Buffy, The Vampire Slayer

OVERALL SEASON
VIDEO
AUDIO
EXTRAS
OVERALL

Six Discs
1.33:1 Full Frame
English Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Audio Commentary for "Reptile Boy," "What's My Line?" and "Innocence"
Joss Whedon Interviews
Monster Design Documentary
Set Design Documentary
Behind The Scenes Footage
Run Time: Approx 17 Hours
Fold Out

OVERALL SEASON RATING
Not Rated, but this season contains sex and violence the likes of which this show had never seen before. Still ranks about PG to PG-13, though. So just be careful with the kiddies.

This is the year Buffy hit its stride. And the year I came to the show. The first season, made up of twelve episodes, felt a little uneven and unsure of its footing. And why not? That's understandable. Uber-Geek God Joss Whedon was attempting to do something that has really only once ever worked, cultivate a successful TV show from a movie. (The other time it worked was of course Tom "Biff" Wilson's brilliant episode of Turner and Hooch) Something miraculous happened during season one, though. Despite the uneven quality and strange tonal shifts, a following grew out of these first ten or so hours. The problem became then that Whedon and the network's nervousness about success potential caused them to basically wrap up the story in those twelve episodes, killing off Mark Metcalf's (yes, that's right, Niedermeyer) ancient vampire The Master and having Buffy die for the first time. So, when the success came and the network ordered another season, they had to go back to the drawing board and plot out a whole new story arc. But as I said before, this is the one where it got really good.
As I mentioned in my review of the first season, I came to Buffy halfway through this season, right smack dab in the middle of the Angel arc for season two and this caused me to develop an irrational hate of him closely mirrored by Xander on the show. I wouldn't be able to appreciate Angel for the pathos that is his life until about midway through the third season, and wouldn't be able to understand how tragic his character arc is until re-watching the entire series.

But, hell, that's my hang-up and it shouldn't detract from your enjoyment whatsoever, a seasoned viewer such as you. And if you haven't watched the first season yet, go rent it for the love of God! Why would you even think of starting the show during the second season? I had to, my friends! You don't have to go that way!
Once again, really quickly, Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is the Slayer, the one girl in all the world to protect it from the forces of evil. She lives in Sunnydale, California with her mother Joyce (Kristine Sutherland.) The school librarian Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) is her Watcher, an ancient calling, assigned to the Slayer, charged with training and research. Buffy and Giles, along with her close friends (nicknamed "The Scooby Gang") Xander (Nicholas Brendan), Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Oz (Seth Green) and Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) and her ancient vampire boyfriend Angel (David Boreanaz) are all that stand between our world and certain apocalypse. I'll start here with individual episode reviews, but be forewarned, there are certain story arc spoilers to be found within, though no episode spoilers. (I'll try)

When She Was Bad
Buffy returns from a summer with her estranged father and is having dreams of The Master's return. Turns out the Anointed One (Andrew J Ferchland) is trying to resurrect him and this is causing the disturbance. Meanwhile, the dreams are making Buffy not act like herself. She becomes standoffish and selfish and angry, forcing an intervention and to deal with the Master's memory. While many regard this episode as a classic, I wish they'd left The Master in the first season, rather than bringing him into the second. The quality writing from Joss Whedon, however, saves what otherwise may have been a mediocre episode.

Some Assembly Required
The first of several attempts at a Frankenstein type story on Buffy finds body parts disappearing from the morgue and the cemetery and two students trying to build a girl. They need a living head though. Buffy and the Scoobs have to figure out who's causing this before someone loses their head. Meanwhile, Giles is trying to work up the nerve to ask computer teacher/techno-Pagan Jenny Calendar (Robia La Morte) on a date. The story feels a bit forced and the murder mystery type plot is recycled from the episode The Puppet Show in the first season. These first two episodes are more similar to the season that preceded it than those to come.

School Hard
As Sunnydale High prepares for Parent Teacher Night, a vampire named Spike (James Marsters) comes to town with his weak and insane girlfriend Drusilla (Juliet Landau). As Buffy is busily trying to keep the forces of evil at bay and assess what these two new foes might want, she's also forced to work double time to keep her mother away from Principal Snyder (Armin Shimerman), a man dying to tell Joyce about all the trouble her daughter is. This episode is a masterwork and can be credited for creating two characters that were supposed to be around for a handful of episodes (Spike and Dru) but were so memorable that they survived the whole season and in the case of Drusilla returned occasionally, in the case of Spike became a featured regular. Quite a bit of fun, especially Joyce's confrontation of Spike.

