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Buffy rant inbound:
Buffy couldve had 4 reasonable end points across its run.
The 1st is the s1 finale. Season 1 was low budget Californian spin on the classic monster tropes. And season 1 had a fully realised narrative that wrapped the plot and all subplots up with a bow. Had it not gotten picked up for a second season that wouldve been a perfectly good ending.
But it did get picked up and good for me that it did. The next two seasons are the peak of the shows ratings and are the rest of the high school run. By the end of season 2 all the remaining classic horror monsters had been used save Dracula and the romeo and juliette arc had been fully played out to wonderfullytragic ends. S3 really devles into the interpersonal relationships in the biggest way yet and becomes the blueprint for the rest of the series in many ways. When its all said and done Angel leaves the series and highschool comes to an end.
"Oz: Guys. Take a moment to deal with this. We survived.
Buffy: ..It was a hell of a battle.
Oz: Not the battle... High School."
And right there you couldve ended the series. I think a lot of people did even before the s4 struggles. Buffy for them was a highschool drama and in that vein it had ran its course. S3 has some outstanding episodes though one of my favorites being The Zeppo. Always look forward to seeing it come around when i do a rewatch. Top 10 ep for me easy.
Season 4 definitely lost a lot of viewers, Seanny included. Martin Noxons military antagonists clashed against the freedom of the themes the college setting provided and the scripts and new chracters were over all pretty weak. Spike and Anya are what hold the season together though. Theyre never not funny. And The Yokko Factor is peak interpersonal conflict. The final 10 min is just outstanding. Worth the seaspn build up for that alone.
The show survived and got to its next potential ending, and in my opinion the best ending outside of season 1, which season 1 is pretty objectively is the most tightly written. As fan though s5 is the most satisfying. This marked the end of the shows run on the WB so killing your protagonist before jumping networks is a pretty ballsy play. But s5 has some really high highs. The Dawn character gets some flack but she occupies very little screen time and any season that has something as powerful as The Body, the most grueling 44 minutes ever aired on network TV, cant be bad. And out of the 22 eps theres some real bangers. 12 classic eps at minimum. Oh we finally get Dracula.
The UPN seasons have the 4th ending and its the worst potential ending out of any of them but im getting ahead of myself. Season 6 is a fucking master piece. It has the longest hot streak of top tier eps in the series. It juggles, and satisfies like 5 subplots built across the season and has a climax on par with anything in the run. All the while being incredibly funny. Plus Buffy fucks a building to rubble. Cmon.
Season 7 is a convoluted mess. Its has some cool shit though. Nathon Fillion as Caleb is just fucking aces. "I aint done with you yet...bitch." is one of my favorite villain moments ever. And what happens next is one of my favorite hero moments ever. Principle Wood is the series first top tier new character in years, maybe since Anya all the way back in season 3 really. But ultimately its too busy and unfocused. The overarching plot being about all women instead of the gang detracts from the comradery thats been the core of the show up until this point. Oh! Andrew is great. Theres a new character from s6 that works out great. Fuck the whole Trio is just aces cant believe i skipped over them.
Anyhow looked at from a distance the show reinvents itself multiple times across its run and is very distinct from itself. I think thats to its benefit. Season 7 sucks because well it wasnt meant to be the last season and SMG said she was done so they just had to make it work but i think the show was getting better and better the further away they got from being a teen highschool drama. Which isnt to say i dont love the highschool seasons because i really love those 3 seasons.
This is all to say nothing of Angel which i also think got better as it went on with season 1 being VERY meh and s5 crushing all the other 11 buffyverse seasons pretty easily. A Whole in the World alone...fuck...so good. Smile Time... anyways before i get distracted thats a whole other rant..and honestly there's not much id reather talk about at length than buffy the vampire slayer.
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