Shark Bytes

BTVS accomplished something television shows rarely do, and that is allow their characters to grow and develop in realistic ways as they experience life. The Buffy writers allowed the characters to change as they experience life and all of the highs and lows it can bring. The speeches she gave in season 7 and the coldness seen before this are very realistic of a girl who experienced lots of loss and felt alone in the world. It seems many people here never wanted Buffy to grow beyond a highschool student. If the characters had stayed the same, the realism would have been gone.
It amazes me that people think the 1st 3 seasons were the show's peak time. Until season 4, the characters- while amazing- were still very one dimensional. As they experienced the horrors of the hellmouth their personalities changed to reflect what they had been through.
When I recommend the show to others I tell them to start at season 4. After finishing the series, go back and watch the 1st 3 seasons. This way, one is able to experience the shows high points in writing without the dredge that fills much of seasons 1-3. I believe that these 1st 3 seasons are only enjoyable after one has grown to love the characters and world that the BTVS people created.
As for jumping, it didn't. Everything has highs and lows. But, BTVS never had a low that it never recovered from- which is the sign of jumping.

Where to start on Buffy Jumping the Shark. Hmm. Here some of the highlights of where I think it jumped.

* The whole tortured romance crap with Buffy and her pet vampires..Necrophila..ew

* Xander's role of semi-action/comedy relief/moral corner stone being picked apart in the later seasons.

* Faith going bad

* Willow magically turning gay

* Joyce's and Jenny's death

* Good Spike / Bad Spike ( BS)

* The whole forgive Spike for attempting to rape Buffy just pisses me off.

* Robin Wood - They introduced this character..WHY.. and to make matters worse he hooks up with Faith ( Faith's been all about getting some and getting gone but magically Robin is the pillar of trust in which she confides..bullsh*t.

* Angel acting noble when in truth he only did things when it benefited himself.

* Cordelia and Xander breaking up ( I still say Willow did something to Xander magically cause there is no way Xander would have traded for Willow when Cordelia is so much hotter..

btvs jts with riley and the initiatve. that soryline was weak and so was riley. There were some brilliant episodes in the last seasons but it cannot compare to the first 3 seasons when every episode was brilliant. such is life though.

Nerds tring to kill the slayer was a bad plot idea.

I think that Buffy fans are divided into two groups, pre and post Dawn. A lot of the original fan base lost interest after she became a character and missed out on some really great television. Yeah, it was hard to get used to but I would argue that some of the best episodes in the series were post Dawn. I think the show really lost its steam in the 7th season. There was just too much going on and too many new people introduced. It would have been better if they had dumped the whole potential slayer story line and finished out the series with just the main cast.

You know it's time to turn off a show when the only child's teenage sister suddenly appears.

i love buffy! its awesome! but i think when Kennedy came in, it just really annoyed me! she always tried to be better than all of them and she wasnt and when her and willow like kissed it didnt look good at all! very forced!

I own all 7 seasons of Buffy, and have watched all of them countless times. IMHO, Buffy jumped the shark during Season 7 when Buffy's personality became cold and the way she acted as the leader of the Potentials. In this season, she's heartless and behaves like she's running a military. What happened to the spunky, witty, free-spirited Buffy of the earlier seasons?

For example, in the episode "Selfless" where Anya's granting of a wish leads to the death of 12 college boys, the first thing Buffy thinks of doing is killing her. So out-of-character, and very heartless of Buffy. Another example of her coldness is "Empty Places" where the Potentials and Scooby Gang kick her out from the leadership role for the way she's been treating them (she deserved it).

Not to mention those annoying speeches she would give throughout the season.

Every season was necessary in its own way. It annoys me that people come on here and criticize the later years even though it's obvious that they did watch them. I totally agree with many who say that they weren't as good as the early years, but isn't that usually the case with most shows anyway? But what I did notice is that a lot of stuff in the early years seemed to foreshadow what would come later. Spuffy, for example. That relationship had a lot of subtle build-up since the day Spike arrived in sunnydale.

for me buffy was never the same after the episode in the mental hospital where it was determined that she was imagining being a slayer. it was so close to what could be the truth that i could never quite watch the show again without thinking is she in an asylum somewhere imagining all of this? so i guess for me that would make the show having jumped the shark.

Agree with most that this show JTS when Angel left to do his own show. I was a die-hard fan during the first 3 seasons. Didn't miss a show. Faith was a kick-butt awesome character that I loved. Why the dumb-f's having put out season 2 and 3 on DVD is beyond me.

Then season 4 at college suddenly went from great to suck when they gave us "The Initiative". Terrible. Buffy's love interest (forget his name) did not work. Spike was gone (yeah, I know he came back, but without the same appeal for me). Plus, Giles was gone, without him, the show wasn't grounded and stable anymore. I did like Hush a lot, and when they brought back Faith and killed her. Great episode. It saved season 4 for me.

I did tune in for season 5 and thought the "Dracula" episode was awful. Then they introduced Dawn. Yawn. She was hot, but the who idea of Buffy suddenly, out of no where, having a sister, seemed to silly for me. I'd rather they just ended the show on a high note at the end of season 4.

Buffy and Angel together is best.
Buffy and Spike sucks.

I seen every season of Buffy and my favorite or the first 3 seasons.

Show jump the shark when season 3 ended, after that, Anya could not replace Cordelia, especially Tara and Spike could not replace Angel and Oz, Spike was great character but Spike from season 2, first that chip, then getting a soul, it was very stupid, then Willow becoming gay, Anya was not that bad although i loved Cordy more...

"my first inkling that the ride was about to end was when it was hinted that Willow was gay."

I have to agree. I have no problem with it, but it wasn't realistic or fitting with her character. Also, it was obvious when Oz came back that she was torn between them, and therefore, the fact that she still had romantic feelings for him proved that she wasn't gay. I think it was just about Tara being so special to her, and mending her broken heart when Oz left.

I think that my point is pretty much that the show jumped the shark when Oz cheated (as a werewolf) with Veruca and left Willow. I really missed their relationship and I just don't count W/T in the same league as them, no matter how in love they were.