Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Season One
Pros:
- It introduced the whole universe, the concept, the setting, and all these wonderful little characters that have wonderful interaction. You gotta give it credit for that
- Most characters were at their most likeable (Angel and Cordy excluded, they were good but were at their best on AtS).
- Wonderful character interaction that showcased the strength of the core four Scoobies. It's kinda nice to just the four of them before the show became saturated with characters.
- The season had a very fun, nice tone that made it a pleasure to watch.
Cons:
- The season had a very fun, nice tone that made the season a little light-going, it's not as thought-provoking or emotionally powerful as later seasons.
- Too many "monster of the week" episodes. They were, on the whole, average. That, combined with the light feel of the season made many episodes rather disposable. Enjoyable, but disposable nonetheless.
- The Master had some good lines, but was quite a clichéd and hammy villain, especially when compared to the villains of the next few seasons.
- I put the strength of the core four as a "˜pro', but I should say that I do miss many of the great characters to come. There's no Anya, Oz, Faith, Spike, etc, Angel is a mysterious supporting character and not a proper Scooby and Cordelia doesn't even find out about the supernatural until the penultimate episode. I like the core four alone, though I like the larger Scooby group also.
Episode ranking:
1. Prophecy Girl
2. Out of Mind, Out of Sight
3. Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest
4. The Witch
5. Angel
6. Nightmares
7. The Pack
8. Teacher's Pet
9. The Puppet Show
10. Never Kill a Boy on the First Date
11. I Robot, You Jane
Overall: 7/10
A decent enough season, but the show is only finding its feet and doesn't kick properly into gear until those last two episodes, which are more similar to S2. Perhaps due to its short length, it doesn't really feel like a proper season. It's not brilliant, but it does its job well enough.
Season Two
Pros:
- The introduction of Spike and Drusilla. Wonderful characters that redefined what a vampire was in this show. They truly were something different and fresh, and truly entertaining.
- The Angelus arc is wonderful, very emotionally powerful. It marks a drastic change in the show, from a casual monster-of-the-week show to an emotionally devastating arc-based show. The death of Jenny also set the tone for a show that would go on to kill several more characters.
- Angelus, Spike and Drusilla together made the best Big Bads the show has ever had. There will never be a better team of villains.
- The finale is probably the greatest episode ever.
- This was the first season I ever saw, so it has a special place in my heart for that.
- Just gonna repeat the importance of the move towards an arc-based, emotionally powerful, I cannot stress how important that was to the show. It couldn't carry on as S1 forever, it needed to put the characters through the wringer so that they could come out stronger at the other end.
Cons:
- Still too many monster-of-the-week episodes, which were inferior to the arc-centric episodes. Many episodes were still disposable and forgettable.
- Linked to above, a lack of consistency in quality. Episodes like "Innocence" and "Passions" were interspersed with "Bad Eggs" and "Go Fish".
1. Becoming
2. Innocence
3. Passion
4. School Hard
5. Lie to Me
6. Halloween
7. What's my Line?
8. Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
9. The Dark Age
10. I Only Have Eyes for You
11. When She Was Bad
12. Phases
13. Surprise
14. Ted
15. Killed By Death
16. Inca Mummy Girl
17. Some Assembly Required
18. Go Fish
19. Bad Eggs
20. Reptile Boy
Overall: 9/10
A truly wonderful season containing some of the best moments/episodes of the show's run, only let down by a few sub-par episodes. Much more of a mixed bag than S3.
Season Three
Pros:
- Faith, an amazing complex character that brought something new and extraordainary to the show. My second-favourite character in Buffy, and probably in my top 5 all-time.
- The Buffy/Faith relationship and subtext. I'm a sucker for gay subtext, and this season gave it to me in spades. Subtext aside even, I thought that their relationship was one of the most interesting in the show.
- The Mayor. A truly different villain, he was completely evil yet warm, kind, funny, and genuinely cared about Faith.
- A movement away from Monster-of-the-week type episodes to an arc-based story. Granted this really started back with "Innocence", but it was good to have a whole season like that.
- Greater consistency with the quality of episodes. There aren't really any episodes that I'd classify as really poor in S3, the second-worst episode (Gingerbread) I'd classify as "average".
