Buffy the Vampire Slayer-Season 5 Box Set Part 1 (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Vampire	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Audio Commentary-Real Me; Fool For Love Script-The Replacement; Fool For Love; Into The Woods Featurette-Buffy Abroad Featurette-Demonology-A Slayer's Guide Featurette-Casting Buffy Featurette-Action Heroes! The Stunts Of Buffy Outtakes Trailer-Buffy Season 2, 3, 4 DVD Trailers;Angel Season 1, 2 Trailers Trailer-Buffy The Vampire Slayer Feature Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	465:32
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Joss Whedon David Solomon David Grossman James A Contner
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Sarah Michelle Gellar Nicholas Brendon Alyson Hannigan Marc Blucas Emma Caulfield Michelle Trachtenberg James Marsters Anthony Stewart Head Amber Benson Kristine Sutherland Clare Kramer
Case	?
RPI	$79.95	Music	Thomas Wanker

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (96Kb/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 Finnish Norwegian Swedish English Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes, only bad guys!
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Buffy time has rolled around again! Yay! This time it is Season 5. This is my review of Part I, which is the first three DVDs, containing the eleven episodes that make up the first half of the season. This season does not have as pronounced a division between the first and second half of the season, though.

    I have a soft spot for this season, because I happened to be in the US when it started, and I got to see Buffy vs Dracula under strange circumstances. That meant I saw the tantalising denouement ((SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) the sudden appearance of Dawn) in September, roughly six months before we got the season here in Australia. For six months I wondered about that, and resisted (mostly) the temptation to tease my fellow fans about it.

    You know, it's amusing that it took until Season 5 for them to decide that Buffy should meet Dracula — maybe they were uncertain how much of the Dracula mythos they should include? No matter, it makes an excellent season opener, and ensures this season hits the ground running. The end of the episode introduces the enigma of the season, and if you don't want to know any more, I strongly urge you to skip to the transfer quality section, because I will be using spoiler tags for the worst bits, but I can't tag the whole lot... Before that, however, let's check the episodes in this box:

     There are several threads running through this season, of which (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) Glory and Dawn is only the most obvious. There are some dark threads, including (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) Riley's descent from Initiative superman into a "normal guy" who becomes addicted to vampires, (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) Spike's growing obsession with the Slayer, (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) Buffy's need to know about the source of her power and (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) Buffy's mother's illness. There's also Giles finding a new role as a shopkeeper, and the changing dynamics in (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) Xander and Anya's relationship.

    Joss Whedon seems to have been plotting the events of Family since nearly the start of Season Four — we finally learn why Tara sabotaged that early spell she cast with Willow. This particular episode presages some of the events of Season Six. I'd forgotten this — it is important, because it evens out the balance of the Tara / Willow relationship. I really like the ending of this episode. By the way, in the ending we get our first sight of a new hairstyle on Anya — it makes her difficult to recognise until she speaks.

    It's interesting to watch the evolution of Xander's character. He has grown, even though he has no super-powers, no witchcraft, no ex-demon identity — he's just a man. But he is occasionally the voice of reason, the one who speaks the truth to Buffy, even when she doesn't want to hear it. It's also interesting to note that the first episode has a slightly different set of opening credits — this is understandable, once you've seen it.

    There is obvious homage to the original Star Trek episode The Enemy Within in The Replacement, perhaps a little unsubtle with Xander quoting Kirk at the end.

    There are a couple of bit parts that are acted by actors who came back in bigger parts later. One of Harmony's minions (Real Me) came back as Andrew (one of the nerd trio in Season Six); Cecily Addams (Fool for Love) came back as the vengeance demon Halfreck (also in Season Six).

    (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) I really liked Clare Kramer's portrayal of Glory as the ultimate in petulant Valley Girls. I know some people hated the whole Glory scenario, but I found her attitude quite appropriate for what she is.

    As the extras state in more than one place, Buffy's fighting style changes in this season — it is more graceful, with some awesome new moves (love the flip-n-kick). There is some wire-work, but not to the extent that yields disbelief. One fight sequence that impressed me came in Into the Woods — (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) a furious Buffy dusts seven vampires in seconds.

    More than one fan has told me that Seasons Two and Three are still the best. Maybe. Maybe not. But I notice that they haven't stopped watching the series... To my mind, the series moved away from the simple, comfortable dangers of the first three series to more complex, more ambiguous dangers — there aren't cut-and-dried easy answers to many of the questions raised by the events of this season. A superficially simple episode like Fool for Love raises uncomfortable questions about what being The Slayer means. Even the first episode has lingering effects — Dracula's statement that the source of The Slayer's power is darkness tortures Buffy; it forces her into an exploration of her identity as Slayer, and its implications.

    There's a mention in the script of Fool for Love that a particular scene is duplicated in the same numbered episode (Darla) of Angel Season Two. This is the closest we get to a cross-over between these episodes and Angel, but it's an important one, because it establishes more of the common history of the shows. Crossovers had greater impact in the US, when Buffy was screened at 8pm, followed by Angel at 9pm on the same channel (WB); once Buffy moved to another channel (UPN), they cut the crossovers (although there are still appearances of characters from one on the other). I caught an episode of each just recently in the US; it was interesting to note that Angel is now broadcast in letterbox mode, but Buffy is still shown full-screen.

    There is a lot happening this season, and not a single wasted episode. Admittedly, much of it is not resolved in this half, but that's cool — we need this half to set up everything that happens in the second half. No serious Buffy fan can afford to omit this season from their collection.

