BTW, who did the voiceover of the "In every generation" speech at the beginning of the eps in Season 1?

connie - that was creepy announcer guy.

Creepy Announcer Guy--ah, some anonymous W&H flunky?

The Cindy stuff were hints, but not ones that added up to "My blood is EXACTLY the same as her blood." If that's what those moments were meant to convey (even if only after the fact) they weren't enough to make it NOT AN ASSPULL.

imo

Creepy Announcer Guy--ah, some anonymous W&H flunky?

Worse, some anonymous WB flunky.

Actually, now that I think about it, all of the characters seemed pretty dang happy at the beginning of B vs D. Willow and Tara were together, out, and happy, and Willow hadn't gone overboard with the magic. Xander and Anya were together, happy, and probably boinking at least every other day (although Xander would get happier when he moved out of the basement.) Buffy and Riley's relationship hadn't gotten icky yet, and there was no little sister or sick mom to worry about yet. Riley was out of the Initiative. The friends had gotten over the split from season 4, and were pretty tight again. That scene on the beach was one of the few truly happy moments for the whole gang that I remember from the show.

The one exception was Giles (who, tellingly, wasn't on the beach with them.) He was all in turmoil and feeling obsolete as a Watcher. But, hey, can't win them all.

I never had a problem with the "our blood is the same" thing-it seemed to me that had been sufficiently foreshadowed. I could make an argument that they went back and forth over whether the portal would stay open or close once Dawn ran out of blood. But I won't because, hey not real science, so as far as I'm concerned it can operate however they needed it to.

I don't think season five onword ever matched the first four. After that we had plenty of good episodes (even some all time best eps). But I think from five on there were a lot higher percent of bad eps. (Still I admit - good and mediocre outnumbered the truly awful.) And the arcs for season five six and seven just were forced and made little sense. I also think season five onward suffered from arc-itis. That is ME would put out really bad eps with the excuse that they would make perfect sese in retrospect once the arc moved forward. Dude, if an episode stinks I don't care if it advances the season arc plot, or will give us a holy shit moment in retrospect. I want the episode on it's own to be well written. Just like I don't think lousy books are justified by an overall great trilogy. And I don't think lousy chapters are justifed even in a really good book.

Advance the arc, sure, if that pleases your heart. But make good television while doing it please.

And yeah, even 2nd rate Buffy was better than 98% of what else was on. I miss the show. But you know, that is not the standard I judge ME by. Sorry.

I agree, Gar. And, while I realise that things get pretty rushed during the shooting year, it does seem that small changes could have made the individual episode more entertaining and cohesive while still advancing the arc.

Hell, I think we managed to do it with Spiral. And most of what we did there was to shore up plot holes and keep characters more true.

I think what pissed me off most about S7, in retrospect, is what Joss all attempted to excuse in that filmforce interview: all the shit they dropped for one final battle he had pictured.

Well, you know, fuck that.

It's bad storytelling, it really is. If you know where you're going, you can still write towards your goal while not shortchanging the story. Hell, AtS did it (in my pointy head, YStorytellingMV).

WooHoo. Loads of potentials. Woot. Massive battle. Woot.

But Jeebus on a pogo stick, don't give me a long, drawn-out, meandering mess of crap because you think you've got a killer punchline.