I realized this weekend that I still hadn’t watched the last new episode of Buffy. More to the point, I didn’t want to. I just don’t care anymore. They’ve systematically removed everything I liked about the show and left me with some kind of bizarre Dawson’s Creek clone in which one character is a vampire for no apparent reason. I tuned in for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and now suddenly I’m watching Buffy the Hamburger Seller - wtf?
It’s been coming for some time. Season four was just wretched. I figured season five couldn’t be worse, and it was slightly better, but not by much. I was all set to quit after that, but stayed on for Season six. We started out okay but after the musical episode it all bottomed out. And I just don’t care anymore. I am completely uninterested in every single one of the current storylines.
The Season 1 DVDs just confirmed it for me. The series used to be fun, clever, odd, and fascinating. A really interesting approach to a TV show. Now it’s dull, depressing, annoying, and banal. I’ll still watch for a while, to see if this season pulls together anything out of the ruins of the lives of the characters, but it’s more morbid curiosity than actual interest.
Angel, on the other hand, keeps getting better. I wonder what the move to UPN has had to do with all of this?
While I have been disappointed by this season overall (and last season by the annoyingly whiny and jarringly out-of-place Dawn) I am not ready to give up yet.
Still the emphysis on the depressing episodes, and the tepid Slayer - Spike “romance” together with the trainwreck of Willow and Buffy’s lives and the very inconsistent treatment of Xander (which varies widely from writer to writer, and week to week) have put Angel well into the quality lead.
Still there have been some high points this season, so I will stick with it.
I’ve been keeping an eye on the spoiler boards, kinda, and I would suggest that you stick around for the rest of the season. I refuse to read all the spoilers, so can still be surprised, but I know there are some major changes coming up…Who knows? Maybe it’ll get better for you?
It’s getting better! If you missed the last new one (Normal Again) then you really need to watch it. And the rest of the season is going to be very interesting. As to whether or not it will suck, we’ll just have to wait and see. I’ve heard how the next 4 eps plan out (I won’t post any spoilers) but I will tell you that now is not the time you want to stop watching the show, it’s about to finally kick into full gear. Give it until the rest of the season to prove itself. I too have noticed the changes, I blame a couple of things.
The move to UPN - With Angel on another station, it’s very hard to have the cool crossovers that we all love.
Buffy’s resurection - How else really can you handle this one? They could have just dedicated 1 or 2 eps to it, but that would have somehow cheapened it. Instead, they’ve put the whole season into it and how unhappy Buffy is. I think it’s made a lot of people mad because they want the zany Buffy adventures of before, and this season is much darker. I’m viewing this whole season as damage control from WB killing her off in last season.
Anthony Stewart Head wanting to leave - Giles is about the only thing Buffy has as a parental and guiding figure. His leaving was ill-contrived and basically done to appease the actor wanting to return to London. While I hope his new show Ripper has a lot of success, I think it seriously weakened BTVS by losing him.
The whole magic is like a bad drug mmmkay storyline - Magic has saved their butts for the past 5 seasons, and now all of a sudden it’s the enemy? It feels forced and heavy handed, and wait til you see where it goes next.
Where am I going and why am I in this handbasket???
Quite a few of my friends have been very disappointed with this season’s Buffy, and have sworn off the show. These were people who rabidly watched and analyzed every show from previous seasons.
I’m not done with it, though. As depressing as it’s been, I still enjoy watching it. Whedon’s too damn good- I keep thinking that he’s just setting up for a really kick-ass season ender.
I’ve been out on Tuesday nights, so my wife has watched and taped for me… I was ready to give up, too, I haven’t watched the last two episodes, she summarizes what happened. If they manage to get their act(s) together, I could easily go back, but the whole thing is just too depressing now. Wrecking Zander and Anya’s wedding was the last straw for me: the last two people on the show who weren’t absolutely wretched and miserable have now joined the ranks of the wretched and miserable.
