Buffy and Angel Rewatch part 70 (Conclusion)

Review of the Rewatch

It's taken me about 11 months to complete the rewatch- that's 12 seasons and 254 episodes in roughly 48 weeks. It's been hard going at times I have to admit; there are some not so good episodes amongst the good ones and it was tough to make myself watch them. I was also feeling a little over-saturated at one point.

However now I'm done with the rewatch, I'm finding myself badly missing the shows. I had never watched either shows continuously like that and doing so definitely made me love both shows a lot more. It's easy to forget how the stories were layered and built up over the years, how much effort went into each episode and how enjoyable and underrated certain episodes can be. There were a lot of episodes that I enjoyed a lot more this time round and I appreciated more of the general arcs as I was watching the seasons in a short amount of time.

I must say, in terms of episode order, it was difficult to watch the shows together, completely in chronological order. Often episode arcs would have to be split in order to watch episodes in the rght order and sometimes I would go quite a long time before switching to the other show. I would probably conclude therefore that a true episode order of the two shows (in terms of watching) can't be done, especially for the later crossovers.

It's hard to write up a summary for both shows in just a few short paragraphs to sum up how amazing I think both shows are- I mean let's face it, I never would have done this rewatch if both shows were not deserving of one. However I'll give it a go!

Buffy the Vampire Slayer- Series Review

In pop culture's history, this is usually considered a special so- and for very good reason. A failed film, a silly title and a teeny-bopper premise, meant that to begin with the show probably wasn't taken very seriously. The show took a little while to find it's feet, not truly reaching it's true potential until the end of it's first season and even then it took a dramatic twist in the second season to put Buffy on the map. It demonstrated to critics that despite it's origins Buffy the Vampire Slayer was more than just a high school vampire romp- it was a show to be taken seriously.

Many people say that the high school years of the show were it's best and in some ways that's true. Sunnydale High was the perfect place for vampire/demons to wreck havoc and the the storylines became the perfect metaphor for growing up. There is a definite charm to these early years; there were a lot of not so stellar stand alone episodes, but the three Big Bads (the Master/Angelus/the Mayor) brought a nice cohesion to the episodes, each representing an important stage in Buffy's life. The stand alone episodes also had their merits; they were often silly but sometimes dark, but the episodes were nearly always funny and the 'little' personal moments contained within them made the show what it was.
The year after school was a little bit of a struggle, both creatively for the writers and for the characters. The Big Bad was probably the weakest of the show, but the show did it's best to retain some of the high school essence, whilst still propelling it's characters forward.
Though Buffy has always been a young show, it was thrust more firmly into the adultworld when Buffy gained a sister in the fifth season. Dawn may have annoyed some, but she had an important purpose and brought around some of the most terrific drama seen on the show.
Seasons 6 and 7 are often considered the worst by fans; many preferred The Gift as a finale and the change of network did mean the show had a very different tone. However I personally don't think that the latter two seasons were particularly worse than the other seasons, though the dark tone does make it a very different show from what it started out as. The lack of Big Bad for most of season 6 allowed for rich character development and the omnipresent Big Bad in season 7 pushed the story along nicely, creating a real sense of drama and lay the foundations down for that stunning finale.
I'm not sure if I can decide on my favourite season; season 5 was probably the strongest but season 3 mixed the stand alones with the Big Bad more effectively than any other season, so I'd probably pick those two.

Though I found Buffy more palatable (and gasp even likable!) as a lead this time watching; the core of the show always has and will be the entire Scooby gang. Though there were a lot of characters that came and went throughout the show, some of them integrating themselves with the Scoobies one time or another, the core four of Buffy, Willow, Giles and Xander provided the emotional stability and depth of the show. Without them, the show wouldn't have been the same.

Overall the show made a name for itself and will never be forgotten. For me personally, the whole show was infinitely more enjoyable this time round. The friendship built up between the group, the trials faced, the witty banter and inside jokes are all a lot more enjoyable when the show is watched from start to end. In terms of quality the show probably beats out Angel, due to it's role as the original and best.

Angel- Series Review

Spin-off's usually crash and burn but this one flourished and went on to survive only 1 and half seasons less than it's predecessor. However despite that, Angel proved to be one hell of a show. Based on vampires and the good vs evil fight it was always going to be difficult to establish it's identity. The characters quickly evolved though- Angel, Cordy and Wes were completely different from who they were in Buffy and it was a joy to watch the characters grow up.
This growing up was important as Angel had a more distinctly adult feel to it. The characters faced many problems a young adult would face (housing, jobs, identity, evil law firms!) which definitely made it different from Buffy (though the latter show did venture into adult territory, it never did quite as much Angel did). LA provided a very suitable background to the gang's adventures especially in some of the earlier seasons. Angel's mission statement of helping the helpless may never have worked in any other city.

