I always loved this show. It was funny, clever and campy. For some reason one was able to leap the credibility gap. I guess it's because it didn't take itself seriously. Starting in Season 5 the show starts to get darker and darker. I hated what they did with Willow. It was so in-your-face that there were times I wanted to stop watching it. Spoiler Alert! Willow's lover was the most annoying character in the show. Every time I saw her I wanted to smack her. I was glad when they got rid of her, but then Willow turns to black witchcraft which destroyed her character. The last season were not so fun and only a die-hard fan (like me) would like them.

I was a huge Buffy fan as a kid and remember begging my parents to stay up late on Wednesday nights just so I can watch the new episodes, then getting in trouble for falling asleep with the t.v on lol..So once my 6 year old began to show interest in the show, I immediately set off to finish my collection. This was 1 of the 2 last season I needed . Once we were all set we had a "quarantine marathon" and watched all episodes from season 1-7 plus the movie (which she wasn't a fan of) haha. My daughter has autism and she usually gets bored of things really easily, so I was surprised when she would come to me everyday and ask to "watch vampires". Cuddling up with her, play slaying, and being able to share an interest I had as a kid was definitely a highlight of this past year. I just wish I could convince her to come over to team Spike!...oh yea and the DVD worked perfectly too! Thanks a lot.

Season-Four of Buffy is a time of transition. Buffy, Willow and Oz all transition from high school into college. Xander transitions from being a dateless nerd, to dating a 1,020 year-old former demon. Spike is transformed from being a blood-sucking killer of humans into a vampire who’s incapable of biting (or even hitting) humans. And although it sounds cliché, Willow (who had seemed to be very heterosexual in seasons 1-3) transitions into a lesbian relationship during her first year in college.

Dramatic character changes like this could have been handled very badly and seemed forced and awkward, but Joss Whedon and his creative team pulled all of this off in such a way that it didn’t feel awkward at all.

Spike is amusing as an undead anti-hero. Willow and Tara are charming as a teenage lesbian couple. Xander and Anya (who were social misfits on their own) actually seem to function well as a couple.

Buffy of course is still the Slayer and still a dangerous predator that can slay vampires and demons, and still look stylish while doing it.

Special praise goes to “Hush”, an episode which proved that humans don’t need verbal communication to communicate and to “Doomed” an episode which showed that just because Spike couldn’t kill humans didn’t mean he couldn’t be a predator anymore. His transformation into an anti-hero who killed demons (and vampires and other nocturnal threats) was easily the most amusing part of the episode.

This show is five stars. Riley is - 3. I added one of the stars back because Spike is the greatest comic relief character EVER (and I'm including Sokka from Avatar in that list). This show is just campy and good, with lots of humor, and deep angst all around. This season has the groundbreaking episode "Hush", which the shows producers added to prove that Buffy is not all witty dialogue and in fact can stand on it's two feet without any dialogue at all. Riley takes this entire season down a notch. He was such a flat, 2-dimensional, overly-macho character that it's amazing anyone could fall for him. He practically had a halo and wings attached to his perfect Gary Stu self the entire time. He was absolutely boring, with no personality and aside from being a generic love interest for the main character brought nothing to the show.

