Favorite Season of Buffy?

[shadowkat]

[Figure this should be safe and won't get any pedantic arguments/fights. But you never know with the Buffy fandom. At any rate, mind my blood-pressure in responses, I have a sinus head-ache from hell and a hellish work week with crazy bureaucrats and pedants. This is a mild distraction.]

[ETA: Almost wish I asked where you are in the viewing of series. Are you brand new to the series, watched it live in the 1990s-2003 (and since seen it 20 times or more, okay that may be an exaggeration...then again maybe not), or only watched the first three seasons all the way through and haven't seen most of the later seasons yet...although not really sure it matters one way or the other..]

[Poll #1822636]

Comments

[local-max.livejournal.com]

I actually think I like the first six seasons in exact reverse chronological order, with season seven between, I don't know, 1 and 2. (6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 7, 1.) It helps that most of the things people have problems with in s6 I love or at least like; the only episode I can't quite get my head around is Older and Far Away.

Of the early seasons, I think season 2 might be objectively better than s3 -- stronger central arc, more thematic coherence -- but season three seems a lot more varied. I almost always prefer messy ambition over strict coherence, mileage may vary. S3 gets a lot of mileage from great one-offs. Unlike many, I don't actually mind Amends, though it's not a favourite. I don't think there are any s3 episodes I overtly dislike. I like the Willow/Xander clothes fluke plotline which many people detest. I like Faith and the Mayor, etc. But it feels a little jumbled, the episodes sort of jumping suddenly from one idea to the next.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I don't think there are any s3 episodes I overtly dislike.

I feel like season 3 is the most consistent season they ever did quite honestly. With other Buffy seasons there are usually at least 2 or 3 of what I would consider really poor episodes that I would happily lose, whereas it's only Beauty And The Beast that I really dislike from season 3. Well and I'm not a fan of The Zeppo either but that's just my own lack of interest in Xander as a character, I can appreciate that it's still a well-done episode. But there's no Bear Bad, Goodbye Iwoa, Where The Wild Things Are, Shadow, Gone, Older And Far Away etc to sit through that year. Seasons 3 and 5 hit the most consistent standard for me

I always find season 2 a bit of a mess in the first half with many of the stand-alones (Some Assembly Required, Reptile Boy, Inca Mummy Girl, Bad Eggs) actually being worse than season 1 which had at least had a sense of fun and trying things out for the first year of a new show. Whereas some of those season 2 episodes were just plain bad. I feel like you could get an amzing season of season 2 if it was cut down to something like 15 episodes because when it was good it was REALLY good, but taken as a whole there's no way it could ever be the best season for me when there's so much horrdenous pacing to work through. Even the second half of the season suffers from that with Go Fish popping up right before the finale.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

The favorite and least favorite episode meme that I did in another, earlier post is actually a good way of figuring out which seasons are your favorite.
I had a lot of episodes in S3 that I can't rewatch without cringing. (This may be that I watched the series one too many times...I don't know. I'm not sure
the writers intended for me to see some of these episodes as many times as I did....I mean, after about the twentitieth time, you start to see the cracks...)

[(Anonymous)]

Older and Far Away - you may like it better or at least understand it more after you've watched a few Luis Bunel films. It was the writer's comedic take on Bunel, apparently someone was into surrealist film on Buffy.
(I don't know who for certain...my guess is either Greenberg or Fury. Although it might have been Espenson. Can't remember who wrote it.)

The absurdist comedic gimmick in Bunel films is people can't leave a party or a place or have dinner, they don't know why they can't ...they just can't, and for some weird reason they just don't want to leave. And once they actually try to...everything breaks down and chaos reigns.

It also helps if you've read and/or are familar with JG Ballard. I'm guessing whoever wrote the episode saw the flick Empire of the Sun or read it. Because the title of the episode comes from JG Ballard's Empire of the Sun.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Dammit, this was me. Stupid LJ.

[local-max.livejournal.com]

I do like Bunuel, and I've seen The Exterminating Angel -- but I have trouble fitting this episode into the season arc. That said, I haven't seen it in a very long time, and I don't think I've seen it since I saw The Exterminating Angel, so maybe it'll finally click for me this time.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Have you seen The Rise of the Bourgeosi? It reminded me more of that film to be honest (that's the film Woody Allen made fun of in Midnight in Paris and is well-known.)
I admittedly haven't seen Exterminating Angel.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

It also helps if you wrote a ten page essay on the episode entitled Dawn - Buffy's Inner Child.;-)