Improving Season 4

Wesley Junior

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For those who dislike or hate Season 4, in your opinion, what do you think would have made the season better for you to enjoy? Less Adam? No Willow-Oz breakup? Less college? A more interesting Riley?
 
I think the reason this is my least favourite season is because the scoobies drifted apart which I didnt like, buffy was off with the initiative and they were all focused in there own relationships and less with each other. The big villain was pretty boring, plus the lacking of Angel took a while to get used to which is probably another reason this is my least fav. Spike for me was the highlight of the season, i enjoyed seeing more of him and he made it funny. Improvements that could have been made would proabably be less Adam and a more interesting Riley, i like his character so it would have been nice to learn a bit more about him and his past, perhaps an episode of how he became involved with the initiative with flashbacks would have been cool.
 
I really love season 4. But Adam was such lame and ridiculous bad guy.

I think it would have been better if Maggie Walsh had been the big bad - maybe experimenting on demons and monsters for her own gain ala Gwendolyn Post.

Plus I think it the whole Professor/Student angle would have made a nice narrative subtext.

Well, it sure as hell would have made a lot sense than Adam's floppy disc drive.


Also, more secret agent Riley action would be great.
 
I love S4, it's one of my favorite seasons, for reasons I can't even explain.

But I think one of the big problems most people had with it seems to be Adam, and I admit, it was pretty lame compared to the rest of the bad guys we've had.

I think most people thought the Initiative was going to be the Big Bad, and when Adam was revealed, a lot of fans felt let down. I agree that Maggie would have made a better bad guy.

I also think Riley's involvement with the Initiative would have had a bigger impact if it had been revealed later in the seasons, something like S6, maybe, where the Big Bad wasn't revealed until the final three episodes. His torn loyalty would have been much more convincing that way.
 
I'm actually finding that now that I kinda adore Riley, I don't mind S4 all that much. In fact I enjoy.

I do agree about the disconnection of the Scoobies is a huge reason to dislike it though. This is the beginning of the end in a lot of ways.
 
Taake
Taake
I know it's weird, lately I've found I don't mind Riley like I once did either...
Adam was awful. Incredibly lame... very uninteresting. The most interesting thing in this season was Tillow and Spike. And out of all the Spikes we saw... this one was the most boring. To improve season 4, they'd have to give us something to work with. It had some great stand alone episodes some of my favorite in the series: Hush, Something Blue, Pangs... but the actual plot of the season was so boring. I agree with Emily, they shouldn't have killed off Maggie Walsh. She was far more interesting than ANYONE else in The Initiative including Adam.
 
I've actually never thought about a way to improve season four...maybe because I don't hate season four. I think the thing of it is that the season had it's really high points and then it had it's really low points. The high points and low points are different for everybody but the low points are the things I'd like to change about the season. It was an enjoyable season and some of the episodes were just sensational but there are some I'd be tempted to skip on re-watch.

Firstly, can we get rid of Beer Bad? And maybe Superstar along with it. But I'd keep Superstar if it meant I could rid the world of Beer Bad. It was diappointed frankly and just shot down the entire season. It had actually been pretty amazing before then and by Beer Bad I was cringing--unsure if it could redeem itself from that horrid fall. But I did get over it in the end and it did mean the end of Parker, which really is the only bad thing about the first few episodes.

And what about Riley? I wouldn't get rid of him completely...actually I have no idea what I would do with him. Maybe not get him involved with Buffy--find her someone else. He was never destined to be with her, it was not going to work out. He was cool when he was ordernairy or when he was the cool super-guy in Season Six but here he was just kind of painful and sometimes even whiney. They try so hard to make him the stable, normal one of Buffy's boyfriends and fail miserably. It doesn't work, it just doesn't. So don't cut him out because the Initiative storyline worked but do something to fix him and find Buffy someone else or let her live life alone for once. Since when is it all about romance?

Adam, Adam, Adam...Why were we subjected to you as a villain? I honestly have no idea what it was that made me dislike you. Maybe because you weren't scary at all and weren't likeable to make up for your lack of scary-ness. The Master was pathetic, but he was a first season villain that I could never have high hopes for. Spike, Drusilla and Angelus were all amazingly epic. Spike had a killer personality and epic lines. Drusilla could make me laugh and could actually be kind of scary sometimes and Angelus...well, scary and hilarious lines--plus a killer storyline. The Mayor was a decent villain with a likeable personality. But then Adam was introduced and it fell, he falls as bad as The Master--maybe worse. CHANGE THE VILLIAN.

But season four, as I said, had it's epic episodes, plot points and moments. Something Blue, Hush, This Years Girl/Who Are You, Fear Itself, Restless, New Moon Rising, Tara and Willow, Spike and his chip, Giles' mid-life crisis and singing, The Gentlemen. Plus way more things that I love. I wouldn't keep Willow and Oz together because it would mean me having to give up Tara and Tillow. NO WAY.

