matome

Depressing Buffy rules.

AllHallowsEve

I actually thought Season 2 was more depressing than Season 6. I thought the writing was better too.

Season 6 in itself is ok, but I just don't feel Season 6 or 7 were ever needed after the Season 5 finale.

But, I will be fair. Season 6 was worlds better than Season 7. I even liked it better than Season 4 as a whole. Well, except for The Doublemeat Palace episode. lol.

Imagine that being the very first episode you ever saw. You probably would have never gave the show a chance again.

matome

Yeah, I'll agree about the writing on Season 2 being better (my fave of the series). I actually liked S7 better then S4 (the worst IMO), due to the ultra-bland Riley.

Doublemeat Palace Poor unemployed Buffy.

AllHallowsEve

Season 4 was pretty bad, but it has a handful of episodes that were memorable for me. Season 7 had not one memorable episode for me which is why I would rank Season 4 higher. But, I would still not wish either of these seasons on my worst enemy as a whole.

I don't think anyone really cared for the character of Riley. That was the injoke during Season 5 when Spike would call him "Captain Cardboard"

Puzznic

You don't even like Selfless or Storyteller in season 7? There are a handful of really good episodes in S7 but overall it is a mess.

maingon

i actually liked Doublemeat Palace i thought it had some funny moments. I dont think any season was really poor or bad but season 4 was the one I liked least

MEJHarrison

I seriously doubt they'll drop the bonus features. The only reason they did that on the new X-Files sets is because the 7th disc didn't have episodes on them. In the Buffy sets, all 6 discs contain episodes. There are no discs containing only bonus material to drop. So they'd have to remaster the discs just to dump bonus features. It seems far more likely to me that they'll just take the existing discs and stick them in new boxes.

kitkat

Not to mention Conversations With Dead People. I thought Season 7 started out great (Him excepted). Although it bogged down in the second half and the story waasn't as exciting as earlier seasons, I still thought it was decent and I liked the way they wrapped up the series, although it was a shame that the last ep. was only average instead of great.

Enjoy your ride, ENDContra, it's a lot of fun!

AllHallowsEve

Nothing stands out to me from Season 7. I have vitually forgetten it all. I just remember thinking when is something exciting going to happen? The moment never came. It was the first time with the show that I was so very bored and wanted to change the channel. It was work to get through it. I hate feeling that way when watching a show. If I want to be bored, I can study. Hearing stories all year about things that would happen that never did also didn't help this. The season just seemed so unneeded. As if it was a bad nightmare. Andrew and Kennedy didnt help matters. I couldnt stand either character and felt they should have both been shot and scattered from meathooks. It just felt like 25 steps down from previous seasons. It almost taints stronger seasons.

But, I would have ended this show probably in 1999 when it was at the height of popularity and still very good.

This was like watching Jason X or Halloween:Ressurection. Buffy deserved better than 10th best treatment.

I really have no intentions on revisting it. Maybe years from now, but I have too much else to see until then.

Josh Z

Some of the X-Files seasons had one episode on the 7th disc. Those sets have have been remastered to move the last episode disc onto the 6th disc.

MEJHarrison

Yes, I'm aware of that. They squeezed 5 episodes on the sixth disc of season 2. But it doesn't change the fact that that isn't the case with Buffy (discs with only bonus material). There's no good reason for them to drop the bonus material and would cost them more to do so. That doesn't mean it won't happen, but I think it's highly unlikely, unlike with The X-Files where it was very easy to drop the bonus material.

scarredgod

i know this is a thread about the boxset dvd but i didnt wanna start a new thread just for this question.

the Angel series premiered the same night as the 4th season of Buffy? which show was on first and which was on second? i assume one at 8pm and the next at 9pm. which was on first?

thanks

Gizmo

Scarre, you nailed it.

Buffy at 8PM, Angel at 9PM. Angel started when Buffy was in its 4th season (College). This stayed until Buffy was moved over to UPN where I beleive (don't quote me), they still kept Buffy and Angel on at the same time as to not piss of fans to choose either or. There were also several times where episodes should be viewed right after the other as the storylines continued on either show.

TruBuffyFan

That worked for awhile, but in Buffy's final season, Willow appeared on Angel saying Fred called her and she came... However this did not happen on Buffy for two weeks... All the sudden two weeks later, the phone rings and it "someone" saying they needed willow...

OldBoy

why is this set all of a sudden going for minimum $230?? with some commanding over $300...did i miss something?

Big Worms

No longer made. My guess.

tonyc3742

I saw at least seasons 5 and 7, in the new slimline cases, for 19.99 at BJ's the other day.

Slayer2005

I got my Chosen Collection awhile back for only $110 (less than half of what I paid for my seasons 4-7 region 2 sets) thanks to Deep Discount DVD's sale. The bonus disc and box are really great. I especially like how the discs do not flop about when picked up.

