See, it’s like this: my brain moves extremely fast, so that if the plot of a show is at all predictable, I will see any twists coming long, long before the big reveal. And because I have an excellent memory, I immediately recognize derivative story elements and tired tropes practically as soon as they appear. Now, it’s OK if I figure out the twists halfway through, or if it only happens on occasion. But if I can predict the ending nearly every time, five or ten minutes after the opening credits, I’m probably going to get bored with it. But with Buffy, it was exactly the opposite; the show kept me guessing the majority of the time, despite the fact that it usually “played fair” rather than pulling some sort of unprecedented necrobabble out of a hat to hand-wave the writers out of some dungeon they’ve written themselves into, as so many dark fantasy shows are wont to do. But that’s not the half of it; the Buffy writers were not only willing to turn tropes inside-out and upside-down, but also to shamelessly steal them from other genres or defenestrate conventions. Vampires could be boring, airheaded, or lovesick; demons could be easygoing nerds or flamboyant lounge singers; an evil wizard could be a corny square; villains could be likable and goodies despicable. One episode was a bona fide musical (the result of a powerful demon’s influence), but rather than just being a throwaway bit of fun it actually contained serious character development and important foreshadowing. And in more than one season, the finale resulted in more destruction than is even the norm in the superhero genre.
And then there’s the wit. The dialogue in most episodes doesn’t merely sparkle, it snaps, crackles, and pops. There is often humor in even the darkest, most serious episodes, and ofttimes that humor is of Saharan dryness and Hitchcockian blackness; at other times it was practically farce, and yet it all fit together smoothly and comfortably to create a consistent and recognizable style which, though less striking in Angel, suffuses both shows. I found myself laughing out loud on a regular basis, and there aren’t even many comedy series that can dependably evoke that from me.
All in all, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a rare gem, and Angel a worthy spinoff which, while it doesn’t match its parent series, certainly doesn’t disgrace it. I highly recommend these shows not just to those who think a horror comedy superhero soap opera sounds right up their alley, but also for anyone who enjoys tight, clever writing, compelling characters, and series which aren’t so impressed with themselves that they forget the point of television shows is, first and foremost, to entertain.