At the end of the third — and best — season of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, the Buffyverse as we knew it was completely changed.  The teens had finally survived high school (and the apocalypse) and were graduating to the more uncertain waters of adult life.  At the same time, three key characters left the hellmouth-plagued Sunndydale forever to form their own spin-off series, er, detective agency in L.A.

As a newfound Buffy fan back in 1999, I wasn’t really on board with the whole Angel concept.  For one thing, I rather disliked the booding vampire-with-a-soul in Buffy (except when he went evil, then he was quite enjoyable) and didn’t really feel like devoting a lot of time with him instead of Sunnydale’s Scoobies.  For another, the whole detective in L.A. concept seemed… blah.  Meh.  Shoulder shrug-worthy.  So I shunned Angel but continued to watch Buffy through the painful final years of its run, and once Buffy left the airwaves, I stopped paying attention to the Buffyverse.

Of course, I had to go and get my wife addicted to Buffy a few years later, and once that happened she outright demanded we watch Angel as well.  Fine, I said, but I warned you!  It’s going to suck, both literally and figuratively.

Turns out that Angel isn’t a half-bad show, all things considered, and by the end of its fifth season I found myself a little upset there wasn’t more (something that I couldn’t say for Buffy and her insufferable Season 7 speeches).  Angel was never as gripping as Buffy nor as personally relevant, but it did have a darker edge and a unique slant that helped differentiate it from its predecessor.  I now understand why there’s a strong cult following by some for this show over Buffy itself.

So to back up a bit for those not in the know: Way back when, Angel was an Irish idiot who got turned into a vampire sometime in the 1800s and called himself Angelus.  He became a really demented vampire who loved mind games and torture, but after an attack on a gypsy camp, the locals cursed him with a soul (in the Buffyverse, vampires have no soul, which separates them from people and makes them A-OK to kill).  The soul gave him a conscience — although I never understood how having a soul makes you good, since plenty of bad folks have souls — and Angelus became Angel, a reformed vampire looking for redemption.  It’s a good twist on a monster staple, although it initially manifested itself as a dull, insecure coward of a person.

The escape clause from Angel’s soul was that he’d revert to his old evil self if he ever experienced a single moment of pure happiness — which is an odd clause for gypsys to give him, but whatever — and this ended up happening when Angel fell in love with Buffy.  Following a lot of angst and heartbreak, Angel decided that he couldn’t remain near his former girlfriend, and went to L.A. to continue the Angel Making Up For Mass Murder World Tour ’99.

This brings us to season one of the spin-off.  Angel founds Angel Investigations, a private detective agency geared to helping those with supernatural problems.  Aiding him was Buffy’s former social nemesis Cordelia (who provides a lot of the snark and eye candy) and a demon named Doyle who received visions of attacks on others.  Like many fledgling series — such as Buffy — Angel’s first season had a rocky, uncertain start, although it found its footing rather quickly.  The series’ creators experimented with a few additional twists to separate it from Buffy’s format, such as having Angel pair up with a cop who investigates weird activities, and a foe in the form of a sinister lawyer firm known as Wolfram & Hart.  The former was eventually jettisoned while the latter became one of the focal points of the show.  Suddenly, Angel wasn’t just fighting flesh and blood demons, but legal red tape and the endless resources of hell itself.

Over the seasons, Angel Investigations moved to an abandoned hotel and took on a number of other helpy-helpertons: former Watcher Wesley Wyndam-Price (another Buffy refugee), street gang leader Gunn, crazy scientist Fred, telepathic singer Lorne, and a few others that should probably remain surprises if you haven’t seen the show.  While there were a few cross-overs between Buffy and Angel, for the most part the shows stayed separate, free to establish their own identities.  For Angel, this was a good thing, as the characters certainly grew, changed, and (as with all Joss Whedon shows) screwed up royally.

Starting with the third season, the show’s crew decided to focus more on epic, season-long story arcs somewhat akin to Buffy, but more so.  This was okay for season three, but season four quickly became a mess because of it (and is rarely shown in syndication due to the need to watch it sequentially or else one would become lost).  While I applaud the fact that the show and its characters constantly evolved, changed and sometimes even died, this wasn’t all for the best.  Season four seriously ticked off a number of folks, and by the end there was a huge need for a game-changer.

Happily, this came with season five, probably the best season (in my opinion) of the show.  By handing the virtuous lead characters the keys to hell’s deep pockets and the temptation that went with it, everything got interesting again.  The slow burn of the season culminated in an epic showdown that remains one of the coolest series finales I’ve ever seen, one that was perfect for the themes of Angel.

As a whole, Angel is a solid, occasionally brilliant, and usually funny show that stood just as tall as Buffy ever did.  Sure, I wish there had been more, but better that than wishing it had died earlier, I suppose!  (And yes, I know about the comic book series that continues the story, but it’s hard to see them as the same thing.)

Favorite Angel moments:

• Doyle’s final episode
• Anything with Groosalugg, the optimistic — and slightly stupid — hunk from another dimension
• Darla’s pregnancy
• The puppet episode!
• Cordelia’s final episode
• Buffy coming back for one perfect day
• Angel deciding to give up his ethics and take on the lawyers head-on
• Angelus’ return
• The zombie episode
• Wesley: Rogue Demon Hunter
• Dark Wesley and what’s in his closet