 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 7'
Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Review by Dr. DVD
Every season of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" has its own villain and story arc, and each one is scary and memorable, and oddly enough, beloved by watchers.
So, imagine the excitement of Buffy fans everywhere when, in the last five minutes of the seventh and final season opener, all of them make an appearance just before morphing into Buffy herself.
That scene sets the tone for a great wrap-up season. As a stand-alone season, it's not the strongest, but as a 22-episode goodbye, it is everything it needs to be. Past sins and triumphs are revisited, dead people come back (granted, not all that unusual for a show about vampires), and it ends as it began -- Buffy and her three closest friends fighting evil at Sunnydale High.
I've mentioned before that "Buffyverse" creator Joss Whedon is not afraid to hurt his fans, killing off integral characters without mercy. As a result, I spent much of Season 7 waiting for the other shoe (and by shoe, I mean body) to drop with quiet resignation. After all, he spent seven seasons building a feminist mythos that will no doubt be studied in college classrooms for years to come. That means he can do whatever he wants with his final season, even if it means doing away with some of my favorites.
And did he?
Well, I'd hate to spoil the surprise for anyone who doesn't already know, and my lips are sealed.
The core cast is the group of seasoned veterans who have been on board for multiple seasons and watching them is a familiar comfort. It's a more heavy-handed story arc than some of the past ones, and pop culture references, while still there, don't flow quite as freely.
 There's still comic relief, usually by the character of Andrew (Thomas Lenk), the geek turned almost-super villain turned reluctant hero. There is romance, including a return visit from Buffy's first love and successful spin-off, Angel. And, there's fighting evil, the First Evil, to be exact.
Fighting the Big Bad is really what Buffy does best. Throughout the season, she trains a corps of "potential" slayers, one of whom will be chosen when Buffy dies. While it's pretty cool to see the mythology expanded a bit, the scenes where she's lecturing them or fussing about protecting them aren't what make the show. Those are the scenes you sit through waiting for Buffy to go kick butt.
It's really only fitting that the series about fighting the forces of darkness should end with fighting the ultimate evil that spawned all of the other uglies in the world. It takes a while to get there, and it is a bit preachy and overwrought at times, but the finale is well worth the wait. Comedy, tragedy, and a giant battle in the depths of the earth -- it doesn't really get more climatic than that.
The Goodies:
The special features include commentary by cast and crew on select episodes; "Buffy Full Circle: A Season Seven Overview" which made me, I have to say, a little misty-eyed; "Buffy 101: Studying the Slayer," a look at the major themes of the series; "Generation S," an introduction to the potential slayers from the season; "The Last Sundown," a countdown of Joss Whedon's top 10 episodes of the series; outtakes; the Buffy wrap reel; and a DVD-ROM feature, the Willow Demon Guide.
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