Synopsis: The Complete Fifth Season of Buffy The Vampire Slayer 6 Disc Set. 

Now for the Zone's Eye View:

By Scott Maravilla

Season five is the worst in the seven-year run of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In this season, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) discovers that she has a sister named Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). In fact, she just appears one day and everyone has a strong recollection of her having always been around. To top that off, there is a crazy woman named Glory with super-human strength and garish taste in clothing looking for her "key" and, in the process, raising all sorts of hell for the Slayer. As the Watchers Council describes her, "Glory is a god." Also looking for the key is an army dressed as knights of the Crusades armed with bows, arrows, swords and riding horses to boot. How they are so easily able to travel, and even have a chase sequence with Buffy and the Scoobies in their trailer on an open highway is not explained. The general idea is to give Buffy an unbeatable foe in order to set up her death and resurrection as the series moved from the WB network to UPN.

The season opener, Buffy v. Dracula sets the tone for this disappointing season. Dracula as an over the top reality trying to seduce the Slayer is not well played at all. Rather than trying to keep to the literary and cinematic mythos, they just play him as spooky Dracula who likes to conspicuously rent castles. The only bright spot in this episode is Spike's response to the existence of Dracula, "bloke still owes me five pounds."

The series would be characterized by cheesey, unbelievable story-lines. Now, this would work if the series had not fostered a suspension of disbelief that although the situations and monsters were extraordinary, the series itself was still laden with a feeling that this is still our world. Deities straight from the pages of Edith Hamilton come off as just silly. Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) takes over the magic shop after another owner has been murdered, and hires Anya (Emma Caulfield), who it turns out is quite capitalist, to help him run it. The shop doesn't have the same feel as the school library and Giles' apartment as a headquarters for the Scoobies. Also in this season, Xander (Nicholas Brendan) has lost his sense of humor. He is no more the wise cracking Chandler Bing of the series. A loss for us fans.

Season five is sloppily written. We have the first great incongruity with the series in the episode Fool for Love. An otherwise good episode on the origin of Spike and his fights with the two Slayers he killed. The problem is that in the episode Spike is sired by Drusilla. In the Buffy season two episode School's Hard and in the Angel season one episode In the Dark, it is made very clear that Angel sired Spike. 

The one of the brighter spots to the season is the performance of James Marsters as Spike. In a hilarious turn of events, Spike discovers that he has fallen in love with Buffy. His attempts to woo her provide some great moments including offering to kill Drusilla ("I don't like that game."). At one point, Spike gets nerdy evil genius Warren (one of the three nerds who are the Big Bad in season six) to build him an android Buffy for his pleasure.

Joss Whedon does take some daring steps to heighten the drama surrounding Buffy's character. Her mother Joyce (Kristine Sutherland) passes away in this season after a long bout with illness. Buffy is left to care for Dawn. In addition, Riley (Marc Blucas) finally gets a great episode. He leaves Buffy in order to return to The Initiative to fight Demons in South America. After a fight with Buffy, she runs to his helicopter screaming for him not to leave. We see Riley looking straight ahead with a dead pan stare and the audience is unsure whether he hears her or not.

The overall weakness of the season five story arc outweighs the stronger individual episodes. However, the reality is that if you've been following Buffy for four seasons you'll want to see five, at least so that you can proceed to seasons six and seven. The DVD box set does come with the same fine extras as the other seasons which enhances to the viewing pleasure. Overall I have to give this one a 4. It is just not nearly as good as the earlier seasons. 

The Season Five Episodes Are:

1. Buffy vs. Dracula
2. Real Me
3. The Replacement
4. Out of My Mind
5. No Place Like Home
6. Family
7. Fool for Love
8. Shadow
9. Listening to Fear
10. Into the Woods
11. Triangle
12. Checkpoint
13. Blood Ties
14. Crush
15. I Was Made to Love You
16. The Body
17. Forever
18. Intervention
19. Tough Love
20. Spiral
21. The Weight of the World
22. The Gift