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Buffy The Vampire Slayer - The Complete Sixth Season

Buffy The Vampire Slayer - The Complete Sixth Season

List Price: $59.98
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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The Death Of A Good Show
Review: I didn't think there could be anything beyond "The Gift" because it was so chilling, and beautiful (including the lore that slayers die young, etc...) however, when I heard there would be two more seasons on the ghetto network (AKA UPN), I was excited. Joss Whedon said that the extension was to continue a "story that needed to be told" and had nothing to do with the multi-million dollar contract. Um, right. Season 6 wasn't dark, it was just stupid. I'd watched Buffy since day 1, and was a big a fan as anyone. The writing had no direction, and things were happening at such a slow state, that you could have missed the whole season, since it added nothing to Buffy, only destroyed the image of the show. This will forever divide Buffy fans. The Troika alone should be a clue to anyone that things are really bad, but hope springs eternal. Yes, Buffy came back to life, and how appropriate and fitting that her ressurection was to work at a burger place (where was everyone? No one seemed to have jobs or school the whole season, there were bills, but no further explanation..lol at living in a nice home in S. California but not paying for it). I don't care how many burgers you flip, but bills and living in a house in S. California won't be paid from filling fat vats. Yes, the arcs failed us..I don't even think there were any arcs come to think of it. Willow going magic bingy with Tara's death was so contrived, and we all knew what was going to happen months before it did. Horrible and sloppy writing for this season. Buffy was also ressurected to have alley sex with Spike, oh and don't forget the attempted rape scene in "Seeing Red" which added such a poignant part to the story..right. Also, the whole magic abuse storyline with Willow was pathetic and humorous as you got the feeling that they really wanted this to be like a substance abuse problem...lol. They kept banging us on the head with expressions like "Willow, you're using too much magic..stop!" Excuse me, but when didn't Willow use powerful magic to save the rest of the gang? Binge-magical Willow just wasn't believable. And for all the Tara freaks, she was nothing but a character actress tied to the gang only through Willow. The best way to sum up season six is what Giles said in the 2nd season where the subtext rapidly became text. People, my god, the season finale!! Willow is going to destroy the world with a satanic temple that looks like it was bought at a yard sale, but is quickly brought down by stupid nostalgia memories like crayons and coloring with Xander...hhhmm...yeah, that makes me believe in the overboard, killer Willow even more...it was all so nice and convenient. What she goes from killing everything to coming down and crying on Xander's shoulder in 2 minutes just over some sentimental talk? LOL...I don't think so. Save yourselves! This season, and season 7 are not Buffy. I've stopped the DVD collection at season 5, because that is out of respect for the show. It was time. The 5th season was the best season in my opinion, and the 100th show, "The Gift" which was the series finale (in my mind) at the end of season 5 is where to stop. After that, the show is embarrasingly destroyed, so leave Buffy with some dignity and stop at 5.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful and misunderstood
Review: After Buffy's death at the end of season five,it was clear Buffy's sixth season would be very different.And it was.Season six is Buffy's most daring and most disturbing season.This season is way too mature for people who think it's a bad idea to have a season with no big bad and no real big story arc.Instead it's a big character study.In fact,this is THE season for character development.Buffy,Xander,Willow,etc.They all suffer a lot during season six.There are so many great episodes in season six and so few bad episodes.People hate this season not because it's full of bad episodes.They hate it because it's too brutally honest and misses many of the elements Buffy normally has.I actually would put this season ahead of all the others except three and five.
This season has a lot of huge drama like Tara's death or Willow turning evil.And there are episodes like Doublemeat Palace that are a whole lot better than people think.I admit the season gets too repetitive in its middle chunk but it does get back on track and most of it is amazingly daring and honest.Some people actually hate this season not because of the darkness but because of how inconsistent it is.I don't think it's very inconsistent.There's stuff to like in every episode and it's a nice change of pace after the roller-coaster that is season five.Season six rules.Get it.I just wish it came way before July 2004.I noticed a lot of people started to love season four after they saw it on dvd and I hope the same happens with season six.Of course the best thing about season six is the Musical episode Once More With Feeling.Probably the best single hour of Buffy it is.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not the best, but still stellar
Review: The sixth season of Buffy was not the best. But it is still intriguing and a cut above most tv shows. When we left off Buffy was dead. She sacrificed herself to save her sister and the world. The Scooby Gang and Sunnydale is in turmoil without her. They are using Spike's reassembled Buffybot to fight Sunnydale's various evils. And Willow, Tara, Anya, and Xander, unbeknownst to Giles, Spike, and Dawn are going to resurrect the Slayer, because Willow is convinced that she is being tortured in a Hell Dimension. In a rousing season premiere, the best of all seven seasons, her friends bring Buffy back to life. The scene where she wakes up in her coffin, still gives me chills. Buffy flees her friends and winds up back where she died prepared to take her life again. It is Dawn who stops her. The Scoobies are sure they've done a good thing, but unknown to them Buffy was in a good place. A heavenly dimension that she did not want to leave. She only shares this info with Spike. The season progresses from there, with an amazing musical episode, "Once More, With Feeling", that climaxes with Buffy revealing where she really was and a passionate kiss with Spike. The season does have it slow points but there are some standout episodes. "Smashed" and "Wrecked" are amazing. With, Spike hitting and Buffy and it not hurting. They engage in a battle that brings down a house, literally, and they make love. And with Willow's magic going out of control. There are some low points. Like the geeky Trio that is supposed to be Buffy's enemy. And that perhaps Buffy came back wrong somehow and that is the reason for her depression. But what really ails Buffy is that life is not how she expected it. And the problem is natural not supernatural. From "Hell's Bells" the episode where Xander leaves Anya at the altar and she reverts back to a vengeance demon, and the season finale, Buffy goes back to form. The season ender is a doozy that makes this season essential to Buffy fans new and old.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Buffy is the best
Review: Can't wait for the seventh season to be released on DVD!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Unreal!
Review: These DVDs won't be released until July 6, 2004, yet you people presume to review it, as if seeing the show on TV and on DVD were equal? Consider how different "Once More With Feeling" will probably look and sound with DVD quality. Not to mention that there's no way any of you could know if the special features are any good.

