Buffy the Vampire Slayer [Region 2] | ![Buffy the Vampire Slayer [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CFCBH5DAL._SL500_.jpg) | Actors: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head, James Marsters
Studio: WB Television Network, The
Category: DVD
Buy New: $256.99
as of 3/22/2010 06:59 EDT details
Seller: door2doordvds
Rating:  380 reviews
Sales Rank: 298019
Format: PAL
Region: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5039036015318
ASIN: B0000WSTA6
Theatrical Release Date: March 10, 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
The fifth season of Joss Whedon's hit series started out in excellent form as slayer extraordinaire Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) did battle with the most famous of vampires (that Dracula guy) and then went on to spar with another nemesis, little sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). Wait--Buffy has a teenage sister? Where has she been the past four years? And why is everyone acting like she's always been around? Turns out that young Dawn is actually "The Key," a form of pure energy that, true to its name, helps open the gates between different dimensions. To protect said key from falling into the wrong hands, a group of monks gave it human form and sent it to the fiercely protective Buffy for safekeeping, creating new memories of Dawn for everyone as if she'd existed... well, always. Why all the super secrecy? There's this very, very, very bad girl named Glory (Clare Kramer) who wants the key very badly, and will do anything to get it. Oh, and by the way, Glory isn't just a run-of-the-mill demon... she's way worse. Some fans will tell you that Buffy "jumped the shark" with the introduction of Dawn, when in actuality this season was the pinnacle of the show's achievement, as there was superb comedy to be had ("Buffy Vs. Dracula," the double-Xander episode "The Replacement," the introduction of the "Buffybot" in "Intervention") as well as some of television's best drama. The Whedon-scripted and -directed "The Body" remains one of Buffy's best episodes, when the young woman who faces down supernatural death on a daily basis finds herself powerless in the wake of her mother's sudden passing. The first third or so of the season was a bit choppy, but once the evil Glory came into her own, Buffy was a television force to be reckoned with. Kramer was the show's best villain (after the evil Angel, natch), and the supporting cast was never better. But as always, it was the superb Gellar who was the powerful center of the show, sparking opposite lovelorn vampire Spike (James Marsters) and wrestling with moral dilemmas rarely seen on television. With this season, Buffy Summers became, like Tony Soprano, one of television's true greats. --Mark Englehart
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 380
 Not the best but not the worst January 31, 2010
Peter (Rockford, USA)
Buffy starts the fifth season off with a decent series starter but not the best by far, as you go through the season you find out Buffy has a "sister" Dawn, and you meet Glory the Big Bad of season 5, my only real beef with this season is some of the stand alones weren't that great, and Spike got on my nerves at times. Other than that good season, great story, and decent acting.
 "BE BACK BEFORE DAWN...." December 3, 2009
JR (East Harlem)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This season could have easily gone south. Any time you introduce a new character like Dawn you must be very careful that the entire Buffy matrix doesn't end up on the wrong side of the universe. For Buffy fans we must accept what Buffy accepts because she thinks it has always been that way, she has a sister named Dawn. Suprisingly however, the season actually begins with all things, Buffy meeting Dracula! Overall this is a powerful season, and one that Joss Whedon has called probably close to his best. Why? How? easy. He was under the belief that Buffy would not be renewed for season 6, and he wanted to put it all out there and give Buffy a royal send off--and that he did. With the intro of a terrific baddy like Glory which mercifully makes us forget about a rather luke warm villain like Adam from season 4. This is also the season, which really started as far back as one, and picked up steam in season 4, of Willow becoming more powerful and dangerous, albiet more subtley before it explodes in season 6. It is also the season where Buffy is starting to creep closer to playing with forces that down the line will unleash the first. Study the episodes about the first slayer that she encounters very carefully for clues, also anything involving Willow playing with the mojo. Episodes you cannot and will not want to miss "The Body" I dare you to find a more chilling portrait on television of a daugther losing a parent. It will leave you breathless and make you think deeply about our mortality. And of course, the "The Gift" A perfect ending for a terrific season. A more beautiful way to end the possible end of a series, I think not. Other things to watch, Spike's growing obession with Buffy, and Tara. Her character development this season is crucial to the axis of season 6, the season that almost never was. It is, and was a special season. Thank you Joss.
