Buffy the Vampire Slayer season 6. Finished this the other day. It's still my least favourite season - in fact I skipped it on last run - but I enjoyed it well enough this time. It has a number of issues. While most Buffy seasons start slow and then slowly but surely build up, season 6 - because of the way 5 ended - kicks off like a bat out of hell but then drops like a stone and has to start again after episode 3, and 4-6 seem incredibly inconsequential as a result. This makes the season arc a victim of its own cleverness, as it's far from clear where this is going and the only new villains - the Nerd Trio - initially seem as threatening as a paper bag. The depressing nature of some of the arcs, particularly Buffy's post-resurrection depression and Willow's increasing magic dependency, likewise doesn't help. And while I quite enjoy Spike's unrequited obsession with Buffy in season 5, and the more emotional but still platonic bond they share after Spike is re-ensouled in season 7, here their relationship is just kind of disgusting and disturbing. But it's not all bad news. There are some really good episodes. The opening 3 episodes are terrific, as stated, and there are some very entertaining more-or-less standalones like
Tabula Rasa, the darkly comic
Doublemeat Palace,
Older and Far Away and the chillingly executed
Normal Again (the one where Buffy thinks she's a mental patient in an asylum, with her whole life as the Slayer nothing but a delusion). And the final four episodes are as good as almost any other finale, as the disparate strands of the season come together and Tara's death sends Willow on a magical bender of murderously vengeful and increasingly apocalyptic proportions. This is all terrific stuff, and as dark, frightening and upsetting as the show gets. I'll take a moment here to mention Nicholas Brendon, who's perpetually underrated as Xander but is a total standout here. Everyone raves about Alyson Hannigan as the utterly out of control Willow - and they should, cause she's great - but poor Xander just looks in a state of complete and total shock and horrified disbelief as one of his friends is murdered, another is gunned down in front of him and his best friend since childhood completely loses her mind. And, of course, he finally gets to be the one to save the day, with his willingness and insistance that if Willow's going to destroy the world she should start with him being the thing that finally reawakens her humanity.
So... season 6. It's a difficult season at times, but it's still pretty good.
