[Roland 85]

And Season 4...

Season 4

Freshman year in UC Sunnydale. Buffy and Willow jump into college life, while Xander must find what his future is, and Giles is struggling with the fact that after quitting the Watchers' Council he no longer has a purpose. But something is brewing under the UC Sunnydale campus - a threat that has nothing to do with the supernatural, and everything to do with governments sticking their noses where they so don't belong.

Season 4 is possibly the weakest of the later Buffy seasons. Its main story-arc is unconvincing and its central villain rings hollow. Where this show is concerned, however, "weakest" means "still pretty damn good", and ironically, one can find here three of the five best episodes in the entire show, as well as some very important character-developments. It is the first major change of scenery for the Scooby gang, as hardly any of the old places from the previous seasons are visited (understandable, considering that Sunnydale High got burned down in Season 3...). The change is welcome, however, because it feels completely natural.

The most important new character of the season is of course Riley Finn (Marc Blucas) - TA in one of the classes that Buffy and Willow attend in UC Sunnydale, but also a part of the secret government military program called The Initiative. The most important aspect of Riley's role however is the fact that he is Buffy's new romantic interest, much to most fans' chagrin. In truth, he is a fantastic character. Completely Joe Avarage (if Joe Avarage was about seven feet tall, with chiseled jaw and athlete's physique of course), nice in an oafish way, stable, understanding, immensely polite, Riley is the very opposite of every other character on this show, and the contrast works beautifully. What does not work beautifully, unfortunately, is his relationship with Buffy. Both actors do their best, but there is just no chemistry. However realistic and wholesome a character Riley is, he never feels more than a place-holder in Buffy's life, and Season 5 actually will solidify that impression.

On the not-so-controversial side we have the return of Spike who becomes a regular member of the cast (or rather - James Marsters does). After some tinkering on the Initiative's part, the most badass vampire in the world is rendered harmless to humans which makes for a lot of hilarity and impotence jokes, as well as giving a chance for all kinds of awesome interaction between him and the Scooby gang.

Season 4 is centered around belonging and growing apart. Xander feels left behind, Willow goes through heavy changes, Buffy is obsessed with her "spanking new boyfriend", while Giles and Joyce feel that they have no purpose in life. And yet, as all those plot-lines converge in the next to last episode (explanations will happen, be at peace), the characters seem to have found a new bond, a symbiosis where everyone plays a part in a greater whole. This is the first season of the show that actually gives foreshadows of what is to follow next. Particularly the last episode - Restless - is big with the hinting, concerning the major plot-line of Season 5, as well as the archetypes characters will become toward the end of the show.

A few episodes merit special mention. Chief among them is Hush - one of the crowning jewels of the entire show. More than half of this episode is done without any dialogue, as a group of fairy-tale demons called the Gentlemen arrive in town and steal everybody's voices so that nobody would be heard screaming while they cut hearts out at night. Heavy on the subtext of communication and the various ways we manage to not understand each other, Hush is also one of the most effective horror-wise, as the grotesque skeletal Gentlemen are truly demonic in a way that nothing else in the entire show has ever come close to. Suffice to say that they float a foot above ground, their broad steel-toothed smiles never drop from their skull-like faces, and their exaggeratedly courteous gestures are chilling to the extreme. All the actors perform wonderfully in this episode, and there is quite a lot of spot-on comedy too. All part of the quirky idiosyncratic experience that is Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Who Are You? deals with body-swapping, and gives two important cast-members the opportunity to step into the other one's shoes. Both perform great, and it is a wonderful character-building episode for one of them, but unfortunately I can't say more without ruining the surprise.

Superstar is one of my favorite episodes in the show. Dealing with an awesome "what if?" scenario, it manages to play both comedy and drama, while at the same time giving a completely obscure character - the short looser Jonathan (Danny Strong), introduced in Season 3 - the spotlight to such a ridiculous extent that even the opening is re-cut to feature him there.

Restless is another gorgeous piece of art. The last episode of Season 4 is not a climax, but an epilogue (the ending of the current story-arc happens in episode 21 - Primeval), and it is entirely a dream sequence, or rather - four dream sequences, as Willow, Xander, Giles and Buffy fall into an unnatural sleep in Buffy's house. There is no way to describe the utter wackiness of the episode. Restless is weird and confusing, both alluding to the future and playing with characters' hidden fears.

Willow's dream is a Twin Peaks-esque vision - complete with the heavy red curtains - of all her friends playing roles in a surreal version of Death of a Salesman. Buffy's Chicago outfit with the short black hair and provocative femme-fatale/burlesque dancer dress is especially memorable, as well as her dazzling monologue:

But what else could I expect from a bunch of low-rent, no-account hoodlums like you? Hoodlums, yes, I mean you and your friends, your whole sex. Throw 'em in the sea for all I care. Throw 'em in and wait for the bubbles. Men, with your groping and spitting. All groin, no brain. Three billion of ya' passin' around the same worn out urge. Men... with your sales.

Half of the dialogue in this episode is severely symbolic and/or meaningful, and the other half is complete nonsense. I think it's easy to judge where this particular piece of brilliance falls. However, the Willow sequence shows more than anything else in the season how much she has grown up and matured since the beginning of the show. There is almost nothing in common between the nerdy clutz from Season 1, and the gorgeous self-aware and confident woman that she is in Season 4. Everybody else's dreams hold wicked cool elements, and in each and every one of them is featured the Man With the Cheese (I wear my cheese. It doesn't wear me.) who Whedon admits to have put there purely for absurdity's sake.

In its entirety, Season 4 is a step down in quality from Season 3. However, it holds many pearls of character development, as well as few of the best Buffy episodes ever made. And as much as fans might be bothered by Buffy and Riley's relationship, there is still a lot to love here. Plus - witches. "Sometimes I think about two women doing a spell. And then I do a spell by myself." That is to say, even at its weaker, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is still many laps ahead of most every other show, doing drama better than dramas, comedy better than comedies, and entertainment as art in the best possible way - with a big heart.

8/10

[Roland 85]

I wrote a post on Buffy's Season 5 episode The Body (http://rolandscodex.blogspot.com/2010/09/buffy-vampire-slayer-body.html). I would quote it here, but it's obviously one huge spoiler, so I can't do that. I'd be interested in what people think of the post, however, if anyone could be bothered to read it. :)

[Roland 85]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season 5 (http://rolandscodex.blogspot.com/2010/09/buffy-vampire-slayer-season-5.html):


...

Season 5's main storyline is all about responsibility. Buffy's, obviously, is central to the arc, and by the end of it she is near the point of snapping, especially after the events of The Body episode (reviewed earlier this week). However, it is not only her. Giles is increasingly taking up the role of a father figure in her life, thus acquiring both a renewed sense of purpose, and an uncertainty as to how much help he should provide to someone who desperately need to learn to rely on herself. This is the season that sees Xander becoming more adult than all of his friends. Having to deal with the reality of being a "loser", he ends up as someone who learns to provide for himself and enters the role of the responsible one who sees truths that the others don't. Although not central to the plot in any way, Willow also features in the season's theme. It is here that her unhealthy obsession with magic begins. Particularly in Forever, where we see clearly the difference between a Wiccan and a witch. While Tara is aware of her place in the natural cycle of life, death, order and chaos, for Will magic is a game, a thrilling new frontier to be explored, conquered and experimented with. And while she is getting more and more powerful, it is uncertain where this power will take her.

Responsibility plays a part in Riley's storyline too, which - sadly - finishes in the middle of the season. Feeling Buffy becoming more and more distant, he can't accept the fact that she doesn't need him, and won't let him in. In the end, it proves too much for someone who is used to others depending on him. I was sad to see him leave, as I think Buffy's healthy and completely normal relationship provided a perfect counterpoint for the madness that rages all around her. However, the character who deserves true praise in Season 5 is Spike. His dark obsession with the Slayer finally reaches its obvious conclusion, much to Buffy's utter disgust, but in the end, it provides for a tremendous growth. James Marsters does the transition as smoothly as he handles everything else in Spike's role, and there are a couple of scenes with him toward the end of the season, that are truly heart-breaking.

The main storyline is perhaps the most ambitious one in the show so far. Glory is unlike anything the Slayer has ever faced before, and there is almost no episode - even among the completely stand-alone ones - that doesn't involve her in some way. Clare Kramer is gorgeous as the skanky, sexy and egomaniacally self-obsessed... no, I'm not saying, you'll find out what she is for yourself. Suffice to say she makes early Cordelia look like a caring soft-spoken altruist. Action is of the galore in Season 5, in a magnitude unseen in the show before. There are fights on moving cars, explosions, demolition and a crusade in this one, kids! And the beautifully shot, gorgeously soundtracked ending is the most powerful of any Buffy season, save perhaps the final one. At the time of its airing people were in so much shock (especially considering the fact that it was at that point that the show changed channels), that Joss Whedon had to issue a statement to calm things down.

