Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel - First Time Viewer

[OCD Geek]

Ok, I'm watching Angel's second episode and I'm already thinking about just going through Buffy at once and then going back to Angel. This is already starting to get overwhelming and now that the shows are established it doesn't really feel like that big of a deal anymore.
...I'm so sorry for changing my mind twice in a period of 24 hours.

It's all good. Do you. Your enjoyment is what matters. If you don't like bingeing them simultaneously, then there's no point in lessening the impact of two great shows by watching them in a manner that sucks all your enjoyment out of them. It should be fun, not feel like a massive chore.

If I did it this way, what are the absolute must episodes to see through each series. For example, I'm not looking for Buffy picks up the phone and it's Angel but Angel doesn't reply type scenes. I'm looking at true crossovers like Pangs and Will You Remember Me. That should keep things to a minimum I think.

Oz has a crossover trip to LA coming up, and then there is Pangs and I Will Remember You for season one. And even Oz's trip to LA is more about the MacGuffin than the character beats.

Season 2 has the flashback crossovers in Darla and Fool For Love. After that, I don't think there is anything you need to worry about until the stuff with Faith and Willow in Buffy season 7 and Angel season 5.

I'm sure that theenglish or OCDGeek can point out anything I may have missed.

The epic four-part crossover This Year's Girl/Who Are You?/Five by Five/Sanctuary from towards the end of Buffy: Season 4/Angel: Season 1 is key too. It also gives you a nice taste of the sort of show Angel became in those final five episodes of its inaugural season.

Five by Five/Sanctuary is pretty much the exact moment Angel went from an anthology series to an epic saga. The series myth arc didn't actually kick off until the two-part season finale a couple episodes later, but Five by Five/Sanctuary set the darker tone, greater moral complexity and richer character interactions that defined the series in the years to come.

If nothing else, it gives you something to whet your appetite for Angel while you finish Buffy's seven year journey. Plus the character interactions between Faith and the gang in Buffy: Season 7 will make way more sense with the added context of Faith's character development in those episodes.

EDIT: Oh, for the record. Here's the actual full-on crossover episodes.
Season 4/Season 1
Buffy: The Harsh Light of Day/Angel: In the Dark

Buffy: Pangs/Angel: I Will Remember You

Buffy: This Year's Girl & Who Are You?/Angel: Five by Five & Sanctuary

Season 5/Season 2
Buffy: Fool for Love (flashbacks)/Angel: Darla (flashbacks)

Season 7/Season 4
We'll cross that bridge when we get there, because it is a lot. And both shows went full-on serialized those seasons due to it being Buffy's definite swan song and Angel's possible swan song, so it's a mite complicated. Circling back to see the Angel portions of the crossover for the first time during you eventual Angel binge might be best.

 

[tomalak301]

It's all good. Do you. Your enjoyment is what matters. If you don't like bingeing them simultaneously, then there's no point in lessening the impact of two great shows by watching them in a manner that sucks all your enjoyment out of them. It should be fun, not feel like a massive chore.


The epic four-part crossover This Year's Girl/Who Are You?/Five by Five/Sanctuary from towards the end of Buffy: Season 4/Angel: Season 1 is key too. It also gives you a nice taste of the sort of show Angel became in those final five episodes of its inaugural season.

Five by Five/Sanctuary is pretty much the exact moment Angel went from an anthology series to an epic saga. The series myth arc didn't actually kick off until the two-part season finale a couple episodes later, but Five by Five/Sanctuary set the darker tone, greater moral complexity and richer character interactions that defined the series in the years to come.

If nothing else, it gives you something to whet your appetite for Angel while you finish Buffy's seven year journey. Plus the character interactions between Faith and the gang in Buffy: Season 7 will make way more sense with the added context of Faith's character development in those episodes.

I might print out this post as a reference so let's see if this is complete:

Pangs (Buffy)/I Will Remember You (Angel
This Year's Girl (Buffy), Who Are You (Buffy)/Five by Five/Sactuary (Angel)
Darla (Angel)/Fool For Love (Buffy)

That seems doable.

 

[OCD Geek]

I might print out this post as a reference so let's see if this is complete:

Pangs (Buffy)/I Will Remember You (Angel
This Year's Girl (Buffy), Who Are You (Buffy)/Five by Five/Sactuary (Angel)
Darla (Angel)/Fool For Love (Buffy)

That seems doable.

Yeah, that should work. Buffy: Season 7/Angel: Season 4 gets complicated (see my edit), but as long as you see Five by Five/Sanctuary you should be good for Season 7 context-wise. You can always watch the Angel side of those crossovers when you watch Angel: Season 4 for the first time during your eventual Angel binge.

 

[tomalak301]

Yeah, that should work. Buffy: Season 7/Angel: Season 4 gets complicated (see my edit), but as long as you see Five by Five/Sanctuary you should be good for Season 7 context-wise. You can always watch the Angel side of those crossovers when you watch Angel: Season 4 for the first time during your eventual Angel binge.

Yeah. By the time I get to Angel season 4, rewatching Buffy season 7 will feel like new again.

 

[OCD Geek]

I might print out this post as a reference so let's see if this is complete:

Pangs (Buffy)/I Will Remember You (Angel
This Year's Girl (Buffy), Who Are You (Buffy)/Five by Five/Sactuary (Angel)
Darla (Angel)/Fool For Love (Buffy)

That seems doable.

Oh, and The Harsh Light of Day (Buffy) followed by In the Dark (Angel) if you want to see Oz and a certain other character head to LA. It's not crucial like the others, but it's fun.

