Worst season?

[PDH5204]

For a brief note re Hells Bells, it was more than Xander. Who is Anya, and how much, if any, Anyanka is left? The only way to tell whether or not Anyanka was no more was for her to be scorned again. And since there are degrees of scorn, the next in line after adultery or cheating is being left at the altar in front of everyone you cared enough about to invite to your wedding. And so the theme played out and culminated in Selfless. I was wondering just how they were going to work the culmination, but it became rather clear as it went along that there wasn't much Anyanka left. Here, note the look on Anya's face following Willow's flaying of Warren. Then note that the man-hating Anyanka would likely have never made mention of her dyed hair in order to get a hug from Giles. Then note that the man-hating Anyanka would likely also have never stood protective watch over Giles in The Grave. And that'll do it since I digress...but there was a reason beyond Xander for Hells Bells.

 

[YamSham]

i found this season to be so awful that i stopped watching :X
please dont stake me!

 

[Enuf3]

*has strong urges to beat yamsham with a tree branch*

 

[YamSham]

lol it was awful. the story line, the new slayers...all very corny and cheesy. it seemed like joss just pulled it out of his ass.

 

[itsxpaperdoll]

My main problem with s6 is that it seems to lack a Big Bad. Before, we had the Master, The Fanged Three, The Mayor.. All big, evil baddies. And what does this season get? The Trio? Evil Willow? It doesn't seem much. And that's why, at first, I more or less considered this one of the least good seasons.

However, when re-watching, and reflecting upon, s6, I realised that there's so much more to this season. It's not about the big bads, it's about the people, the Scoobies. They're growing up, changing, becoming better people (or not). It's all very personal. And that's why, on second thought, I like it. Quite a lot.


Oh, and there's Spuffy (sw)

 

[mattuf1]

I think the Trio was a weak evil, Willow was the most personal evil they had to fight because it was one of their own. But all in all I enjoyed season 6 based on a few really strong episodes and its final three, but there were also some not so strong ones that filled up its middle and certainly didn't make it the best season, but I don't see it as the worst. That's just me though.

 

[Enuf3]

lol it was awful. the story line, the new slayers...all very corny and cheesy. it seemed like joss just pulled it out of his ass.

You're thinking of season 7.. In which case I still must hurt you.

I think the Trio was a weak evil, Willow was the most personal evil they had to fight because it was one of their own.

Well.. the big bad really wasn't the trio or Willow. It was "life" itself.

 

[fly on the wall]

On the one hand, the season is supposed to be about maturity and real life problems - but on other hand once Giles, the father figure, leaves, the Scoobies start behaving like idiots more often than not.

But that's the point. They're FORCED to grow up, they're not doing it because they want to. Life is thrusted upon them, and when that happens in real life, you're more likely to behave like an idiot than not. (Or maybe I say this because I live in a college neighborhood and am forced to see examples of this every day. 🙂)

We don't know that Giles never got in touch with Buffy. We have to remember that it's a show; they can't show pointless small-talk phone conversations between Buffy and Giles without losing viewers.
I have to agree with palabravampires here. I think the mistakes made and the trials gone through by this characters this season make complete sense.

Willow's story was an extremely heavy-handed morality tale about drugs which was utterly retarded retcon because the same thing could have been achieved much better if magic was no drug and she simply liked the power that went with it.

But that's why she became addicted, is it not?

The Trio - a morality tale about nerds and the dangers of escapism.

What exactly does a "morality tale about nerds" entail? ???

For instance, there was no need whatsoever to make Xander look like an utter fool for falling for that demon's tricks in Hell's Bells. He could have gotten cold feet and refused to marry just by seeing his relatives' behaviour or merely thinking hard about his future. Of course, him behaving as if he had all but forgotten that his folks quarrelled until he saw it at the wedding didn't help.

What Xander saw every day growing up affected him on a deeper level than just his surface. Our childhoods often do. Xander probably wasn't even AWARE that's why he fell for the demon's trick, until he realized it was just a trick and still didn't want to marry Anya. That's when it all occurred to him, I think. That's when he looked at his parents and realized that it was they, not a demon's tricks, that truly scared him. And that made sense to me. *shrug*

Tragic coincidences do happen all the time in real life, true, but the sheer number of them in season 6 beggared belief.