As Buffy The Vampire Slayer matures, its focus toward responsibility and morale leads to some heavy treading into Gloomsville. It is difficult for me to compare Season 5's quality to that of previous seasons. It is obviously a lot stronger than Seasons 1, 2 and 4, but it is so drastically different from Season 3, that it's hard to say whether it's better or worse. The main storyline is strong, but at times feels dragging and aimless, while apart from the devastating masterpiece The Body, stand-alones don't offer jewels like previous season's Hush, Superstar or Restless. At the same time though, the cast is now absolutely comfortable in their roles, and most of them give their best performances to date. And the overall quality of both drama and comedy is, I think, higher than that of any of the prior seasons.

...

10/10

[Roland 85]

Again with the spoiling. A review of Season 6's Once More With Feeling (http://rolandscodex.blogspot.com/2010/09/buffy-vampire-slayer-once-more-with.html).

[Roland 85]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season 6 (http://rolandscodex.blogspot.com/2010/09/buffy-vampire-slayer-season-6.html)

...

Being adult and facing your problems is the theme of the season, and it is the reason why many people hate it so much. Season 6 is the farthest Buffy has ever been from the roots of vampire-slaying smart comedy. There is a lot of drama here, and not all of it is of the epic saving the world kind. Actually, this is among the worse seasons in the show - many of the themes get overly repetitive, some of the concepts just miss the target, and at times the darkness seems inappropriately overwhelming. But Season 6 is bold television, of the type rarely seen these days. It goes into forbidden territories, tackling themes like rape, sexual frustration, coming out, admitting painful truths to yourself, the purely human lust for humiliation and domination, and the shallow desperation of minimum-wage life. And more often than not the journey is worth it.

Buffy's turning into an adult that can face her problems without outside help is central to the plot. She is at her lonest - not only denied Giles' help (he leaves her in the first third of the season for the very purpose of not becoming her emotional crutch), but also feeling distanced from her friends. It is no surprise that in the end a sick relationship between her and Spike emerges - one to define both of them for the whole year and beyond. The beautiful circular structure of the season sees Buffy rise from a grave again, in the final episode, but it is a true rebirth this time, triumphant and filled with hope.

Spike, in contrast, is unchanged and unchanging, as all the soulless are in the Buffyverse. His love for the Slayer is undeniable, yet he simply can't be something that she could love, no matter how much he wants to. The cliffhangery ending to his story-arc is one of the biggest surprises in the show, and had lasting repercussions not only in Season 7, but also in Season 5 of Angel.

The other Scoobies all play major parts in the theme of the season. And both Willow and Xander fail spectacularly. After a fashion, Season 6 sees the lowest points for both of them, but it also gives resolution to Xander's uncertainty of what his place in the group is, while leaving Willow's future unclear and turbulent, after the grief-fueled trauma of the finale. Even with Buffy's rising from the grave to return to the hell of everyday life, it is Willow who suffers the most. Her addiction to magic in this season doesn't even try to hide the obvious allusions to drug abuse, using words like "tripping", "dose" and "supplier" to sometimes overstate the simple truth that behind the facade of a reliable, honest and supportive person, Willow Rosenberg is by far the weakest in terms of personality. It ruins her life in more than one way, and then, when it seems that things are looking up, a stupid accident destroys her completely.

However, it is not all gloom and doom. The season's "villain" is actually a trio of geeks - Jonathan (Danny Strong), Warren (Adam Busch) (who we knew from before) and Andrew (Tom Lenk) who just decided one day (over a D&D session) to take over Sunnydale. Jonathan's magics, Warren's technology and Andrew's demons actually give Buffy quite a run for her money, because the intent was never for them to be just comic reliefs, but still The Trio is one of the funniest archnemesis...es... in television. Their constant bickering about James Bond actors, comic book plot points and bruised egos is hilarious, while their immaturity grows to form three very different people - one who desperately craves to be loved, one horrified with himself, and one very twisted murderer. Still, much of their interaction is made of funny, and besides, they add to the theme of real-life. It is not a vampire, a demon or a god that threatens the Slayer in Season 6, but three confused and bitter teenage outcasts she went to school with.

...

9.5/10

[Roland 85]

Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season 7 (http://rolandscodex.blogspot.com/2010/10/buffy-vampire-slayer-season-7.html)

It became more or less an ode to the whole show, but that's the way I felt writing it...

As another summer draws to its end, the rebuilt Sunnydale High is finally opening its doors to a new generation of students. Dawn heads for classes in the new place, while Buffy herself is hired by the charming principal Robin Wood (DB Woodside) to be the new student counselor. But from beneath the school, the Hellmouth is beginning to open, and this time a force unlike any other is prepared to use it for its dark ends. A force capable of touching every part of the world simultaneously, striking at the very heart of its protectors - the Watchers' Council and the Slayer line. And while Potential Slayers are getting killed all over the globe, Sunnydale is becoming both the safest place for the girls to go, and the most dangerous. The First Evil has made its move. And this time the Slayer won't be enough.

