It's not my favorite TV evah, but Angel S4 is totally the best thing to come from Mutant Enemy.

AtS always had problems with seasonal arcs and pacing

Unlike Buffy? I mean, they both had issues in those areas.

I don't they were trying to do the same kind of season-long arcs on Angel. Which makes comparing finales across the shows difficult, since they had different things to accomplish. Apart from Restless, on Buffy the finale featured a climactic battle against the Big Bad who has menaced them all season. Angel didn't have Big Bads, and the season's climax usually came several episodes before the finale.

(And then Darla said they'd go again.)

(Zing!)

Unlike Buffy? I mean, they both had issues in those areas.

BtVS:

S1 - Not much of an arc but "Prophecy Girl" ties everything together so well that it almost retroactively bends the season into an arc.

S2 - One of the best long storyline arcs in TV history. Just about perfect from the one-third mark of the season on.

S3 - Another really good arc (in the best season, per episode quality) somewhat undercut by the postponed episodes.

S4 - Terrible. WTF was Adam doing anyway?

S5 - Bleh.

S6 - Pretty great arc, actually. Some missteps with Willow's addiction to magic, but 50,000 Buffista fans yelling "Giles!" can't be wrong.

S7 - Good on paper, poor in execution. Maybe too arc focused in some respects, as they sacrificed a lot of shows to move the arc but the individual episodes weren't nearly as good.

Now I'm going backwards, and watching The Wish. It's SO fucked-up. Mmmmm.

My best season finale vote goes to Graduation Day. I liked the go down fighting end of Angel, but it was undercut by my irritation at the "Oh, by the way, this whole season has been leading up to an apocalypse" set up and the fact that I discovered that there could be something more annoying than living Fred and that was dying Fred.

I could not stand Fred, and yet her death tore my heart out.

I grew to like Fred, but I didn't like the Fred romantic drama - if that makes any sense.

The Fred death was a bit too much. It was like Bobby Simone's death on NYPD Blue. So much drama and drawn out. I kept looking for a Greek chorus.

I started out liking Fred (blood hand! how much did that rock?) but the repetition of "Handsome man! Saved me from the monsters!" in the previews unfairly eroded my liking of her. And then her character was erratically written. But she had moments.

"Fredless" was pretty effective at killing any positive feelings I had for the character, though I liked her in her first few episodes.

"Prophecy Girl" is both my favorite finale and my favorite hour of television, ever.

I liked Chosen just because it ends with Buffy happy and relieved. I wanted that for her. But otherwise it was weak. Not Fade Away actively pisses me off. I wish I weren't one of those canon-ignoring people, but Home is the finale I wanted Angel to have. Love S4, lovelovelove.

I liked Pylea; it had great Wes, Angel, and Cordy stuff, and gave us Fred. No bad there for me, as I love Fred in every little way.

Becoming for me. I've rarely been that powerfully affected by a TV episode. I agree with Hec - Buffy S2 and S3 are my favourites, in that order - S2 wins on the arc, S3 on individual ep quality.

I didn't like Pylea at the time (I agree with ita - too much whiplash from the rest of S2), though it's grown on me.

I liked Fred, was royally pissed off when they killed her off, and just ignore Fredless. The only good to come of either of those was setting up Wesley suffer all over again in The Girl in Question.