Which season featured Sarah's best acting?

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Joshua

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Which season of Buffy do you think featured Sarah's best acting on the show?

Personally it's a tie between season 2, season 3, 5, and 6.

especially 6. She's so depressing in 6.
 
Season 5, for sure. It gave her a chance to really show her incredible range, all the way from the hilarity of "Harmony has minions" to the depths of "The Body" and "Forever."

Of course, anytime she ends up playing a completely different character is good to mention -- which would be Season 5 and 6 for the Buffybot, Season 7 for the First, and Season 4 for Faith. But still, I'd say Season 5 overall.
 
For me, when I think of "good acting" in a television series, I generally define the term as being able to show a good range of diversity in a performance, not just one type of acting, as good as it may be.

That's why I'm not picking S6. I thought SMG did an outstanding job, but her entire range that season, with few exceptions, was sad/depressed and angry. She had a bit of the old Buffy humor thrown in but mostly, that was it.

My pick is S3 (and that might be influenced by it being the one I've seen the most recently). Buffy goes through a lot that season, in a lot of different areas. It starts with her completely isolated and alone in L.A., progresses to her having to deal and move on from Angel, and then deal when he comes back and explore that angle. Her whole deal with having a rival almost equal to her in Faith had great depth to it, and that was something we really hadn't seen much before or after S3. The humor was fantastic and the way she acted with Giles and Wesley developed quite a bit, and moved the overall plot for those characters along really well.
 
I don't really rate SMG's acting skills tbh... for me it was the other actors who made the show, but bullet to my head, season 1/2, she is more believable then
 
S2 or S3 for me. She really was at the peak of her game then, along with the entire show.

S5 gets an honorable mention though, for "The Body", "Forever", and "The Gift"
 
Season 2 and Season 3 overall. She brings different kind of emotions on the screen and does an incredible job.

Season 6 didn't give her much to work with. And of course in The Body and Forever she was amazing but looking at the big picture, definitely 2 and 3.
 
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Robb Stark
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Season 3. When she starts to burst out into tears to Willow in ''Consequences'' to her determination in Graduation Part 1 & 2, and she was quite funny in The Wish, I thought. I thought her temporary ''Want. Take. Have'' attitude in Bad Girls was quite good and entertaining.
 
Season 2/3 (they always go together in my mind) or 5.

But I do really like her Prophecy Girl. And I Will Remember You.
 
Seasons 2 and 3 for me were her peak performance seasons. She wasnt bad in the later seasons but other than a few exception episodes her personality were relatively subdued and closed off.
 
Looks like I'm siding with the majority so far and am going to say seasons 2 and 3. I think it has as much to do with Sarah's acting as it does her characters personality. I enjoyed the character of Buffy a lot more in the first 3 seasons as opposed to the rest.
 
I agree with the general opinion that season 2 and 3 are my choices in this matter. I just found SMG more believable as Buffy in it, as if she had an enthusiasm for the character that kind of faded in later seasons. 🙂 Though perhaps I just like Buffy better in the early years and that colors my opinion.
 
TotallySpiked
TotallySpiked
100% this.
Tueuse de Vampires
Tueuse de Vampires
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I also think season 2 and 3. Maybe it was also her role, with her being supposed to be more grown up starting in s4 with college. That just made her a bit to grave (especially starting from s6, but it was also already visible before that). Her high school years gave her a more rounded role, as a girl who carries the weight of the world on her shoulders, but is, after all, also still just a teenage girl who struggles with school and her love life. Imo, that just gave the better opportunity for acting skills to show.
 
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Robb Stark
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I think she was best in season 3 and 5. I'm not sure why 3? Maybe just because of how much I like the season but in season 5 'the body' was an amazing episode for Sarah, that's when she truly shown off her acting skills.
 
I've always felt that the final scene between Buffy and Angel at the end of Season 2 was the single most dramatic, tragic, and ironic scenes in the entire series. Two people who undoubtedly loved each other, who wanted nothing more in life than to be together, having to face the reality that fate, in the guise of "The Mission," would always be there to tear them apart at the very moment when it looked like happiness was finally within their grasp. It happened for the first time there, but was repeated 2 years later in Season 1 of Angel's show in "I Will Remember You." again in Season 7, a third time in Season 8, and, if Angel's plans are actually successful, with the disastrous results that now seem quite possible, if not even probable. will happen yet a fourth time.

All of that was established in that single scene in Season 2.
 
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Robb Stark
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For me it was the episodes in "The Body", "The Gift" and "Becoming" both parts, I really think one of her most amazing scenes is in "Prophecy Girl" when she starts crying "Giles I'm 16 I don't want to die" that scene really got to me.

But overall I think season 3 the way she is was in "Beauty and the Beasts" when Angel is on her knees crying, her acting in "Amends" she is amazing in every episode in season 3 in my opinion.
 
Torn between S2 for heart-broken highschool Buffy, or S5 for grown-up Buffy.

You look SMG in 'Innocence' and then in 'The Body', she's incredibly good in both.
 
I can't really choose a season, I always felt Sarah's acting was the best contribution she could have given to Buffy as a show, I was never disappointed in her.
 
If by the question you mean to ask "in which season was her best acting performance" the answer is unquestionably Season 5, "The Body". Hands down, it is SMG's finest series of moments/episode in the entire series. After that? It's debatable, but I favor a few other s5 episodes before anything else too. (I think MT and AH give their best and most memorable performances in S5 too, coincidentally).

If by the question you mean to ask "what season overall featured her best acting (overall)" than I think there are a lot of seasons worthy of consideration: 2,3,4,5 and even 6 by certain measures. My vote would still be for S5 though. I think that it is the only season when she was really challenged as an actress (in certain specific episodes). I got the impression that almost everything else kind of fell into her comfort zone. SMG is a model of general consistency in almost every episode though. But like I said, certain episodes in S5 seemed more challenging and asked of her something above and beyond what she normally was asked to do, and in those specific episodes when that happened, she delivered convincing performances. That is what distinguishes SMG in S5 from everything else if you ask me. Yes, her character might have been more likable in other seasons, but if I isolate her acting contributions from the character, I think S5 is best.
 
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