I don't think it would have been too beyond the pale to have Tara sacrifice her life to prevent the apocalypse Willow was about to bring on at the end of "Grave". I just feel like the arc was cut off at the knees for fear of making Willow too unlikable. The better story would have been for her to go full dark of her…

It's a glorified discussion post. What, did you expect the AV Club to actually post thoughtful analysis of television? Silly child.

More like the middle was shitty as fuck. They tried their best to correct it at the end, but the whole 'magic junkie' thing destroyed all the valuable progress the show had been making with her. She didn't even get to go evil at the end as a result of her own choices, she went evil because Tara got shot. Much more…

He was terrifying in that hospital scene. Pretty much the only time you got to see him cut loose like that into pure evil and it was done amazingly.

The fact that she would just take off should have hinted at the fact that *something* more emotionally devastating than just 'I killed Angelus' happened. They were just being terrible friends in my opinion. Only Giles was being understanding about it, which just reinforces how much I love Giles.

It was said somewhere else on this thread, but I fully believe it was intentionally out of character for Angelus. The Angelus of the 1800's would never try to end the world, he had too much fun making people suffer in it. This version though was tainted by Angel's love for Buffy, which made him want to blow everything…

Alexis Denisof speaking in an American accent sounds soooo fake, which is utterly hilarious considering that's just his real voice.

Even in Season 1 I could tell Boreanaz was a better actor than most people gave him credit for, even if he was a little rough around the edges at first, and this season proved it. He sold Angelus almost too well, it was a tour de force performance (His acting skills never get enough credit in general; I think he saved…

Xander didn't lie to Buffy because he knew she needed to keep focus. Xander lied because he was being a jealous prick. And I say this as someone who actually grew to love Xander in subsequent seasons after he stopped being the epitome of every dudebro who complains about being 'friendzoned'. There's no defending what…

Tim Minear is being wasted writing an episode of American Horror Story every year (although it's telling that AHS's best season was the one Ryan Murphy let him run completely). Give the man a series to run!

The whole episode is burned into my brain in a way that very few episodes of TV ever will be. The most miserable, depressing conclusion ever, followed immediately by the most life-affirming, optimistic conclusion, and none of it felt jarring. Just powerful stuff.

The one-two punch of "Reprise" and "Epiphany" would have been enough to vault that season over the top in my opinion, but the fact that it's surrounded by wall-to-wall awesomeness doesn't hurt. That two-parter is some of the most sophisticated philosophical musings on television I've ever seen. It's Mad Men level in…

God that is such an amazing theory. The episode where Darla died that you're referencing, "Lullaby", was written by Tim Minear, the best damn writer Angel ever had, so there's at least a chance that it actually was intentional on the writer's part. That theory is so good it makes me want to rewatch a Season 1 Buffy…

To be quite honest the finale itself wasn't *abjectly* terrible. The dozen or so episodes leading up to it were a load of flaming garbage, but I think the series finale itself did the very best it could considering what it was given to work with (in this case that was jack shit, but whatever). No episode that Whedon…

"Wrecked" took Willow's entire arc of slowly becoming evil and threw it in the garbage disposal, that's what was wrong with it. She should have gone down the path of being a malicious mastemind, which is what they seemed to be building up to. Instead they made her a junkie. A total waste.

I always bow to the knowledge of the wiki, thanks for the correction. That's interesting that they were only together for 18 years. It probably just felt like longer because Angel was always flashing back to various points during that span of time.

Angelus and Darla reuniting in Buffy Season 2 would have rubbed so much salt in an already open wound that it's a mercy she was already dead (not that I still wouldn't have liked to see it, I'd just be crying the entire time).

In my opinion, Season 4 is the most rewatchable out of all seven seasons. If I'm in the mood to watch some of my favorite Buffy episodes, chances are the lion's share will come from Season 4. The Initiative arc maybe wasn't the most perfect the show's ever done, but when you have "Fear, Itself", "Pangs", "Something…

Season 6 still holds up, trust me. Rewatched it just a couple of months ago all the way through and there are *maybe* 5 episodes in the whole thing that are less than awesome. Only two of those 5 rank among the worst things the series ever did ("Wrecked" and "As You Were"). A pretty phenomenal track record for a…

The first 9 episodes of Season 7 are highly watchable, if a little painful in retrospect because you know the rest couldn't live up to it. Season 7 is the worst season overall though, agreed. Followed by Season 1, and then… well, I won't give my rankings of the other five seasons on here for fear of being flayed…