However, for seasons 4-7 I still prefer my $240 (yikes, I know) region 2 box sets since they are in anamorphic widescreen. I have 9' screen and the picture qualiity on them is visibly better and of course more cinematic looking too.

I couldn't pass up this nice set for $110 though, especially since it had a bonus disc.

tichtich

On the subject of Buffy in widescreen (again)...

Now that I've had my R2 Buffy DVDs for a few months, I've had a chance to evaluate what seasons 4-7 look like in widescreen (on a widescreen TV). I can't compare with the equivalent 4:3 version directly (it's been a few years since I saw Buffy on TV), but I can make a mental image of what the picture would look like reduced to 4:3. And I can compare seasons 4-7 in widescreen with seasons 1-3 in 4:3.

On the one hand, it's great to see a picture without the black vertical bars. I find the bars particularly intrusive in Buffy, because the picture is generally so dark, and the bars sometimes merge with black areas of the picture, making it hard to detect the sides of the frame. It sometimes looks like people's heads have been sliced in half. With widescreen, you can often see the whole of people's heads instead of just part, which can look better. Occasionally the widescreen picture looks perfectly good, and arguably even better than seeing the 4:3 picture on a 4:3 TV.

On the other hand, there is often a general feeling that the framing is not quite right. In particular, it's noticeable that the sides of the screen usually aren't being used. Mostly this is not too bad, and most of the time I forget about it altogether. But there are a few occasions where the framing looks very bad indeed. Two that come to mind:
- The final shot of "Beer Bad", where the four Scoobies enter from the sides of the screen and all stand bunched up in the middle.
- In "This Year's Girl", when Faith runs away from Buffy and climbs over a wall. In the widescreen picture the wall doesn't extend to the edges of the screen, which makes you wonder why Faith didn't run round the end of the wall instead of climbing over it!

I've read a few people mentioning that they can see lights or crew members at the sides of the screen, but I've never noticed them myself.

Overall, I'm still unsure which I prefer, but I think if I had the choice again, I would probably go for the R1 Chosen Collection instead of the R2 Complete Collection. I'm 50:50 on the widescreen issue, but I would like to have had the bonus disc. (Let me add that, if you have a 4:3 TV, then there's absolutely no question that you're better off with the 4:3 version.)

wergo

The biggest problems I've seen on the widescreen Buffys are a> in 'This Year's Girl' when the scoobies arrive at the church, you can clearly see a lack of lip movemnet when outside the frame looping/ADR occurs. and b> in 'Grave' when Xander is looking down at Buffy and Dawn in the hole you can see his butt-crack. No one needs either of those. Sometimes matting is your friend.

I'm fully on-board with the region 1 mattng, except that I still can't get over my horror at 'Once More, With Feeling' not being anamorphic. Maybe when the HD-DVD edition of the box set comes out?

bboisvert

Yep, that's my one complaint. Well, that and the spoiler images that they feel compelled to put on the menus...

lizard

The limited edition Chosen Collection is that rarity in the DVD world in that it really was limited. It started disappearing from on-line retailers just a few weeks after release date. There have been some reports that a few B&M retailers still have a few boxes on the shelf. Otherwise, it is all secondary markets like e-bay, half.com or Amazon Marketplace. And the limited supply means prices have gone up.

Like others above, I am glad I got my set from DDD for $111.89 while I could. That's $15.98 per season, not too shabby...

tichtich

Here in the UK, someone in Amazon Marketplace is asking over £350 for the Angel limited edition box set, which I got for £99. Strangely, after several months of it being unavailable, Amazon UK is now offering it again at £105:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...803230-1721203

Nick Martin

It may look better to your eyes, but widescreen was never the OAR for Buffy.

If the framing doesn't look quite right - it isn't.

It's the old 'joe 6 pack likes his fool screen and hates dem black bars' issue in reverse.

Slayer2005

Nick, a few questions for you.

1: Do you have a 9 foot diagonal 16:9 screen?

2: Have you ever actually owned or even seen the Region 2 UK PAL sets in action (and looking at the box art does not count. )?

3: Do you have a display capable of showing PAL without the need to convert to NTSC?

I seem to recall you having a 20" and 13" TV, correct? If so, trust me on this. The UK sets have better picture quality. They are higher resolution for one and as someone who owns both the UK and US sets I can tell you they look better, especially on my screen. 99% of the time there is no problem with the framing. The UK sets are simply far more pleasing to watch on my large 16:9 screen than the US sets are. I respect Whedon's opinion on the subject, but I have my preference. If I showed him his 4:3 preferred dvds versus the anamorphic DVDs on my screen I'm positive he'd get why I prefer the UK sets.

The UK sets shouldn't even be used in the same sentence as fool screen. With full screen you are losing a big chunk of picture off of the sides. With these UK sets you are not losing any of the picture.