When the story can't create an emotional connect, it'll never be the same thing. I feel like I'm reading a summary rather than watching the show.

I can't shake off the impression that Joss goes for the deliberate emotional shock to change the audience' attitude to the show. When I told my friends who used to watch Buffy that she's a bank robber now, they haven't believed me. I checked the issue 10 thread on Russian Diaries community: people mostly wonder "what is Joss smoking nowadays".