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

‘Dollhouse’ was, in case you are part of the vast majority of the population that it entirely passed by, a short lived US TV show.

Joss Whedon’s new show finally makes its debut…

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…

A hugely clever and enjoyable spin-off from Joss Whedon’s splendid, but swiftly cancelled, SF Western TV show ‘Firefly’, the movie ‘Serenity’ succeeds in reuniting all of the regular cast and tying up plotlines from the series’ 15 episodes.

If 2004 was, as we said at the time, the year of late arrivals and revivals, 2005 was a year of completing, and contrasting, circles.

The very existence of Serenity is a minor miracle of consumer tastes over network whim of the kind not seen since ‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ emerged ever-so-slowly into cinemas a quarter of a century ago.

‘Serenity’ is Joss Whedon’s long awaited first film. For all his script work on others, this is his feature directorial debut. And it shows…

I’m not one of the those people who derides ’spandex’. I love The Flash. I love Golden Age heroes. I have no difficulty looking at pages of people wearing big collars and capes. This, however, I have a problem with.

I’m not sure what Marvel promise the big writers to take up the core X-Men team, but whatever it is, it’s worth it…

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…

Films in the series: 4.

Discs in this box set: 9.

Weeks late this review is: 2.

The last of the three UK premiere ‘Firefly’ episodes ‘Heart of Gold’ is another strong installment from a promising, involving series that deserved vastly better treatment at the hands of its parent Network than it got.

The second of these three world premiere episodes of ‘Firefly’ comes with the full weight of it’s creative team behind it, being co-written by Executive Producers Joss Whedon and Tim Minear…

The UK’s Sci-Fi Channel has a bit of a coup here – three episodes of Joss Whedon’s sadly cancelled ‘Firefly’, world premiering in Britain while the Americans have to do without…

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.

So it takes the UK premiere of an episode written and directed by creator/hero/the don Joss Whedon to get shiny shelf back into the Angel reviewing saddle, eh? Damn straight it does.

The third season of ‘Angel’ is perfectly suited to being available in a lovely DVD slipcase…

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?