strange, the reviewer seems alittle displeased with the set yet gives it a 9? Anyway good review, gives some depth and piece of mind on what it has to offer. Cant wait for mine!

BD | December 03, 15:47 CET

I'm pretty torn. I have two sets of the original, so shelling out for just this would be a bit over the top. Maybe if they put the "Previously" segment back in and had a few more goodies ...

Ocular | December 03, 18:00 CET

Is there any news concerning a R2 release of this set?

I planned in buying it, one of the reason being to spare space on my shelf; since I would then donate my complete collection to some friends, this would not be "spoiled" money (but the occasion to make a present). But I don't want to try and dezone my DVD player just for that, so I am waiting for words of a R2 release...

[ edited by Le Comité on 2005-12-03 16:03 ]

Le Comité | December 03, 18:03 CET

Of course, there's the token SMG comment from the reviewer - only this time he includes most of the cast! ;)

Knuckleball | December 03, 19:07 CET

Is there any news concerning a R2 release of this set?

There has already been a full series release on R2, the only difference being it doesn't have the disc of extras.

Grounded | December 03, 19:54 CET

Is evryone assuming SMG was asked to participate in this and declined, or is it possible that, based on her previous non-participation, no one thought it was worth the effort to ask her?

jaynelovesvera | December 03, 19:59 CET

I'm happy with it, since I can now gift my existing separate sets to a young relative who will appreciate them, but who's not quite ready for the darkness of season 6. I got the "Chosen" set at a pre-order discount. And, as noted, I save shelf-space. So it's a win all-round for me.

Maeve | December 03, 20:02 CET

I don't know about the SMG thing, but it seems every reviewer has a snide remark about the bigger actors not appearing. (SMG, Alyson, James, Tony Head, etc.) With the exception of Gellar, aren't they featured on the original sets or did I dream that?

spikeylover | December 03, 20:03 CET

I disagree with the reviewer about the roundtable discussion on the bonus features disc. I got this set for about $100, and I only had 2 other seasons so far, so I wouldn't feel it was wasted money anyway. But that discussion was almost an hour long. And how is Xander not a main character? I think having Nicholas Brendon, Emma Caulfield and Charisma Carpenter there was quite main-person enough for me. Is there a fan out there who truly expects SMG at this point? And that's no dig at SMG, some actors are comfortable doing that sort of thing and some aren't. Plus, she seems to be working pretty regularly in movies now. But back to the discussion thing-- honestly, slow-paced? I didn't get that. I finished it & said, literally, aloud, "Well, that was worth the $100 right there." Of course, I am a crazy fangirl. (And now totally in love with Drew Goddard.)

kalia | December 03, 20:28 CET

To me, the main stars ARE on that disc... Joss, Marti, David, Doug, Drew, and Jane. The cast members are just gravy. (Oh, clichés...)

Knuckleball | December 03, 20:43 CET

Starhawk, unless I was drunk, weren't James and Aly there, too?

Spike, while not an original Scooby, is clearly one of the Buffyverse's most popular characters. And who doesn't love Willow!

My wife and I totally loved the roundtable.

Chris inVirginia | December 03, 20:44 CET

ChrisinVirginia -- James & Aly were at the Academy of TV roundtable on the Season 6 DVD extras, also almost an hour long. Since I hadn't seen Season 6 on DVD before, I had that same reaction at first -- wait, weren't Nicky & Aly both there? Hello? Oh, wait.... ;) That Season 6 roundtable was excellent: James, Michelle, Nicholas Brendon, Aly, Joss, Marti, Carey Meyer and ... shoot, forgot the other guy's name. Bad starhawk, bad. The JJ Abrams' shows usually have the TV Academy roundtables on them as well -- about 10 minutes' worth. That's why I love me some Joss. (Well, one minor reason.)

kalia | December 03, 21:04 CET

So-so review be damned...I still want that frigging bonus disc...

UnpluggedCrazy | December 03, 21:10 CET

I want that bonus disk so I can fall in love with Drew Goddard too!

electricspacegirl | December 04, 00:01 CET

Sarah Michelle Gellar never attended a convention for Buffy and she never did commentaries and its known that Joss felt that she had put herself at a star level above the rest. There are hints of it in many places. And although she did her job and never participated in the fandom that made her famous, I don't hate her. She was Buffy. She was that damn good at it. I'm sure as hell buying this 40 disc set...its the Region 1 ultimate collection. And if in several years the ULTIMATE ULTIMATE ULTIMATE Collection comes out.......I'll buy that too. Buffy is Joss's greatest work.

ChosenOne5376 | December 04, 00:04 CET

Enough already with the extremely tired comments about Sarah Michelle Gellar. This has been done to death here and elsewhere. And the reviewer's singling her out for criticism is unwarranted, and more than a little petty, considering he admits many other stars also didn't participate in that roundtable.

