Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season 6 Collection - Part 2 [1998]

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
The sixth season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the one a lot of people hated--the show's writers followed the logic of plot and character development into some gloomy places, especially in this, the season's second half. The way that Willow's interest in magic had grown into an excessive fascination with her own power was plausible enough, but to move the interest of this over to a crudely explicit analogy with addiction and rehab was a point where the show seemed to be underlining its usual deft, angst-ridden metaphors. The complicated relationship between Buffy and the bleached blond vampire Spike was far more successfully handled. Sarah Michelle Gellar offers sexual self-disgust as well as any other emotion she has had to perform and James Marsters is as elegantly ruthless and obsessive as ever.

This is a season in which chickens come home to roost: everything from the villainy of the three geeks to Xander's doubts about marriage come to a head, often--as in the case of the impressive wedding episode--through wildly dark humour. The estrangement of the characters from each other--a well-observed portrait of what happens to college pals in their early 20s--comes to a shocking head with the death of a major character and that death's apocalyptic consequences. The season ends on a consoling note which it has, by that point and in spite of imperfections, entirely earned. –Roz Kaveney

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Synopsis
More adventures with Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Features the episodes 'Doublemeat Palace', 'Dead Things', 'Older And Far Away', 'As You Were', 'Hell's Bells', 'Normal Again', 'Entropy', 'Seeing Red', 'Villians', 'Two To Go' and 'Grave'.

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From the Back Cover
Tape Four
Doublemeat Palace:When Buffy takes a job at a fast-food restaurant, she comes to believe that disappearing co-workers and the secret ingredient to the restaurant’s hamburger patties may be connected.

Dead Things: When Jonathan, Warren and Andrew accidentally kill a young woman. They concoct a plan to pin the death on Buffy.

Older and Far Away:Buffy suspects Dawn may be to blame when a spell of unknown origin traps partygoers inside Buffy’s house with a sword-wielding monster.

As You Were:Buffy’s old boyfriend, Riley Finn, shows up unexpectedly as he traces a demon about to hatch eggs that could wipe out Sunnydale.

Tape Five:
Hell’s Bells:Anya and Xander’s wedding is thrown into turmoil when a man claiming to be Xander’s future self turns up at the ceremony.

Normal Again:Warren, Jonathan and Andrew unleash a demon whose powers make Buffy believe that her friends are figments of her imagination.

Entropy:Anya returns to Sunnydale with vengeance on her mind… and ends up hurting Xander in a way she never expected.

Seeing Red:When magic crystals infuse Warren with superhuman strength, he and his friends embark on a spree – leading to a confrontation with Buffy that ends in tragedy. Tape Six:
Villains:When Willow embraces the black arts to avenge Tara’s death, she uses her enormous power to track down Warren – despite Buffy’s strong feelings about targeting humans.

Two To Go:Fuelled by powerful black magic, Willow targets Andrew and Jonathan for destruction – leading to a spectacular battle between Buffy and Willow; in Africa, Spike faces off against a seemingly unstoppable foe as he seeks to rid himself of the implant chip.

Grave: After sucking all the magical energy out of Giles, an incredibly powerful Willow sets off to destroy the world; meanwhile, Buffy and Dawn fight off deadly creatures after they’re trapped inside a pit.

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2004-06-27 rating:
Effective but very depressive set of episodes (spoilers)
Part 2 of the sixth season of "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" continues the themes of adult life and self-destruction introduced in Part 1. Season Six rubbed the fans up the wrong way because it was the Slayer and her friends who were the Big Bad this season, making wrong decisions, splitting apart and becoming weak to the point where the pathetic "Evil Trio" could actually pose a threat to them. Though it makes for depressing viewing sometimes, especially in filler episodes, it all eventually comes together in style.

The main characters continue to be well-fleshed out and are fun to watch, although Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg) and Tara (Amber Benson) are as good as left out for most of the action. Tara was a sweetly mellow presence, but never really developed far beyond her relationship with Willow (Alysson Hannigan). Sarah Michelle Gellar is good as Buffy, but she's overwhelmed by her supporting cast.

Nicholas Brendon is on stunning form as Xander, particularly in "Hell's Bells" where he is confronted, in many forms, with his insecurities over his decision to marry Anya (Emma Caufield). James Marsters is similarly good as Spike, as the vampire struggles with his conscience and his love/lust for the Slayer.