Good TV is all about tragic coincidence, though. I mean, you could list a million "tragic coincidences" for every season.
S1: Buffy happening to overhear Giles and Angel discussing the prophecy of her death, Xander overhearing that Buffy was The Slayer, etc..
S2: Angel turning good again a moment too late and right before Buffy had to kill him, Buffy arriving too late to save Kendra, Angel turning evil right in the midst of the Judge drama and on Buffy's birthday and right after they had sex, etc..
S3: Faith killing that guy, Buffy running into "Lily" again, Buffy managing to kill the hell hound right outside the door to the prom, etc..
Shall I keep going?
Yes, the coincidences in S6 were darker, but I don't see why that automatically makes them more contrived than the thousands of others before them.

Xander's storyline in seasons 4-5 did a much better job of showing what it's like to find a job and leave childhood behind, IMO. Buffy and Willow's main storylines in S6 feel like artificial attempts to make their lives harder, no matter reason, logic or plot and character consistency. On the one hand Willow's extremely proud of her magic skills and wants to (ab)use them whenever she can but on the other she has no confidence in herself in any other area of life. Just doesn't ring true.

Hmm, I disagree with this too. Willow's and Buffy's lives WERE harder this season, mostly revolving around the main issue of Buffy coming back to life - which Buffy had to live with, and Willow was largely responsible for. Willow was addicted to something, and Buffy was depressed. Both of which make life harder.
As for Willow's addiction..I think it totally rings true that she's confident with magic but nothing else. That's always how Willow has been. She's expressed time and time again that she never felt worth anything or powerful until she dabbled in magic.

Anyway, I'm not trying to rip your post apart. 🙂 I see your points, I do. But I really love this season so I feel the need to defend it. 😛

 

[mattuf1]

Well.. the big bad really wasn't the trio or Willow. It was "life" itself.

That's very true, just dealing with loss and finding a purpose, stuff like that. Everyone had some sort of personal crisis. Xander leaving Anya, Buffy struggling with coming back, Willow losing Tara. It might have been the gloomiest season.

 

[Enuf3]

It might have been the gloomiest season.

It certainly was. Probably why it's my favorite season. The whole dark realistic tone to the season just gets my Ovaltine boiling.

 

[mattuf1]

I really enjoy dark story telling too. I don't know why, but dark, angst-y episodes and storylines are usually my favorites.

 

[IDoDoodle]

I really enjoy dark story telling too. I don't know why, but dark, angst-y episodes and storylines are usually my favorites.

Oh, and don't forget all the sex. I watched outtakes last night from Buffy and Spike at the Doublemeat Palace and at the end I could hear Sarah say, "Is it me or is there a whole lot of sex, this season?" It made me crack up.

 

[Enuf3]

Yeah.. season six was all about the darkness, the sex and the magical drugs.

 

[palabravampiress]

Oh, and don't forget all the sex. I watched outtakes last night from Buffy and Spike at the Doublemeat Palace and at the end I could hear Sarah say, "Is it me or is there a whole lot of sex, this season?" It made me crack up.

Hahaha. I never saw that! That's hilarious. It's not just her. There was a whole lot of sex that season.

 

[Vampmogs2]

I don't believe season six is the "worst season" of the show, that title quite easily goes to season seven, but it's not one of my favourites.

I don't like how they decided to drag all the characters through the dirt for the sake of making them all depressed. Eventually it became ridiculous in episodes such as 'Entropy' when they had Spike/Anya shack up, which completely ruined the sexy *subtext* those characters always had, and was there solely to cause Xander and Buffy more pain. I mean wtf? What sloppy, sappy writing? It was so cheap and distasteful, it really didn't feel like I was watching the same show after that episode. It stopped to a new low.

I understand that "life was the big bad" this season but discarding the subtleties of the show which had always worked so well and made Btvs such a critical success, really hurt this season and I don't think the show ever quite recovered from it. The magic is crack "metaphor" was terribly done, very heavy-handed and it treat the audience like idiots.

