Angel

It was the show that gave us a Torto demon and its parasite singing a duet of the Everly Brothers’ ’Goodbye Love’. It gave us a Loa, in the form of a giant hamburger, predicting earthquakes and fire. And who could forget ’Smile Time’, an evil Sesame Street where the puppets were demons planning to suck out children’s souls - "We eat babies lives!" "And uphold a certain standard of quality edutainment". Yes, Angel, the forgotten Buffy spin-off show about the good vampire with bad hair, has come to an end.

It is not hard to see why the series failed to strike a chord with some critics. After all, the main cast included a camp, green, alcoholic demon that could read people’s minds, but only when they sang karaoke. Even the mother series mocked it: "A vampire with a soul? How lame is that?" What is more, some people noted that David Boreanaz’s deficiencies as an actor extended beyond his quiff.

But somehow, it worked. Behind the self-conscious mockery and bad special effects was one of the darkest and most adult drama series of the last five years, containing serious messages about redemption and ’doing the right thing’.

From the outset, atonement was always the show’s central theme. The main characters all had shameful moments in their histories, whether allowing genocide by inaction, or merely being the uber-bitch of Sunnydale High. And this was never clearer than in the character of Angel himself. In his evil phase, he spent two hundred years terrorising Europe through murder, torture and an unconvincing Irish accent. After the return of his soul, he felt the full guilt of his actions, and made it his mission to atone by helping others. Furthermore, a prophecy foretold that a reward awaited him, that he would, one day, become human.

So far, so comic book. Yet, from the first episode, when the week’s damsel in distress turned up in a body bag shortly before the second advert break, it was clear that redemption was not so simple. In time, Angel became obsessed with searching for the big gesture; the one that would allow him to become a modern Pinocchio. He fixed on the idea of destroying evil law firm Wolfram and Hart, only to discover that the forces behind it were eternal. Hell was here on Earth: nothing he could ever do would fully destroy the firm. But, rather than this news destroying him, he felt liberated and understood that: "If nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do." Small victories are their own reward; the fight is not about the prize, but about doing the right thing.

The fact that a final victory could never be achieved made Angel realise that redemption did not come from winning the prize, only from fighting for it: the work was both punishment and reward. "I used to think that there’d be a point when I’d paid my dues," Angel explained to one-time evil slayer Faith, when persuading her to consider penance. "But our time is never up; we pay for everything."

The impossibility of a final victory made Angel a much darker beast than the mother series, and set the tone for its ending. The last episode of Buffy returned the show to its girl power roots, showing the world that you can do anything if you put your mind to it. Angel suggested otherwise, ending with the surviving members of the gang facing a battle they already knew they could not win. But, somehow, the decision to fight on in the face of such futility only makes it more life affirming. "What would you do if you found out that none of it matters?" one character asks another. "I would get moving because there’s more to do," she replies. Because if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do.

This difference in the two series’ messages reflects the way they end for a single character. In the final Buffy, Spike - the other vampire with a soul - dies a glorious hero’s death, conveniently saving the world in the process. When hidden players magically resurrect him for Angel’s last season, he ultimately finds himself just another bloodstained soldier facing certain death in a back-alley in a storm, but when asked to risk his life for the cause, he does not hesitate. True heroes do not fight for glory or a prize; they fight because it is the right thing to do.

The show makes this message even clearer through the development of the character Wesley Wyndham-Price. When Wesley first appeared in Buffy five years ago, he was a one-joke character: the new watcher, naive, wet, looking like James Bond but acting like Miss Moneypenny. As the years went on, he grew into one of the darkest and most complex characters in either series. He became the respected leader he wanted to be, but then love and betrayal broke his spirit.

In one of the series’ darkest episodes, he kept quiet about his own pain to tell a friend that things will get better for them all. But he is wrong. Over the next three years, he has his throat slit, finds himself cut off from his friends and sees two of his lovers die. Yet, despite his isolation, his dedication to the cause is never in doubt. Sleeping with the enemy does not corrupt him; instead, he tries to save her. In the last episode, he confesses that he has nothing left to live for. But he still fights on. All he has left is the belief that he can help to make a better world.

Wesley’s growth from comedy loser to tragic hero is the most obvious manifestation of the show’s willingness to let characters grow and change, an attitude that won Whedon’s shows much of their critical acclaim. Ironically, it was also Angel’s downfall.

Talking about his network’s reasons for cancelling the show, ex-Warner Brothers Executive Jordan Levin explained: "The big problem with Angel is it didn’t repeat well." The format varies between episodes, story arcs can take years to pan out and interpersonal relationships shift in more ways than just who currently dates whom. Any viewer that turned off midway through season one and came back three years later would be utterly lost. And, in a TV industry that makes most of its money through syndication, a series where even fans could lose track if they tuned in mid-season was never going to be a real earner.

But there are signs that the effort was worthwhile for those that stuck with the show. Every year, E! Online runs a "Save One Show" campaign, where readers vote on a series facing cancellation that they would most like to get another chance. This year, more than 400,000 people voted: 85 per cent of them for Angel. Even taking the obsessive fan factor into account, this was clearly a popular show.

Yet the Warner Brothers television network ignored the pleas. They cancelled the show. But, as Angel was often at pains to point out, victory is not everything. Sometimes, it means something just to show up for the fight.

"Quoth he, ’The man hath penance done, And penance more will do" (Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner).