reviewed by Charity Bishop
          

Angel came back from the hell dimension. Buffy went bad for a short time. Faith drove into town. Every show has its failings, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer managed to keep audiences riveted through all seven seasons. The second season was arguably the best, involving a carefully constructed plot in which Spike and Drusilla, two eccentric vampires, rolled into town, Angel temporarily lost his soul, and Buffy was forced to battle demons of guilt and insecurity as well as the kind that actually go bump in the night. Season three has different villains and a much darker plot involving satanic forces that invade Sunnydale, not only through the demonic fiends unleashed on the town, but also its more innocent dabblers.

The hell-haunted costal town of Sunnydale just isn't the same without the Vampire Slayer. After defeating a demon determined to suck all of humanity into the abyss, and in the process condemning her soulful vampire boyfriend to hell in a secondary dimension, Buffy (Sarah Michelle Geller) has abandoned her family and friends for the big city. Working part time as a waitress in a sleazy diner and living in a trashy apartment, she is haunted by nightmares about what she was forced to do to Angel. Recognized by a fellow transplant from Sunnydale, Buffy is drawn into slaying once more when faced with a legion of villains who abduct humans for their underground factories. Eventually it leads her back home, where her family and friends are attempting to deal with her disappearance. In her absence, Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Xander (Nicholas Brendon), Oz (Seth Green) and Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) have formed a vampire-fighting team, with minimal success. They slay an average of six out of ten vampires.

While battling her biased principle for the right to finish out her final year of high school, contending with her mom's insecurities about her running away again, and attempting to repair the damage caused with her bookish watcher, Giles (Anthony Head), Buffy is faced with a new challenge. A rogue slayer named Faith (Eliza Dushku) rolls into town. Naturally wary of the girl who has won over all of her friends, Buffy's suspicions lead into a gradual friendship soon threatened by malicious outside forces. Just when Buffy thinks her life is returning to normal, Angel (David Boreanaz) returns. Forced to endure four hundred years of torment and abuse in the hell dimension, he is aggressively violent and haunted by memories of his murderous streak in Sunnydale. Throw in the return of Spike (James Marsters), and the arrival of a new Watcher in the form of the straight-laced Wesley (Alexis Denisof), and the adventures escalate into a violent and brutal showdown.

One of the most charming things about the Buffy saga is that the characters are quirky and fun to listen to. The scripts are full of witty puns and surprising twists. Individuals mature and change rather than remaining the same. But there are limitations to how well Christian audiences can contend with many of the issues raised in this and later seasons. Having become an Angel fan, I wanted to find out what eventually lead him to leave Sunnydale for the eerie streets of LA. This gave me my answers, but also a healthy concern for the occult content. Most of it is fairly harmless, but several episodes focus on casting spells, slamming prejudice against witchcraft, and make a big deal out of Willow becoming a part-time witch. She often purchases "magic" supplies from a local store, and is shown on numerous occasions putting her talents to use, surrounded by symbols and burning candles. Giles is disapproving at first, but also dabbles in the occult from time to time in order to "help" Buffy defeat evil.

One episode deals around a demon that poses as two children killed in a cult ceremony. He feeds off the prejudice started among the townspeople, who are portrayed as being old-fashioned and insensitive when they start an all-out assault to ban witchcraft. (Willow, Buffy, and another student are nearly burned at the stake.) Christianity is never mentioned without the phrase "freaky religion" attached. Violence is standard for the series, involving many vampires being staked, monsters hacked to pieces, and zombies occasionally decapitated and set on fire. Humans are attacked by werewolves, chased down by vampires, and bitten on the neck. Faith and Buffy engage in more than one brutal exchange. Bruises, blood, and dislocated shoulders are common. Language consists of occasional mild profanity, sexual innuendo, and slang.

We see partial nudity in the shadows when Angel returns to this dimension naked. Haunted by realistic nightmares, he dreams about making love to and biting Buffy. Willow offers to sleep with Oz on Christmas Eve, saying she's ready, but he isn't. In the final episode they wind up beneath the sheets. Faith comes on to Xander and he gives into her in a semi-graphic scene. Later she is sexually aggressive (rubbing her body against his while she straddles him on the bed) and then turns violent, attempting to strangle him. Faith and Angelus behave suggestively toward one another. In an alternate world, Willow is a leather-clad vampire with mild lesbian overtones that likes to taste her victims via licking before attacking them. In order to save Angel's life, he must drink Buffy's blood; this is presented in something of an erotic but violent light. Language is fairly standard, with multiple uses of b--- and occasional coarse terms (suck, screwed).

Season three does have some wonderful moments, such as when Angel knows he is being manipulated for evil and attempts to kill himself by awaiting the sunrise. Buffy and his exchange on that and other occasions will pull the heart strings and bring tears to your eyes. Faith is a character you rapidly grow to appreciate, becoming one of the show's best foils. There are some lighter and quirky episodes intermingled with the rough stuff: an alternate world in which Willow and Xander are cuddly vampires, an instance when all the adults in town are behaving like deranged teenagers (Giles and Buffy's mom are necking in the hall and breaking into local stores), and the ongoing rivalry between Cordelia and Xander. But there is a difference between the harmless magic portrayed in the Harry Potter books, where everything is slightly surreal and doesn't involve anything resembling the true-life occult, and the dark potion-mixing, spell-casting going on in Buffy. It overshadows about a fourth of the season, taking precedence in particular episodes.