Okay, see, I’ve had this problem ever since I started watching Buffy. No one knows how to market it. The WB used to play up the horror aspect. UPN now seems to think it’s a comedy. Last year they tried to make it seem like a pure action show. I understand that it’s difficult to show, in a thirty second TV spot, the complexity that is Buffy, but I’m sure that some advertising genius could come up with something. Please! Do you remember when they previewed the second episode this season as “Buffy the Guidance Councilor,” even though she provided very little guidance and no councilling in that episode?
Anyway, the crux of my complaint is actually not so much with the networks’ mangling of their product, but Twentieth Century Fox’s. I mean, these are the people who put the show together, right, so why in the name of Joss would they ever think that fans of the show would be amused by the cheesy CG graveyard effects you have to navigate through in the Season 2 DVDs? Or the slightly witty lines that they pulled way out of context for not only the booklets and packaging for all the Seasons but also between menus for Season 1? However, even with all this stuff, I haven’t been moved to rant until I went and picked up my Season 3 DVDs yesterday morning. I cannot believe that they put Spike’s face on one of the discs. I just can’t comprehend it. Do they think that the Spikegirls are so unbelievably silly that they’ll buy the set based solely on the fact that his undeniably beautiful face graces disc 6? He’s only in one episode this season!! The Spikegirls are gonna buy the set anyway, so why not give credit where it’s due and put either Oz or Cordelia on that disc?! At least they were regulars in Season 3. ARGH. My mind just exploded, but luckily, packaging aside, I can still enjoy every Season 3 episode without having to navigate through a badly done CG graveyard. Ahhhh… Band Candy…
I have the Season 2 DVD and I have complaints as well. I’m going from memory here, but I think the discs don’t even have episode titles on them. You have to look at the booklet to see what’s on what disc. And there is no listing anywhere in the package that says what episodes have extras or commentaries, or what disc the documentaries are. I actually had to go look at a review site to find out what was on the set I bought.
I know several people who bought S3 even though they hated the B/A angst fest (Jesus God, save me from Amends), and they hated Faith, and didn’t even like the Mayor! (I don’t understand that, the Mayor rocked), just because of Lovers Walk. So no, it’s not surprising that Spike is on the cover of one of the DVDs. The fact of the matter is that Internet Buffy fandom is quirky and insane, and buy most of the merchandising. What you see as a silly, pointless move was actually a brilliant move because it was essentially FOX recognizing the rather large group of fans that spend a great deal of money on one character.
And don’t refer to them as “spikegirls”. Really, it’s bothersome. The vast majority of the “spikegirls” I have met tend to be middle-aged women who are well-educationed professionals and mothers.
See?!?! This is the crap I knew would come of this techno-whoozit!!!
We got a … is called a DVD player? for Christmas and then I started seeing commercials for Buffy season sets. I’ve been thinking about this, but I don’t want to deal with crap!
I don’t know how to use these contaptions! I want it easy!
Despite all that horrible propaganda (obviously mediated towards the younger teenage female audience) I have to say I’m pretty happy with my seasons 1 and 2 DVD’s. I’m pretty new as a Buffy fan. I mean, I’ve always watched her but I lost track of it after a while. I didn’t have the time cuz I either had to worry about school, work, or other obligations. Unfortunately, one I start school again I’m gonna miss all the newer episodes and I know no one’s gonna tape them for me. sigh Anyways, I’m sorta caught up but what season is the current season exactly? Is it season 6 or 7? I plan on getting season 3 sometime this week. Would anyone know when the next season might be released?
Bothersome to me is forty billion threads and/or websites devoted solely to Spike and that completely ignore the brilliance of the rest of the show. Whether or not you like it, these well-“educationed” (hee hee, sorry, that was a cheap shot, but it was amusing in context) professionals act like little teenage girls screaming about 'N Sync whenever they think about Spike. Now, I like Spike as much as the next heterosexual male (even though I liked him much, much more when he was eeeeevil), but I don’t see why he’s the object of so much worship…
shrug And you probably never will either. You probably think they love him because he’s a pretty face, and you’ll leave it at that.
Why they (we) all devote our time to him instead of the rest of the show, is well, at this point for most of us, he makes the show. I know for me I no longer like Dawn, or Willow, can only tolerate Xander (barely), and no longer identify at all with any of the characters, whereas in the early seasons, I identified with all the Core Scoobs and loved them for their own quirks. I stopped liking Giles in S6 after he left. And I know from the substantial amount of time I spend online on MBs and in chat that I’m not the only one who feels this way.
So, who does that leave to keep us attached to the show in any meaningful way? Spike.
See, when I found I stopped liking the characters, I pretty much quit watching. I’ll tune in every now and then, but :sniff: the magic’s gone for me. Same thing happened to my beloved Party of Five. I loved the show, and each of the characters, in Season 1. By the time the series took its last gasp I had stopped watching because my love had turned to loathing.
Happily, I have just started Season 3 of BtVS and have not met the Mayor yet.
I would stop watching if I hated all the characters too. But I am now strongly invested in Spike’s story, and Spike’s story is strongly linked to Buffy, so I’m still invested in her story. So I essentially watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the Slayer and her Vampire. Not for anybody else.
The CG graveyard/tombstones/stained glass etc is certainly cheesy (we got exactly the same menus from the sound of it in Zone 4 – and my Zone 2 Season 1 have the out of context quotes)… but you have to give them credit for:
a) getting the DVDs out fairly promptly – OK… so not as quick in Zone 1 as they could have (Zone 4 has had Season 5 out for a bit now, but I understand that this has to do with US syndication issues) and,
b) producing boxed sets. You might think that this is a no-brainer, but Stargate for example originally got it wrong… “we won’t make a boxed season set, we’ll put a selection of episodes from season 1 on a disk… that’s what the fans will want”. :rolleyes: No, what this fan-boy wants is complete and unadulterated boxed sets. (Now fortunately available).
<off topic> A good word must be put in I feel for WB’s packaging of the Babylon 5 season 1 set – 6 discs in a single package (as opposed to a lot of Zone 4 sets of 2 x half-season boxes of 3 individual disc boxes in a slip case), crystal clear widescreen transfer, simple and clean menus, and only NZ$120 for the season – compared to NZ$180 for a season of Buffy.
Points must be deducted however for it taking them nearly 10 years to finally get it on DVD.
Which is a shame, because the show used to have very good characters. Once Willow became a lesbian, though, her characterization was done. Xander, once he got over Buffy, we were also done with. The characters were totally abandoned. We’ve never been given a reason to care about Dawn, and Buffy just got more and more intolerable.
I watch now purely for the social aspect - because my wife and friends watch it. But I don’t give even half a damn about Spike. I loved him as a bad guy and thought he made a great villain. Watching him moon over Buffy worse than Xander ever did and get away with horrible things simply because there’s a legion of fanwomen who adore him really disappoints me. I hate it when the fanwank legion takes over shows and they stop existing in any kind of reality except what the fans want. Fact of the matter is, if Spike were any other character, his actions would have resulted in his death long ago. But Whedon, Noxon, and Co. know who butters their bread.
Anywho, what I meant was this technology is supposed to be so wonderful yet all I hear is how lousy they are done. They are always lame, confusing or just slapped together.
Well…yeah. Unless he was Anya, Xander, Willow, or Giles. It also helps that JM is a remarkable actor and the only who gets critical raves on a weekly basis, no matter how bad the previous episode was. “I really didn’t like blah blah blah too much, but Marsters as Spike the vampire was fantastic!”
Would anyone know when the next season might be released?