Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are two contemporary fantasy series, shown between 1997 and 2004. Both series were created by Joss Whedon and revolved around a group of people, lead by the vampire slayer Buffy and vampire-turned-good Angel, fighting evil in the form of vampires and other supernatural creatures. Angel started out as a character in Buffy and got his own spin-off series after a couple of seasons. Boths series were action-packed but also contained a lot of humor which is why I believe they are among the best fantasy TV series ever made.
Question is: which series was the best?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy was quite the hype when coming to the screen in the late nineties. The idea of a young and hot cheerleader (Sarah Michelle Gellar) who managed to fight vampires and others demons while still trying to hold on to her normal life was a huge hit. Teenagers, both boys and girls, liked the setting and the themes of the series. The combination of action with fantasy/ horror elements and the high school setting with all its issues and relationships proved very entertaining. Together with the lighthearted humor it was a recipe for 6 years of success.
Angel
Angel (David Boreanaz) started out as an enemy of Buffy but turned out to have a good side and became her lover. The character became popular and showed potential for further development resulting in a spin-off series that ran for 5 seasons.
This resulted in a series about Angel being a private detective for dark and occult cases, fighting demons, preventing them from taking over the world and trying to save his own soul. The series had a dark and more grown-up vibe to it while at the same time it was quite heavily action-orientated and had a cynical type of humor.
My favourite is… Angel
For me, the clear winner is Angel. The combination of a darker atmosphere, more sinister and action-packed story lines, the more grown up characters and the humor resulted in a TV series that I believed to have been better and more entertaining than Buffy. In short, the fact that Angel had less of the teenage campus atmosphere that Buffy had, has made Angel my favourite series.
Then again, that is just my opinion so let me know if you disagree.
Tags: Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Contemporary Fantasy, Fantasy Television Series
