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

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

A lot of what you posted here in your response resonated for me. While, I don't watch all the high school dramas, I have watched several...and I admittedly enjoy them in much the same way like confectionary. Also...the high school years in Buffy didn't resonate for me nor were they at all close to my own experience. I could have cared less about Prom and did not go. I didn't date. And spent most of my time studying, acting in plays, running track, and doing extracurricular activities. For me...My So Called Life, possibly Veronica Mars, and Freaks and Geeks comes closest. Buffy felt like a romanticized version of high school and the characters troubles sort of silly...I watched and enjoyed the first three seasons in much the same way I enjoy the Vamp Diaries or Secret Circle - as confectionary. So no..not a cultural thing - since I am an American. But I, admittedly, didn't have the typical American high school experience, nor can I even remember most of high school. My parents taught me that high school was the least important part of my life and just try to get into college, because that would be so much better. They were so right.

I can still admire them for their humour, storywriting quality etc. but emotional impact is what is most important to me and outside of a few episodes I just don't feel that in the first three seasons. I still watch them on re-watch but increasingly just to pick up on some (presumably unintentional) character arc foreshadowing that I find fascinating. Someone you love dying, having to work bad jobs, depression, abusive relationships, impossible crushes, sisterly rivalry, mother/daughter relationships... those are all things that I connect with deeply on the show and most of them are solely features of the later seasons.

This! Exactly This! Yes, you have articulated quite well in this paragraph my own feelings towards the series from start to finish and why the latter seasons are closer to my heart.

In addition...

Season 5 is my favourite. Seeing Buffy as a big sister made me finally connect with her in a way I hadn't before as well as seeing her hang around with her mother more as an adult rather than child. Add to that a stunning depiction of grief and the beginning of her depression (plus some excellent Spike storyline) and I find season 5 incredible.

Thank you. Me too. I felt exactly the same way and this is why Season 5 was my favorite. It was the first time I was able to connect with the characters in a real way. I have a younger brother. I understood the sibling fights. This season and it's arc worked for me in a way the earlier season's just didn't for precisely the reasons you state here.

Season 6 is a close second, I feel that season knows me more than any other but because of that it's also painful to watch sometimes.

Oh ghod, yes. Me too. This season spoke to the ragged bits of my soul.
And it is why I find it hard to re-watch. I call it six characters on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Never have I seen a writer throw all the characters off the cliff, then bring them all back again. Watching it was like watching a trapeze act without a net. It is close to my heart as well. I became a Buffy fan during S6, I wouldn't be on livejournal or have written any Buffy essays if it weren't for S6. Prior to S6...Buffy was just a fun tv show that I was addicted to.
In S6 - I joined the Buffy fandom, something I'd never done before and haven't done since.