Buffy the who?

[calimac]

Considering the number of Buffy fans among my friends, I'm surprised not to have heard others note the appearance of season 7, completing the DVD set. Maybe they felt that it was a sufficiently sub-par season that they didn't want to get it. Or maybe they're just waiting for Christmas.

Me, I got it for Hanukah, and have noodled around in it long enough to find two things, both in the cut tag below.

First, it's enabled me to easily complete a little piece of information that may already be out there somewhere, but which I've never seen in this form: a simple list of which actors are in the opening credits of which episodes. (Usually what I see are "regular cast" without an indication of whether they're in the credits or not, and they're whole-season lists, while three of the seasons had mid-season changes)

Second, one of the set's extra features gives a list of Joss Whedon's favorite ten episodes. Before you look, I want you to guess. You don't need to put them in his order, but if you follow two rules:
1) there must be at least one episode, but no more than two, from each season
2) go ahead, indulge yourself
then I think any dedicated Buffy fan ought to be able to create the same list.



Here's the opening credits:

Season 1
Gellar, Brendon, Hannigan, Carpenter, Head

Season 2
Gellar, Brendon, Hannigan, Carpenter, Boreanaz, Head

Season 3
Gellar, Brendon, Hannigan, Carpenter, Boreanaz, Green, Head

Season 4
Episodes 1-6: Gellar, Brendon, Hannigan, Green, Head
Episodes 7-10: Gellar, Brendon, Hannigan, Marsters, Head
Episodes 11-22: Gellar, Brendon, Hannigan, Blucas, Marsters, Head

Season 5
Episode 1: Gellar, Brendon, Hannigan, Blucas, Caulfield, Marsters, Head
Episodes 2-10: Gellar, Brendon, Hannigan, Blucas, Caulfield, Trachtenberg, Marsters, Head
Episodes 11-22: Gellar, Brendon, Hannigan, Caulfield, Trachtenberg, Marsters, Head

Seasons 6-7
Gellar, Brendon, Caulfield, Trachtenberg, Marsters, Hannigan
except 6.19: Gellar, Brendon, Caulfield, Trachtenberg, Benson, Marsters, Hannigan

And here's Joss's ten favorite episodes, in viewing order with his ranking in parentheses:

1.12, Prophecy Girl (#10)
2.14, Innocence (#1)
2.22, Becoming Part 2 (#7)
3.9, The Wish (#6)
3.16, Doppelgangland (#5)
4.10, Hush (#3)
4.22, Restless (#8)
5.16, The Body (#4)
6.7, Once More with Feeling (#2)
7.7, Conversations with Dead People (#9)

I can't argue with this choice for best episodes, particularly for seasons 4-7 where the choices are practically mandatory. As for season 3, picking both "The Wish" and "Doppelgangland" is what I meant by "indulge yourself," but I have to admit they were key episodes of the show for me. "The Wish" was the one with which I began watching the show regularly, and "Doppelgangland" was the one that really sold me on the series. I couldn't believe they were bringing Vampire Willow back for any reason other than to tickle the fanboys who wanted to see Alyson Hannigan in leather again, but it was a marvelously clever episode, simply marvelous.

But it also seems to me that every single one of these episodes is dependent for its greatness on the context of the rest of the show. This is most obvious with "Restless", which is literally unintelligible without a virtuoso knowledge of the characters and their background, but I think the others also work better in context. When I first went back to watch videotapes of the highlights of season 2, neither "Innocence" nor "Becoming" worked for me at all until I re-watched them in the context of seeing the entire season. Others might work without context, but not nearly so well as they would with it. A list of "best episodes to introduce new viewers to Buffy with" would, I think, be entirely different, and I agree with Ben's suggestion that it should start with "Lie To Me" (2.7).

My favorite episodes not on the list, besides "Lie To Me", would probably be "School Hard", "Revelations", "Fear Itself", "Who Are You?" "Superstar", and "Real Me".

Comments

[sturgeonslawyer.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, I saw and was very much impressed by "Once More With Feeling" without ever having seen any other episodes, nor having any information beyond a five-minute braindump of the character relationships from my Mom, who was a dedicated Buffy fan for the series' entire run. (I'd seen the movie but I quickly realized that would be more misleading than helpful.)

You later showed me a couple of earlier episodes, but I have no idea whether they were any of the ones on this list.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

What I showed you was "Lie To Me" and the opening scene of "School Hard" (which is in the same set).

I'm pleased that "Once More With Feeling" can be enjoyed by someone with little background, but the utter delight of it when new - when I knew nothing other than that there was going to be a musical episode of Buffy - can be compared with nothing else in my experience other than going to see a new film of which I knew nothing other than that the Monty Python troupe had made a movie and called it Monty Python and the Holy Grail.