The thing I fear most is that this is Joss's idea of "grown up." And I fear that it's much like the Aaron Sorkin written Studio 60 this week where it was clear that even though Sorkin is in his forties, he still has that high school inner geek heavily informing his views of women and characters. So many times when dealing with BtVS it feels like Joss's idea of BtVS never really really left high school and that's why he handed most of Season 6 to Marti and why Season 7 was back to high school with an influx on teen slayers and the character issues of Season 6 largely swept under the rug.

I think Joss is as responsible for later seasons as Marti. He said it many times and I tend to believe him.

And he delved into really dark and adult stuff in Firefly. The characters were very irreverent and they didn't take themselves seriously, but the issues they faced were difficult and bleak. And real.

That's why I'd love to see Joss wrote write something more substantial than current s8 story.