My “favorites” list will have some overlap with my “best”
list. Since there’s such overlap, I’ll list more “favorites”.
The top episodes are those which are both of high quality
and easy to re-watch. They’re in rough order of the number of times I’ve
re-watched them. Like anyone would keep an exact count of such a thing.
I’d call this list totally subjective; I can’t even pretend
that it represents anything more than my own personal taste at this point in
time.
- Once More With Feeling
- Becoming 1 & 2
- Storyteller
- Chosen
- The Gift
- Fool For Love
- Hush
- Primeval
- Doppelgangland
- Pangs
- Touched
- Wild at Heart
- School Hard
- Band Candy
- Triangle
- Checkpoint
- Tabula Rasa
- Choices
- Phases
- Prophecy Girl
- Selfless
- Lover’s Walk
- Life Serial
- Lessons
- Beneath You
"Weakest" episodes next Thursday.
Thank you for another list, Mark! I see there aren't many comments yet but please keep posting. I'm sure your readers are enjoying seeing new content from you; I know I am.
ReplyDeleteNow that I've re-watched the series a few times, I've become more and more interested in Whedon's process and plans for the series. I recently read somewhere he had planned -- SPOILERS --
Buffy's death as early as season two. I am really interested in learning more about how far in advance he planned the arcs for Buffy and Willow post-S5, and the overall arc for Spike, and more about his process in general. Are the DVD commentaries the best place to find this info? I watch on Netflix but maybe I should invest in the DVD set.
--Allison
Thanks! I do appreciate the feedback.
DeleteIt's hard to say how far in advance some points were planned. The DVD commentaries give only a few hints, mostly in outline, though they're worth watching on their own anyway.
SPOILERS FOR ALL SEASONS
I can give you a few answers. Yes, he had Buffy's death planned very early. I don't know if it was as early as S2, but definitely by S3 (he told SMG at that point).
The arc for Spike was planned early: he was a disposable "Little Bad" who was supposed to die in What's My Line. JM was so popular they kept him on, but AFAIK they didn't make any real plans for him until S4. Once they "Clockwork Oranged" him in the Intitiative, that set the basic outline for him, though they could have gone a couple of different routes even then. I don't know when they made the decision to return his soul; probably when the planned S6.
He had Willow's Dark Phoenix arc planned quite a bit in advance. He even made a public statement in S5, once the deal with UPN was in place, that he had "evil plans" for Willow.