I didn't enjoy the Trio one bit, especially when I knew they weren't even the big bads and were never meant to be. It made episodes like "˜Life Serial' and utter waste of time, why show them put Buffy through this pointless and ridiculous tests when we know it's never going to amount to anything?

Buffy's arc had moments of brilliance but it also was derailed at some point by the Buffy/Spike relationship which really smothered it. I understand what they were trying to do there by have Buffy enter a harmful relationship but that's all her character became about. Her arc was handled much better when it was about her and not about her relationship with Spike, the best moment of the season was when Joyce shook some sense into her, "you have a world of strength in your heart I know you do, you just have to find it again. Believe in yourself." And in general I found the Buffy/Spike relationship really make me dislike Spike which I never had before and it created a new breed of fans who hated Buffy with a passion and enjoyed Spike more which is fairly off-putting to me.

Dark Willow was great and gave us one of the best summaries of the season, "you're trying to sell me on the world? The one where you lie to your friends when you aren't trying to kill them, when you screw a vampire just to feel, where insane asylums are the comfy alternative? Buffy please you were happier when you were in the ground, the only time you were ever at peace your whole life was when you were dead." That was a fantastic moment. However, even "˜Two to Go/ Grave' could have been written better, any scene with Willow in it was fantastic but the rest felt like filler.

"˜Grave' has one of the best moments in the series as Xander talks to Willow but it's also one of the weakest season finales the show ever had. It lacked direction, it wavered around a lot in the middle and it was fairly obvious they hadn't really thought out what characters like Buffy and Dawn were actually going to do throughout the majority of the episode.. Hence being stuck in a "¦ditch? The symbolism of crawling out of her grave to a beautiful world opposed to a Sunnydale on fire was great though.

The season wasn't terrible and was miles ahead of season seven but it had some shockers.. 'Double Meat Palace' and 'Gone' are the worst attempts at "comedy" the show ever did, 'Gone' in particular was just god awful! And I think the comedy in 'Life Serial' and 'Tabula Rasa' is greatly overrated by the fandom, particularly 'TR.' I mean it doesn't come close to the likes of 'Dopplegangland' or 'Pangs.'

This season lacked the "snap, crackle and pop" of seasons past, it left me sometimes feeling strangely unaffected due to mundane writing when I really should have been bawling my eyes out, like Giles' goodbye scene in 'Bargaining' left me disliking Spike after episodes such as 'Dead Things' and 'Seeing Red' (though I like him now again) and left me feeling "dumbed down" by the heavy-handed metaphors.

 

[Summerlilly]

I really don't get why anyone has a worst season! I loved and hated them all!!!! (But mostly loved *😉 I can find the reason we all love Buffy in every season!

 

[fly on the wall]

"˜Grave' has one of the best moments in the series as Xander talks to Willow but it's also one of the weakest season finales the show ever had. It lacked direction, it wavered around a lot in the middle and it was fairly obvious they hadn't really thought out what characters like Buffy and Dawn were actually going to do throughout the majority of the episode.. Hence being stuck in a "¦ditch? The symbolism of crawling out of her grave to a beautiful world opposed to a Sunnydale on fire was great though.

On the contrary, the writers actually gave a LOT of thought as to what Buffy and Dawn should be doing in this episode. There was at least one re-write of their scene (in order to end on them crawling out of the grave together which, as you said, was great). This is a pivotal moment in the Buffy/Dawn relationship. Or, at least, it should have been...the only reason it wasn't more pivotal was because S7 let it fall flat, but that's not S6's fault. This is the moment when Buffy sees Dawn, truly sees her and stops ignoring her and overprotecting her. The sisters fight side-by-side for the first time. Buffy confesses that she doesn't want to keep Dawn from the world, she wants to show it to her. I think this is a huge turn-around for Buffy...she has hope again. I love this scene and I don't at all agree that there wasn't much thought put into it.

Anyways, that's just my 2 cents.

