Rating: 
Summary: Gloria In Excelsis Buffy
Review: Season Five was the last strong one for Buffy, with a well thought-out story arc. Aside from a truly bizarre throwaway comic-relief season opener, "Buffy Vs. Dracula" - which is entertaining enough if you're in the mood for it - and a couple other less satisfying humorous hors d'ouevres, the season overall was one of the more powerful. In fact, the series in general would have been better off if it had ended with Season Five.Buffy finds herself with an all but indestructible nemesis - a literal goddess from another dimension, referred to as "Glory" (Clare Kramer) - and with a kid sister named Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). The link connecting the two newcomers is quite clever, and provides for twenty-two episodes' worth of intense melodrama. Glory is the most cheerfully psychopathic foe Buffy ever faced, supremely confident (she is a goddess, after all), vain in the extreme, and blithely unconcerned that her quest to open a dimensional gateway back to her original home will utterly destroy the planet Earth. What's one more dead planet, when she has annihilated so many? In order to prevent this unparalleled carnage, a mystic society of monks have concealed the energy key Glory requires to re-enter her own realm, and entrusted it to the care of the Slayer - Sunnydale's own Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Once entrusted with her most important mission, Buffy is caught in the worst bind she has ever faced - she cannot tell any of her friends the secret truth, without severely endangering their very minds, not to mention their lives. Glory will stop at nothing to achieve her ends, and is capable of absorbing the minds of selected prey and leaving them functional vegetables. Buffy's attempt to save the world will even find her trying the one strategy she has never had to employ before: running like crazy. Season Five is not without flaws, though they are fairly negligible. Its biggest problem is simply the number of growing character contradictions catching up to it from previous seasons, but these are quickly forgotten or easily glanced-over for the sake of the drama at hand. Spike (James Marsters) begins his mad descent into obsessive lust over Buffy, and Buffy and her Iowa corn-fed hunky boyfriend, Riley (Marc Blucas), reach a permanent romantic impasse; Harmony Kendall (Mercedes McNab), Spike's ill-begotten vampire stepchild/lover, attempts to become an arch-nemesis of Buffy, who is all the more comical in contrast with the very real terror of Glory. Two of the most dramatic episodes of the entire series are present in this season, "The Body," in which Buffy loses her mother (Kristine Sutherland) - not to any monsters or vampires but simply to illness - and the finale in which Buffy literally lays down her life for her loved ones and the world. Buffy has been better than in this action-packed and emotionally wrenching season, but not by much. And you really can't beat that incredible finale.
Rating: 
Summary: Buffy Season 5
Review: Season 5 on Buffy the Vampire Slayer had two of the best storylines with the introduction of Dawn and the arrival of her greatest foe to date, Glorificus. It is full of memorable episodes and life-changing moments. Some of the highlights include: Riley's departure from Sunnydale, Spike joining the Scooby Gang as a somewhat good guy, Dawn's real purpose being exposed, the death of Buffy's mother, and the death of Buffy. Two of my favorite episodes come from this season. The emotional episode, THE BODY, in which Joyce dies and the season finale, THE WISH, where Buffy sacrifices her life to save Dawn and the world. I highly recommend this season as one of the greatest.
Rating:
Summary: Once More With Feeling,NOT
Review: Season 5 is the best season next to season 2,cant wait for it to come out on DVD,but the episode "Once More Whith Feeling" wont be on it because it will be on season 6.NOT season 5
Rating:
Summary: Best Season Ever!!
Review: This season is my favorite of the Buffy series. Buffy comes full circle in this season, where at the top of her game, she faces her most powerful foe. What is so great about this season is that the main plot arc, and all the sub-plot arcs, are introduced AND resolved. Something that latter seasons of BtVS lacked. You have Buffy becoming aware of her full potential as a slayer, Willow and Tara's relationship (one of the best and most endearing I've ever seen on t.v.) Xander fully understanding what Anya means to him, Dawn's introduction and Joyce's death, and how could anyone forget Spike's revealation of his love for the Slayer and insights into the man behind the vampire (Fool for Love is my favorite episode of the season). Season 5 of BtVS reminded us just how good television was capable of being, and how a great story could touch our lives.
Rating:
Summary: The 'Dawn' of a new season
Review: Yeah okay, bad play on words, but the season where Dawn plays a major role. Everyone thought it wouldn't work, but hey, nobody's perfect. And for the record this season does NOT have the musical episode. But it does have the Buffy-bot, and Spike realizing his feelings for Buffy. It's the season where Riley realizes he's not the most important thing in Buffy's life, and of course, one of the best episodes of the show ever: 'The Body'. Well worth the money, and well worth the time it'll take to watch the whole season over again.
Rating:
Summary: GLORIUS!
Review: 5 Years of Buffy gone by, this being the season that elevates it into heights unheard of. If season 2 was good, and season 3 was better, the fifth was in many ways the pinnacle of the show in overall greatness. With a strong opening show showcasing the world's most famous vampire (Dracula) against the Slayer, it picks up from there by also introducing Buffy's little sister Dawn. What? Buffy doesn't have a little sister you say? Leave it to this show to mess with your head and yet make perfect sense after explaining it. Foreshadowed by Faith in season 3, and hinted at by Tara in season 4, Buffy gains a little sister who apparently was always there. Not going to spoil the details, but rest assured this story arc will begin to make sense and when it does, you can't help but grin at how good it gets. The season's big bad has a lot to do with the Dawn arc, and is one of the best villains since the Mayor and Faith. Glory, or Glorificus, a hell goddess bent on obtaining something called the key in our world. One of the best things about the great villains in Buffy is that you love them. You hate them because they're evil, but at the same time, the actors that portray them make them characters you can't help but love. It happened with Spike and Dru, it happened with Faith and the Mayor, and it happens here, with Glory. Kudos to actress Clare Kramer who gives us the best evil performance since Angelus, Faith, and the Mayor This season also marks big changes in the fact that we lose one of the major supporting characters in the Buffy universe, not a major cast member but one that has been with us since the beginning. THE BODY, is without a doubt one of the finer moments in television, full of emotion and...silence. Not silence as in last year's HUSH, but silence in that this episode features no music, no soundtrack...just ambient noise and the dialogue of our scoobies dealing with their loss. Again, Buffy shows that it remains one of TV's most convincing dramas with this very powerful episode. I've never seen a show that showed grieving over the loss of a loved one so strong and convincing. Too bad many people cannot see past the name of the show and the monsters to believe that. If they could, they'd learn a lot about what drama can be. All the monsters and demons in Buffy are metaphors for our problems, and as such it allows it to tackle things in ways ordinary shows can't begin to fathom. All in all, a great season, and it rightfully earns it's stars and a place amongst your DVD collection.
Rating:
Summary: Buffy - Season 5
Review: Just like to point out some clarification on Season 5. This is NOT the season with the musical episode as idgietowanda states. Season 6, Episode 7 is 'Once More, With Feeling'. Season 5 is the season with the whole arc of Dawn, Glory, and Spike as a kinda good guy. This is one of my favorite (departure of Riley) and least favorite (Dawn/sister/mystical key) seasons, but to get to my favorite season (Season 6), we need to understand why Buffy feels like she does which leads to the final scene of 'Once More, With Feeling' and the subsequent episodes. This is a good season with some fun stuff, but a 'necessary evil' in my opinion, to get to the better episodes.
Rating:
Summary: Buffy Season 5
Review: You know, it just pisses me off how people in the United Kingdom have season 5 already for like a year and a half, and we get ..... That is totally unfair. I think it ..... big time. Plus, aren't we supposed to get things before they do? I love season 5. It's my favorite season, and I will not buy any other season yet until I feel safe and secure that I have it. They better bring it out here. I hear it is supposed to come in October here. And it better cause it's my bday month and I can have friends buy it for me.
Rating:
Summary: Season 5 makes season 4 look like season 1
Review: Some other reviewer claimed that this was the season with the episode "Once More, With Feeling" in it, but that was season six, not five. Season five is even better. Aside from season two, which was completely amazing, this was the best. It had everything us 'gentle viewers' could hope for; an awesome new character, Dawn, Buffy and Riley broke up (thank God), and Spike revealed his love for Buffy.
Joss Wheadon (I apologize if I spelled it wrong) is, simply put, a genius. He, with the help of many other brilliant writers, directors and actors, make an amazing season. Every episode leaves you asking 'what next' with Buffy's constant battle with her place in the world. And it all leads up to one of the best episodes of the shows history: "The Gift" when she makes the ultimate sacrifice. All the characters, who's lives start to lead them on separate paths, are brought together in this heart-warming/breaking end. I advise anyone and everyone who is a fan of the show to buy this DVD set. If you don't watch it, start from season one, you won't regret it.
Rating:
Summary: sorry idgietowanda, but you're off by a season
Review: BTVS season 5 was (and still is) an awesome thrill ride, with some of the best episodes of the whole series, but in a previous review idgietowanda says that this is the season with the musical episode "Once more with Feeling". I agree with idgietowanda that "Once more with Feeling" is an exceptionally wonderful episode, but it's a seaon 6 episode, not season 5. I don't write this to slam on idgietowanda, only to inform folks who may have been waiting for this episode to become available, that they must wait for another season to be released.
|
