Buffy's third season is up there with some of my favorite TV seasons of all time. It's funny, dramatic, action-packed, and character-driven from start to finish, containing pretty much everything I love about Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
Unlike Season 2, this third season has one major storyline throughout the season. This season's villain is the mayor of Sunnydale himself, who wants to essentially bring about the end of the world. The Mayor isn't as good a villain as Angelus was last season, but his generally positive and upbeat demeanor makes him an enjoyable affable villain for the season. However, the real star of the show this season is Faith, who is Kendra's replacement slayer. Faith is probably my favorite character in the whole Buffyverse. For the first half of the season, she serves as an amazing foil for Buffy. For the second half, she's a compelling villain with strong motivations and some killer fight scenes. Faith's slow descent into villainy is incredibly well-executed, and seeing her isolate herself from the rest of Buffy's team is fascinating to watch. Season 3 has a bunch of other top-notch subplots as well, like everyone trying to get into college, Buffy and Angel struggling to rebuild their relationship after the events of Season 2, Willow dating Oz, and the first appearance of Anya, a demon-turned-human with some of the funniest moments in the show.
Season 3 strikes a perfect balance of dramatic plot-heavy episodes and fun and creative standalones, resulting in a well-paced season where pretty much every single episode is great, at the very least. This is also the first season where it feels like the writers really figured out how to write memorable monster-of-the-week episodes, as it's far more willing to start experimenting with genre, character focus, and tone to usually great results. The dialogue and character work is as great as always, and Buffy manages to introduce a whole bunch of compelling new characters without shafting the old characters or making the show feel overstuffed. Every character arc and plot thread manages to tie together perfectly in the finale, which is one of my favorites of all time. The only character I didn't love was Wesley, who's supposed to be a foil for Giles but felt more annoying than entertaining. However, even he goes through some amazing development in the spinoff Angel. Speaking of which, this is the last season before Angel moves on to his spinoff series, and his departure is handled incredibly well.
There are a ton of really top-notch episodes here, but these are the best:
Faith, Hope, And Trick: This episode serves to wrap up most of Season 2's lingering threads. Faith makes her first appearance, and a memorable one at that. I'm also a massive fan of Mr Trick, he's a super charismatic villain and a joy to watch on screen,, and I'm glad he reappears throughout the first half of the season. Oh, and Angel's back.
Band Candy: This episode takes a fairly tripe and silly concept about the adults acting like teenagers, but manages to make it memorable through some absolutely hysterical writing and phenomenal performances from the adults on the cast. Principal Snyder's acting alone makes this episode worth it.
Lovers' Walk: Spike doesn't appear much this season, so he manages to make his sole episode a memorable one. I love the fact that Spike, having faced a breakup with Drusilla, would just march into Sunnydale, ruin everyone's relationships, reunite with Drusilla, and then just leave.
The Wish: It's hard to make an AU episode surprising and tense since you know none of its matters, but The Wish, which has Cordelia make a mean-spirited wish to Anya, manages to be consistently surprising and shocking. It's chilling to see such an awful AU where nearly all of the characters we know and love die. Also, Anya's first appearance is another strong debut.
The Zeppo: Never have I seen a show use a "Previously On" segment as a joke, and it sets the tone for this frantic, meta, and chaotic Xander-focused episode. It's so funny to see the whole cast fighting what should be a horrifying apocalyptic force, only for the episode to focus on Xander bumbling around. But despite the humor, The Zeppo does a great job of exploring his character and how he deals with how average he is compared to the rest of the cast.
Dopplegangland: If I wanted to show anyone why I love Buffy, I'd show them this episode. It has a fun, simple premise about Willow's evil vampire doppelgänger and mines it for all of the comedic and dramatic potential it has. The writing is consistently sharp and funny even for Buffy standards, and it gives Willow a lot of focus.
The Prom: One could argue that this episode is the last instance of the goofy high school shenanigans that marked Buffy's first three seasons, and I'd say it was a pretty strong sendoff. It's an emotional rollercoaster with tense action, a devastating breakup with Angel setting up the spinoff, and one of the most heartwarming moments in the whole show as Buffy finally gets recognition for all she's done.
Graduation Day: This is my favorite finale of the series, and I think it's a pretty much perfect episode. Every character gets something to do here, and the writing manages to incorporate some memorable exchanges within all of the plot. The final fight between Buffy and Faith is one of the show's best, the big battle with The Mayor's army is satisfying and climactic, and there's no better way to end Buffy's high school years than to blow up the high school. Angel's subdued goodbye is also a memorable sendoff for the character, as he finally begins his nearly-as-good-as-Buffy spinoff show.
Overall, Season 3 of Buffy is the high point of an already amazing show. It perfects everything that makes the show great, from its creative standalones, to its compelling character drama, to the witty dialogue, to the fun action.
5/5 Stars
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