Buffy the Vampire Slayer-Season 7 Box Set Part 2 (2002)

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General		Extras
Category	Vampire	Main Menu Introduction Menu Audio Audio Commentary-The Killer In Me, Lies My Parents Told Me, Dirty Girls Audio Commentary-Chosen Featurette-Season 7 Overview - Buffy: Full Circle Featurette-Buffy 101: Studying The Slayer Featurette-Generation S Featurette-The Last Sundown Outtakes Featurette-Buffy Wraps
Rating
Year Of Production	2002
Running Time	451:46 (Case: 495)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Joss Whedon Marita Grabiak David Solomon James A. Contner
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Sarah Michelle Gellar Nicholas Brendon Alyson Hannigan Anthony Stewart Head James Marsters Michelle Trachtenberg Emma Caulfield Tom Lenk Iyari Limon Eliza Dushku
Case	PUSH-27
RPI	$80.95	Music	Robert Duncan

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Danish English for the Hearing Impaired Finnish German Norwegian Swedish German Titling English Audio Commentary German Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

Do not go gentle into that good night
...
Rage against the dying of the light

    Nope, those lines don't appear in this show, but they seem rather apt to this, the ending of the series. This is most emphatically a case of a series going out with a bang. They ended Season 3 by destroying the high school. They went further this time...

    You may care to consult reviews of:

• Season 1
• Season 2 Part 1 and Part 2
• Season 3 Part 1 and Part 2
• Season 4 Part 1 and Part 2
• Season 5 Part 1 and Part 2
• Season 6 Part 1 and Part 2
• Season 7 Part 1

    If you have not seen earlier seasons of Buffy, you might want to skip to the Transfer section now...

    This is it — the climax of this season, and the end of the series. The episodes in this box are:

    This part of the season is mostly a serial — each episode builds on the previous one, in an eleven episode crescendo.

    There isn't a single weak episode among these. The horror has gone up a further notch, and there are some moments that are hard to watch (particularly moments involving the new evil). There are a few plot twists that could be questioned: (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) the convenience of the appearance of the Slayer "emergency kit"; the ease of killing ubervamps in the final episode; but it's easy to overlook these small points and enjoy the ride. And it's quite a ride.

    Many of the central characters get an episode that focuses upon them, to some extent. Anya's was in the first half of the season, in Selfless; Dawn's is Potential; Willow's is The Killer In Me; Spike and Robin Wood are equally the focus in Lies My Parent Told Me; while Buffy, naturally enough, is the focus of many of the episodes. This is powerful stuff, even if it does remind us quite forcefully how much we will miss these complex and detailed characters.

    When Buffy moved to UPN from WB, and Angel stayed on WB, we were told that there'd be no more cross-overs. I don't know if the network execs gave permission because it was the end of Buffy, or if they weren't consulted... (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) I really enjoyed Willow's appearance on Angel, and then her return (with a bonus) to Buffy. And Angel's appearance on Buffy — important, and yet funny.

    I have many favourite moments from the show (mostly moments of glorious dialogue), but when I tried to think of an image that summarised it for me, the one that came to mind was from way back in Season 2, from Innocence: a little (160cm) girl with a rocket launcher. The fact that this was a girl who has just suffered one of the classic horrors — "I slept with my boyfriend and he turned into a monster" — makes it all the more poignant. Hmm, how classic — sex and violence. Still,  there's no question that Buffy concerns itself with primal urges.

    Few TV shows arouse this kind of passion in their fans (Star Trek is another obvious example), but even among those elite shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer is exceptional. I will miss Buffy, but I am still glad that it went out with a bang and not a whimper. It's not pretty when a show outlives its original fan-base, when you find yourself losing interest, and eventually not watching it. I looked forward to every episode of Buffy when broadcast (I missed a couple of early ones, but caught them on re-runs), and I've watched every episode on DVD. I fully expect to be watching episodes again every so often. There are so many which bear repeated watching, such as: Once More with Feeling, Doppelgangerland, Family, Band Candy, Superstar, The Wish, Checkpoint, Earshot, and Normal Again. And then there are the dramatic turning points in the series, like Welcome to the Hellmouth / Harvest, Prophecy Girl, Surprise / Innocence, Becoming (I and II), Bad Girls, Graduation Day (I and II), Anne, Hush, New Moon Rising, Primaeval, Restless, The Body, The Gift, Bargaining (I and II), Villains / Two to Go / Grave, Conversations with Dead People, and, yes, Chosen. I am sure I've omitted episodes you remember fondly — the only way I could avoid that is by listing all 144 episodes. And then I'd get in trouble from fans who disliked a particular episode...

