Oh, I'm afraid I'm with you. BtVS became and remained one of my guilty pleasures, followed by Angel. I'm still bummed that the latter was cancelled; last ep was amazing.
I groaned (and still do) at Whedon's stupid pc-curveball with Willow, and the fact that he evidently can write anything and everything except for even one genuine Christian character... but golly, what a creative writer. The dialogue, the characters, the plot directions. "Hush," "Once More, With Feeling," "The Body" (do I have that title right?)... need I say more?
And what a talented cast.
Really a pity he's such a clueless dolt when it comes to God and related issues.
Dan
I don't think it's a coincidence that BUFFY's popularity went DOWN after that swerve. Tara was the subject of much derision on the internet boards. Most folks wanted her with Oz. "Hush" and "Once More...With Feeling" were two of the best prime-time TV episodes in history. Every year in TV GUIDE, several writers would lament the fact that BtVS would always be shut out in the major Emmy nominations (it did receive quite a few nominations in the areas of makeup, hairstyling, and technical). SMG received a Golden Globe Best Actress nomination in 2001.
That episode was very creative, to tell a story with no dialogue. I agree that Joss didn't know what to do with religion (early episodes show Buffy wearing a cross-Angel burns himself on it embracing her in one-but it was dropped later) and that his making Willow gay was pretty stupid.
If "the Body" is the episode where Buffy's mom dies, then I agree that that was really great writing as well.