Product Description

Various.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2688 in DVD
• Brand: GELLAR,SARAH MICHEL
• Released on: 2006-05-30
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Dimensions: .70 pounds
• Running time: 990 minutes

Customer Reviews

BUFFY's most controversial and uneven season
Note: Insert standard spoiler warning of your choice here!

Season Six of BUFFY is the show's most controversial by far. Sarah Michelle Gellar has stated that she found the mid-season episodes between her and Spike to be degrading and unpleasant and many fans would agree with her. This was the season that Joss Whedon left the show as the day-to-day show runner and turned over the reins to Marti Noxon, though he nonetheless remained deeply involved with the show, supervising the story arcs and individual episodes, as well as writing and directing several episodes.

There is no question that Season Six contained some very memorable moments. There is also little question that the season had some weak episodes--especially at around the two-thirds mark--as well as some not-very-popular story arcs. The least popular aspects of the show was the self-destructive tendencies and actions of all the major characters and the lameness of the show's "big bads," the geek threesome known as The Trio. But in fact, the Big Bad of Season Six is each individual against him or herself. Buffy, struggling with her inadvertent removal from heaven by Willow, suffers economic difficulties, eventually taking a fast food job, eventually numbing herself with a demeaning sexual relationship with Spike. Willow becomes more and more addicted to using magic, to the point that it first threatens to destroy her relationships and eventually the world. Xander, fearful that his impending marriage to Anya cold lead to the same kind of family that he grew up in, leaves Anya a the altar. Anya, crushed by being deserted by Xander, reverts to being a vengeance demon. Dawn's kleptomania gets out of control until the others discover her problem. Giles makes an error by going back to England, imagining that Buffy needs to learn to live on her own. Only Tara does not engage in self-destructive behavior, but her accidental killing spurs Willow's killing spree at the end of the season. The season's motto could be: We have met the enemy and he is us.

There are titular villains. Warren, the robot-constructing geek from Season Five's "I Was Made to Love You," Jonathan, the geek who first appeared in the BUFFY pilot (he was considered for the role of Xander before Nicholas Brendon got the job), and Andrew, whose brother was involved in a flying monkey incident no one seems to remember, team up to take over Sunnydale. They are uber dorks, obsessed with the whole panoply of comic book culture and Star War action figures. Though them manage to pull off some stunts, apart from Warren's accidental killing of both his ex-girlfriend and Willow, they are a pretty silly lot. They are more like perpetual comic relief. BUFFY was always trying to do new things and I applaud them for doing so (the effort to always be fresh was one of the reasons it was such a great show), but I think it is safe to say that having them as the Big Bads was a bit of a mistake. In the end, their greatest contribution was in providing victims for Willow's rampage at season's end. Indeed, the single most horrifying moment in the history of the show had to be the terrible instance in which Willow, after catching and briefly torturing Warren for killing Tara, magically removes his entire epidermis. Not just on BUFFY, apart from some moments in THE SOPRANOS, I know no more terrible instance in the history of TV. Clearly they wanted to demonstrate just how far Willow had gone.

Although the season's story arcs were not especially satisfying, there were a number of unforgettable episodes. The season begins with a great sequence of episodes, as Willow with the assistance of Tara, Xander, and Anya raise Buffy, who had died a mystical death at the end of Season Five, from the dead. Their fear, based largely on Angel's being sent to a hell dimension at the end of Season Two, was that Buffy was suffering unspeakable torture in a different hell dimension. But we later learn that she was, in fact, in a place of great peace and repose, a place she could only describe as "heaven." The first six episodes see Buffy struggling to deal with her return to a place that now felt like hell. All these early episodes, even if not strong all the way through, contain at least some great moments.

