The Last Guy to Arrive at the Buffy Party: Season 4
From many of your comments on my thoughts on Buffy Season 3, I knew I was in for a bit of a letdown when it came to Season 4. And yes, overall, Season 4 was a letdown, especially considering how incredible I thought Seasons 2 and 3 were. Don’t get me wrong – I still enjoyed most of Season4, but the overarching story was not nearly as interesting or intense as the stories presented in past seasons. Yes, Season 4 has been the worst episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that I’ve seen to this point, but that doesn’t mean it was all a waste. After all, Season 4 did contain the best Buffy episode I’ve ever seen, and that’s got to count for something.
For the first time since Buffy began, the group dynamic has changed drastically. No longer are Buffy and the rest of the Scooby Gang enrolled at Sunnydale High; they’ve all graduated and besides, after the giant battle with the mayor, Sunnydale High no longer exists. Instead, Buffy and Willow are freshman at the college, conveniently, Sunnydale UC. Xander couldn’t get into college, so he’s stuck living in his parents’ basement and doing odd jobs, but still has time to hang with Buffy and Willow. Oz is always a Sunnydale fixture regardless of his scholastic endeavors, which is why I found his exit particularly abrupt. Giles is still around, like Xander, but is now the far less prestigious unemployed librarian. Finally, Cordelia’s absence is impossible to ignore, but unless I missed it earlier on, I found it strange that I had to wait until halfway through the season to find out that she went off to Los Angeles.
Cordelia wasn’t one of my favorite characters, but her penchant for being forthcoming coupled with her bitchiness really helped the group dynamic quite a bit. This season, she was replaced by Anya, a secondary cast member whose relationship with Xander earned her a spot in the Scooby Gang. I don’t hate Anya, but she simply doesn’t compare to Cordelia in terms of what she brings to the table. For one, I prefer Xander butting heads with Cordelia and always being on the defensive as opposed to relationship Xander, who, when he isn’t down on his lack of job quality, is explaining to Anya how to conduct oneself in social situations. The rest of the crew has virtually no interaction with Anya; she’s always just kind of “there.” Cordelia, at least, was able to get under everyone’s skin. So yeah, Cordelia was missed, her “replacement” wasn’t much, and I think that’s one of the reasons I wasn’t huge on this season.
Another reason I wasn’t wild about Season 4 was the lack of an interesting villain. Season 2’s villain was a demented, pure evil Angel, and the conflicting emotions inside of Buffy helped to make him an especially worthy antagonist. Season 3’s villain was the charismatic and always entertaining mayor, and let’s not forget about his little Slayer sidekick, Faith. Again, powerful villains with some sort of an emotional effect on Buffy. But this season villain? Adam? There are certainly some cool concepts with regard to a cyber-demon, but there really wasn’t anything cool about Adam. He was, essentially, a big, stiff dork, and it was tough to stay interested in what his motivations were.
I also didn’t care too much for Riley, who is vanilla personified. Angel always kept Buffy on her toes, whereas Riley was plain, boring, and the type of guy I’m surprised Buffy went for. The idea of The Initiative was fine, but at the same time, if they were doing experiments on demons and whatnot, you’d expect them to have at least heard of the Slayer. Also, a secret entrance to the secret base of a secret government operation in a fraternity house? Sure, whatever.
But like I said, I still enjoyed this season or, at least, certain parts of it. Joss Whedon is always credited for his ability to write string female characters so well, and I think that this acclaim was fully illustrated in this season. The ups and downs of Buffy and Willow’s relationship was well-paced and never at any time seemed forced, and the changes each of them went through as freshman in college seemed organic and fluid. Buffy learned the hard way that college guys aren’t necessarily interested in getting to know a girl, and Willow’s relationship with Tara was, to me, anything but contrived. It didn’t feel gimmicky or like it was written into the script to create buzz; it simply felt like that was part of who Willow is and what she was going through at that time.
I loved having Spike around so often this season, as he’s probably my favorite character on the show. It’s a shame that he had a chip in his head that prevented him from attacking humans – and I hope he gets it out next season – but it was refreshing to see that no matter how often he crossed paths with the Scooby Gang, he remained a self-centered, power-hungry bastard. Which is just how he ought to be.
Finally, all of Season 4 was worth watching, in the end, simply for the episode “Hush,” a.k.a. the silent episode. This was easily my favorite Buffy episode ever (replacing the one where Angel breaks Ms. Calendar’s neck) and I enjoyed it so much that once it was over, I watched it again. “Hush” is truly great television, and I am blown away at how well Joss Whedon was able to pull off a silent episode. Not to mention that The Gentlemen are beyond creepy – I really want a figurine of one. And it wasn’t just the novelty of a silent episode that made me love “Hush” so much; it was the fact that there was a strong theme of communication permeating every scene. Again, just great television.
