Fun but a failure I have just finished watching this, and I have a lot of thoughts about it. My first thought is why has there never been a film franchise based on the Buffyverse? This universe really helped internet fan culture to grow, and now the people who grew up watching it are middle-aged with money to spend. And it combines the campiness of classic Star Trek, with its exploration of morality. Angel, is so far, Buffy's only spinoff in television or film. It is clearly a second thought, which is a shame, because it had potential. The story of Buffy was the story of a person growing up, she has more and more responsibility thrust on her, and loses her dreams, loses her parents, becomes a parent and ultimately sacrifices herself for the world. (Then she gets resurrected, because the show was too popular to kill at that moment). Angel starts out as a sort of mirror of that, from a parent's perspective. It's the story of the sacrifices you have to make as a parent....or it least that seems to have been the intention. It doesn't quite tell this story. Things outside the world dictated what happened inside of it. In the first season, there is a character named Doyle who is Irish, and because the titular character Angel is supposed to be Irish, Doyle was killed off. Probably also because he wasn't that popular. The character of Cordelia was very popular both in Buffy and in this, but the actress got pregnant, which was unacceptable to the producer it seems. Her character arc up until that point had been her proving that her shallowness was in fact superficial, and that she was a brave and superficial woman, and then all of this character development was thrown out the window and the story had her be the dupe, and the villain in a major story arc. There isn't anything wrong with turning a major character, a fan favorite into a villain, in fact this was done with Willow in the original series. But Willow had legitimate reasons to turn evil, and that plot line was all about her succumbing to her elemental power. With Cordelia, the problem clearly was that the producers did not like the actress any more. This detracted from the story of the main character. Another problem that the series has, which is a problem for many sci-fi/fantasy/horror films, is the problem of stakes that are escalated so high and so often that they are ultimately meaningless. All stories need high stakes, which is what keeps the viewer interested. In Buffy, one of the plot lines was the fight for Angel's soul. But after Buffy sacrificed herself, the stories high stakes are ultimately the end of the universe, again and again. It gets boring after a while, and I can see why this series was cancelled. If the series is a failure, is it worth watching? I would say yes....it never reaches the brilliant sci-fi/horror heights or dramatic heights of the original, but there are moments that are chilling. When Angel locks a roomful of human lawyers in with a pair of sadistic vampires, or when Lorne, the sweet-natural joker of the group, coldly murders a human by shooting him. That last example is especially chilling because the series only shows him defending himself usually. That gave his character a fitting end. Wesley's development is also handled well. The main character is also delightful to watch, a brooder with a wry sense of humour. In the original, Angelus was chilling, and you could understand how he was considered to be the evillest vampire of all time, but in this series he just became silly, which was a mistake. So if you liked Buffy, this is worth a watch.