What blows my mind is that the arrival of old-skool BtVS writers on the series represented a step down in overall quality from previous years, which had always been uneven, but could at times hit a real level of excellence that went far above and beyond the original Krypto-Freak-of-the-Week formula. Last year's run I thought was pretty great, frankly. This season has been terrible almost from the get-go, falling back on the kind of plotting and imagery I usually don't see outside of pro wrestling.... and there, you're supposed to think it's ridiculous!