While a lot of people did not like season 6, and some even have written off season 7 and did not watch them, with the second viewing I am finding that there are some episodes that are really great in both seasons, and my opinion of them has risen.
For example, Selfless is just spectacular, if for no other reason than this quote:
D’HOFFRYN – Oh, please, don’t mind me. Continue with whatever it was you were doing. Oh, breathtaking. It’s like somebody slaughtered an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog.
This is where Norbizness comes here and tells me he would rather swallow the barrel of a shotgun than listen to Buffy dialogue.
Notwithstanding Norbiz’s objections, who else in the blogosphere is a Buffy fan? I know Glenn Reynolds has watched, Vodkapundit is a fan, and that John Amato (Crooks and Liars) is more hooked than I am. I think I remember Meryl Yourish liking it too.
Who else? And if you are, pipe up.
Tim F
Not yet. For the sake of efficiency I’m waiting for the Reduced Shakespeare Company to do the full seven seasons.
HH
One good thing about Duncan Black is that he has long been a Buffy booster, back before anyone knew he was Duncan Black.
HH
BTW for those of you who still haven’t gotten any DVDs, the full series set out Nov. 15 is quite a bargain considering how much you’re getting.
kl
Kos doesn’t like it because it depicts Buffy’s campaign of slaughter against his people.
Brian
I was a fan, but count me as one of those who didn’t like season six and slogged through season seven. I think they should have stopped at four, although five did have at least the Once More With Feeling and Tabula Rasa ones. Season six was SO bad that for the only time in my viewing life, I went on the internet and found spoilers to see whether I should bother finishing out the whole season. (And of course it ruined the best scene and line for the whole year: “I’d like to test that theory.” Sigh. Live and learn.)
To me, the 7th season was summed up by a VERY large discrepancy, (vague spoiler ahead…)
…in that the final battle should have been over b/4 it started, given the troubles they had defeating one creature. (Being as vague as possible here to avoid Rosebudding.)
I still think Angel was at least as good as Buffy when it started and better by the time Buffy ended.
Brian
“Tim F Says:
Not yet. For the sake of efficiency I’m waiting for the Reduced Shakespeare Company to do the full seven seasons.”
Yeah…but could they do it backwards?
John Cole
Once More With Feeling and Tabula Rasa were season six, so you couldn’t have hated it that much.
Brian
“John Cole Says:
Once More With Feeling and Tabula Rasa were season six, so you couldn’t have hated it that much.”
D’oh! I rephrase to say, “EXCEPT for OMWF and TR, I hated sesaon 6.”
Andrew Reeves
I don’t know if I really count as bloggosphere, since my weblog is mostly moribund and gets about six hits a day. That said, I am quite the fan of Buffy, though I believe that it should end at the most poignant ending of Season 5.
Brian
Allow me also to rephrase and agree with Andrew, to say that season 5, not 4, should be where they stop. Apparently, the later the hour the less my numerical ability is.
rilkefan
Met my wife through match.com. She relates that she almost passed by my ad but my BtVS reference convinced her to write back. Now we’re watching the whole sequence together.
As to 6/7, I can only wonder how it would have been if Joss hadn’t gone off to do the sadly less interesting _Firefly_. But there are certainly enough brilliant moments in those seasons to make them mandatory. No one would wish that say Robert Browning had stopped writing after _The Ring and the Book_ even though the good bits are far between.
M. Scott Eiland
Well, I started watching the show in early season 1 and was hooked all the way through (and remain so, though I rarely watch my DVDs–too much going on). Along the way, I was occasionally moved to write a little fanfiction.
norbizness
Now that I have learned that the show helped rilkefan hook up with his current wife, I am feeling much more charitable towards the whole franchise. This reconciliation will last so long as I can refrain from clicking on M. Scott’s link.
Ken Hahn
I’m not a fan. To each his own.
Cathy Young
Meryl Yourish is indeed a Buffy fan. So is Virginia Postrel (see her Reason article on the subject).
