Buffy The Vampire Slayer - Series 5 - Complete (DVD)

Season five of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is bigger, better and more ambitious than any that came before it. With what appears to be an undefeatable opponent, a new little sister and her mother's illness, Buffy has a lot to deal with.

I don't want to repeat the general information I put into my review of seasons one, two, three and four, so I'll just jump straight into reviewing the characters and episodes. Check my profile for my reviews ...
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Episode One: Buffy vs. Dracula
The episode title is pretty self-explanatory: Dracula comes to town to seek out the famous vampire Slayer, and soon begins to hold Buffy under his thrall. This episode begins one of the threads that runs through this season - the idea of what exactly a slayer is. There's also a bit of a surprise at the end of the episode...

Episode Two: Real Me
Buffy's sister Dawn is introduced ... more

Season five of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is bigger, better and more ambitious than any that came before it. With what appears to be an undefeatable opponent, a new little sister and her mother's illness, Buffy has a lot to deal with.

I don't want to repeat the general information I put into my review of seasons one, two, three and four, so I'll just jump straight into reviewing the characters and episodes. Check my profile for my reviews of the first four seasons!

--Characters--

As always, the fab four return for another season: Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles. Joining them are love interests Anya, Tara and Riley, and the now-harmless vampire Spike.

The new character to this season is Buffy's younger sister, Dawn. What sister, you might ask, if you've seen seasons one to four. Well, exactly! This is one of the major plot threads throughout the season, and the answers are revealed in time.

The Big Bad this season comes in the form of Hell God Glory, played by Clare Kramer. Whilst Glory can at times be annoying, the character is meant to be and this just adds to the sinister aspect of her character.

--Episodes--

Episode One: Buffy vs. Dracula
The episode title is pretty self-explanatory: Dracula comes to town to seek out the famous vampire Slayer, and soon begins to hold Buffy under his thrall. This episode begins one of the threads that runs through this season - the idea of what exactly a slayer is. There's also a bit of a surprise at the end of the episode...

Episode Two: Real Me
Buffy's sister Dawn is introduced properly in this episode, and we're plunged straight into the deep end. Everyone but the audience seems to know who she is, and it appears as though Dawn has been there throughout. The episode is told from the PoV of Dawn, and it's a nice introduction to Dawn's character.

Episode Three: The Replacement
A comedy episode centered around Xander, the demon Toth splits Xander in two - with his best and worst personality traits split into each Xander. A funny episode.

Episode Four: Out of My Mind
The drugs the Initiative used on Riley begin to have an adverse effect on his heart. Only the doctor at the hospital can help - but Spike has kidnapped him in an effort to get his chip out. Meanwhile, Buffy's mother, Joyce, collapses. This episode seems rather like a filler to me, however there are some good parts with Spike and there's several plot advancement points.

Episode Five: No Place Like Home
We're introduced to the Big Bad, Glory, in this episode, who's in Sunnydale looking for her Key. Meanwhile, Buffy realises that Dawn isn't quite who she appears, and learns her true identity...

Episode Six: Family
A Tara based episode that sees her family come to town to try and take her back home. For years Tara's believed that on her twentieth birthday she will become part-demon, and so she tries to hide it from her friends with terrible consequences...

Episode Seven: Fool for Love
This is one of the best episodes of the season. When Buffy is injured she goes to talk to the only person who has bested two slayers: Spike. This episode involves several flashbacks to episodes in Spike's life. It ends with quite a sweet moment between Buffy and Spike, who has recently realised he's in love with her.

Episode Eight: Shadow
Whilst Joyce is in hospital, Glory uses a Snake demon to try and find her Key. With the knowledge that Dawn is the Key, Giles and Buffy have to try and stop the snake before all can be revealed to the hell god. This episode is good, but like a lot of the episodes that contribute to the main arc, it seems to blend in and is quite forgettable.

Episode Nine: Listening to Fear
A meteorite falls to earth, and from within a Queller demon crawls. The demon has been summoned to "quell" the crazy people in town - and Buffy's mother is acting a little crazy since her operation. A good episode that introduces a new player - Ben - into the fold, and does he have a secret...?

Episode Ten: Into the Woods
Bye bye, Riley! This episode sees Buffy discovering that Riley has been visiting the vampire equivalent of a brothel, and paying a vampire to bite him. This ends their already rocky relationship, and Riley leaves to re-join the army. I like this episode simply for the fact that we get rid of Riley - not a favourite character of mine!

Episode Eleven: Triangle
A very funny episode that sees Willow and Anya arguing over how to run the magic shop whilst Giles is away. They somehow cause the Troll god Olaf to materialise, and he then begins to wreak havoc on the town. A nice break from the doom and gloom of the storylines surrounding Glory and Joyce's illness!

Episode Twelve: Checkpoint
The pesky Watcher's Council are back in town, this time to put Buffy through more tests. They have knowledge that may help defeat Glory, but before they will give it up Buffy has to prove she is worthy. This is a good episode with some funny moments when the council members question Buffy's friends.

Episode Thirteen: Blood Ties
It's Buffy's birthday and time for the rest of the Scoobies to find out that Dawn is the Key. Dawn is determined to find out what they are hiding, and so breaks into the Magic Box with Spike. She discovers the truth and the episode ends with a confrontation with Glory, who is also...Ben?

Episode Fourteen: Crush
A fantastic episode in which Spike's feelings for Buffy are finally revealed to her. After discovering that Spike is in love with her, and rejecting him, Spike's former love Drusilla returns to town to tempt him with his old ways. A very good episode.

Episode Fifteen: I Was Made To Love You
We're introduced to one of my most loathed characters in this episode, Warren Meers, a geek who has built himself a robot girlfriend. Much of this episode centers around her searching for Warren and the consequences when she finds him.

Episode Sixteen: The Body
This is an amazing episode but it is incredibly painful and uncomfortable to watch. Buffy arrives home to find her mother dead. The rest of the episode deals with the time immediately after she finds the body, as Joss Whedon put it in the commentary, the "boredom of death". The acting in this episode is superb from all actors and there are some truly heartbreaking moments.

Episode Seventeen: Forever
Buffy and Dawn deal with the death of their mother in different ways. Buffy confides in Angel, whilst Dawn enlists Spike's help to try and resurrect Joyce. Not one of my favourite episodes.

Episode Eighteen: Intervention
A hilarious episode! Spike's robot-Buffy arrives and some great comedic moments ensue. Meanwhile, Buffy heads out on a quest to talk to the first slayer and learns that death is her gift. The episode ends with a confrontation with Glory, who has kidnapped Spike and beaten him to a bloody pulp. One of my favourite episodes of the season - Buffybot is hilarious!

Episode Nineteen: Tough Love
The beginning of the end for this season, Glory thinks she has worked out who the Key is...she believes it to be Tara and soon "brain sucks" her and reduces her to a near vegetative state. She finds out the true identity of the key at the end of the episode, however... This is a good episode that sets up the three-part finale.

Episode Twenty: Spiral
Buffy realises that there's nothing she can do to stop Glory, and so the Scoobies pack up and leave Sunnydale. Soon they find that the Knights of Byzantium are on their tail and a fight ensues.

Episode Twenty-One: The Weight of the World
With Dawn now in Glory's hands, Buffy reverts into herself and goes into a form of catatonia. It's up to Willow to snap her out of it. Meanwhile, Xander and Spike visit Doc and find some information on how to defeat Glory. There are moments of this episode that I like, but on the whole, I found Willow's visit into Buffy's mind to be rather tedious.

Episode Twenty-Two: The Gift
The season finale is fantastic from start to finish. Buffy and the others head to where Glory has Dawn captured for a fight of epic proportions. The climax of the episode will have you on the edge of your seat, as Buffy learns that death truly is her gift.

--Special Features--

* Script for episode 'The Replacement'
* Audio commentary for episode 'The Real Me' by writer David Fury and director David Grossman
* Script and audio commentary for episode 'Fool For Love' from Doug Petrie
* Script for episode 'Into The Woods'
* 'Buffy Abroad' featurette
* 'Demonology - A Slayer's Guide' featurette
* 'Casting Buffy' featurette
* 'Action Heroes - The Stunts Of Buffy' featurette
* Trailers
* Script for episode 'Checkpoint'
* Audio commentary for episode 'I Was Made To Love You' from writer Jane Espenson
* Audio commentary for epsiode 'The Body' from creator Joss Whedon
* 'The Story Of Season 5' featurette
* 'Natural Causes' featurette
* 'Spotlight On Dawn' featurette
* Stills gallery

--Overall--

Because much of season five is to do with the main story arc of Glory, Dawn and the Key, I find it hard to pick out individual episodes from the mix. However, the season is a fantastic one and has a truly shocking ending.

The introduction of Dawn might have spelled disaster, but it works really well.

Developing Spike's character so that he falls in love with Buffy was a hoot, and it set the seeds for what is to come in season six.

Definitely recommended! 

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