Havasimy

For a couple years now, I've always considered the "creation" of little sister Dawn on Buffy as the point the show "jumped the shark". Now that I've been watching the season four dvd, the introduction of the Initiative and the government in general was, if not jumping the shark, then at least the point where the tone of the series changed. It was more pessimistic and dark. I believe the show jumped the shark there, but there was still a possibility to recover. The introduction of Dawn, however, was a point from which there was no real chance for recovering. It caused the show to center around the home instead of around a school and it just changed the whole direction of the show to a more straight-forward drama. Plus Dawn was just a whiny annoying character.

An interesting tidbit that I've never heard anyone point out is that for two straight seasons, a major Buffy enemy was played by an actress who was in the movie Bring It On. Eliza Dushku, as Faith, and Clare Kramer, as Glory, are also two of my favorite villians on the show.