Yeah all three of the main Scoobies had a tendency to both self-dramatisation and self-pity. It works in S1 and S2 because the characters are teenagers, they seemed to be moving away from it in S3 but by S6 it's back worse than ever and it makes the main characters less fun to spend time with. They can still make all…

Plus "magic as drugs" didn't fit with how magic was portrayed on the show either before or after. It was generally shown as a more of a tool that different people used differently. Willow saw it as a way to be more useful in the group and to gain more parity with Buffy (there's a nice throughline from when Buffy tells…

I probably preferred Angel out of the two shows by the time both had finished.I thought S5 was really good.

I never felt like Buffy got her sense of humour and or fun back until the last episode of S7. Maybe part of it was SMG being tired of the show but for much of S7 Buffy seems to be in a pretty grim and joyless place (most likely because she thinks she's going to be faced with leading a ton of potential slayers to their…

Seriously though, Buffy and Angel did get in my head :-) No different than loving a book or a piece of music.

Name some then ;-) I was thinking it was partly to do with how audiences have shrunk and shows have to tap into smaller niche audiences. I can't think of many recent shows where somebody in day to day life brought them up either.

There's something inherently annoying in when everyone insists you should watch something so maybe the show was already at a disadvantage ;-)

They took a five finger discount….on ideas.

Charmed started in 1998, so it was more of a contemporary show. And I tend to think it got greenlit because of Spelling. Witches were clearly in during 1998 though. Practical Magic came out that year.

Other TV shows that matter?

I'm glad they aren't rebooting it. It was of its time and is there for everybody to watch. If someone wants to say something about 2017 onwards, let them write something new. It's probably easier.

It's hard to think of a comparable show now.

I love how Veronica seems perky and has a lot of energy without being actually happy or particularly optimistic. She's a pretty realistic version of a hyper-bright teenager.

It wasn't overrated while it was on. A lot of people cottoned to it being more interestingly written than the average TV show when it was basically dying in S6 and S7. And I think that's why it made fans want to defend it so ardently.

This reminds me of quite a good Angel site (sanctuary.digitalspace.net I believe) that did the list of tropes thing before TVTropes was a thing.

Alias started while Buffy was still on. Although there was also a prohecy I suppose ;-)

Dark Angel isn't really a follow up though, I think it started while Buffy was still on.

"Willow and Tara as well, they had disagreeements even before Willow started to go evil."

I like Anya and "Selfless" wasn't bad but it isn't one I would chose to rewatch.

I know and I agree. It would have been interesting if she'd attempted some spell on Buffy that didn't quite take or that wore off eventually. I think she talks about trying to make Buffy forget her experience of heaven in "Tabula Rasa" at one point.