10 Reasons Angel Is Better Than Buffy
5. Character Growth
There is no doubt that Buffy had some extremely memorable characters. Obviously Buffy herself, but also Spike, Giles, Willow, Faith, Xander, Oz, and on and on. But the show also gave us some extremely irritating characters. Riley, Tara, Andrew, and especially Dawn were all painful to watch in virtually every scene. Others, like Anya, alternated from annoying to mildly amusing.
Angel didn't always have the best character introductions. Fred and Lorne come to mind as two characters who seemed like they wouldn't work with the show at all. But over time—and pretty quickly—they became wonderful to watch.
In five seasons, Angel even managed to redeem some of the irritating characters from Buffy. Cordelia went from a shallow, self-centered bully and became a true warrior and hero. Even Harmony, an even more vapid version of Cordelia, became a real bright spot in Angel's final season.
Angel even managed to do the impossible in the final season. As mentioned, season four went off the rails and took some characters with them—particularly Cordelia and Connor. But in the final season, Angel managed to turn the clock back and in a few guest appearances (only one in Cordy's case), both those characters ended up redeemed and went out on a high note.