I’ve watched a couple of episodes and it didn’t grab me. I’m a big Xena: Warrior Princess fan, myself — maybe you should check that one out next!
Stormy70
Bite your tongue, heretic! Firefly rocked. I thought Buffy was really good, thanks for the link to the boxed set.
salvage
I love Buffy and enjoy every season despite every season having some sour notes. The last one was the weakest towards the end but the finale made up for it.
Never got into Firefly.
Veeshir
I’m not a fan, but I have recently started watching the occasional show. It’s actually pretty good.
I still like the movie more.
Gratefulcub
I’m not a blogger, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, so…..
I love Buffy. It is my deepest darkest secret. My friends don’t know. I have sworn the misses to secrecy, and requested the box set for christmas. The dialogue is horrible, granted. But that is irrelevant. The blurring of the line of good and evil, that is what makes Buffy tick. Human frailties of superheroes. The interaction between characters.
My better half asks ‘how do you watch a show about vampires and demons?’ Easy, it isn’t about Vampires or demons or superheroes or even about that rockin’ blonde chic. As Whedon said, ‘I don’t really care about or enjoy shows about vampires. We are about relationships.’
feral1
Buffy is simply brilliant. People who refuse to acknowledge this should be mercilessly ridiculed.
BumperStickerist
Buffy fan via reruns.
Sure, putting in the the potential Slayers bit towards the end was sort of BtVS’s nod to The Love Boats (The Mermaids) or Black Sheep Squadron’s (Pappy’s Lambs), but there was enough humor in the dialog and soft-core lesbian wicca to keep the show entertaining.
BtVS is also unique in that every other female character became hotter than the lead.
PZ Myers
My daughter and I have been watching the dvds together for the last few months — we’re only up to season 4 so far, because we only find time about once a week, and we have a strict rule that no one may watch any of the episodes without the other present.
zzyzx
Obviously a big fan. I started watching when S2 was in summer reruns and was hooked big time. I have S1-6 on region 2 DVD because they came out there first, but I’m going to sell them cheap to a friend and buy the box set next month.
Zifnab
Wow. Something you and I both agree on Stormy. That’s sort of frightening in a heartwarming, community building sense.
That said, Josh Weden (I know I spelled that wrong) has never started with a medium that was in and of itself intellectually stimulating. You don’t watch his work for the teenage vampire slayers or the hillbillies in space. You watch his stuff to see this guy turn a bunch of virtually unheard-of actors into incredible talents of TV. You watch for his complete change of genre when he wants to run a Broadway musical for one of his episodes (probably the best Buffy ep ever!) And you watch because unlike other teen soaps and TV dramas (*cough*Smallville*cough*Alias*cough*) he actually makes a storyline you might be interested in.
But that’s just my opinion.
htom
Not a blogger, but I’ve been a BtVS fan since, well, since I thought that there was a good idea ruined by a bad movie. Taped the first two episodes, watched, found I’d been correct. I think it may have peaked with “Becoming, part II” but there were many episodes that were almost that good, and the worst episodes of BtVS or Angel were much better than almost anything else on TV.
John Hawkins
I’m still bitter that they cancelled. I’m just about to finish up season 7 via netflix
feral1
“Hush” has to be one of the most unique and visually striking episodes ever produced for tv. The ability to tell a compelling story on tv with almost no dialogue (and in a show famous for it’s dialogue) was pretty stunning. The shots of the “gentlemen” gliding along the streets of Sunnydale were truly haunting.
physics geek
When I first heard about BtVS becoming a television series, I immediately flashed back to movie and when “Feh, I’ve got better things to do”. Then I heard some good buzz about the first episode and, fortunately for me, my local WB affiliate had an encore presentation a few days later that I watched. I was hooked after that.
The show had its ups and downs at times, but even a mediocr seasons like #6 had some incredible moments, such as Once More With Feeling. And the series had some truly spectacular moments. Becoming, Parts I and II, and Hush come to mind. In my opinion, the exceptional quality of episodes like those made others look ordinary, or substandard, by comparison, when the reality was that even the worst Buffy episodes were usually better than almost anything else on television.