Season 7 is not simply the final season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. It is one huge, 22-episode Finale for the entire show. Throughout every episode there is a feeling of impending disaster, of a convergence of powers the likes of which Buffy has never faced before. She has slain vampires, demons, monsters born of magic and science, hellgods and even herself, but every second of this season shows you that this, here, now, is - one way or the other - the end of all that she, her friends, or any of us have ever known.

Buffy Season 7 is vibrant with the energy of closure, and it is not surprising that closure, as well as redemption, are the two predominant themes in it. Gone are many of the insecurities, uncertainties and undefined fears of the Scoobies. They have faced terror, darkness and hell itself - both without and within - and have emerged triumphant, even through loss and suffering. Now they are all - Buffy, Xander, Willow, Giles, Dawn, Anya and in the end even Spike - the thing that so few characters in fiction are - true and real heroes. They are champions, not simply of abstract concepts like "good", and "justice", but of morality and integrity. They have all made mistakes, both small and profound, and the truths they have learned, the justice they represent, are now not something they like or respect, but something they are.

Should you take a step back and look at it in the context of the entire show, Season 7 is a thing of beauty. It is the culmination of a phenomenon that was never afraid to go into places of darkness and shine the light of love and humor on them. It often delivered not what the viewers wanted, but what they needed. And, unlike almost every other TV show ever made, Buffy The Vampire Slayer realized its potential. It was a glorious ride that lasted for seven amazing years of constant reinvention, evolution and growth, and it ended exactly when its time came, with the bang that it deserved.

Every actor in the show gives their best performances here - Nicholas Brandon and Allison Hannigan in particular, reminding us how terribly important Willow and Xander have always been to this show - and there are many fine moments from each of its main writers as well, particularly the ridiculously talented Jane Espenson. Truth be told, it is hard to pick any one moment to praise, as it all fits together so well.

Due to the dynamic of the season arc, there is not much to say about individual episodes, and it would be beside the point anyway. There are gems among them, no doubt - like the hauntingly enjoyable and originally structured Conversations With Dead People, where - due to scheduling conflicts - every one of the characters is in a separate storyline the entire time; or the humorous yet heartbreaking Storyteller, focusing on Andrew's (Tom Lenk) own redemption, facing the truth of what he has done. Perhaps the greatest "year one" episode is Anya's own Selfless, which, in a series of gorgeous flashbacks, shows her journey from a pre-medieval village housewife to one of the most powerful demons on the planet, to an awkwardly honest yet ultimately kind-hearted human. It even features another musical number from her, going back to the night before the events of Season 6's Once More With Feeling.

Season 7 is not, however, about the individual episodes. It is about Buffy's last battle as a guardian of the Hellmouth. The final episode, Chosen, is the culmination of all the tension that has been gathering throughout the whole season. A battle of epic proportions, and one that - were it shot in today's high budget television - would have rivaled anything Lord of the Rings showed us about fantasy. Amazing soundtrack, fantastic battle scenes and effects that are more spectacular than anything Buffy has ever done before, and yet Chosen's true power is not in its action, but in the beauty that comes of reaching the end of a long road. It is in the scene where the four original Scoobies - Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles - discuss what they are going to do tomorrow, and it is in Giles' full-circle comment that yes, the world is definitely doomed. It is in The three inseparable friends going their separate ways to do their part in the final battle, without saying anything, parting with but a slight touch of hands and a knowing smile.

But it is, above all else, in the episode's message. Which is, ultimately, Buffy The Vampire Slayer's message. That you are strong. That there are those around you, on which you can rely. That love redeems, and that forgiveness cures. That sacrifice is only worth when you do it for others, and that we all have inside of us the potential to save the world.

The show ends with a future. A whole new world to explore. "We saved the world", Dawn says. "We changed the world", replies a disbelieving Willow. And so they have, if maybe just a little bit, for those of us that looked at what Joss Whedon gave us without cultural and intellectual prejudices, and opened our eyes to see beyond a cheesy premise and a corny title. Buffy The Vampire Slayer changed us, and for the better. In the end, it was more than just another TV show, more than just entertainment and thrills. It went beyond art, beyond storytelling, and style, and characterization. It went beyond them to come to us. And I will end this long series of reviews by saying that if my posts have inspired even a single soul to watch the show with the eyes to see it for the glorious experience that it is, then I will be content.

10/10

[alex4u]

Now i am aching for buffy again :(