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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #253 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-11-19
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 39

Amazon.co.uk Review
From its charming and angst-ridden first season to the darker, apocalyptic final one, Buffy the Vampire Slayer succeeds on many levels, and in a fresher and more authentic way than the shows that came before or after it. How lucky, then, that with the release of its box set of seasons 1-7, you can have the estimable pleasure of watching a near-decade of Buffy in any order you choose. (And we have some ideas about how that should be done.)

First: rest assured that there's no shame in coming to Buffy late, even if you initially turned your nose up at the winsome Sarah Michelle Gellar kicking the hell out of vampires (in Buffy-lingo, vamps), demons, and other evil-doers. Perhaps you did so because, well, it looked sort of science-fiction-like with all that monster latex. Start with season 3 and see that Buffy offers something for everyone, and the sooner you succumb to it, the quicker you'll appreciate how textured and riveting a drama it is.

Why season 3? Because it offers you a winning cast of characters who have fallen from innocence: their hearts have been broken, their egos trampled in typically vicious high-school style, and as a result, they've begun to realize how fallible they are. As much as they try, there are always more monsters, or a bigger evil. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the core crew remains something of a unit--there's the smart girl, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) who dreams of saving the day by downloading the plans to City Hall's sewer tunnels and mapping a route to safety. There are the ne'r do wells--the vampire Spike (James Marsters), who both clashes with and aspires to love Buffy; the tortured and torturing Angel (David Boreanz); the pretty, popular girl with an empty heart (Charisma Carpenter); and the teenage everyman, Xander (Nicholas Brendon).

Then there's Buffy herself, who in the course of seven seasons morphs from a sarcastic teenager in a minidress to a heroine whose tragic flaw is an abiding desire to be a "normal" girl. On a lesser note, with the box set you can watch the fashion transformation of Buffy from mall rat to Prada-wearing, kickboxing diva with enviable highlights. (There was the unfortunate bob of season 2, but it's a forgivable lapse.) At least the storyline merits the transformations: every time Buffy has to end a relationship she cuts her hair, shedding both the pain and her vulnerability.

In addition to the well-wrought teenage emotional landscape, Buffy deftly takes on more universal themes--power, politics, death, morality--as the series matures in seasons 4-6. And apart from a few missteps that haven't aged particularly well ("I Robot" in season 1 comes to mind), most episodes feel as harrowing and as richly drawn as they did at first viewing. That's about as much as you can ask for any form of entertainment: that it offer an escape from the viewer's workaday world and entry into one in which the heroine (ideally one with leather pants) overcomes demons far more troubling than one's own. --Megan Halverson

DVD Description
All seven butt-kicking seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, all the special features from the original Buffy DVD box sets - this Complete DVD Collection is the perfect way to enter the world of Buffy and her friends, demons and love interests. Join Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Angel, Spike, Cordelia and Dawn for over 115 hours of high voltage vampire action!

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Customer Reviews

Quite simply a masterpiece
Buffy is more difficult to sell than 'serious' shows like The Sopranos and The West Wing. The name itself is very silly; the notion of "Buffy" and "vampires" was probably enough to scare off half the population before it even aired. And then there is the main character. Buffy is no cool, serious or attractive man but a blonde, stereotypical teenage cheerleader holding a stake. There seems to be no depth, reality or threat.

But Buffy triumphs in defeating stereotypes and the preconceptions you have whenever a young blonde woman walks onto the screen. From the very first scene where the blonde victim idea is subverted, Buffy establishes itself as the wittiest, funniest drama around. As the season progresses you realise that this show can also be dark and is as innovative as any other, more acclaimed, modern culture.

The writing is consistently brilliant, avoiding predictability and cliché throughout, unlike most drama scripts. Each character is beautifully created. They are always real, tangible, different and three-dimensional. Although there is a sharp sense of morality in Buffy, the fantasy element never leads the writers into the trap of the superhero versus the evil monsters. Buffy and her friends are not perfect and not even always good.

But probably what makes Buffy great, rather than just another sharp witty drama, is the direction. Buffy is a TV show, not a book or film on the small screen. The strengths of the medium are constantly exploited - the uniquely long amount of time TV has to establish character and expand plot are used brilliantly. Look at Buffy over the 7 seasons and it is clearly a cohesive whole, a journey. A journey you are invited to join over a vast period of time.

Because of these strengths the acting doesn't have to be brilliant but it generally is. Many of the actors here are little more than average but something in the chemistry of the show raises them well above their game. No one sees Sarah Michelle Gellar as an Oscar winner, but here, on the small screen, her acting is pretty near perfect.

The final strength of this show is the concept. The hero is, unusually, a woman and a strong, capable, demon fighting one at that. The often quoted metaphor that High School is Hell does fit the first seasons but there is often a lot more to it that that. There is a sense of morality, goodness and duty that runs throughout. The strength of friendship and the importance of doing what is right even if it hurts you is constantly emphasised.

I do not want to make Buffy something it is not. It is not always deep, serious and meaningful. It is sometimes only silly. But what I can guarantee is that it has moments of breathtaking brilliance and is almost always really good fun. It is wonderfully acted, directed and written. It is different, never clichéd and always fresh.

So if you have resisted Buffy until now, if, like me, you have been put off by the title, the heroine and the concept please give it a chance. I can promise that you will not regret it.

Buffy's still the best TV show ever made
This boxset is just the new releases in a solid card board box. Ok, the box is better then the Angel set which I also own but it's not worth buying again. What can be said that hasn't been said before? Don't be put off by the title - this is by a large margin the best US drama / Fantasy series ever made. Joss Whedon is a genius and at this price you'd be crazy to miss it! Go back to the beginning and see what all the fuss is about. The price at the time of writing is £10 a series - hu? What a great deal -for 144 episodes and all those lovely extras. This should be on your to do list

WARNING on DVD extras
Of course, you must buy this as it's the best TV series ever made bar none. BUT this is a warning to people who are discovering Buffy for the first time. DON'T WATCH ANY OF THE EXTRAS UNTIL YOU HAVE GOT TO THE END OF THE SEASON. There are sometimes extras, featurettes, etc. on Discs 1-5 [particularly on disc 3, which only has 3 episodes], but these often give away important parts of the plot that happen later in the season. So best to leave all extras to the end of the season. Note also that the 'Season Summary' extras on disc 6 and some of the commentaries can also give away parts of the plot in later seasons too. So if you're a spoiler-phobe, like me, I suggest you just watch all seven seasons without watching any of the extras. Then, when you watch Joss's masterpiece the second time (as you surely will), you can watch all the extras too, as a bonus. You have been warned. Enjoy!