Why didn't Buffy focus more on character development like AtS?

[The Scourge]

Buffy seemed more intent on having monsters of the week and situations that viewers could compare to real-world adolescence. But having that shouldn't exclude from deeply exploring the characters.

Angel had all of it. After committing certain acts the characters changed mentally and sometimes physically. They changed organically because there was a proper amount of screentime devoted to it. The characters are much different in NFA than they were when they first appeared in Buffyverse.

Why didn't Willow gets explored after trying to destroy the world? Why didn't she change much? There was a scene on Angel where she and Wesley talked and you could see how much Wesley's sins had effected him and Willow seemed the same as ever. Wesley was gruff, unshaven, and dark. Willow was Willow.

Faith's character was deeply explored on Angel, yet she went back to Buffy to mostly hang out with the annoying new slayers than fade to the background.

Xander and Anya never had much to do other than make jokes. And when episodes did explore their characters it was usually just a one-off and not treated with much importance. The characters were usually back to normal by the next episode.

I'm not saying the writing for the Buffy characters is terrible, but when Angel's supporting and recurring cast is more fleshed out the difference between the two shows stands out. Wesley, Cordelia, Lilah, Lindsey, and the rest were much more layered than the characters on Buffy.

But why? Was there any reason for the different approaches to the two series?

 

[The Thirst Evil]

I've never really thought about it before, but you're right. Willow does develop as a character up until the sixth season, but by the last season she seems to be just Willow again. She shows few signs that her encounter with her inner dark-self left her with any ill effects.

 

[Robb Stark]

Well, that's one of the core reasons why I feel AtS is a superior show.

BTVS has some truly outstanding characters, ones that I'll always enjoy following. However, they did get much more caught up in the attempts at metaphor (which were hit and miss) and didn't focus nearly as much as Angel on developing their cast. After everything they go through over seven seasons, by "Chosen" Buffy and Xander are pretty much exactly the same as in "Welcome to the Hellmouth". Giles is a little less snooty, Anya admits she doesn't really hate humans and Dawn mellows a bit. Willow changes, but not nearly to the degree as Wesley, Gunn or Fred do, even though the potential was there. Andrew reverts back to the exact same place as he started in S7. None of those developments are in anyway deep or special. The only one I can immediately think of who really evolves is Spike, but his transformation is much more layered on AtS than it ever was on BTVS.

I think the why of the matter can be found in the simple explanation that it was easy to not change them too much. Taking a character like Wes, who worked really well as the bumbling buffoon of the team, and making him radically darker and more complex is a big risk. If the audience rejects the change, then the credibility of the character is shot. BTVS had a very, very strong cast, for the most part, and I don't think the creative team really felt any need to substantially take their characters in new directions that they might not be able to come back from. That is one thing about the BTVS crew. They ALWAYS had an out. There was always a way to significantly scale back the development if the plot required it.

 

[fitz1980]

I'm not saying the writing for the Buffy characters is terrible, but when Angel's supporting and recurring cast is more fleshed out the difference between the two shows stands out. Wesley, Cordelia, Lilah, Lindsey, and the rest were much more layered than the characters on Buffy.

But why? Was there any reason for the different approaches to the two series?

They did have different show runners. David Greenwalt was co-creator of Angel and called most of the shots during it's production. During Buffy's later seasons Joss was busy with other projects and left showrunning to Marti Noxon.

 

[thetopher]

I guess Angel concentrated on Season-long arc story structures, which lends itself to stronger character development.
The character developments on Angel also felt more organic and well-reasoned (Cordelia becoming less-selfish, Wesley's darkening, etc), but on Buffy they oftern happened because the plot said so (Anya becoming a vengeance demon again, Spike in Season 6 was all over the map). Buffy tried it just as much as Angel, it was just a lot less successful.
But not everyone developed so well in Angel. Wesley and Cordelia are the main ones. But did Gunn? Even Angel himself would kind of develop in a loop- he'd get more human, then go all dark, then something would happen and he'd soften and become more human again.

On Buffy, Buffy herself was the person who I felt grew the most consistantly (In fact sometimes she 'grew' painfully slowly...) but Willow and Spike grew the most. And I agree Spike seemed a bit more consistant (and less Saint-like and therefore much-more likable) on Angel, he added a lot to Season 5.

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

Simplified, Buffy was a plot-driven show, while AtS was character-driven.