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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer-Season 2 Box Set Part 2 (1998)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer-Season 2 Box Set Part 2 (1998)

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Released 2-May-2001
Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General		Extras
Category	Vampire	Featurette-Making Of-3 TV Spots Trailer Gallery-Photo Biographies-Cast
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	421:22 (Case: 450)
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (3)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu	Cast & Crew
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Joss Whedon Michael Lange Bruce Seth Green James A Contner
Studio Distributor	Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	Sarah Michelle Gellar Alyson Hannigan Nichola Brendon Charisma Carpenter David Boreanaz Anthony Stewart Head
Case	Slip Case	Starring
RPI	$79.95	Music	Christophe Beck Sean Murray Shawn K Clement

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement	No
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No	Miscellaneous
Subtitles	Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired French French Audio Commentary	Smoking	Yes, but only the bad guys smoke...
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 2 Part 2. I have already reviewed Part 1 ( you'll find that review here) - I recommend you read that review first.

This is the second part of Season Two. I was a bit surprised to find that they split the season into 12 episodes for the first part, and 10 for the second - I would have expected a split into two sets of 11 episodes (which is how the VHS sets were done), but this split makes a lot of sense. The first 12 episodes are good solid Buffy, but they don't have the impact of the last 10. These last 10 episodes are a dramatic whole, with powerful double episodes as bookends. Including the 12th episode (Bad Eggs) in this set would have unbalanced it badly.

If you haven't seen Season 2 of Buffy, then stop reading this section right now. Go read about the transfer, or go buy it; just don't continue reading. You do not want to know what happens before you see it.

This set starts with the epic double episode Surprise / Innocence. It is pieces like these that raise Buffy The Vampire Slayer far above ordinary TV. A gut-wrenching combination of tragedy and comedy, with a heavy admixture of irony, this double episode starts the ball rolling that culminates in the double episode that ends the season: Becoming. These two doubles act as bookends to some powerful stuff. Joss Whedon is one mean dude.

The episodes are:

Surprise - Buffy's sixteenth birthday, but Drusilla's getting presents
Innocence - have to love any episode with a rocket launcher!
Phases - one word: werewolf
Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered - every girl loves Xander
Passion - Jenny Calendar's attempt to restore Angel's soul
Killed by Death - the flu has a different effect on Slayers...
I Only Have Eyes for You - resolving a 50s murder-suicide
Go Fish - something fishy about the swim team
Becoming Part 1 - Angel's history, Kendra's return
Becoming Part 2 - "Mom, I'm a vampire slayer"

Apart from the sheer delight of the scene where Buffy takes on the Judge, there are some cool comic moments: the look on Cordelia's face when she's ogling a swimmer only to discover that it is Xander; the cute reference to the cheerleading trophy: "its eyes follow you" (see Season 1: Witch); and the glorious irony when Xander gets every woman in Sunnydale lusting after him except the one he wants. I love the way this show reproduces some of the awkward moments from high school, too - albeit with a special twist - Willow catching Xander and Cordelia; the awkward moment between Buffy's mother and Spike: "Do I know you?" "You hit me on the back of the head with an axe" "Oh".

I have already explained that I really like this show. I will happily collect every episode I can get on DVD. But I really think that this particular collection is special, including some of the most powerful work they've done. In some ways I will be more comfortable watching later episodes, because they aren't quite as intense, but I know I'll be watching these again.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was shot on 16mm film for the first two seasons - I believe they switched to 35mm from the start of Season 3. 16mm film can be grainy even during the day, but it is much worse at night, and lots of the action in Buffy happens at night, or in low light conditions. So we must expect to see some grain. Considering that, I'm pleased with how good the good bits are, and how well they have transferred it to DVD. Any flaws in this are flaws in the source material, not the transfer.

This series was made for TV in the US. Thus it is in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and is not 16x9 enhanced.

Daylight shots are generally sharp and clear, although I saw a couple of shots that looked a touch over-exposed (I guess the cameramen don't get a lot of practice at shooting in direct sunlight). Night-time shots are generally black, with some colour on foreground objects. We don't get too much shadow detail in the daylight, and we get none at all at night. There's a little low level noise in the night shots, but that's unsurprising, given the amount of black on the screen to show it. The night shots are still generally sharp, though.

Daylight shots, and well-lit interiors, show lots of colour. Night-time, and dimly lit areas, don't exhibit much colour, but at least we don't get the false colours that come from shooting blue filter "night-time" scenes. Yes, The Judge really is blue.

There are moments of serious film grain. Perhaps the worst is at 40:09 in Becoming Part 1, although there is some heavy grain in Passion. I'd rate this set as slightly better than the first season, but there's a long way to go.

There are some occasional minor film artefacts - a spot or two, the occasional fleck. Nothing significant.

The nastiest problem of all lies in Becoming Part 1. On my Pioneer 737, at 9:23 the picture freezes solid, but the sound continues. You can get past this by fast forwarding for a moment, then reversing to just past the trouble spot. I cross-checked with a Sony 336, but the problem does not appear there. You may not get this problem - I don't know.

The discs are dual layer, not RSDL, which makes sense - rather than have a layer change disrupting an episode, they simply place two episodes on one layer, and two on the other layer.

