Hey.....I thought you were dead!!!!! (Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 6 (DVD))

Member Name: sandemp

Product:	Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 6 (DVD)
Date:	22/02/05 (103 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Complete Boxset, Once More With Feeling

Disadvantages: Not 5.1 sound

As a big Buffy fan I eagerly awaited the sixth season DVD boxset, but wasn't particularly willing to pay the original asking price of £79.99. However, as soon as it was put on special offer at under £30 I placed my order and waited for the sound of it landing on my doormat.

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The packaging
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Season 6, as with seasons 2-5 is contained within an impressive book. Each disc has its own protective lined page. I've read a lot about how people don't like this, but I actually find it protects the discs very well, and although a little difficult to get the discs in and out to start with, it becomes much easier if they are watched as often as they are in this house. The book also contains a handy episode guide.

The book then slips neatly into a purple hued cardboard sleeve, which measures 16cm x 20cm x 2.5cm. This makes it too large to fit into a standard DVD rack, but when teamed up with the other seasons, makes a very nice display on a shelf.

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The DVDs
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The 22 episodes in the season are presented across 6 DVDs, along with over 6 hours of special features. The DVDs follow the purple theme, and are very attractive with a picture of Buffy in the foreground and a scene from the show in the background.

Once more the discs feature a fancy motion menu, which although very nice looking, does tend to get a tad annoying. I personally would prefer still menus and so get straight to the action.

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The Characters
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Unlike previous seasons of Buffy there are no new characters, which means that there is much more character development, even the “big bads” are characters that we've met before. However, for those who have never watched Buffy here are the main characters, in no particular order :

Buffy Summers – Played by Sarah Michelle Gellar

Buffy is the Vampire Slayer, plucked from her life as a cheerleader at the age of 15, she is the one girl chosen to help keep the world safe from vampires, demons and other creatures of the night. Although she has super strength, she died at the end of season 5.

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Willow Rosenberg – Played by Alyson Hannigan

Previously a book loving nerd, Willow is becoming a powerful wicca, in the arms of her true love Tara.

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Xander Harris – Played by Nicholas Brendon

The class clown in high school, Xander is unexpectedly successful in his chosen career of construction. Although, he has no special powers, Xander is extremely faithful to Buffy and co and is the unlikely hero of the season.

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Rupert Giles – Played by Anthony Stewart Head

Rupert was Buffy's watcher, who trained and advised her. As the show has progressed, he is still very much Buffy's mentor and now owns a Magic shop.

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Dawn Summers – Played by Michelle Trachtenberg

15 year old Dawn was originally a ball of energy sent to Buffy for protection in Season 5. Now human, she is accepted as Buffy's sister. She is a winging teenager, who has “grown up” in her sister's shadow.

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Anya – Played by Emma Caulfield

Anya is an ex-vengeance demon who lost her powers and became human way back in season 3. She is forthright and money grabbing, with a refreshing lack of social niceties. She and Xander have a very strange and at times comical relationship.

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Tara Maclay

Tara is Willows girlfriend. When we first met her, Tara was painfully shy, but she has slowly been accepted into the scoobie gang and helped Willow to hone her Wicca skills.

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Spike – Played by James Marsters

Spike, aka William the Bloody, is a bleached haired English vampire. He was, however, neutered by a government agency in season 4, and discovered he was in love with Buffy in season 5. He is now on the outskirts of the scoobie gang, and tries to help them fight evil.

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Jonathan Livingston – Played by Danny Strong

Jonathan has been a minor re-occurring character throughout previous seasons. He is the short kid that no-one ever notices. Not really evil, but easily led and wants to be noticed. Has joined up with Andrew and Warren, to become Buffy's Arch-nemesis's “The Evil Trio”. His speciality is spells.

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Warren Meers – Played by Adam Busch

Warren is another high school nerd, who definitely has a personality disorder, his speciality is robotics.

