Rating: 
Summary: Should be in widescreen like region 2.
Review: I have the PAL version of this set. It's in 16x9 widescreen and, apart from a slightly "soft" transfer, the wider video field really adds to the scope of the show. I'm disappointed that the region 1 set will be cropped to fullscreen. No matter what the studio is saying to worm out of this, this show (starting with season four) was shot in widescreen and we should be getting the DVDs that way.
As to the show itself, Buffy is one of my very favorite series and I've enjoyed every season. Although the "big bad evil" of season four was not as compelling to me as some of the others, the set includes some of the show's most memorable episodes. In other words, I thought season four was excellent more on the strength of it's parts than the whole.
If you're a Buffy fan, you probably already have the release date marked on your calendar. If you're new to the show, start with the ealier season sets and see what you've been missing. It's a show that delivers a clever mix of drama, comedy, romance, horror, and teen angst, in a brew that has captured both mass and cult audiences in it's spell.
Rating: 
Summary: Below Par For Writers
Review: This season of Buffy was a large dissapointment to many fans. Where did Riley come from? The writers needed to have someone to keep Buffy going but why not Angel? Everyone liked Angel, the dark and crypic vampire. .... Spike was funny every once in a while but after a while he to was ... not good and not evil and helping out everyonce in a while. Tara was a good character. Shy and mousy yet in later seasons able to stand up for herself. The salvation of this season comes in the form of two-part episodes. 'Who Are You' and 'This Years Girl" delt with the leftovers from last season however they were still great. I thought Faith was a phenominal character and was sad to see her go. This season also brought my favorite episode 'The Yoko Factor' a Buffy Angel crossover. I especially like the "Don't push me, boy" by Angel. It showed that Angel and Buffy will always love eachother (as corny as it sounds). The second part 'Primeval' delt with Adam. I thought the 'Combo Buffy' was rather ingenious. The rest of the season is hardly worth watching. It would be worth buying the Dvd to see those four episodes and a select few that are also a bit interesting. I recommend watching seasons 1-3.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as other seasons, but still better than most TV
Review: I agree with the consensus that the 4th season is the weakest seaason of BTVS. Having said that, however, I also think that it's still far superior to most of the garbage on TV. There was a lot of change in Season 4. Three characters (Angel, Cordelia, and Oz later on) left. Two new characters (Riley and Tara) were introduced. Two other characters (Spike and Anya) become much more prominent. Also, they weren't in high school anymore. There was no longer one central place that bonded them together. Willow and Buffy attended school together, but Giles and Xander struggled to find new direction, and poor Spike had to contend with the chip. I think that the build up and resolution of the big bad was not the best in this season. Adam/The Initiative were just never that effective as villians. They were too cold and detached and didn't really evoke much of a response. In contrast, the Master was a "like to hate him," Angelus was an evil bastard who I wanted to see die, and the Mayor was hysterically neurotic and chillingly evil. Still, as with other seasons of Buffy, the writing is overall fantastic, and this season contains two of my favorite episodes of all time: "Hush" and "Fear, Itself" (Giles: "I should have translated the Gaelic inscription under the illustration of Gachnar." Buffy: "What's it say?" Giles: "'Actual size.'") :-)
Rating:
Summary: Standout episodes
Review: This season is a must have with standout episodes like: Hush, Something Blue, Doomed and The Yoko Factor. These alone make the season worth watching!!! Run out and buy it just for these!!!
Rating:
Summary: ALL I CAN SAY IS HELLLLOOOO GENTLEMEN!
Review: theres nothing to say but
Episode 66: Hush
A group of murderous creatures straight out of a fairy tale steal away the townspeople's voices
one of the best thing i ever saw on TV.
