Because I need to solidify my Buffy The Vampire Slayer fanboy street cred., here is a partial list of my favorite episodes (I am in season 6).
*** Warning ***
Spoilers follow
1.) The Body, Season 5: Easily the most traumatizing hour of Buffy, this was, by any standards, a great hour of heart-wrenching television. Even if you did not know the characters, were not a fan, and couldn’t care lesss about the series, the subject is so deeply personal and the manner it was portrayed is so elegant that even non-Buffy fans could appreciate this. For those of us who are in love with the series and who have developed a deep and formidable parasocial relationship with the characters, it was, quite simply, gut-wrenching.
2.) The Gift, Season 5: This was it. This was the end. You could sense the finality, you could see all the loose ends pulledtogether, the emoital exhaustion of it all taking its toll, and the sense of release as Buffy finally gives and recieves her hard-earned and well-deserved ‘gift.’
3.) Prophecy Girl, Season 1: If you didn’t already have the bug at the end of the first season, this sealed the deal. We begin to understand the role Buffy will play from here on out, and the real basis for here reliance on her friends is made clear.
4.) Hush, Season 4: Simply one of the most original (this is where someone in the comments tells me the idea was stolen from something else) story lines in the entire run of the series.
5.) The Becoming (both parts), Season 2: For some reason or another, I hear a number of people who really don’t like Angel. I don’t know how anyone could watch the series with that attitude, and these episodes set the stage for the next five years of the show.
Others that I really liked were Once More with Feeling, Graduation Day (both parts), as well as many others, but I think this is the top 5 for now.
Create your list and put it in the comments, or send me the link to your site so I can link.
Whedon’s list is here.