Rate Buffy season by season

Cafe Society
1

We’ve done favorite eps, scenes and lines. We’ve probably done seasons before and I don’t remember. If we haven’t before, let’s bring all the favorites together and rate the seasons. I’m leaving off the current season as it’s incomplete and also leaving out AtS but y’all are free to include them if you want. My rankings:

  1. Season 3. Hands down. The mayor is the best big bad. The introduction of Faith and Wesley. Angel departs Sunnydale. Willow loses her virginity. Anya debuts. Mister Trick. Hunky twin shirtless German mercenaries (alas, re-clothed and deceased far too soon). Buffy, Class Protector. So much of the groundwork for future seasons and AtS was laid out here, but even not taking that into account the season is great. I must confess that this was the first season I watched so I have a soft spot for it…oh, and I dare not forget, the birth of MOO!

  2. Season 5. Not a popular choice, but I adored Glory. I also loved Tara and thoroughly enjoyed her and Willow’s relationship. The come-uppance of the Council. Olaf the Troll. Joel Grey’s appearances. “The Body.” The amazing battle in the season finale.

  3. Season 2. Spike and Drucilla. Angelus. The death of Jenny Calendar and the dawning of Willow’s power. Buffy becomes a woman and Joyce learns she’s the Slayer.

  4. (tie) Season 6. “Once More, With Feeling.” Little else need be said. But that’s never stopped me before. The geeky Trio demonstrating the utter banality of evil. The shocking (if you never read a spoiler) death of Tara and Willow unleashed. The return of Riley Finn (I liked him and I don’t care what you think). Spike naked. Spike naked a lot. The continuing evolution of Spike culminating in his quest for and regaining of his soul. CLEM!

  5. Season 4. I liked Adam more than a lot of people I guess. I liked Riley more than a lot of people I guess. Still, some stinker episodes (“Beer Bad” for example) drop the ranking for this season, being only partially redeemed by the brilliance of “Hush.”

  6. Season 1. Nothing intrinsically wrong with season 1, but some season had to be ranked last, right? I tend to cut first seasons some slack because of the newness and giving everyone time to hit their strides, but overall even taking that into account the first season still ranks as the least.

YMMV, so have at it.

2

I’d swap seasons four and six on my list, but besides that…yeah. You got it right as far as I’m concerned.

3

  1. Season 3. I expect there will be a near-consensus on this one.

  2. Season 2.

  3. Season 5.

  4. Season 1. Laid the groundwork for greatness. The tone, the characters, everything was already in place in these episodes. Some of them are a bit rough, but there are lots of gems in these 13. Its last place showing on the first 2 lists puzzles me.

  5. Season 7. …Not with a bang, but a whimper.

  6. Season 4. Adam sucked, the Initiative sucked, Riley sucked. Everything else was still pretty good.

  7. Season 6. Really, really disappointing, except for “OMWF”. I still cringe at all the magic-as-drug-addiction crap. Interesting how quickly it’s been dropped. And I, unlike some, was always amused by Andrew, Jonathan, and Warren.

4

  1. Season 3- It’s just plain hilarious. The most fun season. The Zeppo is a classic in my book.

  2. Season 2- Spike. Drusilla. Angelus. Jenny Calendar. 'nuff said.

  3. Season 5- Solid, solid, season. Buffy vs. Dracula is their best season premiere.

  4. Season 4- Riley was a bit annoying, but it has many fun episodes, including the underrated “Pangs”.

  5. Season 1- Just shorter and slightly less developed than the rest.

  6. Season 6- Fine, but not enough happened to carry 22 episodes.

Season 7 can’t even begin to be ranked until the final 5 air. They alone may elevate it to the top 3 or 4. As of now, it is above season 6 but below season 1 in quality.

5

1-Season 5–Tight story telling from beginning to end. I liked the over-all arc, and I really enjoyed all of the characters. It would have been a perfect way to end the series, because with the exception of Xander in a few episodes, I really thought they ewre all great.

2–Season 2–High emotions, angst, humour, Spike, Drusilla, and some of my absolute favorite moments from Giles. There were a few less than stellar eps (Reptile Boy and the one about the swim team spring to mind), but all in all, it was fantastic.

3–Season 4–Ok, it had Riley, which was unfortunate. It also din’t have a strong overall arc. The Initiative and Adam wasn’t as frightening as they could have been and some of the themes that could have been explored were dropped. Also, Buffy’s perm was awful. But it had the most amazing block of episodes of any season, beginning with The Iniative, Pangs, Sometihng Blue, Hush, and Doomed. S4 had a lot of great stand alone episodes, if not a memorable story arc.

