Buffy's third season ended with a massive change, as half of the cast went off to the college and the other half essentially carried over to a spinoff show based around the brooding vampire Angel. For a spinoff, Angel is actually really great, managing to balance its darker tone with the same sharp writing you've come to expect from the Buffyverse.
Interestingly enough, Angel's first season doesn't have much of a story arc like Buffy does. The season starts with Angel forming a team with Cordelia and a seer named Doyle to help people who can't help themselves, though Doyle ends up dying halfway through the season and is replaced by Wesley from Buffy. There's also a villainous law firm named Wolfram & Hart which is responsible for many of the threats Angel has to deal with, though they mostly stay in the backdrop. And as usual for these types of vigilante shows, there's a police officer named Kate who slowly becomes more disillusioned with Angel upon learning that he's a vampire. Outside of these threads, this first season mostly consists of standalone episodes, many of which are much darker than those in Buffy, particularly the iconic exorcism episode.
Generally, I think Angel got off to a much better start than Buffy did, especially its strong pilot that already had a sense of what the show wanted to be right from the get-go. My biggest problem with Angel, however, is its reliance on characters from previous shows. There are tons of Buffy crossovers, with characters like Spike, Faith, and even Buffy herself making appearances. Those episodes are great and all, but they're also the best episodes in the season and it's not even close. The newer characters fare much worse, especially Doyle, who I felt was a bad fit in the cast. It's nice to have an optimistic foil for Angel, but I thought their dynamic just felt forced, and I never really grew to care about him until the episode where he dies. The other new characters like Lindsay and Gunn do have a lot of potential, but they also didn't appear too much and haven't had much room to grow. Angel, Wesley, and Cordelia are easily the best characters so far, continuing from where their character arcs in Buffy left off, which basically means that this first season just feels like more of Buffy than its own thing.
There are still a lot of strong episodes this season, at least way more than in Buffy's first season:
I Will Remember You: This episode was a fascinating "what if?" scenario that's heartbreaking and impactful, as Angel finally gets a chance at humanity and to be with Buffy. However, as you'd expect, he ends up giving up his chance at happiness in one of the saddest scenes in the whole Buffyverse.
Hero: I didn't care much for Doyle, but even I thought his sacrifice was devastating. The decision to kill off a main character nine episodes in was a risky but brilliant move, and at least Doyle went out with a bang. Keep in mind that this episode came out right after "I Will Remember You" too.
Five By Five: This was the episode that made me absolutely love Faith, coming right after Buffy's own Faith two-parter. It's a heartwrenching analysis of Faith's own self-loathing even as she's tasked with assassinating Angel culminating in that phenomenal scene in the rain where Faith completely breaks down.
Sanctuary: Resolving Faith's character arc throughout these two seasons, Buffy returns one last time to get her revenge. It's interesting to see Buffy as an antagonistic force this time around, and the character drama between everyone is very engrossing. Faith turning herself in is a good start to her redemption arc, and the final argument between Angel and Buffy is both cathartic and hard to watch.
To Shanshu In LA: Despite the episodic nature of this season, they manage to end things on a very strong note that wraps up all of the character arcs and plot points. The Vocah demon is an imposing demon that really manages to shake up the dynamics of the show, Darla's reappearance is an exciting bit of fanservice, and the introduction of the Shanshu prophecy finally gives the show a driving force. Even on a completely different show, Buffy's writers know how to end a season on a strong note.
Overall, the first season of Angel was a solid first outing for the series with a dark tone that differentiates itself from Buffy. However, it did have a very slow start, and the new characters are far less compelling than the carry-overs from Buffy.
3/5 Stars
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