Quote:
Originally Posted by innerSpaceman
(Post 288070)
I forgot I was supposed to check out Buffy. Can't do the whole series, not for starters at any rate.
Best Season???
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I'd say that Seasons 1 - 3 (excepting bad episodes now and again) are three stellar seasons of television and some of televisions' best. The setup - High School as Hell Mouth - is a metaphor perfectly explored and provides an ideal backdrop for more "grown up" themes...since life after high school is still, well, kinda high school. Also, even when times were hard for Buffy (and man did Whedon enjoy putting her through hard times), the show was always entertaining and fun. The characters were likeable and the ones who weren't I loved to hate. And the 3rd season finale felt like a bookend, so if you chose never to watch another episode of the show after that, you wouldn't feel like you were being cheated. The first season is a nice introduction to the characters but is comprised of a lot of standalone episodes. You could probably watch the first and last episode and move onto the 2nd without feeling like you missed anything. If you're only planning to give one season a try, I'd agree with Heidi: go for Season 2.
The story arc of the 4th season was the most ridiculous, but had some enjoyable individual episodes. For a standalone episode you could probably watch without seeing any of the show, and that's already been mentioned here, is "Hush". A good old fashioned fairy tale spook fest.
The story arc of the 5th was some of the most depressing TV I've watched, but Gellar was truly excellent and her performances throughout will likely be the best of her career. [That's not saying much if you've only seen her films, but I maintain she was a perfect Buffy.] Plus, the 5th finale could also be seen as a bookend. You could watch it and feel like the show was brought to a satisfying conclusion.
By Season 6, the show was seriously floundering. It improved on rewatch and I had fewer problems with it than some of my friends, but it struggled because Whedon wasn't at the helm and the characters were inconsistent; if they could'nt come to a consensus about what motivated a character, they allowed one writer to provide motivation for him in one episode, and another writer to priovide an entirely differnet motivation in the next. The result: a lot of behaving out of character...or are they..or...wait...what the huh? And a core character who was often the voice of reason was suddenly absentee (for *very* poorly written reasons) because the actor decided he needed to be back with his family in London.
Season 7 may have tried a little to hard, but it borrowed a lot of spirit from the early seasons, and I'd say the series ended on a high note.
The latter seasons suffered mostly because they lost the solid foundation the high school setting provided. And the core group of friends you grew to love suffered some serious growing pains that made them less fun to watch at times. Didn't love every characters' arc. Didn't love every story arc. Didn't always think the producers and writers knew what they were doing. But I loved all 7 for various reasons, one being that the worst of Buffy is still better, in my oh so humble opinion, than most of TV's offerings. Mutant Enemy took a lot of risks, probably because they knew all eyes *weren't* on them. Heh.