 

[Vampmogs2]

On the contrary, the writers actually gave a LOT of thought as to what Buffy and Dawn should be doing in this episode. There was at least one re-write of their scene (in order to end on them crawling out of the grave together which, as you said, was great). This is a pivotal moment in the Buffy/Dawn relationship. Or, at least, it should have been...the only reason it wasn't more pivotal was because S7 let it fall flat, but that's not S6's fault. This is the moment when Buffy sees Dawn, truly sees her and stops ignoring her and overprotecting her. The sisters fight side-by-side for the first time. Buffy confesses that she doesn't want to keep Dawn from the world, she wants to show it to her. I think this is a huge turn-around for Buffy...she has hope again. I love this scene and I don't at all agree that there wasn't much thought put into it.

Anyways, that's just my 2 cents.

I think there was a lot of thought put into what they hoped to achieve between Buffy/Dawn and as you say, I appreciate the symbolism of Buffy crawling out of her grave again. It's the scenario which I find sloppy, it seems as if they just had to toss Buffy and Dawn in some place to keep them out of the way of Willow with some random demons she conjured up. The commentary states they originally hoped to have Buffy fight the dragon that came out of the portal in 'The Gift.' It's a pity they couldn't go through with it because the demons they did create seemed out of place for a season finale. Usually theirs a big build up to that battle but it ended up being with Buffy/Dawn fighting some random demons never shown before whilst everyone was really interested in what Willow was doing.

I just didn’t feel ‘Grave’ was all that “tight.” A lot of it seemed like filler, same for ‘Two to Go’ really. Like I said, I love all the scenes Willow are in but the rest is rather boring to me. Especially when they keep cutting back to Andrew, Jonathon, Xander and Dawn during the Buffy/Willow fight. I get you need a break in between fights but it was just very boring, basically consisting of them complaining about being exhausted. And when it seems Jonathon has done a turn around, “when this is over you and me are going back to jail to do our time” they completely spoil that by having them both run away in ‘Grave’ anyway. I hate that they cheapened that and wasted our time with Jonathon's false growth in the previous episode.

I also felt ‘Grave’ when over-the-top by having Willow decide to end the world, that felt really unnecessary and unnatural to me. It was great when Willow was lashing out at the people closest to her but it went over the line when they decided to make her want to end the world. Overall I just found it a somewhat sloppy season finale compared to Btvs’ usual standards, even if it did have one or two scenes that were fantastic. It may have to do with the fact it was the only one Joss Whedon never actually wrote/directed.

I'm sure there's many people who love it though, I just wish I could have liked it more but I was strangely disappointed by the Dark Willow episodes when being such a huge fan of Willow and Buffy/Xander/Willow that I am, I was expecting to be blown away. It lacked the punch the Buffy/Faith confrontation did in ‘Graduation Day’ when you could feel the tension that had been building all season spilling over, or the drama and emotion of the Buffy/Angel moments in ‘Becoming.’

 

[Joan the Vampire Slayer]

I don't believe season six is the "worst season" of the show, that title quite easily goes to season seven, but it's not one of my favourites.

I don't like how they decided to drag all the characters through the dirt for the sake of making them all depressed. Eventually it became ridiculous in episodes such as 'Entropy' when they had Spike/Anya shack up, which completely ruined the sexy *subtext* those characters always had, and was there solely to cause Xander and Buffy more pain. I mean wtf? What sloppy, sappy writing? It was so cheap and distasteful, it really didn't feel like I was watching the same show after that episode. It stopped to a new low.

I understand that "life was the big bad" this season but discarding the subtleties of the show which had always worked so well and made Btvs such a critical success, really hurt this season and I don't think the show ever quite recovered from it. The magic is crack "metaphor" was terribly done, very heavy-handed and it treat the audience like idiots.

I didn't enjoy the Trio one bit, especially when I knew they weren't even the big bads and were never meant to be. It made episodes like "˜Life Serial' and utter waste of time, why show them put Buffy through this pointless and ridiculous tests when we know it's never going to amount to anything?

Buffy's arc had moments of brilliance but it also was derailed at some point by the Buffy/Spike relationship which really smothered it. I understand what they were trying to do there by have Buffy enter a harmful relationship but that's all her character became about. Her arc was handled much better when it was about her and not about her relationship with Spike, the best moment of the season was when Joyce shook some sense into her, "you have a world of strength in your heart I know you do, you just have to find it again. Believe in yourself." And in general I found the Buffy/Spike relationship really make me dislike Spike which I never had before and it created a new breed of fans who hated Buffy with a passion and enjoyed Spike more which is fairly off-putting to me.

