Seth Green is one of my favourite actors. If you don't know him from the Buffy shows, you'd probably know him from the Austin Powers movies, which use his considerable comic abilities to great effect. ("Ass.") Understandably, his success in those movies, along with other small parts in films like 'Can't Hardly Wait' and 'Idle Hands', has made Seth less interested in television acting work. Oz is an interesting character, but fairly minimalist, and that doesn't leave Seth a lot of options as an actor. His offbeat remarks are funny, and his choice to react to crisis situations by not reacting at all is an excellent contrast to Xander's panic. But as the series wore on, it became obvious that the writers had a difficult time getting a handle on Oz, even after giving him werewolf abilities.

So what we have here is an actor who preferred to focus his energies on movies, and a group of writers who were running out of stuff for Oz to do. The result is Seth Green leaving the show, and this could have an unexpected side benefit: an increase in screen time for Giles and Xander. On campus, if the writers needed a male perspective on the action, Oz was always handy. With Oz gone, they'll have to use Giles and Xander more often, which is good news for everybody, because the relationship between Giles and Buffy before this season was the most textured and complex relationship this side of Scully and Mulder. This season, that relationship has seriously faded into the background, and I believe the show has suffered slightly as a result. True, Buffy is in college now, and has to be more independent. However, Giles was Buffy's rock, the foundation she could rely on to keep herself centered, and her behaviour this season without him as a constant presence in her life has shown some instability. This may have been the writers' intention, and if it was, I can't argue with it, because it's a good choice. I just hope it's not a permanent choice, because leaving aside everything else, Giles is still the most fascinating character on the show, and at the moment, he's being criminally underused.

As for the plot thread the writers came up with to get rid of Oz, I felt it was rather abrupt, even though they had been laying a subtle foundation for it through several episodes. Maybe it would have been better if Oz had tried to make a go of it even after knowing his wolfy side was asserting itself. Then there could have been some more conflicts between Oz, Willow, and Buffy which would make his eventual decision to leave more acceptable. Ah, well, what are you gonna do, right?

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