Buffy and Angel Rewatch part 63

Buffy season 7
As a final season, this is a great one. Even though the show has changed a great deal over 7 years, one of my favourite things about this final season is that it brings the characters and the show full circle allowing it to finish where it began.
Like season one, this season kicks off with the Big Bad firmly at work and present in Sunnydale. There is another first day at high school, but this time for Dawn. A lot of evils that once plagued the high school return for another haunting. The Scoobies are firmly back together, really for the first time since season 5 and the season ends back in the Hellmouth and the High School.

Surprisingly there are some filler episodes in this season, but I think pretty much every episode references the coming evil in some way. The strongest episodes are probably those that directly tackle the problem of the First, though there are a couple of weaker ones that fall into that category as well.
The show's final big bad, is fittingly one we've seen before. I feel that the big bad mostly works, some people dislike the vagueness of it and it is difficult to know it's exact purpose. However I think the fact that it can manipulate people into doing it's bidding make it a very strong final Bad for Buffy to fight. The First gets into the heart of Buffy's army on more than one occasion and makes it difficult for the Slayer to fight, as her opinion knows her every move. When the First comes in the form of dead loved ones (which was a great move as we got to see a lot of old favourites back in the final season in a unique and non shark jumpy way), the characters mostly know who it is and still The First manages to affect them. The First is also interesting in that respect as it's played by a variety of actor's, so it's never one continuing character. This keeps the First interesting throughout the season which was important especially as it's the Big Bad that has lasted the longest on the show.
As for it's lackey's Caleb is obviously the best one. It's slightly ironic though, considering he is alone but manages to do the most damage. The fact that he isn't around for very long makes him all the more interesting.

The Potentials are undoubtedly the weak link of the season. Though the writers do a decent job of dividing the screen time between the originals and these newbies- so that we can actually care a little when they die, or at the prospect of them dying, it does feel like the original Scoobies get inched out a little. The reduced screen time is good for some characters, especially Dawn who is a much better character in season 7, but I did miss seeing Anya and Xander, who got a little shafted in terms of storylines.

Out of the Scoobies, Buffy and Willow get the best storylines. Willow with Kennedy and her magic problems and Buffy with her Slayer and army. It's interesting to not that this is the only season where Buffy doesn't have a proper love interest (Spike doesn't really count as it's very much an ex relationship, no matter how strong their bond seems to be), but this only helps to highlight the loneliness she feels as the Slayer.
However annoying the potentials are it does make for a great ending in which Buffy changes Slayer history for good. She finds a cure for her loneliness and the burden she has felt (an ongoing arc during the series) and creates many others like her. It's a brilliant idea and one that closes that the show nicely.

Overall this was a great season to end on. The episodes were a little mixed and there were some filler ones, but like always, the show pulls all the stops out for a terrific finale. (9/10)

Angel season 4
This is a very odd season for Angel. In some ways this is the best season. It has some of the strongest episodes and overall arcs that the show has produced. It has an actual apocalypse, which as I have said before is the first time we've actually seen one. All the actor's are just brilliant do a great job and there are some amazing action scenes throughout the season/ Plus it makes you think especially when Jasmine's true nature is revealed and the consequences of killing her are felt. However this is also the worst season in a way. There are some awful plot points and a lot of contrivances as the writers scrambled to write around Charisma Carpenter's pregnancy. The Cordy/ Connor relationship is just icky, which ever way you look at it. Plus the whole season just makes Cordy an unlikeable character, no matter how hard you try to believe that Jasmine is the one in control the whole time. These reasons are probably the reason why this season often ends up at the bottom and top of many a fan's favourite season lists.

