I finally got through all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD, which overall I really enjoyed. Most of the characters were good, the acting acceptable, and the season-long plot arcs kept me interested.
So now I need a new episodic series to watch on my lunch breaks. I’ve been considering giving Angel a try, but I’m hesitant. Mostly because David Boreanaz was not my favorite character on Buffy, his steady broodiness just got old kinda quickly. But I figure maybe it was just because the show was about Buffy, and he left early enough in the series that maybe he just didn’t get a chance to grow.
So yeah, should I give Angel a try, given that I enjoyed Buffy?
Oh hell yes! Angel, IMO, is the better of the two series. More mature themes, for one thing. The characters get to stretch and grow and become much more interesting. The first seaso is a bit shakey, as they were still trying to find their feet, but after that, brilliance.
You also get to see the other side of some Buffy episodes, because when the two shows were running back to back, they did some semi-crossovers.
I’m a casual Buffy fan, but my brief forays into Angel-land were not all that good. The acting, for the most part, was pretty awful, and the caliber of writing was not even close to what you could expect from an average BtVS episode. Without the acting & writing, Buffy would just be another run-of-the-mill supernatural wank (e.g. Charmed). YMMV, of course, but I was seriously underwhelmed.
In many ways, Angel was the superior show. Definitely darker and more mature. It also redeems some of the more obnoxious and unlikeable characters from Buffy and makes them all awesome – Angel himself, Cordelia, Faith, Darla, and my favorite character who I won’t even mention, since his first appearance midway through season 1 is a bit of a surprise. There are a few dud episodes in the first season (not unlike Buffy), but from the end of season 1 out through the series finale at the end of season 5, it’s a fantastic ride. Since you yourself claim to have liked Buffy, I highly recommend the box set that recently came out with all five seasons of Angel.
I’m currently finishing up watching the full series of Angel and it has some spectacular episodes and is a pretty good show overall but it also drags a lot more in points than its predecessor and is much more uneven. Season Four of Angel is the worst season of any Joss show ever, in my opinion, and it’s taking a strong force of will for me to finish the last couple episodes (my old DVD player wouldn’t play them for some reason so I watched the final season first).
Plus, Connor and den mother Cordy are horrible. I hate them both.
Definitly check it out. First season Angel is about as good as first season Buffy. Which is to say, not very. But starting in the second season, the show goes into a very large, three-year long mega-story arc which is just about the most ambitious thing ever done on television, and pulls it off almost flawlessly. The fourth season is simply amazing. Stay away from spoilers as much as possible, because that season features an average of two-to-three jaw-dropping, holy-fuck-I-did-not-see-that-coming moments per episode.
It’s not secret I love Angel. And I hated Angel on BtVS. I still do. But I lurve him on his show. I think it’s superior to BtVS in many ways (and the comic book of S6 isn’t too bad either).
Since everyone’s naming their favorite season, I’ll say that season 5 (actually starting with the season 4 finale) is my favorite season of any TV show ever.
*Angel: Look, Lorne, I-I- I have things. I’m busy. I’m brooding.
**Lorne ** (sees a television on): You’re watching hockey! Angel: Yeah, but my team is losing. *
Season 5 Angel rox!
So first off, I’ll say that I’ve watched all of both series, and liked them, but I am not a fan on the scale of many. I started watching Buffy around about the time that was in its fifth season, and really only started watching Angel after Buffy went off the air. I didn’t care for the character of Angel on Buffy, or for that matter, Cordelia and Wesley. I started watching it later in re-runs and on DVD.
For what it’s worth, I liked the first season. It’s tone is very different from the middle years of the series. I thought it was more episodic and less dark. I liked the second and first half or so of the third seasons as well, and grew to appreciate the growth of the characters in all three of Angel, Cordelia and Wesley. Unlike some who have expressed opinions, season 4 is my least favourite. I didn’t like what they did with the character of Cordelia, and I didn’t like a character introduced named Connor. My favourite season is season 5 where I thought the show did very well in balancing some really dark themes and outright comedy.
Oh God the pain. That’s the ep which made me give up on the series, after the Jasmine/Connor/Cordy fiasco. I’ll second the uneven comments, but at times it most certainly did shine very brightly. I’ll probably start rewatching S5 (absent the aforementioned ****** ep of course) soon via Netflix because some people have said good things about it. I still prefer Buffy tho overall-I think the themes were broader for the most part, tho the character of Angel always strongly appealed to me. I liked Connor but hated what they did with him.
Oh, c’mon! Smile Time is a classic! You’ve got muppetized Angel, nekkid Nina, mopery and dopery behind the scenes…what’s not to love?
*Angel Puppet: I want helicopters and tear gas! Gunn: Angel– Angel Puppet: This is war! Lorne: Angel, baby, muppet, pumpkin - this show is number one in its time slot. Tykes love it all across the southland: we can’t just toss a jihad at their studio. *
If you didn’t like Angel’s character on Buffy, it’s still worth checking out *Angel *the series. David Boreanaz significantly improves as an actor (so much so, that when I watch old Buffy episodes, I’m doubly amazed by how rotten he is).
If you liked Cordelia on Buffy, you will probably enjoy her even more on Angel.
If you liked the … I’m not sure how to the describe this, but the emotional poignancy on *Buffy *that was even more poignant because the characters are teenagers and everything seems so much more raw, you won’t find as much of this in Angel. Still emotional, sometimes poignant, but more subtle and developing over multiple episodes.
I still think the snappy one-lines from Buffy are the best in that arena, but Angel is also quite humorous at times, and funny in a different way because the jokes are often based more concretely in past events and knowledge of the characters.
If you decide to check it out, I agree with the people who noted that season one is a little uneven because the show is still finding its pace and purpose. Things pick up for the better in season two.
A friend of mine told me she loves David on Bones because he gets the chance to be funny. I took issue with this…I think Angel is hilarious. I mean, it’s a different type of humor, but David is really funny on AtS.
