Okay, who is opening up their PayPal account for our collection to fund Frank to completely re-do season 5? Most of the cast must be available.

For my next trick, I will reduce the amount of Buffy/Angel schmoop-angst in season 3 by turning THE WISH into a four episode mini-arc that you're not sure the show is ever going to come back from...

For my next trick, I will reduce the amount of Buffy/Angel schmoop-angst in season 3 by turning THE WISH into a four episode mini-arc that you're not sure the show is ever going to come back from...

Hmm, could be cool. I think your Riley is Ben plot switch is excellent, and I love The Wish with a deep and abiding passion, so you may be on to something. However, I'm not sure Season 3 needs much tinkering. It is about as good as it gets, in my view. S 5/6, way way not so much.

In agreement here. The melodramatic schmoop was the one thing I didn't like about Season 3, but I'm not confident in anyone's ability to remove it and come up with something better than what Joss aired.

All Nonian is saying is that Buffy's one true love is Buffy.

Or that Buffy's going to live forever. Which, with two returns from being Mostly Dead and one from being REALLY, REALLY Dead, is perhaps not that ridiculous an idea.

However, I'm not sure Season 3 needs much tinkering.

No, that's probably true - even stand-alone/MOTW episodes beat season 2, which had close to as good an arc (IMO). But I thought it would be cool if they did enough in the WISH-verse to think that the show might be doing a complete reset.

The general pacing outline for the arc would be:

1st episode ends with Cordelia finding out that Xander and Willow are vamps

2nd episode ends with Cordelia getting killed by Xander and Willow

3rd episode ends with Buffy arriving in Sunnydale

4th episode ends the arc as in THE WISH.

The big questions are (a) could it have sustained a four episode expansion, (b) would people have been pissed about a de-reset at the end of the 4th episode the way they wouldn't at the end of a single episode, and (c) which three episodes would get yanked to make it all fit.

I think they could have pulled off (a) by bringing back a few more characters, like Darla and Jesse who go unmentioned but could easily still be around. Maybe even Spike but they'd need to figure out why Dru isn't with him (maybe Angel took her out before he got all puppy-fied).

(b) is a toughie because there's no way to please everyone. Maybe making it a two-episode arc (reset my above eps with 1st & 3rd coming at the half-hour marks), which would also take care of (c) as I think we could easily lose one episode from the season. However, I don't think two episodes would be enough to convince people that we might never be going back.

Idle thought: I wonder if somebody related to Evanescence is a Buffy fan. I just watched the "Going Under" video for the first time and lots of the visuals are very Buffy-like: people in the audience that basically look vamp-faced, for example, and the lead singer is dressed up so that she looks an incredibly large amount like Drusilla in a couple of shots. It was interesting.

The melodramatic schmoop served an important purpose (and I liked it--even the Christmas snow of Amends, yo!). It served to show (Angel, and the fans, if not Buffy) that their relationship, given their feels and desire for each other, was untenable, as long as Angel's soul hung in the ballast, and that to save himself, her life, and their love, he had to leave town.

I do not support any tinkering with season 3 (which I may like better than Sacred Season the Second).

Step off, Frank.

Step off, Frank.

Geez, Louise Cindy - just idle speculation. I think the major schmoop eps (Amends, Enemies, The Prom) covered the angst quotient more than enough. Even ME realized how absurd it was getting (The Zeppo). More than enough room for a little expansion on a good storyline.

Signed,

Always thought THE WISH felt a little rushed.

P.S. Season 3 is my favorite season as well (and I give 4 the nod ever so slightly over 2 because it has WAY better stand-alones).

(and I give 4 the nod ever so slightly over 2 because it has WAY better stand-alones).

Oh man, seriously. S4 has killer stand-alones. But yes, S3 is teh awesome. I don't think there's a single episode I don't like. I even like "Dead Man's Party" for the zombies. Okay, "Beauty and the Beasts" is a teensy bit on the low side. But on the average, it's a high-quality season, ep for ep.

But on the average, it's a high-quality season, ep for ep.

Yeah, but there are a few eps, "Choices" comes to mind, that weren't compelling in and of themselves, and just about everything worthwhile therein could have been farmed out to other episodes to replace extraneous schmoop. I'm not terribly fond of "Gingerbread", either, a few jokes aside. And, as you mentioned, "Beauty and the Beasts" - the Angel stuff and the Oz stuff are good, but the main point of the episode is WAY too on the nose.

the second claim in this story has to be bullshit, right? Given that their source is a paper given away on the tube:

[link]