Buffy season 7

[sps1000]

I just finished watching Season 7 of Buffy and I must say I still think this is the worst season of Buffy. There were a really only a couple of good episodes IMO. The one where the girls fall in love with that RJ kid because of his jacket stands out but most of the episodes stand out as mediocre to flat out bad. What does everybody else think?

[dvdavenport]

I'm in the midst of it right now, (which means, of course that I'll likely avoid this thread like the plague until I'm done...) and I've got to say that I do not understand all the anti-S7 commentary I hear out there. We're on episode nine or ten and I'd say that the characterization is pretty solid. The comedy is still there, as is the action. The last couple of eps have ended in little bitty cliffhangers...which I can dig. I dunno. Not as bad as people are making it out to be. But that said, I'm only half way through...more or less.

[eric3000]

I went through the whole thing earlier this year and I gotta say, I think you're wrong SPS.

Ok, sure buffy does her speech thing a lot, but they even make fun of that. Is it as good as the Angel finale? No. But it's fun. It's a fun season and it reminds me more of old school Buffy which I like.

[sps1000]

I know this will sound odd but since I started watching Buffy during season 4 I grew accustomed to the dark stuff before I saw seasons 1-3. I know 4 is largely considered the worst season but I enjoyed it being a newbie to the Buffy universe at the time. The speeches didn't bug me it's just that the first was at least mentioned or played a part in almost episode. In the earlier seasons there would be episodes that strayed away from the main plot, and not even give a mention to the main plot, Season 7 didn't seem to have that. Yes he was the first Evil and he was certainly Evil but he never seemed to have a well developed plan.

Don't get me wrong I love the lighthearted stuff in fact some of my favorite episodes were more lighthearted, but season 7 didn't feel right compared to season 6 (bash it all you want but it felt right).

[Elliot Kane]

S7 is middle range, to me. Certainly not the best, but not the worst, either. Mediocre.

[dominiccarr]

I liked Season 7, not the best season but not the worst ie. season 4.
Hmmm, on the score of 'Chosen' and 'not fade away' i would have to say i loved 'Chosen' More. It was just such an amazing episode IMO, not taht 'not fade away wasn't, it was.

[Gray Lensman]

Now that I've finally seen Season 7, I'll chime in on this...

It's a decent season, overall. Not that great, but not terrible either. I think it suffers because so many of the earlier seasons were better. (Not to mention Angel Season 5, which was an outstanding sendoff for a series.)

I have to admit, my main problems are cast related. I didn't like the Potentials much, and I'm not a great fan of Andrew. Probably the best cast move was bringing back Faith, who I honestly wish had been there from the start. Faith brought a level of conflict to the group that was missing for most of S7.

Still, there were some episodes I rather liked. "Selfless" and "Conversations With Dead People" are probably my high points. After that, I most enjoyed the Dawn-focused episodes. Dawn developed really well in S7, and she got some great moments towards the end.

All in all, a fun season with some good moments. They ended at the right time.

[dvdavenport]

I liked season 7, to be honest. I thought that it was a great end to the greater arc, but still left things open to further exploration. I found that a lot of people hated the "dispersing the Slayer power" bit at the end of the season, but honestly, I looked at that as the ultimate in "girl power" revolution. I mean Buffy's (the series) been about bucking the system established by a patriarchal society for the entire run of the series. I mean, hell, the concept itself (the little blonde girl in horror movies fights back) was bucking the trend. I find that awakening all the potentials was a fantastic "eff you" to the men who forced the Slayer code upon the very first Slayer, and perpetuated that mythos to the present day...I found that brilliant, to be honest.

And I do see it as "awakening" the other potentials, not spreading the wealth.

An interesting by-product of this is that some potentials, who may have lived beyond the normal Slayer age, may have been awakened when Willow unleashed her mojo.

I'd like to see them explore that further in the books that come later.

Anyway, my two cents.

Although, I did hate--HATE--Kennedy.

[Elliot Kane]

I didn't think there was enough of Kennedy to hate, beyond the stupid name... She was a step up from Tara though, which is admittedly not hard.

I think it's time for the torch to be passed to Faith though, I have to say. Buffy as a series really ran about as long as it could, overall. Faith could easily take off in a new direction with a new supporting cast, and I think the franchise needs that.

[Gray Lensman]

I'll definitely agree on Kennedy. She pretty much had "token love interest" written all over her. Whedon said in the commentary of the final episode that Kennedy was in there so one of the Scoobs could end with a happy relationship. While I do understand the sentiment, the relationship never made much sense to me.

None of the Potentials worked for me as characters. They were either irritating or lacked personality. I found Rona especially annoying. On the other hand, I did find the Chao-Ahn scenes hilarious.

All said, though, I liked S7 well enough. Granted, there are some points of contrivance, such as the ubervamps being conveniently powered down at the end. Overall, though, I think S7 would have come across better if we hadn't seen so much better from this show.

[Gray Lensman]

As for a new show... Faith is probably the best bet, I'd agree. She came across really well in the final episodes. I also wouldn't mind seeing Spike show up somewhere, either with Faith or on his own.

[Elliot Kane]

'Conveniently depowered' is putting it mildly. The last episode is absurd to the point of farce, and a definite disappointment, despite some good moments. What made it even worse, of course, was the ending of Angel 5, which is the best series ending I've ever seen of anything.

The best that can be said of the ending of Buffy 7 is that it was nowhere near as bad as the ending of Buffy 4 - though as that was the all-time worst episode of Buffy ever, I guess it's not hard to beat...

[Gray Lensman]

I think Joss burned out on Buffy by the time he got to the series finale, honestly. It shows in the writing, and comes across even in the commentary.

Angel Season 5 is how a series should end. It really felt like a Western towards the end, with the heroes making their last stand in a shootout they might not win. Angel 5 also had probably the best cast of any Buffyverse season ever by the end.

As for Buffy 4... it was so wretched that I pretty much stopped watching halfway through or so. Aside from Hush, there really isn't much redeeming to it. Thankfully, Season 5 was much better.

[Elliot Kane]

Hush and a couple of Faith episodes, but yes. S4 was the utter nadir for Buffy without a doubt. Not least because there was no conflict catalyst among the cast. Team stories always suck without a bit of internal squabbling.

[Gray Lensman]

True. It took Spike's development in S5 to turn things around.

I think S7 suffered from the same problem (at least within the core cast) until Faith showed up. Spike had mellowed out too much, especially when it came to his relationship with Buffy. Moving over to Angel was far better for him., because he got his fangs back there. He had that great rivalry with Angel, and mixed it up well with the others too.

I wish Faith had been a regular for Season 7, honestly. She livened things up really well by the end.

[Elliot Kane]

Yeah, I agree. There was too much time wasting in Buffy 7, as well. None of the potentials were even vaguely interesting. It was pretty obvious that the idea was just to chuck in a bunch of girls to give Buffy an army.

The best parts were the evil priest guy, who should have been the Big Bad as he was actually interesting and Melaka Fray's axe, which is one cool tool

[Gray Lensman]

Caleb was far more interesting than the First. I'd have liked to see Xander get back at him, but it never happened. Caleb hurt the Scoobs more in one episode than the First did all season.

And yeah, I loved seeing Fray's axe on screen. I still think Eliza Dushku would be a great Fray.

S7 suffered from lot of useless characters shoved in, and a lot of missed opportunities with the useful characters they did have. There were hints of interesting possibilities that never materialized. I liked that Dawn hated Faith on first sight. I loved the Faith/Spike dynamic. There was still a lot left unresolved for Anya after "Selfless", especially with D'Hoffryn trying to have her killed. Dawn and her little Scooby Gang that we saw in the first episode. All of those could have led into some good stories, and would certainly have been more interesting than the Potentials. Yet we never saw any of that.

Perhaps "Potential" does sum up the whole season. As in, the lack of unfulfilled...

[Elliot Kane]

Heh. Good call on all counts there, Steve, yes...

I'd also have liked to see Dawn actually develop her OWN potential. She is 'The Key' after all, and not really human at all. They created her with this great concept, but then did nothing with her. A definite wasted opportunity, and one that could have led to a Dawn spinoff series if handled well.

As things stand, that possibility died because she was never shown as anything special.

[Gray Lensman]

Actually... is there any reason Dawn couldn't have closed the Hellmouth herself? As the Key, no reason she couldn't close portals as well as open them. That might actually have been a better closing statement than the finale we got.

Dawn as her own character definitely has a lot of possibility. The whole Key concept got lost after Season 5. She grew as Buffy's sister, but not really into her full significance. But ultimately, we didn't get any of that.

Well... darn. If I didn't have enough to write already, Buffy fanfic would almost tempt me. ;D

[Elliot Kane]

Heh. I'll stick with Elsa. A far easier adoption