Anyways, those are my scrambled opinions.
 
They should have made Adam a bit more sinister, he looked like an Action Man gone wrong. I think Riley's character could have had a bit more depth, but then I suppose they were trying to make him different to Angel and have him be 'normal,' which inevitably made him dull.

I like the college stuff though, as well as all of the Spike scenes.
 
I liked the college stuff as well.
I guess I missed that Buffy and Adam didn't really have some epic-ness or whatever. It wasn't personal at all. Riley was sort of connected to him so for me he is like the friend of a cousin's bad guy. I liked the Oz break up I always likes how Joss shakes things up.
The Initiative was just boring for me. Could have done more. I don't know, I still enjoy it. Anya was adorable in s4.
 
Before I didn't like it either.. It was too James Bond, and that's not what BtVS is about. I disliked the whole Initiative thing. But as I re-watched the series a couple of times, I became more fond of the season. It contains a lot of interesting episodes (Pangs, Something Blue, Hush, etc etc).. But as someone already mentioned, Adam was a ridiculous "big bad". Why would a Frankenstein-monster destroy the world?
But season 4 is one of my favorite seasons despite the fact that everything is about The Initiative.
 
I love Season Four, but the complete removal of Riley and making Maggie Walsh the Big Bad (with Adam as her "muscle") would have improved it immensely.
 
Who are you and what have you done with my Kean?!:confused1

Oh, you missed that? Yeah, I'm coming down on the side of Riley now. He's actually a really likable guy. At least he is when I'm in my twenties lol
 
For those who dislike or hate Season 4, in your opinion, what do you think would have made the season better for you to enjoy? Less Adam? No Willow-Oz breakup? Less college? A more interesting Riley?

Like others, Adam just didn't cut it. I think he had so much potential, and could have been a great Big Bad, but they squandered the opportunity. I think Tara/Willow was much more interesting that Willow/Oz.
 
I think Adam could have been so much cooler. If instead of having him be this hyper-intelligent villain - make him a tragic creation that doesn't understand his place in the world and is desperately looking to figure out his place. His place being that Walsh made him to be a monster / killing machine. Character development like that could have went a long way with Adam.
 
I loved Season 4 (Even The Initiative and Iowa Something Or Rather). Up until Adam killed Walsh, and even after when the group was really scared of him, it was good, and then he turned weird and joined with Spike and BAM ruined. xD

This season had a lot of great cross-overs and a lot of standalones (hush, something blue, where the wild things are, pangs etc.) So I approve of it.

It's probably my 4th favorite season... (5, 3, 2, 4, 7, 6, 1)
 
- Get rid of Riley. Seriously. Have Buffy date a tree stump instead. It would have been more interesting, and way less whiny.
- Get rid of Adam. Or make him a better villain.
- Get rid of the Initiative. Or make it better. And this one, I'm more serious about. I like the IDEA of the Initiative, I just don't like the execution of it.

Overall, individual episodes of S4 were brilliant...it was the arcs that needed changing.
 
T
TheFirstSlayer
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I would have preferred Willow finding her true sexuality to be more of a slow burner. It happened too quickly after she and Oz broke up.

Speaking of Oz, I feel his departure was a hatchet job. I especially loathe when Oz tries to excuse what happened as kind of being payback for what happened between Willow and Xander. That's not the Oz we learned to instantly adore.

I would have liked Riley's and Buffy's relationship to be more of a slow burner too. I think Riley should have been given the mentor/friend role for longer with Buffy eventually falling for the guy. That way it would have come off as Buffy being on less of a rebound from Angel, not to mention I don't think that the Bangel fans would have had as much of a problem with Riley had it happened this way.

The villain, it should have been a Vampire IMO. Actually, this show didn't have enough Vampiric big bads. I mean c'mon, the title is Buffy the VAMPIRE Slayer.
 
I would have preferred Willow finding her true sexuality to be more of a slow burner. It happened too quickly after she and Oz broke up.

Speaking of Oz, I feel his departure was a hatchet job. I especially loathe when Oz tries to excuse what happened as kind of being payback for what happened between Willow and Xander. That's not the Oz we learned to instantly adore.

Yeah, I agree with this. I would've liked to have pulled the Oz/Veruca/Willow storyline out longer than what it was, with Willow meeting Tara somewhere in the middle of this and them starting off as friends. OR. I'd hold off on Tara till Season 5, giving Willow more time between breaking up with Oz and getting with Tara. Then Season 5 the Tillow storyline could've built slowly and Willow being confused and figuring out what everything means, which would've kept Tara alive at least till Season 7, making Willow a better villain than what she was in Season 6, with Willow healing in season 8 instead of what she's doing now.
 
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