Product details: - Product group: Video
- Edition: VHS Tape
- Publisher: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
- Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, PAL
- Release Date: 2001-02-12
- Number of discs: 3
- Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicholas Brendon, Alyson Hannigan, Anthony Head, James Marsters
- Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
- Run Time: 504 minutes
- Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
- Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
- Package Dimensions: 8.19 x 42 x 75 inches
In Season 4 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sunnydale high school is left behind in smoking ruins and Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) becomes a college freshman at the (fictitious) University of California Sunnydale campus. The major arc of the season involves a semi-sinister Man from U.N.C.L.E.-type government agency known as The Initiative which has its Bond-style HQ under the campus. Their nefarious plans involve capturing vampires and demons, including the now-regular character Spike (James Marsters), and hacking them to pieces for assembly into a Frankensteinian supermonster or fitting them with chips that mute their killing urges. Buffy's plank-like new boyfriend Riley (Mark Blucas) is deadweight, Giles (Anthony Stewart Head) is shoved into new corners of irrelevance (and turns folkie!), Willow (Alyson Hannigan) breaks up with the werewolf (Seth Green) and comes out, Xander (Nicholas Brendon) whines about not being a student but starts dating a former demon (the amusing Emma Caulfield), Angel (David Boreanaz) has his own series but drops in for crossovers (you will need to buy the Angel box sets to find out how some key plot lines pay off) and previously killed or comatose semi-regulars pop in for dreams or revivals. A run of shaky episodes starts off this season, with the show seemingly uncomfortable with the new setting as it treads water with the same old monsters. This set starts to pick up, however, with a few well-above-average episodes, the stand-out being "Hush". This is a rare attempt for the show at being truly scary, featuring Nosferatu-like demons who glide around robbing people of their voices and force all the characters who have been evading the truth to open up to each other through non-verbal communication. The big plot, spread over the bulk of the episodes, is less interesting than the major arcs of the last two seasons, perhaps because Buffy's new love interest and new nemesis both fail to make much of an impression. This also tends to leave Sarah Michelle Gellar in the shadows of the show she is supposed to be starring in--her best 42 minutes in this series ("Who Are You") comes when she is possessed by bad girl Faith and can cut loose a bit. Mildly wobbly after the last two years, Buffy is still hanging in there and making an absurd premise pay off. --Kim NewmanCustomer reviews:  The Best, 2004-03-02
I have to say that this season is one of the best. "Beer Bad" was a bit of a disappointment as it came across as a bit dull. The rest of this season though was great. As we've come to expect, it has humour, drama, violence and gore. The puns are just as good as ever so I would be surprised if you don't want to watch this more than twice. If you look deeper into it, theres also life stories in the plots so it would make you think at the end of it. I would recommend that ANYONE buy this and all the other seasons - even those who buy it for the first time will soon be hooked and begging for more. My rating? 10/10.
 Not quite vintage Buffy, 2001-05-27
Whilst not quite registering on the rictor scale of villainy as prominently as the Mayor, Adam nonetheless successfully fills the shoes of the central baddie, idiosyncratic cool in tow. Characterisation-wise, Adam is well developed, but the scarcity of any big clashes between he and Buffy pre-big finale draws the satisfaction out of their final confrontation. Elsewhere, the unmasking of the mystery of the "commandos" detracts from the intriguing tone of the arcane which the series' first half benefited from. Despite this(time to justify the 4), the writers keep the fantastic eps coming, and by the series' surreal denouement, you'll be left with that familiar feeling that the show has really covered some ground.
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