All in all, yes, Season 4 was a letdown compared to the first three seasons of Buffy, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t have its high points. More importantly, it hasn’t deterred me from finishing up the series, and I’m excited to start up Season 5 sometime this week.
After you’re done with the TV series, be sure to check out the comic version. It’s pretty well done.
I’m kind of surprised and a little disappointed that you didn’t mention “Restless”. It’s one of my favorites. Maybe my first favorite. I hope you at least paid pretty close attention to it.
Oh, Restless was very cool – I especially liked the concept of the first Slayer being primal and uncivilized. Some great dream sequences in that one for sure.
I tend to agree with you Madison. While Season 4 is a disappointment, it is only because the first three seasons were so good. Season 5 contains the best episode in the entire series, but is by far the worst of the seasons. Season 6 picks up and is a lot of fun, and then 7 kind of wraps up everything.
On a sidebar, you should start watching Angel before you move on to season 5. It’s not vital to the story, but there are crossovers that are really good. And although it may be blasphemous to say it, I may like the Angel series more as a whole.
Yeah, everyone seems to dig Angel, and my cousin just finished the series and absolutely loved it. Maybe I’ll take a break from Buffy and crank out a few seasons of Angel…
I just finished season 5 about a week ago and it was miles ahead of season 4 and about on par with 2 and 3. I was glad to see everyone back on their game. Though I did have my problems with season 4 it was still at least watchable.Except the episode beer bad, that was easily the worst episode I’ve seen in the series, Kal Penn cameo (can it be a cameo if the person wasn’t famous at the time?) notwithstanding. But season 4 also had the best episode of the series, hush, which infant just the best episode of buffy I’ve seen yet, but possibly top 10 television episodes period.
Season 4 was one of my more favorite seasons, but I guess different strokes for diff……..errghhh, you know the rest. Hopefully you’ll like season 5, imo that is where Buffy climaxes, and I mean the show…..wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
Like I’m sure you heard before though, “Angel” is where it’s at.
Isn’t* not infant. My phone has a messed up predictive text dictionary.
I started watching Buffy for the first time this year as well. Just finished season 7 yesterday. I enjoyed the story arch’s of the high school seasons better. Yet, some of my favorite episodes were in season 4,6 and 7. It felt like Joss and his writers had a great feel for his characters and their potential growth but didn’t really deliver with the big bads in the later seasons. I’m still glad i watched the series. Now on to angel.
Its ok, you’ve got through season 4 now. Everythings fairly smooth sailing from here.
Its been a while since I watched season 5 but I have memories of it being a good bit better than Buffys middle child season 4.
And yet again i’ll suggest having a look in at Angel at some point. Angel, Cordy and Wesley have surprisingly good chemistry as trio……Ah the Trio, just you wait sir!
Season 5 is probably the season that fans of the show are most conflicted over. Some people hate it, some love it. There are a number of WTF moments that start coming right out the door. It also has the single greatest episode of the series (criminal that it didn’t get an emmy).
The main villain of the arch is definately more enjoyable than Adam, though I’m sure there are some that would disagree with me.
I never had a problem with the Anya/Cordelia switch. Anya has always been a favorite for me and her turbulent relationship with Xander never got old (at least for me). Cordelia got the better end of the switch and really shines on Angel.
Strangely, you are not the last guy to the party. I just finished season 4 last week. It will be interesting to see which of us finishes 5 first.
I just started Angel and while agree with the comments stated above about watching them at the same time because of cross overs , I think its kinda of pointless since the cross overs happen like 3 or 4 times in 4 seasons of the show. I kinda wished whedon had integrated angel and buffy more to create a super series for a special villain like the Season 7 baddie. *Spoiler about baddie in season 7* I mean how do you have the ultimate evil as a baddie and angel only shows up for 1 full episode? If Whedon had use both series in the same way comic book writers use the different comic series of a single character (ie Batman, Detective comics, Nightwing, Robin) for large arcs it could have been very special. That said yes season 4 was a let down but Hush was a great episode. Season 5 is not that bad but season 6 to me was another season 4 where there was no real baddie until out of no where comes this super being.
Oh well. Just to state a different opinion then: Please watch all episodes of BtVS before you watch AtS. AtS is very much a traditional guy show, so to speak, which is why so many men prefer that to BtVS. I suppose.
