Before we start, let me note that I am well aware of the problems that Season Six had. It was dark, it was twisted, the characters’ actions had no consequences, Dawn whined too much, and all that jazz. And yeah, you’re right. It was dark and twisted. It was so dark and depressing that I didn’t like it when I first saw it. I was right there with you guys, yelling at the T.V. (Well, at Joss, through the T.V.) to let the characters have at least a teensy bit of happiness…
Anyway, upon review of the tapes, I’ve decided that none of this matters. It was still brilliant television. One thing I noticed, though, is that it seemed to be written more for consumption in one big gulp (a la a DVD set or something) than as episodic television. It reminds me of The Sandman storyarc called The Kindly Ones. When it was released, as seperate issues, it was the most reviled storyarc of the bunch. People hated it because it was too dense, with lots of storylines happening all at once and not being able to keep them all straight during the month-long wait for a new issue. But then they got collected into a single book and became one of the most popular storyarcs in the series’ run. I see similar things happening with season six.
However, spread out or not, this season still wouldn’t have drawn accolades from me if they hadn’t done what Buffy always does; they explored issues rarely (if ever) found elsewhere of teevee. Where else could we have found an exploration of the darker side of sex that was as painfully realised as Buffy and Spike’s affair? Where else would Dawn’s confused abandonment syndrome and cries for attention have been brought to such an emotional head? Ye gods, where else on television would you find an episode coming close to the calibre of Once More with Feeling or Normal Again? And that’s another point. I know I made an issue of the fact that, through this season, episodes took a backseat to the storylines, but that doesn’t mean that there weren’t solid, quality episodes this year. I adored the two episodes I’ve already mentioned, but this season also included Life Serial (the mummy hand sequence was great) and Tabula Rasa (“Why not just call me ‘Horny Giles’ or ‘Desperate-for-a-Shag Giles?’”) among other strong installments.
However, what I think I liked most about this season was the idea that the characters are all dependent upon each other. We’ve had five seasons of how strong the women are, and that’s all well-and-good, don’t get me wrong, but this season showed how integral the men are to the situation in roles that are traditionally (in mass media, anyway) reserved for women. Really, how many times have you seen some dude go mad and try to kill people, only to be brought back from the brink by the woman he loves? Check it, add witchy-magic goodness, switch the genders, and BAM! there’s Grave. I could say much the same thing about Giles and the lack of maternal/paternal influence on the gang and how far they strayed from what they were.
Anyway, this whole thing basically adds up to a “Season Six was much better than Season Four and worlds better than Season One, but even if it wasn’t, any season of Buffy is so far ahead of anything else on television they shouldn’t even be compared.” Or something.