(no subject)

[frelling_tralk]

Stealing from molly_may this is the 20 best episodes of Buffy as voted on by the fans from SyFy UK

20. Lovers Walk
19. Prophecy Girl
18. Conversations with Dead People
17. Normal Again
16. Halloween
15. Graduation Day (1 & 2)
14. Restless
13. Grave
12. Innocence
11. Amends
10. Passion
9. Dopplegangland
8. Fool for Love
7. The Wish
6. Chosen
5. The Gift
4. The Body
3. Becoming (1 & 2)
2. Hush
1. OMWF

Meh I don't think Grave or Graduation Day belong there so much as they're the season finales, so people just think of them first when they're voting. Maybe Graduation Day (although I still wouldn't put it in my personal top 20), but Grave really???

Restless and Fool For Love should obviously have been in the top five cause they're AWESOME :D Innocence should really be in the top five as well, or at the very least the top ten, how on earth was it beaten by Amends of all episodes? And where are Lies My Parents Told Me and Selfless???

And I put Normal Again in my top ten a while ago, but I've since decided it's not all that great an episode and doesn't really deserve to be ranked that highly. I mean it's a good episode, but it's not even close to being one of the best of the series. I'd put Tabula Rasa or Dead Things ahead of it from season 6 for starters

Comments

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The only way to excuse Amends is that you know that Bangels are voting their hearts out for it because objectively? Not that great of an episode.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yeah I think it has to be a shipper thing, but urgh it's not even a GOOD episode :P At least vote in something like The Prom which has lots of shippy moments, but is also a great episode in its own right. Well at least I unashamedly love it anyway heh

[cinderella81.livejournal.com]

Yeah ... Graduation and Grave were good, but ... I think they got voted there because they're season finales.

Restless and Fool for Love are amazing, I agree!! Your selections for the top are much better than some of theirs! :D

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Hee thanks! My top three have always been Once More With Feeling, Restless, and Fool For Love, but I do end up changing my mind a lot about the rest of my top ten. Looking back at my list now it's like what was I thinking having Normal Again and The Body there. Both good episodes, but so not my favourites to rewatch

[molly_may]

Innocence should really be in the top five as well, or at the very least the top ten, how on earth was it beaten by Amends of all episodes?

Yeah, that makes NO SENSE. Innocence is the turning point of the series, and it's an excellently written and acted episode. Top Five material for sure. Amends is...mushy.

And I put Normal Again in my top ten a while ago, but I've since decided it's not all that great an episode and doesn't really deserve to be ranked that highly. I mean it's a good episode, but it's not even close to being one of the best of the series. I'd put Tabula Rasa or Dead Things ahead of it from season 6 for starters

Yeah, I actually don't like Normal Again at all, aside from the fact that SMG is pretty flawless in it. I would put a number of season six episodes ahead of it - Dead Things, Bargaining, After Life, Tabula Rasa, Life Serial, Flooded, Villains, and yes, even Seeing Red.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I've always thought that Innocence is in most peoples top 10s (I'm pretty sure it's in Joss's actually), so I'm really surprised to see it ranked at #14 when it's one of the most iconic episodes of the entire series as summing up the greatness of season 2 that everyone always raves about. If anything I'd put it before Becoming. Becoming is a pretty great episode, but idk it always feels like people are voting mostly for the last 5 minutes when they want to proclaim it as among the best episodes of the series.

[sum1-different.livejournal.com]

Becoming is so great because of the Buffy and Spike interaction in the second part. Innocence is inferior to it. Season 2 is overrated. Half of it was lame.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I've always felt the same way about season 2. I feel like it would have been an amazing season if it was cut down to say 15 or 16 episodes, but taken as a whole it's got so much awful pacing and filler episodes that I'm always a bit surprised at how many people consider it the best season ever. It's just so inconsistent! People knock the MotW episodes from season 1, but I'd take them anyday over Reptile Boy, Inca Mummy Girl, Bad Eggs etc. Some of those early season 2 episodes were just plain bad in my opinion. That season didn't really pick up until the second half, and even then it was still a bit rough in places when you get a filler episode like Go Fish airing between the IOHEFY cliffhanger and Becoming which completely killed the momentum they were building for the finale

[sum1-different.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the MOTW week episodes in season 2 are crap. But I had no problem with them in season 1, except the mantis one.

