Welcome, Emlah.

Well, in NZ we've been getting season 7 with no breaks at all, just running right through, and I imagine it will be so right to the end. I find it really weird how it gets shown in the US and Oz. It will mean we end up finishing somewhat ahead of our trans-Tasman brethren.

I find it really weird how it gets shown in the US and Oz.

It took me forever to realize that in the USA the shows are being around for the whole year, with re-runs in the middle. I could get pretty easily the concept of reruns during the summer, once a season is over, but having reruns in the middle of the season, inter-woven with the new episodes? It's just so different from the way TV works here [Edit: Israel] - they start screening a show at least several months (if not years) after its airing date in the USA (for example, we just got the very first episode of the first season of "Alias"), show the whole season, and then it goes on vacation and something is aired instead until sufficient time has passed and the following season can start being screened. No reruns at all.

It's just so different from the way TV works here

Different and evil. It'd drive me nuts watching a television season all cropped up like that.

Edited for clarity.

We NEVER get re-runs in the middle of seasons. People here would be outraged at the thought. A season always plays straight through. Though you do get reruns of previous seasons on one of our cable channels.

I had no idea this happened in the US until I started reading this board. Is it because they haven't had time to make each episode to fit a schedule or is just to drag it out over the year?

It's very rare in Australia too.

Welcome Emlah! I gather you're another Aussie: whereabouts are you?

Cordelia and Anya spoke truths.

Anya maybe. Cordelia not so much. Yeah, I remember her quote along the lines of "Tact? That's just saying stuff that's not true. I'll pass."

But the fact is Cordelia was not (at that time) about truth telling, or even frankness (not the same thing). She was about hurting and humilating people verbally. And sure, she'd use truth when it would work. because hurtful words are much more hurtful if they have an element of truth and the pain lasts much longer. But she was certainly willing to lie or distort if the truth wasn't a good enough weapon. (Think about the first two episodes when she distorted her descriptions of Buffy's behavior - telling how Buffy attacked her and tried to kill her. She was a liar from the beginning.)

Is it because they haven't had time to make each episode to fit a schedule or is just to drag it out over the year?

I have a suspicion it may be simply because there is so much tv in the States that they have to have fixed slots for shows all year, because if they were going on and off the air all the time nobody would ever find them. So it's very simple: almost all shows (except midseason replacements) start new seasons at roughly the same time of year, they all finish at roughly the same time of year, they're on at the same time of day, and it's pot luck whether you're getting a new episode or not.

I find the US system bizarre too, but then I grew up in a world where there were just three (and then four - oh my goodness was that an event!) tv channels.

She was about hurting and humilating people verbally. And sure, she'd use truth when it would work. because hurtful words are much more hurtful if they have an element of truth and the pain lasts much longer

Wallowing though I am in my OldSchool!Cordy nostalgia, I have to admit that as much as I don't like the end result, Cordy needed to head down the de-bitchifying road at some point. If they could have resisted the later urges to lobotomize her and slap the champion label on her forehead, everything would've been peachy.

Cordy had attained utter perfection as a character in the "don't bone my boss" episode. There was nowhere to go from there but down I'm afraid.