Season Four finds the Scooby Gang leaving high school and either heading to college at UC-Sunnydale or the real world. No single season of BUFFY ever witnessed as many changes as this one did. Buffy, Willow, and Oz all head off to college, Angel and Cordelia head off to Los Angeles, Giles is no longer a watcher and no longer a librarian and no longer has a sense of what he is supposed to be doing, Xander flounders in a number of horrid jobs until finding his niche in construction, Joyce has to struggle with her daughter being in college, Anya, the former vengeance demon, has to struggle with being a mere human being, and Spike has to adjust to the fact that he is no longer a Big Bad due to a chip in his head that prevents his attacking humans. As if this were not enough, Oz leaves the show entirely; Willow unexpectedly falls in love with a fellow Wicca, Tara (to bring forth the first convincing and realistic homosexual relationship in television history); and Buffy gets a new boyfriend, Riley, who is probably the least popular character (with the possible exception of Connor in ANGEL) in the Buffyverse.
If you read reviews of the five seasons of BUFFY that have either been released or announced on DVD in the US, you will find people willing to label any of these five as "the best." I think this kind of diversity of opinion is awesome, and it shows how magnificently BUFFY appeals to a huge range of people at a variety of levels. My own opinion is that Season Four is a bit of a drop off from Seasons Two and Three, and not quite as good as Season Five would be. Part of the reason it strikes me this was is the enormous amount of change that I alluded to in the first paragraph. So many things were changing and altering, that my sense is that it all didn't mesh quite as well as in previous seasons. An additional reason was the unexpected departure of Seth Green to pursue film projects. Not having Oz around hurt the cast chemistry, and while adding Spike as a core character was a tremendous addition (he and Anya managed to take over Cordelia's role of bluntly saying aloud what others might merely be thinking), Riley is perhaps the lone BUFFY character who simply never meshed with the rest of the cast (I know some feel this way about Dawn, but I always liked her, perhaps because I have a daughter the same age as Dawn). To top matters off, the Initiative was just a bit too clinical and not sufficiently evil to rank with Angelus of Season Two, or the Mayor in Season Three, or Glory in Season Five. Adam, the Frankenstein-like creation of Professor Maggie Walsh, was not particularly involving, perhaps because the make up hid most of the actor's face, making him particularly inexpressive.
Nonetheless, BUFFY at not quite at its best is still better than 99.99% of anything else ever done on television, and while the season as a whole may not be quite as strong as others, there are some individual episodes that easily rank among the best in the history of the show. I have two favorites. First, the justly celebrated episode "Hush," in which the fairy tale monsters The Gentlemen capture the voices of all the inhabitants of Sunnydale, forcing most of the show to be played out in mime. The sheer visual imagery of the episode is profoundly unsettling. The Gentlemen are simultaneously terrifyingly evil, and a parody of obsequiousness. Bowing in a parody of extreme politeness to one another with macabre grins on their faces, they glide down the streets hovering a foot or so off the ground. The episode garnered an Emmy nomination, the only one the show ever received for writing, which is utterly absurd when one considers that it is probably the best-written show in the history of television.
My other favorite episode is the second half of the two-parter dealing with Faith's awakening from her coma and her attempt at avenging her near-death at the hands of Buffy. The first part, "This Year's Girl," is good, but it primarily sets up the extraordinary second part, "Who Are You?" In the former, the Mayor, in a videotaped message made before his Ascension, gives faith a device that will allow her to switch bodies with Buffy, which she does at the end of the first part (allowing the eerie opening credits of part two, where it reads: "Eliza Dushku as Buffy"). Body switching has been a staple of television and movies for decades, but BUFFY does something amazing with it. Primarily, the focus of the episode is an exploration of Faith's sense of self. We gain insight into her own lack of self and moral focus in the scene immediately after first entering Buffy's body when just after taking a bath she stands in front of a mirror and keeps repeating the words, "It's wrong!" in a parody of what she imagines to be Buffy's moral judgmentalism. Gradually Faith interacts with Buffy's friends and boyfriend, and comes to understand what Buffy has and she lacks: a strong group of friends who care for her and support her. This triggers self-doubt about her own worth, and when in the climax she in Buffy's body beats Buffy in hers, the viewer realizes that both the blows and the angry epithets she screams are directed not at Buffy but at herself. "Who Are You?" ends up being one of the most profound episodes of any season. Upon getting their own bodies back, Faith flees to LA in an attempt to get revenge on Angel instead. The Angel episodes "Five by Five" and "Sanctuary" ended the Faith Saga until her return in Season Four of Angel, and her return to Sunnydale in BUFFY's final season.
So, while this is not my favorite season of BUFFY, it is still an enormously entertaining one. The addition of Spike can hardly be underestimated. Always a welcome guest in previous seasons, his permanent addition to the cast brought a caustic edge to the humor that definitely lacking after Cordy's departure to LA. As a whole, the season reflected the growing pains the characters in the show also experienced. For any BUFFY fan, this is an essential set.

Show: Buffy and friends go to college, and endure some major changes in life. This would have killed any other show. But not so with "Buffy!" Many fans regard Season Four as a let-down, but I fail to see it that way. Season Four is all about change, which I think is handled admirably. This must have been a tough season to write, but I think it came out beautifully. Joss Whedon couldn't have handled it any better. I do have to jump into the majority over the character Riley Finn (Marc Blucas). He was a somewhat boring character who was given a little too much screen time (And should not have been in the opening credits.) Along with the departures of Angel and Cordelia, we also see the heart-breaking departure of Oz. However, fear not Willow fans, for she soon meets Tara, one of the finest characters ever put on the show. The Willow and Tara relationship is my personal favorite relationship in the "Buffy" universe. We are also treated to the hilarious Xander and Anya relationship. The idea of The Initiative is pretty cool, as is the "Big Bad" named Adam. It is also quite fun when Spike gets "neutered!" The sight of the scoobies charging into The Initiative in "Primeval" sent chill down my spine. Then there is the Emmy-nominated "Hush" (and just why Joss Whedon never won is beyond me. Also, where are the Emmys for the cast?! Has the academy ever even seen the show?!) "Hush" is absolutely brilliant. Lets not forget "Restless." The entire rest of the series is spelled out in this essential episode. Its brilliant television that shows off the genius of this show. Here each episode will be rated. A star (*) means that episode is a must-see. (Ten Million/5)

