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Buffy: Primeval, The College Year

THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR EVERYTHING BUFFY HERE AND BEYOND! YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!

Buffy PrimevalBuffy has some obvious highlights: Becoming 1&2, Faith turning to the dark side, blowing up high school – And some obvious low-lights: robot John Ritter, Sex House… ahem… Anyway, when you move a high school show to college – the stage is usually set for disaster. I’m looking at you, Saved By the Bell.

Buffy had broken so much ground as the definitive allegory for the high school experience played out through fantasy, that it seemed hard to imagine season 4 being anything, but transition. And in Joss’s brilliance that is exactly what it was – BY DESIGN. Our heroes separated. They changed. Willow found herself on the other end of the Kinsey scale. Xander started dating Anya and did not even go to college, making him isolated. Even Spike, our tried and true evil Billy Badass was “fixed” making him unable to fight. EVERYTHING was turned turvy topsy.

Buffy Primeval Season 4In walks Adam! On the scale of Buffy Big Bads, he ranks near the bottom. He’s a Sunnydale Frankenstein’s monster: part man, part machine, part demon parts… eww.

I wanted to cover Primeval on Anomaly because Adam may not be the best Big Bad, but the method that they use to destroy him – resolving the issues that pulled them apart in order to face him as one – THAT is a master plan.

I do feel like I need to apologize in advance because I thought that Jen had seen the entire season 4 at some point and would have some context. She did not, so I spend a good portion of the episode explaining what has been going on up to this point. I suggest at least a working knowledge of season 4 of Buffy or an open mind.

We hope you will learn to love Buffy: Primeval for what it is, a great way to wrap up an excellent transition. Also if you do watch Primeval, please watch Restless as well – it is an excellent, if existential treatment of everything that is Buffy.

If you like this episode, you may also enjoy these posts: What About Doyle?, Twisted Worlds: Fantasy Stories Based in RealityOur Favorite Sci-Fi Fantasy Couples, Avengers: Age of Ultron. Please scroll down for more episodes. 

About the Hosts

Jen
JenFounding Co-Host / Producer / Rogue
Jen teaches her 5-year-old son nerd basics, like the difference between droids and robots. Not the same thing people… NOT the same.
Angela
AngelaFounding Co-Host / Producer/ Cheer-tator
This is not a democracy, it’s cheerocracy and Angela is the cheer-tator… and she will deal with the cheer-consequences.