Buffy The Vampire Slayer - The Complete Sixth Season

Rating:
Summary: "Get Over It"
Review: If you are a manic depressive then don't watch season 6 it will leave you wanting to slash your own wrist. I thought it was way too depressing. And the whole Buffy sleeping with Spike was way too much for me too handle. Buffy likes to get punched and punch Spike back before having sex? Not good. It works for porn maybe but not in my tv show. And I LOVE porn! Go figure. All the characters seemed depressed and about ready for prozac. I wanted prozac! I just think the writers wrote a very doom and gloom of a season that I bought ALL of the seasons of Buffy on dvd but skipped season 6 as if it never existed.

Rating:
Summary: Some standout episodes to a rather rushed season.
Review: I have always been a fan of Buffy, however I feel that season 6 was definitely the beginning of the end. Although it had some good episodes, the tone had completely changed and it detracted from how good the season could have been. As others have said, this season dealt with some weighty and "dark" issues, yet they were done with WAY too much humor. The trio were three of the STUPIDEST villians this show has ever had. The two high school students in "Some Assembly Required" from an earlier season were better villians than these three buffoons. I am sad to say that I lost interest in this show after Season 5. That was the last "great" season.

Rating:
Summary: Dark... and for a reason.
Review: Life is not a box of chocolates, nor is it a bowl of cherries. Sometimes, it is just the pits. So it is with Season 6.

Now, before you start the fan boy/girl rant, hear me out.

Season 5 built up to this. Buffy lost her mother then dies herself. Willow starts the slippery slope. Xander and Anya get in too deep too fast.

If Season 6 were all about defeating the villian of the season and the occasional problem of the week, it would have been a disappointment. Everything that happened had to come to a head and it did.

(Spoilers ahead)

Willow crossed the line when she resurrected Buffy. Yes, she meant well, as did Xander. Believing their best friend to be in eternal torment, they did what they thought was right and fair - rescued her. Little did they know that Buffy had earned her reward. The magic Willow used was blood magic and anything that requires death should not be undertaken lightly - consequences are a given.

Xander got in over his head. When you fall in love, marriage seems like a natural progression. But then, look at the examples of marriage and family that Xander has - his father drinks too much and berates his mother, his mother's idea of cooking is picking a take out menu.

With little experience in life and love, you naturally expect to fall into the same habits you see from your parents. As a woman, I wanted to smack Xander for waiting until the wedding to admit his fears, but I could also understand the sudden panic when faced with a false future where he would grow to resent Anya until he kills her in cold blood.

And let's not forget that Buffy left Heaven folks. She died twice saving the world. She got her reward - a place with no pain, no evil, no coldness or harshness. And suddenly, she's ripped from there, forced to dig herself out of her own grave and thrust back into the same role she has been in for the last 5 years, one she didn't always want. If she'd come back with the attitude of "everything's hunky-dory, let's get down to slay-business" I'd have been hard-pressed to tell her apart from the Buffybot.

When she comes back, she does some things that are wrong. She abuses Spike, ignores her sister, resents her friends. In a situation not of her making and beyond her understanding, she makes some wild choices. That's often part of the human experience.

And Spike - he's grasping at straws. Maybe it's because he's been a demon for over 100 years or maybe it's a human failing, but he confuses sex and love. Buffy abuses his affections by sleeping with him while she reminds him that he's not good enough for her. However, Spike does some abusing of his own - by working to isolate Buffy from her friends. For him to attempt to rape her - okay, not an easy scene to watch and by James's admission a very hard one to film, seemed in keeping with the "relationship" they'd had up to that point. Remember that this is the same Spike that was going to tie Dru up and torture her until she loved him again.

Maybe Giles should have stepped in, maybe not. As much as he took on the role of father-figure in the show and in the lives of Buffy, Dawn, Xander and Willow - he's not a parent and he never will be. Even if he were, being a parent is not easy and watching your children mature is a heartbreaking process. Often, you stand on the sidelines and cringe, aching to step in and worrying if you are making the right decision by not.

This season was dark. Some even may have called it depressing. I found it to be a natural progression in their development and in their lives.

Rating:
Summary: Not as good as season previous seasons
Review: Season Four was great. Buffy and Willow go off to college and share a dorm room. You never see Buffy's mom. I felt like Buffy finally became and adult instead of a little kid.

Then there was Season Five. The characters regressed. Buffy is living at home again, and suddenly she has a sister that never before existed. But at least the big bad villain of the season was compelling. The actress who played Glory was hot! And the writers did a good job slowly revealing who she really was.

