Nowadays, it’s rare to find something that you’ll go back to more than once. Last night Jen and I finished our third pass though on the Buffy and Angel series, taking about 5 months to get through 12 seasons worth of TV.
I’ve always been a little more partial towards Angel. The series is a bit darker, the story of redemption seems a little more appealing to me. The journeys each character goes through seems more profound as well, especially given the situation they are thrust into during the final season.
At the same time, Buffy has this beautiful balance of quirkiness, fun, and intesity wrapped up into one. The series feels more “episodic” (except near the end) and it’s crazy to see how some of the “perils” of high school life in Sunnydale translate into some really deep ideas at the end of the day.
I guessing I’m getting a little too vague here and I really want you to check these series out, so here’s a little more about it...
Buffy, which came first, is a teenage vampire slayer. She’s been given powers granted to only one girl at a time on the earth and she just so happens to be sitting on top of a “hell mouth” from which all sorts of evil likes to come out and try to play. Buffy must stop these evils, all while going through your typical woes of high school life. She has a mentor and a few close friends that helps her get through the day. Sounds a bit cheesy? You bet it is! Especially during the first few seasons, but stick with it, you’ll see how you’ll come to truly enjoy this style of writing within the show. Back in college we used to have a whiteboard with the “quote of the week” which often came from the show we watched that week.
Angel is a spinoff from Buffy, featuring the most promenent “side character” of the first three seasons. He’s a vampire with a soul (yeah, see how that might play rather interesting with a girl who is a vampire slayer, but I say no more) and has relocated to Los Angeles to setup shop and keep doing his thing. He’s rather broody and tormented to some degree. He’s spent over a hundred years as the worst killer on the planet and with his soul back he has a lot of remorse and atonement to achieve. While that seems a little typical, he’s up against “the powers that be” on almost a daily basis, and with friends new and old (and non-human 8^D) they will all go on this journey together. Often times it isn’t pretty, and results don’t come by the end of the first (or fourth) episode, but change is indeed happening.
Both of these series come from the brain of Joss Whedon, who does some truly amazing writing and story telling. You’ve seen his name all over the place, and the writers and actors in the shows he’s make often show up in other shows or have gone off to do other things. Once you get started, you won’t want to stop. 8^D They’re both on Netflix, so go give them a whirl.
That said, it’s time to start Firefly, another fabulous (yet sadly short lived) series of his. 8^D