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Post by Clare on Sept 21, 2008 8:03:12 GMT -5
Review and discuss season six here - also include your scores for each of the episodes.
Which episode was your favourite and which was your least favourite? And why?
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Post by Twisted Slayer on Jan 17, 2010 20:30:26 GMT -5
All the episodes of Willow's evil rampage were my favorite. I didn't have a least favorite. Every episode of Buffy ever made is my favorite. There is NO least favorite for me...Well, Beneath Me was actually. That's my only least fave, and the only one I don't like.
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Post by partcynic on Jul 17, 2012 12:32:25 GMT -5
S6 Episode Ratings
3 6x01 Bargaining, Part One
3 6x02 Bargaining, Part Two
3 6x03 After Life
2 6x04 Flooded
2 6x05 Life Serial
1 6x06 All the Way
8 6x07 Once More, With Feeling
7 6x08 Tabula Rasa
2 6x09 Smashed
0 6x10 Wrecked
4 6x11 Gone
1 6x12 Doublemeat Palace
0 6x13 Dead Things
0 6x14 Older and Far Away
3 6x15 As You Were
1 6x16 Hell's Bells
3 6x17 Normal Again
2 6x18 Entropy
3 6x19 Seeing Red
2 6x20 Villains
3 6x21 Two To Go
2 6x22 Grave
Average - 2.50
NB1 - I've dropped "OMWF" and raised "Smashed" a point from my previous reviews. Both were borderline to start with, so the ratings don't mean a major change in opinion - it's simply that I couldn't justify the old rankings anymore. The stupid Xander twist in "OMWF" stops it from being in "Buffy"'s penthouse suite, and though "Smashed" is poor, I can watch it far more easily than any of the eps I've placed at '1'. Either way, the season average is unchanged.
NB2 - Though I think the Dark Willow stuff is unimpressive, it's one of the better aspects of the year. The individual eps are much too flawed for me to give them higher scores, but if you asked me to just rate the story, I'd give it a '4' - it's certainly more than the sum of its parts.
Overview
The first poor season of "Buffy", S6 is unique in being the best of the worst. Unlike "Buffy" S7 (or "Angel" S3/S4), the year had a clearly planned arc that attempted to convey a meaningful theme about adulthood and responsibility, and did so via what could have been legitimate character progressions.
Unfortunately, the dawn of S6 saw the show in a dangerous place. S5 had brought in a shift to soap opera storytelling (diminishing the concept of the episode as its own, unique entity), and the writers were showing signs of burnout, with the hole-filled Key/Glory arc being a blatant 'chuck it all in the pot' bid before creative exhaustion. Combine these pre-existing conditions with a network change, the loss of Joss Whedon as a day-to-day presence, and executive control being given to Marti Noxon (who had written excellent episodes in her time, but also tended towards humourless melodrama), and it's no surprise that S6 turned out as disappointingly as it did.
The year's two biggest problems are its poor plotting and pacing. Whereas previous seasons typically featured 14 or 15 single-episode stories and a longer arc, S6 primarily had three simplistic plots (Buffy's depression/Spuffy; Willow's addiction; the wedding), all of which were minor variations on one theme (if you refuse to accept responsibility and face your demons, they will eventually consume you). Each of these three plots ran - in some way, shape or form - for the entire season, but none of them had enough content to justify their running times. Consequently, each arc moved at a crawl, constantly repeating its core points. And because every Willow scene was about her addiction, and every Xander/Anya scene was about the wedding, the characters became flatter, and the show dumbed down, with no sense of unpredictability or spontaneity.
Another big issue was how heavy the season was on talk. In fact, characters stopped to express their deepest emotions more than ever before, and it's easy to understand how certain segments of the audience might find this commendable. Unfortunately for the rest of us, the non-stop angry/sad emoting was never used to say or progress anything, so it ended up being interminably dull, empty yapping - or in Principal Snyder's words, "airborne toxic event(s)".
The perfect example of S6's problems is Willow's addiction. 'Magic = drugs' was a poor metaphor to start with, but no worse than caveman beer or an internet predator demon. However, the concepts in "Beer Bad" and "I, Robot... You, Jane" were shown for one episode and then dropped, whereas the drug metaphor kept going and going, long after even the densest viewer would have gotten it. Even worse, it was played as a cliche - Willow dabbled with magic, got hooked, pushed away her friends and insisted she didn't have a problem, fell in with the wrong crowd, got introduced to a pusher, came to her senses after endangering an innocent child, went cold turkey, went through withdrawal, had people try to get her back on magic, went to a sobriety support group - the list goes on. It took until "Hell's Bells" for Willow to get any material that wasn't addiction-related - but by that point, she'd lost much of her former depth and interest. Saddest of all, the addiction was unnecessary - she'd have lashed out magically when Tara was murdered regardless of whether she was an addict or not (see "Tough Love"), and that coupled with the abrupt dismissal of the plot early in S7 renders the entire arc (and thus about a third of S6) pointless filler.