For me there is no contest. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is far superior to Angel the series.
And really? Season one is better than season four? Adam is fail and Riley is a sleeping pill, but still. There’s a lot going on. And while I never really got the huge love for Hush – Passion is much better in my book, because Angelus is deliciously evil – Restless is an episode that keeps on growing. It’s like fungus, really cool fungus.
Anya wasn’t meant to replace Cordelia – Spike was. S4 was lacking someone who would go “You’re all fucking idiots” when appropriate and so he got reintroduced. Anya gets more and more screen time as the series progresses and you’ll likely come to love her.
Oz’s absence, as you noted, was abrupt and fairly unplanned. Seth Green hit it big with Austin Powers and moved on to other things. Tara, like Anya, gets some more love later on in the series. You’re also not alone in hating Riley. Everyone does. Captain Cardboard was a rare miss for the writers.
The good news, though, is that Season 5 is amazing. It features a great villain and great overall storylines. It also contains the best single hour of television I have ever seen in any show ever. Period. The fact that it didn’t win an Emmy is criminal. You’ll know it when you see it, and if you don’t tear up you may not have a soul.
Wow- that’s very encouraging. Maybe I’ll just keep going with Buffy and put Angel on the backburner. Very excited for this great episode you speak of.
Also, with regard to Cordelia’s role – I loved the episode where Buffy could hear thoughts and Cordelia would always say EXACTLY what she was thinking. Great touch for the character.
Ya Madison, if you plan on Watching angel you should just alternate them with Buffy. The two shows go their own way most of the time, but there are parts that weave together that are really cool. I watched all 5 season of Angel first and loved it so much I decided to watch Buffy, and during Buffy I noticed a lot of things that tied into Angel that I wasn’t even aware of. Again, it’s not vital to watching the shows, but does add in some points you’ll appreciate.
I’m rewatching the series and funnily enough I’m up to Season 4. It’s an easier watch from the first time around.
You can see that this season is Joss’s experimentation season, and some things work better than others. Hush is amazing, even little things like changing the opening sequence for the Jonathan episode were cool. Swapping out characters didn’t work out quite as well. And the whole secret government thing (a theme which would turn up in other Joss series) kinda failed here. It’s just not what people enjoyed about Buffy.
I dig Angel. Remember it was aired in tandem with Buffy – for example, when Oz leaves to take the vampire ring to LA, he turns up in the next ep of Angel. Because they aired at the same time when it was on TV, you never really missed Angel or Cordelia, it was all one big continuity.
If at all poss, I reckon you should watch ’em together.
Ha! That Jonathan episode was great! Although I was very confused by the opening credits…
Season 5 is one of, if not my favorites but I think 5,6, & 7 are the best! prepared to have your socks knocked off!
Definitely check out Angel. (esp if you are missing Cordelia, she really comes into her own in that series. imo)
They really only tried to tie things together during Btvs S4 and Ats S1. After that they more or less go their separate ways.
I agree, it’s hard to see why Buffy fell for Riley. He’s the first “good guy” to mean anything to her seriously, but just hold on for season five, where writers realized how blah Riley was and the turn they send him on. The simpleness of Buffy and Riley’s relationship actually moves to a very complex level in season four.
Like many others have said, Anya grows on you. The more screen time she gets (and much more comes her way) her character grows and the more she learns about being human, the better she becomes. Emma Caulfield truly took the role and made it her own.
Season five is amazing. So much is going on, so much happens. Just wait.
As everyone has said, Season 5 has the best episode of the series in it, and probably the best episode of any TV series I’ve ever seen. As a whole, I like season 5 the most after season 2/3, but it definitely starts very confusingly (part of its charm). Unlike everyone else, I don’t recommend watching Angel for the crossovers. While I like Angel just fine, the crossovers really aren’t that important–enough is explained within the show. I didn’t start watching Angel until after season 7, and didn’t have much trouble. 🙂 I generally think Buffy is the better show, but Angel is great too.
You’ll love season 5, it adds all kinds of new character dynamics. While season 6 has a really great ending, the first half dozen eipsodes are kinda meh (with the exception of really great episode) and I generally don’t like season 6 as much as 5. So definitely enjoy 5 while its fresh. 🙂
Character-wise, when Anya becomes less of a side-character, it really helps the show, and ditto with Tara. Spike is just awesome from here on out, both despite and because of that chip. Honestly, from season 5 on out, Spike really becomes the second most important character next to Buffy, in terms of character development. I think it’s handle exceptionally well, so that you’re never like, “Spike would never do that!” Well, except in those episodes where he’s NOT like himself, which are hilarious. XD
what is this season 5 episode everyone keeps raving about??
Spoiler-ish
erica – I’m pretty sure that everyone is referring to The Body as the best episode in the history of television and whatnot. To each his own, though. While I thought it was great, I wouldn’t call it the best. But that’s just my opinion. Very well done, though.
@Crowley I was thikning the same and I feel the same. I think they could have tied the plot of the episode much more closely to the season’s plot which would have given the show a much darker tone…which i would have liked.
Crowley is right that the Emmy-worthy episode that everyone’s geeking out over is “The Body.” Madison, bring tissues. Seriously.
And don’t let some of the posters above fool you. Angel wasn’t nearly as good as Buffy. It’s certainly not worth trying to watch them at the same time. You’ll end up mixing Buffy’s 7th Season with Angel’s infamous 4th Season. Angel’s 4th was so bad that Tim Minear had to come back from doing Buffy to write the season finale in a desperate saving throw to fix the entire show.
My advice is to watch Buffy and then go and watch Angel. You can judge it on its own merits. That’s what I did, and it worked out just fine. It has some great cross-over episodes, but they’re few and very far between and not worth the pain in the ass of trying to line the seasons up with Buffy.
LIke everyone else, I have to agree that S5 of Buffy is an amazing season and you’ll probably enjoy it as much as you did S2 and 3. As for the episode the Body, it is a very, very good episode, and you will see once you finished watching it why everyone loves it so much. That being said, I always feel a little let down whenever someone is telling me how amazing something is only to watch it and not agree, so try not to place your expectations too high, and just enjoy.
As for S4, I do agree that while it has some incredible stand out episodes (Hush and Restless most people will consistently agree on) that overall it was a bit of a let down. I think it was because it was in a new college setting where everyone really experiments and pushes the envelope and figures out where there most comfortable and Joss tried to do that within the show, only to find out his fanbase didn’t particularly like him messing around with the formula, which is probably why you see the show settle back into it’s roots next season.
And for S6…..sigh….you might want some extra strength Tylenol to handle the headaches your going to get for that one.
The Body – don’t want to spoil anything, but that episode probably affected me more emotionally than anything else i’ve watched on tv. The problem is that the emotions it brings up are not very pleasant ones, so it’s not very high on my list of stuff to watch again.
S5 was probably the high point of the show for me, up with S2 and S3. Loved the bad guy in it, and the Spike and Anya characters really come into their own.
As for Angel, I’d say there’s no need to watch it along with Buffy if you don’t want to. I really enjoyed it, but it doesn’t really tie in with Buffy except for a couple S4 spots which you’ve already passed anyway. It gets a little too dark and serious after a while, but then in the final season a lot of the Buffy talent comes over after that show ended and is amazing for that last season.
Once again I’m thoroughly enjoying your recaps and seeing Buffy through a newbie’s eyes.
I found friends of mine that were Buffy fans became disinterested in the series in Season 4, for good reason, then never really returned. Its important to recognize that BTVS becomes a different show after season 4 – which was largely the point of ‘Restless’. I believe that with season 4 the writers tried to turn the ‘high school as horror show’ metaphor into the into ‘college as horror show’ with mixed results at best. With ‘Restless’ the show changes and is less about metaphor, and more about what it means to be the Slayer, to be chosen. Buffy accepts her path and learns how to walk it.
So Seasons 5-7 can’t be compared to the magic of 2&3. When you accept that, you realize that 5-7 are brilliant in their own way. Season 5 is truly tremendous, with the greatest of all the season endings except ‘Becoming II”. There are some low periods in 6, but all in all you’ll definitely enjoy the rest of the show. Just don’t compare and take it for what it is!
@velovan
actually tim minear didn’t write for buffy. apart from that season 4 it’s polarizing, i liked it more than i did season 6 and 7 from buffy (it wasn’t angel’s greatest season, but i liked it)
I don’t see a link to season 5 so I look forward to being caught up to your blog.
Season 4 was a letdown. Totally. I loved that Angel came and was all jealous over Riley. Riley…is a farmboy type, but, unlike you, I get why Buffy went with him and not someone else. He is Joe Average and that’s why. She wanted some normality and found it in Riley.
Oz leaving broke my heart, but I absolutely love Tara. I think that, like Anya and Cordelia, Tara was Oz’s replacement in this season, but as the show goes on she really grows to be her own character and goes to prove that she isn’t just Oz’s replacement.
Spike, oh Spike! Love him and all his badness. He and Tara are my absolute favorite characters.
Can’t wait for more.
~Luckie