i just hope like the european version of season 4 one of the special features is the making of the HUSH episode. Worth the money alone for this episode
Rating:
Summary: One of the Worst Seasons but seeds of the best
Review: Only six is below four in quality, but unlike season six, this season still had a lot of what makes Buffy great and better than most TV. Buffy had its beginnings as an extended metaphor for High School and the first half of season four made it seem like the show could not survive the transition to college. Episode One (The Freshman) was a weak opener (and suffered from the strong premier of Angel immediately after). It did not help that the early good episodes (Fear, Itself for example) relied heavily on humor. It wasn't until episode six (Wild at Heart) which began Willow's path to Tara that the season began to move. A twenty-two episode season is hurt by treading water until episode six. However, after that we did have some classics, including the Buffy episode that most deserved an Emmy, Hush. When an evil spell renders Sunnydale silent our heroes don't find a cheap out, but have to fight the bad without speaking. The quiet of Hush is amazing. Beyond Hush, Something Blue (a premonition of Willow's wrath), This Year's Girl/Who Are You (the return of Faith two parter), and New Moon Rising (the single best "I'm gay" episode TV has done) shine. The thing that really weighs down season four is the season's big bad: Adam and the Initative. They seem more like X-Files rejects than Slayer enemies. Add in their ties to Buffy's new love Riley (a very weak post-Angel romance) and the season plot of Buffy, so important in carrying seasons two and three to strong endings, winds up less compelling than the individual episodes of the season. As a result the "plot arc" episodes are weaker than non-arc ones. The finest example may be the last episode. Unlike seasons 1-3 and 5, season 6 doesn't deal with the big Bad in the last episode, but the next to the last. In fact it ends with a quiet episode concerning nightmares left from the methods used to kill off the Big Bad and is more interesting and moving than the defeating of the Big Bad himself (compared to our bawling our eyes out at the same point in 2 and 5 or the cheering at the end of 3). Too much of it was just TV. But that last line describes why it gets a four. At it's worse, BtVS Season 4 was just TV. At its best it was still Buffy. Several very good episodes live up to the standard set in the second and third season. It also sets up many important plot lines and background for Season Five, most obviously with Willow's growth as a witch and her relationship with Tara. Not just for completests, but for anyone interested in above average TV, but only after you've seen the second and third (you need four to understand a lot of five though).
Rating:
Summary: Buffy moves on
Review: After Angel's departure in season three's finale, and the change of environment from highschool to college, we find a vampire slayer who is falling down. This fourth season really proved that the series could move on from its main concepts, without betraying its general idea. The first three seasons the series was all about the Buffy and Angel relationship and the highschool/hellmouth analogy... Amazingly enough, the series kept being wonderfull after leaving these two concepts behind. This was really proved in the early episodes of the season. Is this change healthy or adecuate? Buffy herself seems to be asking this question when she struggles to find her place in campus.
In "Living Conditions" Buffy finds out that even Willow fits better than she in campus. She has a hard time fighting a vampire with an attitud, but, then again, an even greater misfit, Xander, gives her the strength to overcome her doubts about the future and the new live that is unfolding before her. This great episode has one of those moments when you say AUCH: that beautifull, meaningfull umbrella she got in the Prom Dance gets destroyed under the vampire's feet. This is the season in which Joss Whedon decided to hint us all of the story lines from the get go. In this first episode Oz feels something strange as he crosses a girl (Veruca), and we get to see a little bit of those iniciative guys, as well as Riley makes his first appearance.
The second episode, "The Freshman", shows Buffy dealing with the fact that she will have to share her space with another student... a Cher-do you believe in love-fanatic-student, that is. Everything about her is annoying and Buffy starts wishing she were a vampire or a demon. Of course, in the end, Buffy finds a way to adjust... with Willow, of course.
"The harsh light of the day" is one of best episodes of the season... well, it is Spike's return, so how could it be otherwise? There is a ring that would allow vampires to come out to the sun, and Spike finds it... meanwhile Buffy finds out that a horny college boy can be more harmfull that Angel losing his soul. so, when Spike faces Buffy, he finds her depressed. Oh! And we get to see Harmony again... when I saw the episode the first time, i went: how cool is that?
The following episodes develop Buffy's attempts to recover from her deception, Riley discovering his feelings towards Buffy, Xander getting close to Anya and Willow getting deeper into her relationship with Oz. Finally it's time for the iniciative to appear. In the episode properly named "The Iniciative", Riley's character is explored and we get to see his work in the iniciative as well as his teacher and boss, Maggie Walsh. Also, Spike, who has been captured by the iniciative, escapes and finds out that they have done something to him and he is now unable to bite people for food.
After a not so good appearence of Angel in a thanksgiving episode ("Pangs"), comes probably the best episode of the season. It is the Emmy nominated "Hush", where a group of fairy-tale-like gentlemen come to Sunnydale to collect hearts after stealing the voices of everyone in town. There is hardly any dialogue in the episode. In the end of the episode, Buffy and Riley discover each other's secret.
A few episodes later, the Iniciative and Maggie Walsh begin to be a problem, as a secret project starts raising questions. Questions Buffy is willing to ask in "Then I in team". Maggie tries to kill Buffy, and Riley begins to doubt his boss, as well as Buffy, after he sees Spike in a scooby reunion. In "Goodbye Iowa" the big bad appears finally: Adam, a creature one third machine, one third human and one third monster... how baroque is that?