[kazzy-cee.livejournal.com]

I agree with you - I was very surprised by some of the choices. I also think 'Lies my parents told me' and 'Selfless' should have been there. I also missed 'Life Serial'.... ;)

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I love Life Serial! Not only is it really funny, but I also think it does a great job of capturing that time after school when you're first experiencing working full-time and struggling with it not being at all what you expected

[sum1-different.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the list. :)

Graduation Day was great. The Body was a pile of stinking dogshit. It and Chosen are the worst Buffy eps ever. The Gift is overrated.

OMWF, Hush and Becoming part 2 are some of the very best. Lovers Walk is great -the best Spike ep ever. CWDP is great despite being in season 7.

Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest should be on that list. Some of the best Buffy ever. People are too dumb to appreciate the perfection of season 1.

Halloween is mediocre and really anoyyed me. I don't see why Buffy losing her powers turns some people on so much. Too much Xander, too. But it was just not very well made in general. A lot of the earlier half of season 2 was weak like that. Restless is good but overrated. I much preferred Primeval which was a great ep. Adam was one of the best Buffy villains ever. The beginning of season 4, The Freshman was great, too. Normal Again is not great. Amends is silly B/A nonsense. Innocence is pretty good, but Passion is great.

Dopplegangland is great. The Wish is good, but not THAT good. Grave is ok -I liked Buffy and Dawn fighting side by side. Fool For Love is overrated but still good.

I didn't much like Selfless. You're supposed to care about Anya in that, which I find hard to do. I think they killed her four and a half seasons too late.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I did like Graduation Day, but it's not one of the top 20 of the series IMO. And I do find Halloween a fun one-off episode, but I never expected to see it in the top 20 either. It's not really an episode I've seen people mention as a favourite actually so I'm surprised at that, although it does seem to get brought up a fair bit as the most popular of the Halloween episodes so maybe that's why it came to peoples minds? I think I prefer Fear Itself a little more though...

And aww I love The Wish, that's one of my favourites!

Grave is my least favourite season finale, I'm disappointed it beat Prophecy Girl. I find evil Willow too campy and cartoonish compared to what they could have done with that plot, so it ends up being a disappointment to me, plus I think they could have made Spike's trials waaaaay more interesting. At the time I was expecting him to flash back on his life history or something, maybe have Dru or Buffy appear to him in hallucinations even. It just seemed weird that a 2 minute fight with a flaming hand demon (well that and bad CGI insects crawling on him for 30 seconds) is what would be required to win a soul, it should have been more of a psychologial trial IMO. And I did like Buffy and Dawn fighting together and Dawn realising that Buffy is actually crying happy tears, but then the whole "I want to show you the world" bit hits too sappy a note for me after that. I mean I got what they were going for, but it just seemed really cheesy and overdone

[sum1-different.livejournal.com]

Fear Itself is a really good episode, much better than Halloween. Much more imagination and atmosphere and actual fear. Season 4 was great for that kind of stuff.

The Wish is good, but I don't think it's one of the best.

Evil Willow was a pain.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I'm surprised there aren't more season 4 episodes on the list actually. There were so many great episodes that year, yet Hush and Restless were the only ones to make the list?? I never tire of watching some season 4 episodes like Fear Itself, Pangs, Something Blue, Who Are etc

[sum1-different.livejournal.com]

I'm really fond of season 4. It had more atmosphere and style than any of the other seasons, but a lot of people don't appreciate it.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

Yeah I wish they could have made a little more of them being in college during season 5 as I think season 4 had a really nice college atmosphere for Buffy and Willow, especially early on. The campus they were filming on looked really nice too.

Everyone talks about missing the time with the gang in high school, so I'm surprised that they dropped college as quickly as they did.

[sum1-different.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed the college stuff and would have liked to see more of it.