Rating: 
Summary: Missing Episode????
Review: It was a great season. I think Josh Whedon and the writers of the show got robbed for not getting an emmey (especially for "THE BODY".)I did find some problems with one of the dvds but I use one of those dust microcloths and it seem to work ok. Now am I crazy or what. Did any one else notice that the episode
"Intevention" was missing. The one that introduced the BuffyBot.
I am going to go through the set again just to be sure. All in all though a good season and collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Anyone finding defective Season 5 DVDs?
Review: Has anyone out there run into defective DVDs for this season? I have purchased 2 of this season from Amazon and one set from Media Play locally. Each one of the Season 5 disk sets has had defective episodes. Problems like freeze frames, skipping audio, black screen and other such defects. Disk #1 The Replacement was one that was really bad. I ask because I am a big fan and I want the Season but it is hard to keep returning them. I hate to think that the manufacture is lacking in quality. Makes me nervous over my Season 6 pre-order. If you are having problems please let others know. We don't want to sacrifice quality for quantity and we want the factory to know that.
Rating:
Summary: same disk
Review: Did anyone else out there get two copies of disk two and no disk 5? I have bought it twice now at target and they were both messed up.
Rating:
Summary: As usual bad things happen...
Review: The dominating theme is loss during the fifth season. Buffy's mom dies during season 5 most unexpectantly and that allows the series to examine things from a very different perspective. It was near the end of the show's run and, as a result, Whedon began to dive into a number of interesting themes and plots he hadn't tackled before. I didn't take immediately to Buffy; while I think Joss Whedon is a talented writer (he's a third generation writer; his father and grandfather were both writers for film and television as well), I tuned out the show at first because of all the praise. It made me suspicious. I'm happy to say that I've changed my tune. Season 5 had some of the best episodes of the series (I did catch up on it in syndication and DVD for comparison sake). The best episode, for me, was "The Gift" where Buffy sacrafices herself for someone very important to her. This fine episode (which deserved an Emmy)brought the themes explored earlier in the season full circle. The picture quality is very good for most of the discs. I did notice that there were some minor digital compression problems particularly on some of the darker looking episodes. Still, that's not a surprise given the amount of material packed into this terrific boxed set. The extras are pretty generous as well although it lacks one important person--Sarah Michelle Gellar. While I don't expect anything profound from her or anybody else in the cast for that matter, as an actor her take on her evolving character would have made this trip to Sunnyvale far more interesting. Regardless, this is a fine boxed set and Whedon manages to plug in his skewed view of life on the key episodes he authored. In light of the end of Buffy and the cancelled Firefly (a series that was never given the opportunity to take flight by Fox. They axed the show in another demonstration of their bad choices during that particular season)all that's left is Angel. While it has a number of fine episodes and a great cast, that show just never caught my fancy. Here's hoping that Whedon comes up with something truly creative within the next year or two.
Rating:
Summary: the 3rd or 2ed best season
Review: buffy just has amaZING EPISODES THE OPENER BUFFY VS DRACULA AMAZING DRACULA AND BUFFY HAD AN ALMOST ROMANTIC TANGLE AND SOON BUFFY COPES WITH STRANGE THINGS SHE HEARS OF THE SLAYERS LAST FIGHT AND TRAINS TWICE AS HARD UNTIL AN EXTRODIANARY EPISODE FOOL FOR LOVE WHICH BUFFYS STABED BY A REGULAR VAMPIRE AND GOEST TO SPIUKE TO TELL HIM TO TELL HER ABOUT HOW HE KILLED THE SLAYERS WE SEE SPIKES ENTERISTING PAST SPIKE HASNT ALWAYUS BEEN A BAD BOY AND IT SHOWS HOW HE KILLED THE SLAYERS AND BUFFYS MOM HAS A DEALY BRAIN TUMER WHICH SHE GOES CRAZY ALSO REILY MAKES BAD CHOICES AND STARTS TO GO INTO THE DARK SIDE AND IN THE EPISODE INTO THE WOODS REILY IS FOUND GETTING BUIT BY VAMPIRES CAUSE HE PAYED THEM HE LEAVES BUFFYS OK AFTER AWHILE THEN JOYCE DIES IBN A TEARJERKING DISTURBING EPISODE THE BODY VERY DRAMATIC AND GLORY THE EVIL GODESS BEATS THE CRAP OUT OF BUFF AND LOOKS FOR THEW KEY AND DAWNS IT LEADING TO BUFFY SACRIFISHING HER LIFE IN ONE OF THE BEST BUFFY EPISODES EVER THE GIFT
