DVD

Enemy of the State - image comparison

After absolutely ages, I've finally done a new DVD image comparison. Tonight, I take a gander at Enemy of the State, a silly but highly entertaining thriller from the master of cheese and explosions, Jerry Bruckheimer. How does this year's R1 US Special Extended Edition measure up to the earlier R2 UK "remastered" edition? Find out!

Asterix and the Vikings... soon

The French R2 release of the latest Asterix film, Asterix and the Vikings, is due to be released tomorrow. I've had it pre-ordered for some time, but, mindful of my horrible experience with Astérix: La Trilogie Gaumont, which was delayed for over a year, I was half-expecting a last-minute postponement. Luckily, my copy is now packing at Amazon.fr, so with any luck I'll be able to let you know how the disc measures up before too long.

Until then, you might want to check out this review at DVDRama. The text is in French, so I know not everyone who visits this site will be able to follow it, but both the transfer and audio have received very high marks (and this is a site that's generally very good when it comes to audio-visual reviews), and you can see plenty of screen captures from the menus and extras. Most surprising is the audio setup menu screen, which shows that not only does the disc include English subtitles but also English audio. I was half-expecting this to be left out, given that it's absent from DVDFr's spec page for the DVD, and also because French DVD distributors, to be honest, don't have the best track record when it comes to supporting English speakers. Asterix and the Vikings was animated to an English vocal track, however, so it's only right and proper that this is included, even if I have a sneaking suspicion that I may end up preferring the French dub, as I did for Asterix Conquers America. Still, you can't argue with choice, and I'm glad I get the chance to make up my mind for myself. Fingers crossed for the first ever non-problematic Asterix DVD!

Update, October 24, 2006 06:54 PM: As of 6:50 PM, it's now on it's way.

Site complete!

As of 5 PM today, Whiggles.com version 9 is officially complete! The final DVD Image Comparison, What Have You Done to Solange?, was converted over to the new layout, meaning that the entire site is now as it should be. This should be good news to those who enjoy looking at the comparisons, because I have a couple of new ones in the pipeline that I was holding off doing until I'd migrated the current ones over to the version 9 layout. In particular, I'd like very much to cover the R2 UK and R1 USA Extended Edition releases of Enemy of the State, and to finally redo the Scream comparison that I took down a few months back because I didn't think my analysis of it was in-depth enough or the screengrabs used sufficient for illustrating the differences between versions.

Site status update

DVD Image Comparisons have now been converted over to the new layout up to and including The Omen. I decided to more or less stick with the same structure as before, since, while not ideal, it's at least functional. As I've been going through the comparisons, I've been attempting to bring them all into line with the latest format (i.e. one roll-over image using the same JavaScript code as the main menu buttons at the top of each page), as well as adding in data for number of discs, sides and layers where absent.

I hope to have the whole lot done within the next couple of days. I doubt I'll get any more done tonight, though, as I've got a job interview coming up this evening. (More on that later.)

Site status update

I've just finished converting all the reviews in the Cartoons section over to the site's version 9 layout. That means that, barring the DVD Image Comparisons, everything is complete. I've decided to save these for last, mainly because they're going to take longer than most pages to go through and re-tool manually, but also because I intend to try to improve their layout a bit, so they'll probably end up taking even longer than they normally would.

Corpse Bride - Warner finally hits a home run

My review copy of the recently released HD DVD of Tim Burton's Corpse Bride arrived today. You can read my overall opinions of it in the post I made when I rented the standard definition DVD back in February, and they haven't changed all that much (although I did find myself appreciating the art direction slightly more this time round), but of all the various blockbuster releases that I was offered by DVD Times, it struck me as being one of the more interesting.

Anyway, I've been a little critical of Warner's HD DVDs in the past. Million Dollar Baby and Constantine were both edge enhanced and slightly noise reduced, while Charlie and the Chocolate Factory looked noticeably diffuse (a flaw also affecting the HD broadcast master) and suffered from a few instances of compression artefacts, so I was a little apprehensive about Corpse Bride. Luckily, the results are considerably better than I was expecting - indeed, this is one of the best HD DVDs I've seen so far, beaten only by the majestic Serenity and the flawless Unleashed in terms of visual pizzazz. Edge enhancement is non-existent, contrast is spot-on, colours (in the saturated "Land of the Dead" sequences) are a joy to behold. This is so close to being a perfect transfer, and is marred only by a few mild instances of digital banding in the colours in the background. I feel slightly bad about knocking a mark off the score for these minor problems, but, with my high definition reviews, I want a 10/10-rated transfer to really mean absolute perfection.

