'Buffy: Inside The Music' featurette* [*See review below*]
Interview with 'Dark Angel' star Jessica Alba
Season 1 overview for 'Angel'
'Buffy The Vampire Slayer' Seasons 1-6 trailers
'Angel' Seasons 1-3 trailers
'Dark Angel' Season 1 trailer
Interactive menu
Scene access
During a visit to the graveyard, Buffy is struck by the urge to sing. Not only that, but so is everyone else. Revisit, then, on DVD, the single stand-out episode of Buffy's sixth season, which engaged not only in song and dance routines, but also an attempt to draw together the emotions and relationships of the characters thus far. Presented in widescreen, with its glowing orangy colours (trademarked from the previous season) and annoyingly catchy tunes, it is easy to see how it stands as a high-point for the season. However...
Bluntinstrument avoids typical reviewing of items when the sites worked on are already given direction and viewpoint. Non-fans of Chris Beck need to go elsewhere. In the case of this DVD, however, an exception need to be made. It may have been noticed by purchasers of this item—released recently on Region 2, thereby pushing the date of the Season 6 boxset back a month—that there is a special feature in the form of a featurette focusing on the music of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. For Beck fans this might be a great selling point since it includes interview excerpts with the composer as well as some comments (mostly by the producers) as to the use of unsigned bands. As it happens, though, this feature is lifted from the Season 4 boxset, which is most obvious because interviews and episode clips are entirely from the fourth season, making no mention whatsoever of the season 6 episode on the current disc. Furthermore, should a prospective buyer be planning to purchase the season 6 boxset, Bluntinstrument advises against this single-disc release, since not only is the cost of the DVD for a single episode prohibitive, it also omits features directed at this episode which are to appear in the boxset, namely a director's commentary (Joss Whedon no less) and a behind-the-scenes featurette—not to mention a Karaoke sing-a-longs for some of the songs. The 'Once more with feeling' single disc release is therefore only a realistic option for anyone who found the rest of the season a waste of time; oddly enough although the distributor may be making some money through double sales (single disc then boxset), the strength of 'Once more' as a stand-out episode in an otherwise dispirited season could impact on boxset sales for this very reason.
Other notes: All other features are negligible; this is the 48 minute cut of the episode; shown in widescreen (1.78:1); 2.0 stereo/surround; subtitltes are included on the main feature; rated a "12" by the BBFC; the original NTSC broadcast of the show clocked in at 51 minutes (8 minutes longer than normally scheduled), but while this DVD release is 48 minutes, perhaps some time is lost due to the PAL/NTSC ratio. Bluntinstrument would be interested to know what if anything was cut for this release, since subsequent broadcasts were seen to attempt to cut the extra 8 minutes and only the first US broadcast seems definitive.