Messages in Buffy and Angel

[Robb Stark]

I just thought of this for the first time today after reading through a thread on S6. The message and tone of S6 of Buffy, real life is hell and we have to make it better, was kind of done the previous season in Angel, S2. I mean, sure, there are differences, but largely when lining them up the messages are the same.

Angel loses his mission after Darla returns and Holland Manners shows him that the "home office" of Wolfram & Hart isn't some hell dimension, it's earth, and that their grand Apocalypse is letting earth fall into hell all on it's own.

Did anyone else notice the similarities? Which did you like better?

 

[OpenYourEyes]

Hm, interesting thought.
I think there's a difference in the two ways it's been portrayed though:
In Angel it looked like an actual fact, that earth, everyday L.A. was hell. That humanity was so bad, which made them set up their office on earth.

In Buffy it has never been portrayed as a fact. It was a feeling, an opinion. Buffy experienced something so extraordinary, wonderful and peaceful while she was dead, that in comparison to that life on earth could only feel like hell for her. It wasn't stated that it actually was hell though, like it was in Angel.

Yes, there is a similiarity: That humans are inherently that bad that in both shows they are considered as or similar to inhabitants of hell.
I believe this one of the most realistic observations of Joss and a nice way to tell the audience to never give up fighting for the good. No matter what it is.