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shadowkatRules? Simple. Pick a show you are or have been fannish about. Fannish enough to remember the names of the episodes each season, preferably one that is over. Each season pick one episode that you would rewatch again and again and again - that you love. Off the top of your head. The first episode that comes to mind.
Mine? Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because regrettably really never been that fannish about anything else. I've no clue why.
1. Season 1
Nightmares - reason? It was about identity, and had a lot of psychological and philosophical meat. Each character was explored in depth. We saw what scared them. And that fear is examined throughout the series in different ways. It was a game-changer for me. Up until that point, I didn't see the series a much more than teen fluff. Nightmares...made me wonder what else the writer's had up their sleeve. Also I love re-watching. Always something new to see.
2. Season 2
Passion - I started watch BTVS for Anthony Stewart Head. And this is his episode. It's a beautiful episode, filled with tragedy. Everyone is used well. Spike, Dru, Angelus, Buffy, Giles, Willow, Joyce, Xander, Cordelia - all of them. The voice over is suitably creepy and says volumes about the Buffy/Angel love affair and why it can't work. If you want to know why Angel is the wrong romantic choice, just listen to the voice over. It's so beautifully filmed, and so horrific and plays with so many horror tropes.
3. Season 3
Dopplegangland - a brilliantly horrific and funny episode that does an in depth deconstruction of Willow. It also examines so many other things. Music was perfect - "The Virgin State of Mind", the direction, the acting. It may be amongst the best things Whedon wrote. Perfect blend of humor and horror.
4. Season 4
Hush - another episode that brilliantly uses every character, furthers their arcs, and while utilizing a gimmick uses it to examine the characters and has the plot flow from them. It like Dopplegangland, is amongst the best things Whedon wrote and is why I used to be a fan of Whedon. I still am of that episode. That episode is why I loved Whedon. When he wrote stuff like that? He made me love him. Stuff like that makes you fall in love with a writer. Because it's really hard to do that well. It's like watching a trapeze act without a net...and thinking wow, how did they do that without falling?
5. Season 5
Fool for Love - James Marsters famously stated that it remind him of Repertory Theater. It's that. I loved this episode for its twists and turns, the unreliable narrator - you can tell Spike didn't tell Buffy everything and spun it, the flaws, the reveal that Spike - is not what he appears, that he had started out as a man who despised violence and loved poetry. And is ashamed of that human he once was, or is he? The Bravado quacks, and we see duality. It's like that Xander episode, The Replacement, but better written, where we see two Spike's. And there's so much going on here. So many things to play with. Every time I see it - I see something different.
6. Season 6
Once More With Feeling. So many tv shows have tried to do a musical episode and failed miserably, see Grey's Anatomy for the latest cringe-worthy attempt. This episode got my mother to watch the show - she loves musicals and is incredibly critical (where do you think I get it from?) but this episode blew here away. "They are making fun of themselves," she said. "And musicals. It's hilarious." And it was. It broke the fourth wall, then jumped back again. It was meta but not. It explained the entire season in a nutshell. Brilliant. And my favorite episode of the series and favorite musical episode of any show.
7. Season 7
Beneath You. It's the one episode that every time I watch, I keep rewinding. It's deconstruction of two characters, Spike and Anya. And their views of themselves and their lives. It also talks about gender relationships in ways that few episodes do. The Scorned woman who turns the abusive boy friend into a worm, and the abusive boyfriend who goes insane trying to make himself better, to redeem himself to kill the worm within. It encapsulates every romance novel I've read...showing both sides of the story. The woman seeking revenge, the man who raped and hurt, seeking redemption.
We see the horrific results. It's such a layered episode. So character specific. Spike jumps through each hoop, each role, until finally he's stripped bare to his essence, half naked, he is the romantic poet in the end, humble, desperate, and self-loathing. The last fifteen minutes are amongst the best Whedon wrote and directed. They are unforgettable. And they make you realize nothing is simple or clear-cut.
Mine? Buffy the Vampire Slayer, because regrettably really never been that fannish about anything else. I've no clue why.
1. Season 1
Nightmares - reason? It was about identity, and had a lot of psychological and philosophical meat. Each character was explored in depth. We saw what scared them. And that fear is examined throughout the series in different ways. It was a game-changer for me. Up until that point, I didn't see the series a much more than teen fluff. Nightmares...made me wonder what else the writer's had up their sleeve. Also I love re-watching. Always something new to see.
2. Season 2
Passion - I started watch BTVS for Anthony Stewart Head. And this is his episode. It's a beautiful episode, filled with tragedy. Everyone is used well. Spike, Dru, Angelus, Buffy, Giles, Willow, Joyce, Xander, Cordelia - all of them. The voice over is suitably creepy and says volumes about the Buffy/Angel love affair and why it can't work. If you want to know why Angel is the wrong romantic choice, just listen to the voice over. It's so beautifully filmed, and so horrific and plays with so many horror tropes.
3. Season 3
Dopplegangland - a brilliantly horrific and funny episode that does an in depth deconstruction of Willow. It also examines so many other things. Music was perfect - "The Virgin State of Mind", the direction, the acting. It may be amongst the best things Whedon wrote. Perfect blend of humor and horror.
4. Season 4
Hush - another episode that brilliantly uses every character, furthers their arcs, and while utilizing a gimmick uses it to examine the characters and has the plot flow from them. It like Dopplegangland, is amongst the best things Whedon wrote and is why I used to be a fan of Whedon. I still am of that episode. That episode is why I loved Whedon. When he wrote stuff like that? He made me love him. Stuff like that makes you fall in love with a writer. Because it's really hard to do that well. It's like watching a trapeze act without a net...and thinking wow, how did they do that without falling?
5. Season 5
Fool for Love - James Marsters famously stated that it remind him of Repertory Theater. It's that. I loved this episode for its twists and turns, the unreliable narrator - you can tell Spike didn't tell Buffy everything and spun it, the flaws, the reveal that Spike - is not what he appears, that he had started out as a man who despised violence and loved poetry. And is ashamed of that human he once was, or is he? The Bravado quacks, and we see duality. It's like that Xander episode, The Replacement, but better written, where we see two Spike's. And there's so much going on here. So many things to play with. Every time I see it - I see something different.
6. Season 6
Once More With Feeling. So many tv shows have tried to do a musical episode and failed miserably, see Grey's Anatomy for the latest cringe-worthy attempt. This episode got my mother to watch the show - she loves musicals and is incredibly critical (where do you think I get it from?) but this episode blew here away. "They are making fun of themselves," she said. "And musicals. It's hilarious." And it was. It broke the fourth wall, then jumped back again. It was meta but not. It explained the entire season in a nutshell. Brilliant. And my favorite episode of the series and favorite musical episode of any show.
7. Season 7
Beneath You. It's the one episode that every time I watch, I keep rewinding. It's deconstruction of two characters, Spike and Anya. And their views of themselves and their lives. It also talks about gender relationships in ways that few episodes do. The Scorned woman who turns the abusive boy friend into a worm, and the abusive boyfriend who goes insane trying to make himself better, to redeem himself to kill the worm within. It encapsulates every romance novel I've read...showing both sides of the story. The woman seeking revenge, the man who raped and hurt, seeking redemption.
We see the horrific results. It's such a layered episode. So character specific. Spike jumps through each hoop, each role, until finally he's stripped bare to his essence, half naked, he is the romantic poet in the end, humble, desperate, and self-loathing. The last fifteen minutes are amongst the best Whedon wrote and directed. They are unforgettable. And they make you realize nothing is simple or clear-cut.