Review of Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 7 Boxset

Introduction

British television doesn`t really know what to do with drama for young adults. In our schedulers` minds, young adults equate to teens, and teens invariably equate to children. It doesn`t help when the subjects of those programmes involve teenagers themselves. A prime example is Buffy The Vampire Slayer, which has had questionable treatment from the evil Hellmouth spawned television schedulers. Very few of the episodes made it on the screen unchanged, as vampire decapitations aren`t exactly teatime viewing. Still the BBC did try to give the fans what they wanted, and late night uncut repeats were scheduled for all the shows, ironically buried in a graveyard slot. But when it came for Buffy to slay her last vampire and drive off into the sunset with her Scoobies, something odd happened at BBC scheduling. Fans were made to wait, wait and wait some more for the conclusion of the Buffy saga. And when the shows finally came in late 2003, being grittier and bloodier than before, they suffered more than most at the blade of the pre-watershed censor. What`s worse, the channel took to showing them every evening during the week, as if to get them out of the way as quickly as possible. Worst of all, no late night uncut repeats, though we were promised them soon. Soon in this case meant a couple of months, as it was only in the beginning of 2004 that the repeats started. As I write, it`s mid April and we are barely halfway through the season, with episodes being delayed by golf, snooker and any other obscure sport left in the BBC`s portfolio. It`s now I realise why the DVD was invented. Season 7 of Buffy The Vampire Slayer on six shiny discs, yippee!

The world is a frightening place, filled with vampires and other demons intent on ruling the world, bringing about hell on Earth, or some apocalypse or another. But not to worry, as into each generation, a slayer is born to protect us from the darker dimensions, armed with a pointy stick and aided by a wise Watcher. Seven years ago, it was Buffy Summers who was called, and she moved to Sunnydale, California, site of the Hellmouth to slay vampires and save the world a lot. She wasn`t alone though; as to counsel and train her was Rupert Giles, representative of the Watcher`s Council. Also at Sunnydale High School she met her friends and allies in the battle against evil, Willow Rosenberg and Xander Harris. Buffy The Vampire Slayer saw these four friends face the darkest evils and defeat the most dreaded demons. Even more terrifying was High School and growing up. At the end of Season 1 Buffy briefly died, calling another Slayer before she was revived, which certainly made for interesting times, and when it comes to our heroes` personal lives, they are unconventional to say the least. Buffy certainly ignores her job description when it comes to boyfriends, falling first for Angel, a vampire with a soul, and most recently for Spike, another vampire whose evil urges are tamed by a chip implanted in his head. Willow first falls for a werewolf, then discovering she has amazing magical powers, and falls in love with Tara, another witch. Xander on the other hand finds he has amazing abilities in the construction industry, and falls madly in love with Anya, a former vengeance demon.

Prior to Season 7, Buffy died for real at the end of Season 5. But her friends couldn`t live without her, so Willow performed a powerful magic spell to resurrect her, only Buffy came back… different. Feeling empty and disconnected, she embarked on a destructive relationship with Spike, using him to justify her self-loathing. Spike was tormented by this and driven to attack her, and not in the nice Slayer/Vampire sort of way. Feeling guilty, Spike left to do a little soul-searching. Xander left poor Anya at the altar, so she reverted to being a vengeance demon and dishing out pain and suffering. Three geek supervillains tried to take over the world, and when one of them tried to kill Buffy, he killed Tara instead. This pushed Willow, already incredibly powerful with Magic, over the edge and she became really evil, she also came within a hair`s breadth of ending the world. She left to go to England to be with Giles and try to heal.

This boxset contains the final 22 episodes of the Buffy saga.

Disc 1

1) Lessons

A new Sunnydale High opens, once again sited over the Hellmouth. A powerful evil stirs, and even Willow feels it half the world away. Spike`s insane in the school basement, and Dawn`s starting her first day there, surrounded by vengeful spirits. The new Principal, Robin Wood conveniently offers Buffy a job as a counsellor.

2) Beneath You

Buffy hears a warning in her dreams, "From beneath you, it devours", and there is indeed something stirring underground.

3) Same Time, Same Place

Unsettled by the evil rumblings in Sunnydale, Giles sends Willow back; only she doesn`t quite make it. Willow can`t see any of her friends, or vice versa. Buffy worries that Willow isn`t fully recovered, and when a body is found flayed, it seems that Evil Willow is back.

4) Help

Buffy`s getting to grips with the kids she has to counsel. One girl though, Cassie is convinced of her impending death. Buffy`s determined to help her, only this time she has to fight fate itself.

Disc 2

5) Selfless

Anya overdoes the vengeance, so Buffy must put aside their friendship and pick up a sharp pointy sword.

6) Him

There`s an irresistible guy at Sunnydale High, and all the girls are losing their minds over him. And this time it`s not a love spell.

7) Conversations With Dead People

It`s a night of visitations as the First Evil makes its presence felt. Meanwhile two-thirds of last year`s trinity of geek evil return to make amends, only one of them has another agenda.

8) Sleeper

People are going missing; nothing new in Sunnydale, but this time suspicion falls on Spike, chip and soul not withstanding.

Disc 3

9) Never Leave Me

Buffy`s helping Spike go cold turkey, and trying to understand more about what they must face this year. Uber-geek Andrew has something planned though, and Principal Wood`s acting oddly.

10) Bring On The Night

Spike`s blood opens the seal in the school basement, awakening something primal. Giles shows up with some potential slayers in training, but Buffy has to face that which even vampires fear.

11) Showtime

More potential slayers arrive, but confidence in Buffy is waning after she was defeated. Spike`s being tortured by the First`s minions.

Disc 4

12) Potential

While Buffy`s teaching the next generation of Slayers, Willow does a spell to find another potential, only it points in an unexpected direction.

13) The Killer In Me

Spike`s chip is malfunctioning putting him in danger. Willow is getting close to Kennedy, unleashing some powerful magic. Giles has taken the potentials on a retreat to commune; only his British reserve has finally caused suspicion.

14) First Date

Xander`s got a date and once again demonstrates his amazing talent in picking women. Buffy`s suspicious about Principal Wood, so she goes on a date with him, and Andrew gets paid a visit by the First.

15) Get It Done

Wood realises that he is familiar with Spike. The Hellmouth is beginning its annual leakage of anarchy. Buffy receives the legacy of the slayers, as well as a terrifying vision.

Disc 5

16) Storyteller

Andrew, geek supervillain is trying to fit in with the Scoobies and has taken to recording a video journal. The school`s going to hell in a hand basket and Buffy realises that only Andrew can save the day.

17) Lies My Parents Told Me

Giles has a method of removing Spike`s post-hypnotic trigger, but it involves him coming to term with some long buried memories. It also provides an opportunity for Robin Wood to get some payback.

18) Dirty Girls

The First has got an ominous new champion, Caleb. But Willow returns from LA with a powerful ally. It`s time for the potentials to put their training into practise. Poor Xander…

19) Empty Places

Sunnydale is turning into a ghost town as everyone leaves in the face of impending doom. Andrew and Spike leave to research Caleb. The cops are looking for Faith, but the Scoobies and the potentials are losing faith in Buffy.

Disc 6

20) Touched

The exodus continues from Sunnydale, while Caleb has the Bringers digging under the vineyard. Faith captures a Bringer to interrogate; only it`s mute. Buffy picks a bad time to wallow in low self-esteem, but the ultimate weapon awaits the slayer that can claim it.

21) End Of Days

The surviving potentials are trapped under the vineyard, surrounded by ubervamps. Caleb recharges his strength and goes hunting for Buffy.

22) Chosen

An army of ubervamps waits as the First prepares to unleash Hell on Earth. But in the last hour a possibility arises that could just save the day. Either way it`s going to get apocalypty.

Video

For once Region 2 seems to win out when it comes to DVD specifications. In the US, all the Buffy releases with the exception of "Once More With Feeling" have 4:3 regular ratios. In contrast, since Season 4, the UK releases of Buffy come with 1.78:1 anamorphic transfers. Season 7 is no exception. The transfer by and large is clear and unblemished, although darker scenes may be a little indistinct, and there is a hint of grain prevalent. There is also one moment of pixellation during some stock footage of London in episode 8, but I also saw that when the BBC transmitted the episode.

The show certainly benefits from the widescreen ratio, and as the final season does tend towards the epic and grandiose, the final episode in particular shouldn`t be watched on anything less than a widescreen set.

Audio

The sound for all the episodes is presented in DD 2.0 Surround English, and that includes the episode commentaries. The sound is up to the job at adequately conveying the action, and the surrounds are put to good use for demonic rumbling, vampiric growls and screaming damsels. The music certainly goes up a notch in the final season, and the last few episodes boast incidental music that would put many an epic movie to shame.

Features

Buffy The Vampire Slayer comes with a nice smattering of extras, liberally spread around the six discs. The presentation is excellent with some wonderfully themed animated menus. The transitions between menus are quick and everything is clear and easy to navigate.

Disc 1

Commentary for Lessons with Joss Whedon and David Solomon.

DVD ROM Willows Demon Database, a pretty nifty searchable database of the monsters, ghouls, vampires and villains that have plagued Sunnydale over the last seven years. It`s fully illustrated and well presented. There are versions for both Windows and Mac.

Disc 2

Commentary for Selfless with David Solomon and Drew Goddard

Commentary for Conversations With Dead People with Nick Mark, Drew Goddard, Jane Espenson, Danny Strong and Tom Lenk.

Disc 3

Buffy: It`s Always Been About The Fans, is a 6-minute peek into the world of the Buffy Fan. (They come to conventions made up as bumpy headed vampires, not bumpy headed Klingons)

There are also trailers for Seasons 2-6 of Buffy, Seasons 1-3 of Angel, a computer game, themed DVDs as well as the movie that started the whole phenomenon.

Disc 4

Commentary for The Killer In Me with David Solomon and Drew Z Greenberg.

Disc 5

Commentary for Lies My Parents Told Me with David Fury, Drew Goddard, James Marsters and D.B. Woodside.

Commentary for Dirty Girls with Drew Goddard and Nicholas Brendon.

Disc 6

This disc starts with adverts for the DVD releases of the Joss Whedon sci-fi series Firefly, and Season 1 of Roswell.

Commentary for Chosen with Joss Whedon.

Easter Egg, that shows 7 years of Buffy The Vampire Slayer in 35 seconds. Although advertising the Egg as such, and its contents on the packing certainly defeats the point of an egg.

Season 7 Overview: Buffy Full Circle is a 36-minute featurette that looks at the final season of Buffy, complete with clips of the episodes and interviews with cast and crew. It looks at the direction that the show took, the way the stories were developed and how the characters fared.

Buffy 101: Studying the Slayer takes 14 minutes to relate how critics reacted to this brash new series.

Generation S is a 9-minute look at the potential slayers and the actresses who played them.

The Last Sundown gives creator Joss Whedon 9 minutes to choose his 10 favourite Buffy episodes of the whole series.

Outtakes is just that, 3 minutes of general goofing around and much amusement.

Buffy Wraps is 5 minutes spent at the show`s wrap party, with quickly snatched interviews, and asking the newly unemployed, "How do you feel?"

All the extras are subtitled, and the featurettes are by and large presented in 4:3 with DD 2.0 sound. The commentaries for the most part are light-hearted and humorous, and if there are elements of a mutual admiration society, who can blame them? The last episode commentary is a little more technical and it`s no surprise that Joss Whedon takes the opportunity to reflect over the past seven years. They are all entertaining though. One notable omission from any of the extras was Sarah Michelle Gellar herself.

Conclusion

I`m a relatively late convert to Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The first season passed me by, as the idea of a teenaged girl slaying vampires seemed a little ridiculous to me. I bowed to peer pressure halfway through the second season and was instantly hooked. I`ve been an avid watcher ever since. Season 7 is the final season of Buffy, and as such it certainly takes the series out on a high note. Among the more outstanding episodes include Same Time, Same Place, Selfless, Conversations With Dead People, The Killer In Me, Storyteller, Lies My Parents Told Me, as well as the final five episodes. The characters by and large are given satisfying arcs, and the ongoing story certainly rewards fans that have stayed with Buffy since day one. This boxset is manna for such fans, presenting the episodes well, with a satisfying set of extras. If you are a Buffy fan, then this boxset is a must have.

If however you`re wishing to begin a Buffy infatuation, then you`re at the wrong end. Buffy, perhaps more than any other series relies on an ongoing mythology. It builds on what has come before, and references events and stories that may have occurred years ago in the Buffyverse. For the newcomer it`s like encountering a foreign language. Indeed while the earlier seasons had their fair share of stand alone episodes, you`ll find that every single episode in Season 7 begins with a "Previously on Buffy The Vampire Slayer…" This sense of continuity and community among the fans has allowed Joss Whedon to really invest a poignant story into the final season. He takes the 22 episodes to explore themes of growth and loss; he literally and figuratively brings the characters full circle, and gives their journeys meaning. Season 7 is epic in scope and scale, grandiose in implementation and rewarding to audiences who can take the time to invest in the story.

Season 7 isn`t the best of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, although that is personal opinion. Joss Whedon, since the first episode has explored serious issues in a fun light hearted way. His characters are intelligent, witty and verbose. Quips and wisecracks are typical of his shows, and the earlier episodes of Buffy were stunning entertainment, easy to watch and wonderful fantasy. But as shows evolve, directions change as does the emphasis, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer was brought thunderously down to earth in the Season 5 episode, The Body when Buffy`s mother died. It wasn`t at the fangs of a vampire or in the clutches of a demon, but from natural causes. The episode was brilliantly written, and compulsive viewing, but it was like a bucket of cold water. The real world had affected Buffy, and nothing would ever be the same again. The show took a darker more adult tone, and issues were raised that would seriously affect the characters. The teenagers we had initially met were finally becoming adults, and the process of change would be a painful one that would demand sacrifices. Buffy died at the end of Season 5, only to be resurrected by her grieving friends, and she was initially unable to cope with her return to life. Giles would abandon his student when she needed him the most, Xander would make a mess of his personal life, through fear of commitment, and Willow would lose the one she loved and turn to evil. These darker interpersonal threads would tinge the stories and run through the series, in direct contrast to the humour.

Season 7 is even darker than before and while the trademark humour is still there in bucketfuls, the ominous and apocalyptic feel to the story overshadows it. Because of the ongoing story, there is even less room in this season for light-hearted episodes, and after episode 7, it`s a relentless decent into the Hellmouth until the series climax.

The cast is excellent, with the regular actors obviously at home with their characters by now, although I did feel a little disappointed with Willow`s arc in this season. After the climax of Season 6, she went to England to try to control her powers, and when she comes back to Sunnydale she is understandably reluctant to dabble in magic again, as well as still grieving for Tara. However this reluctance to use her powers leaves the character at something of a loose end, and the introduction of another love interest in Kennedy seems contrived and out of place. Buffy`s tendency to depress people with pep talks reaches a head here, but as it`s sent up beautifully in Storyteller, it turns out to be worth it. Emma Caulfield is great value as Anya, her delivery of some choice lines is amazing, but kudos must go this year to James Marsters as Spike. He`s had to play evil vampire, evil vampire with chip in his head, infatuated with Buffy vampire, tormented vampire, foppish Victorian wimp, and this year he plays crazy in the basement vampire. He has some truly outstanding episodes and is added incentive, not that it`s needed, to watch this show.

He also has an amazing English accent, almost flawless, which comes as a shock when you hear his native twang on the commentary for Lies My Parents Told Me. It`s doubly amazing considering the usual standard of accents on this show. It began with an impenetrable accent for Kendra in Season 2, although Drusilla`s Dick Van Dyke can be excused by her being absolutely loopy. This year we get some diabolical accents from some of the potentials.

There are two weak points in this season, and one is the Potentials. It`s hard to bring a new group of characters to work alongside an established group, and the potentials, while essential in terms of story, are wholly dispensable in terms of character. They tend to distract from the main characters and the few who are recognisable as characters are either annoying like Kennedy and Amanda, or the butt of cheap jokes like Chao-Ahn. It`s also hard to keep track, or even care which ones live and which ones die.

The second weak point is the bad guy. The First Evil is supposedly the source of all evil, it appears as insubstantial re-creations of the deceased to twist people`s psyches and taunt its enemies. It`s also incorporeal, and impotent in that it cannot attack or be attacked. However it does provide a means of bringing back some of the more memorable characters of shows past. Its henchmen are either the faceless Bringers, or the identikit ubervamps, neither of which possess any semblance of character or wit, they are just monsters for Buffy to destroy. It isn`t until the last five episodes that there appears a foe worthy of the name. The fallen preacher Caleb is a truly chilling and ominous bad guy, whose misogyny coupled with sheer strength makes for the most memorable of villains that Buffy has faced over her seven years. Caleb is played to sinister perfection by Firefly star Nathan Fillion, and Season 7 would have been better served by introducing him at the outset.

Buffy ends where it begins, with our four heroes battling the evil of the Hellmouth. Season 7 isn`t Buffy as we`ve come to know her in years past though, the show`s grown up, just as the characters, and watching these episodes you are always conscious that this is the last season. It`s an epic send off for a show that is now as much a part of public consciousness as any of the pop culture references it made over seven years. With this boxset, you`ll never be Episode I bored.

Grrrr! Aargh!