Oh yeah, and I pre-ordered the HD DVD of Wolf Creek from DVD Pacific. It's due out on December 5th.

The Fox and the Hound: 25th Anniversary Edition

The 25th Anniversary Edition of The Fox and the Hound is comfortably the worst release Disney have put out in a long time, with the state of the film itself and the paltry extras suggesting that more thought was put into designing the packaging than the contents of the disc itself. As such, I can think of no reason for anyone to purchase this sorry excuse for a special edition - you'd be just as well waiting for it to show up on TV again, as it generally does every Christmas or Easter.

I've reviewed Disney's recent 25th Anniversary Edition release of The Fox and the Hound, an often ignored 1981 offering from the studio based on the book by Daniel P. Mannix. How does this new release match up against its disappointing predecessors?

The hammer falls: Sony Blu-ray player delayed again

Source: High-Def Digest

Well, who could have seen this coming? Sony has delayed their Blu-ray player, the BDP-S1, yet again, this time pushing it back from late October to early December. Just in case you've forgotten, this is the player that I originally had pre-ordered for a June 30th release date.

Over at the AV Science Forum, the mood is not pretty. The general consensus is that Sony has backed itself into a corner, attempting to dominate both the game market (with the PS3) and the film market (with Blu-ray movie discs), but, thanks to a lack of blue laser diodes, has had to choose between pushing stand-alone players and pushing the PS3. The gaming market it clearly more important to them, so they're electing to support it and screw Blu-ray. Mark my words: this could be the beginning of the end. Expect Disney and Lions Gate to announce HD DVD support by the end of the year.

This really isn't a good year for Sony, with the news of this delay coming hot on the heels of yet more battery recalls and a predicted net profit drop of 38%. Oh, and they may not hit their PS3 shipment target. Seriously, at this stage, is Sony ends up crashing and burning, I won't be shedding a tear for them. They've strung their loyal customers along for too long and seem content to screw them again and again. The lack of diodes can't have come as a surprise to them. They must have known that they wouldn't have enough for both the PS3 and the Blu-ray player for some time, and yet neglected to say anything until the last minute. If I still had a BDP-S1 pre-ordered, this would be the point when, like many people, I'd say "fuck 'em".

Oh yeah, and the PS3 won't upscale standard definition DVDs. The Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on will.

Update, October 20, 2006 22:41 PM: Sony Computer Entertainment America co-chairman Jack Tretton admits that the PS3's November 17th release date is "more of a target" than something that's set in stone.

Update, October 20, 2006 10:48 PM: And the Pioneer BDP-HD1 Blu-ray player has been delayed until January due to "technical issues".

New Lizard in a Woman's Skin DVD from Media Blasters

Source: 10K Bullets Forum

Media Blasters, it would seem, are working on a new release of Lucio Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin. As many of you probably know, they hopelessly bungled their previous release of the film a couple of years ago, failing to secure an uncut print and as a result offering only a choice between a widescreen cut version and a VHS-sourced, pan and scan version, which contained considerably more material than the cut version, but was still missing a couple of segments due to Italian censorship. At the time, Media Blasters claimed that an uncut print of the film didn't exist.

Egg was on their faces, however, when Federal Video in Italy released a DVD earlier this year which contained an almost-uncut version of the film. This version, it would seem, will be used as the source for the new Media Blasters release, which, according to 10K Bullets editor Mike Den Boer,

will include the region 2 cut of the film and the extras from the region 2. All with English subtitles.

Apparently, they will be syncing the superior English dub up with the transfer wherever possible, but there are still a number of issues to consider. First, will this be a proper native NTSC transfer, or will they simply do a half-assed PAL to NTSC standards conversion of the Italian DVD? Secondly, will they make any attempt to reinsert the material that is missing from the Italian DVD? There are three specific instances: (1) around 15-20 seconds of sapphic canoodling near the start of the film; (2) a few seconds of Anita Strindberg's ass as she approaches a man lying prostrate on the floor during one of her sexy parties; (3) a dream sequence which misses a few more seconds of fondling, and is partially overlaid with a "ripple" effect. For the composite version of the film that I made for my own personal use back during summer this year, I was able to fix the first two but couldn't do anything about the third. The discrepancy on the Italian release came about because they used two different sources for their version - the cut American print and a slightly poorer quality but less cut Italian print. The American print includes the "ripple" effect and is partially censored, but for some reason whoever was in charge of combining the two didn't notice this, and as a result the Italian DVD features a botched version of the dream sequence. The uncut version presumably exists on the Italian print, so if Media Blasters are able to access it, they could, with a little effort, create the definitive version of this film. Unfortunately, knowing their track record, I somehow doubt that they are going to go the extra mile.