Dark Willow was great and gave us one of the best summaries of the season, "you're trying to sell me on the world? The one where you lie to your friends when you aren't trying to kill them, when you screw a vampire just to feel, where insane asylums are the comfy alternative? Buffy please you were happier when you were in the ground, the only time you were ever at peace your whole life was when you were dead." That was a fantastic moment. However, even "˜Two to Go/ Grave' could have been written better, any scene with Willow in it was fantastic but the rest felt like filler.

"˜Grave' has one of the best moments in the series as Xander talks to Willow but it's also one of the weakest season finales the show ever had. It lacked direction, it wavered around a lot in the middle and it was fairly obvious they hadn't really thought out what characters like Buffy and Dawn were actually going to do throughout the majority of the episode.. Hence being stuck in a "¦ditch? The symbolism of crawling out of her grave to a beautiful world opposed to a Sunnydale on fire was great though.

The season wasn't terrible and was miles ahead of season seven but it had some shockers.. 'Double Meat Palace' and 'Gone' are the worst attempts at "comedy" the show ever did, 'Gone' in particular was just god awful! And I think the comedy in 'Life Serial' and 'Tabula Rasa' is greatly overrated by the fandom, particularly 'TR.' I mean it doesn't come close to the likes of 'Dopplegangland' or 'Pangs.'

This season lacked the "snap, crackle and pop" of seasons past, it left me sometimes feeling strangely unaffected due to mundane writing when I really should have been bawling my eyes out, like Giles' goodbye scene in 'Bargaining' left me disliking Spike after episodes such as 'Dead Things' and 'Seeing Red' (though I like him now again) and left me feeling "dumbed down" by the heavy-handed metaphors.

Wow, great post, vampmogs. Are you new? I haven't seen you around here much.

I agree with a lot of what you're saying about S6 although I do claim it as my favorite season. This is partially due to Spuffy I admit (to which I'm a huge fan) but also because I like the "life is the big bad" metaphor. I find Spuffy endlessly fascinating. I like watching the characters attempt to be adults, screw up their lives like everyone does, and then rebuild. I love watching the evolution of Buffy and Dawn's relationship, and of course, Spike's beginning stages of redemption when he leaves to get his soul. I love, love, love the church scene in Beneath Me when he's telling her about the "spark" - I think it's one of the most emotionally charged and beautiful scenes in the show.

Personally, I think Double Meat Palace is hilarious. Maybe I'm in a minority. I disagree with you that Tabula Rasa is overrated; it's my all-time favorite episode. OMWF is quite amusing (while being a clever parody on genre) and I believe the construction of Dead Things is just brilliant. But yes, there are a few aspects of the season I do not enjoy, such as the Trio. Yuk. All I have to say. They're just irritating, and Warren is a real asshole, and Grave doesn't do much for me. I like Xanders crayon speech, but that's about it. I love Buffy's breakdown with Dawn in the ditch were she tells her she wants to show her the world, and I LOVE that scene in Hells Belles were Buffy and Spike meet for the first time after breaking up. There is such delicious tension in that scene...so heartbreaking. Love it.

Now, I understand one of the main complaints with S6 is all the emphasis on Buffy and Spike. Now, I can't accurately judge on this because, well, I love Spike. Every last bit of him. I love him evil, in love with Buffy, souled or without one.

It's interesting the point you make about the "new breed of fans who hated Buffy with a passion and enjoyed Spike more." Spike had been greatly humanized by the writers, he'd become a beloved main character. I think a lot of people hated Buffy for denying his love, using him, and then claiming she didn't love him when her actions plainly spoke differently (If I could stop saving your life, it would simple things up a lot), myself included. This is why the writers desided to remind the audience that he was still a vampire; by having him attempt to rape her.

 

[Vampmogs2]

Wow, great post, vampmogs. Are you new? I haven't seen you around here much.