1. The Freshman - (4.5/5)

2. Living Conditions - (4.5/5)

3. The Harsh Light of Day - (4.5/5)

4. Fear, Itself - (5/5)*

5. Beer, Bad - (3.5/5)

6. Wild at Heart - (5/5)*

7. The Initiative - (5/5)*

8. Pangs - (5/5)*

9. Something Blue - (6/5)*

10. Hush - (20/5)*

11. Doomed - (4.5/5)

12. A New Man - (5/5)*

13. The I in Team - (4.5/5)

14. Goodbye, Iowa - (5/5)*

15. This Year's Girl - (6/5)*

16. Who Are You - (10/5)*

17. Superstar - (5/5)*

18. Where the Wild Things Are - (3.5/5)

19. New Moon Rising - (6/5)*

20. The Yoko Factor - (6/5)*

21. Primeval - (10/5)*

22. Restless - (20/5)*

Overall: Again, "Buffy" is the best. Just buy it! Now, onto Season Five....

Season four of Buffy has often been described as somewhat unfocused, but I find this an unfair assessment. This particular season is about the Scoobies as they begin their college years, and this is an unfocused time in a young person's life. Therefore it is only fitting that some of that unevenness of the lives of the characters would transfer to the season itself. As far as I can remember, the portrayal of college life was spot on, and it was interesting to observe Buffy, who at the end of her senior year had finally got a bead on being a slayer and a student, suddenly cast adrift again in the world of university life, without the companionship of her beloved Angel.

In the first few episodes she deals with a dorm roommate that is not only a demon but borrows her clothes and eats her food, a manipulative boy who is not a demon but uses her and casts her aside despite that fact, and a psychology professor that seems downright sinister. Spike, the blonde vampire from season two joins the cast, mainly as an antagonist made harmless by virtue of a scientific experiment in which he is made to feel intense pain anytime he harms a human. He is a great addition, and it is unfortunate he was not given a bigger role during this season. The departure of Oz in episode six is offset by the addition of Amber Benson to the cast as Tara. In season four Willow becomes aware of her attraction not to women in general, but to Tara in particular. To be specific she falls in love with Tara, who just happens to be a woman. The entire evolution of Willow and Tara's relationship is handled beautifully and is one of the great story arcs of the season.

Another particularly interesting facet of this season is that Giles and Xander, who could not be more different, both find their lives adrift during this season. Xander, the Scoobie that is not college-bound, is attempting to find a place in life. Trapped in a world of dead-end jobs and only able to afford living in his parents' basement, he does finally find a girl that appreciates him- the ex-vengeance demon Anya from season three. As for Giles, he is no longer Buffy's watcher, and he is also no longer employed as school librarian since the destruction of Sunnydale High School at the end of season three. This whole situation is explored in the excellent episode "A New Man". There are also some great individual episodes. "Hush" is perhaps the scariest Buffy episode ever, and "Something Blue" is hilarious as Willow conjures a spell in which her word becomes fact. Also, Faith returns in a two-parter that includes a very funny verbal exchange with Spike that has become the basis of many a piece of fan fiction.

Unfortunately, the two things that were not very inspiring about this season were the main storyline- a group of scientists backed by the military whose "creation" escapes and comes up with an apocalyptic scheme, and also the relationship between Buffy and Riley, a graduate student on campus with a few secrets of his own. Unlike the relationship between Buffy and Angel, or between Willow and Tara, I did not feel any attraction between the two characters, much less feel it grow into love. Buffy and Riley just run into each other in somewhat comic situations until one day Riley just comes to some kind of inspired revelation that he wants to date Buffy. Likewise, I never understand what Buffy sees in Riley other than a "normal" boy with values who probably won't harm her emotionally. In short, any chemistry is just missing, although the sexual part of the relationship is thrown at the audience time and time again. In summary, this transitional season of Buffy has many terrific individual episodes and some great character development, it was just a shame that the main thread that usually weaves the season together- the season villain- was not particularly scary or interesting.

Season 4 takes some hits but I love it. It is the perfect deep breath between the two bookends of high-energy 1-3 and the darker 5-7. It is also the high point of the "Scooby Gang" and mixes a sense of camaraderie and comedy with the emerging relationship conflicts and identity crises to follow. It is, in short, the end of innocence. I maintain that Buffy has some of the finest overall story architecture of any series on TV -- everything seems to cohere, set-ups always pay-off, and whether it was happy accident or visionary foresight, all the pieces of character growth and fulfillment play out rewardingly. Season 4 fits snugly in the middle. I also think Riley Finn is the natural boyfriend for Buffy at this moment in her development -- the simple straight-shooter who it turns out, in other example of the series' generosity and depth, has his own inner demons. I return to Season Four now and then with great affection, fun and with a sense of poignance for what was and could not be again.