Every Season of the Buffyverse, Ranked (original) (raw)
Published Dec 13, 2023, 8:00 PM EST
Liam Gaughan is a film and TV writer at Collider. He has been writing film reviews and news coverage for ten years. Between relentlessly adding new titles to his watchlist and attending as many screenings as he can, Liam is always watching new movies and television shows.
In addition to reviewing, writing, and commentating on both new and old releases, Liam has interviewed talent such as Mark Wahlberg, Jesse Plemons, Sam Mendes, Billy Eichner, Dylan O'Brien, Luke Wilson, and B.J. Novak. Liam aims to get his spec scripts produced and currently writes short films and stage plays. He lives in Allentown, PA.
Long before the CW’s “Arrowverse” showed how to create a shared television universe, showrunner Joss Whedon created a unique continuity with his young adult fantasy series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its equally excellent spinoff series Angel. With its feminist themes, intricate worldbuilding, and stellar cast,Buffy the Vampire Slayer became highly influential within the realm of “genre entertainment.” Although living up to that legacy was no easy task, Angel became one of the rare television spinoff shows that didn’t become trapped within its predecessor’s shadow.
Although Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are entertaining shows when viewed individually, they often featured crossover events that satisfied fans of both programs. While the two shows were unique in tone, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel touched on similar themes of redemption, moral integrity, and social hierarchy. Although both shows had their low points, they reached creative peaks that still inspire an expanded universe of comics, books, and podcasts. Here is every season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, ranked.
Release Date
1997 - 2003
Network
The WB
Showrunner
Joss Whedon
Cast
Nicholas Brendon
Alexander Harris
A young woman, destined to slay vampires, demons and other infernal creatures, deals with her life fighting evil, with the help of her friends.
Main Genre
Seasons
7
12 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Season 6
2001-2002
Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Spike (James Marsters) standing in his crypt looking at each other intensely in season 1 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Image via UPN
The sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is best known for its iconic musical episode “Once More, With Feeling,” which featured original songs, dance numbers, and surprisingly strong vocal performances from the show’s cast. Unfortunately, “Once More, With Feeling” is the only endearing aspect of a downbeat season that takes itself far too seriously. The downbeat storyline features Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) reflecting upon her resurrection as her friend Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan) begins to utilize dark magic.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer had succeeded in the past because it felt authentically emotional, despite the supernatural elements. However, the sixth season was guilty of being too melodramatic. Between the shocking break up between Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon) and Anya Jenkins (Emma Caulfield), the death of a fan favorite character, and a disturbing season finale that pitted former friends against each other, it felt like Buffy the Vampire Slayer was trying to be as miserable as possible.
11 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Season 7
2002-2003
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 7
Image via UPN
While not as perpetually miserable as its predecessor, the ending of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_’s television run was an overly safe way to conclude a show that had often bucked cliches. The final season featured a generic storyline that involved Buffy raising a new generation of slayers to defend Sunnydale against the villainous “First Evil,” which takes the form of the antagonist Caleb (Nathan Fillion). Series regulars like Xander, Willow, Anya, and Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) were given less to do as the show focused on the new “initiates” that Buffy was training.
While the seventh season found a compelling way to give closure to Spike (James Marsters) prior to his appearance on Angel, the serialization of the main storyline meant that the series lacked the “monster of the week” style episodes that had distinguished it in the first place. Although Buffy, Willow, and Xanders’ stories end in a satisfying way, the journey to get there isn’t nearly as entertaining as it could have been.
10 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Season 1
1997
Buffy looking scared with a monster over her shoulder in Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Prophecy Girl - 1997 (1)
Image via The WB
In many ways, it feels unfair to compare the first season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the other seasons. The first season had only twelve episodes, many of which were spent establishing the show’s core mythology and explaining Buffy’s role as the slayer. Given the significant amount of exposition that was required, the characterization was often secondary. Gellar, Hannigan, and Brendon are all very charming in the first season, but Buffy, Willow, and Xander essentially feel like caricatures of the three-dimensional characters that they would become.
Although weaker episodes like “Teacher’s Pet” and “The Pack” represented a show that was still finding its footing, the first season finale “Prophecy Girl” indicated that Buffy the Vampire Slayer was willing to engage with darker concepts. Although the season’s main villain The Master (Mark Metcalf) doesn’t rank among the best Buffy the Vampire Slayer villains, he served as an appropriate initial threat for Buffy to face during her first set of adventures.
Related
The Best Episode From Each Season of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'
“Remember the three key words for any Slayer: preparation… preparation… preparation.”
9 'Angel' Season 4
2002-2003
Spin the Bottle
The WB
While Buffy the Vampire Slayer featured many self-contained installments, the best episodes of Angel contributed to a serialized storyline about the titular character’s quest for redemption and fight against the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart. _Angel_’s fourth season continued this trajectory with a narrative that focused on Cordelia Chase (Charisma Carpenter), Winnifred Burkle (Amy Acker), Lorne (Andy Hallett), and Charles Gunn (J. August Richards) attempting to unlock Angel’s (David Boreanaz) dark side in order to defeat a mythic villain known as “The Beast.” The season also featured the former Watcher, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Alexis Denisof), foraging his own path after his dispute with Angel in the previous season.
