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Amazon.co.uk Review
From its charming and angst-ridden first season to the darker, apocalyptic final one, Buffy the Vampire Slayer succeeds on many levels, and in a fresher and more authentic way than the shows that came before or after it. How lucky, then, that with the release of its box set of seasons 1-7, you can have the estimable pleasure of watching a near-decade of Buffy in any order you choose. (And we have some ideas about how that should be done.) First: rest assured that there's no shame in coming to Buffy late, even if you initially turned your nose up at the winsome Sarah Michelle Gellar kicking the hell out of vampires (in Buffy-lingo, vamps), demons, and other evil-doers. Perhaps you did so because, well, it looked sort of science-fiction-like with all that monster latex. Start with season 3 and see that Buffy offers something for everyone, and the sooner you succumb to it, the quicker you'll appreciate how textured and riveting a drama it is. Why season 3? Because it offers you a winning cast of characters who have fallen from innocence: their hearts have been broken, their egos trampled in typically vicious high-school style, and as a result, they've begun to realize how fallible they are. As much as they try, there are always more monsters, or a bigger evil. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the core crew remains something of a unit--there's the smart girl, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) who dreams of saving the day by downloading the plans to City Hall's sewer tunnels and mapping a route to safety. There are the ne'r do wells--the vampire Spike (James Marsters), who both clashes with and aspires to love Buffy; the tortured and torturing Angel (David Boreanz); the pretty, popular girl with an empty heart (Charisma Carpenter); and the teenage everyman, Xander (Nicholas Brendon). Then there's Buffy herself, who in the course of seven seasons morphs from a sarcastic teenager in a minidress to a heroine whose tragic flaw is an abiding desire to be a "normal" girl. On a lesser note, with the box set you can watch the fashion transformation of Buffy from mall rat to Prada-wearing, kickboxing diva with enviable highlights. (There was the unfortunate bob of season 2, but it's a forgivable lapse.) At least the storyline merits the transformations: every time Buffy has to end a relationship she cuts her hair, shedding both the pain and her vulnerability. In addition to the well-wrought teenage emotional landscape, Buffy deftly takes on more universal themes--power, politics, death, morality--as the series matures in seasons 4-6. And apart from a few missteps that haven't aged particularly well ("I Robot" in season 1 comes to mind), most episodes feel as harrowing and as richly drawn as they did at first viewing. That's about as much as you can ask for any form of entertainment: that it offer an escape from the viewer's workaday world and entry into one in which the heroine (ideally one with leather pants) overcomes demons far more troubling than one's own. --Megan Halverson
DVD Description
All seven butt-kicking seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, all the special features from the original Buffy DVD box sets - this Complete DVD Collection is the perfect way to enter the world of Buffy and her friends, demons and love interests. Join Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Angel, Spike, Cordelia and Dawn for over 115 hours of high voltage vampire action!
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
103 of 105 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
You know, I only ever used to catch the odd episode of Buffy on TV. Either it was her having some trauma with Angel or something to do with the rather cold inflicted looking Master. As far as I was concerned it was just a bit of fun, pure standalone episodes, to pass an hour or so of my life away. This was, of course, until I stumbled across someone on an internet forum giving a season by season breakdown of the storylines. I'd never realised the links between each episode, each series, that takes young Buffy from a fashion conscious student at Sunnydale right up to being a General figure leading a bunch of potential slayers into an apocalyptic battle against an almost Lord Of The Rings-esque host of feral vampires and the overal essence of evil in the Hellmouth itself.
So I vowed one day to sit down and watch the entire series from start to finish to take in this epic opus. After finishing it I can say its pure class, the thought that goes into structuring the entire flow of the series. Little throwaway lines that pop up referring to events that may have happened seasons ago, little clues dropped in about the appearence of Dawn in Season 5 as early as Season 3. There are episodes that are standalone pieces of amusement (take Xander and the 'all women love me' episode for example) or those that tackle more serious aspects of life such as the rather sombre The Body. There are episodes the pushed the boundaries of normal US TV viewing such as the musical Once More With Feeling, the silent Hush and the surreal Restless, all episodes that I will recommend to friends to check out to show that there is more to Buffy than initially perceived.
