Synopsis:Show is in its' third successful season. Plot follows the trail of Buffy Summers a teenage vampire slayer and her friends and enemies as she lives out her senior year in highschool. Story starts with Buffy living in a motel where she ran away to somewhere in Los Angeles. She is forced to confront a demon who recruits bums, youths, other "hopeless" people to serve in his hellish lair in a different 'dimension' or reality that is bridged by a pool in a safehouse. After successfully defeating him, Buffy returns home. Her friends throw her a party, which ends up not even really being for her. A mask her mom had hung on a bedroom wall, attracts zombies which crash the party and kill people before the gang stops them, by destroying the mask. Enter, Faith the new slayer. Because Kendra died, the right to slayage passed on to Faith. Faith has some problems of her own in that she is still dealing with the emotional baggage of her watcher who was killed before her very eyes. Enter Mister Trick, a minion to the demon Kakistos, who killed Faith's watcher They end end up killing Kakistos and Trick joins forces with the Mayor.
Angel returns to Sunnydale from Hell. While Oz is a wherewolf the team tracks and finds a student who with a little chemistry whipped up a formula to make himself super-strong. The student is killed by Angel at the end of the episode. Buffy and Cordelia fight over the rights to Homecoming Queen and eventually lose out to each other. Trick and the Mayor devise a plan to drug the adults with candy to steal babies to sacrifice to a lizard demon. Their plan is foiled when Buffy sets the demon on fire. Trick promises to tangle with Buffy later before he takes off. While trying to prevent capture of a glove that gives its user a great deal of power the gang finds out about Angel. Faith's "watcher" turns out to be evil and is killed when Buffy severs the glove from her hand. Spike comes back for a brief interlude in which he bemoans his fate of Dru dumping him before coming to his senses and leaving town to torture Dru into loving him again. After seeing Xander and Willow kissing Cordelia wishes to the demon Anyanka who grants it shifting the world to an alternate universe where Buffy never came to Sunnydale. Giles saves the day by destroying Anyanka's power center and returns the world to normal, but by doing so forces Anyaka to retain human form.
Angel has bad visions brough on by some malevolent evil force that forces him to try and take his life but is stopped, by the snowfall on Christmas. Two demons pretending to be slain kids show up and almost get a riot mob to kill Buffy and Willow. Buffy copes with a slayer's right of passage cerimony when Giles injects here with muscle relaxants and she faces a vampire. She kills it, but because Giles assisted her he is relieved of his post. Xander flirts with danger when he unwittingly befriends some dead zombies, but in his process of beating them he has sex with Faith. Buffy and Faith go on a rampage after Faith killed the Mayor's assistant. The rampage is stopped by the New Watcher who attempts to take Faith in. She breaks loose and allies herself with the Mayor. Anyanka attempts to get her powercenter back causing Willow's double from the Hellworld to come to Sunnydale and reak havok before she is sent back.
Evaluation:This season has generated extremely mixed feelings. On the one hand I think that this show has pushed the limits to what even the producers expected when it first started. They have turned out some amazing episodes, from the top down. The writers, actors, stunt crews, special effect people, and all the others deserve a hearty congratulations and commendation for the work they have done. I am anxious to see the rest of the season unwind and anxious to see what will come to light.
This is why I'm conflicted when I say that I think the WB would do well
to end the show after Season 3. Now I know this will generate tremendous
criticism and I challenge and relish the upcoming battle. I'm a firm
believer that too much of a good thing ruins it, and that a succesful show
can be ruined by staying on the air far too long. So why would going
to four or five seasons be too long? Here are some reasons:
Looking at the three seasons as separate books you notice some interesting things. The first season dealt primarily with two things. Establishing the Buffy the Vampire slayer as a viable and workable plotline. They succeded. The second thing, showing that these actors could take on these roles and act them exceedingly well. They succeded. The second season established different things. This is where a great deal of character development and secondary character development occured. It separated the "sidekicks" from Buffy and established them as people, capable of carrying their own episode if necessary. In addition, it allowed the creative side to take vent by establishing evil villians, Spike and Dru, who helped define and create the mark by which future and succesive villians would be measured against. The second season also, showed alot of 'what if's?' Those are where we get to see what happens if this happens, how characters respond if that occurs, etc. The third season has shown us so far that any character can and will stand alone, comprising an entire episode with the others only as "sidekicks" for that period. In addition the third season is allowing time to focus more on the life of the characters. Note there is a distinction between the life of the characters and character development. Season one and two developed characters primarily through event driven cirumstance, Season three focuces more on life and personal driven ones.
Realistically, and I say that because no matter how fictious it is realisim
that draws us into every show and that keeps us hooked, there isn't much
more character development whether situational driven or internal and personal
driven ones left to exploit. Oh, I'll grant that you can do variation
on them, (for example what Willow's response would be to Oz cheating on
her) but it is essentially still the same. People only develop
so much so fast, and the truth of the matter is, we don't change all that
much because of our circumstances or over time. Our society is still
dealing with issues of human rights, ethnic equality, sexism, etc., etc.
We don't change that much, so any more character development encroaches
on that realism that draws us in.
It's not gauranteed, but nearly certain. A-Team, Knight Rider, Cheers,
Star Trek, Seinfield, Friends, Mad About You, The Cosby Show, X-Files,
etc., etc. Show that were incredible ratings grabbers but all did
or have begun the slow slide to telivision extinction. I not arguing
the quality of the shows, and I not comparing them to BTVS. But I
do use them to show that BTVS is not immune.
I won't deny that there are some. Can vampires breathe/suck blood debate? But at least in Season one and two they avoided having too many. Season three though is introducing more and they aren't going to be easy to explain away. If Angel spent eons in hell, how come he didn't age? What happened to the pure evil that tormented Angel? What power, legally and physically, does the Watcher's Council hold?(enough to circuvent local authority?) Time paradox, If destroying Anyanka's power center negated her granting wishes, how come she didn't cease to exist/ how come she can remember the Hell world/ etc.?
While with careful though and deliberation a writer could answer all of
the questions with upcoming episodes, the mere fact that they are cropping
up is a sign that the original design and concept for the show has been
met. A plot shouldn't be written to make up for mistakes, or oversights
in previous episodes, but should be a piece unto its own. I liken
shows or movies to a chess board and game. The season should function
as the white pieces on the board. Each piece is an episode but all
function together to win the game. Here the won game is the finished
and complete plot.
No doubt all my reasons are debatable. I won't disagree, but I believe
those reasons are good enough cause to cancel the show after Season 3 is
completed. If I ran the WB I would.