I'm not a big fan of ranking seasons of
the shows I like mostly because the
parameters for what works and what
doesn't
widely by seasoned of course some
objectively gel better than others as a
whole composition but I'm more in the
camp of I like how this season does X
and this season really dropped the ball
on why rather than judge them against
each other with some ultimate conclusion
about their quality but these kind of
debates persist and one trend that's
popped up repeatedly is a sort of
distaste for Buffy Season six there's a
few reasons for it but season six of
Buffy is pretty polarizing among fans
and understandably so it fluctuates
wildly between its highs and bizarre
lows the big bads are underwhelming and
then just gross the central
relationships are a mess and it all
builds up to maybe the most
controversial episode on the show seeing
red
overall watching it isn't an experience
most of us would describe as pleasant I
personally rarely rewatch it for fun if
at all at times it almost doesn't feel
like Buffy and to that I'd say exactly I
think that's the point
Buffy is a character driven saga season
5 represented the peak build-up of these
characters that we'd spent years with so
season 6 was about breaking them down
and by consequence the show with it
most of the Buffy finales to this point
- Restless could have felt like series
finales but the ending of season 5 feels
uniquely so to me it feels final and
I've even read more than one take saying
that the show should have ended there
and I wish I agreed the reasons I have
for wishing it aren't completely
emotional and completely personal when I
first watched the show and found myself
in a post season in six recovery it took
me three months to move on and watch
seven granted I was 16 season 5 has so
much of what makes Buffy memorable to me
like I said I'm always hesitant to call
any season a favorite but season 5 to me
has always felt like the most complete
incarnation of
the characters have come into their own
the relationships have matured and
flourished the arc is tight well paced
the themes all click and it ends with
devastating drama in perfect Buffy form
it all just works season 5 ends with
Buffy's death but everything else seems
to be in relative order Terra's healed
Xander and Anya are engaged there's
things to look forward to on the horizon
most of all they're safe and together
nothing is perfect to be sure in Buffy
nothing ever is
but Buffy's send-off feels like the
heroic ending she was always supposed to
get it's the way I'd like to leave it
season 5 boldly kills the title of the
show Buffy's journey is over as is ours
with her we can mourn her we can miss
her but she's found peace it's done the
shows about Buffy so when it brings her
back it's effectively resurrected itself
it's interesting to look at Season 5 & 6
paired together season 5 has the team at
their most archetypically heroic if it
as a team the big bad is a god there's
even Knights it's so good season 5
almost feels safe and yes I say this
with full knowledge of every other event
in the season but the main difference is
the problems here are largely external
something that can fight from the
outside but season 6 feels uneasy the
outside threats don't feel serious
sometimes they're laughable everything
dark that threatens to pull them apart
is internal the team playing at roles
they no longer know how to fill when
Buffy comes back wrong her friends who
previously orbited around her lack the
compass I think they were expecting
there's perhaps nothing more powerful
than the act of reassembling yourself
if we are the sum of choices woven into
a story we tell ourselves seeing that
story fall apart and figuring out where
to go next because things fall apart
they fall apart so hard you can't ever
put them back the way you are what's
especially significant in season six is
how it addresses this idea of narratives
the narrative of Buffy the show of
course but also the narrative of the
self we have the story about who we are
I'm in love I'm helping I'm the hero
and these aren't wronged necessarily
it's just that they can be unreliable
and I'd say the show makes its biggest
statement on the reliability of
narratives when it tears the buffybot
apart in its final scene the buffybot is
even dressed very much like Buffy
herself was and the gift the Buffy she
was before she died that Buffy quipping
before beating up a hell god with not
Mjolnir is gone it's ripped apart before
her eyes Buffy is not the action hero
the Scoobies are not her quirky
sidekicks anymore season six strips back
the action and heroics of the story we
knew leaving mostly just people it takes
these people we know trust and love and
shows them to us at their lowest points
and these come about not because of
external circumstances for the most part
but just because of the people they are
they're very complexity the reason we
love them so much is the destructive
impetus of the season and the result is
a season that feels more slice of life
than any other so much emphasis in
season six is put on the most rote bits
of adult life the team's worst internal
crises are juxtaposed with an almost
over saturation of the mundane the day's
creep slow and too bright brimming with
food and bills and not enough
high-stakes fantasy villains to distract
them so the focus isn't the perfunctory
Big Bad but human darkness itself
as weary as I am of unnecessarily gritty
realism that replaces actual satisfying
catharsis Buffy has always been a show
about difficult realities and Season six
is not just a pointless exercise and
edginess as passion of the nerd mentions
in many of his videos in Buffy like in
life there is no final achievement to
unlock where everything is good and done
we may get perfect moments but life goes
on but it's not all bleak there's
something significant for us here and I
think that's empathy if we can accept
that these people we know so intimately
like family can crash and burn like this
then we accept the same in ourselves I
think that's what compassion is
ultimately recognizing our own human
frailty in the mistakes of another we
grow most when we deliberately look
inward and the bummer about this is
