Taking sides: Buffy or Angel

why would a man whose shirt says 'genius at work' spend all his time watching a children's cartoon show?

Buffy was great until they all went to uni, and then I lost interest. Angel looks like its quite good, but Channel 4 don't know what to do with it so I have no idea when its on.

I think they moved it back to the midnight slot on C4 now but it's on Sky One as well.

never seen angel, not back from work in time, and don't have cable/digital/sky whatever. but if it what you say is true, and it is better than buffy, then it must be one good show, because buffy is the bollocks (british for very good indeed sir)

to give an honest answer, i always thought buffy the tv show suffered in comparison with the film on two points: 1) replacing the irreplaceable paul reubens with some lame session actor and 2) replacing the irreplaceable donald sutherland with the guy from the old coffee commercials. and i haven't seen the other show.

agree with DG about Buffy. Angel was shapin up nicely once doyle died and things got increasingly hellish towards the end of tha season - better than Buffy getting $$$$$$ FX to kill adam,her soldier bwoy is waydull.

Well, I'm not really into either...I guess I choose Buffy, because of Willow (10th Sexiest Woman in the World!)...One time the guy who plays Angel was signing posters and stuff at Forbidden Planet, the cue was right around the block, anyways I went in with a friend, wanted to see if there were any new issues of Eightball or stuff by James Kochalka...My friend goes to me "what's all this fuss about?"...and I reply "I think some guy called Angle is signing authographs!"...and this middle-aged guy turns around and says "Actually it's Angel", he sounded pretty put out! I thought it was quite funny!

gratuitous comic book namedropping alert.

ah. devoted fan of buffy since the series premire. angel left and i didnt really see a point in watching his show. and if you dont know, Giles is leaving BTVS in a year or so and is hoping to do a supernatural/ghost story show..and willow is even hotter when you get mental pictures of les..

Mental pictures of les? Who's les? Never heard of that charachter...;)

Buffy, no contest.

1: Angel is way cuter, in a formalist=body-physical sense, but SUCH A FUCKING DRIP!! (Inner rockstar = Beck)

2: All the clueless half-wit "Irishness" gets stale after abt 43 seconds. Spike's accent continues to impress, amaze and, er, sex me up (well, make me laugh: I love it whe Amercians say "bloke").

3: The Schindler's List for demi-demons/Doyle-dies episode was fantastic, but it meant no more Face--Outbreak from Doyle.

4: Charisma Carpenter is a goddess

5: Buffy is the ordinary tale of the emotional intra-group toll taken by the waging of Revolutionary War on how-things-are.

6: If Buffy falls for the wrong person, the WORLD WILL END

7: If Buffy falls for the wrong person, the WORLD WILL END

8: If Buffy falls for the wrong person, the WORLD WILL END

9: If Buffy falls for the wrong person, the WORLD WILL END

10: Buffy themetune better, obviously.

11: You can't do this in the UK, but you're meant to watch A&B in parallel, right? The stories intertwine: when Oz steps offstage in B, he slips down the coast to A in LA. Name me another two (more?) TV series of which this is the case. This is what television is for.

How sad is it that I only came home for a few minutes, yet I have to check in on ILM & answer this question? Basically, what Mark said. Buffy is genius, Angel can be fun but he is so very dim. Charisma Carpenter makes the show, imho.

But:

You can't do this in the UK, but you're meant to watch A&B in parallel, right? The stories intertwine: when Oz steps offstage in B, he slips down the coast to A in LA. Name me another two (more?) TV series of which this is the case. This is what television is for.

Actually, from what I have read recently there is supposed to be a show about Giles being developed for the UK. Have no idea if it will be any good, though.

Okay, back to DEMF...

isn't the buffy theme song like, nada surf or something? or at least one of the 1997 American Novelty Rock Groups, i recall.

If so, then 1997 American Novelty Rock Groups, er, rock

Gotta go with Angel. When Buffy went to the Uni, so to speak, it went downhill, sadly. Angel though rocks. Very clever at times. Doyle dying was one shocking move, for a tv series, i was starting to like the guy (even though the oirish accent was irritating). Theme tune is also better.

All judgments instantly reversed, Omar, for dropping the phrase "for a tv series". This is like Tom Ewing dissing Bod when he DOESN'T EVEN OWN A SET. How silly is that?

Angel is clever, but Buffy is cleverer: it does the girly stuff also. Angel is indie; Buffy is Urban Contemporary. Angel may be a Celebrity Chef, but Buffy has to cook to feed the househould *every* day. .

To all those who complained that Buffy went downhill when she went to uni (season 4) let me assure you that season five has been far superior (we're just over halfway through it in Australia). Of course season 4 holds a special place in my heart because Buffy started going to uni at the same time as I did. So for a while there I couldn't separate between her life and mine. Buffy goes to uni and so do I! Buffy doesn't know anyone and neither do I! Buffy has a short-lived and disappointing affair replaced by a long and domestic one; so do I! Buffy kills demons, and er, well, yeah. The conquest of inner demons or some such. Season five doesn't have the same personal resonance because I got over having a non-human little sister quite a while ago.

As for which is better: I thought season one of Angel beat season four of Buffy overall, but season five of Buffy is currently beating season two of Angel. Episode for episode I'd say they're extremely close, and I reckon the differences between them (as Mark put it, indie versus urban contemporary) complement eachother. Buffy means more to me, but I was already hopelessly in love with it before Angel started.

Mmm...come to think about it, it was clever period and come think about it now, the closest example in cinema is of course the infamous Steve Seagal buys it 20 minutes into a action movie (okay everybody shout: wot about Psycho!). Oh I've been rushing my anwsers this morning. The first 3 episodes of Buffy are in my mind better than Angel, it's just that season 4 really started to grate (although it got better towards the end) whereas Angel was pulling all the cool moves. I'm sort of curious to find about the new seasons though, sadly both series are lost somewhere in Dutch tv hell. Bastards!

Come to think about it even more. Doyle dying has a precedent on tv. This actually happened in Miami Vice (of course). In the first or second episode Sonny & Tubbs friendly chief is killed by a sniper. Which was shocking because you're were getting into the rhythm of knowing your characters (hey he's the friendly boss). I remember being impressed by hard-ass Castillo as being a total arsehole at first. This changed when he suddenly knew karate ;)

oh boy...I could use some Miami Vice reruns.

And Tasha Yar died quite early on in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Sorry, am I being a geek?