I came to Buffy the Vampire Slayer later than many fans. Previously I have experience the boredom that is know as Buffy The Vampire Slayer (feature Film) and with a reaction that bordered on allergic I had zero interest in a television program for a brand new network based on that flawed property.
I did see half of an episode in season two while waiting to go to work. (I worked over nights in a lab at that point.) The Episode was Ted, and I thought it had promise but I didn’t like the super science explanation for everything. It wasn’t until third season when I again caught a few episode that the he program hooked me. Luckily for me the network Fx was running the show, episode back-to-back in the early evening and I made watching the episodes a reward for getting my writing done, so I watched Buffy and trained a better writing habit at the same time.
I followed the show, when I could, and watched all episodes right into the disastrous sixth season. I stuck through it, missing a single episode, even as the experience became one of watching a beloved puppy be repeatedly kicked and thrown into a river.
Last night, after a good session at the Mysterious Galaxy’s Writers Group, I fired up Netflix and watched the only episode of Buffy I had never seen, season six, “Normal Again.”
It had all the elements of the crappy sixth season, a decided lack of humor, characters that behaved inconsistently with earlier versions of themselves, an overlay of heavy-handed melodrama, and dramatic tension that failed to motivate either character or viewer. The curious thing is that this episode – where Buffy believes that she is in an mental ward and that all over the previous stories just a delusion – was the most self-referential to just how bad the series had become.
In the delusion Buffy’s doctor points out how her ‘delusion’ is no longer satisfying her ego needs, that the characters once strong and capable are now weak and near useless, how her list of conquered villains, demons, and gods, has now been reduced to three pathetic nerds, that her dreams are no nothing but pale ghost of their former greatness and glory.
I couldn’t have described season six better if I had tried. It’s like this writer – he wasn’t staff from what I know – came and bitch slapped the producers, publicly, but with a metaphorical story that slipped right past their notice.
I’m glad I saw this episode, finally, but certainly I was also reminded that the great, glorious show had fallen on truly hard times. They tried to save it in the seventh season, btu for me the story and the series ended with season five.
Not a musical fan? I liked that episode a great deal but I am a major fan of musicals and A. & I go to the “local” theaters (Read – West Palm and Orlando) to see touring companies when we can manage the money and the time. Season 6, as Bob knows, was produced by a different person than Buffy’s creator (who was busy trying to give us Firefly) and the lady who got it was in a very different head space from Josh Whedon. Josh came back for the musical and season 7 which improved things but they never really got back on track.
I think it’s likely a function of turn over at the production staff level. Writers leave to start their own shows, get better positions on other shows, while the producers move on to start new projects, leaving others in control. This is what happened to Buffy and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the same thing going on with other programs.
Oh man, I remember that episode and what a painful experience it was. So bad.
What is it about the five season curse? Another show I like, Supernatural, is now into it’s seventh season. I now wish that it had ended with season five.
Though Supernatural did not suffer the same shocking break in quality that Buffy The Vampire Slayer did after season five, it went downhill too. Like Buffy, Supernatural had a very steady level of quality in it’s first five seasons. In fact Supernatural actually builds to a climax in season five, that built on themes and incidents that went all the way back to the first episode of the first season.
But as season seven has followed season six, Supernatural is still ending up in the same unhappy place that Buffy jumped to after season five. The show that always used to make sense, is throwing it all away bit by bit. What a shame.
And for you Buffy fans out there, if you haven’t seen Supernatural, you should give it a chance. But I caution you, watch it in order from the first episode, and don’t bother watching after season five.
I own the Musical “Once More With Feeling,” but as a seperate DVD that was released in the UK. (We have a region free player for such discs.) Amber Benson and Anthony Stewart Head both have fantasic voices. (And apparentl Amber’s not a bad writer either, her fantasy novels are popular and Bear is enjoying them.) If you search the web you can find Anthony Stewart Head singing ‘Sweet transvestite” from the production he was in years before Buffy or Folger’s Coffee commericals.
You’re right and I hate that, even though I own all seven seasons. I LOVE the musical episode in season 6! (Tara and Giles in a duet – who’d have thought, but their voices are wonderful together and both sing so well.) While I couldn’t name an episode, Buffy jumped the shark in season 6. Sometimes, it is better to leave winning!