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BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON

Most genre TV shows hit their stride around the third season - just look at STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION or BABYLON 5. BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER had hit that stride even earlier, but a look at last week's series finale shows just what essential viewing the third season is. True, Dawn isn't around yet (which is probably a good thing), but in this single season we're introduced to Faith, Anya, and the First Evil, and the "Scooby Gang" is well and truly established. Besides, it's also the year Buffy graduates from high school - how could anyone consider skipping that?

The season begins by answering the many unanswered questions raised at the end of season two, when Buffy seemingly loses her school, her home, and her lover, and leaves Sunnydale. When she does return (as we always knew she would), it's to a group of friends who don't know how to respond to her betrayal, to a mother who's reacting to her Slayer-hood much the same way parents would respond to the news that their child was gay, and to a school where she's not welcome. On top of that, Angel makes a startling return from the hell she sent him to just as he regained his soul, a fact she must then hide from her other loved ones. If all that wasn't bad enough, a bad girl slayer named Faith blows into town, causing Buffy to move closer to the dark side of her nature than she ever has before. Oh, and did we mention the mayor of Sunnydale is a hybrid demon who's decided to feed on the Sunnydale High class of 1999 to ascend to his next level of being?

It should be obvious that, although the second season is when this series really found itself for good, the third season feels more like one complete story, and to his credit, Joss Whedon and his production team make it all work flawlessly. There's not a false note to be found in Buffy's emotional turmoil over Angel, in Xander's anger and feelings of betrayal at Buffy's departure and later revelation that Angel is back, or in Willow's discomfort at the rift between herself and Buffy or her own temporary betrayal of Oz. Even the few episodes that seemingly stand alone, such as the creepy (and howlingly funny) "Gingerbread," still contribute vital elements to the overall tale, such as Joyce's continued difficulties with her daughter's calling and the teenage witch Amy's unfortunate (and at this point, seemingly permanent) transformation into a mouse.

It's also not an exaggeration to say there's not a single episode in the season that doesn't work. Some of the best include "Lover's Walk," which brings back Spike and puts an end to the bizarre but sweet Xander-Cordelia relationship; "Amends," which introduces the First Evil and steadies the troubled relationship between Angel and Buffy; "Helpless," which puts a startling new twist on the Buffy-Giles interaction; and "Bad Girls," which introduces ANGEL cast member Wesley and begins the unsettling Faith "evil Slayer" story arc. The pairing of "The Wish" and "Doppelgangland," which gives us an enticing view of a world without a Buffy and a vamped-up Willow, is a welcome inclusion, while "The Zeppo" is one of the best comic episodes the series has produced. The set also includes "Earshot," the episode delayed for broadcast until Season Four because of the Columbine tragedy. This is an amazing collection of stories, and the performances of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Anthony Stewart Head, Alyson Hannigan, and Elisha Dushku in particular are enough to make us wonder why this season didn't get more attention at Emmy time than it did.

The DVD set itself, however, is both better and worse than the previous two. The move from 16mm to 35mm production makes this season look a far cry better, and 20th Century Fox's decision to do away with the ridiculously complicated and time-consuming 3D interfaces used for the second season set is a welcome one. Even the subtitling is better this time out. But there's a decided lack of Joss Whedon in this set, despite his presence in the so-called "Interviews with Joss Whedon" on selected episodes that feature the rest of the production team more than him. Even the spoiler-filled "Season Three Overview" includes less from him than from co-producer Marti Noxon and writers Doug Petrie, David Fury, and Jane Espenson. Most annoyingly of all, Whedon does no commentaries in this set, and given the importance of several of these episodes, it's an unforgivable absence. Instead, three of the writers and one of the directors step up to the mike, with variable results. Espenson and Petrie are worth listening to for their sheer enthusiasm for the series, and director Michael Gershman's commentary is interesting for the technically-minded, but none of them quite makes up for the comparative loss of Whedon's dry wit and insights.

The extras are also arranged very oddly: the "Season Three Overview" and the lightweight "Buffy Speak" are included on disc three, separated from the other, more interesting, featurettes on disc six for no apparent reason; the "Making Monsters" featurette gets its own menu option, even though it's no more in-depth than the others; and the original scripts appear only on the first three discs while the commentaries appear only on the last three. The "Interviews" are even more annoyingly packaged - the menu options would lead one to believe that there are two different ones for "Enemies" and "Earshot," for example, but it's exactly the same segment, meaning there are only three interview segments instead of the six there originally appears to be. And if you want to be surprised by anything in this set, forget about watching any of these extras until after you've completed the season - spoilers abound (even more so than in this review). The stills gallery isn't bad, but much like on the ANGEL boxed set, the original scripts are almost impossible to read as they're done in white typeface on a dark background. A single commentary by Whedon would've been worth the loss of all four of the original scripts.

Luckily, the sheer quality of this season's episodes makes up for all these flaws. While we don't get to hear Whedon's voice directly, we can hear it in every single one of these stories, even the ones he himself did not write. The comparison to BABYLON 5 above isn't so far-fetched: in many ways, the third season of BUFFY is just as much an epic of horror drama as B5 is an epic of science fiction - and it's every bit as fun.