Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 3, Episode 1: Anne
Written and Directed by Joss Whedon(a.k.a. In Which Buffy Learns... nah, sorry, I'm tired of doing these)
And so Buffy's third and final season in high school begins. This, along with Seasons 1 and 2, is often considered to constitute the first "phase" of the show, but, personally, I see this as a transition period between the Season 1/2 style and the decidedly different Season 4. A lot has changed. The look of the show is entirely different, for a start: no longer shot on grainy 16mm film stock, it now seems clearer, brighter and more saturated - a visual style that would remain in place, more or less unchanged, until the end of Season 5. The title theme is also different (although, for some reason, the first two episodes of the US DVD sets still have the original version of the song). Most importantly, though, the core team of writers that would see the show through to its end was established during this season.
Where the new writers - Marti Noxon (who actually joined in the previous section but is being included here because she wasn't part of the original crop), Jane Espenson, Douglas Petrie, David Fury (who didn't secure a permanent job until the fourth season, but wrote two key episodes here in a freelance capacity) - have the clear advantage over their predecessors is in their ability to deliver a more consistent product. Season 3 doesn't have the extreme highs and lows of Season 2, and while that means that we don't get anything as good as Passion, it also means that we don't have to suffer another Inca Mummy Girl.
Anyway, on with the episode in question. It's actually a somewhat mundane affair for a season premiere, with Buffy battling a fairly generic set of monsters as she tries to "find herself" in LA. (Incidentally, am I the only one who thinks that this is a semi-pilot for the Angel spin-off? A couple of shots from this episode even made their way into that series' opening titles.) The emphasis is definitely on the character development rather than on coming up with a cool villain, wihch I'm okay with, since I watch this show more for the characters than for the supernatural/sci-fi elements. Also nice to see Chanterelle/Lily/Anne again - at this stage in its life, Buffy was very good with continuity - and, on a side note, I like that this character continued to show up sporadically on Angel. I guess it's nice to see a rare example of a secondary character overcoming severe hurdles and getting her life back into gear.
In a sense, I wonder if this episode tries to do too much. By splitting its time between Buffy in LA and the rest of the gang back in Sunnydale, we don't really get enough of a chance to really delve into what the events at the end of Season 2 have done to them. The little snatches - Giles and Joyce's conversation, Buffy alone in her apartment - are great, but there could have been so much more. Still, a solid season premiere. It won't make it on to any Top 20 or even Top 40 lists, but it stands on its own feet and gets the season off to a good start.
Overall rating: 8/10.
Next time: Dead Man's Party.
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