The WB has taken over Tuesday nights, offering a one-two punch of wholesome vampire-slaying, demon ass-kicking fun with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and it’s brand new spin-off Angel.

After a season plagued with controversy, Buffy (Tuesday, 8p.m.) returns, through this year, something seems a little different. The show that’s been hailed by TV Guide and Entertainment Weekly takes a 180 degree turn from last year as the majority of the cast heads off to college. Buffy (Sarah Michelle Geller), in a non-Save By the Bell-lish sort of way, finds herself like any freshman, confused and out of place, instead of the popular vampire killer she was in high school.

The season premiere was yet another excellent episode from creator/ writer/ director/ producer Joss Whedon. Buffy is a fish out of water now who discovers, as all of us have, that college isn’t exactly what you expect it’s going to be when you depart from high school. Like many freshmen, Buffy longs for the days when she was popular, when her world was smaller and when she could beat down vampires with ease.

Most of the original cast returns for the premiere (minus Dave Boreanaz and Charisma Carpenter), including Seth Green, who will remain for about half the season before he leaves to do movies. By the end of this cleverly exciting episode, Buffy discovers she can get by with a little help from her friends and things aren’t as bad as they seemed.

Following Buffy is the very engrossing spin-off series, Angel (Tuesday, 9 p.m.). Angel, though original in it’s own right, is a really dark, gloomy vesion of Buffy, taking rogue vampire Angel to The City of Angels, Los Angeles.

Angel is a very clever, almost shocking incarnation of Buffy. Most of the show takes place at night (obviously), on the dark and shadowy streets of L.A. where the dark and shadowy people of L.A. lurk. Angel (David Boreanaz) as a character is utterly intriguing, a tortured vampire with a conscience and riddled with guilt over his former vampire ways. His lack of direction causes conflict between saving helpless people and, well, his urge to eat them.

In the series premiere, Angel receives the direction he’s been lacking from Doyle (Glenn Quinn), an Irish speaking demi-demon who tells Angel he is his messenger, sent from an unseen higher power. This higher power believes Angel has some higher purpose other than just saving every victim in trouble.

After many twists and turns, the protagonist does not achieve his goal, a tactic usually reserved for more daring shows like Law and Order, The Practice, and The Sapranos.

And that’s what makes Angel stand out from the majority of the other new dramas this year. It has the same freshness as Buffy, but with a cynical, darker and even more adult look at the series. Angel, dubbed by TV Guide as "one of the best new shows," lives us to that review. Together with Buffy, Tuesday nights on the WB are definitely worth checking out.