tonysidaway
Member
I watch Buffy and Angel with one of my two grown-up sprogs on perpetual rerun alongside all the other stuff we both love (Doctor Who, Frozen, Thor, etc).
Season 1-3 are good, but not great. The stories are interesting but the characters are not quite there yet. I enjoy the later seasons more. I like Riley, and that entire Initiative storyline is wonderful. The characters introduced in later episodes tend to be the ones that stay with me; Anya, Dawn, Tara, Warren, and above all Andrew. It's the characters I love.
Xander comes forward at this time, breaking away from his high school persona and making his way in the world. One episode I cannot watch at the moment, because it's too painful, is the wedding where Xander jilts Anya. Although some demon trickery provokes it, Xander's loss of nerve is real and he is depicted as owning it. We know he'll always carry a torch for Anya, which makes Andrew's noble lie to him about her death so poignant.
Angel the series is also very good, and more consistently grown up. It also benefits from the Los Angeles setting, which puts the characters far away from the Edward Scissorhands-like toytown-in-the-desert location of the Buffy television series.
As with Buffy, the introduction of new characters and complex plots makes the later seasons more interesting. The interchange of cast members between Buffy, Firefly and Angel also creates some fascinating juxtapositions.
Season 1-3 are good, but not great. The stories are interesting but the characters are not quite there yet. I enjoy the later seasons more. I like Riley, and that entire Initiative storyline is wonderful. The characters introduced in later episodes tend to be the ones that stay with me; Anya, Dawn, Tara, Warren, and above all Andrew. It's the characters I love.
Xander comes forward at this time, breaking away from his high school persona and making his way in the world. One episode I cannot watch at the moment, because it's too painful, is the wedding where Xander jilts Anya. Although some demon trickery provokes it, Xander's loss of nerve is real and he is depicted as owning it. We know he'll always carry a torch for Anya, which makes Andrew's noble lie to him about her death so poignant.
Angel the series is also very good, and more consistently grown up. It also benefits from the Los Angeles setting, which puts the characters far away from the Edward Scissorhands-like toytown-in-the-desert location of the Buffy television series.
As with Buffy, the introduction of new characters and complex plots makes the later seasons more interesting. The interchange of cast members between Buffy, Firefly and Angel also creates some fascinating juxtapositions.
