DVD Review | Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Season 2)
Written by: Kage Alan

Film Rating: A
DVD Special Features: A

After finally succumbing to the charm, humor and excitement of Season 1, I
find that I've become a believer and a fan.  "Go blonde girl, go!" My
enthusiasm strikes me as both ironic and pathetic, mostly since I initially
stuck my nose up at the series because I felt it was a disservice to Kristy
Swanson from the film version.  Wrong and once again I missed out on some
damn fine television (that's the pathetic part).  Just when I didn't think
the series could get any better than what I'd already seen, along comes
Season 2.

Since Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar, "I Know What You Did Last Summer") killed the master vampire at the end of the first season, it's only natural that
we're going to be introduced to another major baddie this round.  While we
figure the Anointed One will pick up the evil and run with it, he's quickly
dispatched in favor of new arrivals Spike (James Marsters, "Chance") and his
ailing mate, Drusilla (Juliet Landau, "Ravager").  These two love a good
party and especially spilling the blood of the innocent, so they stick around
causing as much mayhem as possible for the season.

As for the regular cast members, their roles are expanded and brought to new
levels.  Xander (Nicholas Brendon, "Psycho Beach Party") is putting the moves on the stuck up Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter, "The Groomsmen"), Willow (Alyson Hannigan, "American Pie") discovers a mutual attraction with newcomer Oz (Seth Green, "Austin Powers"), Giles (Anthony Head, "VR.5") shows a dark side of his past as well as his tender side dating Jenny Calendar (Robia La Morte, "Spawn") and Buffy can't help but romance her own dark knight, Angel (David Boreanaz, "Valentine").

Aside from the regular battles with vampires, there's also some terrific
episodes dealing with reanimated Frankenstein creations, an Inca mummy,
fraternity boys along with their reptile god, witchcraft, possessed Halloween
costumes, unhappy spirits, old demons, bounty hunters, a robot with a strong
sense of family, a nod to "A Nightmare On Elm Street" and much, much more.  We're also introduced to Kendra, another slayer, and the most evil high
school principal (Armin Shimerman, "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") of them all. What makes this series continue to stand out is the solid writing and humor.
Some of the plots and effects might come off as ridiculous on any other
show, but they work here and quite effectively.  Suffice to say that I'm
hooked and fighting the urge to order Seasons 3 and 4 from overseas just so I
won't have to wait another year before North America releases the next set.

Fox has released all 22 episodes here in the Full Frame format, which is fine
considering it's the aspect ratio they were originally filmed in.  
Unfortunately, the image quality of the episodes is generally crap.  I can't
believe how much grain is present and how dismal it all looks.  Comments on
other sites indicate that this problem clears up a little at a time in the
upcoming seasons, but it's pretty awful here.  Audio quality is decent, so
that's a plus.  Fox has also seen fit to include some decent extras this time
around.

Aside from 4 very excellent commentaries here by a writer (on two episodes),
one of the directors and one with creator Joss Whedon (which is the best of
the bunch) and a couple of short interview clips with Whedon that I assume
were included from the VHS sets, we're also given an art galleries, trailers
and TV spots, biographies and 3 featurettes.  The art gallery is divided up
into 4 areas; still gallery, set designs, monster sketches and set design
blueprints.  Trailers include North American spots, International Spots, a
Buffy Season 2 DVD trailer as well as one for Angel Season 1.  As for
featurettes, the first one up is the 13-minute "Designing Buffy," an in-depth
look at what goes into creating the sets for the show as well as taking a
tour of the sets themselves.  "A Buffy Bestiary" is 29 minutes of looking at
all the creatures appearing on the show as well as the people who play them
while the final 20-minute featurette, "Beauty and the Beasts," covers what
goes into the make-up for the creatures.

Image quality aside, Fox has done an excellent job with putting together
Season 2.  Paramount could take some notes on how to please fans here,
specifically in the area of extras and commentaries for its own releases of
"Star Trek: The Next Generation." My only complaint now is that I don't want
to have to wait too long for Season 3.  Buffy is great fun and is filled to
the fangs with humor, drama, lessons about life and death, romance and
rejection and duty and obligation.  In short, it's cool!