As the comments note, it's not a Top Ten, but a Ten Most Representative Episodes.
Xander: Hey, Red. What you got in the basket, little girl? Buffy: Weapons.
Xander/Buffy ,'Help'
Buffy and Angel 1: BUFFYNANGLE4EVA!!!!!1!
Is it better the second time around? Or the third? Or tenth? This is the place to come when you have a burning desire to talk about an old episode that was just re-run.
DavidS - Dec 12, 2012 10:06:18 am PST #9788 of 10458
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."
Jessica - Dec 12, 2012 10:09:09 am PST #9789 of 10458
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
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.)
Fred Pete - Dec 12, 2012 10:43:36 am PST #9790 of 10458
Ann, that's a ferret.
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.
Frankenbuddha - Dec 12, 2012 10:46:39 am PST #9791 of 10458
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
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.
Jessica - Dec 12, 2012 10:48:13 am PST #9792 of 10458
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset
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.
Frankenbuddha - Dec 12, 2012 10:49:18 am PST #9793 of 10458
"We are the Goon Squad and we're coming to town...Beep! Beep!" - David Bowie, "Fashion"
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.
Tom Scola - Dec 12, 2012 11:20:21 am PST #9794 of 10458
Mr. Scola’s wardrobe by Botany 500
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.
Amy - Dec 12, 2012 11:41:33 am PST #9795 of 10458
Because books.
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.
Matt the Bruins fan - Dec 12, 2012 11:58:31 am PST #9796 of 10458
"I remember when they eventually introduced that drug kingpin who murdered people and smuggled drugs inside snakes and I was like 'Finally. A normal person.'” —RahvinDragand
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.
billytea - Dec 12, 2012 12:07:22 pm PST #9797 of 10458
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.
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.
Prophecy Girl is also, I think, the most accessible season finale to the casual viewer. (Unsurprisingly, as they'd had only half a season to build up mythology.)