When taken in it's smaller arcs - Cordy's return, the apocalypse/The Beast, The Beast master/ Angelus/Faith, Cordy is evil, and finally Jasmine, the season is a lot more successful in my opinion. The season swings around lot during these arcs and it make it hard to believe that so much happened in just one season.
Cordy's return is probably the least interesting arc, amnesia whilst a convenient plot device can get a little boring and since the Cordy/ Connor relationship begins here, it can be a little hard to watch at times. The apocalypse arc is a lot more interesting. The Rain of Fire and blotting out of the sun, makes the apocalypse that little bit more real and we got a lot of fun action scene to go along with it. This is the same with the Angelus and Faith arc. Both characters are so interesting and just a joy to watch, that it's hard not to enjoy these episode, no matter how they were brought about.
In hindsight, it's easy to see how Cordy/Jasmine's evil plan plays out,even before the reveal. In Long Day's Journey, it becomes obvious that killing Manny, the last totem, is an inside job making it very likely to be Cordy (1 out of 4 chance; just Gwen, Gunn, Angel, and Cordy present). Later she has the 'memory' that Angelus knew the Beast, but Angel doesn't remember this. There was probably no meeting, (or maybe there was, the gang believe that the memory has been wiped, but I think the fact that it never happened made more sense) awakening Angelus was just a distraction and she led them right down that path with a little help from the Beast. In 'Calvary' again she has another vision that doesn't pan out and leads to Angelus being released.
The final arcs of Cordy being revealed as evil and pregnant is a little tough to take, just because it's Cordy a beloved character who is meant to be evil. It becomes more palatable when it is revealed that Jasmine has been the driving force all a long.
Jasmine is an interesting evil to have. Essentially she wants to bring a sort of utopia upon earth, which is very different from the big bads we've experienced on the show so far. Lilah commends the gang on ending world peace; she and W&H believe that that's just what Angel and team have done. Jasmine herself also believes this and her logic makes sense. Kill a few thousand to save millions. It's hard to hate her that much, when she offered happiness to so many and the gang definitely feel this after they have been released from her thrall. However, it is easy to see why Angel had to bring her down. For instance, if Jasmine was good, it seems hard to believe that she needed so much destruction and devastation for her to be brought about. Plus free will- pretty much a big thing, especially on this show. However this ambiguity is what makes Jasmine such an interesting, if not an especially enjoyable, big bad.

Character wise, Lorne becomes further ingratiated in the team and Gwen makes a big splash in her few episodes. Fred steps up to the plate and becomes more of a heroine rather than the victim she was. Wesley had changed immeasurably, but in many ways, his looser morals make him a more likable character. Angel, as a character is very much all over the place during this season and it continues into the next. Until he loses his soul, he mostly plays hurt and vengeful over the loss of Cordy and Connor and Cordy's growing relationship.
Whilst I enjoyed the Angelus arc and David Boreanaz does such a good job of playing him, it does annoy me a touch. For a show that dabbles in the grey area a lot, its annoying when the characters differentiate so much between souled and unsouled Angel. Plenty of characters in the show with souls (eg all W&H employees) do unspeakable things without feeling too much guilt so why should Angel (souled) be much different? Granted Angelus is far worse than most of the lawyers could be. Watching Buffy season 7 at the same time, showed the vast differences with how the writers of each handled their souled vampires and I have to say in respect to this Angelus/Angel argument, the Buffy writers handled Spike going 'good' a lot better as they didn't differentiate between the soul/no soul personalities as much (Spike's personality was pretty much the same in s6 and s7).

Overall then, even though this season does have it's problems, it's generally a highly enjoyable season to watch. There's few filler episodes and everything just flows from one episode to the next. (9/10)

Buffy and Angel

Episode Order
This was easily the hardest two seasons to watch together. Both seasons had big overarching arcs meaning that storylines flowed from one episode to the next with very few natural storyline breaks. This made it nearly impossible to watch the shows alternately, without taking a break in one where there shouldn't have been. This wasn't so hard for the beginning of the season but from the Faith arc, this became very difficult. As a result there the episode order I watched wasn't a perfect one.

Episodes
In some ways the seasons were very similar. They both had big 'Big Bad's'. On Buffy the big bad claimed to be the ultimate evil; on Angel the bad claimed to bringing world peace. The two storylines were fortunately kept separate until the end of Buffy. Angel's apocalypse and blotting out of the sun, was a little bizarre in that it was confined to LA but it would've messed with the story on Buffy if it had spread further. At the end of the season, having Angel present, would've severely negated the work the writers had out into developing Spike's own path to hero, making it a necessity that he left. Keep the shows separate didn't always work. I loved the Faith break-out of jail in Angel as it worked so well in the storyline; Faith is a character who naturally belongs in Angel. However it felt silly that the Scoobies didn't bring her back earlier. As the other remaining Slayer she would've been a natural asset to their cause.

Crossovers
The main crossover was of course Faith and even then that wasn't a strictly a crossover. Her story carried on Buffy after she departed LA, but since Faith' character was originally on Buffy, her story was naturally finished on here. The entire Faith arc was a joy to watch. She was amazing in her few episodes on Angel, slotting perfectly into the team also sorting out some of her issues along with it. She continued to 'deal' when she went to Sunnydale and sorted out her relationships with the Scoobies. Willow and Angel both pulled double duty on the two shows. Willows crossover was brilliant to watch mostly because of the off screen romance between Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof, which added the 'awww' factor. Angel's appearance as Buffy's first love and because he is such an important on the show, was crucial to the show ending and going off in style. It was nice to add some sort of closure to their relationship, which was done in a brilliantly diplomatic way so as not to upset either Spike or Angel fans.

Overall
It's hard to pick which had the better season in that they were both pretty epic, but admittedly both seasons had pretty big flaws. Buffy's season ended stronger, but Angel's was probably consistently better. Overall I think Angel slightly edges out on best season, mostly because of the pure epic-ness of the season as a whole.