Thanks! I became a member a while ago then got engrossed with my other main forum 'Buffyforums' and forgot about this place! But I remembered it again 🙂

I agree with a lot of what you're saying about S6 although I do claim it as my favorite season. This is partially due to Spuffy I admit (to which I'm a huge fan) but also because I like the "life is the big bad" metaphor. I find Spuffy endlessly fascinating. I like watching the characters attempt to be adults, screw up their lives like everyone does, and then rebuild. I love watching the evolution of Buffy and Dawn's relationship, and of course, Spike's beginning stages of redemption when he leaves to get his soul. I love, love, love the church scene in Beneath Me when he's telling her about the "spark" - I think it's one of the most emotionally charged and beautiful scenes in the show.

I think Buffy/Spike can be a big part of wether or not you like or dislike season six. Unlike your good self I'm not a fan of it at all in this season or in general so it was another negative for me I'm afraid 🙁 But it's not the only reason, if I enjoyed everything else about it Buffy/Spike wouldn't make me dislike the season and I do appreciate what they were trying to do with that relationship that year so I don't think it's 100% horrible.

It's interesting the point you make about the "new breed of fans who hated Buffy with a passion and enjoyed Spike more." Spike had been greatly humanized by the writers, he'd become a beloved main character. I think a lot of people hated Buffy for denying his love, using him, and then claiming she didn't love him when her actions plainly spoke differently (If I could stop saving your life, it would simple things up a lot), myself included. This is why the writers desided to remind the audience that he was still a vampire; by having him attempt to rape her.

I think it just depends on the fan. I was never someone who needed reminded by the writers that Spike was a vampire, it was always on my mind, which is why I never sympathised with him or enjoyed that relationship. Vampires with souls are different but Spike didn't have one in season six and I don't believe he truly deserved respect when he still had no remorse for all the people he had murdered. That's a huge deal breaker for me. If you aren't sorry for your crimes, and Spike has a lot of them, then I'm not going to feel sorry for you. So when the writers had him try and rape Buffy I really wasn’t all that surprised it ended up with something like that.

I think we just view Buffy/Spike very differently, I don't think it's fair to hate Buffy for not being able to love Spike and returning his affection, if she can't love him then she can't love him. That's life.

As far as "using him" well as I said, I don't think a soulless vampire truly deserves respect when they didn't show it to their victims. And I actually think Spike feels the same way, after all he used Harmony in 'Destiny' without any care in the world.

But I think a lot of it pretty biased. A lot of the fans who hate Buffy don't ever admit Spike did anything wrong to her and looking back at episodes such as 'Dead Things' or 'Seeing Red' I really don't get how that is possible. As you say the writers intentionally tried to *remind people* he was still evil and they still deny it and treat him differently to this day.

But I also view Spike as the guilty party here. My sister suffered from severe depression a lot like Buffy did and I've witnessed first hand how emotionally weak and vulnerable someone can be when they're suffering so severely from that disease. Spike seized on Buffy's depression and used it to draw and lure her into the dark with him, he taunted her about coming back wrong, told her she didn't belong with her friends and tried to scare her by putting thoughts in her head that they'd hate her if they found out what she was doing. If someone had tried to emotionally manipulate my sister at the time she was suffering such severe depression... lets just say we'd have "words."

Buffy’s the hero, a girl who gave up her life for the world twice and who’s sacrificed a lot to protect innocent people. In season six Spike was still an unremorseful serial killer who was still a soulless vampire and was still evil. He tried to kill that girl in ‘Smashed’ the moment he thought the chip had stopped working and admitted that he’d kill Xander if he could. If I’m going to side with one of them, of course I’m going to choose Buffy! Though I'll happily admit the writers did write him to come across as sympathetic, I just couldn't feel sorry for him given what he was at the time.

When Spike gets his soul that's a total other story though, I think he deserves respect and to be treat like a human being the same way I think Angel should be. But that's in season seven not season six 🙂

Sorry I don't want to derail the thread though. If there's a thread about Buffy/Spike anywhere I'd happily post my thoughts there but I don't want to make this only about them when a lot of season six's positives and negatives are about other characters and storylines as well. Besides I know there's a lot of Buffy/Spike fans on this site and I know I'm going to get burned for what I just said 😉