4–Season 1. I just think everybody is really cute. The writing was great and funny, and there’s not a single ep I wouldn’t watch over and over. Plus, I absolutely love The Master.

5–Season 7. THe final five haven’t aired yet, but I’ve been thorougly spoiled by reading the scripts, and I’m very, very, very happy. S7 had a few weak spots, and I’m disappointed at all the dropped story lines. I thought this year would be a year where they reall explored the meaning of redemption, the meaning of souls, the gray area–and instead we get the FE. :rolleyes:

6–Season 6. Wrecked through As You Were are episodes I’ll never be able to rewatch (except Dead Things) because they were just too painful. THe whole season was painful, and the fact that Marti Noxon is an air-headed bimbo didn’t help. But, like S4, it had some amazing stand alone episodes, and though the finale was lamer and than lame could possibly be, overall, I liked where they took us.

7—Yes, Season 3 is my least favorite season. And not because of te lack of Spike (see the high placement of 1 and the lower placement of 7). No, it’s because I thought the Buffy/Angel relationship was way too melodramatic and boring. I thought Faith was way too annoying and boring. And though I adored The Mayor and enjoyed Giles this season, it’s also when I stopped being very fond of the Scoobie Gang. Of course S3 may be my least favorite Buffy season, but I would choose it over pretty much anything else on TV ever, because despite the fact it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea, the writing and storytelling, and arc were overall very strong.

6

Hadn’t the Mayor been the villain of season three, it would have been totally terrible. As it is, the mayor is The Best Villain Ever, any tv show, movie, book, play.

So:

Season 4. Yes it had some clunkers, and the arc with Riley was a bit boring, but there were so many strong episodes. The final battle was very, very cool and dealt with the importance of friends. Restless was superb television. I know a lot of people hate the season because of Riley, but I really don’t care who schtupps Buffy.

Season 5. The mystery of the Key. A very strong adversary. Glory was a good villain and the writers should learn something about über-evil from their own writing during this season. Lot’s of good Spike time (meaning snarky fun Spike).

Season 3. For all the things mentioned by the previous posters, but there was something - je ne sais quoi - missing, that I found in seasons 4+5.

Season 2. The whole Angel thing left me a bit bored. However, the miniarc with Jenny Calender was good. Some fine stand alone eps too.

Season 1. It’s all there. But still not that sharp. Some things are a bit clunky, but it was enjoyable.

Season 6. While there were some great stand alones, especially OMWF, it started falling apart in so many ways. Really, the slayer flipping burgers? Gym instructor or teaching self defense, I could buy, but flipping burgers? No way.
The geek trio was occasionally fun, though.

7

I’m not 100% comfortable ranking these until season 7 is over, and I’ve watched each of the 7 seasons quickly enough to get a sense of their full shape. As one critic commented, Joss stopped caring about episode-by-episode storytelling during seasons 6 & 7. (That’s not a critique, just recognition that he’s Doing Something Else, namely working with seasons as a whole.)

That said:

  1. Season 2, narrowly edging out
  2. Season 3. (I love Faith, I love “The Zeppo,” I love the Mayor.)
  3. Season 5. A nice farewell to the Buffy (the character) I fell in love with from the first show. Dawn never really worked as a character, though, and our memories of a pre-Dawn universe remain intact, which is a flaw in our sympathies for Buffy’s ultimate choice.
  4. Season 1. I fell in love with this from the first show.
  5. Season 4. Not by any means terrible, but the lack of focus takes its toll.
  6. Season 6. I suspect this will benefit a lot once I see it again on DVD. Buffy came back wrong, all right, and I don’t think it was just death that did it to her.
  7. Season 7. See above comments. That said, I don’t think it’s a whimper. Honestly, though, I’m not as interested in the Buffy and Spike show as I ever was in the Scooby Gang show. That’s more about how the relationship was developed than the characters or performances, though.
8

Caveat: My wife and I came to “Buffy” late. Midway through season six, we realized we simply couldn’t ignore it any longer, so we got a hold of seasons one and two on DVD, and seasons three through five on VHS (big thanks to Stoid for helping on this), and cranked through them as fast as we could. Then we totally crashed on season six: couldn’t find it anywhere. We had a friend, who is the only person we know who actually watched the season one premiere episode when it first aired, tape season seven for us while we tried to find season six. We just managed to get a hold of it about a week ago, and are about halfway through it. So we haven’t seen the resolution of six (though we know roughly what happens) and don’t know anything about season seven. We’ll be totally caught up in time to watch the final four or five episodes of the series in real time, though.

