Happy Anniversary To Her! The Sideshow Collectibles Spike Premium Format Figure Materializes For My Wife!

The Good: Absolutely amazing sculpt, Neat alternate heads, Good painted details, Stable base, Collectible value
The Bad: Skin tones are the wrong color,
The Basics: The Sideshow Collectibles Spike Premium Format Figure is a neat, but not flawless, Buffy The Vampire Slayer collectible!


For those who follow my reviews and know of my commitment to reviewing pretty much whatever is produced in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it may appear to be a somewhat disappointing weekend for me and the blog. After all, it is Sunday and Marvel and Netflix released their thirteen episode season of Daredevil more than two full days ago now. How can I not have my episode by episode reviews of the season (along with the whole season review) done and posted by now?! The answer is simple: Netflix very thoughtlessly released Daredevil on my sixth wedding anniversary and I opted to prioritize my loving wife over my reviewing blog (go figure!). One of the ways I showed my wife appreciation for sticking with me for the past six years was by giving her the gift of the Sideshow Collectibles Buffy The Vampire Slayer Spike Premium Format Figure.

We saw the Spike Premium Format Figure on the shelf in a comic book shop six years and a month ago, when I took her on a trip to New York City (and we decided we wanted to be married). At the time, I couldn't swing the expense of the statue-like figure on top of her ring and the trip expenses, but I never forgot how she looked at that Spike statue with longing and excitement. I was super psyched to track down a mint in box one (it might well have been the last one on the planet!) and watching her open it enthusiastically on our anniversary was one of the high points of our celebration (for both of us)!

Unlike the new Wonder Woman Premium Format Figure (reviewed here!), the Sideshow Collectibles Buffy The Vampire Slayer Spike Premium Format Figure is a blend of polystone and cloth elements - like a ceramic doll. Also (fortunately!) unlike the Wonder Woman Premium Format Figure which graces my collection, the Spike figure does not have any thinner parts that can easily break off (Wonder Woman collectors, beware! If you ever try to rebox the figure . . . the hair!). Like the other Premium Format Figures, Spike is essentially a statue, not a doll or figure (he has no poseability for the body, though the coat can be moved).

And it's pretty cool, save the coloring.

Basics

The Spike Premium Format Figure presents the sexiest vampire of the Buffyverse incredibly well. This version of Spike has the vampire character in his familiar black trench coat standing in a cocky, neutral pose on a base that looks like the tiled floor of a masoleum. The blonde vampire has his human face on, with his hands at his sides, standing in an "at the ready" pose, as opposed to an action-oriented one. One of the neatest aspects of the Spike Premium Format Figure is that he has a full-vampire head that may be swapped out for the human one. The Spike Premium Format Figure is made of polystone for the body and base, a little bit of heavy steel (for the thin metal rod that extends from Spike's right heel and allows the Premium Format Figure to attach to the base) and cloth for the shirt, pants (sorry, ladies, this Spike figure is NOT anatomically correct!), belt and leather jacket. This is a heavy Premium Format Figure.

The Sideshow Collectibles Spike Premium Format Figure is cast with lifelike detailing. The hair is textured and details like the fingernails and boot laces on the boots are immaculately sculpted on. The cloth elements are impressive - the squeal of delight my wife let out when she realized that the pockets are actually pockets on the red striped shirt Spike wears was pretty delightful. The character's face looks exactly like James Marsters as Spike and elements like the cuffs at the bottom of Spike's pants are an incredible detail that helps Sideshow justify the lavish price of this collectible.

As for coloring, that is where this Spike falls down. Spike is a vampire and cannot tan. The Spike Premium Format Figure has far too much red in his skin tones to be considered an accurate representation of the famous vampire. It is ironic because when the Premium Format Figure is set up next to other Spike collectibles, this is a pretty glaring problem. There is something unsettling about this giant, sunburned version of Spike when set next to the exceptionally pale Spike in Hawaiian shirt! That said, all of the cloth elements are perfectly colored and things like the glossy black fingernails and the detail to Spike's eyes is extraordinary.

Features

As a Sideshow Collectibles Premium Format Figure, the Spike Premium Format Figure is only accented by an alternate head and the collector’s number on the bottom of the base. The base, the bottom, is a perfect fit for the Premium Format Figure, which is nice. With his foot placed properly in the hole in the base, the right foot roots the Premium Format Figure to the base. Spike is wonderfully rooted to the base, without any play.

The head pops off the Premium Format Figure when carefully pulled and it may be replaced with the vampire head. The vampire head is equally well-detailed as the human head and it features Spike with his vampire forehead, fangs out and an active and angry expression. His eyes are, appropriately, vamped out, too and Sideshow made it very easy to replace Spike heads. Smartly, the figure's head separates at the base of the neck, so the seam that is inevitable for removable parts can easily be hidden under the character's shirt and jacket! Both my wife and I prefer the vampire head given how few Spike figures have a decent option for that face.

Balance

As with all Premium Format Figures, the intent of the Sideshow Collectibles Spike Premium Format Figure is to be used as a decorative collectible and this is well-balanced at the base. The Premium Format Figure does not wobble on its base at all. The display base is augmented with four rubber discs that keep it perfectly stable, so it does not slide, tip, lean or do anything other than stand perfectly positioned on one’s shelf or display case.

Collectibility

Sideshow Collectibles has been making bigger and better collectibles for decades. The Spike Premium Format Figure was a 1:4 scale statue and limited to 350 pieces. Each one is individually numbered on the bottom of the base (mine, or rather my wife's, is 265/350!). These Premium Format Figures have already exploded in value and I suspect it will continue to appreciate in value as Buffy The Vampire Slayer fans age and want more adult collectibles. Moreover, finding one that has not been out of the package, on display, is a Herculean task. Tracking down a mint, unopened one is liable to be a great investment as more collectors break theirs (inadvertently!) or suffer fading of the cloth elements by having them out in natural light. This was an extraordinary investment and still is a good one.

Overview

The 1:4 scale Spike Premium Format Figure from Sideshow Collectibles is not the perfect collectible adult collectors might have wanted. Is it good enough? Yes. It's good enough to justify its price to the 350 Spike fans lucky enough to get their hands on one, but its doubtful that the rest of the Buffyverse fans would covet it so much that they absolutely needed to get one, too.

For other Spike or Buffyverse collectibles, please check out my reviews of:
Sideshow Collectibles Spike 1:6 Scale Statue
Puppet Spike Puppet
Cordelia Action Figure

8/10

For other Buffy The Vampire Slayer toys and collectibles, please visit my Buffy The Vampire Slayer Toy Review Index Page!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The Surprise Perfection Of The Buffy The Vampire Slayer Sideshow Collectibles Spike Statue!

The Good: Absolutely amazing sculpt, Incredible painted details, Stable base, Collectible value
The Bad: None!
The Basics: The Sideshow Collectibles Spike Statue is unbelievably incredible and a must-have for fans of Buffy The Vampire Slayer!


Last month, when I reviewed the brand new Wonder Woman Premium Format Figure (reviewed here!), I found myself comparing the new statue to the Sideshow Collectibles Buffy The Vampire Slayer Spike Statue. Given that, I figured that I should take the time and actually review that superior Spike statue. Where the Wonder Woman Premium Format Figure was riddled with sculpt and coloring issues, the Spike statue is an immaculate work and an amazing collectible.

Basics

The Spike Statue presents the anti-hero of the Buffyverse perfectly. This version of Spike has the vampire character in his familiar black trench coat standing in a crouching position on a grave-like base. The blonde vampire has his human face on and has him holding a wooden stake in his right hand. The Spike Statue is made entirely of polystone (save a thin metal rod that extends from Spike's right heel and allows the statue to attach to the bast) and this is a heavy statue.

The Sideshow Collectibles Spike Statue is cast with lifelike detailing. The hair is textured, the character has back pockets molded onto the back of Spike's pants (which is impressive given that the jeans are under the coat and virtually invisible), and Spike has knuckles and fingernails molded into the statue. The character's face looks exactly like James Marsters as Spike and the billowing pose for the coat makes it look like he has just landed. Other impressive sculpted details include buckles on the vampire's boots and the inclusion of the scar over Spike's left eyebrow.

As for coloring, Spike is perfect in his coloring. It might get tiresome to read such glowing adjectives about the statue, but the work warrants it. Spike has such incredible detailing as depth to his skin tones, dry-looking lips, glossy eyes, and highlights to the character's fingernails. Spike's hair is colored in more than monotones so his head does not look like it is covered in a helmet (which is a mistake commonly made by those making Spike-themed collectibles). The base has great tones, so it looks like it is cement, made from tiny grains, as opposed to a single monotone rock.

Spike's boots are made to look worn and they contrast the smooth black of the coat in a way that gives the statue additional texture and depth.

Features

As a Sideshow Collectibles statue, the Spike Statue is only accented by the collector’s number on the bottom of the base. The base, the bottom, is a perfect fit for the statue, which is nice. With his foot placed properly in the hole in the base, the right foot roots the statue to the base. The left foot rests on the base and because the statue's left foot is arranged so it looks like Spike is about to push off from the balls of his feet, the statue connecting to the base flush is imperative. Spike is wonderfully rooted to the base, without any play.

Balance

As with all statues, the intent of the Sideshow Collectibles Spike Statue is to be used as a decorative collectible and this is well-balanced at the base. The statue does not wobble on its base at all. The display base is augmented with four rubber discs that keep it perfectly stable, so it does not slide, tip, lean or do anything other than stand perfectly positioned on one’s shelf or display case.

Collectibility

Sideshow Collectibles has been making bigger and better collectibles for decades. The Spike Statue was limited to 1,000 pieces. Each one is individually numbered on the bottom of the base (mine, or rather my wife's, is 165/1000!). These statues have already exploded in value and I suspect it will continue to appreciate in value as Buffy The Vampire Slayer fans age and want more adult collectibles.

Overview

Quite simply, the 1:6 scale Spike statue from Sideshow Collectibles lives up to all a Buffy The Vampire Slayer or Angel fan could hope for!

For other statues, Sideshow Collectibles figures or Spike collectibles, please check out my reviews of:
DC Direct Cover Girls Of The DC Universe Wonder Woman Statue
Sideshow Collectibles Abraham Lincoln Brothers In Arms 12" Doll
Puppet Spike Puppet

10/10

For other Buffy The Vampire Slayer toys and collectibles, please visit my Buffy The Vampire Slayer Toy Review Index Page!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A Brilliant Concept Figure Keeps My Wife Happy: Angel Spike Puppet Plush Rocks!

The Good: Great construction, Fun concept, Limited edition nature
The Bad: Expensive
The Basics: Cute, well-detailed and clever for the concept, the Spike Puppet doll from Diamond Select Toys is a pricey addition to anyone’s Spike collection!


Concept figures are nothing new to collectors of toys. For some reason action figures seem to be a medium where artists may express theoretical possibilities only hinted at in the native medium – book, television or film – and have the idea be well-received. I suppose the idea is that if you’re enough of a fan to collect toys for a series anyway, odds are you’ll want all you can get your hands on. Ironically, in the case of the Spike Puppet plush doll, the puppet preceded the writing about the character. As a result, fans of the “Buffyverse” might be surprised by the quality of the Diamond Select 21” Spike Puppet doll.

Others, more casual fans and those who are not fans of Angel, are likely to be bewildered by even the concept of a Spike Puppet doll. In the fifth season of Angel (reviewed here!), there was a very popular episode called “Smile Time.” In that episode, a demon turned Angel into a, as Spike called him, “wee little puppet man.” Angel was essentially transformed into a muppet. What the packaging of the Spike Puppet doll asks fans to consider is “What if Spike had been transformed instead?” This question forms the basis for the Spike Puppet doll and was actually the subject of the graphic novel Shadow Puppets (reviewed here!)

Basics

Cashing in on the popularity of the Angel dolls that Diamond Select Toys created to mimic the puppet Angel from “Smile Time” (including an Angel Puppet, Vampire Angel Puppet and Wounded Angel Puppet dolls), Diamond Select decided to toy with arguably the most popular character in the Buffyverse by making a concept doll of the Spike Puppet. Following the production design of the Angel Puppet, the Spike Puppet arrives as a giant plush collectible intended for the die-hard fans and those who gush over Spike.

The Spike Puppet is a 19 ½” tall felt and leather creation that looks and feels like what one might expect a muppet to. It features the leather coat and leather boots (not slip resistant!) that are trademark to the character and they look amazing. If Spike were a puppet, this is how he would appear, with his slightly purple felt skin, cartoon eyes and only four fingers, the master toymakers at Diamond Select Toys really nailed the concept on this one. Of course, the puppet is not anatomically correct – my partner checked – but it is very much the style of the “Smile Time” Angel and looks just like the Puppet Spike from “Shadow Puppets.”

What the Spike Puppet in the box fails to wow many collectors with is the hair. Spike is known for his bleached blonde hair and in virtually every box of these puppets I have seen, the fur-like hair is going every which way (like some twisted Don King puppet!). But out of the box, that hair may be brushed back and the result is that Spike looks extraordinary and perfectly like what one would expect if James Marsters’s character were made into a muppet! In fact, one wonders where the cigarette for the puppet is!


Accessories

Despite the toy being marketed toward adults and serious collectors only, the Spike Puppet does not come with a plush cigarette. Instead, he comes with nothing. The jacket is removable, but the boots are not (I discovered this the hard way) and the Spike Puppet has only his wits to rely upon for fighting demons . . . or dust.

Playability

Because the Spike Puppet is intended for collectors, it is more at home on a doll stand than in the hands of anyone who might play with it. While it is cute and snuggly (my wife has already asked if she can bring this pricey doll to bed . . . grumble), it does not do much of anything. It does not stand up on its own. The Spike Puppet falls over if one tries to stand it up without the aid of a hand, wall or doll stand. And the Spike Puppet lacks any way to actually use the doll as an actual puppet. No, there are no points of entry by which fans may place their hands inside Spike and use him as a ventriloquist prop.

The baffling aspect of this is in Spike Puppet’s mouth. The Spike Puppet has a magnetized mouth so it may close its mouth and keep it closed. This seems especially smart if one has a way to articulate the doll from inside, but because there is no place to put the hand inside this stuffed Spike, collectors must manually close Spike’s mouth and that just seems weird then that the one real posing option would be “open mouth” or “closed mouth!”

Collectibility

Diamond Select Toys has a way of making very collectible toys and the Spike Puppet is strictly limited to 5000 pieces, as is evidenced by a certificate of authenticity within the package (my wife’s Spike Puppet is #4919/5000, for example). Diamond Select Toys made only one batch of these, which is why they continue to appreciate at very fast rates. When I purchased the doll for my wife in February (2009) the price was in the $50 - $75 range. Now, these cannot be found for less than $200, when they may be found at all. Fans continue to hunt these and they seem to like the concept enough to keep paying the increased prices. As a result, this is a great investment piece and all indicators point to the idea that it will continue to be for the foreseeable future!

Overview

The Spike Puppet may be expensive, but those who love the character of Spike from Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel and are the type who would go to a convention to scream of their adoration of James Marsters are likely to love this toy. I know my partner does!

For other Buffyverse toys, please be sure to check out my reviews of:
Pylean Princess Cordelia
"Fear Itself" Anya
Anya from Season 5

9/10

For other toy reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Coda To The Vampire's Saga: Angel Season Five Serves Up Mixed Results!