 

[tomalak301]

Oh, and The Harsh Light of Day (Buffy) followed by In the Dark (Angel) if you want to see Oz and a certain other character head to LA. It's not crucial like the others, but it's fun.

I just saw Harsh Light of Day. I might see the Angel episode but I can see how minor these crossovers can be.

Speaking of this episode, much better than the prior. Of course Spike was back so that helped but I think for the first time this season, it felt like an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and not Buffy the College Years. Familiar things were coming back, and even Harmony had some fun bits as Spike's new love interest (That sucks, Drusilla broke up with him. I still hope we see her again). This episode had a certain energy that I felt like lacking in the prior two and I could even say if you missed the first two episodes of the season, if you watch this one you might not have missed much.

 

[tomalak301]

I will say In the Dark was the first truly great Angel episode. They do enough where you don't need to watch the Buffy episode to enjoy it but if you do, it's a little bit more rewarding. Spike was a lot more menacing here then he probably has ever been on Buffy, but I think that's the more serious tone of Angel while Buffy plays it a little loose. I was a little surprised Angel didn't take the Ring. It makes sense, but isn't it character development that he can move around at all hours of the day? It's kind of like the Doctor in Voyager. Once he got more mobile, he was a much more interesting character.

 

[Forbin]

I’m curious if anyone besides me didn’t like Angel? I’m more referring to the tone of the show rather than the storylines. I watched the first season a few years after finishing Buffy and just wasn’t into the dark seriousness of Angel.

My wife and I enjoyed the first couple of seasons. I'd say somewhere in late S2 or early S2 we both thought it was getting kind of... well, stupid. We stuck it out to the end because we were invested in the characters for so long. But it really wasn't doing much for us.

 

[SAndrews10]

Whatever will make you enjoy your time viewing the most go for it!

 

[tomalak301]

Whatever will make you enjoy your time viewing the most go for it!

I really don't know of any other show or franchise that had this much overlap. Maybe Star Trek or the current DC stuff, but Star Trek was pretty much left with the individual shows sharing the same universe and DC has the various crossover events. I could see this year with Crisis on Infinite Earth maybe matching what Buffy and Angel are doing so early on though. Still, watching that Angel episode last night, they did a pretty good job of filling in the gaps and explaining what the Ring is to the point where I'm feeling a little more comfortable taking each show on it's own merit. Even though in doing some research I kind of spoiled myself on some things (Like Drusilla coming back in some form) but maybe my memory will be so short that by the time I get to those episodes I can still act surprised.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The only thing that I think is seriously better if you’re watching both is

Spoiler

if you haven’t seen Angel is makes no sense that Faith is forgiven.

Everyone in listing crossovers seems to forget

Spoiler

Angel comforts Buffy when Joyce dies.

 

[Turtletrekker]

I really don't know of any other show or franchise that had this much overlap.

As I've mentioned, the crossover aspects come down considerably after B4 and A1.

 

[Masiral]

I might print out this post as a reference so let's see if this is complete:

Pangs (Buffy)/I Will Remember You (Angel
This Year's Girl (Buffy), Who Are You (Buffy)/Five by Five/Sactuary (Angel)
Darla (Angel)/Fool For Love (Buffy)

That seems doable.

You need to watch The Gift (Buffy Season 5 Finale) before you watch There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb (Angel Season 2 Finale), because the Angel finale spoils the end of the Buffy finale.

 

[OCD Geek]

You need to watch The Gift (Buffy Season 5 Finale) before you watch There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb (Angel Season 2 Finale), because the Angel finale spoils the end of the Buffy finale.

That won't be a problem since they're watching all of Buffy first plus only the most crucial crossovers (minus Angel's side of the S7/Angel: S4 stuff). They'll see The Gift long before they ever see Angel: Season 2.

 

[tomalak301]

You need to watch The Gift (Buffy Season 5 Finale) before you watch There's No Place Like Plrtz Glrb (Angel Season 2 Finale), because the Angel finale spoils the end of the Buffy finale.

Right now my priority is Buffy. After that’s over it will be Angel. And then I will wait a few months (maybe after The Expanse season 4) and maybe do a long switch off rewatch of both shows.

 

[JD]

I’m curious if anyone besides me didn’t like Angel? I’m more referring to the tone of the show rather than the storylines. I watched the first season a few years after finishing Buffy and just wasn’t into the dark seriousness of Angel.

Angel is pretty much equal with Buffy for me, they're both two of my all time favorite shows.

 

[USS Firefly]

Right now my priority is Buffy. After that’s over it will be Angel. And then I will wait a few months (maybe after The Expanse season 4) and maybe do a long switch off rewatch of both shows.

Don't forget Firefly

 

[tomalak301]

Don't forget Firefly

I've actually seen Firefly, but it was when it aired on Fox. I might rewatch it again. If there's a show that should be rebooted, it's that one, considering I think Castle ended so Fillion is available again. The show I was thinking about (And for some reason I still remember someone telling me that the first season of Orphan Black was influnced by this show) taking a look at was Dollhouse. Considering I just went through a season of Dushku as Faith in Buffy, she can definitely carry a show.

 

[JD]

Dollhouse is definitely worth checking out. Just as a bit of an FYI it does take a few episode before it really takes off. I believe the network made them start off with a whole bunch of job of the week episodes before they really got into the meat of the story.

 

[OCD Geek]

And also keep in mind that the second season (showran by Firefly/Wonderfalls/Terriers showrunner and Angel writer Tim Minear) is way better than the first season (showran by Angel & The Shield writers and Lie to Me showrunners Elizabeth Craft & Sarah Fain).