Similar analyses can be applied to the other two arcs. Xander and Anya spent 15 episodes engaging in empty chit-chat about wedding plans, until Xander abandoned Anya at the altar (another cliche) for no clear reason. Neither character was examined in any kind of depth, and the payoff for the destruction of a three-year relationship was a weak S7 episode about Anya's past that was promptly forgotten about. Likewise, post-resurrection Buffy was revealed to have been in Heaven; but all the character did afterwards was mope and participate in over-the-top sex scenes with Spike. It took 17 episodes for for the viewer to be given any kind of insight into her mental state, but it was too little too late, and like Willow and Xander, she'd become a hollow, one-dimensional shell of her former self.
There's more that can be said of the year's problems (Dawn's constant whining and her stupid thieving plot; the repetitive, unfunny jokes with the Trio and their unbelievable comic book gadgets), but this is just an overview, and I've already gone into detail on the specific episode threads. I'll instead conclude by saying that "Once More, With Feeling" was excellent, and I also consider "Tabula Rasa", "Gone" and "Normal Again" worthwhile offerings. Faint praise, but having some decent eps is better than having none.
S6 Awards
Best Episode - "Once More, With Feeling". As if there's any competition.
Worst Episode - This is the first time we've had multiple legitimate candidates for this crown. It's tough to choose, but I'll do what's expected of me, and give the award to "Wrecked".
Best Writer - Even reliable writers like Jane Espenson were off their game this year, so this title is a free-for-all. Joss wrote the best ep, so I guess he wins here, despite only contributing a single offering.
Most Valuable Player - From the regulars, James Marsters. That said, Amber Benson really came into her own this season, stepping up nicely when given material that showed Tara as something besides Willow's girlfriend.
Best Scene - Willow torturing and killing Warren in "Villains". Well-written, nicely gory and the only part of the season that was genuinely dark.
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Post by cyclica on Jul 23, 2012 15:37:41 GMT -5
Here's my ratings for S6. Even though the ratings are from a few years ago, and I haven't watched the show in a while, they still pretty much reflect how I feel about the episodes, going from memory anyway. 6x01 Bargaining, Part One - 5 6x02 Bargaining, Part Two – low 4 6x03 After Life – low 4 6x04 Flooded - 5 6x05 Life Serial - 6 6x06 All the Way - 3 6x07 Once More, With Feeling - 7 6x08 Tabula Rasa – low 5 6x09 Smashed – low 3 6x10 Wrecked – low 2 6x11 Gone - 4 6x12 Doublemeat Palace – high 3 6x13 Dead Things - 4 6x14 Older and Far Away – high 3 6x15 As You Were - 2 6x16 Hell's Bells - 3 6x17 Normal Again – low 5 6x18 Entropy - 6 6x19 Seeing Red - 3 6x20 Villains – high 4 6x21 Two To Go - 4 6x22 Grave – low 4 Average - about 4 S6 AwardsBest Episode - Once More, With Feeling. Though it gets high(ish) makrs more for being well made than for being enjoyable. Worst Episode - It's tough, but I'd have to say As You Were. Wrecked got the same score, but that ep did at the very least keep with the 'flow' of the season. Best Writer - Joss, for the reason you gave. Though I don't know much about who wrote what anyway. Most Valuable Player - Tara and Anya. Even though I didn't like their storylines, they were still fine to watch whenever they were onscreen, and they were the only characters I ever felt bad for. Best Scene - The 'watcher vs witch' scene from Flooded. Scary! New awards!  Worst Scene – Willow and amy messing with people in the bronze in Smashed. I don’t care if they were high, neither one of them would ever act like that, and the victim’s reactions are so unrealistic, it makes the scene unwatchable. Funniest Scene – Buffy on the phone to jonathan in gone. “I’m no one. No one you know”. Best Arc- Strangely enough, the willow/drugs arc. I didn’t much enjoy watching it, it dragged on, and it took the characters in a direction I didn’t like, but it was at least made with some effort to make it engaging and make sense, and the character’s reactions (aside from a few scenes) made sense too. And the dark willow story in the last few eps were a ‘rush’, and made for a better ending than any of the other arcs. The buffy arc was a close second, I found the idea of someone dealing with being torn from Heaven to be interesting (even if her moping became annoying). But it was ruined when spike started leeching off buffy’s arc, and I couldn’t stand any scene he was in. The nerds-turn-on-each-other arc wasn’t too bad either, though warren’s picking on jonathan became painful to watch. But their story just sort of faded away in the final few eps, and after warren was killed, jonathan and Andrew were just there. Worst Arc – Probably the wedding arc. It was just such a big nothing, there was zero tension or reason to be interested up until Hells Bells, 16 episodes in. The dawn kleptomaniac arc was a big nothing too, but at least it never infuriated me the way xander dumping anya did. Biggest missed opportunity- No team up between dark willow and demon anya. They both wanted vengeance, it would have been natural for them to team up, and tear the Scooby gang in half. I'm afraid I don't have much else to say about s6 that's springing to mind right now. I'll try soon to do the years I've missed so far. ... I'm curious partcynic, why did you miss out on the s5 post? |
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Post by partcynic on Jul 25, 2012 16:37:26 GMT -5
No real reason - I just forgot. I wrote this one after finishing rewatching S6 and having everything fresh in my mind, and will do the same for S7 if I can stomach it.
