The 30 Day Buffy the TV Series Meme

[shadowkat]

I ganked this from "selenak". Please Note - this meme is solely about the TV series.



Day 1: Favorite Season

Five. It contained the most character growth and the least romantic melodrama bordering on cliche. Also I enjoyed the metaphor - in the villain, who was the only female "big bad" villain the series contained. She was an excellent doppleganger of Buffy - the cheerleader/prom queen who worries about her shoes. Then you had Ben, the perfect boyfriend, a combo of Xander and Riley. Plus the relationships were allowed to be explored and evolve in a mature way. It was also the first time we got a look at the vampire/slayer relationship but not in a romantic sense. Plus the twist - that Spike who is Buffy's nemesis, who hated her, falls so madly in love with her that he would rather be killed than see Dawn killed, because it would cause Buffy pain. To top it off - the best episode Whedon even wrote - and by far the most honest. Maybe because for once he was forced to peel back the trappings and the effects and be real. When I rec Buffy to people - I show them The Body.

Day 2: Favorite Episode

Once More with Feeling. I'm a sucker for a good self-deprecating musical.

Day 3: Favorite Song Used In An Episode: excepting the musical (and the relevant scene in Selfless),

Pavlov's Bell sung by Aimee Mann in Sleeper.

Day 4: Favorite Female Character:

Buffy.


Day 5: Least Favorite Female Character:

Harmony. She was Cordelia without the personality and depth. The stereotypical dumb blond joke and used as one throughout the series.


Day 6: Favorite Male Character: varies with the seasons. It started out Giles, and then became Angel, switched to Xander in S3(despite the urge to slap him on occasion), and finally became Spike.


Day 7: Least Favorite Male Character: Caleb, not for being a vile misogynist but for being an incredibly lazily written vile misogynist and paper thin plot device. (also borrowed selenak's words because she puts it so well. I felt sorry for Nathan Fillon, who is an actor I tend to like, for being given such a stereotypical one-dimensional role.)


Day 8: Favorite Friendship: depends on the season.

Spike and Dawn in S5, Faith and Buffy in S3, Tara and Buffy in S6, Anya and Andrew in S7 tied with Dawn/Xander, Xander/Buffy in Season 4, and Willow and Buffy in S1-2.

Day 9: Favorite Romance: depends on the season.

Season 1 - Season 2 -Buffy/Angel tied with Giles/Jenny , Season 3 - Xander/Cordelia, Season 4 - Buffy/Riley (first half of the season), Willow/Tara (second half of the season), Season 5 - Xander/Anya (whole season) tied with Buffy/Spike (only after Intervention), Season 6-7: Buffy/Spike


Day 10: Least Favorite Season:

Tie between season 1 and season 7, for different reasons. Season 1, when it was still all fresh and in development, is fine, but it hasn't a lot of episodes I ever wanted to rewatch because by and large I don't think the show had really hit its stride yet. By contrast, I rewatched more s7 episodes than I did s1 episodes but I'd never deny the strains of narrative exhaustion are visible, and it's a weaker season than the ones preceding it. (I stole selenak's answer - because she's absolutely right. And says it better than I could. For my in-depth critique of Season 7 go to the meta links that I did the first week of January. Lazily and poorly structured season with some fantastic stand-a-lone episodes, but a horrifically bad plot.)


Day 11: Least Favorite Romance: I felt really let down by the underdevelopment of Clem/Sophie, let me tell you. :) On a more serious note, I'm staying the hell away from this question due to my intense dislike of shipping wars. (sigh, yes. Stealing from selenak again. Shipping wars are headache inducing. They made me hate Angel and hate Bangel, when in reality I didn't hate them and actually loved that relationship up to S4 Buffy. Same with Xander - the damn shipping wars made me hate Xander. When I actually adore Xander. So no more shipping wars!!!)


Day 12: Least Favorite Episode: This is a hard one. I'll list the candidates: Season 1 - I Robot You Jane (a cheesy riff on bad 80's robot/computer horror genre), Season 2: that horrifically bad one with the frat boys, which I cringed all the way through - not a fan of humilation comedy, which happened a lot with Xander and then later Dawn. Season 3: Amends - god I hate that episode now, loved it at the time, but now - it grates. Season 4: Superstar - I cringed all the way through it. It's the only episode I tend to skip. But there are at least four in that season that I fast forward through. Season 5 - it's actually the only season that doesn't have an episode I dislike, maybe Family which like Amends grates and oddly for some of the same reasons - both are examples of manipulative writing and cheap short-cuts utlizing special effects. The two worst Whedon written episodes in Buffy. Season 6: There are so many in this season, Doublemeat Palace - I'd go with but I love the insane McDonald's parody and that episode always makes me roar with laughter. Gone? I also roar with laughter at the absurdity. Older and Far Away - great metaphors and a sort of Luis Buneul vibe even if it's weak, As You Were - while it grates in places, it is fascinating in others. No...Wrecked may well be the worst for the Rack and magic as crack and the stupid monster. Season 7: Showtime - this episode made no logical sense. Great buildup with Bring on the Night, but no follow-through. But I'd have to say First Date - was worse. And Storyteller grates as much as Superstar did for some of the same reasons...too much Revenge of the Nerds/too much writer masturbation. But will state I can see why everyone including the tv critics applaud them. Would have to go with Touched, which was just silly.


