And when you can't make an episode good with Faith and Angelus? Time to hang up your spurs...

Hmm, it will definitely have to be an "agree to disagree" thing here, because I thought Faith and Angelus (and even more so, Faith and Wesley - typed Weasely at first, which is funny on any number of levels) were some of best parts of that season.

Steph - no. I was away when it was shown, and by the time I came back it was off BT.

And FB - I was thinking of Orpheus. The Wesley/Faith stuff was ace. In fact Wesley has been the sole reason I watch Angel (aside from residual 'verse loyalty - I'd watch a spinoff called Riley, Annointed & Kennedy - They Fight Crime if it came to it) for quite a while. Denisof is such an astonishing actor, and he always has foxy women.

Edit - and that, ladies and gentlemen, is what I call numberslutting. 3 posts back, #7777. I rule.

And FB - I was thinking of Orpheus.

I was refrencing that whole run of eps, myself. I thought Orpheus was a great ep (although a lot of the big fun was watching Faith "kicking the crap out of junior").

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.

That's funny, because that's actually one of the reasons I DON'T like S6. As it unfolded, I thought they were cribbing notes from my life as it actually happened (minus the depressing vampire sex). I was so unhappy that year in my real life, that it was just too much to look forward to the new BtVS episode each week (which always used to get my creative energies flowing) and then feel like I was being kicked in the gut repeatedly.

Also, I thought the writing was sub-par.

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'll agree that S6 portrayed depression very well. And it worked very well when it was just one of several story lines. But for several eps in the middle of the season, the show seemed built entirely around Buffy's depression -- certainly "Normal Again," probably "Doublemeat Palace" and "As You Were," maybe even "Gone" and "Dead Things."

Of those 5, "Dead Things" was the only one I really like. Although "Gone" did have the classic line, "You have chest hair?"

Buffistas, blowing the curve since 1999.

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.

It also seems to me that people who came to the show later, like Season 4+, tend to be bigger advocates of Season 6. This isn't universally true, I hasten to add, but I do see it a lot.

It also seems to me that people who came to the show later, like Season 4+, tend to be bigger advocates of Season 6. This isn't universally true, I hasten to add, but I do see it a lot.

On a related note, there seems to be a trend that whatever season you started watching is the favorite. It doesn't hold true for me (came in during 2, but 3 is my favorite and I prefer 4 to 2 just barely), and I like the later seasons a lot too.

Jim is, quite unnervingly, me. I watched from the first season, but season 3 is my favorite. (Joss had me at "I see you've seen the softer side of Sears," coupled with Buffy's befriending Willow.) I can never say, "They should have stopped after season 5," because I'll take any Buffy episode I can get, but the last two seasons seemed more tired and unfocused.

I had no problem with Buffy's depression (and yes, I've been depressed myself) and the magic as crack thing didn't really bother me. Willow had always been insecure and it seemed in character that she would get caught up in being powerful, although admittedly they pushed the drug metaphor too hard. It's just that the Trio didn't seem like worthy villains to me, and they were played too much for laughs. Also, I would have liked to see Buffy slowly learning to cope, rather than just having a "I want to live" epiphany at the end. Season 7 had, as everyone has noted, the too-many-Potentials problem and the why-can't-Kennedy-die-first problem, but even worse, it had not-Giles. I think it would have been better if he had literally phoned in his performance ("I've found three more Potentials and a surviving watcher, and we're going to hole up in a cave in France.") until the end. I also didn't buy Dawn's transformation from Whining Dawn to MarySue Dawn, and there was way too much Andrew for my taste. I liked him best in duct tape.

I watched from the first season, but season 3 is my favorite. (Joss had me at "I see you've seen the softer side of Sears," coupled with Buffy's befriending Willow.)

Joss had me at "Amy's a witch! No, wait, her mother's a witch! No, wait, they switched bodies! This show is cool."