Video

    This show is a TV series. We must not forget that. They don't have the budget to guarantee that every shot is perfect. The quality of the video is very good, but it can't be expected to match that of a multi-million dollar film.

    Again we get the entire season presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced. The DVDs are the only way we get to see the series in widescreen in Australia, and the more I watch this way, the more I want it — it just feels right.

    The picture is generally clear and sharp, with next to no edge-enhancement. There is the occasional shot that is not perfectly focussed (see 11:31 and 12:53 in Buffy vs Dracula, for example), but these are rare. There is very good shadow detail; no longer is Buffy a few barely-visible faces in a sea of black. There's some grain, particularly in low-light high-speed shots, but nothing like earlier series (perhaps the most noticeable are 32:32 in Buffy vs Dracula, 1:33 and 37:20 in Out of My Mind, and 12:40 in Family). There's no low-level noise.

    Colour is marvellous. It is deep, rich, and fully-saturated. There are no colour-related artefacts. There are plenty of opportunities to see these colours, especially on a particular character's red dress...

    There are no significant or notable film artefacts. There are a number of things one might mistake for film artefacts, but they are things sparkling, for example.

    There are a few instances of MPEG shimmer (like 35:25 in The Replacement, for example), but this is never troubling. There's a bit of aliasing (2:08 in The Real Me, for example), but it's never annoying.

    There are subtitles in Scandinavian languages, plus captions in English. I watched the English — they are frequently a little abbreviated, but otherwise they are accurate, well-timed, and easily read.

    The discs are single-sided and dual layered, formatted RSDL, but there is no visible layer change. 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 no other soundtrack, save for the occasional commentaries.

    The oh-so-vital dialogue is clearly comprehensible — we can understand every word of Buffy-speak. There are no signs of audio sync errors, except for one interesting moment. At 1:34 in Listening to Fear, a character is talking but her face is not moving. She was on-shot a moment earlier, in perfect sync; the shot switches to Buffy's mother, but the other character's speech continues. Unfortunately, the character in question is just barely visible on the edge of the widescreen shot (she wasn't visible in the broadcast 1.33:1 version) and now her mouth isn't moving. Oops.

    Every episode is scored by Thomas W***er. He's taken over from Christophe Beck. He does an excellent job.

    The surrounds are only used to deepen the score — there are no directional sound effects. The subwoofer is not used, unless your bass management settings redirect bass from the mains into the sub. There's some real bass in the soundtrack, and it's channelled to the mains.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Menu

    The discs start with an interesting transition sequence — don't look too closely if you haven't seen the episodes before, though. The main (episode) menu features a different couple each disc. The episodes are arranged more sensibly this time, in a simple vertical list, so it is easy to follow the order. The photos on the menus are really attractive, featuring:

1. Buffy and (SPOILER ALERT: highlight with mouse to read) Dawn
2. Tara and Willow
3. Xander and Anya

Original Scripts

    These discs include scripts for The Replacement (186pp), Fool for Love (172pp), and Into the Woods (I lost count of the pages). I'm not a huge fan of scripts.

Commentary: The Real Me

    This commentary, from the writer, David Fury, and director, David Grossman, is not hugely exciting. The Davids discuss the introduction of a new character, and mention some spoiler material from this and later seasons.

Commentary: Fool for Love

    I've never been a fan of Doug Petrie's commentaries. As usual, this is not a fabulous commentary, although he is getting better at it — he includes a lot more information, and comments more screen-specifically. He points out some interesting things, including the moment when Spike gets the eyebrow scar we've seen since Season 2.

Featurette: Buffy Abroad (4:04)

    A few words on the subject of Buffy's popularity in countries other than the USA. There's one mention of Australia. There's some footage dubbed in all manner of languages — quite entertaining.

Featurette: Demonology (10:58)

    Danny Strong (Jonathan Levinson) introduces a discussion of some of the demons in the show. He's a bit annoying, and this featurette contains several spoilers — I recommend not watching this until you've seen all the episodes.

Featurette: Casting Buffy (6:33)

    There are some major spoilers in this featurette, including spoilers about Season Six. An interesting discussion of the casting of the characters, though.

Featurette: Action Heroes! The Stunts of Buffy (10:59)

    There was a new stunt coordinator, John Medlen, and some new stunt doubles, including Melissa Barker, in this season. This featurette has some interesting footage of stunts, including some of the new toys they introduced this season. It's mentioned that principal actors are not permitted to do certain types of stunts, even if they want to.

Outtakes: Buffy Series (2:06)

    These are mostly fairly old, but there's some funny stuff here, so no complaints!

Trailers

• Buffy Season 2 DVDs trailer (0:50)
• Buffy Season 3 DVDs trailer (0:60)
• Buffy Season 4 DVDs trailer (0:54)
• Angel Season 1 DVDs trailer (0:36)
• Angel Season 2 DVDs trailer (0:46)
• Buffy movie trailer (1:38)

    Region 1 has just received Season 3. Region 2 got this season a month earlier than we did (sniff!). The R2 and R4 discs are effectively identical, dual-coded. The R2 packaging is the same as last season, which is nice (I liked it). The R4 packaging will probably be the same as last season, too, with a set of standard Amarays. Choose the packaging you want, 'cause that's the only difference.

    Buffy Season 5 — wonderful stuff, and you know you want this...

    The video quality is excellent, and widescreen 16x9 enhanced. Throw away the tapes — this is better!

    The audio quality is very good.

    There are plenty of extras, and they enhance the enjoyment. There's a few new types of extra, too.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall