Charisma Carpenter Movies

Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt's Angel spent its first year establishing a workable premise, ensemble, and, most importantly, tone. Newly spun off from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the WB network's zeitgeist-capturing (or, in Buffy-speak, "zeitgeisty") teen horror-comedy drama, Angel began its run as a tongue-in-cheek adventure series. In the pilot, "City of Angels," a chance meeting between depressed vampire-with-a-soul Angel (David Boreanaz) and fellow Sunnydale transplant Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter) leads to the formation of Angel Investigations, a Los Angeles-based supernatural detective agency dedicated to "helping the helpless" -- for a nominal fee whenever possible. With his brooding good looks and his quest for redemption from evil, Angel provides the heroism and the hunkiness; money-grubbing would-be actress Cordelia, meanwhile, provides the laughs and more eye candy. Romantic angst and plot points come in the form of Doyle (Glenn Quinn), their half-demon ally. His direct line to the mysterious Powers That Be provides the firm with a steady stream of cases, while his attraction to the unattainable Cordelia makes up for the title character's limited romantic horizons. As the first season reached midpoint, however, the producers wrote Doyle out of the show and awarded his mysterious visions to Cordelia. At the same time, a new ally arrived in the form of ex-watcher Wesley Wyndham-Price (Alexis Denisof), another Buffy transplant. (This core trio would remain in place for the next three and a half years.)

Despite the cast changes, Angel retained its creature-of-the-week format for most of the season. Continuity came in the form of occasional flashbacks to Angel's demonic past; several Buffy crossovers, including a two-part story line involving Angel's friendship with rogue slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku); and the emergence of police detective Kate Lockley (Elisabeth Rohm) as the hero's reluctant ally and occasional nemesis. Future cast regular J. August Richards, as street-smart vamp-fighter Charles Gunn, arrived just as the season was wrapping up. More importantly, however, the writers began to realize the long-term plot possibilities of Wolfram & Hart, the demonic law firm introduced in the very first episode. The idea that the lawyers who run Los Angeles are not only literally evil, but also part of an interdimensional demonic conspiracy, helped shift the show's tone from light comedy and derring-do to heightened emotion and sustained suspense. A pair of warring Wolfram & Hart associates, conflicted Lindsay MacDonald (Christian Kane) and vampish Lilah Morgan (Stephanie Romanov), rescued the show's rogues' gallery from a procession of rubber masks. Meanwhile, the season finale saw the return of Darla (Julie Benz), Angel's vampiric consort, whose resurrection would drive the extended story lines of the next three seasons. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

If Angel's second season explored a darker tone and longer story lines with varying degrees of critical and ratings success, its third season could almost be regarded as the beginning of a single, two-year narrative. Individual episodes focused on new characters such as super-scientist Fred (Amy Acker), who became a key player at Angel Investigations; established characters such as Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), whose very life was threatened by her supernatural visions; and the title character himself (David Boreanaz), who had to deal with the death and resurrection of yet another of his ex-girlfriends. But with parent show Buffy the Vampire Slayer having defected from the WB network to rival UPN, Angel was no longer part of a two-hour Tuesday "Buffyverse" block. Crossover-free, it became its own show, and two words sum up its newfound independence: Darla's pregnancy. The return of Angel's vampire paramour (Julie Benz), pregnant with Angel's human son, set the stage for the show's entire third and fourth seasons. Darla once again received a shot at redemption. Angel was suddenly cast into a new role, that of father and protector. Manipulated into betrayal, Wesley (Alexis Denisof) became a pariah and took up with evil lawyer Lilah Morgan (Stephanie Romanov). Angel's son, Connor (Vincent Kartheiser), was kidnapped to a hell dimension by vengeful vampire hunter Holtz (Keith Szarabajka) only to return, mere weeks later, fully grown and with a chip on his shoulder. By the end of the third season, the characters had scattered: Angel was trapped in a watery tomb, the victim of his son's betrayal; Cordelia had ascended to a higher plane to serve The Powers That Be; and Lorne (Andy Hallett) had skipped town for a gig in Vegas. That left lovebirds Gunn (J. August Richards) and Fred (Amy Acker) to wonder what would become of Angel Investigations -- a question that would be answered over the course of the entire fourth season. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Eric (Will Friedle), Cory (Ben Savage), Shawn (Rider Strong) and Topanga (Danielle Fishel) plan to spend New Year's Eve at a party. That all of them would end up stranded in a stalled subway car is the furthest thought from their minds--so guess what happens? Making matters worse (if such a thing is possible), Eric is steamed at Cory for inadvertently ruining his hot date with supermodel Rebecca-Alexa (Angela Visser). Watch for future Buffy the Vampire Slayer costar Charisma Carpenter as a caterer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

By the time its abbreviated first season ran its course, Buffy the Vampire Slayer had captured the zeitgeist despite its modest ratings. With a fully formed aesthetic and a small but demographically admirable audience, the show entered what many fans and critics consider its golden age. On the villain front, hell-raising vampires Spike (James Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau) arrived to shake Sunnydale up. Their twisted, Sid and Nancy-esque devotion to one another added depth and nuance to the show's moral compass. It also provided counterpoint to the fever-pitch romance between Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and tormented vampire Angel (David Boreanaz). Watcher Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), too, found love, in the arms of cyber-pagan Jenny Calendar (Robia La Morte), while Willow (Alyson Hannigan) began dating laconic, guitar-playing werewolf Oz (Seth Green). As for nice-guy Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and haughty beauty Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), they ended up, against all odds, in one another's arms. While the profusion of often star-crossed romance drove the show's emotional dynamics, it also supplied sudden shifts of allegiance and the death of a major character. In the two-parter "Surprise" and "Innocence" (aired on consecutive nights as a promotional stunt marking the show's move from Mondays to Tuesdays), Buffy and Angel finally consummated their love -- with unexpectedly disastrous results. A pesky gypsy curse and a moment of true happiness were all it took to turn Angel back into a killing machine. As the actors played out momentous story lines in a keener emotional register, new depths were revealed behind the scenes as well. Future show-runner Marti Noxon joined the writing staff and quickly became a key player, while series creator Joss Whedon wrote and directed several landmark episodes. Continuity buffs relished the revelation that Buffy's momentary death the previous season had triggered the emergence of another slayer. The brief but memorable career of Kendra the Vampire Slayer (Bianca Lawson) underscored the constant danger of Buffy's calling. Ultimately, though, it was the Slayer's lover-turned-nemesis whose seeming demise brought the season to a shattering close. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

As Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and her friends began the transition from high school to young adulthood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer went through a number of changes itself. New cast members, a new spin-off, and a new setting characterized a season that many fans and critics saw as a partially successful experiment. Experimentation was something of a theme for the season -- the experimentation of young adulthood and the experiments of a group of sinister government scientists known as The Initiative. Their shadowy military operations providing new elements of X-Files-like science fiction, The Iniative also managed to unleash Adam (George Hertzberg), the season's Frankenstein-like über-villain. As for the characters' personal lives, Buffy and Willow (Alyson Hannigan) enrolled at the fictional UC Sunnydale, whose campus became the locus of the action. Xander (Nicholas Brendon) began his aimless swim though the minimum-wage end of the labor pool, while ex-Watcher Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) faced an impending midlife crisis. The doomed love affair between Buffy and Angel had run its course, allowing David Boreanaz to launch his own show, Angel, with former series regular Charisma Carpenter in tow. When actor Seth Green asked to be released from his contract to pursue movie stardom, Oz, too, disappeared from the Scooby Gang.