I found the DVDs to be absolute quality, Season 4 onwards are presented in widescreen which is a bit of a treat. Its also the first time that I've actually wanted to sit down and watch through a commentry, Joss Whedon expanding on the excellent episodes of Hush and Restless for example. There aren't as MANY features as I was expecting and there appears to be a surprising lack of Sarah Michelle-Gellar from the mini docus that punctuate the various boxsets. In defence of this, its a joy to hear Joss expand on the creation of the series where you find he approached Buffy from the mind of a film-maker. Hence the absolute quality of visuals, something you take for granted when you're used to mega-epics like Lord Of The Rings. Perhaps we assume too much that when it comes to TV, everyone has the time and budget to knock up something as impressive as this.
All in all, its a top box set. Something you will, and I have, watch over and over again. The characters are absolutely wonderful and have now become popular culture icons, Buffy will become a piece of history so you should really make sure you own it.
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
It's here! The complete collection of Buffy The Vampire Slayer in a compact and easy to manage boxed set. I have always been a big fan, unfortunally keeping up with the show on television proved difficult. Episodes were cancelled, missed, failed to tape, etc. Therefore I jumped at the chance to own the entire saga.
The seventh and final season was my personal fravourite. I enjoyed watching years worth of stories and ideas come together [...]Having now purchased the boxed set. I have stared to watch them all from the very beginning. It has been so long since I had seen the first season and I had forgot how young looking the actors were when they started out in Buffy.
There are some good special features in the collection. I personally would have liked and expected more, but I guess you can't get everything you want. Generally there is nothing I can fault about Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Only that it ended when it did. Joss Whedon has created something that will have a legacy and a following for generations to come. If you are a fan in any measure then this is well worth the investisment as it promises to give you years of enjoyment.
The seventh and final season was my personal fravourite. I enjoyed watching years worth of stories and ideas come together [...]Having now purchased the boxed set. I have stared to watch them all from the very beginning. It has been so long since I had seen the first season and I had forgot how young looking the actors were when they started out in Buffy.
There are some good special features in the collection. I personally would have liked and expected more, but I guess you can't get everything you want. Generally there is nothing I can fault about Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Only that it ended when it did. Joss Whedon has created something that will have a legacy and a following for generations to come. If you are a fan in any measure then this is well worth the investisment as it promises to give you years of enjoyment.
165 of 170 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
Buffy is more difficult to sell than 'serious' shows like The Sopranos and The West Wing. The name itself is very silly; the notion of "Buffy" and "vampires" was probably enough to scare off half the population before it even aired. And then there is the main character. Buffy is no cool, serious or attractive man but a blonde, stereotypical teenage cheerleader holding a stake. There seems to be no depth, reality or threat.
But Buffy triumphs in defeating stereotypes and the preconceptions you have whenever a young blonde woman walks onto the screen. From the very first scene where the blonde victim idea is subverted, Buffy establishes itself as the wittiest, funniest drama around. As the season progresses you realise that this show can also be dark and is as innovative as any other, more acclaimed, modern culture.
The writing is consistently brilliant, avoiding predictability and cliché throughout, unlike most drama scripts. Each character is beautifully created. They are always real, tangible, different and three-dimensional. Although there is a sharp sense of morality in Buffy, the fantasy element never leads the writers into the trap of the superhero versus the evil monsters. Buffy and her friends are not perfect and not even always good.
But probably what makes Buffy great, rather than just another sharp witty drama, is the direction. Buffy is a TV show, not a book or film on the small screen. The strengths of the medium are constantly exploited - the uniquely long amount of time TV has to establish character and expand plot are used brilliantly. Look at Buffy over the 7 seasons and it is clearly a cohesive whole, a journey. A journey you are invited to join over a vast period of time.
Because of these strengths the acting doesn't have to be brilliant but it generally is. Many of the actors here are little more than average but something in the chemistry of the show raises them well above their game. No one sees Sarah Michelle Gellar as an Oscar winner, but here, on the small screen, her acting is pretty near perfect.
The final strength of this show is the concept. The hero is, unusually, a woman and a strong, capable, demon fighting one at that. The often quoted metaphor that High School is Hell does fit the first seasons but there is often a lot more to it that that. There is a sense of morality, goodness and duty that runs throughout. The strength of friendship and the importance of doing what is right even if it hurts you is constantly emphasised.
