As someone who does care, I thank you.

In defense of the growing up thing, that was supposed to be the theme of the season. (eta: ok, sentence that didn't come out how I meant it to. What I mean is something like no one on the show seemed to be handling their problems well/maturely, so, seen as part of that pattern, I can see it reading differently.)

My thoughts on S6 are mostly that it stayed in the same place too long, and lacked follow-through. I haven't gone back and watched it, but the way it replays in my head is: unhappy-unhappy-sexwithspikeunhappy (x 4)-unhappy-unhappy-tragedy-determinedface-feminine hygene commercial. And then, it's S7, which is a whole other kettle of fish I want to re-write.

I could probably deal better if I didn't think Willow's plot was seriously mishandled, so there was nothing to take my mind of the repetative dark of Buffy.

I have this theory, and I may be off-base here, but that people who have been or have people very close to them who have been clinically depressed tend to like S6 better than those of us who haven't been through that sort of thing.

Thank you.

Well, apologies to those who care.

Thank you.

I have this theory, and I may be off-base here, but that people who have been or have people very close to them who have been clinically depressed tend to like S6 better than those of us who haven't been through that sort of thing.

I've noticed the same thing. It's not the most universal of narratives, and I think it was hard for people who haven't been in the death spiral, or haven't been around people in the death spiral, to understand. Someone (Micole, maybe?) wrote a great essay on it a few months ago.

I just can't put myself behind Buffy/Spike because of the way he treats her and the obvious self-loathing it creates in Buffy.

Yeah, but that's good in my book, because I think it's kind of the point. Plus, the self-loathing was there beforehand and led to the sex which led to more self-loathing which led to...well, you know.

That said, all the Willow stuff is pretty ridiculous to me. Especially when we get into the juiced comments and Amy stealing sage and shaking like a junkie. I would have been far more interested in a Willow who gets carried away because she has always had problems being the sidekick and not the head honcho. Making the parallel to drug addiction just diluted it for me.

I think S6 could have gone darker as well.

And, I love the dead-eyed Buffy dumpster sex.

I love the darkness. Darkness and humor are what I'm all about. Heroism? Not so much.

And I would rank the seasons Buffy 2, Angel 2, Angel 4, Buffy 3, Buffy 4, Buffy 5, Buffy 6, Buffy 1, Angel 1, Buffy 7. I understand that S7 probably hangs together, but I agree with the person who said she still felt like she recognized the characters in S5. I spent large chunks of S7 wantign to beat up Boffy, and that's never good.

average season of Charmed

<loses all critical credibility whatsoever>

Dude, Charmed is good this year.

Really. They were smart enough to steal the bare bones of the Connor storyline, and are telling it from Connor's POV, and I'm extremely obsessed by the entire thing. You still have to ignore the stoopid spells and the parts where they're whining about boys, but the main arc of the season is excellent.

I dunno, LJ. There are really large bits in the middle that have nothing to do with whatsisname. I'm acutely aware of this, because it's all I'm looking for. They could have done and told his story long ago, but there's a lot of wacky misunderstanding and girls gone bad spell mishaps in between developments.

I thought I could never love anything more than BTVS S2/S3 (especially 3, my favorite of that show), but then Angel S4 came along and stole my heart, became my One True Season (of any show, ever).

There was good material in BTVS S6, and I felt for Buffy in her down time (I was so angry on her behalf because of the resurrection), but an entire season with a depressed protagonist was just a bummer to watch (for me). I think it would have been easier if they had taken Willow to a darker place - the setup for just that had been years in the making and then it lamed out at the end. I think that would have given me something to take my mind off of poor Buffy. As it was, I was trying to ignore Magic Crack and so the only story I really paid much mind to was Buffy's. And they could have used Xander's crisis better as well. Whereas many people see S7 as wasted potential, I think S6 is even worse because the arc seemed stronger in theory. S7 always seemed to have an arc problem to me - what does the First Evil want? How did Buffy stop it, exactly? What was the point of the ubervamps? None of that really held together for me. I get that Buffy had an arc to grow into the leader of the Scoobs, but the rest just seemed random.

My other big problem with S6 is the fan reaction. I never saw Buffy and Spike's relationship as anything but bad and destructive, but many people disagree with that and the wars that I saw over it (and did not want to be a part of) really turned me off from Buffy fandom for a while. It was just too polarizing and exhausting to witness.

There are really large bits in the middle that have nothing to do with whatsisname.

I'd have to look at episode recaps to be sure (because my TV-show recall is much less when I do not have spicy-brained analysis to read), but I wouldn't say there are large bits. Episodes that don't focus on it, certainly, but that's different. At a minimum, it (and the related Piper/Leo drama) are the most important storyline of the season.

Part of what's going on is that the writers seem to have changed their minds as to the character's identity a couple of times, probably due to HMC's pregnancy. They did a better job with it than I would have expected, but the seams still show in places.

there's a lot of wacky misunderstanding and girls gone bad spell mishaps in between developments.

Yeah, fair enough.

Maybe it's more accurate to say that it's a mediocre show with one very compelling storyline and some excellent performances at the moment than to say it's good. But it does have much pretty.