Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2005 Calendar

Rating:
Summary: Okay, but not great
Review: Each year, the Buffy wall calendar has emphasized the previous season of the show, but this year, since there was no eighth season of the show, the calendar is a retrospective of the whole show. Each month features a different character or group photo, taken from the promotional photos shot at the beginning of each season, with three smaller photos directly from the show itself (and an even smaller photo next to the calendar grid, also directly from the show).

Here's the month-to-month breakdown:

January - Buffy
February - Season 5 Scoobies (with Dawn & Riley)
March - Buffy
April - Willow
May - Buffy
June - Xander
July - Buffy
August - Season 5 core Scoobies (Buffy, Xander, Willow & Giles)
September - Buffy
October - Buffy
November - Season 4 Scoobies (with Oz)
December - Buffy

Seven out of 12 months are pictures of Buffy. Not surprisingly, this year there doesn't seem to be a Sarah Michelle Gellar calendar on the market, as this calendar is pulling double-duty. The problem is that, regardless of the show's name, it was really an ensemble show all seven years -- Buffy wasn't the main character, not to the degree that Sarah rates more than half the months (not including the group shots). There were several other major characters throughout the show's run that deserved pages dedicated to them -- Angel, Giles, Spike, Anya, Dawn, etc. Okay, Angel and Spike are more than likely in the Angel season 5 calendar, but the rest aren't. Unfortunately, cast members who are not Sarah Michelle Gellar are woefully under-represented in this calendar.

However, the calendar is well put-together from a technical standpoint. The photos are sharp and the layout is attractive.

Rating:
Summary: A Buffy Retrospective for the 2005 BtVS Calendar
Review: We are informed on the cover of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer 2005 Calendar" that this one is "A Buffy Retrospective." That means that in addition to a big picture of, say, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy, on the top half of each month's spread that is a triptych of smaller photographs offering a walk down memory lane with Buffy and Angel, Buffy and Riley, and Buffy and Spike. Buffy gets seven of the months for the 2005 year, with Willow (Alyson Hannigan) and Xander (Nicholas Brendon) each getting their own page, and three groups shots from different points in the seven year run of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

Most of the larger shots are based on official 8 x 10 glossies from the show that I have, with the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" logo on them (when they are not from the fan club), so they are going to be familiar to fans. The smaller shots are taken from various episodes. For example, on Willow's page we have a shot of when her eyes go all black as she is about to hurl knives at Glory in "Tough Love" as well as the White Witch Willow from "Chosen." The emphasis on Buffy in the calendar is actually rather unusual given what we have seen in past calendars, but then Spike does have his own calendar so James Marsters fans have someplace to go to get their visual fix of William the Bloody for 2005.


Rating:
Summary: Promo Slayer
Review: While I continue to mourn the loss of any "new" Buffy episodes on a weekly basis, someone thought my withdrawl symptoms would be minimized with the 2005 calendar. It's great to know the characters will live on through merchandising, but, the calendar could have been better.

I don't know why the powers that be think it's better to have cast photos or promo shots of the characters for each month, with smaller episode shot inserts peppered about the spread. As a viewer of the show, I would rather see scenes from the show itself take center stage then the "model" pictures. The calendar spans the series 7 year run with Sara Michelle Gellar getting the most attention as far as the monthly photos go.