Sporadically secret reply/question: You mean a "bands that played a song during an episode" soundtrack or a "background music suites from various episodes" soundtrack? Or perhaps that's not known yet?

whistles and rocks back on heels with hands locked behind back while staring at ceiling.

Oh, one of those.

Ken knows I will back him with the huge S4 love. Best season ever.

Again I would rank them 4,2,7,6,5,3,1.

See, I love season 4, but it is behind season 3 in my estimation. Which is why your order does not compute for me. Mine is 3,4,2,7,6,1,5. With 7, 6, and 1 being a tough call, and 4 and 2 being a similar tough call. Why is season 3 so far down (or 1 for that matter)?

Or did this come up before? I suspect it did, but it's late. And actually, away to bed I am, so adieu!

I cannot rank. Well, I can, but not well. I love Season Three the best, and all the others are a big mishmash of slightly less love.

Hum. Ranking them is difficult for me-- partly because I only got into the show when we'd already reached season 6.

Generally, then I think I go: 6, 2, 4, 1, 5-7-3. The last three are hard to choose between.

3-2-4-6-5-7-1 or sometimes

3-2-6-4-5-7-1

Actually - 4, 5, and 6 are sort of interchangeable. It depends on my mood, I think. I do like Forever. I like the homage to The Monkey Paw. I also find it generally cathartic. The Body hurts you and then Forever lets you mourn. YYouMV.

I watched The Yoko Factor last night. In a very odd way, I think Angel and Buffy's scene in her dorm hallway might be my favorite Angel/Buffy scene. Now I never got annoyed by B/A, because I didn't find the show until after season 3 was underway. I didn't find them tedious. I worried that when DB left, I'd lose interest in the show, and not because of the random hottie factor, just because I liked the conflict inherent in their relationship.

edited to add...

I also watched New Moon Rising. I'd forgotten what a good episode it was. There was so much controversey at the Bronze at the time, that it because an important! episode! in the fandom. I forgot how much sweet pain was in it. Really lovely.

I don't know why I rank 3 so low. I just don't. I mean it had Faith and the Mayor but still not high for me. 1 is last because I wasn't a huge fan of the standalones, but then again S2 had many as well, but the whole Angelus thing bumps it up really quick. S1 was just too short for me and I wish we could have had more of the first year of Buffy and co.

S1 was just too short for me and I wish we could have had more of the first year of Buffy and co.

See, I think this spared us some of the problems that resulted from say, Glory or Adam or the FE hanging around too long doing nothing. The Master was around just about as long as necessary. Not a lot of waste on that arc. I do agree that the stand-aloneness is why I downgrade the season (this is why I rate 4 over 2- better stand alones and mini-arcs). Teacher's Pet & The computer demon ep really feel filler-ish. The Sid episode, not so much because it introduced Snyder. Even some of the eps with a fairly lame explanation for the evil (Nightmares and the Pack come to mind) had really good stuff in them that superseded that actual story.

In fact, I think the biggest problems seasons 5-7 were letting the arc take over. Joss in the interview about season 7 even talks about having too much stuff to set up to let some of the other things they wanted to do happen. That's letting the arc take over, IMO. I liked 6 and 7, and a lot of 5, but they are different from what preceded. I like 4 so much because, despite having this arc set up, they just let the characters run roughshod over it when they needed to. They did the arc, but didn't let it get in the way as much, I think.

Howeve, one or two eps aside, season 3 is perfection to me.

The ranking thing is hard because I liked different things about different seasons. For example, I think that from a critical standpoint Season 6 as a whole was better done and more daring than seasons 4 and 5, but much of it was so joyless that I feel no urge to rewatch (front 3, back 3, and OMWF being exceptions). Meanwhile, episodes from 4 and 5 that I find technically inferior still have enough fun packed into each hour to make me watch again and again.

In general, I think of seasons 1-3 as a whole different animal: snappy dialogue and characterizations, embarrassment of riches in terms of cast, "high school is hell" metaphor working well to provide cohesive tapestry of main arc and subplots. Plus, it's all still shiny and new and there aren't any other projects dividing the team's creativity.