    I was impressed with the ending. (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) They managed to solve Buffy's biggest problem in an unexpected, and very cool, way. After all, her problem all along has been the loneliness of being THE Slayer, the only one defending the world (Kendra didn't last long, and Faith stopped doing the defending bit) — we even get to hear Buffy ranting about this earlier in this season, in Selfless. So rather than killing Buffy (they'd done that), they solve the problem by producing more Slayers. Neat. And I particularly liked the fact that they had Giles repeat "The world is doomed" in the final episode — the last line of The Harvest, way back at the beginning of this epic adventure.

    There are two variants on our friend Grr Argh, one at the end of Storyteller, and one at the end of Chosen. Cute!

    Buffy, and the Buffyverse, and their impact on both individuals and society, have been the subject of numerous academic papers and more than a few books. The effects have already outlived the show, and will likely continue for some time. Unfortunately, such an impact will mean that we will be victims of attempts to duplicate the effect — brace yourself for more shows that try to combine horror, comedy, and wit. Come to think of it, that's probably not a bad thing; if someone succeeds, and creates a show even half as good, it will be well worth watching. I suspect we'll all be watching to see what Joss Whedon does next, because he has the best chance of success.

    So Buffy the Vampire Slayer is gone. Now we have to wait for SMG to realise that her movie career is not taking off, and then we can see Buffy movies. (we can hope, can't we?)

Video

    These episodes were broadcast here in Australia in full-screen (or with thin black bars above and below on some channels) on analogue TV, but they were broadcast widescreen on digital TV. Every episode here is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, and 16x9 enhanced. It has been said that Buffy was meant to be seen at 1.33:1, but I have compared all of seasons 4 and 5 in both 1.33:1 and 1.78:1, and I prefer 1.78:1.

    The picture is top quality for a TV show. The image is gorgeously sharp in daylight and close-ups, and surprisingly sharp even in the dark scenes. Oh, we still get shots that are 80% black (or more), but the parts you can see are usually sharp. There's one shot that's a bit out of focus, in End of Days, (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) as Angel shows up, but it's marginal. There's some film grain, but it adds atmosphere, rather than detracting from the image. Shadow detail is excellent. There's no low level noise.

    Colour is marvellous: beautifully rendered. This season is more colourful than most, because more of it happens during the daytime. There are no colour-related artefacts — even the blues come out right this time.

    There are no film artefacts as far as I can tell.

    Aliasing is negligible, as is moiré. There are no MPEG artefacts. Buffy has never looked better than this.

    There are subtitles in German, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Finnish, plus captions in English. I watched the English, both for the dialogue, and for the commentaries. The only error I noticed was a small one. In Chosen, at 26:14, Joss Whedon's commentary includes the line "lo these many years", which has been rendered as a subtitle reading "a lot of these many years".

    The discs are single-sided and dual layered, formatted RSDL, but there is no visible layer change. This is because there are two episodes on one layer, and two on the other.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The English soundtrack is Dolby Digital 2.0, surround encoded. There's also a German soundtrack, which I commented upon last time. The only other soundtrack is the audio commentary, where present.

    The dialogue is clear and comprehensible, although there are occasional touches of distortion on a word or two. There are no audio sync errors.

    Robert Duncan wrote the music for all of these episodes. He does a very good job in most of the episodes (I like his mostly orchestral style), and he puts in an extraordinary effort on the final episode. It's a truly epic episode, and he produced an epic score.

    Watching these episodes again, I noticed the sound of a certain shiny red toy — it sings. This Foley makes it sounds so much more vicious. Very cool.

    The surrounds are not used in any significant way. The subwoofer is not used at all.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    All the featurettes are full-screen, not 16x9 enhanced. I was more than a little disappointed to note that Sarah Michelle Gellar doesn't appear in any of the extras. Sure, we know that she was keen to leave, but you'd think she could have given a little to the show that gave her so much. Still, even without her there are plenty of extras on these discs.

Menu

    The main menu on each disc is the episode menu. I'm pleased that the episodes are presented in a simple list, making it easy to know the order in which to watch them.

    There's a static image behind each episode menu. Disc 4 has a picture of Spike, Disc 5 features Faith, and Disc 6 has five of the potentials: Rona (Alyssa Ashley Nichols, credited as Indigo), Kennedy (Iyari Limon), Amanda (Sarah Hagan), Chao Ahn (Kristy Wu), and Vi (Felicia Day).

