It's probably worth keeping in mind that Whedon was really only peripherally involved in most of Angel. The series was really, Tim Minear and David Greenwalt's baby. When they left, they hired Jeff Bell to take over the reigns. Whedon acted more as an executive producer.
Sort of similar actually to the comics, where Whedon hands the reigns off to someone else to plot and write the Angel and Faith series. He did the same thing there.
I think Whedon wrote Angel as a metaphor, then never quite made it past the metaphor. Greenwalt and Minear ran with the character and used the metaphor in a different way - examining it as a sort of internal denial or mask. All you have to do is watch Amends and compare it to Dear Boy, the Prodigal, and Darla to see the differences. Or for that matter Becoming vs. Darla. And you see Minear saw Angel as more complex than Whedon did. I'm not saying Minear is a better writer, just that he was more comfortable, as was Greenwalt, in that specific genre.
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Whedon acted more as an executive producer.
Sort of similar actually to the comics, where Whedon hands the reigns off to someone else to plot and write the Angel and Faith series. He did the same thing there.
I think Whedon wrote Angel as a metaphor, then never quite made it past the metaphor. Greenwalt and Minear ran with the character and used the metaphor in a different way - examining it as a sort of internal denial or mask. All you have to do is watch Amends and compare it to Dear Boy, the Prodigal, and Darla to see the differences. Or for that matter Becoming vs. Darla. And you see Minear saw Angel as more complex than Whedon did. I'm not saying Minear is a better writer, just that he was more comfortable, as was Greenwalt, in that specific genre.