Best episodes of Buffy?
 

I've recently started watching Buffy (renting the discs from Netflix), and just finished disc 1 of season 2. What are some of the great episodes I should be looking forward to? The ones that I recall reading about previously are The Body, Hush, and Graduation Day. What else?

Brian

Quick mental run-off of some of my favorites from the remaining seasons:

2: Becoming I & II (Surprise/Innocence)
3: Graduation Day I & II (really the whole second half of the season + The Wish)
4: Hush (This Year's Girl/Who are You?)
5: The Body (Weight of the World/The Gift)
6: Once More with Feeling (Two to Go/Grave)
7: Chosen (Storyteller, Conversations with Dead People)

das

for me it's

Hush

and

The Gift (i cry every time)

and the episode in Season 6 where !



[Edited to add spoiler tags. D-]

I think this has been covered several times.

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...hreadid=269591

I'll just pick some great ones that haven't been mentioned yet

Lover's Walk
Fool For Love
Dopplegangland
The Wish
Restless

Theres many, many more but these are some classics that satnd out to me at the moment

Once More With Feeling
The Body
Hush
Restless
Something Blue

SPOILERS, DUDE!

That's probably a little more than someone who just finished the first disc of the first season wants to know at this point.

My list:

SEASON ONE: Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest, Angel, The Pack, Prophecy Girl

SEASON TWO: When She Was Bad, School Hard, Halloween, The Dark Age, What's My Line I/II, Surprise, Innocence, Passion, I Only Have Eyes for You, Becoming I/II

SEASON THREE: The whole damned thing. This is the year the show just fires on all cylinders.

SEASON FOUR: Again, pretty much the whole thing. This is where the show sort of pulled away from the episodic format, and one show pretty much leads into the next. I even liked "Beer Bad." Just ignore the "after school special" aspects of it, and enjoy "Cave Buffy" and Willow telling off Parker. In fact,

SEASON FIVE: Again, all of it, except for the Rileycentric episodes in the first half.

I'm almost through Season 3 now, and you're right, nearly every damn episode has been great. Can't wait to get into Season 4 (and Season 1 of Angel)

Brian

Nobody ever mentions the prom episode. I always get a little misty during Jonathon's speech.

Same for me with Becoming Part II!!!!!

Dude - don't anticipate... enjoy them all! Even the lesser episodes are all awesome. Most of Season 2 is one sweeping, amazing story arc!

Dopplegangland is hands-down my favorite Buffy episode of all time*. Willow is my favorite Buffy character and this episode was truly a highlight for her. Plus she is just smoking hot throughout.



*followed closely by Once More With Feeling and This Year's Girl/Who Are You?.

I tend to prefer the stand-alone episodes to the soap-opera episodes, because I think stand-alones have more interesting points to make and more interesting self-contained stories to tell, so some of my favorites include:

"Ted" (great guest star, great comedy-horror-metaphor combo, great points about Buffy's character and her role as the slayer)

"I Was Made to Love You" (I actually like this better than the episode it led into "The Body," which was well-done but mostly could have been done on any show -- a Very Special Buffy does not get me going like a Very Metaphorical/Funny Buffy)

"The Zeppo"
"Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered"
"A New Man"

I especially liked Life Serial.

Haven't seen seasons 6 or 7, awaiting the DVD sets. But from the first five seasons, here is a top 5, pretty much in order:

The Body (S5) -- a truly amazing piece of television.

Passion (S2) -- shocking, raw and powerful.

Becoming I/II (S2) -- as masterful and tense as it ever gets.

Angel (S1) -- the first real sign of the greatness to come.

Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (S2) -- exceptional comedy farce.

Honorable mention: Hush (S4), Innocence (S2), Graduation Day I/II (S3), The I in Team (S4), Forever (S5).

Those are the individual standouts IMO. There are long, long stretches when the show is great but no single episode stands out above the rest. The bulk of S3 is an example, as is the entirety of S5. On the other hand, S2 has most of the single-best episodes but overall is only the second- or third-best season.

The Pack - Season 1

Nobody ever mentions Amends...
I mean, I love all of the usual suspects (The Gift, The Body, Hush, OMWF, etc), but Amends is the one I keep coming back to.

Bad Girls (S3)

Me too! It has to be near the the top for any Willow fan. AH did a great job in this episode playing her character 4 completely different ways

The first three seasons :)

I always liked Band Candy in Season 3, along with Hush. My two favorite characters were Giles and Willow so I think that is part of the reason I like Band Candy so much.

Most every episode mentioned so far is good to great. A few more I think that were missed:

Conversations with Dead People (S7)
Nightmares (S1)
Halloween (S2)
Fear, Itself (S4)
Tabula Rasa (S6)
Selfless (S7)

::cough:: ::cough::

Beer Bad.

::cough::

"Beer Bad" did have a great Parker/Willow scene.

Even the lesser BTVS episodes have Willow in them.

I'd add "Lie to Me" to that list.