Season 5, Episode 1: Buffy vs. Dracula
Original Air Date--26 September 2000
While chasing a vampire in a cemetery, Buffy meets Dracula, who has come to Sunntdale to meet her. Buffy feels proud with the revelation of the greatest vampire in the world. Meanwhile, Giles secretly tells Willow that he will return to England since Buffy does not need his service of watcher anymore. Dracula turns Xander into his slave, and during the night, he visits Buffy, bites and put her under his thrall. Buffy hides the bite with a scarf and becomes powerless and seduced by the dark prince, who promises to disclose to her the darkness of her powers and increase them.
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Season 5, Episode 2: Real Me
Original Air Date--3 October 2000
After meeting Dracula, Buffy commits with Giles to be her watcher and help her to find the origin of her powers. Joyce Summers asks Buffy to look after her sister Dawn, who feels shadowed being the little sister of a famous slayer and an outsider of her group. They go with Giles, Tara and Willow to Mr. Bogarty's Magic Box store and Willow stumbles in his dead body. They realize that a gang of vampires have killed the man. Sooner they find that Harmony has formed a group of vampire minions with the intention of destroying Buffy. When Dawn invites Harmony to get in her house, the upset Buffy decides to chase Harmony and her vampires.
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Season 5, Episode 3: The Replacement
Original Air Date--10 October 2000
Xander is not satisfied living in the basement of his parent's house and is looking for an apartment of his own to live with Anya. Meanwhile, a demon called Toth chases Buffy at the Magic Box, and his smell guides Giles to the city dump. When Buffy and the Scoobies see Toth in the garbage landfill, he uses a rod device called Ferrula-Gemina blasting a ray against Buffy but hitting Xander instead. Toth vanishes and the group leaves the place with a confident Xander. Later the insecure Xander awakes in a pile of trash, follows his double and meets Willow to tell about his clone. Giles finds that the ray discloses one person into half, distilling personality traits into two separate bodies. Further, if one part is destroyed, the other will die. While trying to find a mean to unite Xander, they have to face the evil Toth.
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Season 5, Episode 4: Out of My Mind
Original Air Date--17 October 2000
Joyce faints while at home, and while the gang is at the hospital, Dawn discovers that Riley's heartbeat is off the charts, but Riley ignores it. When Buffy enlists the Initiative's help, Riley gets angry and runs, and he eventually admits to Buffy that he's afraid they'll make him a normal guy, causing her to lose interest in him. She manages to get him to the Initiative doctor, only to find that Spike has forced the doctor to remove his chip...
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Season 5, Episode 5: No Place Like Home
Original Air Date--24 October 2000
A mysterious woman arrives in town looking for "The Key", and Buffy investigates a possible supernatural cause behind her mother's illness. She performs a ritual to see spells, and discovers something is not quite right about Dawn. Meanwhile, the gang helps Giles see through the re-opening of the magic shop, and Giles hires Anya to work for him.
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Season 5, Episode 6: Family
Original Air Date--7 November 2000
Buffy tells Giles the truth about Dawn and they decide to keep the secret about her origin. Buffy moves back home to stay together with her sick mother and Dawn. On the Eve of Tara's birthday, her big brother Donny, her father and her cousin visit her to bring her back home, since she would have a demon inside that would unleash in her twentieth anniversary. Meanwhile, The Beast forces Lei-Ach demons to chase and kill Buffy. Tara casts a spell to her friends to make demons invisible bringing trouble to her friends.
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Season 5, Episode 7: Fool for Love
Original Air Date--14 November 2000
While patrolling the cemetery, the self-confident Buffy fights against a vampire, is stabbed with her stake and saved by Riley. She tells the incident to Giles and decides to research how the previous Slayers were killed. She does not find any information in the watcher's journals and decides to seek the information from Spike. He tells that in 1880, in London, he was a bad poet and a shy good man in a non-corresponded love with Cecily. When he meets Drusilla, she bites and converts him in the evil vampire. Later, in the same year in Yorkshire, he meets Angel and Darla and is challenged to defeat a slayer. In 1900, in China, he is well-succeeded and kills his first slayer. In 1977, in the subway of New York City, he kills his second slayer. He advises Buffy that she must never be reckless and keep her death wish to survive.
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Season 5, Episode 8: Shadow
Original Air Date--21 November 2000
Joyce goes to the hospital for a CAT scan, the doctor finds a shadow and she is immediately submitted to a surgery. The doctor discloses that she has a low grade glioma (i.e. a brain tumor). Buffy wants to use magic to heal her mother, but Giles, Willow and Tara advise her that it would be of high risky for humans. Meanwhile, Glory goes to the Magic Box, and the naive Giles sells two powerful components for an ancient Sobekite spell. Anya discloses it later through the receipts, while Glory conjures a snake demon to track the Key. When the snake demon finds Dawn in the Magic Box, Buffy and Giles follow the demon trying to kill it before getting to Glory.