Though the first season was pretty much made up of standalone episodes, character development was still important. Doyle left a huge lasting impression and Cordy/Wes ended up very different characters from the ones we saw in Sunnydale. Wolfram and Hart in it's many incarnations played the big villain which kept Angel on his toes. Through season 1, they were always there, but it was in season 2 that the writers made them step up and they became a huge part of the show. Bringing back Darla was also important, especially as she became so embedded in the mythology of the show. W&H and Darla continued to play major roles in season 3, but the biggest new player was easily Connor. Though many fans don't like Connor; like Dawn in Buffy, he plays an integral part in the show, shaping the characters and especially Angel into the people they became.
Though W&H was Angel's main foe, they ironically faded into the background when a more traditional big bad(s) appeared in season 4. This season definitely has a different feel to all other seasons in that there aren't really many cases of the week and the whole season is just one big adventure.
Though Angel was supported by Buffy in the early years, season 3 and 4 saw the show stand fully on it's own two feet with only brief interludes to keep the two shows spinning in the same universe. My personal saddness at season 5 is because after this act of independence by the show, it fell back heavily to leaning on Buffy- funny that, as the show wasn't even on anymore- with characters from Buffy crossing over permanently onto Angel. Though some semblance of an arc was developed later in the season season 5, was again very much full of standalone episodes, similar in many ways to season 1.
For me my favourite seasons of the show were 2-4. Although season 4 got a little messy towards the end, everything that happened in those seasons cause a further consequence that led to the three seasons feeling very much like the middle arc of the show. Season 1 and 5 were good, but both were very much standalone and though all seasons had some less than good episodes, the worst episodes are probably to be found in the beginning and closing seasons.

In keeping with it's more adult tone, the show was never afraid to kill of it's main characters. Though Buffy did do this to some extent, the core four all survived. This was not the case with major characters dying in every season (Doyle, Darla, Lilah, Cordy, Fred, Lindsey, Wes). In fact the only character truly left standing was Angel. This definitely gave Angel a darker feeling than Buffy had. It's a testament to the actor and writing that each character left a hole, when they died (thankfully those last few death's were in the final season so we didn't have to do without the characters for too long!) Doyle was in just in 9 episodes but is sorely missed throughout the show and season 5 is definitely worse off for the lack of Cordelia.


Overall though, despite the shows minor faults, this was an excellent show and showed producers can a drama spin-off can work and exactly how to do one. However Angel was more than a spin-off and though it's often seen as Buffy's lesser sibling, it was probably my favourite out of the two shows (only just though!).

My Best and Worst Buffy and Angel Episodes

My Best episodes are those that I scored 10 for (couldn't include the episodes I scored 9.5 as the list is already very long!); the worst are those that I scored 5.5 and below (listed in chronological order; to see why I thought the episodes were so good or bad please click the link!) I don't think there ate any surprises on these lists- the best list, especially is fairly standard and the there aren't too many shockers on the worst list either. It is nice to see that my best list well outweighs the bad list.

Worst Episodes

1.04 Teacher's Pet
2.18 Killed By Death
B4.05 Beer Bad
A1.06 Sense and Sensitivity
A1.15 The Prodigal
B4.18 Where the Wild Things Are
A2.08 The Shroud of Rahmon
B6.12 Doublemeat Palace
A3.18 Double or Nothing
5.13 Why We Fight
5.20 The Girl in Question

Best Episodes

2.17 Passion
2.21 Becoming Part 1
2.22 Becoming Part 2
3.16 Dopplegangland
3.21 Graduation Day part 1
3.22 Graduation Day Part 2
A1.09 Hero
B4.10 Hush
B4.15 This Year's Girl
B4.16 Who Are You?
A1.18 Five by Five
A1.19 Sanctuary
B4.22 Restless
A1.22 To Shanshu in LA
A2.07 Darla
A2.15 Reprise
A2.16 Epiphany
B5.16 The Body
B5.22 The Gift
B6.07 Once More With Feeling
B6.08 Tabula Rasa
A3.13 Waiting In The Wings
A4.07 Apocalypse Nowish
A4.22 Home
B7.22 Chosen
5.12 You're Welcome
5.15 A Hole in the World
5.22 Not Fade Away

Special thanks

This may sound stupid, but a big thanks to the cast and crew of Buffy and Angel for providing such quality entertainment.

Thanks to the websites I have pilfered pictures from along the way including (but not limited to):
Angel Screen Caps
Buffy Wikia
Wikipedia
Amazon.co.uk (and .com)
Sidereel

Thanks to Shawn, who has commented on every single Rewatch post and to the others that have also read and commented along the way.