Buffy Season 3

[John Crichton]

Off Topic -- Watching the early seasons reminds me of how young and healthy everyone looked. I don't like the too thin look that Buffy sports now, her neck seems "snappable" rather then tasty. Willow seemed skinny, now she seems gaunt. I know this may seem shallow, but it just reminds me that SMG and Alyson are older them the characters they are playing. The change in appearance can work for the story, but it does annoy me.
There are other trends that I see in this post that Mirror the way I feel about the show. Sometimes enjoyable to see I may not be alone, as much as I feel I am, at times.

I don't mind Alyson Hannigan's current look but SMG does look like she could use some more food in the later seasons for sure. She was much cuter when the show first started.

 

[Michael Tree]

People, can we please put in spoiler warnings for buffy seasons 4+? A lot of people (including myself) have only become devoted to the show on DVD, so don't know much about what happens later. Talking about specific shows is fine, but giving away the finales of entire seasons, or giving away major plot twists is a bit much.

If I hadn't had great confidence in the writers after Season 2, I might have believed that they'd recycle a plot twist that had already been used (to great effect) in Season 2.

I, on the other hand, have great confidence in the writers, such that I know I shouldn't try to predict them. Obviously Angel turning wouldn't become the focus of season 3 like it did in season 2, but that doesn't mean that he wouldn't turn.

Of the new characters, I don't much care for Faith, as her actions don't seem to make even twisted sense and I don't see much evidence of any real acting ability out of Eliza Dushku. She works well as a plot device and less well as a character.

I couldn't disagree more. Faith is by far one of the most realistic "villians" I've ever seen on film or TV. I'm a graduate student in clinical psychology, and I've met people like Faith. She's infuriating and dangerous in the way that some real people are. She's emotionally unstable, manipulative, is constantly acting in such a way as to elicit behaviors that reinforce her negative views of others and the world, and turns to the only thing that makes her feel real and worthwhile, violence.

That said, I agree that overall season 3 isn't as good as season 2. It's more consistent, but doesn't have the same power that season 2 does.

It still has many great episodes, including the funniest Buffy episode I've ever seen, The Zeppo. The Xander stuff was great, but I literally couldn't stop laughing every time the over the top drama of the rest of the cast came up. It's nice to see a show that can so thoroughly and brutally mock itself.