Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Third Season (Slim Set)
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Movie Reviews of Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Third Season (Slim Set)
Movie Review: the season that started my addiction
Summary: 5 Stars
my roommate...oh so many years ago...first got me hooked to the rediculous 'buffy the vampire slayer'.... are you kidding? people actually watch that show who are over the age of 12? Yes. And I am one of them. the convert.Movie Review: Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season Three
Summary: 5 Stars
Show: Buffy leaves Sunnydale. Angel is banished to hell. The Scoobies are left on their own? Where do we go from here? After the brilliance of season two, where would "Buffy" go next? The answer lied in season three, not only the best "Buffy" season ever, but the finest season of ANY television show EVER! Yes, season three was that good! The brillaince is still here in spades. Season three had everything any televsion show could ask for. Buffy still continues to slay vampires, Angel returns from hell, Willow is becoming more serious about her magic studies, Xander is still Xander, and Giles is still Giles. This season also sees the introductions of Wesley Wyndham-Price (Alexis Denisof), Anya (Emma Caulfield) and THE MAYOR. Last, but certainly not least, FAITH (Eliza Dushku) makes her debut. This season also contains some of the series' finest hours, including "Amends," "The Wish," "Faith, Hope, And Trick," "Lovers Walk," "Bad Girls," "Consequences," "Doppelgangland," and "Graduation Day (Parts I & II)." We also see the departures of Angel and Cordelia as they head off into spin-off land. The season comes to a thrilling climax when the entire school battles the mayor in "Graduation Day Part II," followed by Buffy destroying Sunnydale High. This is an amazing season, and should not be missed. These lines sum it up:
Oz: "Take a moment to reflect. We survived."
Buffy: "Yeah, that was a pretty tough fight."
Oz: "No, we survived high school."
Here each episode will be rated. A star (*) means that episode is a must-see. (Ten Million/5)
1. Anne - (4.5/5)
2. Dead Man's Party - (4.5/5)
3. Faith, Hope, & Trick - (6/5)*
4. Beauty and the Beasts - (4/5)
5. Homecoming - (4.5/5)
6. Band Candy - (5/5)*
7. Revelations - (4.5/5)
8. Lover's Walk - (6/5)*
9. The Wish - (6/5)*
10. Amends - (6/5)*
11. Gingerbread - (4.5/5)
12. Helpless - (6/5)*
13. The Zeppo - (5/5)*
14. Bad Girls - (7/5)*
15. Consequences (10/5)*
16. Doplegangland - (10/5)*
17. Enemies - (6/5)*
18. Earshot - (5/5)*
19. Choices - (4.5/5)
20. The Prom - (5/5)*
21. Graduation Day (Parts I & II) - (20/5)*
Overall: This is the finest season of any television show ever. So, just buy this! Now, onto Season Four....
Movie Review: After Season Two's Perfection...
Summary: 5 Stars
...comes another great addition to the saga of Buffy Summers. While it isn't as emotional or dramatic as Season Two--(How could it be, Buffy had to kill the only man she ever loved!)--it definitely does not disappoint.
I believe that Season Three was all about challenges. I mean, everyone assumed that Buffy and Angel would live happily after once he came back, soul in tact... Wrong. Everyone believed that the Buffy and Giles dynamic would remain as it was... Wrong. All Slayers are good and fight evil? WRONG. Now, we all knew this one--Xander will remain a virgin forever... WRONG!
The thing that kept this Season alive was a lot less corny monsters (Ms. Praying Mantis from Season One, anyone?) and a lot more real drama. The focus of the Season was pretty much on the antagonistic relationship between two Slayers, Buffy and Faith, and how one of them plunges into the darkness to help a demon "ascend" to it's true power.
And that demon was the bad guy that this Season needed: Mayor Richard Wilkins III. This guy was on the surface a warm man, a nice fellow, and that made his true evil so disturbing. His relationships and actions seem so human, and it truly shows that villains have hearts too: Which is a scary thing.
We'll have a lot of treats in this season. A slayer fight, a love square (no, not triangle, but square in the very LEAST), a betrayal, a false betrayal, a death or two, and a reappearance from Spike.
Amazing season.
PS: Don't let Spike's picture on Disc Six fool you. He's only in one episode in the season.
9/10
Movie Review: "A proper bit of violence."
Summary: 5 Stars
It always warms the cuckles of me non-beating heart to watch Buffy's Third Season. I've always thought the 56 episodes which have our heroes based out of Sunnydale High School were the best this great series produced, because amidst all the humor and horror and high drama the show's writers always managed to pack in the everyday details of life at 17: the painful (and usually unsuccessful) quest for popularity and acceptance; the awkwardness of being almost-but-not-quite-grown up; the struggle to define your identity; the feeling that the system is stacked against you now and e'er shall be; and the love-triangles that inevitably stick a pointy end in somebody's ticker. The truth is always the best fiction, and while your high school may not have had vampires prowling the hallways, five will get ya ten it had Cordelia.
