So whaddaya think of season 7?

POSTED BY: JenDandy
UPDATED: Friday, February 11, 2005 16:11
VIEWED: 10049
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THIEFJEHAT

Thursday, February 10, 2005 5:50 PM

I noticed season 5 popping up a lot as a favorite season too. Yes, The Body is among the 5 best episodes of Buffy IMHO. The Gift was also bold and my hat comes off. A good friend of mine defends season 5 because it was a season you could end the series on. I don't place it as high.

S2-I always come back to this one as the best. I don't think the why behind it needs to be explained.

S3-Great plot combined with the most well thought out villian I've ever seen. The show still possesses the romantic feel it started out with combined with a knowledge that things are going to change, and that we all grow up.

S6-Such a controversial season! Ppl either love or hate this one. I place it near the top. Here was a season that took us to the dark place with each and every character. I have to respect the guts of the writers to do this. Buffy had been a comedy for so long I think folks forgot about the need for drama.

S4-I have a hard time placing S4 and S5 in my mind but I rank 4 one above 5 because it possesses 3 of my 5 favorite all time episodes, Hush, Superstar, and Restless. Although the Big Bad didn't engage me so much and Riley is just a Capt. America, I still like it just a bit more than S5. And also it resonates with my 1st year of college and I see my angst of the time reflected in Buffy's wide-eyed uncertainty. Honestly, in ranking seasons 4 and 5 I mentally placed a S4 & S5 boxset in front of me and said "I'm bored. Which one should I watch?" And I see myself reaching for S4.

S5-It has a weak beginning and a great end. But as Gounded said above, it's got a lot of howlers
too. Still though, I enjoyed the details of Willow's slow exposure to dark magics and the fact it took several episodes to determine who this "Dawn" person was. I was also glad Buffy took a spiritual journey.

S1-It's endearing. It's fun. The show just hadn't found it's voice yet but even then it possesses little nuggets of joy. Plus it's the only season when Buffy is truely "One girl in all the world"

S7-I don't think I can write anymore about season 7. My mind is tired.

CAPTAINCDC

Thursday, February 10, 2005 6:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Gorramreavers:
Just wanted to touch on Tara's absence from this season. Joss wanted her to become evil..at least at first..when she came back. Amber didnt want that so she didnt sign on. I love Amber but I wish she had trusted Joss to make it worth-while. Oh well.

I thought contract negotiations with fox was the reason that Tara did not come back for the 7th season.

The only sovereign you can allow to rule you is reason!

MIKEYMO

Thursday, February 10, 2005 7:25 PM

Quote:
1. The worst thing this season did was violate the character of Willow

Absolutely agree with this, along most other points you made about season 7. Giles totally got the shaft as well, and the whole "is he evil or no?" schtick was stupid. I think it was used just for the alone-camping-with-teenage-girls gag in a later ep.

I actually think the first few episodes were pretty strong, and things didn't go downhill until the potentials arrived. The nature of the eventually lame big bad was still nebulous and I, for one, had really high hopes. Once Buffy had her little "troops", she started in with the infamous speeches. And everyone knows the rest.

--edit

Buffy's treatment of Dawn in Season 7, treating her as though she were a child, is especially disingenuous considering her "I want to show you the world" speech at the end of Season 6.

"Be ashamed to die before you have scored some victory for humanity." -- Horace Mann

GROUNDED

Thursday, February 10, 2005 9:58 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by MikeyMo:
Giles totally got the shaft as well

Lol, that sums it up perfectly! Of course no one can beat Xander in the shaft-getting stakes - he was largely anonymous in the plot department from S4 onward, sadly.

There was some good in S7, as there is in every season of Angel/Buffy (no matter how much I loathe S6 and Angel S4, that's still true), but there were some moments so excruciatingly awful they make you want to buy the DVDs just so you can set them on fire. Case in point, while Xander is driving Dawn to safety she whips out a tazer and fries him while they're still in motion. One of the top ten worst things I've ever seen, ever. Not counting reality TV of course. Or Buffy and Spike having sex cause I think that happens more than 10 times but I'm too scared to rewatch to check...

MIKEYMO

Thursday, February 10, 2005 10:54 PM

Quote:
Of course no one can beat Xander in the shaft-getting stakes - he was largely anonymous in the plot department from S4 onward, sadly.

I believe getting the shaft is Xander's main character trait. No love whatsoever, when he's saved the world alone more than most the Scoobies (or Angel).

I have a confession, here- I really do love Angel season 4. While the whole Cordy-Connor match was the worst thing EVER, the return of Angelus and episodes like 'Spin the Bottle' are incredible. And my favorite couple in the entire Whedonverse is Wesley and Lilah.

I see people have put their ranks of Buffy seasons up, so I feel compelled to follow.

S3 - Perfect! Strongest top-to-bottom of the entire run.
S2 - Here I feel the need to mention that I'm heavily biased toward season finales, especially with Buffy. There are some lame episodes sprinkled throughout, but Spike&Dru, Angelus, and then the best episode of the series to cap things off.
S5 - People are hot and cold on this, I guess. Dawn never bothered me that much... Another incredible finale, and what would have been a perfect series finale (as thousands have said before). And while Fool For Love may have been the beginning of the destruction of Spike as a character, I still love that episode. And The Body, well.. I'm speechless.
S4 - Individual strong episodes, a pretty cool idea (the Initiative), but also the season of Adam and Captain Cardboard.
S6 - Argh. This season. Sooooooooo frustrating. Some incredible episodes, obviously, with OMwF and Tabula Rosa. Still--- Willow turns into a crackwhore

But they pulled it out in the end, and Darth Rosenberg was great. And I always give props when someone gets killed.
S1 - Sets things up, not really great. Good.
S7 - Starts off strong. Really strong. Conversations with Dead People was great - I had chills. Maybe my expectations were too high, and it's not as bad as I think. But there's a full half of a season here which I can't bear to look at again. Still, there were a couple of gems. But you won't find me rooting through a mess of speeches and secondary characters searching for them.

"Be ashamed to die before you have scored some victory for humanity." -- Horace Mann

BATMARLOWE

Thursday, February 10, 2005 11:24 PM

Well I gotta put my two cents in here for what they're worth. I'm not a big fan of Season 7 but I will say I think Conversations with Dead People is an outstanding episode. I like Storyteller and the flashback parts of Selfless. Overall, though, I think the season was poorly thought out. Not crazy about the whole potential concept, either. I think Chosen was fairly good considering where they were at that point. But overall I think it spun its wheels until the climactic episodes. At least I can get through it. Season Six (in spite of what I think its outstanding episodes are: OMWF and Tabula Rasa) is just painful to watch (IMHO). The other five seasons I think range from very good to great. And of course I think Firefly is awesome or else I wouldn't be here.
My ranking:

Season 3
Season 2
Season 5
Season 4
Season 1
Season 7
Season 6

By the way, first time posting: Hi Everybody, nice to talk to you.

batmarlowe

FIREFLOOZYSUZIE

Friday, February 11, 2005 1:51 AM

We've just watched all the Buffy's on DVD, ("Firefly" fan late to the Whedon party) and I have to say: Season 5 gets my vote as worst.

The whole "Key" story makes no sense.
Introduction of Dawn makes no sense.
Buffy diving into the void makes no sense.

My daughter and I watched Seasons 6,1,7,2,3,4 and finally 5 - in that order. And I was SO looking forward to understanding the whole Dawn-as-Key business. Boy, was I in for a letdown. It sure seemed to me that Season 5 writers wrote themselves into a corner - established all these rules about the Key and the use of the Key to fracture the boundaries between dimensions - then had to cheat things to make Buffy somehow a replacement for Dawn.

The dimensional rift is supposed to heal when Dawn is drained of blood? Then how come Dawn is still bleeding when Buffy does her big swan-dive, and the portal closes anyway? Buffy doesn't even bother to cut herself first - she's not drained in Dawn's place. Also, why should the ritual require blood, if the Key never needed to take the form of a human or even an animal? What if The Key were a postbox, an ashtray, or Buffy's stuffed pig, Gordo? Then there's the silliness of having one set of Godly Guys forcing Buffy to "protect" (i.e, draw attention to) the Key, while another bunch of Godly Guys in chainmail want to slaughter Buffy for accepting this "holy" commission.

Finally, the weirdest thing unresolved in Season 5: Dawn remains the Key. In Seasons 6 and 7, I had the impression that Dawn is the Girl Formerly Known As the Key, but I don't see how she ever became Not Key. So, why doesn't some other Evil God or Demon come around to claim the Key? Did I miss the explanation somewhere in Season 6?

Oh, I enjoyed individual episodes in Season 5 (love Willow in this season, loved Xander/Anya, and certainly loved Riley, Spike, Spike!). But the story arc itself? Half-baked. The whole Dawn issue now bugs the heck out of me, and I'm left feeling manipulated.

At this point (after viewing each season once) I'd rank the Buffy seasons like this:

S3,
S4,
S6,
S7,
S2,
S1,
S5

(As you probably can guess, I'm not overly fond of Angel-Buffy romance. Gag.)

GAZERBEAM

Friday, February 11, 2005 6:23 AM

I just have one thing to add....

Why in the name of all that is right and good in the world did they INSIST on calling the uber-slayer weapon in S7 a scythe?

A scythe is the big curved blade that the Grim Reaper has. What Buffy had was clearly an axe.

Just a pointless rant, but I had to get it off my chest

"YOu think you know... What's to come... What you are... You haven't even begun."

IDEFIX

Friday, February 11, 2005 10:20 AM

I think this thread once more reveales the true greatness of the show. and I believe it's the reason why we (the fans) can't agree what season is good and what season is bad or for what reasons. that's what makes the show great. all the seasons have their fans and some that hate them, for all kinds of different reasons. all of it isn't good or bad, it's just in how you see it and what you like. and that's a truely great thing to accomplish.

I loved the Willow story in S6 and 7, she lost her true love, went evil, almost destroyed the world, got drawn back from the abyss by her best friend and learned to live again, including dating. she never said that Kennedy was her new true love, she wasn't. but it was a healthy thing to do: go out and date someone different, feel bad about it for a while and then learn to forgive yourself and feel good again. it was perfect.

Idefix

GROUNDED

Friday, February 11, 2005 1:07 PM

Well I've done it many times before, but hey, let's go again ;)

S2
S1
S3
S4
S5
S7
S6

S7 only beats S6 because it only bored me as opposed to repulsed me. S1-S3 are pure TV gold and S4 has some great moments and incredible stand-outs but is a bit flimsy overall. I didn't mind S5 first time round since I had Angel S2 to watch after each ep but now I wouldn't rewatch most of it - my Jump The Shark point would be Buffy vs. Dracula, what were they thinking? I agree with all the points made above about S5's story - although it makes for a powerful image, Buffy leaping into the void is a total cop-out. Real drama would have been Glory killing Buffy and Giles, with no other option, tossing Dawn to her death.

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