Ten very special potential gifts from the wild world of unauthorised fan craft items.

I’m finding it hard to get quite as worked up about the Joss-free ‘Buffy’ remake as many fans of the series are.

As long time readers of this site will no doubt remember, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ was one of Shiny Shelf’s favourite TV shows. Now it’s back – albeit as a comic rather than a TV show…

Lots of discs from the last month or so: ‘X-Files’ season eight, the complete ‘Firefly’, ‘Roswell’ season one, ‘Buffy’ season seven…

A huge stack of Whedon came out on DVD last week. There’s ‘Angel’ season four, a ‘Buffy’ greatest hits, and a selection of character-themed discs…

I haven’t picked up a ‘Buffy’ comic in a while, not since losing patience with Andi Watson’s tedious run, but this anthology bears the Mark of Joss and hence has caught my attention…

Despite the fact that across these episodes we have six writers and five directors there’s little really to distinguish them from one another, and in truth they form one four hour (ish) narrative, a culmination of the series as a whole.

It says a lot that the worst season of ‘Buffy’ contains episodes most other shows would kill for, and contains one absolute, no-kidding, instant TV classic…

I may have squealed when I found this in my bag of comics last week, it’s several months since I gave up asking when ‘Fray’ #7 would appear…

Reacted to with puzzlement by some of the more hardcore of hardcore ‘Buffy’ fans this mass-market edition of one of the series most marketable, and very best, episodes is an obvious, and very welcome, DVD release.

‘Lies My Parents Told Me’ is one of those episodes of ‘Buffy’ where all the separate plot strands pull in the same thematic direction.

We’re reaching that point that all latter day seasons of ‘Bufy’ reach, that moment where the episodes are blurring into one, becoming indistinct.

Doug Petrie writes and directs this week, and turns in a textured and interesting contribution to what we now know will be the final series of ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’.

We get not one first date but two in this week’s ‘Buffy’ episode.

‘Buffy’ continues its upwards quality curve with this episode, which both pushes the ongoing plot forwards and retains its own distinct identity.

Things move up a gear in this, a Buffy episode which by its ending is every bit as grim as its title suggests.

With these two episodes ‘Buffy’ begins to climb out of the hole it has been digging itself in recent weeks and deliver on the promise of the themes and ideas of what is almost certainly its final year.

…on the other hand, why don’t you just take it away again?

As my esteemed colleague Mr Clapham noted last week it’s traditional for the last episode of ‘Buffy’ before the Christmas break to offer its audience some sense of closure. Not this year.

No, Willow does not attempt to raise the career of Louise Wener from the dead in this episode. Some things are beyond even her power.

Big things are afoot in Sunnydale, someone’s playing a sick and complex game and it’s not going to end nicely. Remember, from beneath you it devours.

It’s first love – well, first infatuation – for Dawnie this week as a charismatic Jock catches her eye. But what’s his secret, eh? Yeah, like we don’t know before the opening credits.

The summer is over, the telly is back – and so is the Slayer with a real doozy of an opener for a series now in its (gulp) seventh glorious year.

After a barnstorming season opener ‘Buffy’ refuses to settle down into simplicity or predictability during these four episodes.

For little Annie, Tomorrow was only a day away. For Angel fans, it means the torment of six months waiting for a resolution to a huge cliffhanger. It really is a hard knock life…

Rules of vampire related drama no #347, enacted October 2000: after any pivotal and dramatic storyline in the series ‘Angel’ there
must, by law, be a requisite 2-3 nonsensical filler episodes…

Imagine what Nick Hornby’s novels would be like if all that musing on the relationships between fathers and sons were spiced up with a little demon thrashing action…

Praise be – the sacred Angel story arc has returned to us from on-high to save us from any more stupid filler episodes! OK, so the episode is one long chase sequence, but at least we’re moving now…

Buffy season finales are traditionally pyrotechnic affairs, with confrontations and explosions both emotional and literal providing a spectacular mix of entertainment and catharsis.

‘Buffy’ moved up a gear this week, with a few surprises wrapped up in what could (in lesser hands) have been an utterly predictable episode, what’s more after six seasons, they’ve finally found a look for Willow that does something for me. Nice

Viewers should note that at the end of this episode something pivotal happens – I won’t reveal what, but I say this as an indicator that, yes, there is a reason to sit through a load of old nonsense about thirsty ghost insects…

The fourth season of ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ was something of a new start for the series. Gone were two of the series initial main characters, gone too was the setting of Sunnydale High.

Villains is a Buffy episode I have issues with. Not big issues. Not life-changing, life-threatening, arguing-about-the-important-things-in-life issues. Story issues.

Angel’s back – and, even better, he’s back on form.

Cordelia’s visions have been causing her increasing grief since late in season two, sapping her of her youthful enthusiasm and damaging her health…

There have been many fake or temporary character deaths in the history of fiction, and there have been many inadvisable resurrections too…

Buffy’s back. Back from the dead, back in the Scooby house, back with the slaying. But has she brought something back with her?

There’s a demon robbing banks, three previously innocuous geeks have banded together to take over Sunnydale, the debts are building up, and the cellar is flooded…

Crikey, its been a while since ‘Angel’ has been this grim. ‘That Old Gang of Mine’ is pretty short of laughs, a fairly brutal story concerning vigilantism and loyalty which gives Gunn a rare mome

‘Life Serial’ is less a coherent story, and more of a ‘Buffy’ sketch-show. The newly-broke Buff tries to find a place for herself in the world at university, then working on a building site and i

Surprisingly for a show with such frequently dark subject matter, ‘Angel’ has always had a sense of humour about its own immense silliness. Lovers of farce will appreciate this take on that age old

A clever one this; with the title having three meanings, firstly, there’s the potential of little Dawnie going (ahem) ‘all the way’ with her smarmy potential boyfriend.

Musicals are becoming the format-breaker of choice on US TV these days. ‘Ally McBeal’ did one, ‘Chicago Hope’ did one – hell, ‘Xena’ did two. But trust writer-director-producer-genius Joss Whe

Welcome to the world’s shortest story arc! Remember that guy Angel pulled out of hell in ‘That Vision Thing’? Well, turns out he wasn’t being lined up for a major storyline, but for this excitin

Of the straight (that is to say, non-singing) episodes of Buffy featured in the first half of seasons six this is arguably the best. The central conceit – the gang all lose their memories – is simple,

Big explosions, big plot developments, and lots of scenes taking place in the rain…

This unashamedly double length story in two halves suffers from something that was once thought to be the eternal plague of the double-episode on US TV. That is to say, the two-parter which begins we

Still wondering why Warren, Jonathan and Andrew were stealing that big diamond in ‘Smashed’? Wonder no longer, as Warren assembles his best invention yet – an invisibility ray. The trio accidental

In this episode, Buffy gets a job in McDonalds (or the Sunnydale equivalent).

Every great American TV must do its take on Frank Capra’s ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ sooner or later. It’s the law. In fact, given the fidelity with which this particular rule is stuck to, it’s probably