The rest of the season also has some gems. "Fear, Itself" is simply the best use of anti-climax that I have ever seen on TV or film. "Beer Bad" treats us to the more primitive side of Buffy. I'm particularly looking forward to "Wild at Heart", which will feature a special commentary track by Joss, Marti Noxon (writer/producer), and Seth Green.

There are a lot of changes in the cast in season 4. Angel (David Boreanaz) and Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) have moved to LA (their further adventures are chronicled on Angel), and Oz (Seth Green), fearful of the wolf within, leaves to find himself. Their void is filled quite well by Spike (James Marsters), the former bad boy who unwillingly takes his first steps towards being a better man, Riley (Marc Blucas), Buffy's Army stud, Anya (Emma Caulfield), the ex-vengeance demon with a unique view of the world and incomprehensible obsession with Xander, and Tara (Amber Benson), a sweet Wicca with a little mystery.

The season is a little shaky as a whole. The whole Initiative and Adam story arc is kinda [weak], but those amazing episodes are so great that it's easy for me to take a "forest for the trees" approach to season 4. Still, check out the DVDs. Those three Joss episodes alone will be worth it (but I'm pretty sure you'll have a good time with the whole thing).

When last we left our heroes most of them had just survived graduating from high school. Now Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Willow (Alyson Hannigan), and Oz (Seth Green) are off to UC-Sunnydale while Xander (Nicholas Brendon) tries to survive in the real world and Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) twiddles his thumbs in his apartment. Instead of the "high school is hell" idea, the underlying symbolism of the season is now the brave new world of college. Buffy has moved out of the house to live in the college dorm (surprising), but with somebody other than Willow (more surprising), and is trying to move beyond Angel (sad, but not surprising). After a dalliance with Parker Abrams (Adam Kaufman), the personification of that horrible "transition" person your friends always warned you about after your first big breakup, Buffy hooks up with clean-cut Iowa farm boy Riley Finn (Marc Blucas), charming psychology graduate assistant by day, Initiative super-soldier by night.

By now we are familiar with the double-story arc structure of a "BtVS" season. For Season Four the first half story arc has to do with the mystery of the Initiative, while the second half is the confrontation with Adam. More importantly, there are several monumental character changes inspired by the desire to keep a couple of actors and the decision of another cast member to leave. Wanting to keep James Marsters around, the idea of putting that bloody chip in Spike's head, neutering the vampire when it comes to putting the bite on human beings, was a masterstroke (and, dare I say, surprising). Suddenly, Spike is a de facto Scooby. Meanwhile, with Emma Caulfield sticking around as Anya, she becomes the show's comic relief in place of her boyfriend Xander. Then, when Seth Green left the show to concentrate on films, what we thought was an offhanded comment in "Doppelgangland" suddenly comes to fruition for Willow when she meets Wicca wannabee Tara (Amber Benson). All of these changes end up having much more significant impacts on the show than the addition of Riley Finn as Buffy's new love interest.

Season Four begins with a lot of interpersonal issues, from trouble with dorm mates ("Living Conditions") to getting dumped ("The Harsh Light of Day," "Wild at Heart"), before getting caught up in the mystery of all those soldier types running around the campus in the dark ("The Initiative"). Buffy and Riley finally discover the truth about each other in the landmark episode "Hush," the only episode ever to earn Joss Whedon a well deserved Emmy nomination for Best Writing of a Drama (insert outrage over snubs of "The Body" and "Once More With Feeling" here, please). The second half of the season finds Riley learning to work with Buffy ("Doomed") and Buffy enjoying working with the Initiative ("A New Man") before Professor Maggie Walsh (Lindsay Crouse) tries to kill her ("The I in Team") and her stitched together uber-demon Adam (George Hetzberg) breaks free and sets up the final confrontation ("Primeval").

Ultimately, the strength of a season is judged by the episodes that are essentially off the main story arcs. For Season Four this means a Halloween episode with one of the best punch lines ever ("Fear, Itself"), the great Buffy and Faith mind-switch ("This Year's Girl" and "Who Are You?"), the discovery that the coolest and most important in the world is Jonathan Levenson ("Superstar"), and the hilarious insanity of Willow's wish list ("Something Blue"). Of course on that last episode once again the joke is on us as the alternative reality give us a preview of what is to come down the road. One of the most unique aspects of this season was that the climatic battle with the year's big bad happens in the penultimate episode and the season finale, "Restless," serves as an actual epilogue as Buffy and friends encounter the First Slayer (Sharon Ferguson), and sets the stage for significant develops to come.

The fact that Season Two ended with the greatest episode ever of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in "Becoming, Part II," when Buffy has to kill Angel to save the world, obscures the fact that on balance Season Three and Season Four were both stronger seasons overall. The operatic finales might not reach the same heights, but the lows are higher and the on average score is higher. The worst episode of Season Four is probably the season premier, "The Freshman," which suffers because like all first episodes in a season of "BtVS" the goal is to have Buffy rededicate herself to being the Slayer so that new viewers can feel like they understand the gig. If anything, Season Four reaffirms that the strength of this show is character development and not just vampire slaying.

Final Comment: It is nice to see that the extras for Season Four contain twice as many commentary tracks as we have been privy to for each of the previous three collections. In a perfect world it would be great if all of the episodes had commentary, provided by shifting tag-team combinations of writers and actors, in the tradition of the very early episodes of "Farscape" on DVD, but I have long had the feeling that the cast of "BtVS" is rather intimidated by the encyclopedic knowledge of the show enjoyed by its fan base.

Although Adam, this season's featured Big Bad is somewhat lame, there are some real standout episodes here, including: the haunting, mostly silent "Hush" which scored Joss Whedon an Emmy nomination in the category of outstanding writing for a drama series; the hysterical "Something Blue", in which a heartbroken Willow casts a spell which goes horribly wrong (Buffy & Spike get engaged!); and the dramatic two-parter "This Year's Girl" and "Who Are You" which finds an angry Faith awakened from her Buffy-induced coma and looking for revenge. The honorable mention goes to "Superstar", which gives secondary character Jonathan a chance to shine as he creates an alternate universe where he gets to be everyone's hero. Of course, there are some below average episodes here too, but even a preachy clunker like "Beer Bad" has moments of brilliance.

NOTE: To maximize your Buffy Season 4 viewing experience, you may want to purchase the first season of Angel on DVD. Crossovers!!!