OMWF and the truly hot Buffy/Spike sex scenes notwithstanding, season 6 is my least favorite "Buffy" season, but who knows, the DVDs for it may blow my mind. But I refuse to recommend that anyone buy or not buy a DVD set that I have not seen and will not see for ten months!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Bracing the Storm of Season Six!
Review: Season Six, to alot of fans, was a disaster train wreck! But don't be fooled by their analysis of this season because its one of the best seasons ever of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"! This is the season that took risks, and triumphed unnoticed by the fans, except a few. This season is misunderstood by many who first viewed it and therefore they disliked it, just like they disliked the final season,(Season Seven), but it wasn't because of the stories of this season, it was the gap of broadcasting that ruined the flow of the storyline, and therefore, this season needs another glance again, without interruption, and you'll understand what the point of this season was all about.

Many say it was dark, and yes it was the darkest feeling season since Season Two, and later Season Seven, but life itself, can get dark sometimes, and this was the point the series 6th year was trying to point out. If you've noticed, every season's theme has a metaphor in them, and this year was having the Scooby Gang bracing their darkest storm that could be thrown at them.
How is that? You may say, well, I'll tell you...

Ever since the very first episode, we've grown to love these wacky fun loving kids! In the First Season, it was the introduction period, the Slayer, her Watcher and friends gathering in the library, fighting monster of the week big baddies, along with school issues every teenager at one time or another will find theirselves in, plus a trial of a Slayer. In the Second Season it grew larger, they had to battle not only school, but love hormones, a lover gone bad, new annual baddies, like Spike and Drusilla,and the death of a close one, and trials of a Slayer. In the Third Season, still it was school, a rogue Slayer named Faith, a baddie named "the Mayor", and trials of departing loves and trials of a Slayer. The Fourth Season was college life, new baddie named Adam, and a government containment place for studies of demons, and again trials of a Slayer. The Fifth Season was departure childhood, going into adulthood, and fighting a big baddie named Glory, and the death of a dear one they'd miss forever, and also introduction of a sister. And now Season Six takes them farther, somewhere that the Scoobies had never faced before....and that was "life"!

