This is hell: a sleek, ultra-modern, utterly charmless high rise full of money and lawyers and all the evils of the 21^st century. To a Romantic viewer of Angel or a Byronic Hero, this is the most frightening, most Gothic setting of all. The setting of the 5^th season of Angel controls the themes and plots as well as the Heroes' development. Just as the last seasons of Buffy moved the Scoobies from the hell of high school into the everyday difficulties of an adult, mundane world, so does the fifth season of Angel move the heroes into a peculiarly 21^st century version of Gothic horror: the corruption of selfless heroism in the face of today's ultimate evil, soulless success in corporate America. In a sideline for overbudgeted Frankensteins, the traditional Gothic messing-with-Nature becomes the research scientists' injection of a law degree or removal of sleep. It used to be the monsters who broke into Castle Hyperion; now it is beleaguered vampires, demon, and other Champions who have broken in to the senior partners' headquarters to live in contemporary hell. AV equipment: none