Oh, and I'm still waiting for Media Blasters boss John Sirabella to make good on the promise he made back when the previous version was released, that, should an uncut print emerge, he would ship replacement copies of it free of charge to everyone who got gypped in the first place.

Delivery deluge

Today has been quite a day for deliveries, with the HD DVD releases of The Machinist and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (the latter a review copy) and the DVD of the 25th Anniversary edition of The Fox and the Hound (again, for review) all arriving.

I'm going to discuss The Machinist first because it's definitely the most noteworthy of the three arrivals. It constitutes several first for me: my first non-US HD DVD (it's Japanese), my first HD DVD from a distributor other than one of the major Hollywood studios (it's a Toshiba release), and my first HD DVD using MPEG4/AVC/H.264 as its compression format rather than VC1.

I was a little wary regarding this release given the mixed reports that have come through so far regarding Toshiba's Japanese releases, all of which have used MPEG4 rather than VC1. Essentially, MPEG4 has been characterised as an inferior format, and I was expecting to be a bit let down by The Machinist. I needn't have worried: it looks excellent, and in places is up there with Serenity in terms of detail. For the most part, the image is razor-sharp, and the grain, too, looks excellent. The Machinist is stylistically a very harsh film, with heavily desaturated colours and very pronounced contrasts. All of this is maintained with aplomb on the HD DVD.

Unfortunately, it is slightly marred by a few instances of unsightly edge enhancement. I should point out, however, that this was actually present when I saw the film at the cinema. It was the first time I'd ever seen edge enhancement on a projected film print, and it's indicative of the move towards using digital intermediates as opposed to conventional chemical colour timing in a laboratory. The fact that the entire film is stored on a computer gives technicians free reign to monkey with the image until their hearts content, and it does seem that they have gone way overboard with the artificial sharpening in some shots here. These are exactly the same shots that were affected when I saw it at the cinema, so it is the filmmakers themselves who deserve the blame for this rather than Toshiba.

The film comes with English and Japanese Dolby Digital-Plus 5.1 audio tracks and Japanese subtitles, which can be disabled either on the fly using the remote control function or via the menu. A handful of extras are included - a documentary, deleted scenes, two trailers and some filmographies. For these, the subtitles unfortunately can't be disabled. Oh yeah, and, oddly enough, this HD DVD comes in a standard amaray case, which is most annoying given that it's a completely different size from the rest of my collection:

Meanwhile, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is, comparatively speaking, a disappointment. I'm not exactly sold on the film itself (I think Johnny Depp's interpretation of Willy Wonka is cringe-worthily awful, the musical numbers are atrocious, and the subplot involving Christopher Lee as Wonka's father one of the worst additions I've ever seen in a book-to-film adaptation), and the HD DVD's transfer is a real let-down. Reviewers and laymen alike have been raving over it - "Best HD DVD yet!" "10/10!" and so on. Unfortunately, this is actually the worst-looking HD DVD I've seen so far. Like the other two Warner releases I've seen so far, it's slightly edge enhanced, but, unlike Million Dollar Baby and Constantine, it's also quite soft. Some of this is intentional - as with The Machinist, it was digitally colour timed, and Tim Burton, it would seem, took the opportunity to add a further touch of artificiality to the movie by cranking up the automated spot remover beyond what most people would consider a reasonable level. A lot of the time, the actors' faces, even in close-up, look like those of porcelain dolls, and in some scenes, such as the early flashback to when Grandpa Joe worked at the factory, they look waxy and smeared.

These are not, however, the fault of the HD DVD. What is, however, is the overall diffuse look of the film. Throughout, it looks ill-defined and almost outright blurry, but for one occasion: the first Oompa-Loompa musical number after Augustus Gloop has been sucked into the pipes of the chocolate river. Suddenly, the softening disappears and, for a few brief moments, it becomes a 10/10 transfer. The grain that was sorely missing comes back, the individual blades of grass stop being merely a swathe of poorly-defined green, and it all seems much more three-dimensional. It doesn't last, though, and, almost as soon as the song has finished, it goes back to its murky, diffuse look, which remains for the rest of the film.

