Angel (The Buffy Spinoff)

Celia Cyanide said:

Is this show any good? I am a big fan of that actor who plays Connor, and I only just recently learned he was on it.
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He's not on the show until--iirc--season 3. Then only sporadically after that. So is it worth the commitment? It depends. I liked Angel more than BtVS. It was darker, grittier, and less angsty.

Initially, Angel bore a strong resemblance to Forever Knight at least in terms of structure. It varied mostly in that Angel was a private detective in search of redemption alone while Nick was a police officer hoping to somehow become human again. Instead of fellow-vampires, Angel had a half-demon named Doyle as a confidante, later augmented by a pair of demon-hunters and a benevolent demon named Lorne (who is too fun for words but doesn't show up until Season Two).

The series quickly evolved into something else, a drama about a cadre of friends/colleagues defending the city from the darkness no officials admitted existing. Unlike FK, there was a recurring antagonist in a law firm (Wolfram and Hart) whose senior partners were in some sense demonic entities--with the amusing result of making their associates far more ruthless than the worst stereotypes of lawyers. Arguably the most lighthearted element in the show was Cordelia--another Buffy character, a "queen bee" in high school whose parents lost everything and now she's trying to make it as an actress then ends up receptionist at "Angel Investigations."

Don't know if that is helpful to you.

Celia Cyanide said:

Good to know. It's not like Charmed, though, is it? I hate Charmed.

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No, not at all. I couldn't get into Charmed either.

Celia Cyanide said:

Good to know.

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I could have sworn I answered this on FB this morning...

ElaraSophia said:

It's also darker than Charmed, but when it did do humour, it did it hilariously.

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Like Smile Time.

"Maybe you have some type of puppet cancer."
"I do not have puppet cancer!"

I never really got into Buffy, (not to say it isn't a good show, I liked it but due to scheduling conflicts never had the chance to get into it)

Angel blew me away with the character arcs and storylines.

In my opinion, no one, does characterization better than Whedon and I believe Angel is where he seriously perfected his art. My favorite characters were Lorn and Wesley and Fred, but all the characters are good.

I bought the DvD series and it is perhaps my most prized collection.

Seriously, you must watch it.

Enjoy,

Mel...

Celia Cyanide said:

You probably did, but FB is blocked at my work.

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Savages.

(checks down hall to be sure boss isn't coming)

While Angel wasn't as sharply witty as Buffy, it was still a good show in its own right. In fact, sometimes I thought it was even funnier than Buffy was in the more traditional "sitcom-y" sense of the word (even though I hate to compare it to refer to it like that). Angel also didn't really come into its own until Season 3, but it's still worth watching the first two seasons.

I consider Angel the better show over BTVS. Where characters often had a Teflon Epiphany on BTVS, Angel characters grew, or at least kept moving. Where BTVS was "how do we grow up", Angel was "how do I be in the adult world and still keep my soul intact".

Wes' character arc from how he started on BTVS to the end of AtS was top notch. Such an evolution.

Vincent K shows up in Season 3.

I LOVE this show and own the DVD set.

K. Taylor said:

I consider Angel the better show over BTVS. Where characters often had a Teflon Epiphany on BTVS, Angel characters grew, or at least kept moving. Where BTVS was "how do we grow up", Angel was "how do I be in the adult world and still keep my soul intact".

Wes' character arc from how he started on BTVS to the end of AtS was top notch. Such an evolution.

Vincent K shows up in Season 3.

I LOVE this show and own the DVD set.

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****SPOILER ALERT*****

Fred's transformation into Illyria and the impact on her and Wesley's relationship was perhaps the most powerful feat of drama i've ever seen in a sci-fi/fantasy storyline. There final scene together was spectacular. I was in a daze watching it thinking wow

One day, I hope to write half as well as he.

Mel...

I loved Angel, but Series 5 isn't good, in my opinion. There was no point in Spike being there, and Sarah Michelle Gellar refusing to return as Buffy kind of hamstrung the storyline they originally intended.

Oh, and for those who don't know, Andy Hallett who played Lorn died recently, so watching it in memory of him would be pretty cool too.

Angel is a brilliant show, but yeah the fifth season (as well as some of season two) sort of goes off the rails.

Sage said:

See, I thought fifth season was brilliant, but I was always more of a Buffy fan than an Angel fan.

Unfortunately for the OP, I think most Angel fans will agree that Connor was the weak link in the series. Although, maybe I'm wrong as it looks like a lot of people in this thread like it starting around season 3? I liked season 2 and 3 very much, but just hated season 4, which was very Connor-centric.

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I watched it from Series 1 and thought it was very brave of them to **SPOILER** kill off Doyle like that halfway through series 1. I didn't enjoy Series 2 very much - I thought a lot of it was quite silly. Three and four were great and while five had its moments I don't think it was a fitting end to the programme, but I think with Buffy finishing it kind of lost its purpose.

Hmmm...

I really liked Season 5. Yes, some of the plot elements came together like a train wreck, but all in all. I thought it was comparable to the other seasons and I especially thought the ending was decent.

Yes, Seasons 3 and 4 were the best, but 5 wasn't horrible. I think 5 was comparable to 1 and 2.

Mel...

Fran said:

I loved Angel, but Series 5 isn't good, in my opinion. There was no point in Spike being there, and Sarah Michelle Gellar refusing to return as Buffy kind of hamstrung the storyline they originally intended.

Oh, and for those who don't know, Andy Hallett who played Lorn died recently, so watching it in memory of him would be pretty cool too.

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I know. I was actually really sad when I heard that he died. He was such a talented actor.

Glenn Quinn also died too from that show.

I liked Angel better than Buffy, mostly for reasons others have mentioned. It was darker and the characters were more interesting, especially once they went into Angel's past.

And I loved Spike on Angel. The bickering between the two was just classic.

I enjoyed both BtVS and Angel. I would absolutely recommend watching it, but I wasn't a big fan of Connor and that whole storyline. Smile Time, however, is still one of my favorite episodes of television ever. I so want an Angel puppet.

Grrarrgh said:

I enjoyed both BtVS and Angel. I would absolutely recommend watching it, but I wasn't a big fan of Connor and that whole storyline. Smile Time, however, is still one of my favorite episodes of television ever. I so want an Angel puppet.

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This, word for word.

I watch them both when they were originally on the air, but season three and Connor is actually where I lost interest with Angel. I eventually was able to go back and catch up (years later) and yes, I do absolutely think the show's worth watching--but I could have done without that storyline.

And yeah, ditto on Smile Time.

Watched from Day 1, never missed an ep, and taped a couple seasons live so my SO could see when he had time, too. BTVS and AtS were originally both on Tuesday, so Tuesdays was Vampire Night at our house and he wore his "Got Blood?" t-shirt.

I'm one of the people that campaigned outside the WB to keep Angel from getting canceled in 2004. The WB only gave AtS a season 5 if they brought Spike aboard, and they cut the budget dramatically on top of that. We would have had no closure to the show at all if Joss and James hadn't agreed.

It was nice vindication of have the head honcho in charge of that decision (cancellation) fired a year later when the network was tanking due to the ratings loss. I knew a lot of fans that stayed committed to never watching the WB again right up until it folded into the CW.