What distinguished Buffy from most other TV shows was its consistency. During these early years nearly every episode is an A and even the very occasional clunker usually has enough shiny moments to get a wink and a nod. In Season Three, only one outing really rang false for me - the forced and desultory "Dead Man's Party" - and even that its moments.
Of course no discussion of S 3 would be possible without talking about its twin heavies, Faith and Mayor Richard Wilkins III. As the unstable and vicious renegade Slayer, Eliza Dushku brings the kind of scene-stealing negative chemistry which the show's best story arcs always thrived on. Harry Groener, on the other hand, gave a brilliant and hilarious performance as a sort of evil Ned Flanders, whimsically gollying and aw-shucksing his way to demonhood. These two had a fine chemistry and an almost touching father-daughter dynamic which mirrored that of Buffy and Giles.
The best of the best:
"Homecoming" - Feeling like she's failed to make her mark at Sunnydale High, Buffy challenges Cordelia for the tiara unaware that a posse of mercenary killers is planning to make trophies of her and the newly-arrived Faith. Charisma Carpenter, whose character had softened somewhat while dating Xander, dusts off her hilariously cruel A-game bitchiness in response, and Xander and Willow finally, finally lock lips in a beautifully written and acted scene that caps two years of subtly increasing tension. This episode has the funniest ending since the "Oedipus" bit at the end of S 1's "The Puppet Show."
"Band Candy" - Writers use the term "Maguffin" to describe a plot device which furthers the story. In this case the Maguffin is possessed cocco-riffic chocolate bars which make adults revert back to their adolescence. The scenes between the dippy gum-chewing Joyce and a cigarette-smoking, Cockney-speaking Giles are absolutely hilarious. Armin Shimmerman is also great playing Snyder as the kid everybody loved to ditch.
"Lover's Walk" - James Marsters was in only one episode of this season, yet managed to wreak two seasons worth of havoc. By the time Spike leaves town, drunkenly bellowing out the lyrics to the Clash's rendition of Sinatra's "My Way", the relationship of every couple on the show is in ruins. This show has superb writing even by BtVS standards: Spike's cruelty, his drunken self pity and his surprisingly brilliant observations about love are all first class.
"The Wish" - This is a fantastic episode which, thanks to Cordelia, has our heroes living in an alternate universe where Buffy never came to Sunnydale and the Master reigns supreme. Mark Metcalf always played this character with a kind of whimsical genius and he's on the top of his game as the playfully evil supreme vampire. Nicky Brendon and Allyson Hannigan are scene-stealing as leather-clad vampire versions of their regular-world selves. Also the first appearance of Emma Caulfield's Anya.
"Amends" - The ghosts of Angelus' past victims, including Robia LaMorte's Jenny Calendar, show up to torment him on Christmas Eve, but all is not as it appears. I loved the showdown scenes between David Boreanaz and Anthony Head and also the tearjerker between Boreanaz and Sarah Gellar on the bluffs outside of town. Most Christmas episodes descend into schmaltz, but this one avoids that fate. Also marks the first appearance of, well, the First Evil, which returns as the Big Bad in Season Seven.
"The Zeppo" - Xander is probably my favorite character in the B-verse, and this clever episode, which intertwines real and red-herring plots, reminded me of why. Struggling to be taken seriously by his super-empowered friends, we follow Xander through "one of those days" that could only happen in Sunnydale.
"Doppelgangland" - A sort of sequel to "The Wish" has the alternate-universe Willow show up in Sunnydale to wreak havoc and make her alter-ego very, very uncomfortable. Great work by Allyson Hannigan as the God-isn't-it-great-to-be-evil sexually depraved vamp.
I also thought "Anne", "Helpless", "Earshot" and "The Prom" were very fine pieces of work, but really the season has too many great moments to list. The additions of Caulfield and Alexis Denisoff as Wesley Wyndam-Price were icing on a very big cake. So leave it to Oz to come up with the perfect epitaph for the first three seasons: "Guys, take a moment to deal with this. We survived."
Buffy: "It was a hell of a battle."
Oz: "Not the battle. High school."
Movie Review: Why so cheap?
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this show, but I'm trying to figure out why the seasons are so cheap right now. Is there something different about this set than the one previously released? I would like to know this before ordering any set. But recommend this season the most as Faith makes her first appearance!