Also problematic is the encoding. This is the first time that I've seen noticeable compression problems on an HD DVD, but they are here for all to see. I don't have the specific time code references to hand (I'll make sure to note these down when I come to do my official DVD Times review), but on at least three occasions, parts of the screen disintegrate into mushy macroblocks. One occasion involves swirling melted chocolate, while the other takes place in the midst of a series of explosions as Charlie, Wonka and Grandpa Joe right the Great Glass Elevator. These can't have been easy scenes to compress, but this is the first time I've seen an HD DVD encode slip up so badly, and I genuinely hope it's not the start of a trend. Although, given the rave reviews the transfer has been getting, even from so-called experts, I have my fears.

Finally, The Fox and the Hound, and it's the least impressive of today's deliveries by far. Actually, it's a downright disgrace. Despite being promoted and packaged as some sort of 25th anniversary special edition, Disney have done a really crummy job with it. In terms of extras, there seems to be nothing here that wasn't already present in the underwhelming line-up for the previously-released UK version of the film - we're talking a rudimentary behind-the-scenes featurette, a couple of bonus shorts, a sing-along and a narrated "storybook".

Of course, what really counts is the audio-visual presentation, and I'm sorry to report that it's a complete disaster. First, the original mono mix of the film is nowhere to be seen. In its place is a Dolby Digital 5.1 remix, which sounds weak and clumsy, and very clearly wrong. Worse still is the transfer, which is nothing more than a recycle of the pan and scan LaserDisc master used for the previous DVD. That Disney would put out something so shoddy in this day and age is an absolute joke, and I am very strongly recommending that anyone thinking about picking up a copy of this seriously reconsider before plonking down a wad of cash for this lazy botch-job. This is 0/10 for video, 0/10 for audio - who are they trying to kid?

Update, October 17, 2006 03:55 PM: Regular Disney DVD reviewer Dave Boulet, whose comments about The Little Mermaid's transfer were right on the money, has given The Fox and the Hound's DVD an absolute savaging at DVD File - and, for once, I actually find myself nodding my head in agreement as I read a review.

The Omen (remake)

Fox have served up an acceptable enough disc for their remake of The Omen, but, given how utterly shoddy the film itself is, there's really nothing to recommend here at all. I would strongly advise anyone contemplating picking up a copy of this remake to instead seek out the infinitely superior original, now available in an excellent 2-disc Collector's Edition set.

Haven't we seen this film before? I've reviewed the 2006 remake of The Omen, a lazy piece of filmmaking that seems to exist for no reason other than its 6/6/06 release date. Fox's R2 UK DVD is serviceable enough, but the old adage applies: you can't polish a turd.

The DVD Wars

Okay, so the name of the site is a little misleading because only one of the high definition video formats has any claim to the name of "DVD", but this is still a fascinating site nonetheless. Essentially, it charts various statistics relating to HD DVD and Blu-ray, using Amazon.com as its primary source, including the number of titles currently available, the average sales rankings, and the number of Google searches for each format.

Some interesting titbits: HD DVD has never had more than one title with a sales rank of under 100 at any given time (last week it was Batman Begins, this week it's V for Vendetta); Blu-ray has never had a title with a better sales rank than 1000; consistently more people run searches for Blu-ray on Google than HD DVD when it's (incorrectly) spelled as "HD-DVD", but when properly spelled as "HD DVD", it jumps right ahead. (Although, of course, that may include searches that inaccurately use "HD DVD" as a catch-all for any high definition optical media.)

Interesting results however you look at it, and well worth keeping the site bookmarked if you're interested in seeing how this whole format war plays out.

Today is Darkplace day!

Just a reminder to everyone that the UK DVD of Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, Channel 4's best show in years and one of the funniest spoofs I've ever seen, is finally released today in stores for all to buy.

Check out my review at DVD Times if you're not already convinced, or, if you are, head over to Play.com and pick it up for only £11.99.

Hurry, or Dean Learner will have to go back into skin.

