As promised, I will try to regularly post as I make my way through the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, and I have officially met the halfway point of Season Two. Overall, I’m enjoying the slightly darker and more “realistic” tone of the show. “Realistic” in the sense that, although the situations are all still pretty out there, the show has begun showing more human reactions to such shocking events. Like, for example, Buffy’s bad attitude after having been killed (albeit briefly) by The Master at the end of Season One. My only criticism is that the show is somewhat inconsistent about what makes an event serious and with grave consequences, as opposed to those tragedies that are just sort of brushed off.

I was glad to see The Anointed One brought back for a bit, as he didn’t really do very much in Season One. Actually, he didn’t do much in Season Two, but it was still nice that there was (at least supposed to be) more to being Anointed than walking Buffy to the Master.

Still present this season are storylines that feel ripped off (guys building their own girl, magical Halloween masks, a mummy who comes back to life, fraternity brothers who also kill people) but the show always manages to throw a curveball and deliver something unexpected within these “borrowed” ideas. I have to admit that when I realized the Halloween masks were haunted, my eyes rolled. I’ve seen that once before, and that was in the black sheep of the Halloween series. But the Buffy episode kept it interesting by mixing in Giles’ backstory.

It’s a neat twist that Giles has a backstory, but I was a bit disappointed that it was all explained away in just two episodes. They could have left it more open-ended, that he had these terrible dark days in his youth that will continue to cause trouble for Buffy, but they seemed to make it an open and shut case after disposing of Eyghon. Though I guess he and Ethan can always come back. Jenny’s reaction to the demon possessing her was certainly “realistic,” but I couldn’t help but thinking that she wasn’t nearly as shaken up after nearly being eaten by a tentacled monster or having her throat nearly slit to revive the Master.

Speaking of intriguing backstories, I did like the hint that Principal Snyder seems to know what’s going on with the vampires in Sunnydale; I’m looking forward to that being explored further.

The “Lie to Me” episode offered an interesting surprise in the villain’s motivations, but it was still a tad cheesy in its delivery. Also the emotion was kind of washed away when Buffy barely raised an eyebrow slaying the vampire Billy. Still, it was nice to introduce a moral grey area into Buffy’s life.

The “What’s My Line” two parter was a lot of fun, and I was very glad they didn’t kill off Kendra. I’m hoping she makes some return visits to Sunnydale, and the concept of having two slayers (when there should be Only One) is further explored.

“Ted” was also a change-of-pace dark episode, but I thought the ending of Ted just being a robot was a cop-out. I keep waiting for Buffy to encounter bad people who are not demons/vampires/working for or with demons/vampires, and I thought that episode had finally come. It was almost like the episode was straying into such a dark and depressing place that the writers felt they had to bring it back down to a less disturbing level. I hope that the show takes more serious issues head on as it progresses.

A few other random thoughts:

I mentioned in my first post that everyone in the show seemed to be romantically frustrated, but so far this season, all of our characters are being paired off: Buffy & Angel, Jenny & Giles, Willow & Oz, even Xander & Cordelia! I was hoping all of their constant insults were going somewhere…

Spike and Drusilla are not only cool characters, but James Marsters and Julie Landau play them wonderfully. Nothing against the Master, but these two are a lot more fun as recurring thorns in Buffy’s side.

And Willow’s last name is Rosenberg? She’s a Jew?! All right, we need more kick-ass Jewish characters on TV!