If I wanted to watch stuff like that, I’d watch daytime soaps.
Sure, it’s not nearly as good as it used to be, but it’s still twice as good as almost anything else on TV. I’m still enjoying it, anyway. Of course, I only started watching at the beginning of season five, so my perspective is a bit skewed.
My feelings exactly. Or more or less. And the damnable thing is, “Normal Again”, taken by itself, was a really good episode. But I just can’t help but think of it in the context of the whole season, which has just gone off a cliff.
Glad to know I’m not the only one. This season has had some promising eps, but they’ve really screwed up my favorite characters. The power-tripping super-witch Willow was awesome, the in-recovery Willow is dull as dishwater. And Spike! Spike is so fun when he’s evil. More evil Spike! Less love-sick Spike! Don’t get me started on Dawn. There’s just no excuse for her…
See, even if this is true, which I doubt, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s become mind-crushingly tedious. If this is the best thing on TV, then the fact that I odn’t watch much TV is clearly paying off.
For example, I didn’t really like season one and don’t think that the show hit its stride until season two. On the other hand I gather a lot of you didn’t like season five all that much. In my opinion, however, episodes like Fool For Love, The Body, and The Gift made season five one of my favorites.
What I have seen of season six has been pretty good so far, but then I have seen only five episodes. Personally, I think the show is great and I am going to continue to watch it.
Does anyone else out there agree with me?
Poor you, Legomancer.
As I’ve frequently said, Buffy isn’t a show about vampires. It’s a show about the hell that is growing up.
This season, and season 5, illustrate that to great effect. The writing is still sharp, the problems are still real, but this time the solutions aren’t as obvious.
Despite your condescension, I am aware that it used to be a show that balanced horros of the supernatural with horrors of everyday life. What was worse - demons in the night or the popular crowd? Could the Principal be an evil hell-beast or simply a jerk? Yes, I know. I was there for it, and I enjoyed it.
Come season 4, I assumed that, now that the characters were out of high school, we would be extending this metaphor into the college world. But it seems no one at Mutant Enemy knew much about college, so we jettisoned it right away for this incredibly silly and pointless Initiative thing. Please look at the Initiative episodes and then smugly tell me how grounded in reality the show is.
Next comes season five, and we jettison reality altogether. If these people have school and jobs, we only ocasionally hear about it. We ditch Joyce in an incredibly overrated episode so that the kids can begin a Scooby-Doo existence with no adults around to bother them. We bring in kid sister, allegedly so we can re-explore some of the “hell of growing up” themes, but we don’t. We don’t give her much of a purpose at all.
Season six we start out trying to get the characters back into some semblance of reality. However, Giles soon departs and now we’re completely adult-less. I’m surprised the remaining adults don’t start talking in Charlie Brown “wha wha wha” voices. We’re worried about money for a few minutes, until Giles write a Magic Check. Willow and Tara might be going to school, but they clearly aren’t paying any kind of rent to shack up in Buffy’s mom’s bedroom.
They then hear that I’m complaining about the fact that they have departed reality and say, “Oh, he wants reality, eh?” And suddenly I’m watching the main character dispense burgers in a fast food joint in real time. We’ve gone to the other extreme, where we’ve abandoned the supernatural aspects and now just sit squarely in reality. In the meantime characters do stupid, out-of-character things because the plot needs them to, what plot there is moves at a glacial pace with no end in sight, and suddenly yeah, I’m in reality - the reality of a bunch of self-absorbed, idiotic, immature jerks doing pointless, silly things - not at all the people I started watching on this show.
So poor me. Clearly the show is now over my little head. Tell you what, I’ll spend those Tuesday nights gettin’ all brainyfied so I can once again have the smarts to enjoy the show.
Sadly, I fear that the economics of the television biz have a great deal to do with BtVS’s relative decline and Angel’s relative ascent.
