He soon finds himself assisted by Allen Francis Doyle (Glenn Quinn), another Irish character who is a half-human, half-demon who, although he comes across as a ne'er-do-well hustler, has a heroic side.

With the death of Doyle in the ninth episode of the show's first season, another character from the Buffy series makes the jump to its spinoff: Wesley Wyndam-Pryce (Alexis Denisof) joins the team under the brave guise of "rogue demon hunter," acting as comic relief and initially not well accepted.

Over time, Wesley shows bravery and strength as well as some cold-blooded killing ability, like his colleague Rupert Giles, and grows into a leader.

In season 2 of the show, Angel, Cordelia and Wesley are joined by Charles Gunn (J. August Richards), a young demon hunter who must initially adjust to working with and for a vampire.

At the end of season 2, they travel to the demon world Pylea, where they save Winifred "Fred" Burkle (Amy Acker), a young Texan physicist whose social skills have become stunted after five years' captivity; she later grows to become more outspoken.

Because L.A.'s got it all: the glamour and the grit, the big breaks and the heartaches, the sweet young lovers and the nasty, ugly, hairy fiends that suck out your brain through your face.

Jacob suggests several explanations: first, the name connection ('City of Angels'); second, the double-sided nature, the "other side of the stereotypical sunshine city, Beach Boys and Walt Disney", "the place of pain, anonymity, alienation and broken dreams".

Unlike Buffy, however, the season-long narratives are not marked by the rise and defeat of a powerful antagonist, commonly referred to as the "Big Bad" in the parent series.

Instead, the overarching story of all five seasons of the series pitted Angel as the central player in a battle between the "good" Powers That Be and the "evil" law firm Wolfram & Hart and his possible role in a prophesied apocalypse.

They sometimes even save the world from annihilation by a combination of physical combat, magic, and detective-style investigation, and are guided by an extensive collection of ancient and mystical reference books.

When Cordelia vanishes, Lorne, the flamboyant demon owner of karaoke bar Caritas, reluctantly takes Angel and his crew to his home dimension, Pylea, to rescue her.

The group receives an amulet that resurrects a past companion of Angelus, the en-souled vampire Spike, initially as a ghost-like presence but later regains corporeal status due to the machinations of Lindsey McDonald in a surprise return.

Angel, after getting one last vision from Cordelia before her death, infiltrates the Circle of the Black Thorn, a secret society responsible for engineering the Apocalypse, and plans to take them all out in a simultaneous, hard-hitting strike.

Lorne leaves and disappears into the night, his innocence destroyed after fulfilling Angel's last order to kill Lindsey, the former Wolfram & Hart lawyer who had turned his back on the firm.

Several years before Angel debuted, Joss Whedon developed the concept behind Buffy the Vampire Slayer to invert the Hollywood formula of "the little blonde girl who goes into a dark alley and gets killed in every horror movie.

According to the fictional universe first established by Buffy, the 'Buffyverse',[24] Angel was born in 18th-century Ireland; after being turned into a soulless, immortal vampire, he became legendary for his evil acts, until a band of wronged Gypsies punished him by restoring his soul, overwhelming him with guilt.

"[26] While the central concept behind Buffy was "high school as a horror movie" in small-town America,[27] co-creators David Greenwalt and Whedon were looking to make Angel into a different "gritty, urban show.

At the start of the fourth season, David Simkins was made showrunner and executive producer, but after three months, he left the show due to "creative differences" and is not credited in any episodes.

[41] Other authors with writing credits include: Shawn Ryan, Ben Edlund, Drew Goddard, Jeannine Renshaw, Howard Gordon, Jim Kouf, Jane Espenson, Doug Petrie, Tracey Stern, David H. Goodman, Scott Murphy, Marti Noxon and Brent Fletcher.

Next, the staff met in the anteroom to Whedon's office to begin "breaking" the story into acts and scenes; the only one absent would be the writer working on the previous week's episode.

The opening theme was composed by Holly Knight and Darling Violetta, an alternative rock group that performed two songs during the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

[44] Joss Whedon posted a message on a popular fan site, The Bronze: Beta, in which he expressed his dismay and surprise, saying he was "heartbroken"[45] and described the situation as "Healthy Guy Falls Dead From Heart Attack.

"[46] Fan reaction was to organize letter-writing campaigns, online petitions, blood and food drives, advertisements in trade magazines and via mobile billboards, and attempts to lobby other networks.

[50] He said in 2021 that Spike's addition to the show prevented cancellation after four seasons, although his request for a salary equal to what he was paid on Buffy caused Whedon to remove Carpenter from the main cast.

While Buffy the Vampire Slayer was built around the angst of adolescence, Angel chronicles the different stages of adulthood after one leaves home and begins working.

[53] Many traditional noir stories and characters were explored in earlier episodes, including the ditzy but attractive secretary, the cagey but well-informed partner, and clashes with crooked lawyers, femme fatales and meddlesome, too-good-for-their-own-good cops.

The style and focus of the show changed considerably over its run, and starting late in season two the original noir idea was mostly discarded in favor of more large-scale supernatural-themed conflicts.

As the series progressed, the creators were able to explore darker aspects of the characters, particularly Angel, who commits a number of morally questionable actions, and periodically reverts to his evil persona Angelus.

An article in The Independent stated, "The LA-set spin-off to Buffy was initially dismissed as the original's poor cousin but gradually developed into a darkly entertaining show in its own right.

In March 2006, Joss Whedon still talked of the possibility of a TV movie involving Spike to be written and directed by Tim Minear.