Judith and I, along with a couple of friends, watched the series finale of Buffy last night, and I must admit, once it was over I started realizing just how much I'll miss the series.

I thought it was a terrific episode, but I wished they'd have given it an extra hour to really delve deeply into some of its aspects and ideas. And there were some minor quibbles I had (the amulet could have done with some more exposition). But it was pretty good television, all in all.

I don't watch a lot of television, and sometimes I think that fandom as a whole is far too lenient on some of the series it follows than they deserve. But it was nice to see Buffy end on (essentially) its own terms, and not have the carpet pulled out from under it like so many series that are cancelled mid-season.

I won't go too much into it here, since I don't want to risk any spoilers. But there were lots of great lines (one of which I cadged for today's Dork Tower at http://www.dorktower.com), and, as Judith noted "You can really tell that Joss wrote this one."

Fandom means having yer guts ripped out time and time again with sequels that never live up to the hype (small time, as in "Matrix Reloaded," or MASSIVE time, as in "Star Wars" episodes I and II). But every now and then, someone gets it right ("The Two Towers"). As near as dammit, I think Buffy got it right.

Maybe not "two Towers" right. But right enough for me.