Reviewing Movies

We're not aiming for an intellectual high here, the series was cheap and
it must have seemed like a good idea at the time. By the present Season
5 I'd not seen it on TV previously. Gone is Seth Greene's Oz, Willow's
former guitar-playing love interest. She has a Wickan Female Soulmate
these days. Buffy continues her on again, off again relationship with
Riley who along with Nicholas Brendan's Zander add hunk status to the
show. Today both would require gym time to tighten those abs and pump
those pecs. In the clone episode we learn that Brendan the actor is not
the dimwit spaz he portraits as Zander. Boreanz' Angel departed for the
spin-off show but Spike continues to hover around the edges having had a
controller planted in his head that renders him harmless. Out of the
blue Buffy has a younger sister who is planted in the show this season
the storyline purporting that she's always been present. Giles, the
Slayer's Handler has opened a magic shop, needing a job now that the
gang have graduated from High School and the librarian gig is no longer
useful. The plot lines such as they are feature newly minted evil
creatures and Buffy begins brooding over her own mortality especially
with the illness of her mother.

Indeed this season in which Buffy reaches her twentieth birthday finds
her dealing with Adult Issues as well as the usual round of evil
critters. Finding a relationship that might lead to marriage and the
commitment issues that entails. Dealing with the death of her Mother.
Taking responsibility for her younger sister. Going to University.

In a storyline that turns this TV Series into more of a mini-series
Buffy faces off with an evil female goddess against whom her slaying
prowess is powerless. That this goddess has an alter ego the drop dead
gorgeous Ben, the intern, adds yet another dimension to the story.
Handsome hunks in drag anyone?

As Twilight has shown vampire lore and fantasy series in general make up
the rules as they go along. As end of season cliff-hangers go killing
off the principal character in the last show of the season is a new
high. Having a stunt double is one thing but having her play an
animatronic double is another. TV Series have brought irreplaceable
characters back from the dead with no explanation before but using a
wiccan ceremony to do so on screen seems extreme. At least when one owns
the entire series on DVD one is spared the suspense of waiting an entire
summer to find out.