Monday, June 14, 2010

10 Off My Head - Looking Back On Buffy

.
So I linked to Low Resolution's call-out for everyone's "Best Episodes of Buffy" lists earlier today and in so doing doomed myself to be forced to make such a list myself. Apparently. So I started scanning through a list of all the episodes to remind myself - there are many many episodes I haven't seen in years - and I started jotting down names and suddenly I realized I'd written down like 27 titles of episodes and was only in Season Four. Ugh! How does one narrow down such a thing? I could start naming my favorite limbs too, or perhaps my favorite type of oxygen to breathe.

Anyway I'm forcing myself to vomit out a top 10 without thinking too much about it because panic sets in really fast; ask me again in five minutes and half of this would be completely different. And if anybody tells me I should have listed this one instead of that one I will fall apart, mentally, so keep that in mind. (Monsters!)

10 - "Prophecy Girl" - So much of what you're about to see in this list is my love for episodes hinging on especially well-delivered speeches about pain (usually always so much pain). This episode's got a doozy. "Giles, I'm 16 years old. I don't wanna die."

9 - "The Wish" and "Dopplegangland" - Nyah nyah nayh I can't hear you these episodes are connected enough that I am filling one spot with them, so there. They introduced Anya, they gave us Vampire Willow and they brought her back for an encore, there was so much to see and savor, including pretty much every single character dying.

8 - "Restless" - Lost before Lost was Lost! Seriously, this episode was a Buffy geek's geeky wet dream with all the allusions to things to come and all the just weirdo weirdness and who ends a season like this? Just so wonderful and bizarre. I haven't seen this episode in several years but my love for it is long.

7 - "Selfless" - Anya was my favorite character (give or take Buffy herself) and I love every single instant of this Anya-centric episode. Emma Caulfield was a god. Trolls! Bunnies! Slaughtered Abercrombie catalogs! It's got everything. And the smash-cut from her song flashing back to the musical - "I'll Be Mrs," a glorious tune - to Anya impaled on a sword is one of the saddest most visceral images that still haunt me from the entire series. Oh, Aud.

6 - "Graduation Day (Parts 1 and 2)" - Pretty much the epitome of the show firing on all cylinders. Epic and funny and terrifically sad and the fight scene between Buffy and Faith and the giant snake eating Principal Snyder and all the students busting out weapons from under their gowns and on and on, and on. What the show was all about.

5 - "The Gift" - It wasn't until the fifth season that I started watching the show so I think I've got a deeper love for all the Dawn and Glory stuff than a lot of people who started the show earlier. Especially Dawn. I love Dawn. Plus the ending gave Buffy her due in the greatest manner since...

4 - "The Prom" - The finale of this episode elevated the series into poetry. Joss needed to recognize Buffy's sacrifices every now and then and it was the moments when he had characters do just that when the show sung. Not in the musical episode sort of way, but in the "This is a really fucking special world we're in," sort. I know I gloss over the silliness of the rest of this episode a lot when I think back on it, but Jonathan's speech, Buffy's dance with Angel... it's the perfect high school moment that Buffy deserved and we the audience were so invested in her getting it that I still feel grateful for it.

3 - "Hush" - Everybody says this is the episode you show people to try and make them a Buffy fanatic too - argument goes it's the strongest stand-alone episode that hits all the notes of what the shows about (scary! funny! romantic!) and leaves 'em wanting more, and... well yeah. Basically. Plus Buffy's stake is a hand-job.

2 - "Once More, With Feeling" - I've probably seen this one more than any other. It's the one I'll usually end up playing now when I'm in the mood for some Buffy. I have the soundtrack on my iPod to this day and can't envision a day when it isn't there. I mean, who doesn't want to be walking down the street and have "The Mustard" song randomly pop up in your ears?

1 - "The Body" - I pretty much consider this the finest hour of television I've ever seen and I don't think I'll ever change my mind over that. I was never too invested in the endless "Who's Buffy gonna end up with?" drama so that's why none of the big romantic episodes feature in here; it was more about relationships between family and friends who become your family, to me. And this episode right here was tuned into the exact frequency of what mattered to me most about this show and did so with a brilliance beyond anything I even thought it capable of (and I thought it capable of quite a bit already). Horrible things shattering wonderful people and watching where the pieces land. And Any'a speech remains the most moving thing the show ever put in front of me; something that make me bust into tears just considering again.
.

14 comments:

Joe Reid said...

Yay, "Selfless"! Not that I doubted its inclusion for one second.

Jason Adams said...

I can't believe nobody else was talking about it. Wake up, people!

Anonymous said...

Great list! I would trade "the gift" for "becoming part 1&2", but I really don't mind...

Jason Adams said...

The Becomings were in the list, then weren't, then were, then weren't... I do love them though.

Anonymous said...

Am I supposed to be changing my clothes a lot? I mean, is that the helpful thing to do?

Jason Adams said...

You're trying to make me cry! Too late! I already did. ;-)

Ben said...

It's the banality of the things Anya describes - she'll never have fruit punch, or yawn, or brush her hair.

Yay for Doppelgangland being in there, very undersung in my opinion. Watch any other show doing tired old body swap episode and it doesn't even approach the highs this episode does.

Jason Adams said...

So much of that's thanks to the incredible comic stylings of Alyson Hannigan - when regular Willow has to put on the leather and pretend to be Vampire Willow? AMAZING. Just her whole body language is hilarious.

Joel said...

So much love for that list! THAT'S how a Buffy list should look like.

I would have had to include Pangs myself, I have some weird sick love for that episode. Anya's wonderful in it.

"To commemorate a past event, you kill and eat an animal. It's a ritual sacrifice. With pie."

"It will make you blind and insane, but it won't kill you! The smallpox will."

Anonymous said...

I'd forgotten how well written Becoming 1 & 2 are.
yay!
boo!
you've triggered the Buffy cycle!
now I have to watch all of them again!

Anonymous said...

@ben always reminded me of the Emily speech from Our Town.

NATHANIEL R said...

I'm SO glad you included SELFLESS. that's such a peak episode in a sea of, well, not peaks.

Joshowa said...

This is exactly my list (give or take some of the ordering)!! I'd ask you to marry me except that might come across as crazy stalker-like. And perhaps mutual Buffy love isn't the best thing to base a relationship on. (Or is it THE best thing?)

rosengje said...

Selfless is one of the few reasons Season 7 is even watchable for me. I consider Anya's death in Chosen retribution by the writers for all of the fans that had named her their favorite character by the end of the series. And thank you for mentioning that brutal cut-- one of the most memorable images of all of Buffy.

I also remember the DVD commentary on that episode being unusually entertaining. I think it was Drew Goddard's first episode and he pulled out all the stops.