Frosstbyte

I would tend to agree that Buffy had run its course. I really like seasons 5 and 6 (though they're far from perfect) but 7 has a lot of problems and feels, from start to finish, like end the of the series. I haven't read the comics at all, so maybe they make something of it, but I don't really care. They were TV shows and they ended as TV shows, as far as I'm concerned. My primary lament about the end of Buffy is how abruptly and pointlessly Spoiler: Anya dies. He also should have kept alive Jonathan in season 7 instead of Andrew. He had way more history with the show and I fucking hated every whiny minute of Andrew.

I cannot disagree more with this. I loved them running W&H, especially after how angsty the end of season 4 got. Jasmine was cool and all, but yeesh. Connor's storyline never really gripped me either. I think the true tragedy of the end of Angel was 1) not getting more Spike and 2) not getting all the intensely creepy and interesting stuff out about Wesley and Fred/Ilyria. The commentary on those episodes gives you some great ideas about where that storyline could have gone and man would it have been cool.

Doyle did exactly what he was supposed to do and while he was a nice flavor character, he was going the same direction as Angel. Replacing him with Wes (and everything that happened with Wes thereafter) made for a much better story. Also, it goes perhaps without saying (if morbidly) that if Doyle had stuck around, he would've made a sudden and unsatisfying exit.