That being said:

Season two is my favorite, by a whisker. The loss and last-moment redemption and death of Angel is a phenomenal story arc. The death of Jenny Callendar still gives me chills. Truly exemplary television, despite a handful of unsuccessful episodes (“Killed By Death”).

Season three follows narrowly behind. The Mayor is an excellent nemesis, and the supporting cast is great. Still, nothing here knocked me flat the way “Passion” in season two did. Well, maybe “The Wish” and its repercussions. And “The Zeppo” is hilarious. And “Earshot” was great. And Faith… Hmmm. I go back and forth between two and three.

Crap. Okay, three comes first, followed by two. For now.

In any case, season five is third. Glory makes a pretty good nemesis, but I started feeling by the two-thirds mark that she was spinning her wheels a bit. Also, I didn’t really buy Riley’s fall from innocence. Still, I loved, loved, the introduction of Dawn as the Key: brilliant. And the death of Buffy’s mother: stunning. If you isolate the best half of any given season and ignore the lesser half, season five ranks first or second, not third.

Season four is fourth. I actually kind of liked the departure in tone represented by the Initiative, though I don’t think they did enough with it. And Adam wasn’t much of a nemesis, given how late in the game he was introduced. “Hush,” though, is absolute genius, one of their three or four best episodes ever, including what is far and away their scariest one-shot villain.

Season six – Remember, I’ve only seen the first half. I understand that fans dislike the dark, morose tone of this season, with the deadly serious issues and conflicts being worked out. I actually appreciate it quite a bit; these are major emotional events, and they have to resonate. Also, I like what’s being set up, with Willow as a pseudo-“Big Bad.” Even so, I think I have a major advantage in that I’m watching all the shows at once, pushing rapidly through the overall story, rather than suffering a week at a time through an agonizing season. Plus, while the Geek Trio is pretty funny (so far), they create some substantial thematic and tonal dissonance with the grim realities being explored in other half of the show. Also, while I love Spike, I really don’t know if I can buy the affair with Buffy they’re trying to put over; I just don’t see it in her. I’m putting this one fifth in the list because I’m extrapolating forward based on a whole season’s worth of this stuff. I may change my mind.

Season one is last, but only because it’s a shakedown season. The Master is a great villain, and there’s a pretty good episode or two in here (“The Pack” is fun), but it took a little while to really pin down what makes the show so special.

We’ll see where season seven lands once my wife and I get totally caught up.

9

1.) Season Three. While I believe that Season 2 had many of the best episodes, it wasn’t cohesive for me–there were simply too many clunkers. Season Three, on the other hand, didn’t have as many knock-you-on-your-butt good episodes, but has a much tighter overall story arc. Plus, I love the interaction with the Mayor. I think that he’s the best villain (followed very closely by Angelus and Glory).

2.) Season Two. Passion. Surprise/Innocence. What’s My Line 1&2. Becoming, Parts 1 & 2. All of these were great. Plus, Spike. But then. . .Bad Eggs. Ted. Go Fish. Inca Mummy Girl. They’re tossable–with the exception of the Oz/Willow scene in IMG–and kinda lame. I love Angelus, I love Spike and Dru, but. . .there’s just something missing. There’s too much filler, IMHO, and the filler isn’t good enough to make things work quite as well as they did in the third season.

3.) Season Five. Admittedly, I’ve not seen every episode in the season, so I might be biased. What I’ve seen, though, I’ve liked. I really, really liked what they did in Season Five with Spike’s character, and I still get chills down my spine during some episodes (The Body, Tough Love, The Gift). There were, however, too many clunkers. Glory was a great Big Bad, though–they actually gave her some motivation.

4.) (tie) Season Six and Season Four. They suffer from the same problem–both seasons mark a transition in tone that isn’t fully realized. Season Four was “Buffy Goes to College,” and there were a lot of character changes that…well, felt a bit awkward. Season Six was “Buffy the Vampire Slayer Needs Prozac,” and, while there are some great episodes in there, there are also ones where the characters seem strange (such as “Wrecked” and “Gone”). Both of them have good finales, and Season Six has a WONDERFUL two part opener.

