Favorite Season

[burkle25]

What is your favorite overall season of Buffy?

and also pick your top 3 favorite episode from that season


.... I'm still debating

[Nina]

Season 2, that season has some very weak episodes ... but I've not really big problems with cheesy demons and the arc is so brilliant that season 2 will always be my favourite. The show was funny, heartbreaking, scary, beautiful and fresh ... the characters were well written and the ideas were original.

My favourite episodes are; Passion, Becoming 2 and Innocence. Those 3 episodes are not just my favourite season 2 episodes but also my favourite BtVS episodes. I love to watch Passion ... Angelus was on his best, the acting was amazing and the first major dead in the series. And I love the voice over. Becoming part 2 is still Buffy (the character) on her best for me and 'me' is my favourite moment in the whole series. Innocence is a masterpiece, incredibly hard to watch but it has everything what made Buffy great and I still think that this is the best that Joss ever wrote.

[Retrograde]

Controversial, my favourite is Season 7! Best three episodes being Chosen (of course), Selfless and Conversations With Dead People.

I just love this season, I love the whole arc of it all whilst still allowing for character development and standalones

[Rexx Raul]

I'm the crazy guy who likes season 6 the best. Three episodes would be Normal Again, Villains and Grave.

I think a season that's just built on consequences is the best. Buffy at her worst--the only time in the series that she wasn't able to defeat the threat to the world. Honestly, had she been the one to talk Willow down in Grave, then the whole season wouldn't have made sense, and season 6 would not be my favorite (it would be season 3).

[Kanten]

Season 2, Angelus ranks up at the top of my Big Bad list, there's just something plain unnerving about an enemy that takes time out to play mind games while plotting to destroy the world.

Also, we got Spike and Drusilla to have fun with.

[CaptainOats]

Season Seven is probably pretty close behind but the third season will probably always be my favourite. Faith brought so much to the show, and the plot lines were fantastic! Picking my three fav. episodes isn't hard at all.

1. Graduation Day (2)
2. Graduation Day (1)
3. The Prom

Three best episodes EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sueworld]

For me it was season 5. A beautifully written season, with a great villain and a simply fantastic story arc running through it. And of course the most fantastic last episode ever.

[Pandora's_Box]

It's still a bit of a toss-up between Season 6 and 7

But I'd say Season 7 for the same reasons than Retrograde, its amazing character development and the fact that we're dealing with adults.

My three favorite episodes are Chosen, Conversations With Dead People and Storyteller.

[?DarkWillow?]

Season 6. Always has been, always will be. But season 7 is great too. My favorite episodes of season 6 are OMWF, Tabula Rasa, Villains, and After Life. Season 7 has some really good ones too, my favorites being Conversations with Dead People, Storyteller, Chosen, and Selfless.

[BangelFan2202]

I wish I had a favorite season but I don't because every single season is unique.

[?DarkWillow?]

I agree with that^^....... But season 6 is still my favorite

[CanadianBtVSFan]

My favorite season would be season 3. It was a great season. Faith was a great character when she debuted and went evil for a bit near the end of the season. The battle in the last episode was pretty awesome.

My ranks of favorite seasons:

Season 3
Season 7
Season 5
Season 6
Season 4
Season 2
Season 1

[Bittersweettwit]

Mine changes all the time usually between Season 3 and 5. However at the moment my vote is on Season 3. I just love this season, the show is at it bests with practically every episode being an amazing one. We got some of the most unique episodes in Buffyverse history what with Helpless, The Wish, Gingerbread and Dopplegangland. The fight scenes between Buffy and Faith were amazing and to this day I think the "Graduation Day Part I" fight was one of the best in Buffyverse history. I enjoyed the Mayor as a villian he had layers and some really good lines.

So Season 3 would be my favourite with 5 being a close second.

[Gibbs505]

Season Seven is probably pretty close behind but the third season will probably always be my favourite. Faith brought so much to the show, and the plot lines were fantastic! Picking my three fav. episodes isn't hard at all.

1. Graduation Day (2)
2. Graduation Day (1)
3. The Prom

Three best episodes EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!

Add "Faith, Hope and Trick", "Band Candy' and "Doppelgangland" to the above! I almost forgot about "Earshot!"

[Retrograde]

I think a season that's just built on consequences is the best. Buffy at her worst--the only time in the series that she wasn't able to defeat the threat to the world. Honestly, had she been the one to talk Willow down in Grave, then the whole season wouldn't have made sense, and season 6 would not be my favorite (it would be season 3).

I never realised this was the only season that Buffy hadn't defeated the Big Bad - good to think about! I agree that a season built on consequences was really good, I think it was a healthy change and it set the tone to set up for the theme of Season 7 - adulthood and responsibility, plus the acceptance of evil but the knowledge it can be fought. Love it!

[Amuk]

Season 2. It's Buffy at it's purest: The BtVS metaphor given its first full season to work with. Yes, they waste a couple of episodes on drivel, but the season arc is the ideal exemplar of what Buffy was always supposed to be about (the horrors of high school externalized). And I disagree that The Gift is the best season finale. Sacrificing herself was amazing, but sacrificing Angel knowing he had his soul back was harder. I think that ep's one of the single best hours of TV ever made.