A hiatus from this storyline is the two parter: "This year's girl" and "Who are you", in which Faith comes to from her coma and seeks revenge agains Buffy and her friends. She takes Buffy's body in the end of the first and in the second one she begins to realize the positive side of her power, while Buffy has to escape from the guys sent by the council to seize her (or to seize Faith). Of course, in the end, things get back to normal, but not before Riley and the Buffy-embodied Faith do the wild thing.
The end of the season finds the gang being separated by a plot of Spike's, who is serving Adam's purposes. Fortunately they solve their problems and decide to break in the Iniciative to try and destroy Adam through a spell that will conjure the first slayer. Hell breaks free in the iniciative as Adam faces Buffy. The gang finally succeed. But in "Restless", the season finale, the consequences of the spell they used come to hunt them: the first slayer comes to kill them trough their dreams.
But this story line is not the best of this season... There is also the Willow's plot: Oz leaves and she finds new love in Tara, but as Oz returns in "New moon rising" he discovers that his werewolfness can be brought by Willow. And Anya and Xander begin a strong relationship.
Here is my top 10:
10.New moon rising.
9.The Freshman.
8.Living Conditions.
7.A new man (Buffy is turned into a demon by his old friend Ethan Rayne).
6.Primeval (Buffy's final confrontation with Adam)
5.Restless (I know I'm probably one in a million who has this episode as one of his favorites, but i just loved the surreal, hipnotic aproach they gave to this season finale).
4.Superstar (Jonathan as a hero and a role modell to the vampire slayer? Something is wrong, and very funny... watch for those opening credits).
3.The Harsh Light of the day
2. Something Blue (Willow tries to recover from Oz's departure through a spell that makes her able to force her will in reality. And her twisted will includes Giles getting blind, Xander becoming a demon-magnet and Buffy falling in love with Spike... just hilarious).
1. Hush.
Rating:
Summary: Fourth best season
Review: I'm a big Buffy fan, but the fourth season was one of my least favorites. There were some good episodes like: Hush, Something Blue (what ever Willow said came true), and along with others. The last episode was great, because it sets up Season Five. I rank Season Four as my fourth favorite season.
Rating:
Summary: Television at its best
Review: The fourth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is television at its best. Each episode is riveting, hilarious and unique. From the amazingly clever and stylish silent installment "Hush" to the incredible and beautiful "Restless" each episode will take your breath away and leave you begging for more. The season follows Buffy and the gang into college. The Slayer feels awkward and distant, Willow finally feels she belongs and Giles mid life crisis is before him. The painfull drama and indepth story arcs of seasons past are at a minimal in this installment and allows for riveting stand alone episodes which appeal to everyone. The fourth season breaths humor and creativity and includes some of the greatest moments and episodes of the series history. The introduction of a powerful and mysterious witch, the return of a certain rougue slayer and wacky vengence demon Anya, and Spike's fascinating return to Sunnydale are just a few things which make this season so incredible. Season four stands as a milestone for the series. It represents a time in the gangs life when everything changes and new posibilities abound. Not necesarily a fan favorite because of the rather dull introduction of both The Initiative and Riley but still a necesesity for any fan of the show. Season four also stands as the series last opprotunity for fun and hillarious entertainment before the show begins focusing more on drama in following seasons. Season four Highlights include:
"The Freshman"(The dark yet entertaining season opener)
"Living Conditions"(An hilarious installment which depicts the horors of dorm room living)
"The Harsh Light of Day"(Where in which Spike makes his triumphant return)
"Fear, Itself"(This season's fun and exciting Halloween episode)
"Something Blue"(Willow's magick goes terribly wrong in this cleverly written mid-season episode),
"Hush"(No explanation is necesary, this is television at its absolute best)
"A New Man"(Giles gets his chance to shine in this comedy masterpiece)
"Who Are You"(Faith and Buffy switch bodies in this memorable installment)
"New Moon Rising"(Oz returns in this touching and clasic episode)
"Restless"(Truely a pivitol episode in the Buffy saga) In all season four is fast, exciting and fun and stands as the perfect example of why Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the best show on television.
Rating:
Summary: A Reminder to All BtVS Fans...
Review: Though you may not consider this the strongest season of BtVS, do you really want it to rank lower than many other mediocre series (with less discerning fans) by giving it a 4-out-of-5? I've noticed some of the later seasons of the inferior "X-Files" ranking 4 1/2 stars on this site. You may acknowledge that the rating is "relative to BtVS standards" in your review, but your comments will disappear in days, and the casual observer only notes the overall average, and they'll probably assume it's relative to TELEVISION standards. Consider that when you rate it. Thanks for your time.
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