Ok, look, I along with most of my other die hard friends absolutely hated Buffy season 7 when it aired on tv. the episodes as individual ones were bad, and sometimes just plain awful. But for some reason, after watchint he whole season 7 in 2 days, I ended up really liking it. Im just wondering if anyone else felt the season played better as a whole, rather than waiting for a week to go by for a new episode. Even when I first watched it, the characters seemed forced and stuff and episodes had no focus, but the grand scheme really worked for me, anyone else feel that way?

I do agree that it plays better without UPN's ridiculously staggered scheduling (4 episodes in 3 months, for instance), but I still think it's pretty awful.

The one thing that Buffy did for me was it gave me a new appreciation for season 5 of Babylon Five. The ending of Buffy was too abrupt - the show needed some cool down time, some wrap up. We just had the whole town destroyed and two main characters die - there really should have been one or two episodes after the end that could have dealt with the aftermath.

Since the end of the Shadow War and the Earth civil war was compressed into season 4, it did leave S5 feeling uneven in places. But warts and all, it gave you those badly needed aftermath episodes. I never appreciated the closure that S5 gave me until I got a show that didn't deliver any.

The ending aside, I thought that it was indeed time to pull the plug. The season had a feeling of "Been there, done that" running throughout. It was good, but it was rapidly approaching the end of its shelf life. They were smart to shut down when they did.

Having seen the whole run, the show really did climax at the end of season 5. From that point, it was all downhill.

I love season 7, but I must qualify that with I still think it's the weakest of all seven seasons. (This shows you how greatly I think of seasons 1-6.)

I know everyone here seemed to hate all the speeches made by Buffy, but I never had a problem with that. She's taking on the role of teacher now and besides when the speeches start in "Showtime", it's only a few episodes later (in "Storyteller") that they start making fun of them.

Some of what didn't work in my opinion (spoilers for the whole season 7 follow)

Still despite those, every episode was very watchable (except maybe 'Him'- but even that mess had a couple funny moments) and while it may have been a disapointment to me compared to the rest of the show, overall it was pretty good (and in one case, 'Selfless', it was a good as the best of best of Buffy).

Wow, 22+ epsiodes in 2 days! Don't think I could watch that much in that short of time. I start getting bored watching 4-5 episodes of a show at once.

Anyways, I thought Season 7 was much better than 6 IMO (1-5 were the best). Much more interesting stories and not as much moping around by the characters. Still think they should have ended the series at Season 5 and left her rotting in her grave.

I had the fortune of missing it for the most part on TV, but thought the season was OK overall. I have all seven seasons on DVD, but I'm beginning to think that seasons 5, 6, and 7 (basically everything with Dawn) might end up on ebay at some point.

Ditto for Angel 3 & 4 with the equally obnoxious and worthless Connor. Season 5 was good though...wonder why that is?

I agree with the Tscott's spoilerized points. I enjoyed the season, but there were a lot of missed opportunities there. They tease at many things that they never follow through with. Caleb was a great villain, one of my favorites in the series. But he deserved more than 4.2 episodes. I didn't hate the idea of the Slayerettes like some did, but they did take up way too much of the season.

In the end, the biggest problem for me was that they built up this villain (the First) as the ultimate Big Bad, but they made him so he couldn't be an actual corporeal enemy for Buffy to fight. In the end, despite the fact she uses her brains to beat enemies on many occasions, she's there to be a fighter. What good is a villain if she can't pummel the crap out of them? For this reason, the series finale was probably my second least favorite season-climax (I would say season-ender, but I'm considering season 4's second-to-last ep as the climax, as it's where she dispatches the Big Bad). But I'm giving the season as a whole a higher grade (right in the middle in my rank of all 7 seasons).

My dream finale would have been if

yeah, i felt as a whole the thing that was aggravating was after season 5 all the suuporting characters started to develop a life and attitude of their own, especially xander in season 7, but then they had to rush everything characterwise because with a lack of time and ideas they had to wrap it.
yeah, i still wish they had a couple episodes after the finale, but ina way it goes with the spirit of the show, I think it allows for a lot of people to build future adventures without having complete closer on the characters. Xander's comments to me signified that thats what he knew he was gettin into when he dated anya,a nd just showed that he wasnt going to turn into some psycho built on venegence and such.

I have the totally opposite opinion -- that the last couple of season vanquished all sense of characterization in the supporting cast, and Xander was completely squandered in season 7, existing to fix windows, drive people around, and really not much of anything else. There were glimmers here and there, but characters who weren't named Buffy or Spike really were given the short end of the stick in season 7.

Well there were alot of ideas abandoned in Season 7...

I don't really get all of the hate thrown at Buffy the Vampire Slayer seasons six and seven, myself.

In my estimation, it had a damned good seven year run that was pretty much consistent in quality. If it did lag a bit in the later seasons, it was like comparing a B+ to an A-.

A lot of the criticisms levelled at it are for things that have always been present. Sure, the First Evil's goals were kind of murky and we never really knew what it was up to. But then again, did the Mayor's ascenscion make a lot of sense? Does an invincibility ritual, eats some spiders from a magic box and turns into a big snake during an eclipse? Or Adam wanting to create an army of cyborg demons? The Glory and The Key stuff from season five was pretty much a rehash of the Angel/Angelus/Acathla storyline from year two.

When you closely scrutinize the mythology of the show, even its "good" seasons, it's full of holes. Nobody seems to bat an eye when apparently dozens of people go missing each week. Kids are constantly disappearing, killing, and being killed, and life goes on like normal. Bodies are disappearing from coffins right before the funerals, with only a little pile of dust left. Why would any of these kids who knew what was going around them like Willow and Xander, go out alone after dark?