Day 13: Favorite Potential Slayer: Amanda, for looking like an ordinary awkward teenager.


Day 14: Favorite Female Villain: Drusilla.


Day 15: Favorite Male Villain: Richard Wilkins III., the Mayor. Possibly the most complex villain to appear in a Whedon series. Folksy, politician, with family values. And played to perfection by the actor.


Day 16: Episode You Like That Everyone Else Hates: There is no such thing in a fandom. But I'd have to say Beer Bad - which I think is hilarious and adore.


Day 17: Character You Relate To The Most - later season Buffy with her issues


Day 18: Character Who Didn’t Get Enough Screen Time: Ethan Rayne - his scenes with Giles in Halloween, Band Candy, and A New Man were pitch perfect. I would love to see those two actors on-screen together again. They have excellent on-screen chemistry. Maybe Merlin can hire him to play an advisor who turns out to be a conman trying to steal from Uther?


Day 19: Character You Like That Everyone Else Hates: see above, under "there is no "everyone" in fandom. Again, with that caveat, Glory. I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority on that one. EVERYONE I know thinks Glory was the worst villain, but I found her interesting.

Day 20: Best Spike-centric Episode: Fool for Love

[While Sleeper and Fool for Love and Beneath Me, all have their moments...they are also deeply flawed episodes which have sections that make me cringe a bit. Fool for Love - everything worked and everyone was at the top of their game.]


Day 21: Best Willow-centric Episode: Doppelgangerland. Alyson Hannigan makes the most of the opportunity, it's really funny while also being insightful, one roots for both Willows, and the little moment where Buffy, in order to console Willow, says that vampires are nothing like their souled selves and Angel says "actually...", then abruptly falls silent as Buffy looks at him is one of the best about the whole wretched souled/unsouled question in both shows. (Also give me those two minutes of a scene over the lot of Orpheus as far as how-much-of-Angel-is-Angelus? is concerned, but that's another rant.) [I stole from "selenak" again, because I agree with every word. Exactly this. And she puts it better than me. I know it's cheating, but hey.]



Day 22: Best Xander-centric Episode: Xander's hard. It's tough to choose. I love aspects of his Restless Dream, Beer Bad - is a great Xander episode, as is the Replacement - which gives Brendan his last meaty episode. Also rather found of Xander in several S5 episodes. But I'd have to go with Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered - since it plays with Xander's dark side, yet also explores his relationship with Cordy.


Day 23: Two Characters You Wanted To Get Together That Never Did: I really didn't ship outside the show that much. All of them more or less did in some way or another. It makes me a rarity in fandom, the fact that I don't ship outside canon of the tv series at all.


Day 24: Favorite Example of 90s Special Effects: The snakes


Day 25: Favorite Buffyverse Saying: "Fire bad. Tree pretty." It came in handy often.



Day 26: Favorite Scooby Moment: tricky. I almost stole from selenak again. I'd have to say it's a tie between the scene at the beginning of Primeval where they realize Spike played them and that scene in Chosen where they go their separate ways in the school to fight the final battle - which perfectly echoes Welcome to the Hellmouth - that in fact may well be amongst the best written scenes in that episode and the most real.

Day 27: Cutest Moment: I have no idea. I have to go with selenak's pick - about Buffy putting her head down next to the Buffybot towards the end of Intervention, asking if she really looks like me. Buffy's vulnerability won me over - and Gellar was great at emoting it.


Day 28: Character You Love To Hate: Can't really think of one. Maybe Cordelia. Yeah, I'll go with Cordy - I loved to hate her on both Buffy and Angel.


Day 29: Episode You Hate That Everyone Else Loves:

Tie: Superstar and Storyteller -- I don't know of anyone who despises this episode except me.

