Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4719 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-10-03
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Dutch
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 930 minutes

Synopsis
Sarah Michelle Gellar returns as the teen thrust into a supernatural world as BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. BUFFY boasts a rabid fan base and has spawned a spin off, ANGEL, based on a troubled vampire played by David Boreanaz. This collection features all 22 episodes of the second season, which introduces the characters Spike (James Marsters) and Oz (Seth Green). Episodes include 'When She Was Bad', 'Some Assembly Required', 'Inca Mummy Girl', 'Reptile Boy', 'Phases', 'Killed by Death', 'Deadly Trap', 'Angel', 'Reptile Boy', and 'Inca Mummy Girl'.

Customer Reviews

Buffy's Back!
After a surprisingly successful first season, Buffy returned for a second season with a bigger budget, well established characters, an army of fans, and many surprises.

With the second full season beginning (22 episodes compared to season 1's 12), Mutant Enemy was able to begin to develop long running plot developments which form a cohesive and intricate story, in contrast to the equally brilliant but more stand alone plots of the first season.

Throughout the year there are all the usual monster battles with vampires, demons, werewolves and ghosts caused by the Hellmouth beneath Sunnydale High, but more interesting were the character developments throughout the season. Buffy and Angel's relationship became more serious whilst Xander found a connection with a very unlikely person- Cordelia! Willow also found love with Oz, a guitar playing werewolf. Even Giles managed to develop a relationship with Jenny Calendar, a fiesty technopagan.

However, the third episode also features the introduction of two of the most memorable villains ever, the British vampires Spike and Drusilla, who ended up in almost every season of Buffy (and its spin off show, Angel) after being kept in the show due to popular demand. Often it was actually Spike who provided a lot of humor to balance the often overwhelming instances of teenaged angst, whilst still posing a menacing threat to the slayer. When a tragic turn of events turns Angel back into the soulless vampire he was before he was given a soul, Buffy faces one of the most difficult battles of her short career as a slayer.

Throughout the season there are a number of surprisingly plot developments which will both entertain and horrify viewers as they see each character evolve and the Buffy-verse become more interesting whilst the series continues using its winning mix of drama, comedy, action and horror.

Prepare to be entertained with this wonderful boxset although it would be advisable to see the first season first so you an fully understand the plot. It should also be noted that all seven seasons are available in a now rare box set, which is excellent value compared to the individual boxsets, so it would definately be worth trying to buy one of them before considering buying each season seperately.

The obsession grows....
The second season starts with Buffy back in Sunnydale after spending the summer with her Dad in LA. She is understandably in a bit of a mood seeing as last year she died, found out her boyfriend was a vampire and had to put up with Principal Snyder coming in to her life. Oh boy, wait til she hears what this season has in store for her.

This year has, in my mind, the best season-long arc and big bad out of the whole series. After finally admitting how much she loves Angel and losing her virginity to him, whoops he's all of a sudden perfectly happy and loses his soul, sending him back to being Bad Angelus.

What fun David Boreanaz has playing Angelus! Also this season sees the introduction of Spike and Drusilla as well as Seth Green as Oz.

This season is much darker than the first, there is even a death among the good guys. However, it also has some great comedy episodes like the Xander-centric Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered.

The 2 part season finale is heartbreaking. I've saw these about a dozen times and I do cry every single time. This is a very strong season and a massive improvement on the first.

One final point to note. Freeze frame for the episode Go Fish when Xander walks out in his Speedos (woo!)

Close to its best
Just to get it out of the way early on, I agree totally that this is an amazing series, one of the show's best runs, but I have a minor preference for the third series, as this season loses a few points in my book with a few weak and/or forgettable stand-alone episodes; the likes of Some Assembly Required, Ted and Bad Eggs just don't really do much for me, perhaps because the main arc of this series is so good that I feel like they're a bit of a waste of time (although having said that, the plot-heavy fourth season of Angel perhaps shows that it's not such a bad idea after all) - rambling a bit now, but my point is that if you're going to take time out from such an engaging plotline, then the stand-alones have to be worth it, and in this series (unlike 3) they're not always up to the mark.

Having thus dealt with what is probably this season's only real flaw, and a minor one at that, on to the numerous plus-points. For a start we meet Spike for the first time (in School Hard, one of the best episodes in the series), obviously one of the greatest creations in television history, and one of those characters who's always good value for money even when the show itself isn't exactly on a high (see some of the later seasons). The main arc of the season, primarily to do with Angel (don't want to give too much away of course, though most people have probably seen it by now and are going to be buying this to see it all again) is one of the show's best, in fact probably the no.1, with the two-part Becoming one of the best season finales (along with series 3's Graduation Day Pt.I&II). This series also features Oz's first appearances, one of my favourite characters, and so I think it's fair to say that this season features what could probably be considered the "classic" lineup of both the Scoobies and their adversaries (not that later additions like Anya aren't good too).

Anyway, I think the fact that no one has, at time of writing, given this boxset less than 5 stars says a lot, and it's a fair rating: not every episode is absolute gold (but then there aren't many seasons of anything that you could give 100%), but as a whole this is one of the best seasons of Buffy or indeed any show (I might also take this opportunity to clarify an earlier comment by saying that I do really like Angel season 4, it's just a bit too centred on the main arc is all).