Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3087 in VHS
• Released on: 2001-02-12
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 3
• Formats: Box set, Closed-captioned, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of tapes: 3
• Running time: 504 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
In Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sunnydale high school is left behind in smoking ruins and Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) becomes a college freshman at the (fictitious) University of California Sunnydale campus. The major arc of the season involves a semi-sinister Man from U.N.C.L.E.-type government agency known as The Initiative which has its Bond-style HQ under the campus. Their nefarious plans involve capturing vampires and demons, including the now-regular character Spike (James Marsters), and hacking them to pieces for assembly into a Frankensteinian supermonster or fitting them with chips that mute their killing urges. Buffy's plank-like new boyfriend Riley (Mark Blucas) is deadweight, Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) is shoved into new corners of irrelevance (and turns folkie!), Willow (Alyson Hannigan) breaks up with the werewolf (Seth Green) and comes out, Xander (Nicholas Brendon) whines about not being a student but starts dating a former demon (the amusing Emma Caulfield), Angel (David Boreanaz) has his own series but drops in for crossovers (you will need to buy the Angel box sets to find out how some key plot lines pay off) and previously killed or comatose semi-regulars pop in for dreams or revivals. A run of shaky episodes starts off this season, with the show seemingly uncomfortable with the new setting as it treads water with the same old monsters. This set starts to pick up, however, with a few well-above-average episodes, the stand-out being "Hush". This is a rare attempt for the show at being truly scary, featuring Nosferatu-like demons who glide around robbing people of their voices and force all the characters who have been evading the truth to open up to each other through non-verbal communication. The big plot, spread over the bulk of the episodes, is less interesting than the major arcs of the last two seasons, perhaps because Buffy's new love interest and new nemesis both fail to make much of an impression. This also tends to leave Sarah Michelle Gellar in the shadows of the show she is supposed to be starring in--her best 42 minutes in this series ("Who Are You") comes when she is possessed by bad girl Faith and can cut loose a bit. Mildly wobbly after the last two years, Buffy is still hanging in there and making an absurd premise pay off. --Kim Newman

Synopsis
More demon adventures with Buffy in: 'A New Man', 'The I In Team', 'Goodbye Iowa', 'This Year's Girl', 'Who Are You', 'Superstar', 'Where The Wild Things Are', 'New Moon Rising', 'The Yoko Factor', 'Primeval' and 'Restless'.

Customer Reviews

Television should bow to this show-
Buffy - one truly amazing show. It's forth season - mind-blowing. Anyone who is looking for some good entertainment just has to watch buffy. Alot of people love moaning about it - what they should be doing is talking about the brilliance of it. And the brilliance surely comes out in this box set. Delivering episodes created by the masters behind the show- the season starts off with 'The I team' in which Riley's secretly evil boss plots her way to Buffy's death. Of course our heroine can fight against that but Miss proffesor Walsh can't fight against her demon/human/robot Adam who gives her 'the stab.' That doesn't mean that Buffy's troubles are over though because 'Faith is awke.'- yep, out of the coma buffy put her in and ready to kill. But she'd rather have some fun with a neat little devise the Mayor left her which enables her to switch with Buffy - switch bodies that is. But yet again Buffy manages to get things back the way they were. But Faith is taken away, but only as far as Los Angeles where our Dark brooding vamp lives... Joss Whedon - the creator instead of finishing the season off with a bang had finished the excitement on the second to last episode and created an amazing dream episode in which we get to see into the characters dreams which slips out some secrets that we never knew about the gang, and riddle style information on what is to come in the next season. Five stars all the way: a truly breathtaking collection.

great stuff
The first season 4 box set was worth it purely for HUSH and this one is worth it purely for RESTLESS, which is a truly outstanding piece of television. It's a bit like season one's NIGHTMARES, but for grown-ups. This season as a whole has been excellent, suffering a little from a very unthreatening big bad guy (Adam) and the fairly limp Buffy-Riley pairing. All the other character's relationships are far more interesting - Xander dating an ex-demon, and, of course, the whole Willow-Tara thing, which is superbly handled - you don't feel like the makers are pressing an 'issue' at all. This season is also the funniest yet with SUPERSTAR on this boxset, being the most hilarious.

Great second half to the season, shame about the big bad!
The much maligned Season 4 was still a damn sight better than anything else broadcast last year. Thing is, BtVS had set it's standards so high that it was inevitable that there would come a season that didn't quite hit those same highs.

The main reason for this was the lack of a Big Bad worthy of the title! Previous seasons had given us the Master, Spike Dru and Angelus, and the Mayor and Faith - all villians that we loved for their charisma as much as we hated them for what they did to the Scoobies! Adam, Maggie Walsh and the Initiative were difficult to warm to, and Adam was never really given enough screen time to make a true impact.

Having said that, the second half of season 4 contained some outstanding episodes with only a couple missing the mark. This set kicks off with Giles getting in touch with his demonic side in 'A New Man', Buffy asking all the wrong kind of questions in 'The I In Team', and of course Faith awakening from her coma ready for revenge against Buffy ('This Year's Girl'). The twist at the end of that amazing episode sets up the second of the two parter (the Joss Whedon written and directed 'Who Are You') perfectly and allowed Sarah Michelle Gellar and Eliza Dushku a real opportunity to cut loose, making for one of the best Buffy's EVER!

Oz's return is dealt with in 'New Moon Rising' as he discovers that everything is not as he left it! The final three shows of the season matched any and all of the finales of the previous three seasons. 'The Yoko Factor' has Spike turning the Scoobies against each other, 'Primeval' has them reunited in their battle against Adam and features a demon/Inititive battle of epic proportions! 'Restless' sees Willow, Xander, Giles, and Buffy exploring their fears in their dreams, while at the same time giving away clues about the slayers future (ie Season 5 and beyond!). It also introduced us to the delights of the cheeseman!

In other words, not quite the perfection we've been spoilt with over the previous three seasons, but still better than anything else your TV has to offer you......BUY IT!!!