we're usually forced to be introspective
when something has already gone terribly
wrong
but if our flaws never blew up in our
face we'd never have to confront them
like I said I don't often watch season
six for fun or at all and that's on me
when I do I can just feel the upcoming
storm on the horizon and a lot of it has
to do with Willow and Tara I found Buffy
at 15 and Willow and Tara were so
special to me at a very young critical
juncture in my life Tara's death was one
of those things that just became a part
of me to this day I still have very
visceral responses to the events at the
end of the season it's a wound that is
very real and very personal and I
understand that my misgivings about
rewatch 'iz are grounded in that wound
and I'm okay with that
which leads me to the one addendum I'll
make to my defense of season six is
necessity Tara's death is the one piece
of the season six tragedy that didn't
actually add anything it was a stepping
stone for another characters arc but it
didn't actually have anything new to say
except maybe something about the chaotic
unpredictability of death but that was
already covered a couple times it brings
Tara's character and her and willows
relationship to interesting things with
potential to a complete stop without
falling into gratuitous torture porn
watching a character suffer and
struggled well to me always be more
interesting than watching the die
a dead character has no more story to
tell
no more arcs more growth and Tara's
character already underutilized in the
show deserved much much more but Tara's
fridging aside season 6 gives us willows
descent into darkness one of the most
compelling arcs in the show and while
the metaphor for it was less than
elegant it was one of the most well set
up character payoffs we ever got to see
and that's what I'd say season six is
ultimately payoff to everything we've
seen thus far to the foreshadowing and
restless and fear itself
take it off
no I need it do you mind I'm talking to
my demon what the hell is wrong with you
ashamed of us your mother's trying her
guts out
I am destruction absolute although the
things we do to avoid fears instead of
confronting them those become season six
as made explicit in Restless the
Scoobies symbolized the metaphorical
parts of Buffy her heart her mind and
her spirit
obviously the Scoobies are individuals
in their own right with their own agency
but their metaphorical relationship to
her represents the way they help her
process the world so if this is the
emotional metaphor of the show Xander
cannot be Buffy's heart when his own is
torn over a decision he doesn't want to
make and then burdened by extreme guilt
and self-doubt willow can't be Buffy's
spirit if she's consumed with her need
for control and careening off a cliff of
emotional addiction so where their
strength was at its peak together and
the show most warm and fun to watch here
they fall apart this unraveling is such
a necessary addition that season six
brings to the show
that's what being human is it's
resilience and hope but it's also
neuroticism and paranoia and will I ever
be good enough and I don't want to feel
and I hate myself and these feelings can
provoke in us the range of choices we
take to cope to numb what a feel of
control and the idea of choice has
always been part of the show's
philosophical backbone at once the most
damning and redeeming thing about us
that whatever we might feel we can
always choose something so to this end
it's significant that almost every twist
in the spiral of the season is the
result of choices well if we go back to
the beginning it's about one the choice
to bring Buffy back to override her last
decision in this world so if our choices
can devastate our lives and those of
others like this
then our choices are also the only path
to healing and that path doesn't have to
feel good every step of the way that's
the thing
it probably won't the pain that you feel
only can heal by
[Music]
you have to go on
however you feel about spike his line
and once more with feeling is one of the
most significant in the series and is
all that matters is what we do levels of
yelling the Buffyverse thesis in your
face I think about this line all the
time that sometimes the path forward is
painful drudging but that's all life
really is healing isn't always
inspirational or poetic sometimes it's
just forward we'll all have our season
sixes at some point the times in our
lives when everything sort of collides
in that cosmic way that makes you think
someone must have it out for you or even
worse you conclude that this is all your
fault you've ruined everything so you
deserve to be miserable from their
self-hatred and self-pity become our
best friends self-hatred is those wheels
spinning unwilling to let us go instead
trapping us in an addicting cycle of
guilt that keeps us miserable and
immobile by showing us the scoobys at
their worst season six forces us to ask
can we understand them after all we've
seen by showing us our heroes like this
the show could start to feel cynical but
mostly I just find it kind in a way if
we all have the potential to become our
season six selves what does this mean as
usual the choice is up to us does this
validate better ideas of an uncaring
world where everyone can hurt and
disappoint us or we can disappoint
ourselves or does it mean we can
understand each other a bit better that
if the range of lukewarm to scalding hot
mess is a potential part of all of us
we're not alone in that and that even at
our worst we can be understood and maybe
that's why I like season six so much
these characters look most like us
conflicted and lost and hopeful like us
now I don't think this means we should
fetishize suffering or glorify our own
mistakes because that's just how you
grow it's just that this also
and that's okay to be human is to be a
series of contradictions we're all
capable of great compassion and great
selfishness we can give into destructive
impulses but we can also dig ourselves
out where we are doesn't define the
possibilities of where we can end up so
I think the show is asking us just to
understand and if we can do it for them
maybe we can do it for ourselves too