This is the first time in the past three months that we haven't had a Buffy the Vampire Slayer disk out from Netflix (we'd finally decided to work through the series), so this is a haphazard dump of thoughts on the series.
To start, I saw the Buffy movie in '92 and was disappointed that they couldn't decide whether to play it as camp or straight with a side of humor. Whatever the movie's flaws, however, Kristy Swanson *is* Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and though Sarah Michelle Gellar is very good, she doesn't own the role quite like Kristy Swanson did.
Seasons 1 and 2 of Buffy were very well written with a strong core of characters, culminating (for me) with the "I Only Have Eyes for You" episode. I see why Joss Whedon has a following. Still, the writing of the Buffy character early in season 1 is a little shaky with respect to her "Buffy"-ness. She's a vampire slayer and good friend, but not much of a "Buffy" (they work hard to fix this impression late in season 1 and in season 2, but it never really entirely works; this is fine, Sarah Michelle Gellar is still very good). Xander is particularly well written in the first two seasons (because he's Joss Whedon's image of himself as a high-schooler), but for some reason is an annoying jerk for the first half of season 3, and then suddenly turns back into the old Xander midway through the season. M'kay.
Despite Xander's character issues**, Season 3 starts well, but gets choppy with the character churn that seems inevitable (Angel and Cordelia headed for another show), and Faith's slide into evil is not very convincing. I could see her ending up doing bad things and being secretive, tortured and regretful about it (sort of like how Buffy gets in Season 6, only with better reason for feeling tortured and regretful; I mean, come *on*, Buffy, you're really all torn up because it turns out you like kinky sex with vampires?), but Faith takes an absolute glee in doing evil that should only come with the loss of one's soul. The mayor is mostly an irritating character, and his genuine fatherly feelings toward Faith seem less like real character development than a desperate effort to make him more interesting and Faith's conversion to evil more credible. Invincible adversaries are boring; what worked in Season 2 was that Spike, Drusilla, and Angelus could be hurt. The season does end on a high note with the battle against the mayor; the cooperation among the high school classmates was great. And "The Wish" is a great episode.
Season 4 starts off fairly well, with Buffy's favorite class, potential love interest, and secret government organization all converging into one storyline. Unfortunately, Adam is near-invincible. BORING. And Oz got dumped from the show. At least Anya is turning out to be a great addition to the cast and the chip in Spike's head is a brilliant way to have him interact with the Scooby gang. The "Hush" episode is my favorite after the musical... and perhaps "I Only Have Eyes for You".
Despite Xander's character issues**, Season 3 starts well, but gets choppy with the character churn that seems inevitable (Angel and Cordelia headed for another show), and Faith's slide into evil is not very convincing. I could see her ending up doing bad things and being secretive, tortured and regretful about it (sort of like how Buffy gets in Season 6, only with better reason for feeling tortured and regretful; I mean, come *on*, Buffy, you're really all torn up because it turns out you like kinky sex with vampires?), but Faith takes an absolute glee in doing evil that should only come with the loss of one's soul. The mayor is mostly an irritating character, and his genuine fatherly feelings toward Faith seem less like real character development than a desperate effort to make him more interesting and Faith's conversion to evil more credible. Invincible adversaries are boring; what worked in Season 2 was that Spike, Drusilla, and Angelus could be hurt. The season does end on a high note with the battle against the mayor; the cooperation among the high school classmates was great. And "The Wish" is a great episode.
Season 4 starts off fairly well, with Buffy's favorite class, potential love interest, and secret government organization all converging into one storyline. Unfortunately, Adam is near-invincible. BORING. And Oz got dumped from the show. At least Anya is turning out to be a great addition to the cast and the chip in Spike's head is a brilliant way to have him interact with the Scooby gang. The "Hush" episode is my favorite after the musical... and perhaps "I Only Have Eyes for You".
Season 5, episode 1, we meet Dawn at the end of the episode. Fridge. Nuked. Thank goodness we're netflixing these b/c we would have dropped the series right there if we were watching it week to week. There's another invincible enemy. Two full episodes devoted to Buffy's mom's death, with plenty of screen time devoted to lead-in. Could this possibly get more depressing? Is this Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Generic Gloomy Teen Drama? Anya's and Spike's furthering character development are the only things keeping me going.
After the first few episodes, the League of Dorks seems set to be the main Season 6 villains, which should be a hugely fun return to the feel of the first two seasons, and then we're treated to the tremendous "Once More with Feeling" and excellent follow-up "Tabula Rasa" episodes, and... then it all quickly falls apart into Buffy over-worrying about her kinky sex fetish, Xander leaving Anya at the altar, Buffy working her minimum wage job to make ends meet (could we at least have a scene in which the Watchers council wants to solve all her money problems for her in exchange for getting back into her life, and her rejecting that? or better yet, her accepting their offer?), Warren becoming an uber-sexist accidental killing machine (thus killing all the fun we should have been having with the League of Dorks), Buffy infantilizing Dawn (would someone please acknowledge that Dawn is the same age that Xander and Willow were when they started helping Buffy? and that Dawn is just a wee bit more coordinated than Willow?), and Tara accidentally getting shot by the magic bullet from the grassy knoll. I guess this really is Generic Gloomy Teen Drama. I don't even care about Spike anymore; we're just showing up for Anya now.
So heading into Season 7, we're just happy that it'll all soon be over. It starts well enough with the the potential slayers slowly gathering in Sunnydale. Then we meet the incredibly tough ur-vampire who seems invincible (BORING), though it turns out that Buffy simply needed to hit it harder, or something. And there's a lot of tiresome Spike torture porn. But Principal Wood is an interesting character, and Andrew is, somewhat shockingly, a real asset to the regular cast, and "The Storyteller" and "Lies My Parents Told Me" are really good back-to-back episodes featuring them. Then... we get Caleb, who is near-invincible (BORING) and incredibly sexist to boot. Just how many times is Buffy gonna get called a bitch in these last two seasons? Could the writers be a little more creative here?
In summation: writing-wise, there were two great seasons, a bunch of individually superior episodes, too many great scenes/lines to count, and... an overall story arc that could be really interesting if it were tightened up and some of the poor decisions reworked. The cast is excellent throughout, though several of the major villains are dull.
** He never again manages to captures my interest, except through his relationship with Anya in seasons 4 and 5 and the first half of season 6. It's not because he doesn't have superpowers (Angel is plenty boring with them), he's just... kinda there.
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