Every year they've faced bad things, but they were never in a position of being left alone, to survive on their own, and to be a grown up. Someone here mentioned that its been six years later since they started their adventures, and that they were adults now, and they needed to center their lives as adults, and that person was right. It was time to move onward, brace whats ahead, no matter what lie uncharted. We had to see how these characters would react, if they were put in a position to where they'd hit rock bottom, to see how they'd reach the top again, to see really, how much strength they really have, besides magic, or mysttical slayer powers, and thats the storm one must face, to overcome their trials with triumph.

In this season, Buffy had to quit her hopes of returning to college, and get a real life job to pay the bills, make sure Dawn doesn't get taken away from her care, and at one point, she comments that her mother was the super woman of the family on how she couldn't believe she could do all the stuff that Joyce did! Xander has to confront the word "commitment" as he gets prepared to marry the woman he loves, and Willow has to overcome her craving for magic, which she deals with throughout the season by trying to give it up. The point, they each failed, they hit the bottom of the boat, as Buffy fell into depression, had an affair with Spike, (who in this season overcomes some major points in his life too), Xander's fear of turining into his father, leaves him leaving Anya at the altar, later turning her in the way of vengeance again, and Willow, she gets the sour lemon, as she gains Tara back,(who left her because of Willow's crave of magic), but she also loses Tara in the one of the most vicious and real murders of the series, which drives Willow into becoming evil with rage, and almost destroying the world. At the end of the season, all of them faces their problems, and they begin the start of rebuilding what they lost as they hit rock bottom througthout the season, as Buffy and Spike seperate, he goes to get a soul, she tries to tear down her gap with Dawn that they made during the season, and Xander and Willow come to terms with theirselves as they each step out of the eye of their own inner demons, their storms!

Note:
This season has great episodes! There's "Bargining", "Once More,With Feeling", "Dead Things", "Normal Again", "Seeing Red", and "Villains" to "Two to Go' & 'Grave". Each actor portrailed each character to heart so much, that their feelings grabbed ahold to you, as if you were the one's who were going through them as well! Also,do know that this season is *very graphical* in some scenes, this was the most *provocative season* in the series whole 7 year run. There is a few gruesome scenes in some episodes, and some very [physical] in tone,(especially with the Spike and Buffy, and Willow and Tara romantic storylines), but they were to make a point, that was needed for the story of the season.

It's a great and wonderful, powerful season,with a powerful message that was overlooked, this season took dangerous risks, and truimphed with their goal. Also know that this season is the *only* season that centers the Slayer and the Scooby Gang around the true hard cold life that we all may face once we reach adulthood, if not already. Many fans should charish this season to heart, it was indeed an unheard, unreconized, classic season for the series! I love this season! Enjoy, you won't regret it!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hated season 6??? Then this DVD's for you!!
Review: Season 6 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS) was much maligned, often hated and generally misunderstood by a lot of Buffy fans. But on second viewing, this season proves to be just as compelling as past seasons. And this DVD shows us why we viewers should give season 6 another chance...plus the worse episode of BtVS (DMP) is better than most of the average TV shows out there! Here are my reasons why season 6 deserves a second look.

1. BtVS is a series based on continuity, characters and their relationships with each other, never more evident than in this season. The comfortable roles/relationships that viewers were used to were strained, tested, stretched and even broken on season 6 as they never were before. Characters that we loved were lost (Tara/Giles). Other did reprehensible things (Spike/Willow). Our heroine descended into depression and despair. Old favorites were reintroduced with surprising results (Riley, Amy,Jonathan).

2. BtVS has always been about short and long term story arcs. Viewing episodes together on DVD ties these arcs in much more closely than viewing new episodes sporadically, with weeks in between and with repeats as oftens happens on TV. The longer season arcs sometimes get lost on TV. Plus, there are season spanning arcs that come to fruition on season 6 (Buffy's death, Willow's descent into the dark arts--were predicted in earlier seasons).

3. Season 6 boasted some of the best episodes and moments in Buffy series history. Once more with Feeling (OMWF) is widely regarded as the best episode- and when it came out, was the year's best hour on television. Tabula Rasa pops up on most everyone's list of most humorous. Giles' learning of Buffy's return and their reunion is one of the shows most touching moments. Buffy and Spike's attempted Rape scene (Seeing Red) was one of the most controversial scenes for fans. Normal Again gave us a thoughtful "what if" scenario--what if this were all a dream?

