Season 6 is underrated

[Honoria Dedlock]

I just recently re-watched Season 6, and it's undoubtedly one of my favourites. Don't understand the hate it gets, I consider it one of the unimpeachable seasons of Buffy along with seasons 2 and 3.

And yes, that does mean I would rank season 6 higher than season 5 -- Glory was great, but Dawn wasn't, and season five has the most generic fantasy plot of the entire series. In season 6 Dawn has a diminished role since that key bullshit has been used and discarded.

As an example of why I'm a staunch defender of season 6, let's take Wrecked, one of the most despised episodes of the series due to the drug metaphor. Is it over the top? Probably. But wrecked has the distinction of being the only episode of Buffy that genuinely creeped me out. From Willows eyes going black, to her casually mean demeanor towards Dawn, and the hideous woman-murdering demon she spots during her magical high - that creature has the distinction of being the only monster of the day to make me jump in fright. Willow is easily the creepiest villian of the show, even scarier than Drusilla. She's able to burn the Scoobies in ways no other villains can, and it's immensely entertaining to watch her descent into madness.

Also loved the doublemeat palace and Buffy getting grease on in her hair and whatnot. Maybe that's because I live near McDonalds and eat there too much.

 

[Bop]

I love a few things in season 6 but it's let down by low points in the 3 part finale and just overall lack of structure.
So many things in the finale feel unearned and lack punch for me - I'll point out Buffy and Willow's fight, it comes out of nowhere and so it's not iconic or engaging to watch. Willow shows bits of resentment towards Buffy throughout the series but Buffy vs. Willow is not a thing so when watching that fight I try to connect to what Willow's saying and it's just flat, Buffy looks bored and confused I don't think Sarah could figure out why this fight was happening either 🤷‍♀️. Same for when Willow tortures Giles and attacks Dawn I'm just confused and I can't get into it. The better seasons (3,2,5) have finales that are earned throughout their seasons.

 

[DeadlyDuo]

Season 6 is one of my least favourite seasons. I hate what it does to the characters and how it's basically just making Buffy as miserable as possible. OMWF is extremely overrated.

The only thing I like about Season 6 is Bargaining parts 1&2. It's a great season opener and probably the best season opener of the entire series.

I agree about season 5, it doesn't deserve the praise it gets. FFL and The body aside, it's too focussed on a plot that brings up questions but never answers them. The Gift would've been a crap series finale.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

Season 6 is jumbled, uneven, and strange. However, compared to Season 7, it's a literary masterpiece.

 

[November]

Season 6 gets a bad wrap but I don't think its all bad. Spuffy was hot (and that's coming from a Bangel shipper) and I think it was good to show some of the topics of adult issues and difficulties. I could not count how many times I watched Smashed, Wrecked and Gone when in and out of hospital. Plus it has Tabula Rasa and OMWF which are a ton of fun.

I enjoy the Doublemeat Palace stuff too but am usually too embarrassed to say it. The old lady penis monster was hilarious. I've probably watched it more than s3 and 4. I'd pick season 6 Buffy (character) to be the most relatable for me through my early 20's.

 

[Kratos]

Thanks @Honoria Dedlock for creating this thread. I was going to post my own one, though I didn’t want to be the first person to post my views on S6, as it’s a very controversial season.

I recently re-watched S6 as well and I still love it. Don’t know why some people hate it for being “too dark”, as there was still humour and S2/S5 were dark too at times. I liked that it was more adult and real and there was less of a focus on supernatural stuff, though I can understand why some people wouldn’t like that.

Can’t think of any episode I disliked. Maybe it’s because I watched BtVS out of order. It’s become my second favourite Buffy season, behind S2 and ahead of S5. Like Angel S2, I didn’t really understand the themes of this season when I was younger. Grave is the best season finale since Becoming imo.

I’m not a Spuffy fan, but I thought it was interesting to see how Buffy and Spike’s mutually abusive relationship developed over the course of the season. Wrecked creeped me out too. As silly as it may be sound, that episode put me off ever taking drugs.

The one thing I’d remove from S6 is the attempted rape scene. Would’ve preferred if Spike had decided to get a soul of his own accord, as he seemed to have moved on from Buffy prior to Seeing Red.

I enjoyed Doublemeat Palace too. I could see Richard Kimble from the Fugitive (tv series with David Jensen) working there for a while.

