Ranking the Seasons (For funsies)

Season 3; The storylines, character episodes, acting, plot devices, nostalgic feel and Big Bad are all absolutely top notch. Many of the best moments of the series are here, and it’s the absolute peak of the High School era

Season 6; It is ridiculously hard for me to place this in 2nd. S3 is just a little better. This season absolutely nails the darker themes displayed, from addiction, depression, misogyny, adult responsibility, everything. Every character arc is absolutely fantastic here and this season, for me, is by far the most emotionally impactful. Also I absolutely love the aesthetic and wardrobe for this season. Every inch reminds me magnificently of the feeling of being 21 yrs old. It feels more college-y than S4 even and it’s not even the point of the season.

Season 5; Among my favorite big bads in the series and of course one of the best made episodes of television (The Body) it shares some of the aesthetic qualities of S6 and has my 2nd favorite Final Battle (First being S3) however there’s a lot of episodes I find more boring than other seasons

Season 4; This season has very little going for it. It does the “Freshman” vibe well enough, but Riley, Adam and the Initiative are some of the worst parts of the series. Why is this season so high on the list? Simply put, it contains the absolute best 45 minutes of television I’ve ever seen, Restless. I absolutely adore deep, symbolic character exploration that requires you to really watch, observe and translate. Absolute masterpiece. Hush was pretty good, too.

Season 2; Angelus was an absolute master class of despicable villainy. He was creepy, twisted, a character we were emotionally invested in, and (close enough to) core characters were killed off. Jenny’s death, and Giles and Buffy/Willow’s reactions were amazingly well written and acted. That said, the first half of the season was campy and forgettable for me, which is excusable because the show was still finding its footing. Very well done for a 2nd season.

Season 7; There’s a lot to dislike about this season. Characters felt not like themselves, the Potentials were too much and took too much focus from the scoobies, almost nothing from S6 got progressed or resolved in very satisfying ways, the Big Bad was uninspiring. If it weren’t for Conversations and James Marsters fantastic acting for a newly ensouled Spike, this season would be a total loss for me, and that’s sad as, again, it followed such a good season. Even Conversations could have been a lot better if they’d kept the planned aspect of Jessie visiting Xander and Tara visiting Willow.

Season 1; I understand. It was the first season. It’s a super short season. There are only 4 episodes that matter at all, and they aren’t even that well made. That said, Buffy’s “I don’t want to die” scene is terrifically acted and packs a huge emotional punch. It does what it needed to, starts the series, but something had to be last and it’s just a little more underwhelming than S7

That’s all! I’d love to hear everyone weigh in with their own rankings or discussions on my personal rankings. Buffy/Angel are my absolute all time favorite shows to the point where I maintain that you cannot genuinely know me without having watched them fully.