4. Season 6 shows us a new side of BtVS- a more darker, more adult grown up version of the show we love. Alot of viewers were unhappy with this new tone, but BtVS was 6 years older- it can't remain the same lighthearted, almost campy, high school show now that Buffy is all grown up. She is no longer sheltered within the comfines of high school. She no longer has a mother or even a watcher. She is now responsible for bills,plumbing, mortgages. She is surrogate mother to Dawn and has to deal with Social workers, grades, PTa etc. and oh, she is still the slayer and protector of the world (not just high school.)5. The price of the DVD is worth it just to have the full uncut version of OMWF plus all the DVD extras (music videos). The first run of the episode was over an hour- subsequent repeats were edited, songs were shorted to fit into an hour. This musical episode could have easily been a sweeps gimmick, but it transcends the expected and believably moves the story forward. The episode demanded more of the cast who sang their own songs (when they could have easily lip sang to another better singer) and showcased the talents of Joss Whedom- who wrote/scripted the songs/episode. Even behind the scenes talents were featured (marti noxon was the parking lady; the mustard guy was also a writer).

*** These are just a few reasons why I think that season 6 deserves a second look. It got a lot of unfavorable opinions when it first aired, especially in the internet community. But when re-viewed as a whole, I think that alot of minds and hearts will be changed- mine included. Season 6 may not be your favorite season of BtVS, but give it another chance, you may be surprised!!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not all 'dark' is created equal
Review: Many people disliked this season for very specific reasons (e.g., sloppy, thin, and repetitious plotting; inscrutable character motivations; wasted screentime for Nicholas Brendon and Anthony Stewart Head; poor resolution of Buffy's and Willow's story arcs). I'd wager that not all of these dissatisfied viewers -- not even most of them -- were stupid or immature or artistically unsophisticated.

Mutant Enemy decided they wanted to be "daring and mature" and failed. It happens. The showrunner for season 6 had never displayed, in my opinion, an exceptionally good handle on getting the "Buffy balance" of humour and pathos within the horror/fantasy genre (opting instead for "bathetic melodrama with a monster thrown in there somewhere"), and she wasn't so hot at plotting either. Thus, when left (mainly) to her own devices in season 6, things fell apart.

There were also acting problems. Sarah Michelle Gellar can do 'dark' very well, and season 6 should have been Alyson Hannigan's year to show off her range. Unfortunately, after a point both Gellar and Hannigan looked either frustrated or lost or both. As they led the A- and B- seasonal arcs, their detachment seriously hurt the show. Furthermore, James Marsters overdoing it on Spike's (canon-violating) soulfulness didn't do the lead character any favours. The duplicity with which Spike was written and acted, combined with the opacity of Buffy's characterisation made it really hard to empathise with the hero of the show.

Finally, the musical was great, but whose brilliant idea was it to hand the directing reins for an episode about invisibility to a novice director?

Overall, Season 6 had some interesting ideas at its core, but suffered from a lack of strong, coherent, guiding vision when it came to the characters and the individual episodes.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A stunning year in which Buffy explores her dark pages
Review: Seasons One through Five of Buffy were very close to universally enjoyable: to see them was to love them. Many erstwhile Buffy fans, on the other hand, dislike season Six. Having died at the end of Season Five, Buffy's friends resurrect her at the beginning of the season, and the recurring question is: Did she come back "right"? In Seasons One through Five, the monsters Buffy and the Scooby Gang are all external, but in Season Six, although there is a relatively minor threat posed by the dorky would-be villains Warren, Jonathan, and Andrew, all the genuine monsters are internal. Traumatized by her unexpected removal from what she suspects was heaven, Buffy spends the entire season exploring her own dark pages.

Many Buffy fans (including my daughter) were uncomfortable with the darkness, with Buffy's self-destructive behavior, with her less-than-heroic behavior. But I loved this season as much as any. It is a different Buffy, an older Buffy, a Buffy who struggles with life's everyday problems, not always successfully. If the first three seasons was high school Buffy, and the fourth and fifth seasons were college Buffy, then the sixth season was adult Buffy. I haven't conducted a scientific survey, but I have a very strong suspicion that this season appeals far more strongly to Buffy's older viewers. Younger fans may not feel as acutely Buffy's dilemmas about whether to pay the phone bill or the electric bill, how to placate a social worker to keep Dawn from becoming a ward of the state, or her struggle to see past a sea of petty problems to regain a glimpse of the grander scheme of things, but most adults will.