Inca Mummy Girl
This episode and the following, Reptile Boy, feel like throwbacks to the "Monster of the Week" type episodes that dominated the first season. This is okay, it's just not up to par with the subtlety that they did their later "MOW" episodes with. In this episode, a mummy from a traveling Egypt exhibit returns to life and decides to stay, but can only do so by sucking the life force out of others. The twist in this episode saves it from obscurity and makes it an enjoyable watch, if slightly sub-par from the rest of the season.

Reptile Boy
Another "MOW" episode revolving around another Buffy mainstay (and theme that it took them a while to get right) the evil demon worshipping frat boys. This is the first episode, however that gave Cordelia much to do and is perhaps responsible for starting her character on the path away from the cartoony bitch from the first season and morphing into the much more well rounded character she became as the series progressed (and she jumped ship to sister-show Angel.) The episode itself revolves around a snake thing living in the basement of a frat house and demanding sacrifices.

Halloween
The first truly brilliant episode of the season, and the beginning of the standard Buffy holiday episode, Halloween. An old friend of Giles' named Ethan Rayne (Robert Sachs) decides to stir up some trouble in Sunnydale by enchanting costumes at a local Halloween store. These costumes change the wearer into their costume, leading Buffy to become an eighteen hundreds countess, Willow becomes a ghost and Xander turns into a soldier. Even now in the seventh season references are being made to this episode or the ripple effects it caused, an impressive feat over five seasons later. The episode is also classic for Spike's wonderfully understated line upon noticing that everybody has become their costumes: "Well, this is just. . .neat."

Lie To Me
Billy Fordham, a friend of Buffy's from her life in LA arrives and they have cute (albeit slightly forced) nicknames for each other, Ford and Summers. This comes at a bad time as Xander is finally working up the nerve to ask Buffy out, he's intensely jealous of the new possible rival. Ford, it turns out, knows all about Buffy being the slayer. Meanwhile, a cult of vampire loving young men and women meet in an underground club, preparing to sacrifice themselves to become immortal. A heavy episode dealing with betrayal and stupidity is a prime example of how the show began to grow up. This episode also introduces the lovely and sweet Chantrelle, who would later show up in Season three's season premiere.

The Dark Age
For much of the first season, Giles was just "that stuffy Brit" who spent most of his screen time as either a caricature or knocked out. This episode follows up on Giles' "Ripper" past with Ethan Rayne. Some old friends of Giles' are dead, one killed on the library steps while attempting to contact him. We here find out that Giles had a dark past where he and several others, (Ethan included) dabbled in the black arts. The past has caught up. Very nice and can be pin-pointed as, if not the beginning, a significant step towards solidifying Anthony Stewart Head's Rupert Giles as one of the most well rounded and believable characters on television. Great.

What's My Line (Two Parts)
This two part episode kicked things up a notch between Buffy and the rapidly shaping up to be big bads Spike and Drusilla. Buffy, though, is having a crisis over what she will be allowed to do with the rest of her life as the gang goes through career week at school. Willow meets Oz, played by Seth Green, who rivals her for smarts and quirky wit. Spike calls forth a trio of bounty hunters called the Order of Turaka and send them after Buffy. Then, out of nowhere, a new slayer shows up. This slayer, Kendra, while offering Buffy an opportunity to hand the mantle of slayer over, makes her jealous and competitive. This is one of the great Buffy two episode arcs that pepper this season and is one of Marti Noxon's best outings as writer. If there was any doubt that Sid and Nancy look-alikes Spike and Dru were a danger, they shatter that thought here. The climactic battle is epic by the show's standards at that point and harkens towards things to come.

Ted
What an interesting guest star for this show. John Ritter shows up as Joyce Summers' new boyfriend that rubs Buffy entirely the wrong way. I'm conflicted about this episode. On the one hand, it has some truly brilliant dialogue and John Ritter is delightful in the role, smarmy and smiley and just a bit off. On the other, it comes off feeling quite a bit like one of season one's "message" episodes. On any other show this would be the kiss of death, but it's a testament to the good writing on Buffy that dealing with the "horrors" of someone else encroaching on an absent parent's territory comes off almost effortlessly. They were still finding their way, so things can be forgiven.