Dial M for Masterpiece

Most people have a favourite Hitchcock film. If you have any interest in cinema - hell, provided you own a television - you cannot have failed to come into contact with several of his masterpieces. Ask anyone which is their favourite Hitchcock film, and chances are they'll name one of the following: Rebecca, Notorious, North by Northwest, Rear Window, The Birds, Psycho, Vertigo. Broadly speaking, I like all of these films, and would consider a number of them to be among the best ever created. My personal favourite Hitchcock, however, is a little unusual, in that it's one of Hitchcock's least Hitchcockian efforts: Dial M for Murder.

I first came into contact with this film as part of the Media Studies class I took in my final year at school. When it started, I initially thought "Oh no, not a crummy 1950s drama" (I was rather set in my ways regarding movie-watching preferences back then). But, as the minutes ticked by, I found myself getting drawn into the narrative in a way that really hadn't happened to me before. More than anything else, I was struck by the intelligence of the script as Ray Milland, in the most wonderful gleeful bastard mode, reeled the hapless Anthony Dawson into his diabolically twisted plan. The script is ingenious: a backwards whodunit in which we are told verbally, in extreme detail, precisely how a murder is going to be committed, before showing it happening and going horribly wrong, despite the fact that its instigator thinks he's covered every possible angle.

Hitchcock isn't really doing anything hugely revolutionary with the camera here, although the film is noteworthy for being designed to be projected in 3D, a choice made all the more bizarre by the very static, stage-confined nature of the script (based on a play). As such, this film doesn't cry out for attention in the manner of Vertigo or The Birds, both of which featured major technical innovations. Instead, it's quietly confident and decidedly dependent on the writing and acting, both of which are top-notch.

One of these days, I'm going to write a full-blown review of this film. Until then, I just want to reiterate how great I think this film is. No, it doesn't really stretch any boundaries, and I can't really imagine it having been much of a stretch for Hitchcock to direct. But I've probably watched it more than any of his other films and, despite having seen it so many times, I still enjoy it just as much every time I dig it out and watch it again as I did when I first saw it back in 2000. Excellent stuff.

V for Vendetta and Miami Vice specs unveiled

The cover art and full specs for the upcoming HD DVD releases of V for Vendetta (October 31st) and Miami Vice (December 5th) have been unveiled (see here and here respectively).

V for Vendetta:

• 1080P 2.40:1 Widescreen
• Dolby TrueHD: English 5.1
• Dolby Digital-Plus: English 5.1, French 5.1
• English, French and Spanish subtitles
• In-Movie Experience - Director's Notebook: Reimagining a Cult Classic for the 21st Century - Director James McTeigue (joined by stars Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving and other creative team members) traces in detail the V saga from graphic novel origin through the movie's execution.
• Designing the Near Future
• Remember, Remember: Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot
• England Prevails: V For Vendetta and the New Wave in Comics
• Freedom! Forever!: Making V For Vendetta
• Saturday Night Live Digital Short
• Cat Power Montage
• Theatrical Trailer

Miami Vice:

HD DVD side (HD30):

• 1080P 2.40:1 Widescreen
• Dolby TrueHD: English 5.1
• Dolby Digital-Plus: English 5.1
• English SDH, French and Spanish subtitles
• Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Michael Mann
• Miami Vice Undercover
• Miami & Beyond: Shooting on Location
• Visualizing Miami Vice
• Behind the Scenes Featurettes

DVD side (DVD9):

• 2.40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
• English, French & Spanish DD5.1 Surround
• English DVS DD2.0 Stereo
• English SDH, French & Spanish subtitles
• Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Michael Mann
• Miami & Beyond: Shooting on Location
• Miami Vice Undercover

Additionally, it should be pointed out that the HD DVD side contains the unrated director's cut of the film, whereas the DVD side features the R-rated theatrical cut.

Looks as if both are going to be fantastic packages. In the case of Miami Vice, I've no idea whether or not the extras themeselves will be in high definition on the HD DVD side (similar to the recent Blu-ray release of Click), but either way, having all the extras on the HD side (and indeed, more than there are on the standard definition side) is indeed convenient. This, and the inclusion of a Dolby TrueHD track, shows the major benefit of having been able to get dual-layer HD DVD/dual-layer DVD combo discs working.

I'm looking forward to seeing this film, by the way. I've never seen the TV series on which it's based, and the only Michael Mann films I've come into contact with are Manhunter and The Last of the Mohicans, but I've heard so much about Miami Vice, both good and bad, that I'm itching to make up my own mind about it.

Update, December 19, 2006 05:47 PM: Fixed dead link.

Halloween: what can you expect?

