No, don't skip it -- you'd miss some real highlights (Hush, New Moon Rising, Something Blue, Who Am I, The I in Team, Restless to name a few). It was an odd season, one where the standalone eps were better than the story arc. The biggest problem was that it was essentially a reboot season -- the show had to be redefined because the gang was no longer in high school and Angel and Cordelia were gone. And it did pale in comparison to seasons 2 and 3 (a couple of very hard acts to follow). Overall, though, still some damn fine entertainment.

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The show was just finding it's footing in season 1, but hit the ground running in season 2 and peaked in season 3. I really liked season 4, but it was clearly a step down from seasons 2 & 3. Season 5 was very good, but season 6 saw Joss deconstructing the show and the characters (especially Buffy). Season 7 had some really good episodes early on, but too many episodes with too many long, "more of the same" speeches from Buffy just ruined it. A lot of the episodes in seaon 7 were really dull (as someone mentioned before).

All in all Buffy was one of the best shows ever on TV, but it was definitely uneven.

I didn't dislike it as much as many. It has its moments, like the cave slayer (which, when you think about, is a little bit of foreshadowing) and Will telling off Parker.

Let me start by saying I liked Riley.

My favorite season is Season 2.
Least favorite is Season 6 (except for the musical)

This is true. Although Buffy never had a season as great as Season 2 or 3 again, it did have plenty of damn fine episodes thoughout the series 7 year run. All seasons of Buffy are worth watching even if the main story arc aren't up to their usual standards. Bad Buffy is still a lot better than the majority of shit on tv right now.

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On a side note, does anyone have the song "Early One Morning" that was Spike's trigger in "Lies My Parents Told Me" from season 7?

I thought I would bring this thread back because I can't find that song.

1. Season 2
2. Season 5
3. Season 3
4. Season 6 (musical episode-hello!!)
5. Season 4
6. Season 1
7. Season 7- Blah blah blah-why me? poor xander's character!

Joss was busy doing Firefly, Angel and BUffy during it's 7th year, so Buffy suffered I say in its last season because of that.


Buffy great show, but consistency I say was off and on after season three.

Angel on the otherhand for it's 5 seasons, was enticing all the way and ended stronger, leaving you wanting more, where as Buffy, you felt fufilled really by the time it ended.


but great shows, together, produce a awesome slayerverse as they say, and Joss Wheadon's input into the shows, make them highly addictive viewing always. It's pretty sad there's no more of as it stands, but it's making everyone watch repeats and buy the dvds and appreciate it alot more.

And the 6th season as well. I think he came up with the themes and the writing and direction of the show was done by someone else.

I too liked Beer Bad. the only to episodes I ever had gripes about were S7's "The First Date" Why?
-didn't like Buffy talking about and dating Principal Wood
-didn't like Ashanti
-everything felt forced. Hello? The Apocalypse and their dating?

and "HIM" Why?
-i dislike any ep. that features Dawn excessively.
-it was done before with Xander in S2.

Here's my favorite seasons:
2-3-5-4-6-1-7.

Although this is the best show ever. Next to Angel, which each season was getting better and better, kinda like the Patriots.

I rewatched season 7 and my opinions on it have softened a little. I still think it's pretty flawed, but it has redeeming moments. "Selfless" and "Conversations with Dead People" are probably two of the best episodes of the bunch -- not surprisingly, they're before the oppressive, monotonous tone of the later episodes. It's easier now to see the theme they were going for ("Buffy as leader/Buffy is alone"), but the fact is that these were themes that Buffy had dealt with for six years prior to this season and it really didn't bring anything new to the table. Besides that, the writers painted the group into a corner that they couldn't possibly get out of without the Get Out of Jail Free Scythe and the Magic Amulet of Happy Endings.

I think watching Buffy 7 AFTER Angel Season 5 really helps. I don't know why, but I appreciate Season 7 much more after finishing Angel.

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The only reason season 6 is where it is is because, while it di have a few of what I thought were buffy's best episodes, it also had some of the worst. Watching these on DVD are much easier than on air though, because after a bad magic episode, I don't have to wait a week for another episode...
Seasons 2 and 3 were excellent.