Unfortunately, the season lacked focus with inconclusive character arcs and a revolving door of villains. A romantic triangle that developed between Angel, his son Connor (Vincent Kartheiser), and Cordelia proved to be disastrous, eroding any goodwill that had been generated for the characters.
Release Date
1999 - 2004
Network
The WB
Showrunner
Cast
Alexis Denisof
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce
8 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Season 4
1999-2000
"Hush" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Image via The WB
The fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the first of the show’s post-high school era, and took the show in a more mature direction as the characters reached the end of their adolescence. Although both Angel and Cordelia had exited the main cast in order to appear on Angel, the season brought back Spike as one of the core heroes, and introduced Buffy’s new love interest Riley Finn (Marc Blucas).
The fourth season gets dragged because of the introduction of “The Initiative,”a villainous governmental organization that hunts down supernatural creatures. While The Initiative wasn’t nearly as compelling of a threat as it should have been, the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is undervalued for how many great standalone episodes it incorporated. Standout installments include the silent horror-themed episode “Hush” and the surrealist experimental episode “Restless.”
7 'Angel' Season 3
2000-2001
Image via The WB
_Angel_’s third season is easily its most inconsistent. The first half of the season featured the compelling introduction of the new villain Daniel Holtz (Keith Szarabajka), a vampire hunter from the 18th century that harbors a personal vendetta against Angel. However, the season’s trajectory came to an abrupt halt when it introduced Connor, Angel’s teenage son with the vampire Darla (Julie Benz). Connor quickly proved to be the least likable Angel character with his defiant attitude and malicious intentions for his father.
Although the prominence of Connor within the season’s second half makes it difficult to rewatch, _Angel_’s third season was able to add a sense of moral ambiguity to the show. It no longer was as simple as “good and evil,” as former allies like Angel and Wesley turned against each other upon realizing that they had different priorities.
Related
The Best ‘Angel’ Episode From Every Season
Which episodes of the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' spinoff stand out?
6 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Season 5
2000-2001
Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy looking suspenseful in Buffy the Vampire Slayer's The Weight of the World.
Image via The WB
While the fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer had struggled to transition the series beyond its high school setting, the fifth season matured the characters by exposing them to adult life. The season marked the introduction of Buffy’s younger sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), whose absence from the previous seasons was explained in a clever plot twist. Buffy, Willow, Dawn, Xander, and Spike are forced to join forces to defeat the villainous goddess Glory (Clare Kramer) and her human host, Ben Wilkinson (Charlie Weber).
Glory was a more dangerous antagonist than other Buffy the Vampire Slayer villains, and her presence turned the season into the darkest installment of the series to date. However, not every conflict that Buffy faced in the season was supernatural; between the death of her mother Joyce (Kristine Sutherland) and her breakup with Riley, Buffy’s most challenging moments had nothing to do with vampires.
5 'Angel' Season 1
1999-2000
The WB
Although it took Buffy the Vampire Slayer until the end of its first season to find its footing, _Angel_’s distinguishing qualities were evident from the very beginning. Rather than telling a coming-of-age story like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel told a supernatural noir story about its titular character starting a detective agency to help those in need from supernatural threats. The Los Angeles setting, dark visual flair, and melancholy voiceover from Boreanaz made Angel feel like an unconventional neo-noir mystery.
Despite only appearing in the first half of the season, the character Allen Francis Doyle (Glenn Quinn) was a compelling protagonist. Doyle was a demon with a heart of gold, and proved to be essential in Angel’s path to redemption. Additionally, the reintroduction of Cordelia and Wesley, who had both appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, continued two of the best character arcs in the entire universe.
4 'Angel' Season 2
2001-2002
The WB
The first season of Angel had given the show a clear path forward, as the titular character discovers a prophecy that he must fulfill. However, _Angel_’s second season complicated the mythology by showing the banality of evil. Although Angel, Cordelia, Wesley, and Gunn risk their lives to fight against the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart, they’re forced to deal with an uncomfortable truth; evil can never be completely defeated. This mature theme turned Angel into a more ambitious and ethically gray series than its predecessor.
Highlights of the second season included the resurgence of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer villain Drusilla (Juliet Landau) and the introduction of Lorne, a peaceful, free-spirited demon that becomes an ally to Angel. While the second Angel season was certainly among the darkest in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe, the last string of episodes centered on Lorne’s home dimension are among the universe’s comedic high points.
3 'Angel' Season 5
2003-2004
Not Fade Away
The WB
The first season of Angel that aired after the Buffy the Vampire Slayer finale pushed the series in a bold new direction. Although Angel, Wesley, Cordelia, Fred, and Lorne had spent the majority of the series fighting against the lawyers of Wolfram & Hart, the heroes join the evil law firm in order to change it from within. Although the season finale “Not Fade Away” ended the series on a perfectly ambiguous note, _Angel_’s cancelation was deeply unfortunate, as it was just starting to reach a creative high.
_Angel_’s fifth season succeeded by drawing parallels between Angel and Spike, who became a surprisingly entertaining comic duo. Both Angel and Spike had fallen in love with Buffy and sought redemption for their history of violence. They had similar character trajectories (even if neither character was willing to admit it to each other), and the season succeeded by simply letting them interact.