Which Joss Whedon TV series was better: Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Angel?

Buffy

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by Elton Gahr

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The great thing about Buffy isn't the acting, or the setting, even Joss Whedon. The great thing about Buffy is the skill in which the story arcs were made. Buffy is one of the early shows which made every episode in a season work together. There were many minor villains in each episode, but it was the "Big bad" which everything was leading towards and by the end of the series you knew that there would be one and just that knowledge was enough to pull the episodes forward.

The connection of every episode made the characters and their consistency, as well as their growth much more important than in traditional genre television. It is that constance and growth which give it its first advantage over Angel. The character transitions in Buffy felt natural in many ways that they didn't in Angel. Even the secondary characters in Buffy, such as Andrew felt as if they grew during the show, not as much as the major characters but enough.

Angel on the other hand never felt as if it fully understood its characters. Most of them weren't in season one, and every season they seemed to change more than they should have. There were of course major things going on in their lives, but it felt often as if Angel was the only one who remained consistent. And then they became lawyers.

I don't know if that was done on Angel in order to give them the chance to change the characters but they certainly didn't feel the same.

The next advantage that Buffy had over Angel were the enemies. From the first season there were great villains. The master, Angel, Adam, even Willow and the first were all interesting and while Wolfran and Heart were OK, I never really felt that they were a real threat and that meant that the vililans of each episode had to carry it. In general they did but the arc just didn't feel strong.

I love the themes of both Angel and Buffy, but Buffy's theme is something that is more universal. Angel is about getting over your past, something that we all have to deal with but none to near the extent of Angel, while Buffy is about growing up. We have all done that and in many cases it feels as if it were just as hard as Buffy's.

Judging two shows, even two shows made by the same creator is difficult, and saying which is better is difficult. In the end much of it is opinion but there are factors which can help understand if a show is going to be good. Actors, writers, theme, genre. Joss Whedon seems to be an expert of those all, and more important than if Buffy or Angel are the best, in my opinion, is the question, Can he do it again with Dollhouse?

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