Buffy The Vampire Slayer is the greatest television show ever made and I think about it every single day.

Season Ranking:

1. Season 5 - The perfect season of the show. Honestly I think it should have ended here although season 6 does have some banger moments. All the characters are at their peak here. Buffy is still herself and ultimately sacrifices herself for not only the universe but also for her sister. Speaking of sister Dawn is such a good addition both as a character and a plot device. It's a really big swing but the show pulls it off very well in how it both crafts this super engaging and interesting mystery with her character while still having her character be way more than a plot device. Anya becomes an actual real character and while later seasons would develop her more I do really love her characterization here and honestly would rather take this Anya over what she would become in the final season. She's also very useful in defeating the ultimate big bad, as is everyone in the season. Even Xander has a bigger role than in other seasons and has a bigger stake in the outcome of the season because of his attachment to Dawn. Spike is great here too. Honestly I find him a bit obnoxious in those early seasons where he's still being the bad guy, but season 5 is where I really came around on him. Then season 6 had to go and ruin it by making him a rapist, but what can you do really. AND GLORY! GLORY IS SO FUCKING BADASS! BEST BIG BAD IN THE WHOLE SHOW HANDS DOWN! The Magic Shop is such a great fucking location too. I love it so much more than the library as a "home base" for these characters. I feel like it's much more dynamic and gets actually involved in stories way more. And if you are talking individual episodes, The Body is the not only the best in the series, but also the best episode of television ever made hands fucking down. As much as the show loves killing people off it never did it as good as in this episode.

2. Season 3 - Season 2 and 3 are very equivalent in my eyes. They both are some of the best examples of this type of high school drama of the era and balance it with the supernatural stuff very well, but Season 3 overall just has a stronger cast of characters I think. Faith is a super interesting concept and is done very well. I do think later seasons would explore her better than she is here tbh, but the very existence of her is awesome. The Mayor is a pretty fun bad guy too and I would rather take a fun villian over what Angelus ends up being which is pretty miserable. Exploring misery is all well and good, but for these earlier seasons I think the fun and campy tone works better. It's not like this season doesn't have it's really dark moments as well. Faith's whole character arc is very fucked up. It just balances the more disturbing aspects with the more fun ones. The finale is really fantastic as well. It's really the best possible send off to this era of the show.

3. Season 2 - That's not to say Season 2 isn't great as well. Oz is one of my favorite characters and I love his storylines this season. The whole vampire gang is cool as well, although the Angelus and Buffy dichotomy does get a bit old after a while. It's also just kind of uncomfortable in a way that I think goes beyond the intention. Jenny's death is a stand out moment of this season for me. Besides Joyce it is probably the best death in the show I think. It also is one of the first moments where the show really starts to develop Giles as a character with a lot of depth rather than just a mentor for Buffy.

4. Season 6 - This season has some highs that rival even season five for me. Honestly it might have the best crop of individual episodes to choose from. However, the overarching narrative is very weak. It's the only season that tries to focus more on a thematic through line rather than having one individual big bad who haunts the whole season and that really leads to things feeling very unfocused. The geek squad or whatever are also just not very good villians. They are good as a one off but to keep coming back the way they do and have such an important, but ultimately irrelevant role in the ultimate villian is so underbaked as an idea. It makes Dark Willows apperance happen solely because of these dweebs rather than as a result of Willow's actions herself which makes it all feel so much more rushed. If they wanted these real life struggles to be the actual big bad then cut out the geeks entirely and just focus on the nitty gritty fully and then spend some actual real time into fleshing out Willow and her turn into darkness. Maybe have it be as the result of her inability to get Tara back. Like she looses Tara and it's her fault and the darkness springs not out of vengence but self destruction. It would be harder to pull off but also way more satisfying. Then you wouldn't have to kill Tara as this cheap fucking plot device. That's the worst thing about this fucking season. They kill the lesbian as a cheap emotional moment to spur on the rushed emergence of the villian. It's such a betrayl to kill off a fan favorite character in a way that is so unbelivably not thought through at all. Up until this point season six was probably the best season yet for Tara too! I wanted to see what her role would be like as an independent agent rather than just being Willows girlfriend. Then they fucking kill her. Fuck off.

5. Season 4 - This season is hated because it is sort of a black sheep in how it's the only dedicated college season and how it sort of bungles the concept of the government being the villian by introducing this killing machine guy, but honestly I still kind of like the secret organization aspect. I like Buffy's role in trying to work with them and how that interacts with her relationship. Riley is boring, sure, but the boring nature of his character works really well in contrasting Buffy's life in general and makes the struggle she feels in balancing everything hit that much harder. I don't love everything about this season and it does probably have the weakest episodes of the whole show, but it isn't a complete mess as some say.

6. Season 1 - To be honest it's just kind of boring. It's a great entry point but in retrospect it feels like the skeleton of the great show that Buffy would go on to be. The characters are all still caricatures at this point. Their dynamics aren't as strong. The big bad is the most generic Buffy big bad possible. It's just a very uninteresting season. It's also much shorter which makes it feel like a proof of concept rather than the show we would come to know and love. It's still not bad but not what I think of when I think of Buffy.

7. Season 7 - Fuck season 7. The show basically undoes any interesting or weird characterization of the last season and all the characters feel so confused as to what their motives even are anymore. All the best characters have nothing to do. The first is such a boring fucking villian. It's interesting in concept I guess but because of how it doesn't really exist in a corporial way it makes it really fucking hard to have any interesting sequences or set peices whatsoever. The potentials are all annoying and underdeveloped. Kennedy can kick rocks. Fuck Kennedy. Fuck the show for trying to make her seem like a good partner for Willow. It's like they were trying to apologize for killing the last lesbian by writing a new one, but sorry that isn't how it works especially when the new one is the worst person in the world. It's like they flayed me alive Dark Willow style and then poured salt all over. Faith is good here though and I like Principal wood. Nothing else works though. Spike becoming human is stupid. All the characters kicking Buffy out of her own house is stupid. Xander becoming a pervert pedophile is stupid. The flow of events is nonsensical at times. Things just happen for the sake of it. It's all so dull. I really hate everything about this season.

REST IN PEACE MICHELLE TRACHTENBERG

The day Michelle died I had a really long day at work I had just gotten back home to mom's house (I was still living there at the time) and while I was eating dinner my mom asked me if I saw that "the girl from harriet the spy had died". The only Harriet the Spy movie I ever saw as a kid was the 2010 version where she had a blog and was played by Harper from Wizards of Waverly Place so needless to say I did not know who she was talking about immediately. Then when she said Michelle's name it hit me like a load of bricks. A celeb death never hit me so hard before. It was really sad when Lynch died earlier that year, but he was nearing 80 and a lifelong smoker with lung issues so it wasn't too unexpected although it was very tragic. Michelle though, that came so out of left field. She wasn't even 40 yet. I was also doing a watch through of the series at the time and had just started season 5 so in my mind I still saw her as that little girl from the first several episodes of season five. I was absolutely devestated for weeks. No famous person's death has hit me like that since. The absolute shock you feel at someone telling you about something like that rather than learning about it through social media really contributed to it too.