Buffy The Vampire Slayer

June 06, 2003 - After three very solid box sets of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer Fox pretty much knows what they’re doing with the popular show. This fourth season set keeps up the same level of quality that fans have come to expect from the season releases.

The Show

Buffy and the Scoobs are all done with high school (and the school itself is pretty finished if you saw Season Three), so their big challenge in the fourth year of the show is their freshman year of college.

That’s just the backbone of year four. There’s a lot of character development surrounding key characters with some welcome focus on Willow (and Oz) and of course Buffy. Spike returns this year, and there’s even a short Angel cameo in one episode. They even added in a new little element to the Buffy mythos in the form of the Initiative, where the government has their own form of "Slayers" to deal with demons.

While there aren’t as many great episodes in year four as in the previous season, some stand out shows include "Hush" and "Restless". Here is the complete rundown of what’s included in this season:

Disc One:

The Freshman

Living Conditions

The Harsh Light of Day

Fear Itself

Disc Two:

Beer Bad

Wild at Heart

The Initiative

Pangs

Disc Three:

Something Blue

Hush

Doomed

Disc Four:

A New Man

The "I" in Team

Goodbye Iowa

This Year’s Girl

Disc Five:

Who Are You?

Superstar

Where the Wild Things Are

New Moon Rising

Disc Six:

The Yoko Factor

Primeval

Restless

The Video

Just as Season Three looked a bit better on DVD than Season Two, this fourth season set presents another slight upgrade in video quality, and I think this is about as good as it’s going to get for the series on DVD. Presented in the aspect ratio that the shows were meant to be seen in, full screen (and for proof, check out our interview with Joss Whedon here), colors look very strong, black levels are pretty solid, and there are very few compression problems to annoy. Overall, it’s pretty good.

The Audio

Once again, all twenty-two episodes are presented in Dolby Surround with the options of Spanish or French surround. As expected, it sounds as good as one would hope for a television show, but don’t really go in looking for anything more than that.

The Extras

This six-disc box set is structured identically to the previous Buffy sets when it comes to extras. Commentaries are spread among the different episodes, with these shows featuring tracks: "The Initiative" and "Wild At Heart" (disc two), "Hush" (disc three), "This Year’s Girl" (disc four), "Superstar" (disc five), and "Primevil" and "Restless" (disc six). That’s a good selection of commentaries for what are basically the best episodes in the season. Scripts for "Fear Itself", "Hush", and "Who Are You?" are also included.

As for video features, well disc three includes multiple featurettes. There are short looks at "Hush," "Spike Me," "Oz Revelations: A Full Moon," "Buffy, Inside the Music" and "The Sets Of Sunnydale". The big special feature is on disc six and is the year four overview. Running at over thirty-five minutes, the documentary again features all-new interviews (including some fun clips with Seth Green) as the production crew and supporting cast looks back at key episodes in the season. Disc six also includes a still gallery.