Then there is Adam Busch as Warren, the series's first on-running human villain. Embittered geeks are nothing new to "Buffy" and many have featured in one-off episodes throughout the series. But none have been explored to quite the same depth Warren has. Through Adam Busch's superb performance, Warren evolves from a bullied, sexually frustrated nerd to a misogynistic psychopath. Yet even as he sinks to bitterness and evil, his cluelessness never dissipates.

Yet the show belongs to Alysson Hannigan's Willow, who turns evil in the season's final episodes. Hannigan does well showing the conflicted, pained insecurities at Willow's core and her last face-off with Xander, as she attempts to end the world, has plenty of emotional power.

It's all very downbeat, and with the exception of the underrated "Doublemeat Palace", there is no levity or humour here. The result is a turgid, but still compelling watch.

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review by: tunafant date: 2003-07-27 rating:
Buffy The Vampire Slayer Is At It's Best!
the sixth season is my personal favourite. It begins brillianty. the Scooby gang are using the Buffy bot to fight deamons, but they know that she's not the real Buffy. So Willow has hatched a plan. Her, Xander, Anya and Tara are going to raise buffy from the dead. (Giles has gone to England, and Dawn and Spike don't know). So they raise her, but get interupted by a pack of deamons. buffy is forced to dig out of her own grave. She is left bloody and confused. She struggles to come to terms with life after death. We then learn that her friends tore her out of heaven.
Buffy seems a little less human then she once was (Spike can hit her) But this leads to romance,a nd Spike and Buffy sleep together. Xander eventually finds out about it,a fter Anya and Soike sleep togther. Willow and Tara splilt apart,a nd Tara gets sahot by Warren. Willow is very upset. She kills Warren, but eventually gets stopped by Xander.
this is a great season, and should not be missed.

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review by: date: 2003-06-27 rating:
THINK YOUR LIFES BAD........
I FELT, DARE I SAY, DISSAPOINTED WITH SEASON 6. WAS IT SPOILERS OR BAD WRITING. NO I THINK IT WAS THE DARKNESS. NOT IN A HORROR WAY, THATS WHY I LIKE THE SHOW. IT WAS THE DARKNESS OF LIFE . THIS YEAR WAS CALLED (BY CREATOR JOSS) "OH GROW UP ". SO WHEN YOU GROW UP EVERY THING FALLS APART. YEAH THANKS.
A LOT HAPPENDS THIS YEAR- AND MOST OF IT BAD. THE HIGHLIGHTS ARE THE EPISIODS "OLDER AND FAR AWAY", "NORMAL AGAIN"AND THE EPIC LAST 3 SHOWING US WILLOW IMBRACE THE DARKSIDE. THAT WAS SO COOL. ALONG WITH THE SPIKE AND BUFFY THING- ONE THING THEY DID DO IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION AND IT'S SHOCKING CLIMAX. KILLING OFF TARA WAS A BAD MOVE FOR ME. SHE WAS MY FAVOURTIE CHARACTER WITH SO MUCH POTIENTAIL WHICH WRITERS LOOKED OVER. TOO MANY RELATIOSHIP BROKE UP AND TOO MUCH CHANGE.BAD EP'S ARE "AS YOU WERE" AND BITS OF OTHER LIKE LACK OF BUFFYS USSUAL ORIGINALITY AND PURE WRITING. THE NERDS WERE COOL IN THEORY BUT LACKED A SPARK.
IN ALL A GOOD SEASON BUT IN NO MEANS THE BEST. EVEN THOUGH SOME EP'S ARE MY FAVES IT DID NOT GEL VERY WELL.

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review by: date: 2003-06-26 rating:
messy
The main thing that season 6 proves is the genius of Joss Whedon. He steps away from his creation for a series and the whole thing goes a bit wobbly. Don't get me wrong this is still way ahead of most television and all of its pale imitators but this series is just to flawed to be classic. Much has been made of the darkness of this series, I have no problem with that - series 2 wasn't exactly light - what I do have a problem with is the quality of the writing.

