Why Season 4 Falls Flat
I consider myself pretty qualified to discuss Buffy. I have rewatched the show more times than I can count, and I’m currently rewatching now and am on season 4. I’ll get it out of the way now and say I do not like Riley Finn. He is one of my least favorite characters on the show. I always thought he was the reason I didn’t like the 4th season as much, but during my rewatch I realized he wasn’t the only problem.
I’ll get my Riley issues out first. He just didn’t fit in. He had about as much charm as a piece of toast. He said peculiar too many times. He got butthurt because Buffy was stronger than him and he tried to keep her from going on his “mission.” I could go on all day, but long story short, he just didn’t work out for me. I did not like him with Buffy or as a member of the Scooby gang.
I can normally recall things that happen in the episode by reading the name of the episode. My friend was impressed by that and asked if I could do that with every episode and I said not so much season four, it’s not my favorite. Turns out I know a lot more of season 4 than I thought. The episodes are entertaining, funny, and good up until Buffy learns Riley is in the initiative. This is the point where things go down hill.
The initiative slows the season down. I don’t think anyone knew what they wanted to do with it, and didn’t know where to take the plot. I figured out the initiative was problematic because I really enjoy season 5, and Riley doesn’t completely ruin that season for me. Professor Walsh doesn’t really work out either. I read she was supposed to play a larger role, but there were scheduling conflicts that prevented her from doing it. Which doesn’t really make sense because she came back in Primevil. Whatever.
Tara is introduced this season, and we get more of Anya which is great. Beloved characters like Xander don’t get enough screen time, and Giles is continuously neglected this season. I don’t like that. Buffy told him to his face that Maggie was the smartest person she knew. Like what??? We get more of Spike, and I love that. Spike really packs on the charm and it makes one realize how much Riley is lacking. Adam just isn’t a good big bad compared to Angelus or the mayor from previous seasons. He really is only a big issue in roughly 4-5 episodes of the 22 episode season. They even have a picnic in the episode Superstar and appear to forget about Adam. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Don’t get me wrong, there is not a bad season of Buffy. Some are just better than others. My personal ranking of the seasons would be: 2, 5, 1, 6, 7, 3, 4. It’s personal preference for everyone I guess. This season just isn’t my favorite. The initiative doesn’t work out how I think Joss imagined and the storyline just isn’t as good as the other seasons. Riley Finn, you did not help the season in terms of likability, but you didn’t completely tank the season on your own.