As I'm sure won't have escaped your notice, Halloween 2006 is only slightly over two weeks away. DVD Times always does a special round-up of scary reviews to coincide with the special event, and in the past I've always made a point of contributing as many as I can. This year will be no exception, and I've got several titles in the pipeline that I intend to cover.

This year, I'm going to make a point of reviewing as much HD DVD material as possible. Unfortunately, high definition horror films are a little scarce at the moment, but I've been able to come up with a few:

• Constantine
• Land of the Dead
• The Machinist
• Sleepy Hollow

In addition to those, I'll be covering some standard definition releases as well:

• The Beyond: Limited Edition (R0 USA)
• Death Laid an Egg (R2 Japan)
• Plot of Fear (R0 Italy)
• Seven Notes in Black: Collector's Edition (R2 France)

Obviously, I can't guarantee that every single one of these will be finished in time, but I wrote Plot of Fear's review today, so it at least should be going up.

Update, November 04, 2006 10:43 AM: I'm disabling commenting on this entry because it seems to be attracting an inordinate amount of spam.

Alias: Season 5

I've pre-ordered the R2 UK release of the fifth and final season of Alias (or Alias: The Complete Fifth Series, as it says on the packaging) from Play.com. I've heard mixed reports about the breakneck-paced spy drama's final hours, but, having only seen the first episode of the season myself, I'm looking forward to seeing the final 17 episodes (the show had to take a break part-way through the season due to Jennifer Garner's pregnancy, which resulted in a shorter than usual run) and making up my own mind about them. For my money, Season 1 was very good, Season 2 was excellent, Season 3 was not quite as good as what preceeded it but still of a high standard, and Season 4 was overall a disappointment.

Alias: The Complete Series, a deluxe box set featuring all five seasons, a bonus disc and a whole bunch of unique material like an exclusive hardcover book and packaging designed to look like the Rambaldi Box from the show (see details here for the UK release and here for the US version, due out a day later), is due out at the same time. If I hadn't already collected Seasons 1 through 4, this would be a very tempting prospect, but I think I'll pass. As much as I'd like a Rambaldi box, I don't have $200 to spare!

V for Vendetta coming to HD DVD

Source: High-Def Digest

Against my better judgement, I bought the standard definition release of V for Vendetta back when it was released in August, knowing full well that an HD DVD version, probably with an exclusive In-Movie Experience feature, would be coming out shortly. And it turns out I was right: Warner has announced that they will be releasing it on October 31, with "an In-Movie Experience interactive video commentary track, plus the exclusive 'Director's Notebook: Reimagining a Cult Classic for the 21st Century' featurette", in addition to all the extras of the 2-disc standard definition release. Naturally, I'll have to pick it up. The film is flawed but definitely interesting, and rather unique for a Hollywood product.

Under Siege and Excalibur are also hitting shelves on the same day. I may pick up Excalibur too, as it's a film I've been curious to see for a while.

Update, October 12, 2006 09:30 PM: Front and back cover art now available at The Man Room.

The Buffy ratings graph

Click to enlarge.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 7 (2002-2003)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 7

Season 7 reviews:

• Episode 1: Lessons 6/10
• Episode 2: Beneath You 7/10
• Episode 3: Same Time, Same Place 8/10
• Episode 4: Help 8/10
• Episode 5: Selfless 7/10
• Episode 6: Him 6/10
• Episode 7: Conversations with Dead People 8/10
• Episode 8: Sleeper 5/10
• Episode 9: Never Leave Me 4/10
• Episode 10: Bring on the Night 4/10
• Episode 11: Showtime 4/10
• Episode 12: Potential 3/10
• Episode 13: The Killer in Me 2/10
• Episode 14: First Date 2/10
• Episode 15: Get it Done 3/10
• Episode 16: Storyteller 2/10
• Episode 17: Lies My Parents Told Me 5/10
• Episode 18: Dirty Girls 4/10
• Episode 19: Empty Places 2/10
• Episode 20: Touched 3/10
• Episode 21: End of Days 3/10
• Episode 22: Chosen 7/10