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Season 5, Episode 9: Listening to Fear
Original Air Date--28 November 2000
While Buffy and Dawn stay with Joyce in the hospital, Giles, Willow and Xander patrol the cemetery chasing vampires and Riley continues in his process of transformation in a vampire. Later, while watching the stars, Tara and Willow see a meteor crashing nearby Sunnydale. The Scooby group realizes that a demon called Queller has just landed on Earth. Joyce returns home since her surgery will occur only two days after, and the Queller arrives in the hospital attacking crazy people. Due to the compression of the tumor to her brain, Joyce acts strange having hallucinations, but she also sees the truth about Dawn and makes Buffy promise that she will take care of Dawn if she dies in the surgery. When the Queller arrives at Joyce's home chasing her, Buffy fights with it to save Joyce and Dawn.
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Season 5, Episode 10: Into the Woods
Original Air Date--19 December 2000
After the surgery of Joyce, the surgeon tells Buffy, Dawn, Riley, Giles, Willow and Xander that the procedure was successful and the brain tumor had been totally removed, and Joyce would stay in the hospital for observation. While Anya and Xander lodge Dawn, Buffy and Riley spend the night together in her house. However, the snoopy Spike sees Riley leaving Buffy's place in the night while stalking her, and finds that Riley is addicted in vampire bite in a junkie nest where people pay to be bitten by vampires. He discloses the truth to Buffy, and she breaks with Riley after and argument. When the Initiative invites Riley to go to an operation in Belize, he gives an ultimatum to Buffy about the future of their relationship.
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Season 5, Episode 11: Triangle
Original Air Date--9 January 2001
Giles travels to London for a watchers' meeting to discuss about Glory and leaves Anya in charge of the Magic Box. When Willow uses the supplies of the store to cast a spell to create a ball of sunshine to help Buffy to slay vampires, Anya argues with her and the distracted Willow releases a troll imprisoned in a parallel world. Olaf the troll destroys the store and goes to the Bronze to drink beer with the intention of eating babies. Meanwhile, the whimpering and needy Buffy is missing Riley and Willow and Anya chase Olaf. When they fight against the troll, Xander unsuccessfully tries to help his girlfriend and his best friend, and Olaf asks him to choose between Anya and Willow who might live.
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Season 5, Episode 12: Checkpoint
Original Air Date--23 January 2001
Giles informs Buffy and the Scooby gang that the Council of Watchers leaded by Quentin Travers will come to Sunnydale with information about Glory. When the arrogant team arrives, they blackmail Buffy and her friends, threatening Giles to send him back to England. Buffy and her friends accept to be submitted to the review leaded by Quentin. However, when Glory comes to Buffy's home and threatens her family and friends and Buffy is attacked by the Knights of Byzanthium, she changes her attitude in a matter of power.
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Season 5, Episode 13: Blood Ties
Original Air Date--6 February 2001
On the day of her twentieth birthday, Buffy tells the Scooby Gang that Dawn is The Key and they act in a suspicious way with Dawn. In the night, Dawn leaves the party and breaks into the Magic Box with Spike, seeking Giles's diary and finding the truth about her. Meanwhile, Glory destroys the Knights of Byzantium and somehow switches body's with Ben, fighting against Buffy and her friends. Willow uses a powerful teleportation spell to momentarily get rid of Glory.
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Season 5, Episode 14: Crush
Original Air Date--13 February 2001
While in the Bronze with Scooby Gang, Spike sees Buffy alone at a table and talks to her. However, Buffy sees Ben and stays with him. Meanwhile, a train arrives in Sunnydale with all the passengers dead. When Buffy sees that Dawn is hanging out with Spike, she asks if Dawn has a crush on Spike, and she tells that Spike is in love with her. When Spike confesses that he is in love with her, Buffy becomes nauseated, upset and rejects him. Meanwhile, Drusilla meets Spike, convinces him that the chip in his brain does not cause pain, and Spike is back.
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Season 5, Episode 15: I Was Made to Love You
Original Air Date--20 February 2001
Joyce is nervous and her anxiety is because she is going to date a man called Brian that she has recently met. Meanwhile, a strange and beautiful girl called April arrives in Sunnydale seeking her mysterious boyfriend Warren. Buffy and her friends are in a party, and when Spike flirts with April, she throws him through the window, and then hits Buffy. Buffy and the Scooby gang realize that April is a robot searching for her creator. Meanwhile Glory finds that Ben unsuccessfully tried to date Buffy.
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Season 5, Episode 16: The Body
Original Air Date--27 February 2001
Buffy sees Joyce lying on the couch, calls 911 and unsuccessfully follows emergency procedures. When the paramedics arrive, they realize that Joyce is dead. Buffy calls Giles and goes to the school to tell Dawn. Along the day, the Scooby gang grieves the death of Joyce and sympathizes with Buffy.
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Season 5, Episode 17: Forever
Original Air Date--17 April 2001
Buffy organizes the funeral services for Joyce without a wake, respecting her last will, and after the service she meets Angel, who has come to Sunnydale to support her. Meanwhile Dawn becomes obsessed in bringing her mother back. She steals infamous witchcraft books from Willow and from the Magic Box, and helped by Spike, they visit the demon Doc, an expert in black magic that teaches Dawn resurrection techniques. She steals a Ghora demon egg in the Hell Mouth with Spike for her black magic, and she interrupts her spell after a serious conversation with Buffy. Meanwhile Ben unintentionally discloses to Jinx that The Key is an innocent in a human form.
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Season 5, Episode 18: Intervention
Original Air Date--24 April 2001
Buffy is feeling that she is turning into stone, losing her ability to love and her humanity, and wants to take a break in her vampire slayer's duties. Giles persuades her to travel for a vision quest in a sacred place in the desert to bring her concentration back. Meanwhile, Spike gets the Buffy-robot from Warren and both the Scooby gang and Glory's minions believe that the robot is the real Buffy, and the minions assume that Spike is The Key. Buffy has a vision of the First Slayer, who tells her that death is her gift. Spike resists Glory's tortures and receives his reward in the end.
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Season 5, Episode 19: Tough Love
Original Air Date--1 May 2001
While Buffy tries to control a motherless Dawn and bring their lives back to some sort of normalcy, Tara and Willow get into their first major argument. Meanwhile, Glory thinks she has figured out who the Key is.
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Season 5, Episode 20: Spiral
Original Air Date--8 May 2001
Buffy realizes that she can never beat Glory, so she and the Scoobies leave Sunnydale in Spike's RV. Unfortuntely, the Knights of Byzantium are quickly on their tail, deciding that they must kill Dawn before Glory can get to her.
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Season 5, Episode 21: The Weight of the World
Original Air Date--15 May 2001
Despite the gang's best efforts, Glory has succeeded in taking Dawn. This failure after so much effort proves too much for Buffy and she slips into a catatonic state. Willow must use magic to enter her mind and help her work through the trauma before it is too late to save Dawn and the rest of the world from Glory.
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Season 5, Episode 22: The Gift
Original Air Date--22 May 2001
In the 100th episode, another imminent apocalypse is at hand in Sunnydale. Buffy must square off against a God when Glory prepares to use Dawn to break down the walls between the dimensions and unleash all Hell on Earth. Buffy and the gang go to battle, knowing that not all of them will survive.
 WHY???????????????????? October 23, 2009
jackbauerfan
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Season 5 of Buffy. The first truly awful season. And I mean awful. After I watch season 4, I asked a friend of mine, who had already seen the whole series, if I should even bother watching the last three seasons. She assured me that season 4 was just a small misstep, and that they pull it back together in this season. So I rented season 5 and started watching it with a renewed sense of optimism. When I finished the season, I had one thing to say. I'm surprised they were able to make two more seasons after this one. The plot, the characters, the villians, Dawn, everything in this season was just awful.