And now we come to Season Six. The writers decided college was just not an interesting source of stories, so instead Buffy is still living in her (now dead) mother's house along with Willow? Why didn't they just sell the house?

My favorite characters in Season Six are Spike (who still has the same chip in his head from Season Four), the witch girl who was a rat for three seasons but who Willow turns back to human--sorry, I forgot her name, but she was beautiful to look at and a lot more fun than Willow or Buffy, and finally I liked the evil Willow at the end of the series.

I was really rooting for the evil Willow to kill the "trio." I don't understand the whole moral message behind the assertion that it wasn't proper to kill them. The whole "it's a human realm issue" doesn't make the LEAST bit of sense. Buffy had no problem killing the very human knights in the Fifth Season. The trio used magic to summon demons and wreak other mischief removing any bright line distinction between the magical and the human.

I don't like the way the "Scooby gang" abused Spike despite all of the genuine help that he's given them. He has had many opportunities to let various members of the gang die by doing nothing, but time and time again he saved their lives. The same characters who think nothing of beating up Spike suddenly get prissy about Willow exacting revenge against the trio.

But the musical episode was as good as everyone says it is.

Rating:
Summary: a mixed metaphor and a depressing season...
Review: Aside from the incredible (but slightly overrated) musical episode, this was some of the most painful TV I've ever watched. I did watch, however, hoping the show would return to the brilliant mix of drama, humor, romance, action, and horror I loved so much. Everyone was down this season, and the characters and the viewers were abused beyond measure. That's not my main complaint with S6, however. My main complaint was the bungling of the addiction metaphor. Willow getting "hooked" on magic was so poorly realized that I never bought into it. Magic was always shown to be dangerous, but never an intoxicant by itself. Giles used magic to get high, but that was a choice he made. He needed to act in a specific way for that to happen; it didn't happen otherwise. Even if that was true, didn't that make Tara an addict as well? What about Giles casting spells in the finale? It doesn't help I'm in mental health and know what was correct and what wasn't. The high points of the season were the Trio (who were hilarious) and the musical. I would only buy this season to hear the tortured explanation from Whedon and Marti Noxious.

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Show of All Time, Pt. 6
Review: Buffy's Sixth Season is its most misunderstood. One of the strengths of the show is that its tone and thematic elements mature and progress from one season to the next. The Sixth Season deals with some of the darker aspects of life, such as addiction, depression and suicide. Because Buffy is such an excellent show in terms of writing, direction and acting, it presents these dark elements very well. In short, the Sixth Season is a dark and fairly depressing season. It is, therefore, not very popular and especially among a fanbase that was built around some fairly light hearted, fantasy-type storylines in the first few seasons.

Make no mistake. This season deals with vengeance, murder, child-neglect, self-hatred and rape, among other things. It is not for everyone. It is adult. But it is brilliant.

Aside from the masterfully tragic nature of the season, it also contains one of the greatest episodes--the famous Once More With Feeling--the best villains of the series, and the greatest plot-arc in the climax of Willow's five-season long journey from geek to powerful witch. The four part finale (Seeing Red, Villains, Two to Go and Grave) is harrowing and thrilling.

This season almost stands alone in terms of quality, as it does things no other season does, but I would rate it as the third best overall, behind seasons two and five. This season gives depth to a series already deep beyond any other program, ever.

Rating:
Summary: Geez
Review: I just got done reading half a million one-star reviews, and I swear, I don't get these people. They claim to be BtVS fans yet they ignore something painfully obvious.

They shouldn't be mad at the writers for making Buffy and Spike hook up b/c Spike is an evil, abusive misogynist. They should be mad at the writers for torturing Spike by making him fall in love with a completely warped version of Buffy.

Angel was a very cute (literally) boyfriend for Buffy, but he always kinda bugged me. I mean, the guy was evil, hands down. Half the time he has this brooding soul borrowed from somebody (watch S2 carefully--it ain't his) and the other half he's this psycopath who wants to slice and dice Buffy and everybody she loves. In what way does that make him good? Oh, sure, he was a good guy as long as he didn't have that 'one moment of complete hapiness', but once he did he was the most evil thing this side of Glory. This is the guy who drive Drusilla insane deliberately and then turns her, the guy whom the Master calls "the most viscious creature I ever met (nostalgic sigh)." He is NOT a good guy, vamp, or anything else, despite what Buffy thinks. "Angel was good!"? Please. (I really don't like the guy. Can you tell?) Also, he was annoying, as is exemplified by the whiny appearance in S7. I know a lot of girls like the dark, brooding types, but I just want to smack them. Enough is enough, thanks!

So I welcomed Spike's crossover to good-guy-ness. I really liked the idea that love could bring someone redemption. Because hey, reality check: Spike HAD NO SOUL. He was completely in love with Buffy (and completely hapless about it) but he still had no soul. And yet, despite it, he managed to be a good 'person'. He helped the Scoobies, even though he really didn't have to. He took care of Dawn and Joyce in S5, even though Buffy was really nasty to him most of the time. Even after Buffy made it clear that he had no chance with her, he was still decent. Remember those flowers he brought for Joyce? No tag. And there was that whole Glory torture thing. He could have directed Glory to Dawn and thus ruined both Dawn and Buffy's lives, and really hurt the Scoobies, but he didn't. Personally, I wouldn't have blamed him if he had. Falling in love with Buffy was for him a horrible, torturous thing ("Oh, God no. Please no." Remember that? He really didn't want it to happen, but it did anyway. He also said in S5, "Because this--with you--is wrong. I know it. I'm not a complete idiot.") but it turned him into a better person.

So why all the reviewers say Spike couldn't hold a candle to Angel is beyond me. Spike was a real hero, staying good even through pretty thankless circumstances, even when his nature demanded that he be evil. Angel was a wolf in sheep's clothing. (I was actually disappointed when they ressurected him, and don't even get me started on Angel. With the exception of the last episode, that show STANK.) How many times did Buffy & Co. insult him, even though he was honestly trying to help? But he kept going.

Which is why I want to kill the writers over the rape scene thing.

Spike was not the abusvie one in the relationship; Buffy was. She talked down to him in S5, beat him up even though he literally couldn't fight back, was completely nasty to him when he told her he was in love, and acted like a jerk after she first had sex with him. In many ways, she was S6's Angelus. Yet, she had the nerve to come to him after being raised from the dead, expect comfort, and then dump him callously.

So I really really really don't get the rape thing. Was this the writers' way of punishing Buffy, by making Spike's demon self dominate again? Realistically, I know it was because marketing-wise, they had to keep the will-they-or-won't-they aspect of the relationship alive--that was its best attribute. But it still really bugs me, as a writer (wrote a book, not yet published) and a viewer. Spike was a hero, Buffy used him disgustingly, and then Spike was the one who went all evil at the end. Ugh. Horrible planning.

Of course, I know the whole rape thing was pretty integral to the tentative, not-quite-intimate, and very cute relationship they had in S7. Still, they had to ruin that too by torching Spike in the end. So the rape plot is pretty much unforgivable. See, the way I privately finish this whole thing is that Angel gets slayed (pun very much intended) by that dragon at the end of Angel, Spike gets to be human (which was implied anyway, since Angel gave it up when he signed that document) and Spike and Buffy embark on happily ever after. Hopelessly romantic? Yes, but hey, aren't we all?

The rest of it is OK. I don't mind how 'dark' it is, as an adolescent I fully understand that sometimes life SUX. Anyone who's ever gone through a year or so of not wanting to wake up in the morning knows that it does. Actually, S6 was a bit of a relief in some ways. I mean, people who are perky 24/7 bug me. It was nice to see the characters of BtVS act human for once.

Andrew bugs me though. He should have died. Gorily.

Decent, not as good as S5 or S7 (which I loved) but still pretty good.

I know the review barely focuses on the season as a whole, but I wanted to get a few things straight. It's extremely unlikely that this will sway anybody's mind, but I had to get my two cents in after reading all that idiotic tripe about misogyny and abusive relationships and whatnot.

Oh yeah, one last thing. I love Buffy the character--really. Which is also why I'm mad at the writers. Buffy was always a great protagonist: down to earth, funny, vulnerable yet totally dangerous. I can even understand all the "kick the Spike" activity in S5. I mean, she didn't see what we saw--she just thought he was evil and slightly sicko. But the stuff in S6 was almost unforgivable. The writers mangled her character many times over. Some major editing was needed by someone who actually understood the character.

So if you don't mind two of the show's best characters (played by the show's best actors, no competition) going down the tube temporarily, buy this set. If you couldn't stand it, then stay away. But don't post any stupid reviews, please. Stupid people rule the world, but there's no need to flaunt the fact :)

~Brightly Burning~