+++Warning, this contains spoilers from throughout the series+++
This is the Buffy spinoff series, Angel, which initially starred Buffy alumni David Boreanez and Charisma Carpenter, and later Alexis Denisof and James Marsters. Late actor Glenn Quinn also starred as one of the leads during the first season.
I stumbled on to Buffy and Angel rather late in the "Buffyverse's" run. I started watching the shows in what was the 5th Season of Buffy and the 2nd season of Angel (actually I first saw the season 4 finale of Buffy and season 1 finale of Angel the week before the season 5 and season 2 premiers, respectively, and then watched each show until they ended). Obviously, I have seen every episode since both shows were put out on DVD, but I remember becoming an instant fan of both shows, especially Angel, even without all the backstories. The overall theme of Angel was always the fight against evil, and how it never ends. The storylines on Angel tended to be more mature than those on Buffy, especially as compared to the first three seasons of Buffy. I really liked the show fleshed out Angel's backstory and his transition from Angelus to the good guy he would ultimately become.
Another storyline I loved from Angel was the redemption of Faith that started in season 1 and carried over to season 4. The whole story was well written and well acted and was probably not something that could have ever been done effectively on Buffy. The show also did well at making all the characters evolve, especially Cordelia and Wesley. The last season seems to be one that many fans either liked or hated. I loved the last season. The whole story of trying to fight evil from inside the belly of the beast was done well. And it had some of the best episodes of the series, including Hellbound, Smile Time, A Hole in The World, and Shells. I do think that the show did the character of Cordelia dirty and that Cordelia (and Charisma Carpenter) deserved a better ending than either of them got.
The ending to the series was rushed, mainly
because the network canceled the show pretty much at the last minute. They
actually had to go back and re-shoot some of the scenes for the last show after
they knew it was going to be a series finale rather than the season finale.
While not quite a Sopranos fade abrupt black screen, the series is not wrapped
up in a nice tidy bow. It cuts off at the start of an epic battle, the
conclusion to which we never know (unless you get the season 6 comic books).
This set is just a packaging of all of the individual season DVDs with all of the original extras. There has been another complete series set released, but this just has the original book-type cases. Chances are if you are reading this you already
know at least a little bit about the series. While liking or disliking a TV
show involves a large amount of subjectivity, what I can tell you is that if
you have seen some of the shows and liked those, the series, on the whole, is
consistently good with not many bad or "clunker" episodes among the
110 episodes. For some, the series may be a bit tainted by the allegations against Joss Whedon and how he treated the actresses (including Carpenter), but I see it as the series is larger than him, and choose not to let his jackassery ruin my enjoyment of the show.
