"high school is hell" metaphor working well to provide cohesive tapestry of main arc and subplots.

I know it's *the* cliche, but in rewatching the eps in order it has struck me just how much this is true. The villian was usually B plot-- sort of a driving force to create the conflicts of high school, but not the singular conflict of an episode. E.g., parent-teacher night horror is heightened by Spike; career day, the same.

Yeah, the cheerleader ep was on yesterday, and when Giles said, "It was my first casting," I yelled, "Liar!" I fanwank it it into him having told himself that he'd never mess with magic again after Ethan and the rest.

Well, technically he and Ethan were summoning so maybe he was compartmentalising his magic use. t /fanwanking

edit - connie I just sent you an e-mail. The ironing is delicious.

Elena--insent. The rooster crows at noon.

In general, although I love to watch season 1, all of it, I am conscious - in rewatch - that I probably wouldn't have stuck with the show had I started watching then. I am also conscious of this feeling that the writers, directors, and actors were constantly adjusting (as in fine tuning) pretty much everything.

I think most Buffy fans who didn't see S1 the first time around, would have stuck with it if they had. It was just so different and there was nothing else to compare it to.

In my mind (it's kind of silly), I rank and separate the seasons by the look of the show. They switched the film they used after S2 and I've never gotten used to it (I know this is stupid, but S3-5 look slightly too cinematic and "good" to me. I like the cramped and dark version of BtVS.) Seasons 3 through 5 seem very bright and pretty, and 6 & 7 seem sort of amateurish (except for the Whedon episodes). Especially this year, the lighting and the shots on BtVS were really uninspired.

The way the show looked did kind of relate to the stories. S1 & 2 episodes were constantly trying something new, and they hadn't worked out all the kinks yet, but it was exciting. The stories and arcs for S3-5 were polished, professional, and scope-y. S6 & 7 were all over the map--really uneven, and in my sometimes bitter opinion, coasting on the success of the first 5 years.

So, I don't think it relates to the actual quality of the seasons, but I rank 2 first (and I consider S1 as an adjunct to S2), then 3, 4, & 5 tie for second place (although that can change depending on my mood), then there's 6, and then there's 7.

Maysa, you may have just explained something that ocurred to me before about the cinematography. Back in Season 1 and (to a lesser extent) Season 2, there were a lot of darkly-shot scenes, but they were high contrast dramatic dark where you could still tell what was going on. Later seasons got away from the dark a lot of the time (I believe I've made comments about keylights following Our Heroine on her patrols through the graveyards), and scenes that were shot in low light tended to have everything fade into obscurity.

3,6,5,2,4,7,1

8675309

BWAH!

Holy Crap, I just heard that song last night on Sams Club radio at work. Twice.