Product Details

• Actors: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Emma Caulfield, Michelle Trachtenberg
• Directors: Christopher Hibler, Daniel Attias, David Grossman, David Solomon, James A. Contner
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Box set, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 6
• Studio: WB Television Network, The
• DVD Release Date: December 9, 2003
• Run Time: 990 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (328 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000AQS18
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #22,972 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #15 in	Movies & TV > Horror > Series & Sequels > Buffy the Vampire Slayer
  #89 in	Movies & TV > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Fantasy > Television
  #100 in	Movies & TV > Television > Horror

• For more information about "Buffy the Vampire Slayer - The Complete Fifth Season" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

• This is item 5 in The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Series.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The fifth season of Joss Whedon's hit series started out in excellent form as slayer extraordinaire Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) did battle with the most famous of vampires (that Dracula guy) and then went on to spar with another nemesis, little sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). Wait--Buffy has a teenage sister? Where has she been the past four years? And why is everyone acting like she's always been around? Turns out that young Dawn is actually "The Key," a form of pure energy that, true to its name, helps open the gates between different dimensions. To protect said key from falling into the wrong hands, a group of monks gave it human form and sent it to the fiercely protective Buffy for safekeeping, creating new memories of Dawn for everyone as if she'd existed... well, always. Why all the super secrecy? There's this very, very, very bad girl named Glory (Clare Kramer) who wants the key very badly, and will do anything to get it. Oh, and by the way, Glory isn't just a run-of-the-mill demon... she's way worse.

Some fans will tell you that Buffy "jumped the shark" with the introduction of Dawn, when in actuality this season was the pinnacle of the show's achievement, as there was superb comedy to be had ("Buffy Vs. Dracula," the double-Xander episode "The Replacement," the introduction of the "Buffybot" in "Intervention") as well as some of television's best drama. The Whedon-scripted and -directed "The Body" remains one of Buffy's best episodes, when the young woman who faces down supernatural death on a daily basis finds herself powerless in the wake of her mother's sudden passing. The first third or so of the season was a bit choppy, but once the evil Glory came into her own, Buffy was a television force to be reckoned with. Kramer was the show's best villain (after the evil Angel, natch), and the supporting cast was never better. But as always, it was the superb Gellar who was the powerful center of the show, sparking opposite lovelorn vampire Spike (James Marsters) and wrestling with moral dilemmas rarely seen on television. With this season, Buffy Summers became, like Tony Soprano, one of television's true greats. --Mark Englehart

Product Description

After an unsettling encounter with the Dracula, Buffy asks Giles to once again be her Watcher. Luckily he agrees, for Buffy is about to face mortal problems far more threatening than the undead: the sudden appearance of a sister named Dawn, her mother’s mysterious illness and Spike’s undying devotion. Then an undefeatable demon appears, forcing Buffy to turn to an ancient Spirit Guide who tells her that love is her greatest gift — and power.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

128 of 137 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The fifth season is as stunning and original as any, August 30, 2003

By	Robert Moore (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

One of the most extraordinary things about BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is that in Season Two they managed to produce one of the greatest seasons in the history of television, and then managed to pretty much equal it for the entire run of the show. Amazingly, each year they did this by taking the show in completely different directions. In the season opener Buffy meets and defeats the most famous of all vampires, Dracula, but the show demonstrated its willingness to take extraordinary risks by ending the episode with the startlingly revelation that Buffy has a sister. Buffy, of course, is an only child, but the brilliant thing was the way the show continued for several episodes as if Dawn, Buffy's new sister, had always been a part of the family. Moreover, Dawn isn't just a part of her immediate family: all Buffy's friends have their own relationship with Dawn, and she is clearly completely integrated with everyone in the community.

There are Buffy fans who like and dislike nearly every aspect of BUFFY. Some did not care for the addition of Dawn to the cast, but I loved it, partly for the virtuosic manner in which they integrated her in the cast, and partly for the astonishing story line that developed out of who she truly was. Dawn, an entity of pure energy that is a key to a demon portal, was created by monks as a real human being, a real sister to The Slayer, in order to guarantee that Buffy would protect her with her life. I love the way that all the Scooby Gang completely accepts her, and the profound questions it raises in Dawn herself, as she desperately attempts to come to terms with the knowledge that she isn't who she remembers herself to be.

Old subplots are resolved and new ones emerge. Buffy's romance with Riley, nearly universally loathed by Buffy fans, thankfully ends. Giles takes over the ownership of The Magic Box and Anya becomes his enthusiastic assistant. Spike, still harmless due to his implant, is horrified to realize that he is in love with Buffy. Joyce is stricken with a brain tumor and eventually dies of a brain aneurysm, which leads to what is in many ways the most remarkable episode in the entire history of the show, "The Body." Most of Buffy is shot employing a quick, fast moving pace. But this episode intentionally slows down time, intensifying and emphasizing every nuance of Buffy's overwhelming grief and panic at discovering her mother's body. In my opinion, it is the single best representation in either film or TV of human reaction to the death of a loved one.

