Buffy The Vampire Slayer

The penultimate season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer begins inauspiciously, with its titular heroine (Sarah Michelle Gellar) dead and buried. After sacrificing herself at the end of season five to save her younger sister, Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg), and, oh yeah, humanity as a whole, Buffy is enjoying a 6-feet-under respite from the looming horrors of Sunnydale, Calif.

But there is no way that Buffy’s friends, particularly the increasingly powerful witch Willow (Alyson Hannigan, doing spectacular work), will let sleeping slayers lie, and thus from the grave the darkness and pain of season six is launched. Tiny blond Buffy is brought back to life, and we learn that unto each generation, a pouter is born.

The last great season of one of TV’s best, and most underestimated, shows is not exactly pretty. Buffy’s resurrection (which accompanied the show’s move from the WB to UPN) is fraught with angst and torment, for reasons her friends can only begin to guess. (And if you haven’t previously seen the season, try not to look at anything on the DVD packaging, as it is one big spoiler.)

The two-part opener was neither written nor directed by creator Joss Whedon, and yet it is the strongest beginning since season two’s "When She Was Bad." As writer-producers Marti Noxon and David Fury explain on the commentary, Whedon was busy writing what would be, at least so far, his magnum opus: the consummately brilliant musical episode, "Once More, With Feeling" (in which Noxon and Fury are rewarded with singing cameos).

Buffy’s damaged emotional state perfectly prepares her for an inevitable, and inevitably doomed, romance with smitten, neutered vampire Spike (James Marsters). If you aren’t a fan of his ... well, first, there is something wrong with you, and second, this season would be mighty annoying. As highly charged as the season’s emotions (for which Noxon makes no apologies, explaining, "I’m basically trying to write My So-Called Life with vampires") is the sexual content.

Extras are pretty much standard, with an understandable focus on "Once More." Whedon contributes an infectiously joyful commentary, Fury has a behind-the-scenes featurette and several of the songs are set up as "karaoke," with subtitled lyrics. After an episode so profoundly awesome, and a seasonlong story arc culminating in the utter ruin of a primary character, it’s no wonder that the final season of Buffy didn’t measure up. Where do we go from here, indeed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer — The Complete Sixth Season, not rated, 990 minutes, $59.98.

Reality shows its age

Other than achieving the amazing feat of making an entire generation feel really, really old, the 10th anniversary edition of Reality Bites doesn’t have much going for it. Ben Stiller’s directorial debut has not aged well; the pop-cult references and verbal tics that once seemed at least partially fresh are now nothing short of cringe-worthy.

Nonetheless, the DVD is overloaded with special features, including some truly horrific deleted scenes and a dawdling retrospective in which Winona Ryder appears to be riding the Xanax pony, and Janeane Garofalo reveals that she was competing for her role with a then-unknown Gwyneth Paltrow. Stiller and writer Helen Childress (whose career appears to have started and ended with Bites) also contribute a strangely pretentious commentary.

Reality Bites (Anniversary Edition), PG-13, 99 minutes, $19.98.