Buffy the Vampire Slayer Is Good, But Its Overlooked Spinoff Is Better, Fans Say
Everybody loves Buffy, but this character, who is no worse, hasn't gotten his share of well-deserved attention.
We've seen hundreds of times how brilliant ideas turned into mediocre works in the wrong hands. But the opposite examples are no more common than seeing a vampire on the street on a sunny day.
The premise of Buffy the Vampire Slayer would fit into a B-movie horror movie concept at best, but certainly not into a cult TV show. But first impressions are deceiving: Joss Whedon's most famous show turned out to be the gem you never expect to find – but once you see it, you never tire of admiring it.
The growing popularity of Buffy led to Whedon and The WB launching a spin-off series, Angel, simultaneously with the fourth season of the original show.
What Was the Story Behind Angel?
The bloody path of the vampire Angel ended when the Kalderash people revived his human soul. Horrified by his own atrocities, the vampire decided to atone for his crimes. So Angel ended up in the company of Buffy – and the one called to exterminate the night bloodsuckers fell in love with one of them.
But after the first night with Buffy, Angel's vampire essence unexpectedly returned, and it took a lot of effort to get him back on the path of good. It became clear that this couple had no future. Angel made the difficult decision to end his relationship with Buffy and leave Sunnydale.
After settling in Los Angeles, Angel soon met the half-demon Doyle. He revealed to the vampire that some higher powers had decided to make Angel their knight, a defender of the weak and oppressed. Thus began the adventures of this hero.
Angel Got Everything that Was Good About Buffy and Took It to Another Level
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Angel became darker, more serious and more mature than Buffy ever was. Angel wasn't just fighting evil, he was constantly fighting the demon within himself, trying to atone for centuries of evil.
The style of the first season looked like a parody of classic noir detectives, but by the end of the first season, the emphasis had shifted – noir was replaced by urban fantasy. Parody and mystical tragedy were mixed in perfect proportions, resulting in an almost flawless series about the supernatural in the modern world.
Angel constantly used familiar plots, but so gracefully that they began to sparkle with new colors, and the brilliant acting and amazing dialog added to the already impressive show.
And many fans, while acknowledging the greatness of the original series, consider Angel to be an even better show than Buffy.
“I know a lot of people finding Angel better than Buffy. [...] I just don't understand why it's spin off doesn't have the same type of respect,” Reddit user Cailly_Brard7 wrote.
With Angel, Joss Whedon achieved the incredible: without losing the strengths of his first series, he brought a host of fresh ideas and topics to the new world, finally cementing his reputation as one of the best storytellers in modern TV science fiction.