Flaying, singing, incompetent but evil villains--that's entertainment.

Mental health issues--not so much.

Admittedly the end run of episodes was my favorite part. (All about Willow.)

Yeah, the two-part season finale blew me away. I'm interested to see how it'll stand up on the re-watch.

And amusing memory loss.

"A vampire with a soul? Oh my God. How lame is that?"

I wanted her to say something funny while chopping a demon's head off. Because I AM shallow that way, I will readily admit.

Oh, I wanted that too. And I found S6 compelling, but also a bit uncomfortable because it reminded me of times I left behind.

Oh, and "I'd like to test that theory."

Makes up for a lot.

Oh, and "I'd like to test that theory."

Makes up for a lot.

Hoo boy. I think I got up and cheered, or something.

I just watched "Dead Things," and while I have a little more to say than this, it's almost time for Tru Calling, so I'll just say this: the Buffy/Tara scene at the end is awesome. I love how she wants to have come back wrong so she can understand why she could possibly have ended up in this relationship with Spike. It's a very real feeling, and that's the kind of thing I like about these shows, the way they take supernatural events and use them to elicit actual human emotions. I was on the verge of being on the verge of tearing up, which is saying a lot for me.

Also, I was never a big Tara fan, but I'm beginning to like her because there's so little to dislike about her, compared to the other characters.

The random sheep at the Bronze in "Smashed" and the premise of "Older and Far Away" have me convinced that Drew Z. Greenberg is a fan of Buñuel's The Exterminating Angel.

Also, Christ is Dawn annoying.

(So Cecily and Halfrek have some kind of connection? ;-})

Cecily-Halfrek is one of the great unanswereds. Halfrek apparently recognized Spike at Buffy's birthday party, but I don't believe anything was ever followed up. I don't remember what the official statement is on the connection, if any.

I don't remember what the official statement is on the connection, if any.

Somewhere, I read that the official statement was they were the same person. I thought everyone else knew, so I was making the standard Ben-is-Glory joke.

I wanted them to be the same character. I even committed a short fanfic about it before Hell's Belles.

I think Cordelia/Angel could have worked had Greenwalt been gone.

I'm skeptical. I will admit that it seemed to briefly be workable when directly in Joss' hands, with both characters being annoyed and snarky and themselves within the context of acting out emotions imposed from without. But I don't think it would have been sustainable for a season or more, particularly in the hands of the lesser writers most of the time. I suspect that "Waiting in the Wings" was actually an outpouring of Joss' talent on a par with OMWF, only with most of the effort involved being invisibly spent pulling the episode out of the event horizon of Angel/Cordelia anti-chemistry, so that we got something that was merely good rather than the best Angel episode ever.

I do think that the primary culprit was ironically Greenwalt's affection for Cordelia, as she was systematically stripped of all the faults and tactlessness and affectionate but biting put-downs of her friends that made her such a wonderful character, in favor of out-of-character saintly benevolence and Buffy Suedom. But apparently there was a huge blind spot going on across the board, as Joss clearly greenlighted the changes and was taken aback at fan reaction, and Tim was right there running the show day-to-day.

And when did magic become something you could do just by waving your hand? This shit started in "Smashed," but now Willow can give English commands to cars and make them work? Why did they throw away five solid years of magic continuity?

Actually, this started back in Season 5 with the struggle against Glory, as Willow became so powerful that she could enforce her will on reality directly without all the ceremonies and talismans she used to need. It read as an organic progression to me. Magic--->controlled substance did not.

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.

This isn't universal though. I really liked Season 6 (though I agree that it wasn't as enjoyable as previous seasons due to the darker themes), and at that time had no first or secondhand experience with depression, though I think I subsequently went through a mild bout of the self-esteem eating monster last year.

As for Charmed, I watched it myself until it was bereft of both Shannon Doherty and Julian McMahon. I regard it as a guilty pleasure with a fair amount of good mixed in with the bad.