Bill from INDC
I’m a fan that finds outsized kvetching about how crappy seasons 6 and 7 were to be kind of bothersome. Yeah, Buffy’s dialogue was painful in parts, “not as good as previous seasons,” etc., etc., but it’s still very good tv, relatively speaking.
Quirkygrl
Not a blogger but definitely a BUFFY (and ANGEL) fan. I agree that Selfless was brilliant compared with the rest of season 7. I think season 6 was clunky and unsubtle, but at least there was a cohesive story arc that tied things up somewhat neatly. Season 7 was a mess continuity-wise, IMO.
I agree with those above who posted that BUFFY at its worst, was still better than almost anything else on TeeVee. There were some clunkers (and that’s probably a very subjective thing), but over its run it was consistently brillant.
Seasons 2, 3 and 5 really stand out for me and I think “Becoming II” is the best hour of television I’ve every seen, and “Passion”, “Hush” and “The Body” among others, were like fine works of art.
I also agree with Brian:
“I still think Angel was at least as good as Buffy when it started and better by the time Buffy ended.”
I was far more upset when ANGEL was cancelled than when BUFFY ended.
Brian
Since a couple of people said how they got into Buffy, I’ll tell my story.
I thought the same as most people, “Oh goody! A show from a failed movie, how good can it be?” and missed quite a bit of it. One week, my wife was on a business trip and I was flipping around and saw Angel walking around, seeing some danger to someone in some house (Buffy’s mom, Buffy’s house, Spike in there with her I learned later) and watched as Angel rushed for the door and was bounced backwards as he tried to enter. THAT got my attention – someone actually paying attention to the invitation idea?? Wow! (Even if later on there were more and more exceptions) After that, I was hooked, and quickly became a Whedon fan. I even put all his series on my Top 10 TV list ever:
http://ownedbycats.blogspot.com/2005/10/top-10s-tv.html
Brian
“Bill from INDC Says:
I’m a fan that finds outsized kvetching about how crappy seasons 6 and 7 were to be kind of bothersome. Yeah, Buffy’s dialogue was painful in parts, “not as good as previous seasons,” etc., etc., but it’s still very good tv, relatively speaking.”
I would disagree, mainly in season 7. For example, the whole “Giles mystery” idea (again, being vague) was pretty silly and drawn out for no reason and no benefit to the viewer. I was also vastly disappointed at the revelation of the start of the Slayer’s powers, which seems like a repudiation of the whole “women power” theme of the series. (To me, but my smarter wife also agrees) Overall, I think season 7, while better than MOST TV, was a large step back from the good TV it had been in seasons 1-5, with 6 in limbo. (And hopefully this time I’ll get my numbers right, unlike last night.)
Brian
“Quirkygrl Says:
I also agree with Brian:
“I still think Angel was at least as good as Buffy when it started and better by the time Buffy ended.””
Good taste! ;-) I think Angel was more “adult”, if you will, more willing to explore the dark side of having all those powers – and better at explaining the costs of them as well. When Buffy was cxled, I thought it was overdue. When Angel was, I was upset but happy it could go out still being good. Firefly as well, even with Fox attempting to kill it.
Zifnab
Well, Buffy was great and only got better with time. But by season 7 they were running a bit stale on ideas. I think the first time they tried to end it – with Buffy’s climactic death – was an adaquite conclusion to the storyline. And everything afterwards just felt like they were reaching a bit too hard.
Likewise, Angel would have been better if I didn’t feel like they were writing each episode on the assumption it would be their last.
At the end of the day, I blame Fox and WB as much as anybody. They just did too good a job of strangling three perfectly good TV shows.
Gary Farber
Don’t mind me, John. I’ll just stand here in the corner. :-)
I’ve only been writing about Joss Whedon since at least 1998. (And have made only a few hundred substantial Whedon posts on my blog since).
John Cole
I just watched angel this summer, and I felt cheated when it ended.