maxwellperfect
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@maxwellperfect
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Post by maxwellperfect on Apr 18, 2017 21:11:01 GMT
The Riley/Adam season.
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Post by coldenhaulfield on Apr 23, 2017 16:18:58 GMT
It absolutely is down right horrific. That relationship was built on violence. It does have the unfortunate implications that a man who is abusive (physically and emotionally) can still change. That's a terrible message to send out to viewers. The scene where they bang with the building falling down around them or whatever is... pretty tough to watch.
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doivid
New Member
@doivid
Posts: 33
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Post by doivid on May 25, 2017 11:35:31 GMT
My candidates are 5, 6 and 7.
5 is just...strangely somewhat joyless. I don't know how to describe it, I go back and watch episodes and some are kinda fun and light even, but there's just something missing from the show. There's a flow or levity or w/e that is gone. Maybe that's necessary given the arc, but it kinda feels like it just lost its voice. It's still a really strong arc with amazing payoff, and some solid acting and necessary episodes, but it's just missing something about the show.
6 is all the obvious reasons. Tonally it's completely dead. They didn't even seem to try to really bring it back to life, they just said "hey we're a zombie show now let's embrace that." Like any other season, still some standout episodes. But overall it just doesn't work
7 tried to right the wrongs of season 6, even tried to get ambitious and out-do the strengths of season 5. It almost, almost worked the first 5 episodes, but then it crashed and burned into one of those shows that feels like 'work'. Buffy as a show always did a great job of not feeling like work, no episode was wasted, no exposition unearned, but not this time. A lot of it felt awkward, try-hard, and pointless. There were very few real payoffs, and the fact that the sick dynamic between Spike and Buffy had the only really genuine, organic payoff says a lot about what wrong went in season 7, very little of it good. I actually rewatched this recently and felt more forgiving toward it, but it still is just a bad season. It's like someone came in and tried to scrub away season 6 but some paint came off and then so did one whole side of the frame.
I'm gonna say it's a tossup between season 6 and 7. The awkwardness and lack of any effort to bring back vitality in season 6, and then the "hey guess what we're ourselves again let's go out with a bang!!!!!!" forced feeling of season 7 kind of put them on the same level.
I take a lot of issues with season 4 criticism tho. Yes, I'm not gonna argue the main villain plot wasn't weak, but Buffy has never been about having a perfect villain. Their villains either end up not being the main villain we thought (season 2), or they're kind of run of the mill and work because the strength of the actor & the dialogue (mayor). I think Season 4 tried some experiments and some of it didn't pan out. But it's kind of the all-star season for individual episodes, it has a decent arc for the troubles of college students (kind of an extension of high school is hell metaphor), the cast is in their prime as far as chemistry & humor goes, and honestly it's just fucking comfy. In a lot of the seasons you don't really catch your breath because so much is going on and so many new developments happen to push the plot forward, but season 4 kind of feels like you have time to relax and enjoy it. This is probably where the 'flow' I talked about in season 5 started to slow down, but at this point it's not an issue and kind of enhances the episodic feel of the season.
They only really needed 2 things to fix the season. I say leave the Adam thing alone for the most part, because he was never really important anyway other than to check that box for an unexpected big bad, but get someone better than Riley to give something better to the post-Angel buffy's love life plot, and keep walsh alive a bit longer. She added a lot to the tension of the season. Her death let a lot of steam out too early.
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