Joss Whedon's chagrin, according to Marsters, was too popular to let die in the Buffy finale. So he reappears on Angel as a ghost and Fred gets the assignment of helping him because, with Cordelia in a coma, she's the only girl left on the show so all the guys have to be in love with her. Except Lorne (Andy Hallett), of course.

Another guest star is John Billingsley as a doctor. He played the doctor on Star Trek: Enterprise and in one episode of Twin Peaks: The Return. He is really good as a TV doctor.