Bad Eggs
In this cheap Invasion of the Bodysnatchers clone, small demons are attaching to human hosts and forcing them to work for a large demon. Some of the Scooby gang may be affected. Ho hum. Luckily, this episode is elevated above its bad rip-off premise by great dialogue and an interesting monster. The best part of the episode would be Giles explanation to the media about what actually happened at the school. Priceless.

Surprise
Spike and Dru are trying to put an unstoppable demon back together as a surprise birthday present for Buffy. The Scooby gang plans a surprise party for their leader and something strange is going on with Jenny Calendar. This is the show that marks the seasonal shift, when it crosses over into its own true seasonal arc. It is one of the most realistic and honest in the show's run thus far and has such tender moments between Buffy and Angel after their battle with the Judge. Juliet Landau's Drusilla has begun to get so genuinely delightfully creepy and plays insanity so well. Surprise also draws Oz into the Scooby gang as a full fledged member.

Innocence
This was the first episode of Buffy I ever saw, and what an episode to be introduced to the show with. Written and directed by Joss "Why yes, I am a God" Whedon, it takes everything you think you've known and turns it away. Angel, after collapsing at the end of Surprise, appears to have gone bad again, losing his soul, the one bit of humanity in the vampire, and has become Angelus again. He taunts Buffy, hurting her, and plays with the gang in horrible ways. It's hard to be sympathetic to the Angel arc in this episode, but it adds so much depth to his character. Whedon takes a very simple theme with this episode, the high school idea that after a girl sleeps with a guy, he changes, and ramps that theme up to the highest degree. This is the prime example of the undercurrent theme in Buffy, flawless, effortless, brilliant.

Phases
Once Oz became a full-fledged member of the Scooby gang, it was time to let us see into his life. Of course, it being Sunnydale, the town perched upon the Hellmouth, Oz doesn't have normal high school problems. He has thematic problems. He's going through some changes, especially as he gets closer to Willow and the two begin dating. The literal changes he's going through, though, are not standard by any means. The phases that the title refers to are lunar phases. Oz is becoming a werewolf. Another one of those hit the nail on the head thematic episodes that simultaneously advances all the character arcs in the season and is a damned funny episode at the same time. Xander's confrontation of jock Larry is a recurring joke that'll show up again in season three and is brilliant.

Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered
The only Xander-centric episode in season two is the pinnacle of Buffy goofball episodes and this, along with The Zeppo in season three represent the greatest comedic achievements of a show that was already pretty damned funny. Xander and Cordelia's struggling relationship screeches to a halt when Cordelia's gang, lead by dingbat Harmony decides that since she's dating Xander she's no longer cool. Cordy dumps Xander who then decides to cast a love spell. Unfortunately the spell backfires. This episode is a prime example of something that's been lost in the last two seasons (six and seven) the fact that you can have a great standalone episode in the middle of an arc.

Passion
We return to the Angel arc as he begins to terrorize Buffy and her friends. He kills Willow's fish, he threatens to hurt Buffy's mom, he leaves charcoal drawings of people while they sleep. All the while, Giles is searching for a spell that would allow the invitation into their houses to be taken back. David Boreanaz, always great as Angel, is truly at his best here as demonic Angelus who simply enjoys to torment. Be warned, some of the most heartbreaking and terrible moments in the series, perhaps not equated until Season five's The Body are present in this episode. And the end, with Giles. . .well, that's all I'll say.

Killed By Death
Coming off of that powerful Arc episode to a Monster of the Week produces mixed feelings. That alone perhaps detracts from the episode. Buffy, sick with a debilitating flu, is stuck in the hospital. There she meets a group of children afraid to be alone because of a man coming to hurt them. This man, that the children think is death, is Der Kindestod, a demon that preys on children, sucking the life out of them. When her fever reaches 107, she finds that she too can see Der Kindestod and fight it. The episode is good, but the flashback death of Buffy's cousin feels like a plot point, something removed enough from Buffy that it'll never have to be dealt with again, only brought up for convenience. My other major complaint is that, with his fedora, long fingernails and trench coat, Der Kindestod bears more than a passing resemblance to Freddy Krueger in Wes Craven's New Nightmare.

