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."

Joss had me at Darla turning out to be the vamp and not the bimbeau she was with.

although admittedly they pushed the drug metaphor too hard

I managed to fanwank myself using the theory (I think it was Cindy's) that everyone grabbed on to the magic=crack as an excuse so they didn't have to face up with what was really going on (ie some deep-seeded personality issues for Willow). Unfortunately, while there's nothing in the text against that theory, there's not much there to support it either. If they'd gone that way in SOME way, it would have mitigated most of my problems with the way that storyline developed.

They had me with the title. I never saw the film, but I remember even back thenm laughing with delight at the title. In the early days I always used to think that if you couldn't see why it was a truly inspired title, you probably wouldn't like the show...

And the magic-as-crack thing was such a mistake. It was needless - Willow's insecurity and thus need to feel powerful, arrogance about magic and capacity for selfdestructive anger when she's upset are deep, established character points as far back as season 3. It's totally in character that she'd overuse magic when life got hard, and that she'd go off the deep end with it in extremis.