Welcome to my Buffy/Angel file. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an American T.V. show that ran from 1997 to 2003. On this show, the world - commonly referred to by fans as the "Buffyverse" - is inhabited by various nasty monsters and demons, including vampires. In the whole world there is a single girl with special abilities that allow her to fight these monsters. "She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer." Every time one Slayer dies, a new one is activated, and there can only be one at a time. Buffy is the current Slayer, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer tells her story.
The other series to take place in the Buffyverse is the spin-off series, Angel, which ran from 1999 to 2004. It centres around the adventures of the vampire Angel, Buffy's sometime boyfriend. While most vampires are evil, Angel is unique in that he has been cursed with a soul, which is to say, a conscience. Although he still craves human blood, and has all the strengths and weaknesses associated with vampires, Angel uses his supernatural abilities to do good in the world. Initially, he and Buffy fight side by side, both allies and lovers. Once they realize that their relationship is doomed, however, Angel decides to leave Buffy (and Buffy) for his own T.V. show.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer begins when Buffy Summers moves to the fictional small town of Sunnydale California, the setting for all seven seasons of the series. Sunnydale is no ordinary town; it is built on a "Hellmouth", a place where mystical and demonic forces tend to converge. In each episode, Buffy goes into battle with these forces. She is aided in this by her supporting cast, who include her best friends, Willow and Xander, and her Watcher, Giles, whose job it is to train her.
For the first three seasons, the show is largely about high school life. After the main characters graduate high school, they move on to a brief stint at college in Season 4, and from there to more adult, post-scholastic activities. As the characters mature, so does the show itself. In the beginning it is quite light-hearted and frivolous, but, while it retains its comic side, the tone also grows much darker and more serious in the later seasons, especially Season 6. The quality of the series does go down over time, of course, but it never becomes completely un-watchable.
Because of its ability both to be mindlessly entertaining and to deal with serious issues in a realistic way, I would recommend Buffy the Vampire Slayer to all young people, especially those who are action/fantasy fans. Since the show also has a substantial adult following, I would also recommend it to older people, although not to the same degree.
Like Buffy, Angel also begins when the title character moves to a new city, in this case, Los Angeles, the City of Angels. Inspired by an enigmatic seer named Doyle, and fellow Buffy alumna Cordelia, Angel founds Angel Investigations ("We help the hopeless!"), his very own detective agency. Angel and his staff investigate paranormal occurrences and offer help to people in trouble.
With its payroll of three, and its two-room office, A. I.'s beginnings are humble. But over the years the staff swells; the relationships become more complex; the battles become more serious; and the tone of the series grows gradually darker.
Although there is some crossover between Buffy and Angel, the two shows do not tend to join up all that often, and it is not really necessary to watch Buffy to understand Angel, or vice versa. Given the choice, I recommend Buffy over Angel, as being more relevant to young people, and better at dealing with important issues - not to mention a better series over-all! Angel does, however, have its strengths. Although it is not as good as Buffy at dealing with them, it does at least touch on some of the more serious issues that Buffy tends to avoid. And despite its heroic rhetoric, its darker tone may appeal to some people.
Enjoy!