Okay, let me start at the beginning. The first episode, "Buffy vs Dracula, was not horrible. Dracula seemed sort of stupid when I first saw the episode. But once I realized who the main villian of this season was, I was begging for her to be removed, and for Dracula to come back. Compared to the rest of the season, this episode was okay. But at the end of this episode, we get introduced to Dawn. Uuugggghhhhhh. I could not stand her. At first, I actually thought they were just going to pretend she had been there the whole time. I'm serious. I thought they were were overwriting the previous seasons and saying that Buffy had always had a younger sister. But when they explained how Dawn had gotten there, I was overjoyed. I thought she would be gone sometime soon, since her character was so annoying. Instead, they decided to keep her on for the rest of the series. Despite the fans abject hatred towards this character, the writers kept her on for the last three seasons of the show. WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU GUYS?????? Dawn has got to be one of the most pointless, brattiest, annoying characters in fiction. Now I know Dawn is sort of supposed to be annoying. But they didn't do it right. She should have been annoying to the rest of the characters, but not to the audience. Look at Spike in season 4, when he first got the chip put in his head. The rest of the cast couldn't stand him. But we loved him. We loved every moment of screen time he had. Neither the audience, nor the rest of the characters could stand her. She served no purpose other than to make our lives miserable.
I didn't care for most of the other characters in this season. Now I don't know about you guys but, as far as I'm concerned, the characters get less and less likeable after season 3. I mean it. Willow turning gay, Xander basically becoming a deadbeat, Buffy turning 20 and still acting like she's 16, they all went downhill. The only exception was Giles. I actually started to like him more in the later seasons. It's too bad he stopped being a regular character after this season. The rest of the characters are also pretty bad in this season. Anya is annoying as always, Tara is as bland as always (although we do get a little background on what kind of family she came from), and Riley is even kind of whiney in this season. He did a few things in this season that didn't really make sense. I still don't hate him as much as most fans, though. I was a little sad to see him go. (They remove him when fans hated him, why didn't they do the same to Dawn?)
The plot of this seas was terrible. Basically, this Goddess named Glory, also called the Beast, wants to get out of our dimension and back into her heaven dimension. She needs "the key" to open the doorway to her dimension. But as she opens the door, more doors to other dimensions will be opened. All kinds of creatures from all kinds of dimensions will be let into our dimension. The world as we know it will be destroyed. This is a decent conflict, but there's just one problem. It's not enough to take up a whole season. It would have been a good plot for an episode, or maybe even a two-part episode. They milked a whole season out of this plot. And they did the same with Glory. She has got to be one of the worst villians ever. She comes in on the season's fifth episode, "No Place Like Home," and she's there for therest of the season. Again, she is not an interesting enough villian to carry a season. I mean, imagine if Drusilla had been the main villian of season 2, and the whole season had consisted of her trying to open Acathla. That would have gotten real old real fast. Which is exactly what happened here. This is the first season of Buffy that didn't really have an episodic feel to it. As we got further into the season, the episodes kept ending on cliffhangers. It was like watching a season of "24". Now don't get me wrong, 24 is a great show, in fact it's my favorite show. But that kind of thing just didn't feel right for this series. I can't really explain it. In the earlier seasons of Buffy, they were able to, every once in a while, break off from the over-arching plot and put in an episode that dealt with something else. And that was nice. I really missed that about these later seasons of Buffy. Especially when the plot was as lame as this.
Now I loved the final episode. It was amazing. It was my second-favorite season finale in this series. For a while, Joss Whedon was considering ending the series right here. If he had, it would have been one of the best series finales of all time. Because the actual series finale was a pile of crap. Buffy and her friends prepare for the apocalypse which seems to come about every May. I love how they joke about that. Anyway, a huge battle ensues. Buffy finally defeats Glory, and then runs off to save Dawn. Giles then kills Glory by smothering Ben. Oh yeah, Glory has a brothernamed Ben, who his sometimes him and sometimes her. For some reason. Despite this retarded plot device, it was cool to see another glimpse of Giles' dark side. Unfortunately, this is the last time we ever see it. Buffy realizes that "death is her gift", and she sacrifices herself to save Dawn and the rest of the world. The season ends with a shot of a gravestone which reads: Buffy Summers. Beloved Sister. Devoted Friend. She Saved the World. A Lot.
To recap, this was the worst episode of Buffy so far. The plot, the characters, and just about everything else was terrible. But this is actually not my least favorite season of Buffy. The saving grace is the season finale, one of the best episodes of television, in my opinion. Oh yeah, and Buffy's mom finally dies.
And that is what I think about that.
The Best Season Buffy October 4, 2009
S. A. Faulding
I bought this season because the first one wore out. Joss Whedeon gives a hint about Dawn two full seasons in advance. great storytelling.
For every slim set collector October 3, 2009
Angelus (Croatia, Europe)
If you're a fan of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, than this item is for you... For everyone who wants to collect the series in slim sets, I recommend this... There are 3 slim DVD cases, each with 2 DVDs.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 380
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