Season 5 might be my favorite season but I dunno if it was the best overall. I think that title goes to Season 3. I absolutely adore Glory as a Big Bad but her backstory has several holes and just isn't as well thought out as The Mayor's. Then there was also Riley, who I do not hate but who is also hardly a real draw. Finally, Season 3 had Faith.

As forWhedon killing Tara, Joss has a painfully limited imagination if all he can think to do for Willow's character is to kill off her lover and make her go crazy. The fact is, a lot of people wrote Buffy. Whedon does not deserve all the credit. Similarly, he does not deserve all the blame. The worst episodes of Season 4 for instance were written by the same person. Point is, he alone did not make Buffy special, even from a writing standpoint. Although his type of dialogue is probably why Buffy survived Season 1, which was very generic outside of that Whedon dialogue.

I'm proud of the fact I watched the first Buffy episode when it debuted. I'm proud that the opening scene shocked and scared me. Even lil' me was savvy enough to understand that two people alone making out and hearing scary noises must mean something is going to attack them. But then, WHAT THE smurf HAPPENED TO HER FACE AND OH GOD.

Of course as the show went on with a lot of sex and violence, it went up to TV-14 and my grandma didn't let me watch it. I stopped somewhere around Season 3 and would only finish the series years later watching reruns on FX.

Buffy is a fundamental part of my geek-ness and I will always prefer it to Angel, even if Angel never sunk to the lows Buffy did with Season 6.