3rd SEASON INFO FROM TV GUIDE AND ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
TV GUIDE'S
Starts: September 29
The Big News: Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar, left) was last seen leaving town after killing Angel (David Boreanaz). The season opener explains where Buffy has been the entire summer, says creator and executive producer Joss Whedon. "She will return to Sunnydale and pick up where she left off, although it will be difficult because she abandoned everybody." And Angel comes back from the dead-again-although he's more complicated this time around. Is he good or bad? "He's been in hell, so he's going to be a little cranky and a little crazed," Whedon says.
LOVE KNOTS: Buffy's still pining for Angel, but the show's other relationships will be going strong. Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) are still together and still fighting. Willow (Alyson Hannigan)-sporting a new short 'do-gets closer to Oz (Seth Green), although his penchant for turning into a werewolf will require some serious precautions.
Matt Says: Can we tell you how great it is not to have to choose between Buffy and Ally McBeal anymore? Kicking off a hot Tuesday lineup (followed by the much anticipated Felicity), this smart-sexy-funny-scary original is at the top of its game.
WITH ANGEL (David Boreanez) banished to hell, Sarah Michelle Gellar's Buffy tentatively reenters the dating arena. "Hopefully, at least one of the people she dates won't be a monster," jokes creator Joss Whedon. Angel will rise again later in the season (he'll materialize in Buffy's dreams in the meantime) and gets his own spinoff in the fall of '99. There are plenty of other romances: Oz (Seth Green, now a regular) flunks 12th grade and returns to squire Willow (Allison Hannigan) whos' dabbling into witchcraft. Xander (Nicholas Brendon)continues his love-hate relationship with Charisma Carpenter's Cordelia. Even straight- laced Giles (Anthony Steward Head) may, in Whedon's words, "get some." "I was about to, and she got killed," says Head, referring to Giles' courtship of doomed Ms.Calendar. "It was the best contraceptive I've ever seen." What with Brimstone, death as birth control is getting a real workout this season.