    If you haven't seen the episodes, try hard not to look too closely at each episode menu — they often include spoilers.

Featurette: season 7 overview — buffy: full circle (36:02)

    This describes the arcs followed by each of the major characters, and the themes that lay behind them. Most of the writers appear, and some of the actors (with a notable exception...).

Featurette: buffy 101: studying the slayer (13:56)

    This is a discussion of how much impact the show has had, featuring a couple of critics and an academic.

Featurette: generation S (8:24)

    A talk about the potentials, featuring four of the main actors (four of the five who appear on the menu of Disc 6).

Featurette: the last sundown (8:44)

    Joss Whedon listing his top ten episodes, with a few comments on them. His choices don't surprise me, but the order is interesting.

Commentary: The Killer in Me

    David Solomon and Drew Z Greenberg talking at length about this episode. They have quite a lot to say, but occasionally they stop to listen to the dialogue, and unfortunately we can't here it — unlike most commentaries, the dialogue is not mixed into this track at an audible level. Well worth listening to, though.

Commentary: Lies My Parent Told Me

    David Fury (co-writer and director), Drew Goddard (writer), James Marsters (Spike) and D B Woodside (Robin Wood) make an entertaining, and informative, commentary team. At the end James Marsters complains that he was conned into joining them - that he really came in to get some T shirts!

Commentary: Dirty Girls

    Drew Goddard (writer) is joined by Nicholas Brandon (Xander) for this commentary. Drew Goddard claims that this commentary will feature him "pointing out the scenes he didn't write" (he credits scenes to Joss Whedon, Marti Noxon, and Jane Espenson) — there's a lot more to it than that.

Commentary: Chosen

    Joss Whedon, speaking as writer, director, and series creator, talking about the final episode, and indeed every episode. If you are a fan, you have to listen to this. But watch the episode first — there are spoilers in this. He points out some things that I missed the first (and second) time. And he reveals where he heard of the technology used to make the climactic scenes happen.

    He makes a delightful comment about how much harder it is to write a second final episode of Buffy (the first time was the end of Season 5) — an interesting problem, admittedly.

Outtakes (3:18)

    All Season 7 footage. Quite a bit of it featuring Emma Caulfield, but there are a couple of cute Alyson Hannigan moments.

Featurette: buffy wraps (5:02)

    A few interviews and some candid shots taken from the party held after they shot the last footage.

Easter Egg: The Gift "previously" (0:36)

    This is a neat little feature. It's the "previously on Buffy" montage that appeared before The Gift. The one that basically summarises the entire first five seasons of the show. It's not hard to find, but if you have any trouble, (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) go to the featurettes menu (inside the Special Features menu), and press Left to highlight a "B" in the background, then press Enter.

    Region 1 has just received Season 6 — Season 7 is announced as being released in October. Region 2 got this season about a month earlier than we did. To my surprise, the UK Region 2 discs are different from ours: they get nothing but English. The Region 4 has more options. However, apart from that, the transfers seem identical — it seems likely that they are using the same video transfer.

    I've changed my mind about the packaging. I used to like the R2 packaging (which packs all 6 DVDs in an album, with the discs in cardboard sleeves), but I've found that the discs are more easily damaged in sliding them in and out. The R4 packaging is much bulkier, but it is both more robust, and offers better protection for the discs, even if Fox has opted for the cheaper "Push" cases, rather than spending the extra few cents to get real Amarays. The R1 packaging for earlier seasons has been a classic digipack design, with plastic panels on cardboard, which protects the discs better than the R2 album, but it's not all that robust.

    We expect to see some bigger differences in the R1 (when it arrives...). The R1 discs will be full-screen (1.33:1) rather than widescreen. If you want to get Buffy in full-screen, then you'll have to wait for the Region 1. They may also get an extra extra or two, but note that they miss out on the "Previously..." segments, which is not nice (apparently this even cut off part of a commentary in Season 6). If you are an uncontrolled fan, you may feel the need to get both the R1 and the R4 (and possibly even the R2 as well). Of course, I got them all in the interest of doing a detailed comparison — at least that's what I tell myself...

    Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 7, Part 2. Call yourself a fan? You need this. It is top-grade Buffy, and harks back to every past season.

    The video quality is excellent, and widescreen 16x9 enhanced. Buffy has never looked better.

    The audio quality is very good, for a stereo TV soundtrack. There is some awesome music in this soundtrack.

    There are plenty of good extras in this box, including some excellent commentaries.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall