Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 5

To be honest, I wasn't sure about this season at first, and at times it got fairly cringe-worthy. It's not really as funny as it was before, and almost all of the real-life aspects were taken over by the almost pervasive sadness that bubbles out of the main plot. Still, the quality of that main plot and how it culminates makes this one of the strongest seasons in the show's run. If you only like the show for the cheesy action and laughs it might not be your bag, but it definitely shows a lot of growth in a few years of airing.

It starts out strangely, with Buffy taking on Dracula himself for an episode. That's just a diversion before the story thread that causes everything afterward is thrown to the viewer pretty exquisitely, the mysterious appearance of a character everyone seems to know but the audience is clueless about. They've pulled this sort of thing before when Johnathan went from forgotten recurring background character to adored center of the universe, but it wasn't quite like this. It's a strange tangent at first, but it evolves into the core of the season and becomes the source of a lot of drama and emotionally charged moments. Buffy's mom sees a resurgence in the size of her part after almost disappearing in the fourth season, providing another source of dreary storytelling. There's also some new directions for Spike's character that I didn't really care for too, and for a while I wasn't sold on much of what was happening. But it really came together in the last third or so in possibly the show's best buildup and conclusion. I know that some of the ramifications aren't lasting, but it was still very well-done serial storytelling that had the desired effect.