Season Six: Looking Back

Season 6 was a departure from what I have come to love about the show, and I found it to be too dark and depressing. The big question to me is: Where was Whedon? He only wrote and directed one episode this year, which was, of course, quite awesome, but his presence has never before been this scaled back. Why was he so absent? What was he doing?

On the special features of the DVDs is a panel that took place after the filming of season 6 had completed, and Whedon is joined by Marti Noxon, the principal cast (with the exception of Gellar, of course, who doesn't seem to do these things) and some behind the camera guys. Whedon seems like he was present and aware of exactly what was going on with the show, mentioning that they had weekly play readings with the cast at his house on the weekends.
So if that is the case, why did he only write one episode? Why is his presence in the scripts largely absent?

We've had dark on this show before. Season 4 was dark, and I'd say that season 5 had some terribly dark moments. But Buffy has always managed to leverage the darkness with funny moments. For instance, in season 4, Buffy is in college, she's floundering, Giles is unemployed and miserable, none of the Scoobies are on the same path at all. The group isn't really together anymore, but we still get some fun episodes like Giles being turned into a demon, Harmony and Spike playing off of each other with wacky bitterness, and the Jonathan episode, Superstar. Where is that stuff here?

Really, it's not here. There were some laughs from time to time, but this season started dark and only got darker. Uncharacteristically, too, if you ask me. When the moderator of the panel I watched asked Joss Whedon what he thought about people's complaints that the season was too dark, he answered "Oops." But it was clear, between he and Noxon, that they didn't realize that things were going to be this dark until it was already too late.

So I've got some real problems with this season. After Once More With Feeling, everything went downhill. This show doesn't work without Giles. It just doesn't. He's as crucial to the dynamic as Buffy is. Dawn seemed like she had no direction. They wrote her like she was 10. Buffy hated herself and wanted to be dead. Spike was a fool for love and made himself miserable because he couldn't leave Buffy alone. Xander leaves Anya at the alter. Tara gets killed. Willow goes evil. Any of these things would have been fine if they had been going on along with a more traditional season long arc, but by having them all running concurrently, it's just too much. And I think that Whedon knew that when it was all said and done.

There are very few highlights for me in this season. I love the musical episode, of course, and I love Willow going evil at the end of the season. Honestly, that's about it.

Joss said that the villain of this season is life. Well, they made that very clear. They made characters that I love act like completely different people, and they made a show that was addictive and impossible to miss VERY hard to watch. I don't think that's the goal of a show, to make their viewers so miserable that they don't want to watch.

I really hope that season 7 is better than this one was, or else I will have to become a believer in my theory that maybe Buffy should have ended at season 5 when the Slayer died.