The big money in television is always syndication. Normally, shows need around five seasons worth of episodes to be syndicated.
BtVS is over that hump, while Angel needs to survive another 2.5 seasons to reach the mark. If I’m Joss Whedon, I certainly would be concentrating my energy as well as the energy of my most creative employees on Angel so that it reaches five seasons and can get me the big payday.
I still watch Buffy, but I confess that I’m watching it more now on the premise that it has to get better and I don’t want to miss plot advances that will be relevant at the time it does get better. I fear, however, that it won’t get better.
I still love it. I’m glad they’re not glossing over Buffy’s death and the results of bringing her back. I agree with joshmaker - I didn’t think the show hit it’s stride until season two, and I really enjoyed season five. Also, I don’t hate Dawn, but that seems to put me in the minority.
Anyway, when it comes to Buffy, I always disagree with you, Legomancer, and there’s not much point in debating it. We have totally different takes on it.
I don’t get why so many people put down the fourth season. I found it to be one fo the strongest in the show’s entire run. It had a wealth of strong episodes (Hush, Something Blue, the Thanksgiving episode, among others), an interesting villain, and more character development than you can shake a stake at. It started Spike off on the most interesting character arc on the show yet (Sorry, but season two Spike is just boring. Yet another vampire, but this one’s got a sexy accent! Ooo!)
And, dammit, I like season six. It’s departure from the previous seasons, and I say that’s a good thing. Whedon and co. are still willing to innovate with the show. They aren’t content to just find a formula that works and drive it into the ground, like every other show on TV. They take risks. Even if the risks don’t always pay off, the fact that they’re willing to take them is reason enough to keep watching.
A minority of two, at least. I don’t have any problems with Dawn that I don’t have or haven’t had with all the other characters. And I also really liked season 5, which makes this one all the more of a letdown.
ROFLMAO! Thank you so much for giving me something to chuckle about in the face of this otherwise dismal season.
Exactly. Words cannot express how much I hate this.
** Legomancer, ** while you are certainly entitled to your opinion about Buffy, your detailed analysis of why and how it now supposedly sucks is pretty weak.
Since when is Buffy supposed to be about “reality”…we’re talkin’ demons and vampires, people. And if you DO want to debate “reality”, if we accept the idea that demons and vampires really ARE real, then The Initiative is right in step with reality. You think if demons were real the government wouldn’t be right on it? You think the military wouldn’t be trying to turn it to their advantage? Puhleeze!
And apart from shows which are actually SET in the workplace (Cop, lawyer and doctor shows of every kind, to start) which shows do more than give a cursory nod to each character’s real life of school and work? Hardly a piercing criticism.
I think that was the best, realest portrayal of people facing real death that I can recall seeing on television. Just one woman’s opinion.
Aside from being the one thing that can break down the walls between dimensions, I suppose not. (big Dawn hater myself, but she was not without purpose…she gave the 5th season it’s whole Big Bad, and it was a pretty good one)
Wow, you are really mad at the show, aren’t you? It can’t make you happy no matter what it does.
Well, like I said, everyone’s entitled to their opinion. And in mine, you sound like the one of the folks who just really hates the fact that the characters have * changed. * Look at the fact that you still refer to them as kids-without-adults, when the fact is that they are the adults now, just like real life. I was out on my own and paying my rent and struggling and failing at 18…these guys are almost 21.
I think Joss and Co. have done an amazing job of staying absolutely faithful to precisely what they set out to do right at the beginning: trace the growth of young people, which is complicated and messy and filled with stupid mistakes, bad choices, boring jobs, etc.
Of course it’s ok that you don’t like it. But just because you don’t like doesn’t mean that it sucks now, or that JW & ME have done anything other than what they’ve always done, or done it worse.
Hey, my hope is that they don’t do what I heard they are about to do with the later episodes, from what I read of the spoiler boards. Of course, in season 5, almost all the spoilers got it wrong on which Scooby member bites it.
