Buffy and Angel?
Television 06/22/2004 |Some questions for Buffy/Angel fans…
Never having seen any of the show before now, I’ve been slowly working my way through the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series, renting the DVDs one by one from NetFlix. At the moment I’m about 2/3 of the way through Season Three and just found out while bouncing around old episode reviews that I’m coming up on the spinoff point for Angel’s series.
Firstly: is Angel as good of a series as I’m finding Buffy to be? Should I start working my way through this series also?
Next, assuming that the answer to that question is a “yes”, my question is simply how best to proceed. Given that there were four years of overlap between the two series, did they relate to each other in any major ways than sharing characters? While I certainly don’t expect that the two series would be sharing events and plot lines back and forth every week, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they occasionally at least referenced each other, if not outright sharing a common story line from time to time.
I figure I’ve got two basic methods of watching both shows: continuing my run through the end of Buffy and then starting to work through Angel (jumping back four years in the timeline in the process), or alternating renting discs of Buffy and Angel in order to make an attempt at following both shows concurrently in an attempt to keep the respective timelines as close as possible.
At the moment, I’ve got all of Buffy lined up in my queue, with all of Angel (at least, the three seasons that have been released on DVD so far — I’m just hoping that by the time I make it through those three, at least one more season will have been released, if not both) queued up afterwards. If enough people think that it would be worthwhile to mix the two together, it would be easy enough for me to do so.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
(And please — no spoilers on upcoming events! As I mentioned at the beginning, I’ve never watched these shows before now, so aside from bits and pieces of information that I picked up over the years as they filtered into the popular consciousness (for example, I know that Willow comes out as a lesbian at some point, though I don’t know when, how, or with/to whom; I know that there’s a musical episode sometime towards the end of the series; and I know that Jim Morrison dies at the end (sorry…in-joke with my friends)), I’m very clueless about where things are going as the series progresses, and I’d like to keep it that way. Thanks!)
iTunes: “Sweet Soul Sister” by Cult, The from the album Sonic Temple (1989, 5:08).
[See also: Once More, With Feeling | The End | Upcoming events | On that whole TV thing… | Bye-bye ‘Enterprise!’ ]
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8 Responses to “Buffy and Angel?”
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Cheryl
Bertamum
Michael Hanscom
Snail_5
Bob
June 22nd, 2004 at 5:57 am
Okay, this is the second time I’ve tried to write this out so it makes sense, so I hope it does. The basic point is that you really should alternate, as Angel is a great show and parts of it will be less interesting, poignant, striking, etc. if you already know what happens on Buffy.
Suggestion 1: watch seasons alternately - Buffy-S3, then Buffy-S4, then Angel-S1, then Buffy-S5, then Angel-S2, etc. Aside from some confusion in the first season of Angel regarding one character that appears on both series, and alternating guest spots by the stars, you will probably do fine.
Suggestion 2: try and watch Buffy-S4 and Angel-S1 conncurrently, as they were aired, and then go with the season by season watching. You’ll want to pay particular attention the 8th episodes of both shows that year, the 19th ep of Angel and the 20th of Buffy.
As for future seasons being out on DVD, they’ve been holding to a six-month release schedule, so Angel-S4 should be out say Aug-Sept and Buffy-S7 before Xmas (which screws up the schedule if you’re finished when Angel-S4 comes out, but by then you’ll be able to watch then independently.
June 22nd, 2004 at 9:08 am
I’ll make this as short as possible.
Angel is superior to Buffy because it’s directed at a more mature audience (slightly). It feels that little bit more darker than Buffy. There’s a little bit too much sarcasm in Buffy, and although it’s in Angel as well, there’s a lot less.
As for your question about whether to watch the series alternately or after each other, I’d definitely suggest alternately, because although there aren’t that many crossovers, there are a few which make for interesting viewing, if you happen to be a fan of both shows. Plus, the crossovers happen both ways, i.e. Angel turns up in Buffy and vice versa, along with many lesser characters.
Also, if it’s feasable for you, my best suggestion would be to watch both of the series as if they were being shown on TV. For example, let’s say Buffy aired on Mondays and Angel aired on Fridays, that’s how you should watch both of the shows. Not entire series on their own, but alternating episodes. If you watch entire series of one show and then an entire series of the other, it’ll be a lot less entertaining when the crossovers happen.
Having watched the last episode of Angel less than a month ago, I was extremely sad to see it off my screen for good, especially since it was left on a cliffhanger. There are only a few shows which leave me thinking ‘wait! I want more!’ and Angel is definitely one of them.
Enjoy Buffy. Love Angel.
June 22nd, 2004 at 10:08 am
Angel is definitely worth viewing. I don’t think it is superior to Buffy as much as different. For me, Buffy’s characters were always the big attraction, whereas with Angel I was more likely to be carried away by the storyline (especially in later seasons).
The ideal way to view them would be alternating episodes, much like they were orginally aired. This is slightly more important in the beginning due to the crossovers, but also the moods are consciously balanced out and the shows are more closely tied thematically. Later on Angel becomes more of a separate entity.
Less ideal and certianly more convient would be to alternate dics or seasons. What I would not do would be to finish out Buffy and then watch Angel. You’d be spoiled for a few of the big suprises and miss some of the little stuff.
June 22nd, 2004 at 10:29 am
I can’t help, Mike. I never watched Angel, as it is carred on a network ACS, for reasons which are debated, chooses not to carry, and I do not have time to watch the reruns.
Even if we received it, however, one of the things that attracted me to BtVS was a show having a strong female protagonist. There are TONS of shows with strong male protagonists.
However, having never seen it, I yield to those who have.
Love
Dad
June 22nd, 2004 at 10:50 am
There are fewer major crossovers than you might expect as, fairly quickly, the two shows ended up on different networks and that restricted the movement of the actors.
The alternating episodes idea is the best one, at least at first. I lost track of Angel after a while, so I don’t know if it’s necessary towards the end - I suspect not.
My take on it is this: the best Angel is deeper, darker and richer than Buffy ever was or ever could be (except at its very high point - you have an episode called ‘Hush’ to look forward to, I think, which beats the best of any show anywhere). But in general, across the wide range of episodes, Buffy was the better. It was rarely dull, and its plots weren’t meant to always stand up to serious blow-by-blow analysis so it didn’t matter if they were a bit silly. The same can’t always be said for Angel. If you aim higher, you have further to fall.
June 23rd, 2004 at 12:12 pm
Having watched Buffy and Angel I have to say that Buffy is the more humorous of the two, while Angel is the more serious of the two. Although not that much more serious.
As for watching them, Chris St. Croix’s second suggestion would be my two cents. At least that way you’re watching the play off of each other, but you’re also seeing how each character adapts to the separation of the other.
No spoilers, enjoy.
June 25th, 2004 at 12:22 pm
Yep, you’ve got a lot to look forward to. Especially the episode where Buffy and Giles open an office supply store in Vegas.
Oops, you said no spoilers; where’s that cancel button….?
June 26th, 2004 at 11:36 am
Oh, dammit Bryan, now you’ve gone and ruined everything. I must kill you now.
Hmm…or maybe not.
Thanks for all the advice, everyone — I’ve re-ordered my NetFlix queue, and since everyone agreed on the best way to go about it, will be bouncing back-and-forth between shows, watching them both one after the other. Looking forward to seeing where things go, that’s for sure.