The Good: Decent character development, Nice new conflicts, Acting, Illyria plot
The Bad: Loss of cordelia, Moments of jumped shark, Infuriating ending
The Basics: While Angel adapts to the humdrum life of running the evil lawfirm Wolfram & Hart, he finds himself plagued by old adversaries and a conscience in Angel Season 5.


It seems to me that sometimes people know when the end is near in television and they bail ship at just the right point. Thus, it is hard for me to castigate Charisma Carpenter for not returning to the show Angel for its fifth (and final) season. At the same time, possibly only because it is retrospect, the question must be asked, "Why did Angel return for a fifth season?" Before rabid fans start to take huge meaty chunks out of my flesh, know that I am a fan, I signed every petition begging the WB to extend the life of the show. I wanted to see where the show could still go. As far as inherent potential, Angel had more potential for longer staying power than the concept of Buffy The Vampire Slayer ever did.

The fifth season of Angel could have been a new beginning. Instead, it exists now solely as a coda to seven years of investment by fans of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer universe. In many ways, the fifth season of Angel is plagued by the same difficulty as the sixth season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, namely where to go after the adversary has been a God. It's quite a difficult story to recover from. Here is what the fifth season of Angel looks like.

Following the defeat of Jasmine at the climax of the fourth season, Angel and his group find themselves walking an ethical tightrope as the new heads of the villainous lawfirm Wolfram & Hart. Angel sheds his sword to manage the firm, Gunn discards his past to become an agile lawyer with a fierce legal mind, Wesley takes a mid-management job, Fred becomes the head of the Research department and Lorne finds himself working as a security screener. Joining the group is Harmony, the vampire who used to be Cordelia's best friend, and Spike, who was last seen in the Buffyverse getting burnt to a crisp by an amulet in the series finale of Buffy The Vampire Slayer.

Finding himself plagued by Spike and forced to rely on a mysterious woman named Eve as a relay to the Senior Partners, Angel discovers life is far more complicated than it ever has been before. Not burdened with his supernatural son and somewhat emotionally lost given Cordelia's coma, Angel tries to figure out how to fight the good fight while leading the forces of evil. At the same time, Spike, still burdened with a soul, becomes seduced by the possibility that the prophecies that everyone has assumed are about Angel could now pertain to him.

First of all, the whole arc that Spike goes on where he challenges the legitimacy of the assumption that the "vampire with the soul" who gets redeemed, is brilliant. Nothing short of an amazingly good idea. Conceptually, this is what makes the first half of the season interesting and fun to rewatch. Now that Angel is no longer the only vampire with a soul, it challenges the viewer to rethink many of the assumptions we have.

Moreover, the addition of Spike is a great way to remix the characters and situations of Angel. He has long been an annoyance to Angel and when events revolve around Buffy, the show becomes tiresome. However, when the conflicts between Angel and Spike are dealt with without the Buffy context, they are two much more interesting characters. It is a shame that there was not a season to deal with the sense of resignation both characters gain in the late season five episode "The Girl In Question."

In effect, though, this final season of Angel stands as a denouement, with many loose ends being tied up as the season goes on. On the character front, however, the show opens up some intriguing new directions for Spike and, surprisingly, Fred. The season ends with a pretty impressive series finale that looks great on DVD. But as character is of fundamental import on Angel, here is where the characters stand for season five:

Cordelia - lies in a coma. She's gone. She appears in a single episode of the fifth season and that is one of the best, saddest, most wonderful and bittersweet episodes of the series,

Harmony - tries hard to be good, but between being soulless and a secretary to Angel at Wolfram & Hart, she rarely succeeds. Hers is the story of an evil minion forever trapped in being a teenager,

Eve - The liaison between Angel and his team and the Senior Partners that have spent the prior four years making Angel's life hell is never quite what she seems. While the gang is instantly suspicious of her as an outsider, they have good reason to be and it does not take long before her true nature becomes apparent,

Lorne - Working at Wolfram & Hart leaves Lorne unsettled and feeling like a moral compass that is not checked nearly as frequently as it should be. Lorne continues to be the invariable force of good in the world otherwise filled with grays,

Gunn - Trades in his streetsmarts for an encyclopedic knowledge of the law. This, of course, has consequences and when one of the other characters is stricken down, he learns that he may be at fault and checks himself into hell to save the group,

Wesley - Will do his usual thing and along the way finally get what he's wanted for years, only to have everything he loves destroyed. Wesley grapples his demons and in the process learns the truth about the bargain Angel made to get them their status at Wolfram & Hart. In short, Good Wesley doesn't last,

Fred - In a strange turn, the introverted head of the research department will undergo an incredible transformation that will be a harbinger to the coming of all evil. Fred's story, usually at the back of the class, will take the forefront as her character becomes a tragic hero,

Spike - Restored from the dead by the same forces that killed him, the blonde vampire challenges Angel's authority by simply being the goon he's always been. Now with a soul, Spike adds both legitimate menace and wonderful comic relief to the show,

Angel - As in previous seasons, nowhere near as interesting as those who surround him, Angel adapts to life as a manager of people fighting a morally ambiguous fight using tools that are inherently evil. This leads him to learn about the deepest evil and make his attempt to fight for good in the grandest way possible.

The fifth season of Angel continues the tradition of the show to push the envelope and combine horrible incidents with quirky, offbeat humor. Wesley's character arc, for example, is a study of vicious irony in the way it develops. Episodes like "Smile Time," where Angel is turned into a puppet strike one as the moment the show jumps the shark, but somehow it works on Angel. In fact, that episode is funny and works well as a metaphor.

Being able to rewatch the episodes from the fifth season leads to greater appreciation of them (they were not rerun on most WB stations once the show was canceled). The fifth season is filled with action. Indeed, the episodes "You're Welcome" (the show's 100th episode) and "Not Fade Away" (the series finale) have some of the most impressive battles I've ever seen. Not just on television, ever. These are entertaining shows.

Part of what keeps the show wonderful is the acting. David Boreanaz is fine as Angel, though James Marsters kicks new life into the show with his portrayal of Spike. But neither deserves the lion's share of praise for the acting in season three.

J. August Richards, who portrays Gunn, is finally given the opportunity to express the full depth of his range. Instead of being monolithic and out for vengeance or wrestling with the conflict between his past fighting on the street and working as a part of a team, Richards is able to use the character changes in season five to illustrate his articulation and the depths to which he can play sorrow and loss. He is incredible.

Alexis Denisof, usually a favorite of mine, does a great job in season five, but does not get to illustrate more of his acting ability beyond what we've already seen. That honor, for expressing real growth as an actor beyond what we've seen before, goes to Amy Acker, who plays Winnifred Burkle. Acker is given the chance to illustrate her range when Fred's story takes an abrupt turn. She is amazingly extroverted and able to exude an aura of confidence and power that she has never before revealed on Angel. It is a treat to see.

Who will enjoy the fifth season of Angel? Anyone who enjoys good, quirky, science-fiction comedy. But it is a denouement. Buying this set is ridiculous if you're looking to get into the series. You're coming in for the last act, the final stanzas, the lines before the curtain falls. At least, until Joss Whedon gives up on movies and gives fans of the Buffyverse a show featuring Spike, Faith, Illyria, and Andrew.

Until then, though, this is it. And it is a fitting end if nothing else ever comes.

For other final seasons of pretty epic shows, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Millennium - Season 3
Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Complete Seventh Season
The X-Files - Season Nine

7/10

For other television and movie reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2005 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Who Will Fight The Apocalypse? A Vampire And His Team: Angel - The Complete Series!

The Good: Funny, Clever, Moments that are downright touching, New pack saves space, Decent acting/plots
The Bad: One or two real lemon episodes, Could always use more DVD extras...
The Basics: A vampire with a soul strikes out with a small band of demon hunters, learning that he is part of an impending Apocalypse, one that is closer than anyone thinks!