All in all, I think season seven was mostly satisfying. Spike was crazy for about a third of the season, and that seemed like enough. Xander didn't have anything to do except fix the windows. That's kind of the point. He's the "normal" person amidst superheroes. Buffy's the Slayer, Willow's a witch. He's the guy they drag along and he gets mortally wounded.

Season seven was the follow-up to the sixth season. Buffy had to rediscover who she was and what it meant to be a Slayer, Willow had to come to terms with her powers (and had become so powerful that she was in danger of becoming a deus ex machina so she's naturally going to have less to do), Xander saved the world with a yellow crayon speech, and that was his moment in the spotlight. Spike had just gotten a soul, so of course he's going to be a big part of the storyline that year.

One interesting thing I've picked up on is that Buffy hadn't actually defeated a "big bad" herself since Adam in season four. They lost the fight with Glory. Xander stopped Dark Willow. Spike destroyed the Hellmouth and stopped the First Evil. Willow activated the Potentials. Could some of the criticism have to do with Buffy herself becoming less pro-active and slipping into a reactive role?

Woah. Some crazy ideas in there. I probably would of disliked the season a great deal if these things had come to pass.

Since I only saw Buffy as it came to DVD I really can't say it was better than the TV experience. I too would sit down and finish a set in about 30 hours straight. I'm that way with all hour long shows I buy on DVD. The last season on Buffy was a speeding car smashing into a brick wall. There was so much tension built up. So many things it seemed like they wanted to do. Then suddenly the credits roll. The trauma Xander dealt with the last few episodes was the worst thing ever to happen in a TV show I like. I was shocked at first and I'm still ticked off about it.

Or did Kennedy just made it seem like they did? She gets so big as a character so quickly - why does she get to boss everyone else around? I just wanted her to shut up!

I don't believe you were being "teased" though. The items that were not followed through (e.g. Joyce's comments to Dawn?) were probably unintentionally dropped when the season had to take a left-ish turn from the original season's planned show down with the "big bad" when SMG told Whedon she was done.

Glory was pretty much unstoppable herself - and she WAS corporeal. So there isn't much difference.

What I'm trying to figure out is when the season's original "big bad" shifted to The First intending to swallow Sunnydale. Does anyone know after what episode Joss & company starting writing to begin closing up shop?

Wow, Tscott, I pretty much agree exactly with all your points. I liked season 7 (actually, I liked every season of Buffy), but less so than other seasons. And some of the reasons I like it less are the ones you mentioned. It seemed like they tried to go too many directions at first, with too much misdirection going on for a while. Who's good, who's bad? But overall I liked it. I definitely think the finale should have been two hours long. 7 years and we get one hour to wrap it all up? Boo!

X

Get out much?

I still found the 7th and 6th season to be a big mess even when watching it without repeats etc. They had their moments but overall it was unfocused, the main characters got short shrift and the ending....was very abrupt!
It's not that the ideas or themes were murky or bad or whatever it's the execution in Seasons 6 and 7 that was lackluster.

22 yr old college student waiting to recieve test scores from state indicating that I can apply for my teaching license, then another 2 week process to get ym college to process stuff for me, then i go to the state to geta provisional license, so hence, no job, 4 new tv on dvd to watch (starting Homicide tonight) and only go to work out 2 hours during the day, and with everyone else in school or working, its been tv on dvd for me!

season 7 wasn't that good in comparison with other seasons,but by comparision to toehr regular tv shows its still up there.

I agree witht he b+/a- idea in that respect as well.

I find that the first three seasons are good as both individual episodes, and as a whole.

The other seasons have some good individual episodes. I still think "as a whole" season 7 is probably better than season 5 or 6 "as a whole" but of course, season 5 had a lot better individual episodes, and a lot better finale (some of the best episodes ever.) Season 6, I think of as garbage all around.

I've also recently rewatched all of Season 6 and 7 of Buffy

I agree they play much better watching in a short time frame.

Dark Willow was just awesome, loved her. There were some great endings in Season 6, my fav being when Tara gets shot and we see Willow screaming out and her eyes turning black.

and of course the infamous "bored now". Marked out huge for that moment

Season 7 was good but i agree there were a lot of missed opportunities. To be fair there were very few 'fluff' episodes like there were in Season 6. Caleb seemed to be an afterthought and could have been better ultilised. Loved Andrew in Season 7 and Spike was very good in Season 7.

I thought 7 the weakest season of all, and if not for Caleb it would have totally sucked...ok, Andrew was cool too...I loved season 6, so for me it was a hard act to follow, even though Sarah "Misery" Geller was really starting to bug me. I believe "her friends" after realising they had pulled her out of heaven in the musical "Once More With Feeling", should have done the decent thing and took her back to the cemetery and returned her to her box.

I love British people!

Although season seven isn't exactly stellar, I think it gets much worse press than it deserves.

I watched mine first of all when it was released on DVD. Although it was vastly inferior to the excellent Angel season four (which I saw at the same time), I still found the episodes gripping enough to continue watching them one after the other.

The main problems for me were that there were too many new people on the show. Perhaps it needed some new faces, but the introduction of all the potentials only served to detract attention away from the characters we had grown to love.

Also, there were way too many loose ends that needed to be tied up, and various unacceptable inconsistencies in the show. ( ) I agree with the person who suggested there should have been a couple of extra final episodes that saw everyone dealing with the aftermath.

And the final moments --

A lot of these could just be rumors/speculation/foilers. The Tara one was confirmed by Joss Whedon at a convention, and even on the commentary, he said he planned on bringing Tara back...



Other "abandoned" plotlines I've heard/read about: