|
|
|
Characters we love Spike (Buffy) Cloe (Smallville) Brian Kinney (QAF) Willow (Buffy) Lex Luthor (Smallville) Josh Lyman (West Wing) Kitty Foreman (70s Show) Yola (Chris Isaak) Jessie Sammler (O&A) Noel (Felicity) Wesley (Angel)
...and some we don't Dawn (Buffy) Kelso (70s Show) Kim Bauer (24) Ben (Felicity) Ross (Friends)  |
Buffy the Vampire SlayerLast updated 28 May, 2006
Premise: Buffy Summers is The Chosen One: one girl in all the world who will hunt the vampires, demons, and forces of darkness. Buffy is less than thrilled about this for much of the run of the series. And she won't play by the old rules. Most notably, she insists on trying to have a life, including recruiting friends to help with her sacred calling. Current status: On permanent hiatus (sob!), but reruns play weekdays at 9:00 on Space. CommentarySeason 1 - DVD review pending (1996–97) Season 5 (mid-point)
Buffy is always worth watching, of course (especially with Spike as a regular character), but this season is taking a while to get going. I was a bit alarmed that the opening Dracula episode bordered on cheesy; fortunately, that didn't continue. I'm not at all enamored of the new Dawn character, though. She's just irritating. And Riley is starting to get dull. Season 5 (end)Favourite show Weak spots first: Too many characters, resulting in
occasionally uneven character development. A relatively uninteresting
(though attractive) villain. And some weak episodes, although the slide
into cheese (Dracula) didn't last long.
Season 6 (mid-point)2nd favourite show: A
A great start, and already two classic episodes. Spike and Buffy. Weaknesses The biggie: Willow's magic = drugs plotline. The weak villains. Season 6 (end)2nd favourite show: A After an incredibly compelling start, Buffy stumbled mid-season. Willow's addiction plot, stemming from the ludicrously over-the-top "Wrecked" episode, made the character almost unbearable to watch. Poor Dawn had little to do but whine and throw tantrums. Anya and Xander's break-up seemed insufficiently motivated, and thus designed merely to surprise. As for our central characters, Spike and Buffy, the mid-season writing failed them as well. I think what they were trying to convey is that Buffy, having used Spike as a sex toy in order to regain the ability to feel at all, was now trying to bring up the passion and feeling within herself. Unfortunately, Buffy just came across as kind of cold, and her repeated mini-epiphanies became kind of annoying. As for Spike, I think he was supposed to be getting increasingly crazed and desperate once Buffy broke up with him, such that his evil side was coming out more. Unfortunately, he still mostly seemed the sympathetic, hurt party, which I don't think was the idea. Thankfully, the season had one heck of ending. Boom! Spike and Anya have solace sex — on film. Boom! Spike's attempt to apologize for it turns into an attempted rape. Boom! Buffy literally busts Warren's balls. And boom! Warren takes revenge on Buffy, but accidentally kills Tara, which leads to... Evil Willow, who articulates all our complaints about this season (particularly enjoyable was her rant against whiny Dawn) and who kind of, if you squint, makes up for the awful-ness that was her addiction plot. And who gives Giles an opportunity to come back and remind us all how wonderful he was, and how much he was missed. And who gives Anya, finally out of Xander's shadow, her best episodes all season. And dear old Xander actually gets to save the world. Leaving the season with Spike getting what he wants, so that Buffy can get what he deserves. Word to Angel: you are no longer the only vampire with a soul in the Buffyverse. And now I'm so looking forward to next year — though I really hope Joss Whedon can give the individual scripts the attention they've obviously lacked at times this year. Season 7 (mid-point)
Coming off an uneven year, season 7 has been a delight so far. We have the best Big Bad ever: The First, who can take the form of any dead entity, including all vampires and all past Big Bads. As a result, we never really know who's good, who's bad -- who's really who. We have an unaddicted Willow, an unannoying Dawn, and an integrated Xander. We have the strongest Buffy in years, admitting to past failings and dealing with current problems head on. We have James Marsters' unerring skill in portraying the complexity of Spike, who this year has appeared in every guise imaginable, from completely evil to utterly insane. Giles hasn't appeared enough, but at least he's still appearing. There have been a few “filler” episodes this season, but no bad ones, and at least one classic, in “Selfless” (the episode about Anya). And special note must be made of the last 10 minutes of “Beneath You”, in which Gellar and Marsters enact one of the most powerful scenes on television ever. Season 7 (end)Favourite show
