For some reason I was really looking forward to Season 5. I wanted to see how they would integrate Dawn, to be in awe of Spike (and the Spuffy goodness) and mostly to finally get rid of Riley!

Season 5’s general plot was much better than Season 4 but it had less “special” episodes, apart from Fool for Love and The Body. Also, the whole Joyce arc came at a really bad time in my personal life which made it kind of hard to get through it. I think that lessened my appreaciation of the season a bit, though of course it’s not the show’s fault.

I thought Glory was a so-so villain, though the duality with Ben was interesting (and could have been exploited better, I thought). However, The Gift is in my opinion the best season finale of Buffy and maybe of all season finales (though I haven’t seen Chosen yet). So that’s that.

About bonuses, well, there a few commentaries – I always like those by Doug Petrie and Jane Espenson, and obviously Joss Whedon’s on The Body (but seriously, why no commentary on the finale?!). The featurettes didn’t strike me as particularly interesting; I liked Buffy Abroad and the one on the stunts (it was cool to see James Marsters saying his stunt double isn’t his stunt double but instead just another part of Spike).

So, not the great season I was waiting for but not the worst either!