Season Five's primary story arc is, however, that of the hell goddess Glory and her attempt to recover The Key (Dawn) that will allow her to reenter her hell dimension. Glory is, with the possible exception of Angelus, the best villain in the history of BUFFY and ANGEL. She is a goddess portrayed as super consumer (her nice shoes and pedicures causes Dawn to remark, "She has really nice feet"), going on spending sprees to placate her sorrows at being trapped in a dimension not her own. Her whacky wit and (for a goddess) naive stupidity combined with her considerable power creates excitement nearly every second she is onscreen. In a season of many highlights, I especially love the episode where Glory's minions wrongly assume that Spike is The Key, and bring him to Glory, who tortures him to find out who The Key truly is. Despite beating him badly, he refuses to tell. Buffy's intense and heartfelt gratitude signals a change in attitude on the part of the Scoobies, and hints that behavior and compassion are as much a mark of someone becoming good (despite being a vampire) as having a soul (in the case of Angel). The final episode, "The Gift," is one of the truly epic moments in the entire series, and yet another of the classic moments that BUFFY left us. The final shot of the season is simply heartbreaking.

135 of 160 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Buffy Season, July 23, 2003

By	"luiginadi" (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

I'm a huge fan of this show and have watched it since the very first episode aired and in my opinion season five of Buffy is the best season of the series. As a whole, the show has had a lot of fine moments and many of them have been in season five. This is the season where Dawn is introduced as Buffy's sister, Riley leaves, Glory is the Big Bad (one of my fav's) and Spike falls in love with Buffy. The scoobie gang experiences a lot of loss in this emotional and heartbreaking season,(episodes The Body and The Gift, trust me have a box of kleenex by your side for these episodes). The episodes in this very powerful season are:
1. Buffy .vs. Dracula: 9.5/10
2. Real Me: 9.5/10 (Harmony is back)
3. The Replacement: 9/10
4. Out of My Mind: 8/10
5. No Place Like Home: 9/10
6. Family: 9/10
7. Fool For Love: 10/10 (watch with Angel's "Darla" episode)
8. Shadow: 8/10
9. Listening to Fear: 8.5/10
10. Into the Woods: 8.5/10 (Riley leaves)
11. Triangle: 8/10
12. Checkpoint: 8.5/10
13. Blood Ties: 9/10
14. Crush: 10/10 (Harmony and Drusilla are back)
15. I was made to love you: 8/10
16. The Body: 11/10
17. Forever: 9.5/10 (Angel pays a visit to Sunnydale)
18. Intervention: 9/10
19. Tough Love: 9.5/10
20. Spiral: 10/10
21. The Weight of the World: 10/10
22. The Gift: 11/10

...."you think you know what's to come...you haven't even begun."

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BUFFY SEASON 5 -- MY FAVORITE OF THEM ALL!!!!, July 23, 2003

By	Jeffrey Matthew Cohen (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Season 5 of Buffy is one of those amazing examples when all the story-telling elements come together to create a unified and explosive plotline arc. This season has everything: a deposed God, mideval knights, the watchers council, monks, lots of dark witchcraft, Dracula, two Xanders, the newly arrived little sister that turns out to be timeless destructive energy, Spike fighting for the good guys, the First Slayer, crazy robots, brain-sucking, aliens from outerspace, a really cute doctor, and the deaths of two main characters!!

Glory is by far (in my opinion) the best big bad ever! She's fantastically powerful, but at the same time really ditzy. She fits perfectly into the Buffy-verse: scary & funny, but believable all at the same time. This season also cements in Tara and Spike as scoobies. And it introduces Warren for the first time (who will figure largely into the plot of Season 6).

The highlights of the Season: Fool for Love (Spike's past), The Body (realistic look at death), Tough Love (first glimpse at Dark Willow), and The Gift (my favorite season finale & the death of another main character).

And as with all good things, there are some low points. Listening to Fear (alien is summoned to kill crazy people), and Family (Tara's creepy family arrive) aren't the best, but they're still better than most of what's on TV. Bad Buffy is a lot like bad pizza: even when it's bad, it's still pretty good! OK--corny, I know, but it makes a point! Also, I'm a huge Riley (Marc Blucas) fan, and was sad to see him go this season (he goes on to make a guest appearance in Season 6).

In conclusion, buy Buffy Season 5 on DVD!!! Buy several--buy them as holiday presents!! People will be glad you did!