- Some of the funniest lines in the history of the show, such as in Doppelgangland ("I'm an evil, bloodsucking fiend! Look at my outfit!"), The Zeppo ("Is this a penis metaphor?"), Graduation Day ("We could attack the mayor with hummus.") and Band Candy ("Woo, Summers, you drive like a spazz!")
- Possibly the strongest core cast the show has ever had in Buffy/Xander/Willow/Giles/Cordelia/Oz/Angel/Faith.
- Just the
feel of the show in this season. Everything about it, from the dialogue to the characters to the opening sequence had me squeeing at the top of my voice and rocking in delight. I was truly in love with the show.
Cons:
- Lack of stand-out episodes. The greater consistency came at a price - almost every episode was of a high quality, but not many reached the stage of brilliance. Only Graduation Day resides in my top ten.
- Angel didn't really have anything to do this season. It felt for much of the season like he was just hanging around waiting for his spin-off to begin.
- The romance. Willow/Xander lacked chemistry and felt very awkward. It's incredible how the two had so much chemisty as friends, but introduce romance into the equation and all chemistry goes down the toilet. Buffy/Angel was very dreary and dragged out, like Angel himself it felt like they were hanging around waiting to break up.
1. Graduation Day
2. Helpless
3. The Zeppo
4. Consequences
5. Doppelgangland
6. Lover's Walk
7. Enemies
8. Revelations
9. Earshot
10. Bad Girls
11. The Wish
12. Band Candy
13. Homecoming
14. Anne
15. The Prom
16. Faith, Hope and Trick
17. Amends
18. Choices
19. Beauty and the Beasts
20. Gingerbread
21. Dead Man's Party
Overall: 10/10
The best season of BtVS. I found it hard to rank the episodes because they're all so consistent. This season didn't just have great moments, it was pretty much all greatness.
Season Four
Pros:
- Great standalone episodes. The generally quality of episodes was pretty high. We had Hush, This Year's Girl/Who Are You, Restless, Fear Itself. Something Blue is possibly the funniest Buffyverse episode there is ("Can I be blind too?")
- Spike, prior to his Badass Decay. He was still at his most awesome in the season, he began to show layers but still kept the entertainment factor. His speech at the end of "Doomed" is simply wonderful ("Let's get 'em, for... Christmas, and the safety of... puppies, yeah? Let's KILL something! Come on!") He fought with the good guys, but was still badass. He kinda lost it as a character for me after he fell in love with Buffy.
- Anya and Xanya. The funniest character afer Spike. We can all agree that she was a great addition to the show, there couldn't have been a better replacement for Cordelia. Her relationship with Xander was very entertaining and set the groundworks for a very sweet relationship in S5.
- The introduction of Tara and Tillow. We don't get a lot of her this season, but what we do get is brilliant. I don't think it is humanly possible to not like Tara. Her relationship with Willow was very sweet, I loved Oz and all but Tara and Willow were just amazing together.
- The return of Faith. She only got 20 episodes in Buffy overall, so we must savour each one, and these two were just wonderful. Great to see her again.
- Some very interesting character arcs, which came to a head in Restless.
- The crossovers with Angel were good, especially the Faith episodes. Pangs wasn't well done, but it was nice that the two shows were interconnected.
Cons:
- The loss of Angel, Cordelia and Oz hurt - although I do think that their replacements were more than adequate, so it wasn't too noticeable.
- Unintresting Big Bad. I didn't hate Adam, he just didn't do much for me. He kinda suffered from coming a long line of very popular villains in Spike, Drusilla, Angelus, Faith and the Mayor, so his crappiness was more noticeable.
- Poor story arc. The Initiative was an OK idea, but implemented poorly. It was presented as an awful establishment, but to be honest it probably did a lot of good that wasn't accounted for. They even indirectly saved the world in giving Spike a chip. It felt kind of at odds to previous themes - Buffy had always been about rejecting the old order - quitting the council, using her own unusual methods to identify and kill vampires. Criticising a new system because the old method of "one girl with a pointy stick" was better felt kind of odd. Plus, it just wasn't that interesting to sustain a season-long arc.