Rating: 
Summary: 4 Star Season, 3 Star DVD's
Review: By this point, you either get that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the best thing that ever happened on TV or you don't. You who get it have likely have cemented your perspective on where Season 5 falls relative to the rest of the brilliance that is Buffy. I'm not referring to any of that, this is just about the DVD set. While Buffy episodes alone always justify the price of admission, the DVD special features have never been as in depth or as interesting as one would expect from the creators of such a carefully and passionately crafted show. We're given scripts for a few episodes from every season-but what, the bulk were maybe improvised? Many episodes scream for nonexistent audio commentary tracks-surely somebody on the cast or crew had something to say, and could spare a day out of their life to add it to the historical record of this historic program. And if we're to be given a marketing pitch, I'd rather hear about the obscure bands that create the mood of the show and find out where to purchase their CD's than see commercials for the show or ads for the video game. That said, Season 5 represents what I sincerely hope is the nadir of special features. "The Body", arguably television's finest hour, is treated appropriately with commentary by Joss Whedon and a terrific featurette. There were, however, 21 other episodes. Among them is scattered . . . not much really. Jane Espenson gives an insightful and moving commentary over "I Was Made to Love You" and there are a couple of fun featurettes (one a pseudo Discovery Channel style documentary hilariously hosted by Danny Strong). Aside from that, there are a few other fairly lame commentaries by various folk who seem to barely remember making the episode in question, random scripts, a worse then usual still gallery, and even less! Here's hoping this is a mid-series slump and not an indication of greater disappointments to be discovered in the DVD collections of the final two seasoans.
Rating:
Summary: Greatest Show Ever To Grace Our TV Screens
Review: Season 5 in my opinion was one of the best seasons of Buffy, Joss and co. took what could have been huge mistakes (dawn, joyce's death, spikes love for buffy) and made them wonderful decisions and now looking back I can't imagine it being any other way. Although looking back many people consider season 6 to be the darkest of seasons season 5 definatly had it's much darker moments as well "The Body" and "Forever" being the obvious choices but also "Weight of the World" and "The Gift". I was sad to see Buffy go after seven years (it didn't seem long enough) but I trust Joss and believe that in the end it was the right choice. Now for my one complaint about this dvd set (and every other buffy dvd set) NOT ENOUGH EXTRAS!!!!! I couldn't believe that there wasn't a commentary for "The Gift" I had to check three times just to believe it, while the extras that were there were good more would have been better. I would have loved to see a few more commentaries, the previously on buffy thing before the gift, more outakes, commentaries by the cast, and more featurettes and maybe some behind-the-scenes stuff...I don't know if Joss&co. read what people say about the dvd's but I'm hoping so cause maybe than the dvds for seasons 6 and 7 will have the extras that a wonderful show like Buffy truly deserves. :)
Rating:
Summary: Just a comment on layout
Review: Many fine reviews already present here, and it would be redundant to recap. In a nutshell, great season, terrific seeing it again. One small complaint: the box sets for most TV shows come with a nice little booklet, listing the episodes AND telling what extras are going to be given for each. As in, Episode 2, "Real Me", Commentary. This set doesn't do that -- just ep info and summary. Complaining about the booklet is pretty picky, I know, but it's a simple thing I wish they'd have spent an extra few minutes and a $ or two on.