6.) Season Seven. I really, really do not like what I’ve seen so far. I don’t like what they’re doing with the potentials. I don’t like the tone. I feel they’ve spread out the focus of the show too thinly. There are too many new characters being developed, and not enough time to do it. I know, Joss probably wants to go out with a bang, but this was never a story about the entire world. This was a story about Buffy and her friends saving the entire world, and the entire world going about cluelessly. Yes, the First Evil has upped the ante, but it doesn’t seem realistic. It’s lost touch with reality, and, with a fantasy show, that’s a dangerous thing. There’ve, admittedly, been some GREAT eps, but only a few, and the rest have been really boring.

Note that I didn’t rank Season One. I think it’s an entirely different animal. It’s more whimsical, more Monster of the Week. . .but also very funny and very tied to high school life. I’d rank it about the same as Season Five if I had to.

10

  1. Season 3: This is when I started watching the series, so that’s surely affected my placings. But I have to put it first because it was such a thrill ride.

  2. Season 5: I thought Glory was a wonderful villain and that the death of Buffy’s mother was very well done. Plus, Riley left!

  3. Season 1: It may have gotten ranked higher if I hadn’t seen it after seeing so many later episodes. I realize they were still figuring things out, but a lot of it seemed awkward. It was still very good though.

  4. Season 2: Everybody loves this season but it just didn’t grab me as much as some of the others. I never really liked Jenny Calendar, and the bad episodes were so very, very bad. But 4th place on a Buffy list still makes it very good TV!

  5. Season 4: This was the second season of Buffy that I saw, and I remember really liking it at the time. I didn’t hate Adam, and I only disliked (didn’t hate) Riley. It wasn’t till I saw the other seasons that I realized how much better Buffy could be.

  6. Season 6: This had some good episodes, but I have to say it’s the only season I just didn’t like. Morose whiney Buffy. Morose whiney Dawn. Addicted to magic Willow. This was the “Buffy goes Lifetime network” season for me. It was a groaner.

I’ll have to wait to place Season 7. It has promise. Right now I’d put it in 5th. Above season 4 but below season 2. That still says good things about it. Other than season 6, I’ve really liked all of them!

11

1 - Season 3. The Mayor. Faith turns evil. “Buffy Summers, Class Protector.” Hands-down winner.

2- Season 5. Monks give a sister at the beginning, Buffy gives A Gift at the end. Sorry, but if weren’t such a tough, manly guy, I would have to admit to tears at “Buffy Anne Summers, 1981-2001. She Saved The World. A Lot.”

3- Season 2. Buffy’s heart breaks and Angelus chuckles. Oz appears. But unfortunately, so do Bad Eggs and Ted.

4 - Season 4. Adam was such a putz. It wasn’t bad to see Giles as a Fyral demon chasing Maggie Walsh, and any season with “Hush” in it gets extra bonus points, but in the end, it just doesn’t work.

5 - Season 6. I hate to put the home of “OMWF” and “Tabula Rasa” so low, but it gets dragged down by the Doublemeat Palace, the Legion of Dim, and the heretofore unknown I’m not in Sunnydale insane asylum. Bah.

6 - Season 1. Short. Getting its sea legs. Hints of things to come, but the Master was a failure, the Anointed One didn’t live up to his billing, and it just doesn’t stack up.

Won’t rate season 7 yet.

12

The best thing about the Annointed One was the way he died.

13

Yes, back before the long wussification process of Spike.

14

Are you just trying to get a rise out of me? :wink: :smiley:

15

I would say maturation.

16

  1. Season 3. The Mayor is a great villain, and of course Faith is probably my favorite character of the series (since they haven’t had as much time to mess her up like they did Willow).

  2. Season 2. Spike and Drusilla were also great villains. Turning Angel evil actually made him somewhat interesting. Willow started using magic. And they killed off a main character!

  3. Season 1. I was hooked on the show as soon as I saw the pilot (during summer repeats), so they obviously did something right. Unlike a lot of other fans, I actually prefer these types of shows when they do the “monster of the week” episodes instead of getting drawn into convoluted story arcs. I could’ve done with less of the teen-focus, though, what with all the musical interludes at The Bronze from your Favorite WB Artists.

  4. Season 6. While it was going on, I was thinking it was the worst season ever, but in retrospect I actually liked it. There were some great moments and dialogue from the geeks, and the episodes managed to have the anthology-style geek-invention-of-the-week feel as well as the ongoing storyline. And for the record, I hated the musical episode – great idea, and well-integrated into the ongoing story, but I thought the execution was amateurish and too cocky, “look how clever we are” for me to enjoy it.

  5. Season 4. This is where it all started to go downhill. But there were still some great moments, especially Dr. Walsh’s death, which completely took me by surprise. Riley was a horrible character, though, and the whole initiative storyline was just dumb.

  6. Season 5. Glory is the worst thing ever to happen to the series. That’s right, even more than Dawn or Riley. I hated every moment she was on-screen, I didn’t care a bit what happened to anyone involved, and the long, drawn-out “climax” was just tedious.

  7. Season 7. They would have to do something absolutely phenomenal in the next few episodes to save this year. This is the year I officially stopped caring. This is also the year that I started doing thing unthinkable – watching “Angel.” ::shudder::

17

I’m going to give out of 5 star ratings, since 7 isn’t over yet.

**Season 1 **** **
I liked the movie, I loved the series. It was the coolest thing I’d ever seen on TV (except maybe Twin Peaks.)
**Season 2 ****1/2 **
All the fun of season 1 with better plot and character development! Angelus got old fast, though.
**Season 3 *******
What can I say, the ultimate Buffy season. The last 3 episodes… wow.
**Season 4 *** **
“Hush”, Tara/Willow, and Giles as the Fyral Demon.
**Season 5 ******
Hit and miss. “The Body”, Buffy is the Gift, Spike becoming interesting, and Dracula were highlights.
**Season 6 **1/2 **
OMWF and Clem were the only saving graces.
Season 7 ???
I really really hope they do something good with the last 6 episodes.

18

Season Four Yeah, OK, the Initiative/Adam storyline was weak, and there was Mary Sue Finn, but this season had more great stand-alone episodes than any other. “The Fresman”- Sunday was the Best. MOTW. Ever. Do I even need to mention “Hush”? I loved “Beer Bad”. If I ever have to rewrite my list of Top Ten Episodes, it would have to be on it. And the Spike/Willow dorm room scene from “The Initiative” is still the funniest scene I have ever seen on television. Oh, yeah, and Spike became a regular. Mmmm, Spike.

Season Three The Mayor. Angel left. VampWillow. The introduction of Anya. Angel left.

Season Two Probably lower on my l ist than most, because I though the “Jenny Callender was a member of the Gypsy clan that cursed Angel sent to keep an eye on him” storyline was contrived. But then, there was Spike. “Oh, puh-leeze. If every vampire who claimed he was at the Crucifixion was actually there, it would have been like Woodstock. I was actually at Woodstock. That was a weird gig. I fed off a flower person and spent the next six hours watchin’ my hands move.”

Season Five Spike falls in love with Buffy. Riley leaves. Buffy gives the Council hell. “Intervention” crypt scene= best kiss ever on the show. Glory- gotta love a cheap, whorish fashion-victim of an ex-God like her. “The Body”. Riley leaves.

Season One Kind of got off to a clunky start, but did indicate greatness to come. “Never Kill a Boy on the First Date” has got to be the greatest title for a television series episode ever.

Season Seven started of pretty good- the last five minutes of “Beneath You” still draws a sniffle from me. But it kind of lost its way. No plot or story development. Spike insane in the basement got old real fast, mostly because the writing staff just kind of left him there instead of making a storyline out of it. Then all those SIT’s showing up and taking up valuable screen time. Then a couple more rounds of Kick the Spike. Finally started to redeem itself around “First Date”, but the story arc got underway about four episodes too late. “Bring On the Night” and “Showtime” were obviously filler. And if Buffy makes one more speech… Bright spots include “Beneath You”, “Same Time, Same Place”, “Conversations With Dead People/Sleeper/Never Leave Me”, “The Killer In Me” and “Lies My Parents Told Me”.

Season Six Marti Noxon must die. Loved “Once More, With Feeling”. But mostly, it was depressing. Most of the episodes were well done, but I had gotten used to a show that was a comedy/horror series, and if ME was going to make it into a drama/horror with a strong thread of humor, they could have handled it a lot better.
“Gone” sucked big time, as did “As You Were”- did we really need to see Riley Finn again? And the AR was too drawn out. OK, Marti, we get the point.

But then, Spike got his soul back… I think Darth Rosenberg trying to destroy the world was a bit contrived. I think it would have worked better if, instead of trying to do a full-blown apocalypse, she had just gone on the rampage in Sunnydale and its environs. Or maybe tried to pop the cork on the Hellmouth instead of that temple thingy…