Gregg

I hate to say it--but I really hope this is the last season of BtVS.

I will miss seeing new episodes featuring these beloved characters every week, but I think "Showtime" demonstrated more clearly than ever that the writers have lost their touch and run out of ideas, and that many of the actors are bored and are essentially phoning in their performances.

Nicholas Brendan hardly seems to be there, SMG's performance has been very uneven. AH has been doing OK, but she hasn't been given much to work with. Only Marsters and Caulfield seem to really bring their characters to life anymore.

"Showtime" lacked all the qualities that used to make Buffy such a joy to watch. No humor (well, there's was Willow's "evil tastes kind of chalky" line, but that was about it), no witty dialogue, a "twist" that was actually really lame (Buffy wasn't running, she was leading the Vamp into a trap), etc., etc. And I don't understand how the invincible UberVamp suddenly became an above average, but beatable, foe.

This would have been the perfect opportunity to have Buffy follow up on her speech at the end of "Bring On the Night." She could have been a military leader, getting everybody to work together to defeat the UberVamp. But no, she still has to do it all herself.

Well, I'll stick it out to the end of the season, then probably try to forget about it. Pretty soon I'll have the DVDs for Seasons 1-6 (there were some really good episodes at the beginning of Season 6) so I'll have those to watch whenever I need a Buffy fix.

Gregg

Mediancat

To each their own, I suppose, but were you watching the same episode I was?

SMG's performance was fine, Nick Brendon was -- as usual -- not given enough to do, but what he did do was fine, Alyson Hannigan did a great job in the bedroom scene, and the guest stars have been kicking butt as well; "Eve" and Kennedy this ep were a lot of fun to watch.

Andrew provided plenty of humor (and again there was the Willow/Kennedy scene), I saw the twist coming but I didn't know how they'd set it up, and I think the reason Buffy did this solo was the reason stated in the ep: at this point, the Slayers-in-Training, except Kennedy, would have done nothing but gotten themselves killed. NOW I think she's ready to be a military leader.

As for the Ubervamp's sudden vulnerability, well, Buffy's proven in the past she can come back and beat enemies who pounded her earlier, so this wasn't outside the realm of all possibility.

I think this is one of the better seasons so far; crisp writing, more humor than last year, a better villain than season 4, more consistent than season 5 . . . it's not 2 or 3, but then what is?

Rob aka Mediancat