Then come Episodes 7 and 8, not just the best episodes of the season, but among the best in the run of the show. "Once More, with Feeling" is often cited as the very best episode of BUFFY, and to those who wish the show had ended at the end of Season Five, my response is always, "Would you really have wanted for there never to have been "Once More, With Feeling?" This was the musical episode and while many shows have attempted musical episodes, this one stands far above what any other show has either attempted or achieved. What is amazing is how fine the episode was despite not having a world of musical talent on the show. Only Anthony Stewart Head (who had taken over the lead in THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW in London in the original production and sung on albums by his brother Murray, the original Judas in JESUS CHRIST, SUPERSTAR), James Marsters (who headed his own rock band), and Amber Benson (who played Tara) had especially good voices. Though not a trained singer, Sarah Michelle Gellar nonetheless acquitted herself quite well both singing and dancing, and Michelle Trachtenberg, though not a singer, put her dance training to good use. Joss Whedon contributed a very fine group of songs. In one of the best guest appearances in the run of the show, veteran Broadway hoofer Hinton Battle (perhaps best known as the Scarecrow in the entire run of THE WIZ on Broadway) played the demon Sweet, who was accidentally summoned to Sunnydale, and who was responsible for the singing and dancing afflicting everyone. The most amazing thing about the episode was the way that the songs advanced every story arc in the show and greatly accelerated the action. The best songs were Buffy's Disneyesque "Going Through the Motions" that started the episode; Tara's singing of "Under Your Spell" to Willow (ironic in that she learned she was literally being controlled by Willow through magic); Spike's passionate expression of his love/hate for Buffy in "Rest in Peace"; the wonderful duet between Tara and Giles; and the great production number that preceded the battle-that-never-occurred with Sweet, "Walk Through the Fire." Not should also be made of Anya's great bit in an early group number in which the Scoobies are trying to figure out why everyone is singing and dancing. After singing that she has a theory that it "must be bunnies," the group very ignores her only to have her scream in a great hard rock voice:

Bunnies aren't just cute like everybody supposed
They got them hoppy legs and twitchy little noses
And what's with all the carrots?
What do they need such good eyesight for anyway?
Bunnies! Bunnies! It must be bunnies!

The popularity of the episode can be seen in the fact that it is the only episode to have its script published separately and the soundtrack has been released on compact disc.

"Once More, with Feeling" was followed by "Tabula Rasa," probably the funniest episode ever on BUFFY. After Tara catches Willow manipulating their relationship through the use of magic, Willow complicates things by attempting once more to make them all forget that she had used magic to control others. But the spell misfires and instead everyone in the group, including Willow, forgets who they are. The scene in which everyone tries to figure out who they are is a classic, the best part being Spike, who has been going about in a dreadful suit as a disguise to escape a loan shark (a demon with literally the head of a shark, the only really awful note in an otherwise stunning episode), deciding that his is Giles's son and that his name is Randy. When Buffy finds no ID, she tellingly decides that everyone should call her Joan, with echoes of St. Joan in her choice.

Unfortunately, while there are few out and out bad episodes, there are few absolutely stunning episodes until the ones that end the season. The one major exception is "Normal Again," which resembles many of the alternative reality stories of Philip K. Dick. Buffy is injected with some venom by a demon she fights, and the result is that she imagines that she is actually in a mental institution where she has been fantasizing for several years that she was a vampire slayer in a town called Sunnydale. Or is reality breaking through to make her cease fantasizing for a while. We fans, of course, can't imagine that all six seasons were a delusion, but it is nonetheless a brilliant episode.

Although I don't believe that this is one of BUFFY's best seasons, I can't give this less than five stars simply because even during this season BUFFY remained one of the most brilliant shows on TV. Not everything in the season succeeded, but they nevertheless continually strove to produce a special show. The show took risks; they never played things safe. The problem with taking risks is that sometimes things don't work out. Still, all in all this was a season with more to delight over than to regret.

season six--WOW!
Well, I read the reviews of this season, and--based on mixed comments-- bought the set without high hopes for being satisfied. I was astonished to discover that Season Six is now my favorite season!

I found season five, seemingly universally praised, to be protracted and ponderous, and the character of Glory/Ben one of the least interesting villains in any season. In fact, my least favorite scene in the six I've watched was during the final episodes when Glory and Ben wrestle with each other metaphorically, and time seems to stop for a decade or two, or three.

In a bad way, that is.

So, I began season six with a lingering sense of dissatisfaction, and the thought that if everyone loved the previous season, and were mixed about the one I was about to watch....etc.