I really liked the Trio, even though I knew little about the stuff they referenced. That made it funnier.

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

It is easily the most idiosyncratic season of the show. Along with S5, it is also the most ambitious. I really like it. It is impressively well structured and harmonic for being such a mess of strange ideas.

"Time .... time is what turns kittens into cats." Neither the Scoobies nor the show itself could remain the same forever.

 

[thrasherpix]

Don’t know why some people hate it for being “too dark”, as there was still humour and S2/S5 were dark too at times. I liked that it was more adult and real and there was less of a focus on supernatural stuff, though I can understand why some people wouldn’t like that

That's not why I disliked it, and not why many others dislike it. We get tired of being told we just don't like it dark and need it fluffy. One of the reason I point out the darkness in 2 and 5 is to show why the "darkness" isn't a problem to me (and I consider s6 less dark than those, actually). Also, I'm a big fan of American Horror Story among others I could name It's not that I need it fluffy to enjoy it, despite the assumption that this is why so many of us don't like it.

Now HOW it went about being "dark" is another matter and some don't like that, but aesthetics aside, it's a minor point for me personally.

 

[Honoria Dedlock]

I love a few things in season 6 but it's let down by low points in the 3 part finale and just overall lack of structure.
So many things in the finale feel unearned and lack punch for me - I'll point out Buffy and Willow's fight, it comes out of nowhere and so it's not iconic or engaging to watch. Willow shows bits of resentment towards Buffy throughout the series but Buffy vs. Willow is not a thing so when watching that fight I try to connect to what Willow's saying and it's just flat, Buffy looks bored and confused I don't think Sarah could figure out why this fight was happening either 🤷‍♀️. Same for when Willow tortures Giles and attacks Dawn I'm just confused and I can't get into it. The better seasons (3,2,5) have finales that are earned throughout their seasons.

I think Willow had "snapped" at that point...and killing Warren unlocked a sadistic side to her that was no longer content with mere passive-aggression. She is psychotic at this point...she wanted to prove her superiority to Giles as a witch, hence the torture. And again, the reason she fought Buffy was to prove her superiority...she had surpassed her in power, and that appealed to her ego.

The most chilling is when she attacks Dawn and threatens to return her to her former state as a ball of green energy. I always wondered what would have happened had she did that and possibly absorbed the key!

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

Season 7 has it's positive notes as well.

Yes! Sluggoth demon eating the puppy and Willow summoning D'Hoffryn.

 

[DeadlyDuo]

Yes! Sluggoth demon eating the puppy and Willow summoning D'Hoffryn.

I would've counted Season 7 as a win if the sluggoth demon had eaten Kennedy or if Gnarl had.

 

[Anyanka Bunny Slayer]

I would've counted Season 7 as a win if the sluggoth demon had eaten Kennedy or if Gnarl had.

That goes without saying. 😂

 

[spikenbuffy]

The flaying of Warren was great too!

 

[Honoria Dedlock]

The flaying of Warren was great too!

The flaying or Warren Mears -- truly inspired! That was water cooler vengeance. Lloyd has a sketch of it on his wall.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

I don't love season 6 but I always enjoy it every time I watch it. I like a lot of episodes in season 6, Once More With Feeling, Tabula Rasa Life Serial, Normal Again, Entropy and Seeing Red. But I think overall as a whole the season lacks focus of execution in the story they were trying to tell. But if it works for some people then that's great. Not every season will work for everyone. I can see some people might be able to connect with the issues in season 6.

And yes, that does mean I would rank season 6 higher than season 5

I rank it higher than season 5 too, but I'm not a big fan of season 5, it's fine, but low on my ranking list.

 

[Fuffy Baith]

@thrasherpix My own issues of poverty and exposure to hardcore drug addicts and other issues is why I wish they didn't go there, though not because I found it realistic or helpful, and I only wish my super depressed friend magically got better like Buffy.


Well that's always the thing with fiction. It either can be helpful to deal with problems or not. Sometimes the things they get wrong can be frustrating. It's still fiction, and yes people don't get magically fixes over night. I see what they were trying to go for in season 6, I just think it doesn't work that well. The magic as a drug doesn't really fit with how they normally portray magic on the show. Although, Giles and Ethan used magic when they were younger to get high,but even that feels different from what they did with Willow. I do think that Amy being the friend that drags down Willow was fairly close to real life. I just don't like that they did that to Amy as a character. But overall, I do like season 6.

 

[Honoria Dedlock]

@Fuffy Baith it's been a long time since I was poor, but I do remember working minimum wage jobs in fast food to make ends meet. The drudgery and soul deadening effect it had on me was exactly what I saw reflected in Buffy's struggles. And I would argue that her depression didn't go away. She seems even worse in Season 7, if anything, with the speeches and delicate temperament.

As for the drug addiction, I really can't comment on it, but I do admit it's a little confusing on the show. I do think it's slightly different from actual drugs...otherwise Tara, Anya and a Giles would have been effected. I view it as a mixture of a drug metaphor and Willows own inclination toward "the dark side" of the force i suppose. I really do think Willow had some sort of mental problem.outaide of simple addiction...neither her nor Buffy were quite the full shilling in season 6.

 

[November]

@Fuffy Baith it's been a long time since I was poor, but I do remember working minimum wage jobs in fast food to make ends meet. The drudgery and soul deadening effect it had on me was exactly what I saw reflected in Buffy's struggles. And I would argue that her depression didn't go away. She seems even worse in Season 7, if anything, with the speeches and delicate temperament.

I agree with this. Soul deadening is a good way to put it. She was existing, not living. As it is true for many working poor of the world - the monotony of simply surviving and providing with little hope for the future.

@Athene I think the problem is partly that Buffy isn't confirmed to have depression in the way we might be thinking of it as in 2019

That is part of it. She wasn't suffering depression as we know it today. What Buffy was suffering was closer to grief. The grief of losing her mother, then herself, returning to a land of hell and trying to figure out how to survive within this new level of existence. It never leaves her because that sort of experience doesn't leave a person. It changes a person and stays next to them forever. Many fans complain that Buffy was not "herself" in season 7. Buffy was herself, the version of herself that had learnt to live with the grief and trauma, the version that realised she needed to raise an army to help her. It wasn't as pretty as fans want, because its never is.

True to life, people want a person with illness to get better, get back to being themselves, but in having a serious illness or trauma of any kind, the self that comes out if it is different. You hear now days of people "suffering depression" who didn't really want to die and make full recoveries, but you don't hear of the people who still live with a little bit of a death wish yet recognise the expectations of responsibility to keep fighting for the benefit of others. A kind of reluctant acceptance.

As for the drug addiction, I really can't comment on it, but I do admit it's a little confusing on the show. I do think it's slightly different from actual drugs...otherwise Tara, Anya and a Giles would have been effected. I view it as a mixture of a drug metaphor and Willows own inclination toward "the dark side" of the force i suppose. I really do think Willow had some sort of mental problem.outaide of simple addiction...neither her nor Buffy were quite the full shilling in season 6.

I totally agree. The addiction story line was the most problematic for fans, as it was an addiction to power rather than magic itself. It wasn't the magic/drug that was the problem, it was how Willow used it.

 

[GaviGrimm]

Season 6 definitely made Buffy stronger.

 

[katmobile]

I just recently re-watched Season 6, and it's undoubtedly one of my favourites. Don't understand the hate it gets, I consider it one of the unimpeachable seasons of Buffy along with seasons 2 and 3.

And yes, that does mean I would rank season 6 higher than season 5 -- Glory was great, but Dawn wasn't, and season five has the most generic fantasy plot of the entire series. In season 6 Dawn has a diminished role since that key bullshit has been used and discarded.

As an example of why I'm a staunch defender of season 6, let's take Wrecked, one of the most despised episodes of the series due to the drug metaphor. Is it over the top? Probably. But wrecked has the distinction of being the only episode of Buffy that genuinely creeped me out. From Willows eyes going black, to her casually mean demeanor towards Dawn, and the hideous woman-murdering demon she spots during her magical high - that creature has the distinction of being the only monster of the day to make me jump in fright. Willow is easily the creepiest villian of the show, even scarier than Drusilla. She's able to burn the Scoobies in ways no other villains can, and it's immensely entertaining to watch her descent into madness.

Also loved the doublemeat palace and Buffy getting grease on in her hair and whatnot. Maybe that's because I live near McDonalds and eat there too much.

You should watch Passion of the Nerd he agrees with you about season six and DMP.