Have we ever done a poll of our Top 10? I wonder how many people would vote for which.

I feel certain there was a deathmatch at some point. Damned if I can remember the results.

As the comments note, it's not a Top Ten, but a Ten Most Representative Episodes.

Ten Most Representative Episodes.

I'm still pretty sure Hush and The Body should be on there. Cheat and call Surprise/Innocence a single ep if you have to.

(And take out...I dunno, The Zeppo probably. As much as I love it, it doesn't touch those two.)

I think the author has a point for leaving out "The Body." The exercise is to pick the 10 episodes that will give the newbie the best idea of what the series as a whole is about. As pitch perfect as "The Body" is, a lot of the punch depends on context. Joyce was just starting to date again after surviving a life-threatening illness. Buffy had just put Riley behind her for good (or so she thought). Things were starting to come together -- and Joyce dies in the blink of an eye. The newbie won't have that context. And also won't have Anya's demon background, which adds an extra dimension to the fruit punch speech.

Looking at it from that angle, they almost have to include a non-Buffy-centric episode. "The Zeppo" fills that niche nicely, but other episodes (Dark Willow, maybe?) could do the same.

He basically said as much in his comments on Once More with Feeling. He also mentioned Hush, but I don't know why he didn't have it on the list over, say, Earshot, which was never one of my favorites.

The headline is "10 episodes that show how Buffy The Vampire Slayer blew up genre TV"

To me that doesn't say "Representative" or "Best" or "Best for newbies" - it says episodes like Restless and The Body and OMWF that were daring and experimental beyond the boundaries of what people thought a high school fantasy TV show could do.

So perhaps my quibble is just with the headline.

I also think he probably should have left season finales off the list, if the list was for newbies, especially starting the list with Prophecy Girl.

The URL says "www.avclub.com/articles/10-best-buffy-the-vampire-slayer-episodes", and the URLs on the AVclub usually echo what the headline says, so I'm thinking maybe the headline was rewritten by the editor.

To me that doesn't say "Representative" or "Best" or "Best for newbies" - it says episodes like Restless and The Body and OMWF that were daring and experimental beyond the boundaries of what people thought a high school fantasy TV show could do.

What Jessica said.

I'm thinking maybe the headline was rewritten by the editor

If you read the whole piece, though, it's pretty clear they're not making a "best of" list.

Actually if you substitute "Hush" for "Something Blue" that list would pretty much be my top 10. Since I think of "Prophecy Girl" as the best episode of the series, I'm glad to see it up there.