- Riley and by extension Briley. God, I hate this guy. I hate with with a furious, vengeful passion. Every time this guy appeared on screen I just wanted to bash his stupid potato-shaped head in with a shovel. Gah, I hate Riley. And the whole Buffy/Riley relationship felt forced and a little bit pointless. It didn't really do anything except alienate Buffy from her friends. Boring and stupid. I hate this relationship more than Spuffy and Bangel combined, and that's saying something.
- No permanent meeting place. The show lacked focus without it. The scenes were all over the place - Buffy's dorm, Buffy's house, the classroom, the Initiative, Giles' flat, Xander's basement, Riley's frat house. It could've done with a Library/Magic Box equivalent.
- The scoobies begin to drift apart. Their interaction in early season is still like that of S1/2/3, but around the middle of the season, certainly by The Yoko Factor, they lacked that tight-knit closeness they once had. I missed the Scoobies being so close, and despite them apaprently reconciliating in Primeval, they never truly recovered.
- Introduction of Spike. Now I know that I've already listed this as a pro, but while I loved him in this season, looking long-term I think his introduction as a permanent cast member was a Bad Thing. He was entertaining this season but didn't really do much, and I think by S5 they didn't really know what to do with him, so he fell in love with Buffy to keep him occupied. Still entertaining, but by S6 I felt completely ruined his character. In hindsight and looking long-term I think I would have kept him out of the main cast, just occasionally guesting instead. Perhaps Faith would've been a better choice to fill his role.
- RILEY! *shakes fist*
1. Hush
2. Restless
3. Who Are You?
4. Fear, Itself
5. This Year's Girl
6. Something Blue
7. The Freshman
8. Superstar
9. The Harsh Light of Day
10. Primeval
11. Pangs
12. Wild at Heart
13. A New Man
14. New Moon Rising
15. The Yoko Factor
16. The I in Team
17. Living Conditions
18. The Initiative
19. Goodbye Iowa
20. Doomed
21. Where The Wild Things Are
22. Beer Bad
Overall: 8/10
A very underrated season I think. Yes Adam and the Initiative didn't make a very interesting arc, yes Riley was a douchebag, but it was still an incredibly fun season to watch. It wasn't as good as the last two seasons but I still absolutely loved the show. It had light-hearted comedy (Something Blue) to thought-provoking mindf**k (Restless). Television gold, when Riley wasn't on screen.
Season Five
Pros:
- A return to a stronger core cast with the reunion of the Scoobies in "Primeval" and their relocation to a new central meeting place "“ the Magic Box.
- The exit of Riley and the increased presence of Anya and Tara.
- Glory as a Big Bad presented a massive challenge to Buffy. You really had no idea how she was going to be able to defeat a
God, and it she actually could. The way they defeated her was brilliant, they hit her with everything they had, using various items they had acquired over the course of the season.
- "The Gift" is a wonderful finale. I don't think they could've written a better one, it's a beautiful conclusion that ties up all the loose ends and is absolutely perfect character-arc-wise and thematically.
- The exploration of what a Slayer really is was really interesting.
- There was a powerful realism to this season.
Cons:
- The powerful realism of this season. It bordered on depression, and though it made for good TV, I have very little desire to rewatch "Shadow", "Listening to Fear" or even the wonderful "The Body". It just wasn't as fun as previous seasons.
- Somehow, Riley actually managed to be more of an arse this season than S4. Quite an achievement really.
- Spike falling for Buffy. Although it was alright at first, in hindsight I think that this was a very bad road for the character to go down. I've written much on this before. I think it would've been fine if S5 had been the last series.
- It wasn't the last season. Dammit Buffy, quit while you're ahead!
1. The Gift
2. Fool for Love
3. The Body
4. Family
5. Blood Ties
6. The Replacement
7. Checkpoint
8. Intervention
9. Forever
10. Crush
11. Real Me
12. Tough Love
13. No Place Like Home
14. Buffy .vs. Dracula
15. Weight of the World
16. I Was Made to Love You
17. Into the Woods
18. Spiral
19. Shadow
20. Out of My Mind
21. Triangle
22. Listening to Fear
Overall: 9/10
An excellent season that utilises all the characters well and handles some very strong themes. It does get a little depressing sometimes and doesn't have as many strong episodes as some other season, but it's still very good. Should have been the end of Buffy.