So what happened? I wish I knew, but one thing's for sure, Season 7 takes away the grand prize as the worst season of Buffy ever. Actually, I'd be willing to extend that to the whole Buffyverse, since, while Angel was never as good as Buffy at its best, it never plunged to these depths. Season 7 walks away with an average rating of 4.68/10, which is lower even than Season 6's 4.95. To tell the truth, I'm actually surprised by this, since, while Season 7 is in my mind definitely the weaker of the two overall, it never gets as bad as Hell's Bells. I said it before, but it's worth repeating: Season 6 has a trainwreck quality to it where it's actually interesting to watch, provided you can detach yourself from the events enough to see how ridiculous it all is, whereas Season 7 is, for the most part, just plain tedious. Yes, the characterisation is inconsistent, the adherence to continuity non-existant and the direction often inept, but these issues could probably have been somewhat excused had the whole thing not been so flipping yawn-inducing. I'm serious, I've lost track of the number of times during the final few episodes I considered just hitting the fast-forward button and getting it over with.

So, to return to my original question, what went wrong? The most popular theory is that Joss Whedon stopped running the show on a day-to-day basis, and the other writers were lost without him. I think this idea has considerable merit, and the massive difference between Chosen and the 14 or so episodes preceding it certainly substantiates it somewhat, but I don't think this solution is really getting to the depths of it. Whenever a show or a movie is successful (or not), there is a tendency to attribute this to a single visionary person - the auteur theory, if you like. I think people like the notion that there is a guiding hand behind it all, an all-powerful creative force who makes all the big decisions and knows exactly where everything is going. Why? Because they like to think that someone is in control. Take them out of the mix, and they become the fall guy for the subsequent downfall. As much as I'd like to subscribe to the Joss=God theory that so many of his bumlickers espouse, though, I find it overly simplistic.

My theory is this: the writers didn't really know what to do after Season 5. They thought the show was finished, only to discover that they had another two years to fill. They didn't have to stick around - they could easily have found new jobs, I'm sure - but they were kind of enjoying the whole cult status they'd been raised to by a small but extremely vocal fan community. Therefore, thinking that they could do no wrong and excited by the creative carte blanche UPN had given them, they decided to go all-out and take the show in a completely different direction. In Season 5, The Body had been a massive success, as had The Gift, despite it featuring the death of the show's main character, so the writers thought the fans would lap up a whole season of doom and gloom. Problem is, they were mistaken. People didn't like seeing their favourite characters degraded and crapped on. (As one person, whose name I've forgotten, so eloquently put it, no-one wants to watch Superman flipping burgers at McDonalds.) Undeterred, though, they continued on their merry way, beating the characters and their fans into submission in the naïve belief that more is more and that, if things got really dark, the fans would come around. The only problem is that all they did was succeed in driving more viewers away, and, with the death of Tara, suddenly found themselves faced with something they'd never experienced before: a coordinated hate campaign and mass boycott from a demographic that, at one point, had been comprised of their strongest supporters.

Along comes Season 7, and apathy sets in. The odds are stacked against them. No-one is really running the show, or cares to. They know people didn't like their grand scheme of doom and darkness from Season 6. They know there are now people who actively hate their guts and have stated that they will boycott any shows with which they are involved. They know that a number of their actors aren't happy with the direction in which they've gone. They don't know whether or not Sarah Michelle Gellar wants to be involved with another season, and they know they can't continue without her. However, they can't reconcile the fans' demands for more lighthearted Season 1-3 style fun with the fact that they need to go out with a big finish. So, they head off down an awkward path without any real firm grasp of direction. Along the way, the viewing figures dwindle. Amber Benson, who put up with a hell of a lot of crap, including a death she had strong misgivings about and a paycheck dwarfed by that of her co-stars, refuses to appear on the show on their terms, and starts becoming a martyr figure for the demographic that is boycotting the show. And so on and so forth. These are hardly ideal conditions under which to produce a show, so it's ultimately hardly surprising that the final season sucks as bad as it does. If Season 6 failed because its writers thought they were untouchable, then Season 7 failed even more drastically because they realised, the hard way, that they were only too human. And yet the arrogance continued: one of the most stomach-churning things I ever read was a post by Jane Espenson in a thread where people were arguing about Tara's death, where she bluntly told hurt fans that, because she held an English Literature degree, she was right and they were wrong.

In the end, I can only repeat what I've already said: Buffy should have ended with Season 5. The story was told. There was no point in flogging a dead horse. And yet they continued to do it anyway. As a result, they turned what could have been one of the few shows to generally go out on an all-time high into something that plodded on for another two years before dying with a whimper, which is a really sad legacy.

Update, December 19, 2006 05:52 PM: Fixed a bunch of dead links.