Season 3 comes next. I adore the Mayor as a villian. And Faith.

Season 5 is third. It wasn't until recently but I just finished watching it again with a friend who's making her first trip through the series and I acquired a new appreciation for it.

Season 1 is fourth. It has the highest concentration of throwaway monster-of-the-week episodes, but it's also very dear to me. And the Master is a marvelous villain.

Season 7 is fifth. They did a nice job overall of setting up the end of the series, but there are some missteps along the way.

Season 4 is sixth. I pretty much hate the Initiative. But Hush and Restless are friggin' brilliant.

Season 6 barely comes in last behind 4. It has some great moments (Normal Again) but the Trio are weak and, while the Darth Rosenberg mini-arc at the end is great, most of the season shows the effect of Joss spending all his 'Buffy time' on the musical while also making two other shows.

[helloagain]

Season 3 is my favorite pretty much because Faith is introduced. Plus, it's when Anya first comes into the picture and she became one of my favorite characters. My three favorite episodes would have to be:

-Graduation Day 1: The Faith/Buffy fight is one of the best.
-Graduation Day 2: The student body taking on the Mayor was awesome. Especially Wes getting knocked out and Harmony getting turned.
-The Wish: First look at Anya and how messed up the world could have been.

[?DarkWillow?]

I love season 3 as well, it's great too. I swear, everytime I watch the big fight scene in "GD Pt. 2" , I always tear up and I have no idea why! It's weird, I just feel kinda moved by how they all band together to fight the Mayor. It's very cool. I also always cry when Buffy gets her award in "The Prom"! The first time I saw it, I was like "YEAH GO BUFFY I'M SO PROUD OF YOU!" lol!
Oh, and when Xander proposes to Anya in "The Gift", I cry too. When I watched it with my cousin, I started crying and saying stuff like "He's so grown up! I'm so proud of him!". She looked at me like "What is wrong with you?"

[vampmogs]

I picked season three. I don't think any season matched it in terms of consistency, basically every episode was downright brilliant and even its weaker episodes were still far better than any of the weaker episodes from any other season. The whole season was just so tight, had so much energy and there seemed to be so much effort put into all the episodes, I just adore it.

I loved the Mayor I thought he was a brilliant big bad, and I loved Faith joining his side. Faith's one of my favourite characters, I find her very compelling and interesting to watch and her relationship with Buffy is easily my favourite of her relationships outside the close Scooby Circle. I don't think any of her romantic relationships were anywhere near as intriguing as Buffy/Faith personally. I thought it was fascinating seeing her turn, and I think scenes shared between Buffy/Faith were always very diverse and interesting. From their softer tender moments like when Faith comes to Buffy's door at Christmas eve in ?Amends' to Buffy and Faith staring each other down in ?Enemies.'

The cast that season was also my favourite out of any season. Sarah, Nick, Ally, Anthony, David, Seth and Charisma are all just wonderful talents and having them all together was marvellous IMO. I don't think the show ever matched the cast they had that year ever again. Probably helps that all of the main characters this season turned out to be my favourite characters overall, so it doesn't hurt seeing them all interact with each other.

It was just a superb season.. ?Anne' ?The Wish' ?Lovers Walk' ?Dopplegangland' ?The Zeppo' ?Earshot' ?Consequences' ?Bad Girls' ?Choices' ?The Prom' ?Graduation Day Part I & II' ?Homecoming' ? how is this season not fabulous with all of those stellar episodes? And yup, I even adore ?Amends' I thought it was brilliantly done and the First was wonderful unlike in a certain seventh season which should remain nameless?

After season three I'd probably say season two because the Buffy/Angel/Angelus arc was probably their best arc in the whole series IMO, Dru and Spike were great and Xander's character especially was fantastic. After that I'm a tie between season four and season five. Season four was weaker in terms of an arc whereas season five was very tight, but the only thing that bothers me about season five is that there's most certainly a tonal shift in the series from that season onwards in comparison to the first to fourth season of the show. From lighting, set design, stunt work, scores.. everything changed, and generally I prefer the more gothic atomosphere pre-season five. So I can never decide between those two.

[kassyopeia]

To chip in from my current, slightly warped, script-reading perspective, season 3's stage instructions are absolutely hilarious. Two examples:

INT. MAIN CHAMBER - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT

It's enormous. And it's Hell. Part factory, part prison camp, with more 
than a little Spanish Inquisition thrown in. HUMAN PRISONERS work at 
hauling enormous stones, doing metal work, any and all demeaning 
and backbreaking labour. Along the tops of the huge concrete pillars, 
people have been hung up to die for crimes of one kind or another. 
Molten metal runs along gutters into metal vats. Everything is 
covered with a layer of grime. Carey and David K blow their entire 
budgets for the year, and Gareth can be seen in the corner weeping.

INSERT: BUFFY'S HAND

As it actually crushes the Snapple bottle.

Buffy smiles guilelessly at Giles. (While Miles files piles of tiles.)
(I'm very sorry.)

And the three-minute tracking shot in "Anne" (which, to my intense embarassment, I never noticed until seeing it mentioned in the script) is certainly the cinematographic highlight of the series so far.

Since I haven't got further than that, I can't compare it with the later seasons yet, though.