There is a reason why Joss Whedon fans are as loyal as they are: Whedon has a habit of creating television shows that are a wonderful mix of action and comedy, surreal drama and pure metaphor, violent and quiet and touching. Whedon strikes a balance with all of those things with his writing and producing of Buffy The Vampire Slayer (reviewed here!) and Firefly (reviewed here!). In between the two projects by which he seems to be best known was a little show called Angel. Out now in one complete series pack, Angel is available for fans to get everything in one fell swoop, with a few little goodies thrown in that were not previously available.

First off, it's important to note that this is essentially a repackaging of the same DVDs already released as individual season sets along with one or two little incentives for the boxed set buyer, much like The West Wing did with its complete series boxed set (reviewed here!). Fans of Angel who have been holding out to buy the entire series are rewarded with a note from Joss Whedon (ooh, ahh, wow!) and a booklet. Those who purchased the series right along are not penalized by missing out on any additional DVD content. There are NO DVD bonus features or discs exclusive to this boxed set! Those who purchase this set simply get an extra booklet and letter and have an Angel DVD collection that takes up less space on the shelf.

For those unfamiliar with Angel, it is a fantasy/action series robbed of most of the metaphor that defined much of Buffy The Vampire Slayer - from which Angel was spun off. Angel takes place in a very gritty, very real Los Angeles where there are people in need and a champion rises up to protect the innocent.

Following Buffy's graduation from high school, Angel leaves Sunnydale and makes it to Los Angeles. There, he encounters Doyle, a demon who operates as a mouthpiece for the Powers That Be. The Powers give Doyle clues for Angel to follow to save the locals who most need saving. Angel is joined by Cordelia, who is struggling to find work as an actress and the three set up Angel Investigations. Angel Investigations is soon beset by very real tragedy that results in Doyle's demise and Cordelia becoming the conduit that Doyle had been. They are joined by Wesley, who has become a rogue demon hunter and Angel Investigations becomes a paranormal crime fighting team scouring Los Angeles and ridding it of demons.

Soon, though, the vampire with a soul and his companions help vampire hunter Gunn, who joins them shortly before they are beset with the consequences of Angel's past. In the course of their investigations, Angel Investigations butts heads with Wolfram and Hart, a powerful law firm which represents demonic clients and has an interest in the paranormal. Soon, the lawyers from Wolfram and Hart have set their sights on destroying Angel and Angel Investigations, all as part of a scheme to bring about the apocalypse. With the forces that Wolfram and Hart conjure, like resurrecting Angel's sire, Darla, they just might succeed . . .

Angel is an antihero tale and the wonderful magic of the series is that because it is heavily serialized the continual theme of consequences truly resonates. This is a show about living with the consequences of our actions and Angel, cursed with a soul, is now forced to live with the consequences of having a conscience after being one of the most sadistic vampires to ever walk the night. Throughout the series, Angel is forced to deal with the consequences of his subsequent actions, like trying desperately to save Darla from Wolfram and Hart and rescuing a nerdy woman from an alternate universe. The show is all about consequences and it is adult and strangely adolescent at the same time.

Angel - The Collector's Set is truly the way to go for anyone who is a fan of the series or who wants to become a fan of the show. Angel episodes are integrally tied together - seasons three and four are, in many ways, one big arc - and they build on one another. It's inconvenient enough to have to change discs; it's even worse to have to leave the comfort of one's house to go out and get the next boxed set!

And while the series starts out with a strangely episodic sense to it, it quickly becomes serialized with Cordelia and Angel dealing with the consequences of Doyle's death and Cordelia becoming a conduit to the Powers That Be. When it turns serialized and the show begins to make long story arcs that last several episodes or entire seasons, the show becomes richly focused on the characters. Because there are - over the course of the series - essentially six principle characters, each one gets developed quite well over the course of the 111 episodes. The characters of note are:

Angel - A moody vampire who works for the forces of good because he has been given a soul and cannot bear to slaughter good people any longer. This leads him to a fairly solitary life because bliss causes him to lose his soul. As a result, Angel is withdrawn and often pessimistic. He is brutish when he needs to be, but he tends to look at people as those he needs to shepherd and protect from the more destructive elements prowling the night. He finds himself a target of the machinations of the powerful Wolfram and Hart law firm and seeks to prevent the apocalypse they seem set on creating,

Cordelia Chase - Gifted with a demon sense that provides her with visions sent from the nebulous Powers That Be, Cordelia is an aspiring actress-turned-mercenary. She works with Angel to uncover clues that might well help save the world by tracking down destructive demons. She and Angel share a love that remains largely unspoken and unrealized and she works hard to contribute, ultimately giving up her privileged background for the more dirty detective work that the Powers seem to insist she take on,

Wesley Wyndam-Pryce - Formerly a Watcher, now a rogue demon hunter, he is a socially awkward, bookish fellow who has great intelligence, but low self esteem. Plagued by memories of an abusive father, Wesley joins the team as the research consultant who almost instantly makes himself invaluable with his knowledge of obscure demon information. As Wolfram and Hart begins to move the world toward the Apocalypse, Wesley begins to understand that Angel may be the key and that the vampire might not be a force of good when the end times come,

Charles Gunn - A Los Angeles inner city youth who has lived on the streets protecting his small gang from the nests of vampires that prey upon the people there. Gunn is a fighter and becomes the serious muscle of Angel Investigation when he joins the team, though he seeks to be more,

Fred (Winifred Burkle) - A nerdy physics student who was sent through a portal to another realm where she was on the run for years. In the alternate world, humans are slaves and cattle and Fred survived by outwitting the demons there. When rescued by Angel and the team, Fred returns to Earth as a reclusive young woman initially dominated by fear. Incredibly smart, she gives Wesley a run for his money, though she and Gunn become closer than anyone would have suspected,

and Lorne - A green demon who can read a person's destiny when they sing to him. He owns a nightclub for demons in downtown Los Angeles and aids Angel whenever he is cut off from his conduits to the Powers. Lorne is a pacifist and while he despises Wolfram and Hart, he tries to remain neutral through most of Angel's struggles.

Angel made a star out of David Boreanaz and this might well be the role of a lifetime for him. As Angel, Boreanaz performed a number of very physical fights (including swordfighting), did a lot of running and jumping and became everything one might expect from a young man who is a television action hero. But more than that, Boreanaz is given the chance to add some real emotion to the part by presenting Angel as a conflicted action hero who has a conscience and an intelligence. He is a trooper, to be sure, but he also has to navigate a precarious love that remains undefined with Cordelia. Boreanaz has great on-screen chemistry with Charisma Carpenter, who played Cordelia, and he is able to make the transition from brooding, brutish action hero, to quiet and contemplative antihero drown in the consequences of his actions. Boreanaz gives a wonderful and surprisingly human performance throughout.

It is Charisma Carpenter who makes the show worth watching, though. Carpenter transforms Cordelia from the bratty socialite that she was on Buffy The Vampire Slayer into a young woman who has both sophistication and a selfless quality that allows her to become what Angel needs her to be. Carpenter sells the viewer effortlessly on the transition and she continually brings something new to the show. In addition, she has a wonderful sense of comic timing and embodies Cordelia on this series with a great sense of wit. And yes, she has great on-screen chemistry with David Boreanaz which makes their love-just-below-the-surface work perfectly for the series.

Alexis Denisof (Wesley), J. August Richards (Gunn), Amy Acker (Fred) and Andy Hallett (Lorne) round out the cast. They are all good. All of the principles are perfectly cast.

And it's a wonderful show. What starts as a pretty standard action hero show with a vampire protagonist becomes a wonderful blend of witty lines and strange situations from the moment Angel first jumps into a car that is not his (but looks identical because it has the top down). As the series continues, always growing with a sense of momentum that the story and characters are going somewhere, the humor and wit take a back seat to a growing darkness and the overwhelming mood that the end of the world is truly near and it won't be pretty.

This series is a must for anyone who likes adult fantasy, science fiction or superhero series'. Anyone who likes a strong drama with an antihero and can tolerate and enjoy a supernatural element will find a lot to love about Angel - The Complete Collection!

On DVD there are several episodes with commentary tracks, deleted scenes, blooper reels and featurettes on the making of the show, the story arcs as the seasons progress and the stars of the show. I could always use more commentary and I find myself wishing more episodes in the series had it, but the ones that do are informative and/or entertaining.

For those on the fence, there is no better (and less expensive overall) way to own the entire series than this boxed set. You'll be glad you gave it your time and attention!

For more information on Angel, check out my reviews of the individual seasons (the discs are the same as the ones in this boxed set) reviewed at:
Angel Season 1
Angel Season 2
Angel Season 3
Angel Season 4
Angel Season 5

8/10

For other television reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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The End Of An Unexpected Empire: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Seven!

The Good: Excellent character development, Solid acting, Interesting plot
The Bad: Sad reuse of old plot devices
The Basics: The heroes who surround Buffy unite to stop the Origin of evil or go out with a bang trying in a very successful conclusion to the series.


It is a rare thing that a television show, no matter how popular, can raise itself from being a show on television to being a phenomenon that people want to spend their weekends pursuing. By that, I mean it's rare for a show to be so successful with a core of people that they will travel the country on the weekends to go to conventions and events where they can meet the stars from the show, meet others who share their passion and/or hang out with other devotees watching the show. That's why there are Star Trek and Star Wars conventions, but not NYPD Blue conventions (though I'd go for that!). Buffy The Vampire Slayer is, astonishingly, one of the few franchises with a fan base that eagerly approaches the show outside the television viewing. The seventh season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, now out on DVD, brings the saga of the Slayer to its conclusion.

Having survived the near apocalyptic events of the sixth season, Buffy takes Dawn to her first day of high school at the new Sunnydale High. Xander, involved in building it, provides support in understanding why there are already problems at the school. And Giles and Willow work together to control her magical ability. Willow's return to Sunnydale heralds talk of the return of the greatest villain the Earth has ever known, the First. The First is the source of all evil, originally referenced in the third season of the show. Now, the First is coming back to Earth to bring chaos and death to all and it has found the perfect tool; the newly ensouled Spike.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer had six successful seasons on the air and when the seventh came, it was unclear as to whether it would continue or not. It was a fairly last minute decision, prompted by Sarah Michelle Gellar's desire to not return for an eighth season, but the seventh season was determined to be the end of the series. Unfortunately, as the season comes to its climax, there is a lot that is done to indicate that the producers were hedging their bets, looking for a way to continue the series into a eighth season without the title character. As it is, though, the seventh season is a nice, complete story that brings the focus of the narrative back to Buffy.

The season largely deals with the coming of the First and the hopelessness of the potential fight that would come with its arrival. The First can take the appearance of anyone who is dead and that makes for some very unnerving scenes in the seventh season. But hope arrives in the form of Potentials; Slayers who would be activated if Buffy were to be killed. The latter half of the season focuses on the training of the Potentials and the way Buffy becomes a bona fide leader.

As with the previous seasons, the seventh season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer focuses most on character development and the memorable characters make it understandable that the show would grow into a phenomenon. Here is how the seventh season finds them:

Buffy - Recovering from the betrayal of her best friend in season six, Buffy takes on a more parental role for Dawn. She becomes a guidance counselor and starts to connect with people for the first time. With the return of Spike and Willow and the threat of the First, Buffy finds herself coming into the role of leader and facing the fact that her fate may well be sealed,

Xander - High on saving the world, Xander comes back down to Earth as he must face the consequences of Anya's return to evil and the return of Spike, who he has no fondness for. Xander's position in the growing army against the First is compromised when evil incarnate realizes that he has unique abilities of his own,

Willow - Returning to Sunnydale alone, Willow begins to move on as a single woman without magic and without the woman she loves. Her love for Tara is challenged by one of the Potentials who makes it known she finds Willow attractive,

Anya - A vengeance demon once again, Anya reigns chaos around Sunnydale punishing the men who have wronged women. This leads to a showdown between Anya and Buffy and the result condemns Anya to a familiar punishment,

Dawn - Growing up and trying to contribute to her sister's army, Dawn finds herself in the company of misfits and the target of all sorts of evil. The lone attempt at a Dawn episode in this season yields the worst reuse of the "love spell" plot,

and Spike - Now plagued with a soul, Spike returns to Sunnydale wounded by Buffy's lack of love for him. He finds himself used as a pawn by the First and a liability to the Slayer and her forces. His soul torments him and his weakness to the First leads him to meet his destiny.

Giles appears occasionally in the season as the Watcher Council is destroyed and he attempts to learn the vulnerabilities of the First. He is not given a huge part, but his recurring presence works well as Buffy makes the transition from student to leader. Also returning is the villainous nerd Andrew, who reforms from his evil ways and Faith, who returns to Sunnydale as a heroine, not a villain.

The subtext of this season is the struggle we make as individuals to live up to our adult responsibilities and become actualized adults. Buffy makes the transition and it is rocky, but enjoyable to watch. The serialized nature of the show, where the menace of a single true villain mirrors the rising actions of the successful third and fifth seasons. The First is a compelling villain and the resolution to the conflict with this enemy promises to keep the franchise going.

Sarah Michelle Gellar and James Marsters give truly great, empathy-laced performances in this season and it's impressive to watch them work, especially when they are together.

This set looks good on DVD and the commentaries are interesting and worth the price of the set alone for fans. If you haven't gotten into Buffy The Vampire Slayer yet, this is an inappropriate place to start. I recommend going back to at least the fifth season to get into the show and working your way up to this episode. The weak link is "Him" which revisits the same type of "love spell" idea that has been done already in the show. The episodes building up to the end are wonderful and "Lies My Parents Told Me" is one of the best episodes the series ever did.

It's a shame that Buffy The Vampire Slayer ended, but that's what television shows do. At least there was still Angel . . .

For other final seasons of science fiction or fantasy shows, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Heroes - Season Four
Millennium - The Complete Third Season
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Seven

8/10

For other television show reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Very Much A Novelty, "Once More, With Feeling" Is Hardly Enduring Opera.

The Good: Generally good vocals, Catchy, Kitschy, Duration
The Bad: Overly simple rhymes, A lot is lost without the visuals.
The Basics: A very average album, the soundtrack to "Once More, With Feeling" is creative but ultimately more kitschy than truly musically memorable.


My wife and I are going through the television series Buffy The Vampire Slayer (reviewed here!) now, in large part to my having gotten her the complete series boxed set for her first birthday we were together. As a result, my mind drifts to all things Buffy a lot more lately and that's fine with me. But one of the things I quickly realized when considering her love of Buffy The Vampire Slayer is how finite the decent swag from the show is. Indeed, she came to the relationship with most of the cool Buffy The Vampire Slayer stuff. Even so, there were some pretty obvious products that capitalized on the immediate popularity of certain things in the Buffyverse and one of them was the soundtrack to the episode "Once More, With Feeling."

"Once More, With Feeling" is a ridiculously popular episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer where a demon comes to Sunnydale which compels all under its thrall to sing. As it becomes more of menace, it forces humans to dance until they literally combust. The musical episode featured members of the cast singing their lines and dancing and because it was very original, it became quite popular. Character relationships which were on the rocks in the sixth season revealed how they were falling apart through musical numbers and Buffy's angst was captured in many of her songs. But while there is something intriguing about the actual episode, the soundtrack loses quite a bit without the actual singing and dancing that goes with it and this holds up less well as an audio-only piece.

Filled up to almost the full 85 minute capacity of a compact disc, the "Once More, With Feeling" soundtrack is a collection of all eighteen songs from the popular episode "Once More, With Feeling," plus Joss Whedon's original demo of the song. There are also four orchestral suites from other episodes which were noteworthy and are instantly memorable to the die-hard Buffy The Vampire Slayer fans. All of the songs with lyrics are written by Joss Whedon and he has a fun sense of rhyme that makes most of them catchy, if not enduring in a way that non-fans are likely to respond to. As well, the entire cast of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, plus guest stars like Amber Benson (Tara) provide vocals and make the songs come to life.

Musically, "Once More, With Feeling" is largely a rock opera. Songs like "Rest In Peace" are angst-filled and guitar driven and sound like they could be part of a much bigger production. Conversely, songs like "I'll Never Tell" have a very traditional musical comedy sense of timing and rhyme such that one might imagine Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers performing it. It is lively, swing dancing and that duet between Xander and Anya has a classical sense of musical storytelling which makes Joss Whedon a modern master of recreating a nostalgia for something the current generation never had.

Sure, there are more classic pop numbers, like the ballad Tara sings to Willow ("Under Your Spell") and the opening ditty, "Going Through The Motions" which Sarah Michelle Gellar presents. Most of the songs are guitar or piano driven and they sound either like traditional showtune songs or contemporary pop numbers. Even today, the songs sound fresh and fun. The album is well-produced such that each and every line may be heard clearly.

The end tracks, taken from episodes like "Hush," "Restless," and "The Gift" are more traditional Classical-sounding pieces. Unfortunately for most listeners, they also have a tendency to be incidental music which sweeps up for scary reveals and as such does not hold up quite as well on the album. In other words, they are great accent pieces for the show, but not wonderful standalone songs.

Vocally, the album is a surprisingly tight presentation of actors who, it turns out, can truly sing. James Marsters makes an obvious advertisement for his band when he sings "Rest In Peace" coolly and with flawless tone. Similarly, Anthony Stewart Head is great when he has to sing, as Giles, to Buffy about feeling useless in her life. The real star of thee album, though, is not Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy) or even Emma Caufield (Anya), it is Amber Benson. Benson is plays Tara as quiet and mousy and on the "Once More, With Feeling" soundtrack she is able to open up and belt it all out as an incredible soprano. Her costar has only one or two lines on the entire album ("This line is mostly filler" in "Walk Through The Fire"), but Benson dominates with dulcet soprano tones on "Under Your Spell" and her part on "Where Do We Go From Here?"

But for as much praise as I might have for "Once More, With Feeling," the truth is it is an opera soundtrack that makes a lot less sense out of context. Unable to see certain gags, they do not hold their own as well on the album ("Mustard" being a prime example). The "Once More, With Feeling" soundtrack is bound to please fans of the show, but even for them the replayability is finite before the novelty wears off. Ultimately, I opted not to recommend it because the episode retains a special quality that is lost when one simply knows these funny or heartfelt songs by rote.

The best track is "Under Your Spell," the low point is "Broom Dance."

For other soundtrack albums, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
What's Love Got To Do With It? - Tina Turner
VR.5 Soundtrack
Star Trek Soundtrack Volume 1 - "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before"

5.5/10

For other music reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Sacrificing Double Entendre For Cold, Hard, Reality: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Six Becomes Something Incredible!

The Good: Good themes, Interesting effects, Decent character work, Daring nonstandard television
The Bad: Some acting, Sacrificing some allegory
The Basics: Possibly the peak of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, season six finds Buffy alive, disenchanted and lonely until tragedy strikes one of her friends and she is forced to accept her place.


The first three to five seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, the show has a tendency to be watchable on two levels. One is the literal level, where Buffy and her often-absurd friends run around Sunnydale fighting often absurd demons in a strange twist on the classic good versus evil thing. At the same time, one may look at the episodes as an allegory for growing up. So, for instance, in the second season episode wherein Buffy makes love to Angel and he turns into his evil, soulless alter-ego, one may watch the episode(s) that follow as a story about the fears a young woman might have about how sex will change their relationship and the person they love. Season six ends that tradition. In the twenty-two episodes that comprise the sixth season, almost all of the allegory is gone. There's a distinct change in tone here as Buffy's world becomes almost entirely what it is as opposed to being a symbol for something more.

Following the death of Buffy at the climax of season five (why are you even reading this if you haven't seen season 5?!), the gang finds themselves slowly losing the war against evil in Sunnydale. Thus, using Willow's magic, they resurrect Buffy to find that she's not grateful for being brought back. Buffy finds herself disenchanted with life, pitted against a lame trio of nerds who are bent on taking over the world (or at least Sunnydale) and without any real hope. As the season progresses, Buffy finds herself in a relationship with Spike (the not-so-evil-anymore vampire) and neglecting her friends, which allows Willow to fall into some bad patterns and threaten the world.

The shift in the tone of Buffy The Vampire Slayer makes a great deal of sense. After all, what more can you fight when you've taken on a Goddess? The change from an external villain to one of the group turning makes perfect sense and is enough to keep us watching. However, this is not the most accessible season for those who have not watched prior seasons (i.e. if you watch seasons one and two, skipping ahead to season six would leave the viewer mighty confused). Conversely, this is an excellent place for people who did not like the early seasons to step in. Allow me to explain: Seasons 1 - 5 work best when they are viewed as an allegory for the problems we experience(d) growing up. Buffy runs for homecoming queen against Cordelia (a symbol of beauty) while being preyed upon by killer demons in a chase scenario (fear of rape). So the episode explores the simple Cordelia/Buffy competition while revealing the woman's fear of exposing her beauty to predators. The thing is, if you're older (than a teen) and been through all of that and survived it, the allegory isn't so relevant. And there's only so many times you can watch coming of age shows for the nostalgia. So, when season six of Buffy The Vampire Slayer enters the more adult world of bills and abusive relationships, it becomes more accessible to an older audience and more enduring.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer, like all good serialized television, revolves around intriguing characters and here we see those characters all growing and expanding in ways that make this a season worth watching over and over again. Here is how the characters grow in season six:

Buffy - Feeling lost, alone and like her sacrifice was made in vain, she drifts through the motions of protecting Sunnydale until she falls into a relationship with Spike, wherein she attempts to feel again,

Willow - Magic becomes an addiction for her, opening her up to new levels of power by exposure to the darkest forces. This puts a strain on her love for Tara and when tragedy strikes, she is pushed further than anyone would have guessed,

Spike - Completely in love with Buffy, he finds his dreams fulfilled by her, then dashed when she rejects their unhealthy, violent, relationship. This leads him to his most horrible act and to his attempt to seek clarity,

Xander - Moves towards his wedding day with Anya, while not expressing his insecurities about the future. Xander's fear overcomes him and he leaves town,

Anya - Looks forward to her marriage with Xander and becomes furious when he rejects her,

Dawn - Evolves - throughout the season - from the Key into a young woman who wants to fight the good fight, with a little stint as a shoplifter thrown in for good measure,

Tara - Becomes the guardian of Willow's humanity, especially when she sees that Willow is becoming too involved with magic and the wrong kinds of magic,

The Trio - Jonathan, Warren and Andrew attempt to thwart the slayer and find themselves on the run from something even more powerful,

Giles - Leaves Sunnydale when he comes to realize that Buffy no longer needs him.

Buffy's character takes a turn for the intriguingly real as she is forced to deal with issues like paying bills and making ends meet, while at the same time trying to live up to the responsibilities of parenting Dawn. Her relationship with Spike then, violent as it is, seems very real. With her daily life becoming increasingly unfulfilling and having no earthshaking enemies to fight, Spike forces her to actually feel and sometimes, feeling pain is better than feeling nothing at all.

This is a season where the characters suffer, but rather than suffering in melodrama or having their conflicts be clouded by allegory, here the characters are easily accessible and quite real. Buffy's sense of loss is quite clear and easy to relate to. Xander's insecurities are quite compelling and Spike's desire to be loved and his sense of loss comes across in a way that makes him more than just a monolithic vampire. Similarly, Willow's sense of confusion over her new levels of power comes across as a compelling internal conflict that was foreshadowed in the fifth season. She wants to do right, but her magic and her love come into conflict.

Indeed, perhaps the most wrenchingly human moments of the entire series comes at the end of the episode "Tabula Rasa." Willow's magic caused everyone to lose their memories and when their identities are restored, the montage (set to Michelle Branch's "Good-bye To You") is shockingly emotive.

What's more, this series does more than simply torment its characters week after week. It takes chances with the television medium. If anyone were to loathe the musical episode ("Once More With Feeling"), it would be me; I've seen and heard it played at least a hundred times at conventions. But it fits quite well with the series and on the DVD, it's nice to see and hear and the commentary is intriguing.

The acting in season six is a bit of a mixed bag. Michelle Trachtenberg isn't given a chance to expand beyond being whiny and annoying for the bulk of the season and Emma Caulfield's Anya isn't given any range, save in "Once More With Feeling," until the very end of the season. Sarah Michelle Gellar, especially around midseason, seems bored with the role of Buffy.

The winners, in terms of acting, in this season are James Marsters, as Spike and Nicholas Brendon, as Xander. Marsters infuses a depth of emotion into Spike that was only hinted at in previous seasons, especially season five. Here, Marsters is given the chance to be loving, forlorn, caring and delusionally creepy. He takes his chance to shine and explodes into the role. Similarly, Nicholas Brendon has a chance to be more than the bearer of sarcasm and he rises to the role. Emotive, insecure and loving, Brendon gets the opportunity to explore Xander with more depth and his range is finally realized and illustrated in this season.

The real winner on the acting front is Alyson Hannigan. After five years of playing Willow as withdrawn, nerdy, and shy, Hannigan is given a chance to open the character up. Hannigan explores love, jealousy, loss, anger, fury and indifference with such amazing body language and tone control that the evolution of Willow into a villainous figure seems incredibly natural. Moreover, Hannigan plays the worst aspects of Willow without any trace of the performance of her third season evil doppelganger (a real feat considering one of her lines is actually taken from that character). Hannigan illustrates why her acting may be viewed as a force.

Far from a perfect season of television, the sixth season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, is a worthy addition to any fan of real drama, especially as it pertains to young adults. The DVD set is geared towards fans of the series with six commentaries. They are good commentaries and the panel discussion from the Academy is interesting as are some of the behind-the-scenes featurettes. The music videos are "eh." The real gem here is in the programming itself and it continues the Buffy story while fleshing out all of the supporting characters. An intriguing story of a woman who feels lost who drifts into finding herself at the expense of her attention to her friends.

For other worthwhile penultimate seasons, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Six
Friends - Season Nine
Heroes - Season Three

8.5/10

For other television series reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2011, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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If You Can't Torment Enough Series Regulars, It's Time To Add More Characters: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season 5!

The Good: Stories, Camp value, Acting, Character, Serialization of plots
The Bad: Some character ignorance, Weird rewriting of the series
The Basics: A nice escape from reality, the fifth season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer finds the heroes combating a mortal enemy it cannot hope to defeat, while still clinging to its fun, campy roots.


The first four seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer establish the Buffyverse (as it is called by fans - The Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe, which now comprises the fictional places and events encapsulated in Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel, for those who are not fans of the series) as a place where evil is very much alive on Earth in the form of demons and other malevolent creatures kept in check by small groups of heroes who understand the truth about all that surrounds them. These heroes frequently have their butts kicked, their hearts ripped out and are put in physically and morally compromising positions. In short, the heroes in the Buffyverse take more in the first four seasons than most people do in a lifetime and they keep kicking. Season five, then, finds the writers and producers of Buffy The Vampire Slayer inventing new ways to torment the heroes in order to keep the stories edgy.

Buffy's world takes a turn for the weird when her younger sister, Dawn appears in Sunnydale. The thing is, reality has been affected such that - despite the fact that Buffy never had a younger sister - everyone's memories are altered to recall events that preceded these episodes with Dawn in them. It doesn't take long before Buffy learns the truth about Dawn; she is not her sister, she is not even human. She is The Key, a mystical object personified to prevent the new villain, Glory, from being able to unleash hell on Earth. Glory, it is soon revealed, is more than a simple manifestation of evil, she is easily the most powerful creature to cross Buffy's path and when - halfway through the season - her nature is revealed, everything changes.

The fifth season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer finds the show significantly evolved from where it began. Indeed, the fifth season attempts to rewrite the entire series up until now through the addition of Dawn. This is probably the biggest leap that the series asks the viewers to take and it is well explained and surprisingly well-conceived, but it is still problematic and asking us to swallow quite a lot. Far more impressive would have been to begin the series with Dawn present and then, in this fifth season, come to realize why she was worthwhile or important at all. Regardless, her nature as The Key is pretty intriguing and if it had to happen, it is executed thoughtfully enough.

One of the nice shakes of the season is the villain. Glory is a refreshingly impressive villain following the fourth season's somewhat lackluster conflicts. The entire Glory (and Key) arc instills a nice serialized sense to the show that continually builds up the menace of who and what she is. She is wonderfully played with crazy, disturbing mood swings by Clare Kramer.

The only other serious flaw in the fifth season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer is in the camp aspects of it. Episodes like "Triangle" where a ridiculous troll former lover of Anya's sets about bashing Sunnydale, which plays entirely off the series' ability to do decent kitsch, seem woefully out of place. With a villain as impressively badass as Glory, with characters experiencing genuine adult emotions of loss (Buffy loses big this season), responsibility and love (Willow and Tara take significant steps here), such goofy camp seems like a throwback. In short, this could have been the season where Buffy The Vampire Slayer evolved into impressive drama, save that it insisted on staying where it was with a more playful mindset of quirky fun.

That said, the Glory plotline is one of the series' better ones and it has a deep impact on the characters. The arcs of the characters in season five look like this:

Tara - Overcomes her family's curse, grows as a witch and professes her love for Willow in some very real ways,

Riley - Takes a trip to the dark side following his experiences with the Initiative, which forces him to leave Sunnydale (and Buffy) behind,

Dawn - Appears in Sunnydale and wrestles with being the Key and all that could mean,

Anya - Becomes a first-class capitalist and forms a genuine relationship with Xander,

Spike - Wrestles with his feelings of love for Buffy after he finds himself left essentially defenseless by the Initiative,

Xander - Seems the most grown up here, with a job and a life, now struggling to make ends meet, save the world and develop a relationship with Anya,

Willow - Progresses as a witch in leaps and bounds in this season, all the while developing a deep, deep love for Tara,

Giles - Fired from the Watcher Council, he finds himself feeling as if he lacks a purpose until Buffy convinces him to teach him all he can about the past Slayers and train him to defeat Glory,

Buffy - Learns to deal with the truth about Dawn (who she believes has been around all along), loses Riley whom she loved possible as much as she loved Angel, comes to understand that the fight against Glory might be a losing battle and takes another profound personal loss that ushers in her adulthood.

The redeeming thing about Buffy The Vampire Slayer's quasi-camp quality is that, at the end of the day, it has likable characters who it is easy to root for. Moreover, these are dynamic characters. The ease with which Buffy finds herself slaying vampires in the season premiere ("Buffy vs. Dracula," if you can believe it!) clearly illustrates that the childhood demons are no longer the real problem. If one is to look at the show from a strictly metaphorical interpretation, there is clear growth in the protagonist in that her childhood demons no longer hold serious menace over her.

But Buffy is not the only one. Once carefree and the conduit for snappy one-liners, Xander has evolved into someone surprisingly responsible by this point in the series. And the characters wrestle with more profound issues of loss, the nature of love and attraction, and adult responsibilities.

The nice thing about season five is that it does all of that while still being fun to watch. The series has fun twisted episodes like one where Xander is split into two distinct Xanders that represent different aspects of his personality ("The Replacement," which harkens back to the Star Trek episode "The Enemy Within"), mixing it with episodes that are outright challenges to the characters ("Checkpoint") and surprising the viewers with the way characters (like Willow) stand up for what they believe in ("Tough Love"). At the worst, the episodes in this season are entertaining. Moreover, now - away from the hype that comes from a series when it is actually producing new episodes - some of the episodes are actually surprising, especially the resolution to the season finale.

What started as a piece of the most sickly-sweet candy (perhaps sea foam?) has evolved and continues to evolve in the fifth season as something a little more substantial. By this point, the series is some form of fudge with nuts; it is usually still sweet (campy and entertaining), but there is a lot more substance now (genuine drama). It's unfortunate that they did not use this season to push it into granola territory. Still, it's worth the investment of time and money. After all, how often do you get to see a show where a vampire makes love with a wisecracking android replica of the woman who has spent over three years trying to kill him?

Only in the Buffyverse. There are less fun places to be.

For other works by Joss Whedon, please check out:
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Eight: Twilight
Serenity
Firefly
Alien: Resurrection
Buffy The Vampire Slayer

8.5/10

For other television set reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Buffy In The Sea Of Transition: Buffy The Vampire Slayer Season Four!

The Good: Amusing, Occasionally clever, Social realism, Acting
The Bad: Wandering focus, Some character choices, One or two performances
The Basics: When Buffy goes off to college, Willow becomes a more interesting character and the show struggles to keep fresh and interesting.


When it returned for its fourth season, Buffy The Vampire Slayer had a tough task. How to come back from a season finale where the apocalypse is averted and the High School is literally destroyed in a fiery battle? How to come back to the town of Sunnydale in an entirely new place with an entirely new dynamic with two fewer characters (Angel and Cordelia had gone off to Los Angeles as this was the first season of Angel). This was a turning point for Buffy and her gang and it's a tough sell.

And the show almost does not survive.

Not the characters, mind you, but the show. There are high points in the fourth season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, but there are also some very low moments that are almost unwatchable. Indeed, while the third season was consistent, getting better and better with the rising actions of the season, the fourth season feels like a show that does not truly know where it is going or where it wants to be.

In the fourth season, Buffy and Willow head across town to Sunnydale College. At the college, they begin to adapt to life on their own with strange roommates and - in Willow's case - boyfriends (she and Oz are still together at the outset of the season). Meanwhile, Xander adapts to the working world and his new, weird relationship with Anya, while Giles struggles to find his place now that Buffy no longer truly needs him. And while they start to figure out their new lives, a new organization appears in Sunnydale to fight the good fight, the Initiative, a group combating the vampires and demons with military precision.

Of course, in the Buffyverse, nothing is quite that simple. The Initiative, despite its straightlaced face Riley, is more insidious than it initially appears and is being run by someone who has her own agenda. And that leads to the most ridiculous and improbable villain in the Buffy universe: Adam.

Adam is a "frankenstein monster" type creature and his genesis makes little sense considering the source. Adam begins to convince demons to take back the night and he's unconvincing, dull and difficult to watch. In fact, Adam fails to work on such a basic level that he is dispatched before the season finale, leaving an awkward, weak episode to close the season on.

Buffy has always been about characters and here is how the fourth season of the show finds and develops the regulars:

Buffy - Now at college, Buffy begins to consider the future and believe her life is somewhat pointless. She finds herself eased out of much of her work by the Initiative and its efficient commandos, her friends doing their own things and her feeling blah,

Willow - As Willow grows in power, she has a falling out with Oz and discovers her sexuality. As she gets closer and closer to Tara, she feels her other friendship's straining and her magical abilities growing immensely,

Giles - Feeling lonely and lost, Giles questions his own purpose. In the process, he is turned into a demon and tries everything he can to be a part of Buffy's life,

Spike - Returns to Sunnydale seeking invincibility and fails to get what he needs. Instead, he ends up a prisoner of the Initiative and the subject of their experiment to control vampires,

Oz - Torn between his love for Willow and his inability to control his werewolf nature, Oz makes the difficult decision, early in the season, to leave Sunnydale to seek a cure for his lycanthropy,

Xander - Gets the short end of the writing staff this season. He comes along for the ride, complaining about construction work occasionally. His relationship with ex-demon Anya is about all he does this year,

Riley Finn - Introduced as a commando of the Initiative, Riley faces a series of tough decisions as he grows to love Buffy and sees the negative way the Initiative reacts to her,

and Anya - Still recurring in this season, the ex-demon continues to explore life as a human through her intimacy with Xander.

The characters are interesting and as Willow blossoms into an openly gay character, it is clear the writers are trying to come up with new and interesting directions for the characters. Willow's character is probably the best conceived part of this fourth season. Buffy, Giles and Xander make for difficult watching week after week as they seem to spend most of their time lamenting how they are not growing. Indeed, if it weren't for Willow keeping the show interested and moving on the character front, the show would have collapsed.

The apathy and elements of disconnect that Buffy is experiencing as a college student with an improbable future are far better related and explored in the show's sixth season. While foreshadowed in the fourth season with "Something Blue," the elements of alienation that Buffy explores in her relationship with Spike do not come to fruition until that sixth season.

There are high points in the fourth season and they are truly in three episodes. The first is the episode "Hush." "Hush" is a mostly-silent episode wherein Sunnydale falls under the spell of a group of creatures that cast silence over the town. It is clever, funny, witty and honestly scary. "Hush" is a rare episode in the fourth season as it proves that Joss Whedon can still innovate and push the envelope.

The other high point is the two-part episode where Faith wakes up from her coma. Merging nicely with "Angel" at this point, the two-part episode restores some sense of urgency and danger from the third season.

The acting hinges in this season on three people: James Marsters, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Alyson Hannigan. Spike begins to grow in the fourth season out of his monolithic evil self, forcing Marsters to infuse some element of humanity into his performances. As Marsters adapts, he manages to keep Spike an intriguing character without weakening him significantly.

Sarah Michelle Gellar has a tough time. Gellar is forced to portray Buffy at a crossroads and because Buffy is so lost until her relationship with Riley takes off, it is hard to separate Buffy from Gellar's portrayal. There seems to be a great deal more uncertainty in Gellar about how to play Buffy and until the last few episodes of the season, that uncertainty dominates Gellar's performance and is somewhat distracting.

Hannigan, however, comes through. Given a great deal of emphasis in the third season, Hannigan smoothly makes the transitions in her character as Willow goes through some pretty hefty emotional changes. Hannigan plays Willow with an exceptional range from sadness to enthusiasm and she has an energy to her that plays very well off Amber Benson's understated portrayal of the quiet, nervous Tara. Hannigan is who keeps the show floating while it is at its most uncertain in the fourth season.

Fans of Buffy The Vampire Slayer are likely to enjoy this season of the show more than people who are not already fans. The truth is, though, that the show does from being intense and witty in the third season to rocky and strained in the fourth to restarting somewhat with a fresh idea in the fifth. This truly is the "take it or leave it" season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The reason to take it is that it has its moments of charm and excitement and the growth of Willow as a person is enjoyable.

Often, that's reason enough.

For other fourth seasons of fantasy or science fiction shows, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Lost - Season Four
Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Complete Fourth Season
Heroes - Season 4

5/10

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© 2011, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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