These departures left room in the cast for new love interests and new comic relief. Emma Caulfield supplied both as Xander's girlfriend Anya, a vengeance demon reincarnated as a teenaged girl, who struggled to make sense of human customs and vulnerabilities. Amber Benson soon showed up as Willow's new partner-in-Wicca, then as her new partner, period. Though the WB nixed any explicit lesbian content, Willow and Tara's mutual exploration of the supernatural provided ample opportunity for metaphor. By the time Willow was ready to come out to her friends, the show was earning high praise from gay-rights groups. Buffy, too, found new love in the arms of Riley (Marc Blucas), her corn-fed new super-soldier boyfriend. The final cast addition was a blast from the past: second-season veteran James Marsters. Spike, the actor's hell-raising vampire villain, became more of a wacky neighbor than a threat once The Initiative's mad scientists put a chip in his head to keep him from killing humans. Other return appearances included renegade slayer Faith (Eliza Dushku) in one of several crossovers with the first season of Angel. As usual, series creator Joss Whedon stepped in to write and direct several episodes. "Hush" used the techniques of silent film to unleash primal horror on the Slayer and her friends, while season closer "Restless" consisted almost entirely of dream sequences. These formal exercises earned Whedon tremendous critical acclaim -- and, in the case of "Hush," an Emmy nomination -- and cemented the season's experimental tone. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Paige (Rose McGowan) casts a spell to thwart the efforts by the demon Sirk (Zack Ward) to kill off all his blood relatives. Unfortunately Paige's spell works too well -- and as result, no one on earth is dying, not even those whose time has come. Angered that someone is crimping his style, the Angel of Death (Simon Templeman) "murders" Piper (Holly Marie Combs) to force the other Charmed Ones to undo Paige's damage. The girls agree -- not realizing that the next person scheduled to be collected by the Angel of Death is Phoebe (Alyssa Milano). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A trio of married women who are all cheating on their husbands find themselves stalked by a vicious serial killer in this made-for-cable drama. Dr. Bobbie Adler (Wendy Anderson), an unorthodox psychiatrist and radio host, advises her patients to seek out no-strings hook-ups if their husbands aren't meeting their sexual needs. But when Bobbie and her own paramour are found stabbed to death, it soon becomes clear that somebody's unhappy with the shrink's advice ... and those who follow it. That leaves Adler's patients -- neglected housewife Linda (Charisma Carpenter), bossy lawyer Meredith (Krista Bridges) and uptight realtor Cindy (Katya Gardner) -- to worry that Detective Rollins (Kate Trotter), the cop assigned to the case, will expose their adulterous ways. But with a revenge-crazed killer at large, cuckolded husbands are the least of their worries. Cheater's Club premiered June 26, 2006 on the Lifetime cable network. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Sylvester Stallone gears up for a men-on-a-mission film with the Nu Image/Millennium Films war picture The Expendables. Jason Statham and Jet Li co-star alongside the brawny filmmaker as a group of mercenaries who undertake a near-impossible operation to overthrow a dictator in South America. Mickey Rourke, Eric Roberts, Terry Crews, and UFC star Randy Couture co-star in the action-packed production. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide

Lawrence Gay's sex comedy What Boys Like takes place during the weekend of a wedding. The friends of the groom all attempt to act differently than they normally do. The most libidinous member of the group tries to go without sex. Another friend attempts to have his first one-night stand. All of their plans come undone when they begin to interact with the bridesmaids. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by Melissa Senate, this made-for-cable romantic comedy stars Charisma Carpenter as Jane Grant, a New York bachelorette with a moderately successful job at a publishing company. At the behest of her Aunt Ina (Linda Dano), Jane must find a suitable date to escort her to her cousin's wedding in four weeks. Our heroine experiences a number of romantic misadventures with a steady parade of "Mr. Wrongs" (one of whom is played by Joe Millionaire's Evan Marriott) before hitting upon a man who might be "the One" -- and then again, might not. Making Jane's task all the more difficult is the presence of her former high school nemesis Natasha Nutley (Holly Marie Combs), now a soap opera diva whose autobiography Jane has been assigned to edit. See Jane Date debuted August 16, 2003, on the ABC Family Channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide