Best of Buffy

After the absolute dumpster fire that is season 5 even the worst episodes of season 6 are welcome. We go from fighting a literal God to simply fighting some very annoying, but very human villains. I think this was an overcorrection but it was actually necessary in regrounding the series. Season 6 houses some of my most rewatched episodes and we will definitely list out which ones. Buffy season 6 is probably the most…disjointed season. There is a lot of good and a lot of just….off. We bring Buffy back from the dead and that really makes the series feel kind of confused.

Big Bad: The Three; A self appointed villain trio whose biggest threat to Buffy was their own stupidity. They attempt to use science and technology to mess with the slayer and they are somewhat successful, but humans vs slayer was never going to end well for them. It's definitely a more realistic villain story in the sense that if you knew someone had special powers and you also had a small penis then you would try and figure out a way to best them. Warren sucks and Willow killed him too slowly.

There is quite frankly a lot going on this season. Not only do we have to deal with Andrew, Warren and Jonathon, but Willow is addicted to magic and that leads to all kinds of upsetting consequences, Xander leaves Anya at the altar and we all hate that AND Tara dies in one of the most tragic deaths TV has ever put us through.

Of all the big bads that Buffy has faced, Warren is probably my most hated. Like obviously Andrew and Jonathon were there as well but they were really just stupid sidekicks. Warren is also a rapist which is proven in yet another episode Dead Things where after he attempts to rape his ex-girlfriend he ends up killing her. Willow might have gone a little dark and crazy when Warren killed Tara but killing him was obviously justified and satisfying. But also that flaying should have been in little strips and not all at once, he deserved to suffer.

Best Episodes:

Episode 7; Once More With Feeling; The musical episode to end all musical episodes. Done long before they were a regular thing, Once More With Feeling is also one of the only musical episodes in existence (of regular, non-musical shows) to feature entirely original music. Now not everyone’s voices are broadway caliber but this is my most rewatched episode of television. My father and I once made the drive from Sacramento to LA watching nothing but this episode.

Episode 8; Tabula Rasa; Immediately after Once More With Feeling this episode kind of brings everything to a head. All the conflict that was building between Willow and Tara, Willow and her magic addiction, Buffy confessing that she’s depressed all of it kind of hits a breaking point in this episode and it is a catalyst for the rest of the season.

Episode 16; Hell’s Bells: Look I really hate the content of this episode. Xander leaving Anya hurts and it sucks but honestly it's so in character that it makes sense. It sucks but the episode is so well written. Joss has always tried to get the audience to sympathize with Xander which was never going to work for anyone with brain cells because Xander is trash and leaving someone at the altar because someone showed you a vision is a garbage reason and Xander is the dumpster fire.

Overall Buffy season 6 is most definitely better than season 5 but that bar was pretty low. Once More With Feeling kind of saves the whole season, there was a lot of emotional weight to the season and I think that those moments are easily the best. One has to remember of course that there are always going to be some lesser episodes because this was a network show and the required amount of episodes will always kind of lessen the impact of the good ones.