Well, it wasn't as bad as "Gone"

The way I look at it, every episode up to and including "Never Leave Me" was excellent. Loved em all. "Bring on the Night" had it's really good (I do love my Drusilla) and really bad ("I'm afraid there may be some internal bleeding" which made me cringe). I blame the bad on Marti. I attribute the good to Doug Petrie cuz I usually like his stuff. "Showtime" was ok; it seemed like a review of "Bring on the Night," but without the great Petrie stuff. I haven't been that thrilled with David Fury lately anyway. I think the mistake that was made was having Buffy fight the Ubervamp and her getting demolished in "Night." She was too assured in "Showtime" and the fight would have been more exciting and the outcome believable if she wasn't pummeled in the previous ep. That was my biggest problem. Second biggest problem were the stupid SiT's, except for Kennedy, who's probably going to die at some point, unfortunately. Bad accents, bad acting, just a waste of time when I would rather see more Willow, Anya, Giles (or pseudo-Giles), Xander and Dawn. I think what's really keeping me going is the lack of spoilers. At this point last year, I had just seen "Gone" (another Fury ep, I think), and there didn't seem to be that much to look forward to. Now, I think there's tons to look forward to: Faith, perhaps another Drew Goddard ep, an explanation of Giles, maybe an ep or two by Joss (or maybe that's just wishful thinking). I don't know what the deal is with Andrew. I mean, I wouldn't go so far as to say that I like him (after all he killed my buddy Jonathan), but he's certainly better than he was last year. His geek jokes do make me laugh, but why keep such a one-note character around? I can't seriously believe that they think he's a threat to them. There's gotta be a reason, hopefully we'll find out soon. If not, they (as in ME, not the Scoobies) really should just kill him. As for the speeches....hmmmmm. I did like the speech in "Checkpoint." It had me smiling and cheering. But I don't think that Buffy really is a speech-maker. Why couldn't she have just come downstairs (internal bleeding and all) and said "Listen you idiots: we have no choice, we have to fight, they'll be no whining. If we die, we die. There's nothing else we can do."? That would have done the same thing. I think that it does have to do with SMG's acting though. I used to think that she was great. This season has really made me question why they would even want her around if they continued next season. They only scenes where she seems remotely interested in acting are the scenes with Spike. And let me get on my soapbox now and say that I hate, hate, HATE anything resembling a romantic relationship this year. The flirtation between Will and Kennedy is cute, and I can deal with that, but I am so incredibly tired of Buffy loves Spike. God, I watched "Lover's Walk" yesterday and I remembered why I once loved the character of Spike. It is so damn unfortunate that he is so popular with the ladies. I think James Marsters is a phenomenal actor, but does half of the season have to be full of topless Spike? Hasn't anyone in Sunnydale learned by now that these romances just make you weaker? They're fighting the First Evil. Shouldn't they be more concerned with fighting? Ugh, I just wish that Spike would sacrifice himself to save Buffy so we would be done with it all.