I Only Have Eyes For You
This episode is a great achievement as it draws heavily from the arc, rapidly approaching its zenith and at the same time gives us a "monster of the week." In 1955, a particularly bad relationship between a student and a teacher ends in bloodshed on the night of the Sadie Hawkins dance. This leaves an imprint on the school and, in the present day, as the Sadie Hawkins dance approaches, it begins to replay itself, using whoever's convenient to do so. The first real "ghost" episode on Buffy plays wonderfully and ironically deals with the same theme of teacher/student romance that was playing out on Dawson's Creek at the same time. The episode boils down to advancing the story between Buffy and Angel at the end, once lovers and friends, now mortal enemies. How typical of high school relationships.

Go Fish
This is the season's low point, right before a blockbuster finale. Definitely the lull before the climax. Members of the swim team are turning into gilled fish-men and it's up to Xander to infiltrate the team and figure out why. Notable for bringing Xander and Cordy's relationship back on track (which is always good) and for featuring Jonathan (Danny Strong) in more than a "miscellaneous shocked student" type role. Jonathan's been around since the absolute beginning of the show (the unaired half hour pilot) and will go on to be much more important (part of the big bad Trio in season six) and it's always nice to see him used well. Willow interrogating him is fantastic.

The Becoming (Two Parts)
The first of several epic season finales written by Joss Whedon. The Angel arc comes to a head as he and Drusilla become hell bent on ending the world, using a statue of the demon Acathla to open a porthole to a hell dimension. We get to see through many flashbacks what Angel was like before he turned into a vampire and then what much of his life as Angelus was like. This is the height of Xander's dislike for Angel as he protests any attempts to regain Angel's soul. I agreed with him then and I still kinda do, after all, this is a man who's, well, done some very bad things to people we really loved. Cough, Giles, cough. What an incredible season finale raising the bar so far above the finale of season one that a lesser show's writers may not have been able to top it with the following season. Buffy did.

VIDEO QUALITY
As with the first season, Buffy's second was shot on 16mm and leaves us with a fairly grainy image. Again, the picture seems too dark for its own good as well as being muddy. The blacks are grayed and that never looks good on DVD. It is a bit of an improvement over the first, but not much. Buffy's second season is presented in its original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

AUDIO QUALITY
Like the Video Quality, the audio quality is a slight improvement over the first season, but really not that much. It's still being presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround that doesn't really surround. The one big improvement comes from the show itself, though, the cheesy stock horror music from the first season has been replaced with a more orchestral score. Christophe Beck's contribution to this show is never more apparent than with Buffy & Angel's theme from this season. And the score sounds great.

EXTRAS
First up, I'd say, are the commentaries. Joss Whedon's is the best, commenting on Innocence. Again, Whedon is humble and quiet but offers some very interesting insights into the episode and the evolution of the second season. We hear the most from Marti Noxon who provides commentary for What's My Line parts 1 & 2. She's friendly and fun and a bit flighty at times, but it's an enjoyable listen. The last commentary I watched and the one that could be done without perhaps is David Greenwalt's commentary on Reptile Boy which is, at times, "And now he. . ." It doesn't help that Reptile Boy isn't one of my favorite episodes. Next we have a whole mess of interviews that amount to little and the scripts for some of the episodes, but they're available in book form, so who's just gonna sit in front of their computer reading these. What most separates this set from the first are the Featurettes. "Designing Buffy" runs just over thirteen minutes and takes you through set design and the look of the show, detailing how it evolved into the second season. Then there's "A Buffy Bestiary" that's a half hour long and takes us through various villains on the show. Most interesting in this is seeing James Marsters (Spike) and Juliet Landau (Drusilla) talking together in their American accents rather than their British ones from the show. The last Featurette, a more general one is "Beauty and the Beasts." All these are very enjoyable if it still leaves one wishing for more. Then there are a few TV spots for the show rather than episode trailers. One hopes the features continue to increase exponentially as the series progresses.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
Buffy's second season, while not my absolute favorite of the series (that honor goes to season three) is some of the best television I have ever had the privileged to see and proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are some incredibly talented writers on staff at Joss Whedon's Mutant Enemy production company. This show, while still retaining the elements of a "high school show" quickly showed that, unlike Dawson's Creek, you can have mature relationships, pathos and melodrama without causing audience members to cringe and roll their eyes. As with the last season, if you're a fan, you likely already own this one, and at best buy it's still around $40 which makes it about half as much as that Sopranos third season boxed set you've been eyeing. And remember, the third season wasn't that great. Put that one down and pick up Buffy two and three. C'mon. One of us. . .One of us. . .One of us. . .