ANGEL HAS GONE IN A STRIKING NEW direction. He's now the boss of Wolfram & Hart. Eh? But they're evil...evil, I tell you! "During this last season, of which I'm very proud, at some point we were like,'Are we making 24?'" says series creator Whedon to SFX. "The events of the episodes seemed to happen in a two-week period. It played this one dramatic arc. We had the characters, but there wasn't enough for them."

So Whedon hit on the idea of giving Angel Investigations Wolfram & Hart, once their greatest nemesis, to run.

"The exciting thing about it is not only the question of moral compromise and the actual relatable, 'I worked for Greenpeace, but now I work for Shell.' Now we have a chance to get into different stories and milieus and B-stories - just a new kind of energy that isn't so completely internal," he explains. "You need the internal dynamic, its what people love; but at the same time, you need a show where if nobody's ever seen it, they can turn it on and not be lost. I want to keep the arcs in terms of the relationships, but I, and the WB, want to turn it back into the kind of show where you can watch an episode, there's a problem, it's resolved, there are outstanding emotional issues, but you have watched an hour and they have finished a case. Not that every episode will be that," he adds.

Ironically, this approach was taken when the show initially debuted, before they decided to go into the more serialised type of storytelling. "The difference is now we have the framework so that everything has more resonance," Whedon details. "We have people we care about who have complex relationships, and we feel we can go back to 'monster of the week' because now we have an internal dynamic that will make it mean more than just a simple case. Some of it involves not having someone sit down and watching a nine minute, 'Previously on Angel'."

But you arc-fans needn't worry too much. The idea is to make the show more accessible. There will be a through plot. "The question of why Wolfram & Hart has given them this opportunity is one we're not going to answer in the first episode," Whedon points out. "They have an entire corporation under their control that is dedicated towards evil. Ultimately there are questions that will definitely run through the entire season; we'll definitely keep the arc/soap nature that, quite frankly, is what we do well and love."

There will be a slighty new line-up of characters in year five, with Charisma Carpenter's Cordelia only being a part-time player after tangling with Jasmine this season ("It's a little bit her call," says Whedon, "because she just had a baby and is living the family life"). It could be argued that Cordelia's connection with the Powers That Be isn't quite as neccessary when they have the resources of W&H. "Exactly," agrees Whedon. "You don't need visions when you've got assistants saying, 'B-story on line one.'"

The good news for Buffy fans is that James Marsters' Spike will be reincarnated as a human and is segueing over to Angel, "What Spike will bring to the show is a little anarchy and a blond. Two things that we need. He's the guy to confront everybody over what they're doing. You can't have your characters constantly going, 'What are we doing in this evil law firm? Make mine black with no sugar.' Eventually you'll start to think that they're patsies or idiots. You need that voice, and to me Spike is that voice to start with. There's alot more to do than that, but when I think of it initially, he's the guy who's really bridling against whats going on."