This was Fred's best year

[burrunjor]

In the middle of season 5. I had to delay my rewatch by a week or so for personal reasons.

Anyway it still holds up, but I think that Fred/Amy Acker might benefit from this season the most.

Leaving aside Illyria which obviously stretched her as an actress and gave her a kickass villain to play, even prior to that I think Fred is at her best this year for so many reasons.

I've said a lot of times that in seasons 3 and 4 Fred is my least favourite main character apart from the groomer Jasdelia and Connor. She's not actively terrible like those characters, but she kind of clutters the cast, doesn't bring anything new to it, and gets shilled too hard by the other characters who either fall madly in love with her, or keep going on about how fabulous she is. I also dislike all the attempts to make her too cutesy wutesy, and I personally despise the Gunn/Wesley/Fred triangle. I think it detracts from the Wesley/Cordelia friendship. For instance Cordy should have got to confront Wes about losing the baby rather than Fred. FFS she's known him longer. It's insane that after the episode where Groo comes back, Cordy and Wes technically don't interact until You're Welcome!

In s4 meanwhile she doesn't get that much to do. There's her revenge story arc that goes nowhere, and then she finds out about Jasmine, but again any of the group could have had that role and it wouldn't have been any different, except maybe Angel who would have been too powerful.

S5 however I think fixes these problems. Fred being the scientist of the group comes in just as handy and important for dealing with the cases as Wesley's paranormal knowledge, sometimes more so like in the Pavayne episode. Also they dial the trying to be cute stuff down, and instead show us why she is so lovable, by having her be the one who shows sympathy to the outsiders in the group like Spike and Harmony. At the same time however this also I think proves the characters worth in the show, as it's not a role Cordy, or indeed any of the other characters could ever have had. Also I like that through Spike and even to a lesser extent Harmony they give her a relationship that isn't just a romance, or guys fawning over her. Notice in S3, her and Cordelia never had any real relationship? It was all just her crushing on Angel and then Wes and Gunn fighting over her. Also her and Wesley I think is built up better over the course of the series as it's always there to some extent, but not as intrusive, cheesy and doesn't feel shoehorned in.

Then you toss in her moving death scene and her performance as Illyria and I'd say this is the year that Amy/Fred benefited from the most and I think that this year is maybe where Amy's reputation was solidified with viewers and fans?

 

[Stake fodder]

I might say S5 is Fred's worst year, because she dies! But otherwise, I agree with what you said, that Fred was sort of superfluous in earlier seasons, and became more important and was best developed in this season. And Amy Acker was excellent, switching between Illyria and Fred.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

Amy's ability to switch from Fred to Illyria was amazing. Now, THAT was great acting!

 

[WillowsFaith]

I agree. As a willow Stan I love her cute moments. And Fred & Gunn is my favorite ship in the Angel series. But as a character, her strongest moments were the S5 plot. Her performance was thrilling, Captivating and sad all at the same time.

 

[Cohen]

Fred benefited from the lack of Cordelia in season 5. It's ironic because on Buffy, it's a female dominant cast and each of the females have specific personality traits that make them interesting for the viewer. During the same timeframe (seasons 6-7), there are 4-5 main females on Buffy (Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Anya, Tara) and each have distinct roles within the group of Scoobies. Whereas on Angel, you have primarily the opposite (Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Lorne). And Fred is kind of just there while Cordelia gets the forefront and all of the story. Once Jasdelia takes over, Fred slowly becomes a character in her own right. I think this starts with Supersymmetry, which lays the groundwork that Fred can be more than just a cute eccentric female without any personality. And then once Cordy is gone, Fred truly shines, as she is the ONLY female of the group (neither Eve nor Harmony were ever truly a part of the group, and Mercedes benefited from the cancellation and her longevity in the Buffyverse to get on the main credits). The irony is that the writers of Buffy and Angel were able to figure out storylines and personalities for 4-5 females on Buffy, but couldn't balance the female storylines in Angel.

 

[thrasherpix]

While I didn't hate Fred, once free of Pylea (I liked her in the Pylea arc), I didn't actually get to like Fred until she broke away from Jasmine in late s4. And then I liked her character a lot from then on.