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Post by cyclica on Jul 28, 2012 16:26:16 GMT -5
Forgive me for not having much to say on your lengthy overview, I agree on much of what you've said, and I hope I've already made my thoughts clear in other posts. Willow, Xander, Anya and Spike did almost nothing outside of their designated arcs, and that killed any sense of unpredictability or spontaneity. That was one of the big problems for me. 'On paper' it doesn't sound like a big problem, but it makes the difference between having fun with an episode and enduring it. In the past bad episodes always had a little leveity with the characters making jokes or at least providing the occasional enjoyable scene outside of the plot. But when everything everyone does is plot-related, if you don't enjoy the plot, there's nothing for you to enjoy. Xander and anya in particular were guilty of this. As comic relief characters (sort of), they could usually be relied upon to provide a little humour into someone elses' plot. Having them mostly talk to each other about something uninteresting for much of the year was a bad move, and it's sad when you consider how easily they could have been a more active part in the other character's stories, even if they would have had nothing to do but give willow/buffy someone to talk to. Saddest of all, the addiction was completely unnecessary - she'd have lashed out magically when Tara was murdered regardless of whether she was an addict or not That's true, although to be fair both the addiction and the reaction to tara's death, stem from the same place. She had become a person who would get addicted to magic, and she had become a person who would turn 'dark' and lash out upon losing the only person she feels close to. If the addiction story had been cut out, she still would have become dark willow after tara's death, but then, what would she have been doing in the episodes before that? I think the addiction story was poorly handled and dragged on too long, but it could have worked as maybe a 2 or 3 parter (not neccesserily all parts in a row, spread them out with another story, maybe a willow-tries-and-fails-to-connect-with-buffy story) . Most Valuable Player - From the regulars, James Marsters. Do you mean he was the best actor of the season? Because I wouldn't have called spike 'valuable'. |
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Post by partcynic on Jul 28, 2012 17:43:39 GMT -5
No problem.  After all, it's not lke we haven't chatted about this multiple times before. I was actually hesitant about writing the overview because of the potential for repetition - there are only so many ways I can make the same argument without boring everyone, including myself. Bingo. The great thing about the first four seasons was that if you didn't like a given episode, you had a 95% chance that the next one would provide something new and different. In S6, that went away - so if you didn't like a given arc, you ended up having to write off a third of the year. Easy - give her the story the first five seasons were clearly leading up to, about Willow abusing her power as a function of her low self-esteem and difficulty dealing with conflict, and harming people in the name of good. That could have easily provided Dark Willow, and it wouldn't require killing Tara and the invocation of "Buffy"/"Angel"'s 'no couple can be happy' cliche. Honestly, the addiction only exists because the writers were too chicken to really go to a dark place with Willow - it was much easier to make her a victim and excuse her mind-rape of Tara and murder of Warren by stating that she was just a junkie 'under the influence'. I could see that working. Though I'd prefer the specific drug analogy pop up for one ep and then be dropped - they could point out how Willow's magic use might be similar to an addict's use of drugs without having magic be a blatant substitute for crack. Yes - most valuable player refers to the actor, regardless of what I thought of the writing for their character that year. |
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Post by GabrielGLYNC on Oct 20, 2020 4:35:38 GMT -5
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After all, it's not lke we haven't chatted about this multiple times before. I was actually hesitant about writing the overview because of the potential for repetition - there are only so many ways I can make the same argument without boring everyone, including myself.