Not only Buffy, but all of the Scooby's go to some very dark places. Dawn struggles with a serious shoplifting problem. Willow becomes more and more dependent upon magic, to the point of addiction. Xander leaves Anya at the altar, leaving their relationship in shambles and wrecking both of their lives. Giles senses that he is in the way of Buffy's growing up, and with great reluctance decides to leave and return to England. Spike becomes more and more obsessed with Buffy, and after their brief but enormously self-destructive affair, attempts to rape her and leaves Sunnydale to change radically his entire existence (and as we learn in Season Seven, he succeeds). Tara, troubled by Willow's growing dependence on magic, leaves her, and shortly after reconciling with her, is accidentally killed, sparking Willow's emotional and spiritual breakdown. The season, however, ends on a note of hope. Although Willow comes excruciatingly close to destroying the planet out of her agony at Tara's death, she is diverted by Xander's love and friendship. Although Buffy has spent the year struggling with rediscovering a desire to live, at the end of the season she decides that she does, and expresses to Dawn a desire to show her many of the things that makes life important. Spike finds a salvation that quite nearly drives him insane, in being granted a soul by after surviving a series of trials. Only Anya ends the season in an unbearable place.

Despite the darkness of the season as a whole, there are nonetheless many spectacular moments and some hysterically funny ones. The highpoint of the season is unquestionably the seventh episode, the justly celebrated musical "Once More, With Feeling." Many television shows have attempted musical versions of the show, but none have even remotely approached the excellence of this episode. The songs are all at least good, and some are quite good indeed. All the performers do their own singing. Sarah Michelle Gellar does a pretty decent job singing her songs, but several display excellent voices, especially Anthony Head (Giles), James Marsters (Spike), and Amber Benson (Tara). Dawn sings lightly, but demonstrates some surprising dance ability, obviously the result of some formal training. The brilliance of the episode isn't merely the competent musical numbers, but the fact that each one carries the plot forward far more effectively than a nonmusical show would have. We learn that all are under the spell of a musical demon, played brilliantly by Broadway song and dance man Hinton Battle (the Scarecrow in the original stage version of THE WIZ), and must reveal their deepest feelings in song.

The episode that follows "Once More, With Feeling" is "Tabla Rasa," arguably the funniest in all of Buffy. A spell that Willow casts goes awry, and all the gang while at the Magic Box temporarily lose their memories, including their memories of one another and their own identity. The scene where all awake, trying to figure out who they all are, is hysterical, especially Spike's realization that he, like Giles, is a "Nancy boy" and their conclusion that he must be Giles's son "Randy" (deducted from a label in the coat he is wearing). Buffy tellingly decides that her name must be "Joan" (with obvious overtones of another great female hero, Joan of Arc), and discovers that she must be a superhero because she is "wicked strong."

The season as a whole has both many terrifying moments and many funny ones. Buff's appearing in her Doublemeat Palace fast-food uniform combines both. Willow's apotheosis as the darkest of evil sorceresses in the final episodes is very nearly overwhelming, and is completely evil when, after skinning Warren alive for having killed Tara, she looks at her friends before going off to complete her revenge against Jonathan and Andrew and says, "Two to go."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I LOVE 6TH SEASON!!!!!!
Review: This is the best season you could EVER own!!! It explores Buffy and Dawn's sisterhood, Buffy and Spike's realationship, The musical episode, and TONS MORE!!!

My favorite episodes: (just not in order) (A * = 1 star and the most stars are 10)

1. Once More With Feeling ******************
2. Smashed ***********
3. Older and Farther away **********
4. Doublemeat palace ********
5. Grave ***********
6. After life *********
7. Dead things **********
8. Bargaining part 1 **********
9. Bargaining part 2 **********
10. Tabula Rasa *********************

And MANY MORE!!!!
The only thing I didn't like was when Warren killed Tara. );


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