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

Audio

The audio is supplied in English or French, both in Dolby Digital 2.0. The soundtracks are marked as surround-encoded, but I only noticed sound in the surrounds on one or two occasions. On one episode (Innocence) we get a commentary from Joss Whedon - creator, writer, and director of that episode. I listened to the English soundtrack and the commentary. Subtitles are provided in English, French, and Dutch for the soundtrack, but subtitles for the commentary track are only available in French - I have had one complaint already from a hearing-impaired viewer who is disappointed not to get subtitles for the commentary in English - I can sympathize.

Dialogue is uniformly clear and readily understood. Even a few moments when the dialogue is whispered come across quite clearly. Audio sync was perfect.

The background music in Buffy is good contemporary music. Nothing extraordinary, but it does the job.

In my review of the first part of this season I remarked that the audio did not seem to be surround-encoded, despite being flagged as such. I received some feedback on this point, so I decided to listen closely to the surrounds on this soundtrack. I did hear a moment or two of sound with some rear directionality, but it was very limited. I checked repeatedly, by walking up to the surround speakers, but most of the time they were playing, if anything, a pale echo of the front sound. I wouldn't call that surround. The sound is not mono, however; there's plenty of left-right spread in the soundtrack.

The subwoofer received no signal at all.

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

Extras

This box set includes some good extras. Again, the Special Features box on the back of each cover includes only extras - they have not listed menus, scene access, alternate languages, or anything like that, as special features - I really hope to see this continue.

The menus are cool. Each disc starts with a CGI-rendered zoom into a graveyard, into a mausoleum, past a statue, and up to a wall, on which the main menu appears - the background image for the main menu varies from disc to disc. This main menu offers the choice of episode. Selecting an episode triggers another animation, taking us off to a different part of the graveyard, where the menu for that episode is presented. Any special features for a disc are presented in the menu for the episode to which they apply. The episode menus are arranged in a circle, which is pretty.

The menus themselves are static, with background sound. They are 16x9 enhanced - seems strange for a disc full of 4:3 material.

Script - Innocence

The script is presented in a typewriter font, with not too much text on a page - easy to read. You can move forwards and backwards using the chapter skip buttons. Forwards is easy, but backwards is a little more awkward - you have to press the back button twice, most times, to move back one page.

Commentary - Innocence

This commentary is from Joss Whedon - he is credited on every episode as creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and he's writer and director, too, on this episode. He starts out apologetically, but soon warms to the task. He has a lot to say, and most of it is quite interesting. I rather liked his comments about certain shots which he can write in because he knows that he is directing, and thus will be able to get it the way he wants. This commentary is one I can recommend.

Featurette - Designing Buffy (13:46 minutes)

This featurette discusses mostly the design of the sets - the designer walks us through the sets making up Buffy's house and Giles' apartment, and explains some of the features they built into them.

Featurette - A Buffy Bestiary (29:26 minutes)

A walkthrough of the monsters we see in this season. This is not a superficial trip, however, because they talk about the inspirations for the monsters, such as the Creature From The Black Lagoon for the Fish Men. Don't watch this before you watch the episodes - there are some spoilers in it.

Featurette - Beauty and the Beasts (20:18 minutes)

A discussion of the makeup involved, both for the monsters and for the lovely Buffy and Cordelia. The monsters get more attention! The makeup artists won an Emmy for makeup for their work on this season, and you can see their attention to detail.

Art Gallery

This is broken into four sections. The first, and longest, is the Still Gallery, comprised of over 50 photos (16x9 enhanced) of the cast. There are 10 photos of Set Designs, 10 more of Monster Sketches, and 37 Set Design Blueprints. You move back and forth through these galleries using the chapter skip buttons.

Bios

There are bios for ten of the actors (all the major players), plus Joss Whedon. Each actor bio starts with a bio of their character, then moves on to the actor.

Trailers / TV Spots

There are four entries here. Each is a single clip, but some of them include more than one TV spot:

Angel VHS Trailer - a 52 second plug for Angel Season 1 on video
Buffy DVD Trailer - a 52 second plug for Buffy Season 2 on DVD - interesting to see a different packaging in this trailer
UK VHS Trailer - a plug for Buffy Season 2 on VHS in the UK
US TV Spots - a brief TV spot for each of several episodes from Season 2

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

nothing

The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

everything!

Although Region 2 will be getting Season 2 on DVD shortly, Region 1 is still completely without Buffy on DVD.

Summary

I think this is the most intense sequence of Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes made so far. These DVDs are about as good as the source material allows, excepting the glitch I mentioned.

The video quality is good for day-time scenes, and fair for night-time scenes. That is what Buffy looks like.

The audio quality is good, for a stereo track.

The extras are impressive. I'd have liked another commentary or two, but there's a lot of material here.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

Review Equipment
DVD	Pioneer DV-737, using Component output
Display	Sony VPL-VW10HT LCD Projector, ScreenTechnics matte white screen with a gain of 1.0 (280cm). Calibrated with Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio Decoder	Built in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials.
Amplification	Denon AVC-A1SE
Speakers	Front Left and Right: Krix Euphonix, Centre: Krix KDX-C Rears: Krix KDX-M, Subwoofer: Krix Seismix 5

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