Geoff's Comments about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, season 6
Last updated: 5 February 2004
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Buffy and Angel comments -> Buffy, season
6
6.1 6.2 Bargaining (8 and 7)
Ever since the nadir of 3.1 Anne in season 3, the first
episodes have been steadily improving, and this is no exception; it's
no 1.1 Welcome to the Hellmouth, but it tries, and its darker
aspects are a preview of much of the rest of the season. In many
respects a seemingly typical Buffy episode, the first part is a
good mix of the usual comedy and drama, but the
killing-the-cute-young-deer scene and Giles's farewell serve notice
that things will be very different. The story runs out of steam in the
second part and treads water, replaced with rather too much wanton
destruction, but this is redeemed by a fine climax in which Dawn and
the newly-resurrected Buffy revisit the end of 5.22 The Gift.
6.3 After Life (7)
Unusually for Jane Espenson, not really a comedy episode. Instead we
get something much more serious which looks at the consequences of
bringing Buffy back to life, with only one additional character and no
extras. It rambles a bit and has lots of talking, but is otherwise
pretty solid with some fine performances and direction.
6.4 Flooded (7)
In which the real world begins to impinge; note how Buffy dealing with
being alive again is blended with having to face the adult world. Like
6.3 After Life, it's neither particularly great nor
particularly bad, but it sets up some later developments, most notably
Giles's admonishment of Willow. But is this really the same Johnathan
who gave Buffy the Class Protector award in thanks for saving him in
3.18 Earshot? This is not the first instance this season of a
character's character being altered - see also how different Anya is
now compared to her appearances in season three.
6.5 Life Serial (8)
Jane Espenson's third writing credit running, and the funniest episode
of the season so far. The geeky troika - often taken to be the writers
mocking the more obsessive fans, but actually them mocking themselves
- are amusingly pathetic with their Star Wars obsessions, but
their ways of freaking Buffy out are unsettlingly effective; in
particular, the repetitive shop scenes are simultaneously funny and
disturbing.
[Trivia time: Buffy gets drunk in the fifth episode of each
even-numbered season. Is this a coincidence?]
6.6 All the Way (8)
Another curious coincidence: is there any significance in the
occurrence of Hallowe'en episodes only in even-numbered seasons? With
Dawn's teenage fumblings, this is the first episode in a long time to
equate vampirism with sex; interestingly, although this is the
principal storyline in the episode, it plays second fiddle to the
worrying signs in the two principal relationships. Also of note is the
lovely image of Anya skating around the Magic Shoppe.
6.7 Once More, With Feeling (9)
The most audacious Buffy episode yet, and a brave gamble which
must have given fans, not to mention the officials at UPN, absolute
hives when they first heard about it! Expectations were high, and the
concept is just begging to be attacked for being a self-indulgent
gimmick to hide a lack of ideas. Yet, because Joss Whedon is
responsible, it's pulled off superbly, and once again you just have to
salute the man's genius. Only the most cynical would dare to suggest
that it wasn't worth it: with wonderfully cheesy opening titles and
plenty of affectionate homages to the genre, it's a treat for all fans
of the show. Performance-wise, Emma Caulfield takes top prize - her
dancing in "I'll Never Tell" is among the episode's highlights -
closely followed by Amber Benson's warmly moving "Under Your
Spell". Honourable mentions go to guest star Hinton Battle; bottom of
the pile is Alyson Hannigan, who specifically asked for no more than
three lines.
This being Buffy, however, the superficially upbeat tone is
subverted by a palpable undertow of melancholia which deepens as the
episode progresses. "Under Your Spell", for instance, with hindsight
comes across as nastily ironic even without its short reprise, and
much of what Buffy sings about is downright scary - especially the
jarring caesurae at the end of "Something to Sing About". Indeed, the
most disturbing moment comes during the latter song when Buffy sings
"and you can sing along" staright to the camera. The episode's finest
achievement is that it's an entirely appropriate vehicle for a trawl
through the characters' deepest anxieties, and as with other audacious
episodes like 4.10 Hush and 4.22 Restless it's a
perfectly natural way to progress the story rather than the
self-indulgent gimmick it could so easily have been in lesser
hands. Indeed, after the downbeat ensemble finale "Where Do We Go From
Here", it's all been really quite draining.
[Postscript: The edited early-evening version shown on the BBC rather
remarkably managed to retain "bloody", "bugger", "penis" and "pissed"
pre-watershed, not to mention the Sapphic antics in "Under Your
Spell".]
6.8 Tabula Rasa (7)
Giles finally departs, and one of the major relationships hits
trouble; Michelle Branch's "Goodbye to You" at the end is an entirely
appropriate soundtrack, and very likely nothing whatsoever to do with
the fact that her debut album was due out around the time. It gives a
very real sense of a chapter coming to a close, much like 4.6 Wild
at Heart, 5.10 Into the Woods or 3.8 Lover's
Walk. The rest of the episode, while quite funny with "Joan the
Vampire Slayer" and its cute self-references, smells in retrospect a
lot like padding, not entirely like 4.9 Something Blue. Which
is a pity, since the idea is good and would work well in another
context. Oh, and it's a loan shark: boom boom.
6.9 6.10 Smashed (7) / Wrecked (8)
Two appropriate titles for a two-parter reminiscent of season three's
3.14 3.15 Bad Girls/Consequences which takes the season
spinning off in a new direction, during which Buffy and Willow waste
little time surrendering to their personal vices. The treatment of all
this on-screen is graphic and at times highly potent - especially
Willow's surreal visions during her fixes - but there are plenty of
flaws, most notably that it's rather rushed and presented with all the
subtlety of the falling sixteen-ton weight, and parts of the dialog
veer towards the over-preachy. And while it's great to have Amy back
at long last it's hard to understand, as with Jonathon and Anya, how
her character could have changed so drastically, and her return is
rather wasted. Still, the point is made: with Giles gone, there's no
parental figure to fall back on.
6.11 Gone (8)
A much lighter episode, albeit with its serious parts, and a different
take on invisibility from 1.11 Invisible Girl, an episode which
is accordingly explicitly referenced a couple of times. It's one of
the very few Buffy episodes which has no vampires, demons or
other supernatural creatures, and while it has its flaws - the Social
Services don't reappear again afterwards - it's nonetheless superbly
directed: invisible people fighting have never looked so convincing,
and it's good to see Buffy having fun again.
[Trivia time: the woman co-worker in the Social Services department is
played by Elin Hampton, the wife of David Fury; they wrote 2.20 Go
Fish together.]
6.12 Double Meat Palace (6)
Season six's first clunker tries to be a satire on the fast-food
industry, but it rambles and the denouement is ultimately
superfluous. Anya's demon friend is an interesting new development,
but Amy's goodbye is a real letdown.
6.13 Dead Things (7)
Season 6 turns noir again, starting with a rather clumsy
Weird Science-esque subplot at the beginning which, thankfully,
manages not to be as nastily sexist as it threatens. It poses some
searching questions about death and mortality, and the time-shifting
demons are a neat idea, but this episode doesn't quite attain the
intensity it aspires to.
6.14 Older and Far Away (8)
Another in the fine tradition of Buffy's Disastrous Birthday
Parties. Like 6.7 One More, With Feeling, the setup - in this
case the party no-one can leave - is really a means towards exploring
the realtionships between the characters. It seems longer than is and
becomes very claustrophobic, eventually leading to much tension and
bickering, but the relief at the end is palpable. The extra characters
could have been given more to do and the requisite demon is
superfluous, but nice touches like
school-counsellor-as-vengeance-demon make up for this. And, with
Dawn's kleptomania finally coming to light, it's a well-crafted look
at personal angst, and one of the best of the season's episodes which
deal with the adult world.
6.15 As You Were (6)
The nadir of the season. The newly-married Riley parachutes in and out
again for one last episode, causing everyone's IQ to drop sharply: why
couldn't Riley have told Buffy he's now married, for example? This,
and some decidedly uncharacteristic stupidity from Buffy and
Spike, aside, the episode is rescued by Riley's wife's interactions
with the regular cast (particualrly Willow); but it's still almost
completely superfluous. Note, too, that the name of the street on the
letter from the college is wrong: it should be Revello Drive,
not Crestview.
[Trivia time: the zip code shown on the address - 95037 - is actually
that of Morgan Hill, which is about 25 miles southeast of
Sunnyvale and more than 300 north of Los Angeles. Oops.]
6.16 Hell's Bells (8)
This season's Special Sixteenth Episode, in which Buffy's
longest-lasting relationship runs aground in a disastrous fashion
prefigured as far back as 6.7 One More, With Feeling. It starts
out amusingly with the juxtaposition of the mundane and supernatural -
witness, for example, the reactions of Xander's parents to Anya's
parade of demonic guests - but ultimately it's a profoundly depressing
portrait of some of the worst aspects of human behaviour. SMG gets a
chance to showcase her juggling skills as things go from bad to worse,
and with Xander's parents on briliantly cringeworthy form and the
demons barely succeeding to maintain their dignity, it's ultimately
hard not to sympathise with either Xander or Anya at the end. Once
again a human rather than demonic explanation for important plot
points might have worked better, but everything that happens is
entirely believable in the context of an episode which, taking place
over an unusually short period of time, manages in fine Buffy
style to be superficially supernatural but actually uncomfortably
realistic. The scene at the end where the heartbroken but defiant Anya
walks alone doen the aisle is pure soap opera, but in this context
it's entirely appropriate and undeniably poignant.
6.17 Normal Again (6)
An interesting new name in the writer's credit: Diego Gutiérrez,
formerly Joss's personal assistant, did the French translations for
4.22 Restless. And it's an interesting idea for a storyline,
playing with the audience's expectations and blurring the distinction
between reality and insanity with occasionally haunting
effectiveness. Unfortunately it never really gets going, with the
first half-hour sagging under the weight of too many eerie minor
chords; and while the climactic ending breaks the tension satisfyingly
it doesn't redeem the rest of a typically downbeat and depressing
episode.
6.18 Entropy (7)
One of the very few episodes which is primarily concerned with
Anya. Emma C handles it all very well, and it's nicely written, but
being heavy on the relationships it at times veers uncomfortably close
to soap-opera; it gets very messy towards the end in a precursor of
the end of the season. The plot's a bit thin, but at least there's a
happy ending, one which no doubt many of the smaller-minded fans had
given up waiting for :-) The BBC didn't cut that, either.
6.19 Seeing Red (8)
At last, having appeared in all but seven of the fifty-three episodes
since her first appearance in 4.10 Hush, Amber Benson gets in
the opening credits - for one episode only. After trading water a bit,
this eventually becomes one of Buffy's nastiest episodes with
some none-too-subtle scenes of attempted rape, psycopathy and
testosterone overload. The fight near the end seems at first, after
some fine setup, to be a rather lame cop-out, but it's actually a
rather clever device to fool the viewer into not expecting the much
more vicious actual ending - an ending which, reputedly due to
problems with Amber Benson's agent, caused many fans to refuse to
watch the show any more.
6.20 Villians (8)
As with 6.19 Seeing Red, this is both a journey into the
darkest parts of human nature and rather obvious setup for the finale,
but it's just as effective. The disintegration of the Scooby Gang -
totally believable in the circumstance - is disturbing by itself; but
the last act, in which Willow fights off several cool special effects
and begins her revenge, is something else entirely. Beginning with the
brief throwback to 3.9 The Wish, it's the first of a series of
chilling performances from Alyson Hannigan, made all the more
effective by her soft tone of voice throughout.
6.21 6.22 Two to Go (9) / Grave (9)
Everything comes together in the first season finale not to have Joss
Whedon's name on the writing credits. Indeed, as Slayer fights Witch
in 6.21 Two to Go, it's the season in minature: the principal
battles are personal and interpersonal, rather than against demons or
vampires, and the friendships at the heart of the show have never been
more at threat. Cast your mind back to 1.1 Welcome to the
Hellmouth and notice just how much Willow has changed, for
example.
There are flaws, of course: the reference to Satanism is unnecessary,
and the regulation end-of-the-world storyline seems to bite off more
than it can chew; but none of this should detract from the best finale
since season two. Despite the epic feel and superb special effects, it
comes down in the end to the very humanity at the show's heart: note,
for instance, how Buffy the Vampire Slayer isn't the hero of her own
show, an honour which this time goes to Xander instead. It's wrapped
up a bit too neatly, and Sarah McLachlan turns up again to sing over
the moving final scenes, but still there's a Spikey twist at
the very end.
The DVDs
Evidence, perhaps, of someone running out of extras. Aside from
commentaries for no less than seven episodes, there are a few short
featurettes, which consist of: karaoke singalongs for three songs from
6.7 Once More, With Feeling; trailers for seasons 1-5 of
Buffy and seasons 1-3 of Angel, some of which look
suspiciously familiar from earlier DVDs; an "outtakes reel" which is
moderately fun but lasts for less than three minutes; and a "Buffy
goes to work" extra which is basically members of cast and crew
talking about their first jobs and their ideal jobs, and is once again
moderately fun but too short.
Once again there's a season overview, which this time focuses on the
characters rather than the episodes; a long and rather backslappy
panel discussion with four members each of the cast and crew; and a
hagiographic "television with bite" review of the show so far. Best of
all, by far, is David Fury's unscripted behind-the-scenes featurette
for 6.7 Once More, With Feeling, which comes closer to being
indispensable than any other extra which isn't a commentary by Joss.
As for the commentaries, they're a disappointing bunch. Only 6.7
Once More, With Feeling, which gets the usual fine treatment from
Joss, is indispensable; by contrast, Marti Noxon and David Fury ramble
over 6.1 6.2 Bargaining, digressing rather too much and too
often to be more than occasionally satisfying. Similarly with Drew
Z. Greenberg's rather nervous and uninspired commentary for 6.9
Smashed, which provides only occasional flashes of interest; while
Rebecca Kirshner and David Solomon between them manage to fill up less
than half of 6.16 Hell's Bells with something so bitty,
surreal, uninformative and at times inaudible that it's odd that it's
called a "commentary" at all. For an awful few minutes it sounds like
first-timers Rick Rosenthal and Diego Gutiérrez will do the same to
6.17 Normal Again; however, despite saying how great it was too
many times, their commentary eventually turns into one which
actually makes the episode seem better than it actually
is. Finally there's David Fury's double-act with James Contner for
6.22 Grave, which is the best of the non-Joss commentaries, but
only adequate otherwise.