UK Mall 1 - Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Season 6 (Box Set 1) [1998]

It starts very well with the three episodes covering Buffys resurrection and the revelation of where she was spending the afterlife. But the next 3 episodes are all very so so. Things pick up significantly with the excellent musical episode 'Once More with Feeling' and the powerful Tabula Rasa. All three episodes on tape three are poor. The ability to get just the right balance of comedy, drama and horror seems to have been lost.

Main problems are the handling of Willows magic 'addiction', the drugs parallels are laid on far too heavily and the scenes very clichéd. Secondly are we supposed to take the three geeks seriously as the series enemy? It smacks too much of playing to the supposed target audience and is dangerously close to the ill advised x-files territory of series 4, and no they are not funny. Thirdly 2 significant characters are either gone (Giles), or much reduced (Tara), which upsets the balance of the programme.

This only leaves Buffys relationship with Spike to hold the thing together, while obviously upsetting to some fans it is the best thing about this series and the only thing making me want to start watching box set 2.

Bargaining Parts I & II (8/10)
A good way to start things off, I particularly liked the teaser sequence. Granted the Hellians were very poor, and the awfully lame "that thing" attempt at secrecy aside, a good episode with great performances by all the main cast.

Afterlife (9/10)
One of my personal favourites, very dark indeed, but also with a good bit of humour thrown in (chiefly from Emma Caulfield).

Flooded (6/10}
Highly filler-worthy ep. Not the best way to introduce the Trio at all, and the Mmm-fashnik demon was straight out of Season One. A nice idea to throw in the money worries to give it the series a bit of realism, but on the whole not brilliantly handled.

Life Serial (8/10)
Strong episode that takes a while to get into. I liked the idea of the tests and it was nice to see a good Buffy-only episode again. One thing that struck me about this episode was Tara. Why did she just leave Buffy like that? And does she talk about anything but Willow ever?

All The Way (4/10)
Poor. Other than the odd nice scene, very predictable and mundane. This ep seemed like an afterthought to me, as if they were determined to have at least Dawn-centric episode regardless of the actual plot.

Once More, With Feeling (10/10)
Absolutely brilliant. Great songs, great story. Everything just fitted so well in this episode. It would have been nice to see what Willow was thinking though, as she seemed to take rather a backseat throughout.

Tabula Rasa (10/10)
Another fantastic episode. Perfectly achieving the balance between drama and comedy. Buffy, Anya, Giles and Spike particularly stand out.

Smashed (6/10)
Could have been far better. The whole episode seemed to be marking time until the last ten minutes. There was the obligatory Spike's Chip Malfunction bit, the wholly unnecessary Xander-Anya research section all just building up to Willow and Buffy getting "smashed".

Wrecked (7/10)
Okay, now this episode had its ups and downs. Firstly, could the Willow-magic-drugs metaphor have been ANY more explicit? Much like Beer Bad, they couldn't seem to manage a more subtle post-Innocence Angelus-type bit of symbolism. Heavy-handed to the extreme. The Buffy-Spike thing seemed to be handled well and once again Xander and Anya seem to make an appearance just for the sake of it.

Gone (7/10)
Nice enough filler. The angsty-haircutting thing didn't work all that well, and Buffy's lines were poorly written and ridiculously overplayed. Willow seemed better in this episode though, far more likeable than at any time this season.

It starts very well with the three episodes covering Buffys resurrection and the revelation of where she was spending the afterlife. But the next 3 episodes are all very so so. Things pick up significantly with the excellent musical episode 'Once More with Feeling' and the powerful Tabula Rasa. All three episodes on tape three are poor. The ability to get just the right balance of comedy, drama and horror seems to have been lost.

Main problems are the handling of Willows magic 'addiction', the drugs parallels are laid on far too heavily and the scenes very clichéd. Secondly are we supposed to take the three geeks seriously as the series enemy? It smacks too much of playing to the supposed target audience and is dangerously close to the ill advised x-files territory of series 4, and no they are not funny. Thirdly 2 significant characters are either gone (Giles), or much reduced (Tara), which upsets the balance of the programme.

This only leaves Buffys relationship with Spike to hold the thing together, while obviously upsetting to some fans it is the best thing about this series and the only thing making me want to start watching box set 2.

Bargaining Parts I & II (8/10)
A good way to start things off, I particularly liked the teaser sequence. Granted the Hellians were very poor, and the awfully lame "that thing" attempt at secrecy aside, a good episode with great performances by all the main cast.

Afterlife (9/10)
One of my personal favourites, very dark indeed, but also with a good bit of humour thrown in (chiefly from Emma Caulfield).

Flooded (6/10}
Highly filler-worthy ep. Not the best way to introduce the Trio at all, and the Mmm-fashnik demon was straight out of Season One. A nice idea to throw in the money worries to give it the series a bit of realism, but on the whole not brilliantly handled.

Life Serial (8/10)
Strong episode that takes a while to get into. I liked the idea of the tests and it was nice to see a good Buffy-only episode again. One thing that struck me about this episode was Tara. Why did she just leave Buffy like that? And does she talk about anything but Willow ever?

All The Way (4/10)
Poor. Other than the odd nice scene, very predictable and mundane. This ep seemed like an afterthought to me, as if they were determined to have at least Dawn-centric episode regardless of the actual plot.

Once More, With Feeling (10/10)
Absolutely brilliant. Great songs, great story. Everything just fitted so well in this episode. It would have been nice to see what Willow was thinking though, as she seemed to take rather a backseat throughout.

Tabula Rasa (10/10)
Another fantastic episode. Perfectly achieving the balance between drama and comedy. Buffy, Anya, Giles and Spike particularly stand out.

Smashed (6/10)
Could have been far better. The whole episode seemed to be marking time until the last ten minutes. There was the obligatory Spike's Chip Malfunction bit, the wholly unnecessary Xander-Anya research section all just building up to Willow and Buffy getting "smashed".

Wrecked (7/10)
Okay, now this episode had its ups and downs. Firstly, could the Willow-magic-drugs metaphor have been ANY more explicit? Much like Beer Bad, they couldn't seem to manage a more subtle post-Innocence Angelus-type bit of symbolism. Heavy-handed to the extreme. The Buffy-Spike thing seemed to be handled well and once again Xander and Anya seem to make an appearance just for the sake of it.

Gone (7/10)
Nice enough filler. The angsty-haircutting thing didn't work all that well, and Buffy's lines were poorly written and ridiculously overplayed. Willow seemed better in this episode though, far more likeable than at any time this season.