Buffy on DVD? A best buy. Review by Violet Kane

I finally broke down, after years of nagging from my Buffy-crazy friend Lisa, and watched all seven seasons of of Buffy on DVD. Foremost, Buffy is a television show of rare quality. But since watching the DVDs, they have become the standard against which I measure all TV on DVD sets. I have not found their equal.

Season 2

Buffy may be the only television series I would recommend buying, even if you've never seen it before. The seed of this show�as creator Joss Whedon tells us many times in the DVD commentary�came from a Horror genre cliche: the cute blond girl walks into a dark alley and gets killed by a horrid creature. Buffy is the cute blond girl, rather, who beats up the creatures that lurk in dark alleys. The series evolved into an exploration of complex, loveable characters and daring storytelling experiments. The writing is endlessly witty and the filmmaking rivals most big screen productions. The series is unabashedly speculative fiction at the same time it laughs at speculative conventions. It's not just vampire fiction. SciFi and Fantasy sneak in just as often.

Season 3

Putting aside the show itself, for a moment, the DVDs represent, in my opinion, a gold standard for TV on DVD. Each season contains several featurettes that are professionally produced, extensive interviews with the cast (with the notable acception of Sarah Michelle Gellar), crew and production staff. Every season also includes commentary tracks on banner episodes. They are among the best commentary tracks I've heard. The commentaries are most often done by the writing or production staff, and so they address scenes from the perspective of filmmakers, providing insights into lighting, camera angles and production choices. I've learned more about filmmaking than I did about Buffy, and I can't say they skimped on the latter. The DVDs also show off the high quality production values of the show. Considering the quality of these DVD sets, they are well worth the cost. And the price of Buffy DVDs are already reasonable when compared to a lot of big name DVD speculative fiction, like Xena/Hercules or Star Trek.

Season 4

These box sets are a must for speculative fiction DVD collectors. But if you're simply looking for great speculative filmmaking, I would also recommend these DVDs. Try buying them used, or borrowing from a friend, if you don't want to buy them. But Buffy is a noteable achievement in speculative fiction storytelling. It's also highly accessible. Even people with little experience in speculative storytelling will enjoy it.

Violet "Violanthe" Kane is the Webmaster and Founder of ARWZ.com. She is an editor of ARWZ Literary Zine and is currently pursuing a Master's degree in Medieval studies.

Season 5

Season 6

Season 7

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