The bonus disc is terrific, even without the participation of SMG, and Aly, Tony, David, James, Michelle, Seth, et al. And the Chosen collection is well worth it if you have the money and there are potentially grateful recipients of your current BtVS DVD collection. As Joss says in his intro to the set, "it'll whisper to you in your sleep."

SoddingNancyTribe | December 04, 00:38 CET

SNT, for that first paragraph, thank you for hopefully bringing an end to that topic before we had to suffer yet another pointless thread of the same old accusations and assumptions directed at Sarah. As a longtime fan of both SMG and the show as a whole, it was much appreciated.

WhedonTrivia | December 04, 01:16 CET

Yes, I know, Grounded; I have seen these sets in stores here. And I nearly bought one... until I realized these were "39 discs" sets, not "40 discs" sets.

If I buy a complete series now, it is not only to save place or make a present to friends; I am also interested in the additional disc. Hence my question concerning the release of this particular set in R2: any word on such a thing?

Le Comité | December 04, 01:50 CET

SNT, while I do not wish to defy your understandable request, I do not believe we should allow the continued failure of Mr Gordo to participate in any of the DVD extras to remain unspoken any longer...

alien lanes | December 04, 02:19 CET

And Clem! Where the hell is Clem!!!???

Chris inVirginia | December 04, 02:54 CET

Le Comité: Now I understand :) I don't expect a 2nd R2 release will come along any time soon though.

Grounded | December 04, 04:00 CET

I thought it was worth it. I owned 4 seasons of the Large style and 3 seasons of the small style (Australian releases) so i sold them on Ebay for $240 and bought the American 40 Disc Collection for just $180.

The Roundtable was pretty good, it includes Joss, Marti, Drew, David, Doug, Jane, Charisma, Emma, Danny and Nicholas and runs for 54 mins.
Each of the other 5 featurettes run from 7-13 minutes from memory and there is also a 40 second intro from Joss.

You also get a Signed Letter from Joss, a Booklet of Episode Summaries for every episode as well as a Top 12 Episodes as chosen by Joss (from ones he didnt make). And you get the Nice Box which is nice and compact and uniform.
Note the image has changed from what was originally shown. The Seasons form an image of Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, Cordy, Spike, Angel and Oz with other images on the sides aswell which also include Dawn, Anya, Tara and Faith from memory.

So for me it was worth it, as it cost less then buying the whole series in 1 style, it cost less than buying the 39 Disc Aussie collection which cost $290 and doesnt look as good due to different style box and rating symbol, and i made my money back from what i originally paid for the seasons i already owned.

I think the problem is the Extras have the same style as all the other extras on the Buffy/Angel releases. ie: Not that good compared to some other featurettes out there on DVD, but for TV it ranks quite high in quality.

tullyano7 | December 04, 11:39 CET

Apropos of very little (and I wondered about mentioning it because it's nothng to do with Buffy, and thus by default probably unrelated to whatever situation the alumni were in) but there's an interesting post from JMS of Babylon 5 fame about DVD commentaries here. It gives another perspective to the affair - but, again, I cannot say loudly enough that I have no idea if this was the case here - I provide it only for informationality.

giles (yes, it is my real name) | December 04, 12:29 CET

Interesting post from JMS, indeed. Somebody once said that, by the end of the fourth season of Babylon 5, they would have paid to listen to Andreas Katsulas (G'Kar, for those who haven't had the pleasure of Babylon 5 yet) just reading from the phonebook. You would think, therefore, that he would at least deserve to get paid for doing a commentary for a DVD, given the fact that he was a large part of why the show was so damn popular.

WhedonTrivia | December 04, 14:38 CET

Giles, that's some good informationality there.

JMS is right of course, actors deserve to get paid for appearing on extras on the DVD's, specifically when the extras are a large part of the selling point.
The fans though, I believe they are willing to appear for free.

jpr | December 04, 16:31 CET

I agee - I always assumed people got paid a small amount for doing commentaries. I figured it wasn't like regular pay but just a little something for their time.

Passion | December 04, 16:59 CET

I think people do in general get 'regular pay' for commentaries. After all, why shouldn't they?

mjwilson | December 04, 19:18 CET

...because companies in the entertainment field don't pay people unless they have too?

newcj | December 05, 01:16 CET

I'd be *very* surprised if actors don't at least get minimum daily wages (around $800/day currently, I think?) for doing commentaries. The unions are pretty strict about things like that, and don't allow their members to do any work – including voiceovers, commentaries, etc – for free. But if they're involved in other projects – as most of them are right now – that's not much of an incentive.

acp | December 05, 18:29 CET