Nov
30
There’s gonna be spoilers in this review, so don’t read it if you plan on watching. I finished the sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer over the long weekend. While I loved it of course, I do have some issues with it that I didn’t care for, so I’ll get the bad stuff out of the way first. One of my main problems wasn’t with the show, but with the packaging. They give away the whole evil Willow thing on the cover of the DVDs, which leaves me waiting all season for Willow to turn evil and be the big bad of the season, when that really isn’t the case. So my disappointed expectations played into the whole show while I was watching. This is when Willow’s gonna turn evil. No, this is when Willow’s gonna turn evil. And it doesn’t happen till the fourth to last episode of the season. Don’t get me wrong, it’s awesome when it finally happens, and I loved the last few episodes of the season immensely. But my viewing experience for the first three quarters of the season was hampered by the anticipation.
This kinda leads into the whole big bad problem. I thoroughly enjoyed the trio, and I loved the level of geekiness and pop culture references they brought, but they (Warren, specifically) weren’t evil enough to be the big bad. And yeah, maybe Willow is the big bad (kinda) of the season but that just kinda shows how the season wasn’t constructed well enough to have a steady big bad, or one that we could fear as much as Glory.
And last stop on the negativity train (toot, toot) is just how dark this season was. Everyone was kinda miserable the whole time. As previous seasons were lots of light sprinkled with darkness, this season was more darkness sprinkled with light. Buffy was pretty much a wet blanket for the first half of the season. Don’t even get me started on stupid Xander and Anya. Grrr, he made me so mad. And while I initially liked the Buffy/Spike romance, I didn’t like the way it turned into Buffy using him for sex so she could feel. It just lost every bit of romance it previously had. Oh, and then there was the bathroom scene. OMG.
But okay, I really liked it of course. I never not enjoy watching an episode and this season certainly had a lot of highlights. The major highlight being the musical episode Once More, with Feeling. Such an amazing episode, and the music was incredible. I’ve been listening to it on my ipod pretty much nonstop. I also really liked the episode Life Serial where the geek trio are testing Buffy, particularly with the scene in the Magic Box with the mummy hand. Tabula Rasa was also another great one, specifically the mix and matched couples, especially Giles and Anya.
Like I said above, I enjoyed the geek trio (the jet packs scene anyone?) but they just weren’t threatening enough to be the big bad. But I did thoroughly enjoy the running gag of Andrew’s name. Warren, Jonathan, and what’s-his-name. Even when Willow was being all evil she still referred to him as what’s-his-name. Very funny and probably my favorite moments of humor this season. And the final four episodes were worth the price of admission alone. I loved the return of Willow’s “Bored now.” and her and Xander’s scene on top of the cliffs in the finale. Oh! And how could I forget Giles coming back at the end and being all badass. Awesome scene! Totally not unlike Ellen Ripley in Aliens.
Now onto the final season! Okay, so maybe I already watched 13 episodes of season 7 this weekend. Shut up, it was a relaxing weekend! I suspect I’ll be done by the end of next weekend.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:06 am
I really loved and hated Season Six all at the same time. Thankfully, like you said, “Once More With Feeling” and “Tabula Rasa” were great episodes. Plus, I really really love evil Willow. “Bored now” is one of my favorite things to say.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:11 am
Looking back, Warren seems more menacing now then he did at the time.
From what I recall, most people blamed the shift in tone on the move to a new network that happened between seasons 5-6. It also caused a huge drop in the Buffy-Angel crossover potential (they were on different networks now). New network = new freedoms for the writers to do what they wanted = experimenting with the “big bag” formula and getting a lot darker in subject matter and tone.
November 30th, 2009 at 9:16 am
“…my disappointed expectations played into the whole show while I was watching.”
In yoga philosophy, the source of all sorrow and suffering is expectation. I’m just sayin’.
November 30th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Whiiiiile yoooou aaaaare aaaawaaaa-aaay, my heart coooomes undooone.
November 30th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I loved season six. I saw the whole season as a spoof of previous seasons where they always have a big bad but instead they had the trio… but wait, Willow is actually the big bad. I LOVED loved luv’d the fight scenes between Willow and Buffy/Giles. But yes, i do see where its more dark with sprinkles of light in that a season and I can see that in the seventh season as well so be prepared.
Oh, and I love Andrew! I think he was on a recent episode of Dollhouse, or I’m getting all my shows confused, but he looked nothing like he used to. Actually, I think he was on Nip/Tuck now that I think about it.
November 30th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Life Serial was great. The trio crack me up. I think I like the humor and relationships more than the actual demon fighting, so I didn’t mind that there wasn’t a big bad.
I’ve never had a marathon viewing of a series. I’ll have to give it a try.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Who’s Buffy?
November 30th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
I think it’s adorable that you review stuff that’s, like, sometimes many years old. *mwah!*
November 30th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
I barely remember Buffy anymore, but I do remember liking the Trio and Dark Willow.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:16 am
This season was mainly about Buffy trying to get over the fact that she was in heaven and now she has to endure life again. The minute she sings to them about being in Heaven and seeing Willow’s face was just so amazing. She was the hero, did her job and saved the world. It was kind of like when she came back fate was saying “Yo, there is no big bad this season because you were suppose to be dead. If there was a big bad then we would have let you live/” (I totally said that in my head with a New York accent for some reason).
Season 7 isn’t the best but it definitely ends things on a good note. Once you are finished that it is time to buy the Season 8 comics!
December 1st, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Grrr… things have been so hectic at work that I haven’t been online in a week! Don’t they realize I have more important things to do than “work”? Anyway, now that you are a complete Wedonite, may I introduce you to my good friend Dr. Horrible and his sing-along blog? WTF?! I was just going to link you to the video on Hulu, but it’s not there! *Sigh* oh well, I guess I will go back to work. See you next week.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:31 pm
M. Nico: I feel ur pain…I hate how werk, responsibilities, lurrrved onez y personal hygiene always seem to get in the way of mah interweb loafing!