I do not want to make Buffy something it is not. It is not always deep, serious and meaningful. It is sometimes only silly. But what I can guarantee is that it has moments of breathtaking brilliance and is almost always really good fun. It is wonderfully acted, directed and written. It is different, never clichéd and always fresh.
So if you have resisted Buffy until now, if, like me, you have been put off by the title, the heroine and the concept please give it a chance. I can promise that you will not regret it.
But Buffy triumphs in defeating stereotypes and the preconceptions you have whenever a young blonde woman walks onto the screen. From the very first scene where the blonde victim idea is subverted, Buffy establishes itself as the wittiest, funniest drama around. As the season progresses you realise that this show can also be dark and is as innovative as any other, more acclaimed, modern culture.
The writing is consistently brilliant, avoiding predictability and cliché throughout, unlike most drama scripts. Each character is beautifully created. They are always real, tangible, different and three-dimensional. Although there is a sharp sense of morality in Buffy, the fantasy element never leads the writers into the trap of the superhero versus the evil monsters. Buffy and her friends are not perfect and not even always good.
But probably what makes Buffy great, rather than just another sharp witty drama, is the direction. Buffy is a TV show, not a book or film on the small screen. The strengths of the medium are constantly exploited - the uniquely long amount of time TV has to establish character and expand plot are used brilliantly. Look at Buffy over the 7 seasons and it is clearly a cohesive whole, a journey. A journey you are invited to join over a vast period of time.
Because of these strengths the acting doesn't have to be brilliant but it generally is. Many of the actors here are little more than average but something in the chemistry of the show raises them well above their game. No one sees Sarah Michelle Gellar as an Oscar winner, but here, on the small screen, her acting is pretty near perfect.
The final strength of this show is the concept. The hero is, unusually, a woman and a strong, capable, demon fighting one at that. The often quoted metaphor that High School is Hell does fit the first seasons but there is often a lot more to it that that. There is a sense of morality, goodness and duty that runs throughout. The strength of friendship and the importance of doing what is right even if it hurts you is constantly emphasised.
I do not want to make Buffy something it is not. It is not always deep, serious and meaningful. It is sometimes only silly. But what I can guarantee is that it has moments of breathtaking brilliance and is almost always really good fun. It is wonderfully acted, directed and written. It is different, never clichéd and always fresh.
So if you have resisted Buffy until now, if, like me, you have been put off by the title, the heroine and the concept please give it a chance. I can promise that you will not regret it.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
A good way to get the entire series at a great price
I'm a latter-day Whedon fan, but I never really got into Buffy when it was originally airing. This boxset is a good deal for catching up with the whole series at a good price... Read more
Published 11 days ago by Kyle
Brilliant
The ONLY thing missing is a full episode guide, they aren't even listed on the boxes. Just as good as I remember...
Published 16 days ago by C. Thompson
Terrible menu navigation + 'recaps' from "Angel" - WTF?
Well, the three stars here basically mean it plays well, nothing missing, and I loved watching the Buffy series. That's about it. Read more
Published 23 days ago by Chuckun
Its every bit as good as I remember... maybe better!
So much fun to be walking down memory lane with Buffy. Its surprising how un-dated it is, and just how much it is making me laugh. Read more
Published 24 days ago by Gem
Great but....
Great show and the packaging is awesome - just a shame that there is no episode guide in the box / list of episodes. Also the discs don't indicate what episodes are on them.
Published 25 days ago by Deedee
BY FAR THE BEST TV SHOW OF ALL TIME!
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is by far the best TV program I have ever seen. Even better than FRIENDS, which is also amazing. It has everything! Read more
Published 1 month ago by G. Stephenson
slayertastic
excellent service, received the box-set in no time, and was in immaculate condition, the only query i have is no episode guide came with the boxset nor in any of the individual... Read more
Published 1 month ago by mikeyj
love it
This is amerce, me and my friend have watched so many episodes in less then a week. Its a shame it didn't come with a leaflet saying what episode is what. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Brookiebow
Budget copies, grab for the low price.
If you want the box set of all the Buffy episodes together, and are not that bothered about image quality - then this set is parfect value (I bought it at an amazing £35!! Read more
Published 1 month ago by Samuel A. Mccathie
well been awhile buffy summers
ive always been oooooh and aaaaaahing about getting this, yes i loved it when it first came out, but i was young about 16 or 17 when it first came out, but now im 31 all grown up... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Tam101
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