Rating:
Summary: A new sort of Buffy
Review: Season 5 had a lot of potential. The series received a fresh start of a sort in season 4 with the move to college. The potential issues raised in the season would've made an interesting season. But somehow, the potential wasn't fulfilled. Don't get me wrong - a not that great Buffy is a lot greater than most of the other stuff out there. But the production team's heart didn't seem to be in the show any longer. Take the source of the Slayers' powers for instance. We got some very nice teasers for it in Season 4's 'Restless'. The thing is that I felt that teasers were the only thing I got throughout the season - and no solid buildup to the conclusion of it (which was that Buffy's powers come from her love & loyalty to her friends and family). The same goes to the Riley / Buffy relationship. We get of a few rounds of "Riley feeling bad about his role is Buffy's life / Buffy comforts Riley / Riley isn't comforted for long and is willingly bitten by vampires), and then Boom! Riley throws an ultimatum and about 30 minutes later - he's gone. As for character development - it was patchy. Buffy had a lot of room for development with Dawn's arrival and Joyce's death, and Sarah Michelle Gellar has used that space well. Dawn's part seems to be a little too childish, but considering the fact that the part was originally meant to be a 12 years old (not 14), Michele Trachtenberg did a great job. We got to know Tara a little better, too. On the other hand, Xander, Willow and Anya didn't seem to grow much during the season. Xander finaly found a steady job & a new apartment at the beginning of the season, and there he stopped developing. We got a few hints that Willow is better & more involved in magic (a clue to future theme), and that's it. Anya seemed to be a combination punch bag for Willow and season 4's joke with a few added sensitivities. And an important note to Joss Whedon & the other writers: if Buffy keeps dying then brought back to life to often, 'death' ceases to be such a major, all important thing. I think part of the problem is that even though 'Buffy' and 'Angel' are 2 seperate shows, they share a lot of myth & characters. While rumor says that the frequent visits of 'Buffy' characters to 'Angel' helped the latter (esp. in its first season), the shared characters and expositions are certainly hurting Buffy. As someone who hasn't watched 'Angel', I certainly found large gaps in Buffy seasons 4 & 5 (things are so bad that it was extremely obvious that it's impossible to fully understand 'Buffy' without watching 'Angel'). Besides this small touch of what seems like vanity on the production teams' side, the extra features were w-a-y below the standards of previous seasons. I think that this is the first time there is no commentary on the season finale. And even if we consider the fact that it's hard to find something original to do in the fifth DVD set. On the other hand, there is also a lot of good in this seasons. Joyce's ilness & death were very well executed, and well as Dawn's addition to the show.
Rating:
Summary: A good (but not perfect) season
Review: After the Scooby Gang nearly imploded in Season 4, a concerted effort to focus on family in Season 5. To that end, there's a major emphasis on Buffy's Mom and Dawn, Buffy's sister (who is in fact The Key, a mystical ball of energy, in human form). However, even with this emphasis on the cast, character development would suffer in places. In particular is Tara, who despite Amber Benson's excellent performances, isn't given much to do except be Willow's girlfriend (a matter specifically broached in "Family", and then left largely ignored until "Tough Love", an episode that results in Tara being rendered insane until the last episode of the season). As such, the people who were unhappy with the Willow/Tara relationship (and even a few, like myself, who fully accepted the pairing) were presented with a 'ship that at times seemed to be there to cash in on the underlying social implications of two women together on television. Also annoying to some were Spike (who quickly began to take over the show in the eyes of some as soon as his Buffy obsession became known) and Dawn (who's a spazzy 14 year old, so no surprise there). However, the biggest problem seems to lie with Glory. While certainly a formidable villain, Glory is simply not as compelling as some of the previous Big Bads (but a definite step up from ADAM and the Initiative). Despite these qualms, Season 5 was blessed with some truly excellent episodes and moments. Besides "The Body" and "The Gift" (both major triumphs for the cast and Joss Whedon) are "Buffy vs. Dracula", "The Replacement", "Fool For Love", "Triangle", and "I Was Made to Love You". Unfortunately present is "Listening to Fear", which easily the worst Buffy episode since Season 2's "Go Fish" (an episode that was blessed with some classic moments, unlike the latter episode). The DVD set is very similar to previous sets, with a smattering of commentaries (although one is sorely missing for "The Gift") and scripts. The documentaries are also standard here, except for "Demonology: A Slayer's Guide", which is hosted by Danny Strong and is definitely tongue-in-cheek. There are, however, two things sorely missing in the set. First is a featurette on the brewing issues between Mutant Enemy and The WB which would lead to the network switch (and was a major driving factor in how Season 5 ended). Second is the "Previously on..." segement for "The Gift", which set up that episode perfectly, and featured images from each of the preceding 99 episodes of the series. Given that TV shows ranging from Dawson's Creek to The Transformers have been released on DVD with recaps and even syndicated commercial bumpers intact, this extremely important omission is quite disturbing. Otherwise, this set is well worth the money.
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