Day 30: What You Think Made Buffy So Great:

From selenak who has managed to remind me in this one brief paragraph why I loved this show: At its best, it was a wonderful combination between good writing and good acting, creating a lot of memorable characters who really captured one's emotions and imagination. It could do send-up and parody without destroying the belief in the fictional world it created, meaning both parody of established horror tropes - Buffy herself famously came to life as a twist on the blonde in the alley who dies first in a horror movie (i.e. making that blonde the person the monster runs away from) - and self send-up, as in The Zeppo when Xander interrupts a Buffy/Angel scene, which is the shown making fun of its own main 'ship (at that point, other shippers, at that point). It was on long enough that it could experiment with the form of tv storytelling (a show that doesn't get more than one or two seasons doesn't try something like Hush or Restless, unfortunately). It could do absolutely straight drama (Giles finding Jenny's dead body might happen in an operatic setting because Angel(us) is a sadist, but there is nothing remotely unreal about Giles' shock, grief and later rage; and The Body, oh, The Body), it could do open riffs on comic books (we don't need Andrew and Jonathan to spell out to us Willow is Dark Phoenix and Darth Vader combined in the last three s6 episodes), and of course musicals. And lastly, it was romantic in more than the sense the word is usually employed: the romance of friendship through adversity as much as anything else. In the Buffyverse, you could count on your lovelife breaking your heart sooner or later, one way or another, but you could also count on your friends still being there when the day was done.

The only thing I'd add - is it managed to explore various narrative styles and examine characters from every angle imaginable. At times I felt as if I were watching a trapeze act, with the writers and actors performing without a net. Once More With Feeling - was one of the riskiest experiments I've seen a show attempt and actually pull off without a hitch. It remains the standard that other shows go by and it resulted in a whole slew of copy-cats, because it was so successful - prior to that episode, musical episodes on tv shows were considered a joke. It also managed to redefine itself and explore the hero's journey from a female perspective. I adored this show and still do.

Comments

[flake-sake.livejournal.com]

Great choices!

I very much agree on shipper wars, they are completely pointless and mess with characters one actually likes. They also lead to these morose moral discussions that happen so often on the fanboards.

Day 19: Glory! Yes, I should have picked her too. I didn't think she was the worst villain either(that price goes hands down to Adam for me). She was lots of fun and I loved that messing with memory thing she did.

Maybe Merlin can hire him to play an advisor who turns out to be a conman trying to steal from Uther?


Or he could be Morgana's other dad. And it can turn out he and Uther had a twisted affair back in the day and are now deadly enemies with lots of sexual tension...uhm, got carried away, sorry. :D

[petzipellepingo.livejournal.com]

Day 15: Favorite Male Villain: Richard Wilkins III., the Mayor. Possibly the most complex villain to appear in a Whedon series. Folksy, politician, with family values. And played to perfection by the actor.


Indeed. And since the only previous time I'd seen Harry Groener was on Dear John it took me at least two episodes to even recognize him.

[teragramm.livejournal.com]

Great answers.

Day 25: Favorite Buffyverse Saying: "Fire bad. Tree pretty."

I totally forgot about this line when I did this meme. There are so many great lines it is so hard to pick one or two. I could probably pick a whole page of favorite lines and still have forgotten some.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

I was going to do this meme, but I found myself agreeing w/you too much!
I also love so many of the same characters & episodes you mentioned...
Pretty much my area of disagreement w/you is that I didn't love (or even like) Season 5,
but instead I loved LOVED another unpopular season: Season 4 (with Restless being one of my top episodes... behind OMWF and The Body, of course).

I just (finally) got my Buffy (and Angel) DVDs back and I'm thinking I'll have to do a marathon when I get home.

[shadowkat67.livejournal.com]

Actually agreeing with selenak who I borrowed heavily from.

I actually like S4 (the vast majority of the people I know online like that season - where's the unpopularity? Maybe the plot-arc...) for the stand-alone episodes. It has four brilliant ones: Restless, Hush, Who are You?, and The Freshman.

[embers-log.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think the story/plot arc of S4 left most people cold (but I loved the theme of magic vs sci-fi), and they thought that Adam made a lame Big Bad (but I loved the climatic scene between combo-Buffy and Adam when she said "you can not hope to grasp the source of our power, but yours is right here").
In addition to the four brilliant episodes you named, I also seriously loved Something Blue, Pangs, A New Man, and Superstar.

Most of the people I know put seasons 2 or 3 as their favorites... but all of the seasons have some spectacularly great episodes (Season 1 doesn't have many, but I still think that 'The Pack' is genius).

[lusciousxander.livejournal.com]

Wonderful answers. I agree with your reasons about S1 and S7 being the weakest seasons, although I tend to watch S1 more due to the adorable character moments and there are a lot of them in S1.

You're so spot on on ship wars and how they make you hate characters you love. I was so upset the other day because reading through ship wars I ended up hating Spike. It freaked me out. Spike is my second favorite male character. I can't hate him!!