Well, Joss was only busy with Firefly for the first half of Season 7, after that FOX cancelled it. That's why some Firefly regulars showed up near the end of both Buffy and Angel those seasons.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS

To be fair, the writing and directing of Buffy for the most part was always handled by someone else. Joss always wrote and directed a few episodes himself, but it wasn't a one man show. His role was always more of a supervisory position. Granted, over the seasons his supervision probably became less hands-on than he was over the first few seasons. However, he was still there giving input. For example, I remember reading an interview with one of the writers where they said that Joss came into a story meeting a completely changed the direction of the story for the episode where Faith returns in S7.

I'm not sure it's fair to say that any failings in Season 7 was just because Joss was distracted. Part of the problem was that the show was just running out of steam. It's very hard to keep a show fresh and interesting year after year. Season 6 tried to shake things up a bit, and met with some severe fan disapproval. No show can go on forever.

Another problem was the season arcs. Sure, they were one of the show's strengths, and in the first few seasons it was refreshing to see a show that actually carried an arc over the course of a season. However, later, they became too constricting. Most of the character arcs didn't fit into the season timeline, which left mainly the villan arcs to be resolved by the end of the year. It basically became too predictable, with each year people speculating on who the new "Big Bad" would be, and how it would be dispatched by the end of the season. We knew the Big Bad wouldn't be offed mid season, or that the pit of trouble the writers drove the heroes into would last past the season finale.

And the villans. Each year the Big Bad had to be Bigger and Badder than the last. For the most part the writers were successful with this task up through the 3rd season. However, after that, even though they said the villans were worse than anything else Buffy had ever encountered, they never really seemed worse, or harder to defeat. At least in S1 and S2 the villans tried multiple ways of destroying Buffy/the world, while in S3 they gave a good reason for the Mayor to wait until the end before striking. For the other seasons, the Big Bad would show up a few episodes in, and then effectively twiddle their thumbs until the end of the season. With S6 they did a clever inversion of the expected villan by making the Big Bad for most of the season a group of nerds who weren't big or bad at all. However, S7 had the First Evil, the Ultimate Big Bad who eliminated the Watchers and most of the potential Slayers, whose initial plan was to go to the Hell Mouth full of thosands of Ubervamps and release.... one Ubervamp? And then it goes and licks its wounded pride for a few eps? It was pathetic.

Finally, one last comment about the arcs. For S7, they new it was the last season, so they had to quick scamper and make sure all these various plotlines were for the most part resolved by the end. So the episodes end up feeling rushed, cramming as much plot in, which loses a lot of the quieter character moments, or even stand-alone episodes, that made the show so great in the first place.

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Rewatching season 7, I was constantly saying "well, this writer is new". I think took the best writers to Firefly and left them at Angel. I think some of the writers didn't really know what to do with some characters or situations. I personally felt Anya should've died or left for ever on "Selfless"; so was a tad pointless till "Chosen".
SPOILERS
The fact that they ALL turned on Buffy in "Empty Places" is a tad rediculous. Maybe Wood, Faith, and the Potentials, but not the original Scoobies.
To Dawn bash, is too easy, but in S5 and 6 she was interesting and had good stories to be in, but her character was pointless in S7 and somewhat annoying. Maybe something about her being the key should been incorporated in somehow.
Also, I love Faith and Eliza, but even she now in hindsight, was ho-hum in S7. Boning Wood, and "G" that and "B" this was a tad too much.

But Selfless, Sleeper, Storyteller, Lies my parents told me, and Chosen were big highlights. If I had to Grade season 7 amongst other TV at that time, "B". But too compare it to other Buffy Seasons, "B-", is more like it. Defiantely, was a great time to go out and a good way, it just lost some steam mid-way (I would have loved to see the two second fight b/w buf vs. Kennedy-she got away with a lot of trash talking. And her love affair with Will was too rushed after the emotional letdown of Tara's death).