Firstly there are just too many plot lines competing for attention so that none really held my attention, is this about the (awful) Trio, Willow, or Buffy & Spike? Previous series had a strong central plot combined with sub plotting and standalone episodes all expertly balanced. This series was all over the place and the only good standalone episode was the one Joss Whedon wrote.

Secondly the Trio of geeks were a big mistake, they were never more than mildly amusing at the start and Warren transformation into superbaddy completely ridiculous.

Thirdly there is some truly awful scripting and plotting. The dialogue always one of the joys of Buffy only rarely sparkled. While some of the plot developments are incredibly clumsily handled, oh Tara is back with Willow, oh 1 episode later Tara is dead and Willow is back on the magic. While much as I missed Giles he had at least one to many exits this series; I'm leaving, I'm back but I'm leaving again, I'm back but I'm dying, oh actually I'm OK!!!

Why 4 stars then? Because the best bits are still some of the best things on television and the final confrontation between Xander and Willow was as powerful as anything the series has done - though I suspect only for long term fans, Xanders character was seriously undermined in this series.

Overall a disappointment compared too the high standards Buffy can achieve, for those that don't agree ask yourselves which was more shocking & moving, Taras death or Glory feeding of her mind in series 5?


review by: date: 2003-05-17 rating:
Underrated Buffy Season
Series six got a lot of criticism from regular Buffy fans, but looking back over it, its hard to understand why. It's a slight change in direction from previous seasons, and although the message is different it's no less valid. There are the usual episodes which are a slight let down, but this is inevitable in a series with such a high standard as Buffy. The majority of the episodes are very entertaining, thought provoking and moving. I haven't given it 5 stars because the humour of which Buffy used to be full of is almost obsolete and although it contains many good episodes, there are no stand outs as with many previous box sets (The Gift, Hush etc).

Doublemeat Palace - 4/10
Buffy gets a job in a burger bar, when employees are rapidly disappearing she suspects the secret ingredient is something more sinister than 'the meat process'. A clever attempt of satire towards the fast food industry, but it comes across as more silly than funny.
A very poor start to the set, this episode is aiming for humour and never quite hits the mark. It's generally acknowledged to be the worst episode in Buffy 's history, and although it improves with repeated viewing it is not memorable.

Dead Things - 10/10
A very dark and depressing episode which is very well written and acted. The main story line is Buffy trying to come to terms with her unhealthy, self-destructive relationship with Spike. All the scoobies are suffering and although it is a very Buffy/Spike centred episode, the pain of the others is evident too.

Older and Further Away - 6.5/10
The title is referring to Buffy, who, in another birthday disaster episode is growing apart from her friends. It's defiantly filler, despite revelling a story line that has unfolded for sometime.
There are some funny moments here, mainly from Xander, and occasionally Tara cryptically teasing Spike about his relationship with Buffy, but its hard to get involved in the story line and the viewer feels relatively detached throughout, a suitable episode to follow the intensity of 'Dead Things'.

As You Were 5/10
In the final let down episode of the season, we see Riley return to Sunnydale and while doing so he reminds Buffy she is much more than what she has become. It is not so much about moving on, as it is moving back. All the scoobies have made bad decisions recently especially Buffy and Willow, and here they are coming to terms with it and trying to get back on their feet. Of course the season isn't over yet so they will encounter more obstacles on the way.

Hells Bells 7/10
This improves considerably on repeated viewing. Each individual scene has something to offer. Xander and Anya's wedding does not go ahead which looks like the end of their relationship but things are looking up for Willow and Tara.

Normal Again 10/10
The best episode on the box set.
Buffy gets struck by a demon which gives her hallucinations, making her believe she is in a mental institution. Raising the issue of how do we know if the reality we experience is real?

Entropy 9/10
The only comic episode from this box set that achieves what it set out to do. It is dark, it is also very funny. Clever title for an episode showing 'Things fall apart, you can't ever put them back the way they were'

Seeing Red 8/10
Another well-written episode which is quite disturbing.

Villains 8/10 Two To Go 9/10 Grave 9/10
Three episodes that see Willow fall back into her magic addiction. Xander's speech at the end of Grave is wonderful, offering Willow his unconditional love - even if she kills him, telling her how much she has grown from 'crayon breaky Willow to Scary Veiny Willow'. Excellent acting from everyone, especially Alyson, reminding us why we love the show so much.

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