Season Six
Pros:
- Once More, With Feeling.
- Xander saving the world in "Grave". Good for him.
Cons:
I have written about my feelings in more detail here:
https://www.buffy-boards.com/showpost.php?p=788000&postcount=24
However here are my condensed points:
- Two words: Magic Drugs
- Buffy becoming a hollow shell of her former self that was not only disturbing to watch, but she was a selfish bitca also - she'd rather have sex with a vampire than get home to her starving, neglected sister. If she can't be bothered to take care of Dawn, she should just take her back to the pound. Go die in a fire, S6 Buffy.
- Spike, the creepy, abusive, dull, emotionally manipulative asshat with no sense of personal space. Go die in a fire, S6 Spike. You used to be epic.
- Willow the mind-raping junkie. Not only is she an arsehole early on, her drug arc is mind-numbingly stupid.
- Giles the moron with an OOC reason for leaving, Xander the coward, Dawn the whiny, screechy teenager and Anya the pointless.
- Tara's insulting and unneeded death.
- Too little Giles!
- The Trio as the Big Bad. They were just half-hearted nerd stereotypes. I thought the writers were better than that. Not only were they one-dimensional ciphers, but they went against everything the show was about before "“ the outcasts and the freaks as the heroes.
- Dark Willow. She was OK in "Villains", but from then on she just wandered around delivering clichéd, hammy one-liners. We sacrificed Tara for
her?
- The mind-numbing, skin-crawling, dreary depression of the whole thing. Not one single thing good thing happened all season, just a
Deus Angst Machina barrage of crap. Angst is great, but life, and television, is all about balance. S6 did not have balance.
- Buffy's problems being both unrelatable-to (being ripped from heaven) and far too everday (money problems) led to a serious case of
Angst Dissonace for me.
- Lack of decent inter-scooby bond.
- The Spike/Buffy relationship was painful to my eyes, and insulting to both characters.
- Too many god-awful episodes "“ everything from "Smashed" to "Hell's Bells" was utter durge, with some other crap dotted around the season. Even OMWF is overrated.
- Its very existence tarnished the beautiful "The Gift". The show had just had the perfect finale, there should be no more after that.
- It's just really crap.
1. Once More, With Feeling
2. Tabula Rasa
3. Grave
4. Normal Again
5. Villains
6. Entropy
7. Bargaining
8. After Life
9. Flooded
10. Two to Go
11. Dead Things
12. Hell's Bells
13. Life Serial
14. As You Were
15. Older and Faraway
16. Smashed
17. All the Way
18. Doublemeat Palace
19. Gone
20. Seeing Red
21. Wrecked
Overall: 2/10
An almost irredemable sack of crap.
Season Seven
Pros:
- Most of the cast was much, much more likeable than they had been in S6.
- The early season period was wonderful, it felt like proper Buffy again. The "back to roots" theme and the build-up of the First Evil was a great start.
- Hey, a sense of humour! And woah, good things happening to characters? I missed you, Good Things, where've you been?
- More Giles! And Faith! (though still not nearly enough of either)
- The episodes centering on the minor characters (Selfless, Storyteller) were very well done.
- This season did manage to repair some of the damage done in S6. Generally speaking, it was an improvement. However...
Cons:
- Buffy: Bitch Extraordainare. With all due respect Buffy, go to hell. Early season she acted more like her old self, but as soon as the Potentials turned up she switched to "General Buffy" mode. She became unbelievably self-righteous, she seized control and insisted that everybody played by her rules, not letting anyone else get a word in edgeways, she treated her friends like slaves and made them feel guilty when she felt they weren't good enough, she inexplicably prioritised the man who tried to rape her last season over her oldest and dearest friends, her mentor and even her sister, she lost all sense of fun, failed to give anyone the benefit of the doubt, stabbed Anya, acted like an unforgiving bitca to Faith, gave far too many boring speeches, and my good god she
whined. S7 wasn't like S6 Buffy, who was a hollow shell not resembling herself at all, but she was a caricature of her former self. She was just like S1-5 Buffy, except with all her good traits removed and all her worst traits played way up. It's actually made me like S1-5 Buffy less, which is a shame because I used to like her.
- Spike's total eclipse of the show. Whatever your opinion about Spike, whether you think he's a good character or a bad one, when it comes down to it, this is not his show. He should not be given shedloads of screentime while Giles, Xander, Willow, Dawn and Anya are marginalised. He was in most scenes, and even when he wasn't on-screen characters were talking about him. He was repeatedly given plotlines - struggling with the soul, agent of the First, chip malfunctioning, struggle with fighting, history with Wood, relationship with Buffy, saving the world - while characters like Xander had to scrabble around on the floor for a scrap of decent characterisation. You can see how much he overwhelmed the show when you consider that in every other season finale, Buffy, another core four Scooby or a combination of them has saved the world, yet in S7 it was Spike.
- Not just Spike's over-exposure, but his character itself. For much of the time he was just cribbing off Angel's storyline - vampire with a soul, regrets past deeds, falls in love with Buffy Summers, tries to get Buffy to kill him because of the guilt... where have I heard that before? The Never Leave Me/Bring on the Night/Showtime trilogy was just Amends without the snow. Yet instead of having the noble, selfless heroism and the adorable awkwardness that made Angel such a wonderful character, he was largely a massive jerk. LMPTM was the worst offender, with him taunting Wood about his dead mother, implying that women should be stay-at-home mothers otherwise they don't love their children enough and showing no remorse at all for his past sins. And then in "Touched" he punched Faith for absolutely no reason whatsoever. Go die in a fire, S7 Spike... oh, wait you did. OK, thanks, we're cool now.
- The Potentials. Awful characters, whiny, cowardly little bastards that were almost as much of a drain on screentime as Spike was. None of them could even act, or do a convincing British accent.
- The First. Just when you thought that Big Bads couldn't get any worse, Dr Monologue comes along and shows us new levels of complete stupidity. It's a shame because the First had had great buildup - going through all the previous Big Bads in Lessons, Conversations With Dead People, blowing up the Watcher's Council. But it all failed to pay off. For a start, it can't actually touch anything. A villain that can be successfully outmanouvred by sticking your fingers in your ears and going "LALALALALA" is not a good villain. Yet the characters seemed to be convinced that the First could just appear and kill them in their beds, when all it could do is disguise itself and monologue them to death. And when the Scoobies were themselves too stupid to implement a simple handshake policy to identify any possibly primal evils, they deserved to die. Even its minions, which actually could touch things, inexplicably left Buffy alive when they could've finished her off 6 or 7 times. It didn't even have a clear motive - first it wanted to wipe out the slayer line, then it was trying to reawaken the ubervamps, then it wanted to open the Hellmouth, then it wanted to become corporeal... In short, The First had wonderful buil-up with absolutely zero follow-through.
- Anya's wonderful, interesting story arc was completely dropped after "Selfless", and Xander's, Giles's and Dawn's were nowhere to be seen.
- Angel's appearance was ridiculously OOC. Buffy and Angel should be acting like they did in IWRY, awkward and tense, not snogging all over the place and talking about getting back together when absolutely
nothing has changed since the end of S3. It ignored all of Angel's character development at the end of S3, and his behaviour is completely irreconcilable with the man who just took over an evil law firm, mind-wiped his friends, gave his only child away and left the woman he's been in love with for the last 2 and a half seasons in a coma that she may never come out of.
1. Storyteller
2. Selfless
3. Conversations With Dead People
4. Help
5. Chosen
6. Same Time, Same Place
7. Potential
8. The Killer in Me
9. Lessons
10. End of Days
11. Showtime
12. Dirty Girls
13. Him
14. Sleeper
15. Beneath You
16. Get it Done
17. Never Leave Me
18. Bring on the Night
19. Empty Places
20. Touched
21. First Date
22. Lies My Parents Told Me
Overall: 5/10
It's not awful. It didn't feel pain while watching it like S6. But there were some massive problems with it - when a show with formerly a large cast of lovable characters now only gives decent screentime to two chaarcters, both of which are completely asshats, you know something it wrong. And when the Big Bad is about as dangerous as a tape recorder, you know something is even wronger.
...
Hey, you asked for my opinions, you got 'em.
