What d'ya want? She was a junkie.

I think at the very start and the very end it was brilliant, and there were flashes of brilliance in the middle such as "Normal Again," "Dead Things," and most especially OMWF. But while I think the season as a whole was good from a critical standpoint, most of the rest wasn't enjoyable. And when it comes to rewatching, enjoyable keeps a hell of a lot better than critically good.

Honestly, it seems to me that once they got rolling a HUGE amount of the creative energy and resultant fun got sucked out of the middle of the season and concentrated in the musical.

Honestly, it seems to me that once they got rolling a HUGE amount of the creative energy and resultant fun got sucked out of the middle of the season and concentrated in the musical.

I agree with this. Up until Tabula Rasa, I was actually doing okay with the season on rewatch, despite some dislike, but then I hit the Smashed/Wrecked/Gone section, and it all went to hell.

I liked season 6 the first time around. I liked it when I rewatched select episodes between seasons 6 and 7. I couldn't wait to get the DVDs. Now I have had them for a week, and can't make myself start watching. It is a hard season, and a lot of the non-Buffista fandom really came close to ruining it for me.

This is me. The only ep I've watched so far is OMWF, twice. But I liked a lot of the season. Loved Life Serial, OMWF, Tabula Rasa, Normal Again, and Smashed. Also, Two to Go and Grave. So, most of the season. And I don't mind the season being so dark and depressing. I loved seasons 4/5 of AtS and I think they were just as dark, if not darker. But I can understand a lot of people not handling dark on Buffy. It wasn't what they thought of the series as being. Didn't help that S6 just reinforced S5, which was also a very dark season. Can't get much darker than committing suicide. So, you end on a downer and keep seeiming to go even deeper into a pit in S6. It was pretty unrelieved for quite a while. The only problem I have with S6 is that it was followed with S7. S7, while I liked it, didn't bring me back out of the (enjoyable to me) funk of S6. There wasn't enough funny to it and it started to take itself too seriously, like Joss was trying to prove a point and kept just missing it by an RCH. I really rather he had ended Buffy at S6 with the climbing out of the grave scene for Buffy. Then I could have wanked my way to a mucher fluffier fictional S7 of my own.

Joss was trying to prove a point and kept just missing it by an RCH

This is a unit of something with which I am not familiar.

Erm, P-C, it was a term used by a bunch of smart-assed Navy electronics techs in the day. It means by a very miniscule amount, like the thickness of a "red c--t hair."

How lovely.

Unfortunately, we got about 60 episodes of GetOutGetOut!GETOUT!Dawn

More like 5.

I'm in a list mood, and my current list of Best of Buffy episodes (by season) is:

1. Welcome to the Hellmouth (the Harvest, by contrast, was something of a letdown); The Pack.

2. Surprise, Passion, Becoming 1 and 2

3. Homecoming, Band Candy, Lover's Walk, The Zeppo, The Wish, Dopplegangland, Earshot, The Prom, Graduation 1 and 2

4. Wild At Heart, Something Blue, Pangs, Hush, Superstar, Restless

5. Fool For Love, The Body, Intervention, Spiral, The Gift

6. Bargaining Part 1, AfterLife, OMWF, Tabula Rasa, Dead Things, everything from Entropy to Grave

7. Beneath You, Selfless, CWDP, Storyteller, Chosen

I don't have the S6 DVDs yet, but plan to buy them purely out of love for OMWF and the Villians/Two to Go/Grave season-ender.

I think Dawn was an interestign idea, but she wasn't especially well-executed. But I think the problem laid more with excessive other storylines than with MT's acting -- she did a pretty good job, all things considered. But maybe I just haven't watched enough to notice the flouncing.

I'm excited to see the Dawn-enhanced reality in the cartoon series, if it ever happens.

I think Matt and Lee have hit the nail on the head regarding the season six rewatch, at least for me. A lot of it isn't enjoyable, and so while many of us found it good/interesting/important the first time around, it's a frigging downer to face it again. The beginning is hard. There's a stretch from OMWF (or AtW) through Smashed that is enjoyable. For me, from Wrecked through Doublemeat Palace is hardly worth watching (although my husband likes "Gone" so I enjoy watching it for his sake--he's a bit of a Fury fan, I think).

Facing S7 is probably going to be worse. I am glad the show ended how it did. I think it's appropriate to the premise of the series, and the emphasis that was usually put on the fact that it's not fair to expect one girl to give up her whole life. But glrggg.