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Andrew Wells – Played by Tom Lenk

The final member of the evil trio. Andrew is yet another sad character whose speciality is raising demons.


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Season Overview
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I decided that it would give far too much away to give an episode by episode dissection, therefore I'm going to just give a short season overview.

The season begins with Scoobies trying to deal with the loss of Buffy, and then raising her from the dead. As Buffy tries to cope with life after death, she has to deal with a trio of nerds who decide they want to rule Sunnydale. As the season progresses the focus then turns to Willow and her increasing misuse of magic, and how tragedy turns her evil.

The main themes running through the season are :

Buffy coping with being torn out of heaven and returned to hell on earth.
Willows increasing mis-use of magic and its affect on those around her.
Spike and Buffy's increasingly twisted relationship, which ends in an attempted rape.
The power of love, whether it be family or friends.

My rating on storyline......9/10

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Two of the Best
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Two of the best episodes in this season (in my opinion) are :

Once More With Feeling

This is an all-dancing, all-singing episode. When Xander raises the Lord of the Dance the entire cast start singing out there true feelings.
Although it shouldn't have worked, it did. There was some fantastic (and not so) singing, and it allowed lots of loose ends to be tied up. I particularly liked the final song Where Do We Go From Here? as it summed up the whole season to date.

Tabula Rosa

Consumed with guilt over pulling Buffy out of heaven, Willow casts a spell to make her forget she was ever there. Unfortunately it goes wrong and the entire gang suffers from amnesia. This episode is packed with comedy.


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Special Features
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The boxset is packed full of special features including :

Commentaries on the following episodes, where the writer and/or producer explain their ideas on how the episode progressed.

* Bargaining
* Once More With Feeling
* Smashed
* Hell's Bells
* Normal Again
* Grave

Although these were very interesting, I don't think they would be watched more than once.

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Karaoke Sing-a-longs - These are the highlight of the special features, a chance to sing along to three of the songs featured in Once more with feeling.

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Behind the scenes of once more with feeling - A reasonably interesting look at the making of this episode.

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Academy of television arts and sciences panel discussion - Very boring, could not force myself to watch more than a few seconds of it.
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Buffy and Angels Trailers - Trailers for Seasons 2-5 of Buffy and 1-3 of Angel. Personally I find these a bit pointless.

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Behind the Scenes featurette “Buffy Goes To Work” - A look at Buffy in the workplace.

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Season 6 Overview - A look at how the writers, producers and stars felt the storyline progressed thoughout the season.

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Television with Bite - A documentary on how Buffy has progressed since the first dire movie. Very interesting and it's been interesting to watch.

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Out-takes - A montage of various out-takes from the season. I don't know about you but I love watching the actors making a fool of themselves.

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Easter Eggs - I must be a bit thick, because I've never been able to find these :-(

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My rating on special features 9/10....mostly useful and interesting with a couple of duds.

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Picture and Sound Quality
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Picture and sound quality throughout the season are excellent. My only complaint is that there is no 5.1 sound, which I think would give an even better viewing experience.


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Further Information
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Feature Running Time : 921 minutes.
Rating : 15
Region : 2 (PAL)
Languages : English
Subtitles : English for the hearing impaired, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish
Price : Lowest available on-line price is £29.99

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My Opinion
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My Overall rating 9/10.....

This is a dark season, that deals with far more grown-up issues than the previous ones. Some of the issues dealt with include rape, addiction, all consuming grief and the ethical issues surrounding the afterlife. Unlike previous seasons, I would not recommend allowing younger children to watch it, there are far to many adult themes.

I also felt I could connect quite well to many of the storylines running through this season, yes life is hard.

Anyhow, if you've already got the other seasons what are you waiting for, buy this now. But, if this would be your first journey into the world of Buffy, I would advise, saving a bit more money up and buying the complete Buffy boxset that is now available and contains all 7 seasons for £129.99.

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