See, I didn't recognize Willow in S7 either. I loved her in Villains (enough to forget the crack metaphor almost entirely, if only for that 40 minutes), but after that she was never my Willow ever again

This may make all the difference. I thought that when they actually gave her something to do in season 7, "Conversations with Dead People" for example, she was fine. I just think like the rest of the core Scoobs they didn't do enough with her.

Buffy, the second-tier Scoobs and the bad guys got the majority of the worthwhile moments season 7, IMO.

Dude, I'm workin' in the other room.

But you have a computer in every room.

Only reason you're seeing me now is that I had to stretch my hips.

Mmmmm, Ple's stretchy hips. Do your joints feel loose and gelid yet?

Buffy, the second-tier Scoobs and the bad guys got the majority of the worthwhile moments season 7, IMO.

Second tier scoobs being Anya and Andrew and I loved the episodes that focused on them. After Xander, the character that got the short end of the stick was probably Dawn. I've mentioned it before, but there were lots of little lines that were lost between shooting script and final show that would've made her character much more interesting.

Another reason I prefer AtS to BtVS is that by S7 Buffy, the only one of the main characters I really cared about was Buffy herself.

I liked all the main characters on Angel, and even Spike went from being the wholly annoying waste of space he was in S7 to tolerable, though sadly overused. (Balance, people. Treat him as salt. Use with caution to enhance, but don't pour all over the place, because then it's overpowering and detracts from the nuances of the other ingredients.)

(Especially if your arc ends up depending on the other ingredients, which have been simply background in the overwhelming rush of sodium.)

Mmmmm, Ple's stretchy hips. Do your joints feel loose and gelid yet?

My joints, always prone to locking and having Issues, are worse than ever, and at times it's bad enough that I have trouble walking more than a few feet without pain, actually.

My joints, always prone to locking and having Issues, are worse than ever, and at times it's bad enough that I have trouble walking more than a few feet without pain, actually.

This is not ideal. I'm willing to come up and cart you around by dolly if you like. There may be bungee cords involved though.

Second tier scoobs being Anya and Andrew and I loved the episodes that focused on them.

I'd add Spike (there was too much, but still some good moments), Faith and Prinicpal Wood in there. Yeah, they didn't do much with Dawn either but that was, sadly, not a new development.

There may be bungee cords involved though.

You forget, she only tops.

Well that was the whole problem with season 7 in a nutshell. I mean, the potentials were the most obvious example, but on the whole, down to my beloved Buffy herself, it was too much static to noise. The potentials took away from the established cast. The second stringers of the established cast took away from the core four. The core four could have been any random people with those names. Characterization took a nose dive. And Buffy took away from herself. The missed opportunities (like the FE appearing as Buffy and tricking others) were glaring. There was confusion that didn't add to anything in the end (Memorex!Giles, and Memorex!Joyce!FE).

Hec pretty much said what I wanted, with the exception that The Girl In Question in its deliberate hamfisted rape of the mythos, is singlehandedly worse than any 5 of the worst Buffy episodes.

Buffy was never boring, even when it was bad. Angel I found - and this is where I think Lost is going to lose me, btw - monotone. It was always on the same note of despair livened with wackiness. And it rarely connected with real emotional scenarios like Buffy did.