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Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Angel runs alongside Buffy for four years and characters cross from one show to the other in the middle of a story.

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Where to start with Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy alone for three seasons, then two shows at once. From Buffy's fourth season Angel is running in parallel, they were broadcast an hour apart on the same night, and they were written to be watched that way: one episode of each, alternating, Buffy first.

  1. 1
    Buffy, seasons 1 to 3 Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    Angel does not exist as a show yet, so there is nothing to interleave. The third season ends with Angel leaving Sunnydale, which is the event the spin-off starts from.

  2. 2
    Buffy, season 4 Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    The year the interleave starts. Watch each episode, then the Angel episode with the same number, beginning with The Freshman followed by City Of.

  3. 3
    Angel, season 1, alternated with it Angel

    Twenty two episodes that aired an hour after Buffy every week. Pangs and I Will Remember You are one story told across both shows, and Faith crosses over for two episodes near the end.

  4. 4
    Buffy, season 5 Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    Keep alternating, episode for episode. Fool for Love and Angel's Darla are matched flashback episodes broadcast the same night, and the season ends with Buffy dead.

  5. 5
    Angel, season 2, alternated with it Angel

    Same rule. Its finale ends with Angel being told what happened at the end of Buffy's, so The Gift has to come first that night.

Then what? Buffy's sixth and seventh seasons pair with Angel's third and fourth, but from that point the shows are on rival networks and no character is allowed on the other's air, so every meeting happens off screen and is reported afterwards. In the final year the episode numbers stop lining up and only air order works. The one thing you cannot get wrong: Angel's Salvage, Release and Orpheus must come before Buffy's Dirty Girls, because Faith and Willow travel from one show to the other in them. Angel season 5 is last, set after Buffy has ended, and Spike carries into it.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below — tick anything off in either place.

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