Poor or non-existent character arcs This problem was most egregious in the case of Anya. Her very strong early story of realizing she no longer had the heart to be a vengeance demon, and indeed, really needed to figure out who she really was led to... very little, unfortunately. In many episodes, she just had a few quippy lines. Sometimes she wasn't even there. A fine character wasted until some nice moments at the end. But original Scoobie Giles didn't fare much better. Some complained that his occasional absences from a show weren't always explained. I really didn't care about that. But I did care that his personality was just off for much of the year, for no apparent purpose. And just as inexplicably, in the last two episodes, he became himself again. Xander started off the year with this new impression of competence and confidence that was great, and all year he could be relied upon to say the right thing at the right time. But he really didn't have a lot to do. And finally, Willow did have a true season-long arc, as she struggled to control her magic without losing herself in it. That was a good and necessary story, and Willow did get entire episodes mostly devoted to it. However, the pacing wasn't always on. For example, in Get It Done she does a big spell to get Buffy back; then she goes to Angel and does the restoration spell with little trouble. But in the penultimate episode, she's too scared to even magically scan the scythe? Huh? Big bad peters out The First Evil — the big bad who can be any dead person it wants — had the potential to be really interesting. Unfortunately, that potential wasn't totally realized. Yeah, it was a neat way to get Drusilla, Jonathan, the Mayor, and the others back, but being non-corporeal, it was never really scary. It also wasn't all that smart. And it was never completely clear, even at the end, what the First's plan was. Sometimes it seemed to be omniscient, sometimes not so much, and that wasn't explained well either. Too many characters Sigh. The potentials. Again, this could have been an interesting thing to explore, but the actuality was a bunch of annoying teenage girls taking time away from the characters we loved. So now that I've gotten that out of the way, why do I still put Buffy among the best on TV? Not all character arcs were poor or non-existent Buffy herself had a strong storyline, and often came across more sympathetically than she has in a while. We could see her struggle to resolve different aspects of herself — the warrior, the woman, the friend — and how isolating that could be. Her victory in the end truly was satisfying. And going through that journey with her was Spike, coping with a new soul, haunting by the First Evil, love of Buffy, and a strong desire to be a good man. A hero. His journey from insanity in the basement to being the First's pawn to saving the world on the strength of his soul was truly riveting. And a few words about Dawn. Probably more could have been explored there about her unusual origins and what powers they might confer. But mainly, I'm just glad that the character didn't irritate me at all this year. Truly anyone can be redeemed. Some strong episodes Not all the great episodes were in the first half of the season. “Get It Done,” with Buffy jumping through a portal to find the origins of Slayer power, was a visual and intellectual feast. “Chosen” was a very satisfying, well-written series finale. And ”Lies my Parents Told Me,” while not quite as strong as it might have been, was still an interesting exploration of Spike's early vampire days. Not all the extraneous characters were a waste of space Andrew, of all people, ended up being one of the most amusing and even endearing of characters (who has also happened to get a better character arc than most of the regulars). Given his grating origins, that's saying something. Principal Wood added some sex appeal and mystery. (It was OK that we were always kind of suspicious of him, cause we hadn't known him for seven years.) And Faith's return was very welcome and well-written. I've read complaints that her behaviour in Sunnydale was different than on Angel. But I say that moving in to lead Angel's small band of committed demon-hunters is very different than being faced with an “army” of frightened teenage girls, so her differing reaction made sense. It's the emotions, baby If Buffy sometimes lacked in logical coherence, it rarely failed to make me feel. It was funny, it was poignant, it was infuriating, it was frustrating, it was exhilarating.. I cared about this show, right to the end. And that alone makes it great in my book. CastStars Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy Summer Co-stars Alyson Hannigan as Willow Rosenberg, Nicholas Brendon as Xander Harris, Anthony Stewart Head as Rupert Giles, David Boreanez as Angel, Seth Green as Oz (S2–S5), James Marsters as Spike (S2–S7), Michelle Trachtenberg as Dawn Summers (S5–S7), Emma Caulfield as Anya (S3–S7), Amber Benson as Tara Maclay (S5–S6), Marc Blucas as Riley Finn (S4–S5), and Kristine Sutherland as Joyce Summers. LinksOn Lenair's
External |
|
|
|
||
Copyright © 2001–2006 - Jean Lefebvre
and Catherine McNair
All Rights Reserved
Webmaster: Catherine McNair
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
2nd
favourite show
Strengths
Favourite
show
This
season started out very strongly. Did it keep up that pace? Mmm, not quite.
Much like last year, it ran into some mid-season problems. Such as...