It's weird watching the older seasons, his character is a lot more nuanced; he does seem to genuinely care about the girls, and has moments of sincerity. He's still a bastard, but there's more to him. That seems to fade over time, shame really.
shareI've just been rewatching the series again, and have too seen him in a different light.
I always disliked his character because it seemed like he did do much terrible stuff so easily and always got away with it unscathed. And true, it is very contrived with how he got away with so much in season 1 and 2 and then in season 3 and 4 he seemed to tame down and didn't have a bad name to him.
After the incident with Shell Dockley and when she stabbed him and held him hostage and almost died, his character tamed down a lot and wasn't very harmful at all, except for always fighting with Nicky Wade, Helen Stewart, and raped Karen Betts, he didn't seem to go wrong at all until season 5 where he became a bastard again. Season 5 was such a bad season only because of that junkie screw and how much Fenner got away with doing so many wrong things so easily. For some reason I see season 5 as a rip off season. Why bring back Dockley at all? Should have left it how it was thinking she had disappeared presumed dead.
Buffy Lives
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