In every generation, there is a chosen one. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer.

Buffy fans everywhere have been met with some bad news of late, as they learned that the show has come to the end of its proverbial road and will going off the air at the end of the current season. The cult show has garnered a huge following over the years and came literally out of nowhere to become one of television’s most watched and oft ac…laimed show. Thankfully for fans, Fox is set to release season four of the series on DVD in June and from all indications, fans have every reason to be excited about the show’s latest incarnation on DVD.

Without going into too much detail about the show (since most of you probably know more about it than I do), Sarah Michelle Gellar stars as Buffy, the sole vampire slayer of her generation whose job it is to protect the world from the undead. Yet, as we find out, all Buffy wants is to be a normal girl and she tries really hard to balance her life as a high school/college student with the life she lives as a slayer. Buffy lives in Sunnydale, California - which just so happens to sit atop a “Hellmouth” – a portal where many of the demons in the netherworld converge – and this keeps Buffy quite busy as demons are constantly trying to enter our earthly realm. Along with her friends Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Xander (Nicholas Brendon), and Riley (Marc Blucas), Buffy tries to learn more about her origins, be a “normal” teen, and save the world in the meantime.

While it helps to be familiar with the show before diving in, it still remains very open and friendly to uninitiated viewers, as it does a really good job of analyzing many “real world” problems using the subtext of monsters and vampires that inhabit Buffy’s world.

Spread out across six discs, the episodes included on Fox’s season four set include “The Freshman” (Original Air Date: October 5, 1999), “Living Conditions” (Original Air Date: October 12, 1999), “The Harsh Light of Day” (Original Air Date: October 19, 1999), “Fear Itself” (Original Air Date: October 26, 1999), “Beer Bad” (Original Air Date: November 2, 1999), “Wild At Heart” (Original Air Date: November 9, 1999), “The Initiative” (Original Air Date: November 16, 1999), “Pangs” (Original Air Date: November 23, 1999), “Something Blue” (Original Air Date: November 30, 1999), “Hush” (Original Air Date: December 14, 1999), “Doomed” (Original Air Date: January 18, 2000), “A New Man” (Original Air Date: January 25, 2000), “The ‘I’ In Team” (Original Air Date: February 8, 2000), “Goodbye Iowa” (Original Air Date: February 15, 2000), “This Year’s Girl” (Original Air Date: February 22, 2000), “Who Are You” (Original Air Date: February 29, 2000), “Superstar” (Original Air Date: April 4, 2000), “Where The Wild Things Are” (Original Air Date: April 25, 2000), “New Moon Rising” (Original Air Date: May 2, 2000), “The Yoko Factor” (Original Air Date: May 9, 2000), “Primeval” (Original Air Date: May 16, 2000), and “Restless” (Original Air Date: May 23, 2000).

Audio

Fox brings Buffy The Vampire Slayer in a Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track that sounds quite nice considering the humble TV origins of the show. While the track isn’t as energetic or active as a big budget feature, it still sounds quite nice all things considered.

Effects are abundant and sound quite natural, as they start and end from their proper place within the soundstage at all times. Your surrounds get a nice, albeit limited workout throughout all of the included episodes and Buffy seemed to get a lot out mileage out of its somewhat restricted soundstage. The LFE was consistently strong and did a really nice job of reinforcing the score, as well as the many effects used in throughout the episodes.

Fox has also provided French and Spanish Dolby 2.0 Surround tracks, as well as subtitles in English and Spanish for every episode.

Video

By the time season four rolled around, the show was really starting to sport some really high production values, as Buffy The Vampire Slayer had become a bona fide hit. For the DVD presentation, Fox has presented the show in its broadcast ratio of 1.33:1 in a fullscreen transfer.

The image for the most part was very stable and remained fairly sharp and detailed across the episodes I saw on Discs One and Six. Colors were properly balanced and saturated without any smearing or bleeding noted and fleshtones remained natural and accurate throughout. Issues with the print mainly stemmed from some noticeable grain during the dark/nighttime scenes in series and while shadow detail and delineation took a slight hit, it wasn’t anything overly distracting by any means. Print flaws and edge enhancement were minimal and practically non-existent, although I did notice some slight shimmer from time to time.

Despite the aforementioned problems, Buffy The Vampire Slayer was a really nice presentation that contained little in the way of pesky problems from what I could see. While not too familiar with the show itself, I have scanned the other three seasons on DVD and this one is definitely the cream of the crop. Fans of the series should find themselves very pleased with Fox’s efforts here.

Special Features

Fox doesn’t make it a habit of shipping out complete boxed sets of Buffy for whatever reason and they only provided us here at UpcomingDiscs.Com with Discs One and Six only. I’ll review what I can and simply list out the remaining discs specs from what we know about them thus far. (These supplements are subject to change before street date, although it’s highly unlikely).

Disc One: Script for “Fear Itself”.

Disc Two: Audio Commentary by Writer Doug Petrie for “The Initiative” and an Audio Commentary for “Wild at Heart” by Joss Whedon, Marti Noxon and Seth Green.

Disc Three: Audio Commentary for “Hush” by Joss Whedon; Hush (Featurette); Spike Me (Featurette); Oz Revelations: A Full Moon (Featurette); Inside Sets of Sunnydale (Featurette); Script for “Hush”; Cast Bios; and a Still Gallery.

Disc Four: Audio Commentary for “This Year’s Girl” by Writer Doug Petrie.

Disc Five: Audio Commentary for “Superstar” by Jane Espenson and Script for “Who Are You”.

Disc Six: Audio Commentary for “Primeval” by Writers David Fury and James A. Cotner; Audio Commentary for “Restless” by Joss Whedon; Season Four Overview (Featurette); and a Still Gallery.

As far as what I was able to view, the Script extra that was included here has never really thrilled me too much, but aspiring screenwriters will more than likely get a lot more out of it than I did. The same can be said for the Still Gallery - it’s rarely implemented well and for some reason, continually clicking the –RIGHT- button on my DVD remote rarely gets my rocks off. While the Buffy eye candy is nice, it’s still a rather dull extra. The Audio Commentaries were pretty informative and managed to be enjoyable, while the Season Four Overview was a nice way for those unfamiliar with the show (like myself) - or those who have not seen the fourth season for quite some time - to become reacquainted with what happened during the show’s fourth year.

Once again, Fox has provided a treasure trove of supplements for Buffy The Vampire Slayer and simply reinforces the fact that when it comes to releasing TV shows to DVD, nobody does it better. A really nice set that contains some really nice supplements.

Parting Thoughts

Fox has been putting out season boxed sets of Buffy long enough now that fans already know what to expect – quality. The discs we received and reviewed here were top-notch and with the listed roster of supplements, season four should please hardcore and casual fans alike. Fox continues to dominate the market as far as consistently releasing their fine television series to DVD and we can only hope that other studios steal a page out of their playbook when it comes to doing the same thing for their shows.

Highly recommended for fans of the series and a guilty pleasure for those with a few extra bucks to spend. (For the uninitiated, I’d suggest you help yourself out however and pick up the first three seasons first.)

Special Features List

• Audio Commentaries
• Featurettes
• Cast Bios
• Still Galleries
• Original Scripts