Yo?
I must admit, I did not particularly like Charles Gunn in the early days. I’ll dive right into the racially charged discussion and say that it’s obvious that a room full of educated white guys and gals were trying to write dialogue for a black street tough. As an educated white guy, I’ll admit to have no relevant experience with what Charles Gunn “should” sound like, but I can recognize a character that doesn’t gel. The takeaway here is not to get some affirmative action in the writer’s room or some segregation on the screen; race shouldn’t be a consideration in the creative process. What should be a consideration is what the writers are comfortable with. It’s not necessary that dialogue be “realistic” (drama seldom is and the Whedon we love is wonderfully eclectic) but it is necessary that it sound natural. Through no fault of J. August Richards’, Gunn just felt forced in the early days, more like a construct of what he “should” be than an actual character. The world of Angel was already well established by this point, and Gunn wouldn’t really grow better until he became part of it rather than part of an ill-conceived “street.”
Wow, that was a long complaint when “War Zone” is actually pretty good. Not quite ringing true doesn’t keep Gunn and his gang from being easy to root for. For starters, we have what appears to be a fairly typical vampire stalk interrupted by Gunn’s crew showing up in place of Angel Investigations. It’s a nice connection between Gunn and our hero, one that pays dividends when his trap almost takes Angel out. We don’t want to see our hero dusted, but the little warehouse of horrors made for a fun set piece and had me wondering what else these kids could come up with. Having Gunn be so strong in his own right addresses my common complaint that it’s hard to feel sympathy and Angel’s clients. Because Charles isn’t just another victim for Angel to save, we can actually start to invest in him.
And then he becomes a victim. It’s amazing that it’s taken Angel this long to figure this out but the reason we care about Gunn’s tragedy is because we care about him before it happens. Had this episode followed the typical Angel structure, it would’ve started with Cordy having a vision of this young man’s sister being taken. Instead, we actually get to feel something as we see Alonna being taken, to say nothing of seeing Gunn stake her. The real strength of this episode is that it’s allowed to be Gunn’s story. He’s the one fighting a gang war with vampires, he’s the one that loses a loved one, and he’s the one that still has the moral fiber to do what’ necessary after that happens. While Angel’s there for the assist in taking out the gang leader, he’s kept out of the episode’s real climax because he’s been trapped in a meat locker… by Gunn.
Driving the action in this episode is enough to make me forgive how labored Charles’ dialogue feels. The character will only get better from this point on, a promise that’s given the nod by Angel ending the episode not by offering help, but by asking for it.
Final Thoughts
The other new character introduced in this episode is one we most definitely didn’t need. David Nabbit would, mercifully, only appear twice more.
The supernatural subculture in L.A. gets fleshed out nicely here, with the uber-rich enjoying demonic brothels while the poor battle vampires in the streets.
Much as I like Gunn in this episode, and better as he’ll get in season two, it’ll take him until season five to become truly great.
Critical Viewing 
I may be partial to the character because he has such an amazing name, and he gets to kill his sister.
This episode also gets into a subplot I wished the show had expanded upon more: that the public knows more about the supernatural then the gov’t tells them. We know that there is at least one demonic brothel, a demonic UFC and a (good) demonic karaoke bar. It would have been nice if that story – that people know more then then are being told, was given its due.
As for the white-writers creating Gunn, I recall a Whedon interview where he said had trouble writing for Angel as he couldn’t identify wit him the tall good looking hero, he didn’t understand him and his motives, and added “he was the guy who used to beat me up in high school.” And I think Gunn fell into that as well, since I doubt Whedon had much experience with inner city minority gangs. But what he did really well I thought was that Gunn’s strength doesn’t come from his street-smarts, his gang or his weapons. It comes from his sense of moral clarity. Now thats a double edged sword. But he knows what he thinks is right. And that is something Angel as a character struggles with – wants to do the good thing, but doesn’t always know what that is.
You’re right about the moral clarity. I think that the core of the character was present here, it just wouldn’t shine until they got rid of the trappings that didn’t really work.
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