I don't want to spoil Six for anyone reading, and there have been extensive and impassioned overviews of the themes and major points in this set by reviewers in this forum already. I would just like to say that I heartily disagree with the reviews that describe Six as "uneven." There is a taut focus to the themes; interesting, intense writing in nearly every episode; the best opening sequence of episodes in any season; a return to a mordant, dry wit that was conspicuously and unfortunately absent from season Five: and the most compelling villain in Willow. In addition, in a seemingly "stand alone" ep, "Normal Again," the writers devise a totally thought-provoking alternative to a universe increasingly self-referential after so many seasons, and both a clever and deeply disturbing episode that encapsulates Buffy's own arc during the season. I have never enjoyed her character as much as I did, watching her struggle to be in the world during season Six

I recommend this season highly!

Wonderful exploration of dark themes
In season six of Buffy, the darkness that permeated the last half of season five continues. At the beginning of the season, Willow uses magic to bring Buffy, who was killed by mystical energy at the end of season five, back to life. The Scoobies do this assuming that Buffy's soul has been trapped in a hell dimension since her death, not realizing that she has in fact been in heaven. Life on this earthly plane seems harsh and violent and at the same time mundane to Buffy, who feels she must hide the fact that her friends have ripped her out of eternal peace. Initially, only Spike knows her secret, and the first few episodes of the season deal with Buffy trying to get back to "normal", which is made considerably difficult by the fact that she is still the slayer even though she has lost her zest for her duties, and also that she is financially broke due to the fact that her late mother's medical bills consumed any life insurance and savings that she had left Buffy. Episode seven, "Once More With Feeling", the musical episode of Buffy, is in my opinion the best episode of the series ever. During this episode, a musical demon causes the Scoobies to pour out their true emotions in song, causing much conflict within the group and basically setting up the remainder of the season.

Throughout the rest of the season, many interesting subplots arise. As for the Spike/Buffy relationship, fans either hate it or love it. In my opinion, Spike and Buffy have one of the most complex and compelling relationships ever captured on screen. Buffy is drawn to Spike post-resurrection in an attempt to feel something - anything - even if it is disgust for herself. Spike is sick with love for Buffy to the point of risking his undead life to regain his soul which he believes will cause her to be his once and for all. Throughout the season there is the presence of the trio of nerds that at first just perform mischievous pranks with Buffy as the target, but gradually become more ambitious in their endeavors until one of their experiments end in the unintended death of an innocent person. Many people are annoyed by the trio as the "big bad" of season six. However, I think that their presence is meant to be in stark contrast to Spike, who at the end of the season does the right thing in seeking his soul although he has no moral compass, while the souled Warren of the nerd trio is capable of greatest evil possible with no remorse.

A parallel thread throughout season six is the disintegration of Tara and Willow's relationship, as Tara finds that Willow has become so corrupted by the power of her magic that she is willing to alter Tara's perception of reality in order to keep her under control. The two are ultimately reunited, and many fans have found the senseless death of Tara shortly thereafter to be their "jump the shark" moment for Buffy. However, since this whole season seems to be about confronting the dark reality of adult life, I think that it was appropriate to confront the topic of the senseless sudden death of a good person at the hands of an evil person. What made Tara's death particularly horrific for me was that the shot that kills her is not even a deliberate act. Instead it is simply a random shot taken as a villain is leaving the scene of a crime. Willow's grief boils over into rage for the murderer, and this launches the final arc in which she wreaks vengeance on the perpetrator with an orgy of magic. This does not end her pain, however, and she ultimately decides to use her power to end not only her own suffering, but the suffering of everybody on earth. Only the unconditional love of Xander is ultimately able to stop her, and pull her back from the brink of destruction. This is particularly sweet, as it echoes the theme throughout the show about Xander, a normal guy with no particular mystical powers or knowledge always the steadfast friend to those who do have such powers.

Although I really enjoyed this season as what I think is a necessary continuation of season five, I did think that the dialogue was not as crisp in this season as it had been in past seasons, and that there was some inconsistency in the writing that somewhat detracted from what was otherwise a five star season of Buffy.