Oh, and while I’m on a question kick, there are also references in this thread to a crazy lady writer with relationship problems who eventually got fired/left the show? What’s that all about? Did that drama have any appreciable impact on the actual content of the show?
Also, I recently found out a fun fact: Adam Shankman (the SYTYCD guy) did choreography for Buffy. I assume combat choreography, but not sure.
Yes. Her name is Marti “The Toxin” Noxon and you will learn about her wicked ways (and how they made the show really crappy) in season six.
You have been warned.
Marti Noxon. You don’t get the full force of Marti’s psychosis until Season 6. Does this have an impact on the show? Is the Hulk green?
By Season 6, Joss was busy with other projects and left the everyday running of the show to people like Marti. Things went Dixie real fast. Her episodes were always full of angst anyway, and her influence on the other writers made that season a mess. I blame her for “Seeing Red,” not Steven DeKnight, who wrote it.
Sad, that, because before her descent into the Pit, Marti wrote some damned good episodes (“The Wish”, “The Prom”, “Surprise”).
Wait, she had relationship problems and got fired?
Sort of. She told a reporter she went through a string of bad (and a few abusive) boyfriends in college and brought those experiences to season six.
She wasn’t fired, but her role in season seven was definitely reduced. She only ended up writing two of the season’s episodes, the fewest she write during her Buffy tenure.
She was Executive Producer of BtVS Seasons 6 & 7, then went on to other projects. Many of which she left for “creative differences.”
The Body’s original air date, according to IMDB is 27 February 2001. My own mother’s early death at age 53 was 17 February 2000. That episode absolutely gutted me.
To counter that warning, I loved Season 6. And I am not alone.
But you are in the minority.
WARNED… you have been.
I think I will love it too. I think it was lissener who said the major criticism of that season is that it’s too dark and serious. I don’t mind. And I think that’s the season with ‘‘Normal Again’’ which is supposed to be really subversive. I love subversive. I see no harm in cautious optimism (but hell, I’m still in the middle of Season 5, so we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.)
Sorry about your Mom. It’s a universal thing, death, but it touches everyone differently. I hope the episode was at least somewhat validating.
I see. I see Prison Break and Brothers and Sisters listed as shows she left for creative differences.
I had no idea she’d had such trouble. Did she ever work on Firefly or Dollhouse?
Not that I know of.
Season Six is like the little girl with the curl.
I don’t get the hate for season 6 either. It has some brilliant episodes. It got a little dark, and I think the analogy thing they did was lame, and sometimes I also get the urge to beat the crap out of someone for what they did towards the end. However, taken as a whole, I don’t think it’s as bad as it’s been made out to be.
Minor, minor spoilers for the bolded pairing.
Spike/Angel is officially canon. You might still think it’s nothing more than bad fanfic, but this Spike/Angel shipper is quite happy to get the Joss Whedon seal of approval!
I really miss the Ship Wars sometimes. They were a lot of fun. sigh
Spoilers for Season 6 below:
[spoiler]Season 6’s weakness isn’t darkness - it’s *inconsistency. *For the first time in Buffy’s run, you have characters acting in ways that don’t make sense given what we know about them (or in some particularly bad cases, just learned about them). For example, Buffy and Spike seem to reach some level of begrudging rapprochement several times during the season (crazy sex aside), hinting at a renewal of the respect Spike earned at the end of Season 5… but then the very next episode, they’re back to spitting hate at each other for no apparent reason.
The schizophrenia of an unhealthy relationship is something that could have been very interesting to explore, and there are times when Season 6 does so effectively. But you need to show *why *the characters are acting bipolar. Hitting the character reset button at the end of each episode (despite the characters supposedly reaching some sort of important epiphany) just confuses and frustrates the audience. It’s bad, lazy writing, and a show like “Buffy” should be above that sort of thing.
I have no problem with the overarching arc of Season 6, and there are some true gems amongst the dreck. But too often, Noxon et al. have the characters undergo what should be life-altering decisions or situations, only to completely ignore the subsequent fallout in favor of more angsty plot twists.[/spoiler]
That is a pretty accurate, well-reasoned explanation for why season six blows the goat ass. There are some pretty great moments (well, a couple anyway), but as a whole the season just doesn’t do it for me.
And to this day I still blame Marti Noxon.
As well you should.
The traffic cop should have shot her.
[spoiler]I think that this really applies to the other much-maligned subplot of Season Six–namely, the magic addiction. In the beginning, they seemed to be very much on track to frame Willow’s addiction to magic as being psychological in nature. It was addictive in that it allowed her to get whatever she wanted–she got to bring her friend back from the dead, after all, with no thought about whether she should or shouldn’t. She began using magic for mundane tasks–decorating for a party, for instance. When called on it, she used magic to try to fix her significant other to her liking. And then, when she was called on that, she did the exact same thing. She took the easy way out instead of trying to put in the work or taking her lumps.
This was an insightful character arc. The thing is, in the very next freaking episode, they decided that, nope, magic was addictive like drugs were addictive. And you could get high from it. And it was sold in sleazy, hidden flophouses by dealers who look like Willem Dafoe. And the only solution was to stop using it altogether. No trying to use it responsibly–cold turkey was the way to go.
I think this pissed a lot of people off, because it was really heavy-handed, and, more importantly, completely inconsistent with where they seemed to have been going with it. Then, at the end of the season, they did the following:
1.) Had Tara going back to Willow for no real reason except that she hadn’t been using magic. This despite the fact that the issues they were having had far more to do about control, and less to do with magic. They then immediately killed her off. So, basically, they brought her back to be killed. This left a bad taste in a lot of people’s mouths.
2.) When Willow went all bad-magic-mojo-mama, it was back in the vein of her trying to use magic to fix things to her liking, albeit on a much more dramatic scale. It wasn’t the drugs metaphor that they’d been drumming from midseason on. And this wouldn’t have been so bad if it were only reflecting some kind of misjudgement that the characters had made. . .but it wasn’t. It was reflecting the Super!Obvious!Metaphor! they’d foisted upon us with characters that they’d invented.
Basically, if they’d cut out the whole of the middle chunk of that arc, it would’ve been a hell of a lot better. As it was, they addressed it a bit in season seven, but that season had its own problems.[/spoiler]
First off, I’m also in the minority that loved season six. Join us, won’t you? 
Second, Spoilers for the 7th episode of Season 6
Olives, by now you’ve seen Once More with Feeling. Now think back to your comment Re: Adam Shankman, and all is clear.
to all the already spoiled: good job keeping The Body a surprise. Let’s try to do the same with OMw/F as well! I can’t imagine how awesome it would’ve been to see Buffy burst into song with no warning. Sadly, I knew it was coming when I saw it first.
precisely, I love, love, love the whole scene at Willow & Tara’s place from start to finish for that reason. Particularly Willow’s bit about none of her clothes being grown up enough. that’s where I saw myself.
heightened by the complete lack of music, of course. (Not sure if you noticed or not. My first time, I knew something was odd, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it.
Indeed, and sadly, completely ignored at Emmy time, IIRC. Great acting from the entire cast, too, even Sara Michelle Gellar, who I normally saw as just competent. But here, I thought she rose to the occasion and was incredible. Up to this point, the only other time I had thought that was when she played Faith in Buffy’s body back in season 4. In the end I decided that meant it wasn’t her fault, but that Buffy herself never was written with as many great “acting showcase moments” as the rest of the cast. Given the right material, she can be really, really great.
Yup, one of my fave quotes from the episode is Buffy and Tara’s exchange…
Buffy: Was it sudden?
Tara: What?
Buffy: Your mother.
Tara: No. And yes. It’s always sudden.