Bonus Disc: **Introduction by Joss Whedon **Back to the Hellmouth: A Conversation with Creators and Cast **Breaking Barriers: It's Not a Chick Fight Thing **Love Bites: Relationships in the Buffyverse **Evil Fiends **Buffy: An Unlikely Role Model **Buffy Cast and Crew: Favorite Episodes
Amazon.com:
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 boxed 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 boxed 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

Customer Reviews Average rating - 4.5

Rating - 5 Date: 2009-01-06
Content: It's just the best. What else is there to say? I assume only people who have already seen some Buffy would be looking at the 40-disc set, so they already know. : ) I recommend buying it used, of course. $190 is pretty steep!
Summary: Whedon can do no wrong

Rating - 5 Date: 2009-01-06
Content: Item came brand new, whihc was evident through the unopened packaging. The item was everything I wanted and more. Can't say there was anything that could have made it better.
Summary: Couldn't ask for anything better

Rating - 3 Date: 2009-01-05
Content: As others have said Buffy is an amazing show which I would have given 5/5 stars. Unfortunately, the box quality isn't nearly as good which brings down the rating.

The outside is fairly solid cardboard and pretty nice - good display quality. The individual inserts for each season are really cheap, about as strong as a hallmark card with a stack of crummy disk holders glued in.

The overall design is questionable as well. It is certainly interesting and unique, but it is horrible to use. The inserts are stacked like pancakes, so if you are actually watching the series you'll have to tilt it sideways or be prepared to deal with balancing all the inserts above the one your after. Either way you'll need to pull the box off your shelf to open the box at all.

I docked 1 star for the flimsy inserts, and 1 star for the poor usability of the design. This set is still a great purchase if you love the series, and will fit in perfectly on your shelf. But prepare for mild annoyances when your actually pulling out dvd's.
Summary: Series Great, Packaging Decent

Rating - 5 Date: 2008-12-26
Content: It's a great show and when it went on sale like that, it was impossible to pass up. Even at market price it's a great deal! The show is amazing and fun to watch.
Summary: Loved it. Loved the price.

Rating - 5 Date: 2008-12-26
Content: I got this collection set as a Gold Box deal and was pleased with the compact size for containing 40 discs.
Summary: Nice and compact set