End of "Angel"

I've never been one to be terribly into television. Oh, I did spend a good deal of time in front of the tube between 11 and 17, making sure I got in my requisite number of hours so I could properly quote lines from "The Brady Bunch" fifteen years later, but, other than that (and a rabid attachment to the original "Battlestar Galactica" when I was around 9), I've not been much of a TV watcher. Too much else to do, I guess.

Katrina got me turned on to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" a couple of years ago. We came in as wannabe latecomers to the Buffy phenom, but have since purchased all the available seasons on DVD. (I personally have seen every episode to the end of season 5...or maybe it's season 4...and most of season 6 and all of season 7).

While we were slogging our way through old episodes of "Buffy," we made a conscious decision to stay away from its spinoff series, "Angel," on the advice of some unknown person who told Katrina it was "dark, darker than Buffy." Darker than slaying vampires and living in a town that is situated on top of a Hellmouth? Now, that's pretty dark.

But, with the end of Buffy, we needed something else to watch, so we started watching "Angel" at the beginning of season 5, which, unknown to us and the rest of the public, was to be its last. It only took an episode or two for us to realize that the show was (horrors!) even better than "Buffy" -with a sharper sense of wit, and better-defined characters and storylines. We were hooked. So, last Christmas I bought Katrina the complete "Angel" series DVDs, which at the time were just season 1 and 2. She has since purchased season three, and I've now seen everything up to the end of season 3 and all of season 5, including the series finale (?) which aired this week.

I feel like writing about the insipid nature of television these days, that a great show like "Angel" could get axed, while tripe like "That 70's Show" and the latest reality monstrosity keep on getting renewed. I just don't understand it.

The show is done. It ended on a sad, but good, and dare I say uplifting, note. Like "Star Trek: The Next Generation," at least they were able to go out at the top of their game.

...'course, I wouldn't complain if UPN picked the show up for another couple seasons, or if the rumored Spike show comes to be.