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SEASON 5 DVD EXTRAS

Note that extras tied to specific episodes are reviewed with those episodes.

Disc 3

Buffy Abroad Featurette discussed the fact that there are Buffy fans in many different nations and that it is probably more popular in Europe than in the United States. The phrase "like a rock star" appeared several times when describing how people in Europe regard some of the actors. We saw scenes dubbed into a few languages, such as Japanese, Spanish, and French. It included interviews with Jane Espenson, Joss Whedon, David Solomon, James Marsters, Douglas Petrie, Amber Benson, Nicholas Brendon, and Anthony Steward Head. There were no spoilers and all scenes were from "The Freshman" in the fourth season. In fact, I suspect that this might have been intended as a featurette on the season four DVD. I even noticed that Amber Benson was wearing the same outfit she wore in the "Season 4 Overview."

Casting Buffy Featurette discussed how Sarah Michelle Gellar, Anthony Steward Head, Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, Kristine Sutherland, David Boreanaz, James Marsters, Amber Benson, Emma Caulfield, and Michelle Trachtenberg got their roles. The main criteria were acting ability, intelligence, and look. There were interviews with Marcia Shulman, David Solomon, Kristine Sutherland, James Marsters, and Joss Whedon. There were spoilers through the end of the fifth season. We learn the following about specific casting decisions:

Demonology—A Slayer's Guide Featurette was hosted by Danny Strong, who claimed to be a "licensed demonologist" as well as a famous actor who played a vampire slayer on the show (with clips from "Superstar"). It was obvious that he had a very difficult time keeping a straight face, and this featurette was lighter and more fun than most. There were interviews with Joss Whedon, David Solomon, John Vulich, Jane Espenson, Marti Noxon, Anthony Steward Head, and Rebecca Rand Kirshner. There were spoilers through episode 17 of the fifth season. Categories of demons included:

  1. "Dead Things That Aren't Really Dead Until Buffy Makes Them Dead" Demons—such as zombies and Adam. We learn that Joss Whedon was a bit disappointed with Adam because he had cerebral connections with others rather than emotional ones.
  2. "Oh, God, Does Someone Know a Good Dermatologist?" Demons—such as Toth. Espenson liked the name because it allowed her to get a joke in. Vulich talked about using black light effects.
  3. "I Bet You Thought I was Human When in Actuality I'm this Really Pissed Off, Hideous..." Demon—such as Doc and the fyarl demon. Noxon liked the fact that Joel Grey could play both friendly and malevolent.
  4. "You Summoned Me, So as Long as I'm Here, I Might as Well Rampage and Kill" Demons—such as the queller demon, Olaf the Troll, and the snake from "Shadow." Originally, the queller demon was supposed to be like a spider. Whedon liked the CGI version of the snake better than the live version.
  5. "I'm so Hideously Deformed That I Couldn't Possibly Be Played by a Man in a Rubber Suit!" Demons—such as the ghora demon. Vulich thought that the ghora demon would have been better as CGI rather than as a puppet. Marti Noxon talked about challenges in directing it when it could not move forward or backward.

Action Heroes! The Stunts of Buffy Featurette discussed the stunts on the show. There were interviews with David Solomon, John Medlen, James Marsters, Marc Blucas, Melissa Barker, Wendi Bromley, Steve Tartalia, Joss Whedon, and David Fury. We learn that during the shot of Spike landing on a pile of bricks in "The Gift," a brick hit the stunt double in a special, very painful spot. There were spoilers through the end of the fifth season.

Outtakes was a basic gag reel for the third season that was attached to the fifth season DVD for some reason. Most of the outtakes were with Nicholas Brendon, Seth Green, Eliza Dushku, and Charisma Carpenter. There were also outtakes with Alexis Denisof, Anthony Stewart Head, Harry Groener, and a few guest actors. I guess that Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, and David Boreanaz never flubbed any of their scenes.

Disc 6

The Story of Season 5 Featurette started as a discussion various episodes but evolved into a discussion of plotlines. It included interviews with Marti Noxon, David Fury, Jane Espenson, Nicholas Brendon, Marc Blucas, Rebecca Rand Kirshner, James Marsters, Joss Whedon, David Solomon, Kristine Sutherland, Douglas Petrie, Clare Kramer, Charlie Weber, Steven S. DeKnight, and Adam Busch. It talked about how the theme of family was central to the fifth season and that Joss Whedon considered Dawn to be Buffy's main love interest of the season. There were spoilers through the end of the fifth season and it mentioned a plotline from the sixth season.

Natural Causes Featurette discussed "The Body." There are interviews with David Fury, Joss Whedon, Kristine Sutherland, Jane Espenson, David Solomon, Marti Noxon, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Douglas Petrie. It mostly involved people talking about how good the episode was and contains little that one could not get from the commentary. There were spoilers through "The Body" and "Forever."

Spotlight on Dawn Featurette contained interviews with David Fury, Joss Whedon, Michelle Trachtenberg, Kristine Sutherland, James Marsters, Douglas Petrie, and Marti Noxon. The featurette focused on "Real Me" but also covered later plotlines. There were spoilers through the fifth season.

Still Gallery contained 28 stills from the fifth season. Most were of pairs of characters or were group shots.

Buffy Video Game Trailer was a short view of scenes from the Chaos Bleeds video game.

DVD-ROM Buffy Demon Guide did not work in my computer even though it was running Windows XP, which was much higher than the version of Windows that meets the minimal requirements.

This page was last modified on December 1, 2012