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whiskyinmind
whiskyinmind
28 February 2005 @ 06:49 pm
The Great Season Seven Re-Watch  
I'm not the world's biggest fan of Buffy's seventh season for quite a few reasons. Anyways, since I don't like it much, I figured it would be an interesting dynamic for me to do the 'Xander in season seven' essay for [livejournal.com profile] with_character.

Over the last week or so I've been undergoing a grand re-watching of the season to pick up on things I may have missed first time around. I just switched off after watching 'Sleeper' and my God this season just keeps on pissing me off. There are good bits in it, bad bits in it, mediocre bits in it - same as every season. I get the way the stories are working together to build up to an overall arc, I don't dislike the overall arc, I get the way the group dynamic is being systematically shattered but my god it's pissing me off to watch it again!

I genuinly don't think I want to watch another episode of this season right now but to do justice to the essay I'm going to have to, eventually. Right now I want to go back and watch an episode that highlights all the good things about this show that I do still love (despite the last season annoying the crap out of me right now).

So my question is this - which episode(s) should I re-watch now? Which do you think show everything that makes Buffy the Vampire Slayer a damn fine piece of television? Which would you show to someone if they asked you to show them why you love the progamme? (and I don't just mean season seven - I mean the whole 144 episodes)
 
 
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[identity profile] liz-marcs.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 10:51 am (UTC)
"The Pack." Of course, it was the first Buffy episode I ever saw, so it has a soft spot in my heart.

[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 10:55 am (UTC)
Good choice! I have to admit, that one has been rewatched probably more times than I can count (or would really want to admit to!) - but it's been a while since I have seen it, so that one is going to the top of the list now!
[identity profile] rileysaplank.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 10:57 am (UTC)
I'd show them Hush. It's not my favourite episode, that honour belongs to Passion, but Hush is just so different to any other episode of TV out there that to me it epitomises what Buffy the Vampire Slayer is all about.
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 10:59 am (UTC)
Hush still has the honour of being the only episode to actually make me jump in something resembling fright. Again it's been a while since I've seen it so it's also going on the list!
[identity profile] bluegreensmoke.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 11:06 am (UTC)
Surprise/Innocence is pretty cathartic, plus they do have some great Scooby stuff in them.
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 11:09 am (UTC)
Good episodes both, and yes the Scooby dynamic is pretty strong.

They're on the list too! Thanks!
(no subject) - (Anonymous) on April 17th, 2017 02:39 pm (UTC)
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 11:19 am (UTC)
The only concern I have is that there's a fair amount of Riley in the two BtVS episodes... *g*

Nah, just koing - they're on the list! Thanks!
[identity profile] saturn-girl.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 12:12 pm (UTC)
Essential BtVS eps
As for great BtVS episodes in general:
The Pack
Nightmares
Angel
Prophecy Girl
Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered
Innocence
Surprise
Passion
Becoming 1&2
Lover's Walk
The Zeppo
Graduation 1&2
Hush
Wild At Heart
Restless
The Replacement
The Body
The Gift

...but when you get to Season 6, the well really starts to run dry. Once More With Feeling and Grave are pretty good, but the only episode I truly enjoyed in S7 was Potential, and that was only because of the last scene with Dawn and Xander.
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 01:20 pm (UTC)
Re: Essential BtVS eps
Wow - that's quite a list! I may have to have one of those lined up after every episode I've got left to watch in S7 just to remember that there was some greatness there! Thanks!
[identity profile] cafedemonde.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 12:36 pm (UTC)
Fool For Love...hands down.
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 01:20 pm (UTC)
I have to say it's not one I've ever rewatched outwith a normal season run. I'm intrigued though, why would you say it sums up all that's good about the programme?
[identity profile] smhwpf.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 12:39 pm (UTC)
Sort of thinking of the non-big-arcy episodes, but that you can just watch as a self-contained gem of Buffyness... Earshot comes to mind. But that's partly my Buffycentricness. The Zeppo (well, duh!) The Pack, as has been said. School Hard. Hush. Homecoming. The Wish. Passion and Prophecy Girl of course, even though they are arc-heavy. Lovers Walk. Doppelgangland. Pangs I have a soft-spot for, though not everyone likes it. Restless of course. Anne I have a soft-spot for, but again, Buffycentricness. FH&T. BBB. OMWF. A New Man. Fear Itself. Family. Fool for Love. Normal Again, but depends how depressed to you want to be. Storyteller. Intervention. (Though arc-heavy).

Hmm... this is turning into a longish list...
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 01:23 pm (UTC)
Buffy (as a person) pre-season seven I like, Buffy pre-Him in season seven I like. After that I lose all sympathy with her character but before that I'm happy to watch Buffy-centric episodes.

Angst is good, so I can cope with most of the episodes on your list, I may have to have these lined up next to [livejournal.com profile] saturn_girl's suggestions to cheer me up after the rest of S7!
[identity profile] m-mcgregor.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 12:42 pm (UTC)
Becoming 1&2 are what really hooked me as a Buffy fan, but you can't go wrong with any number of S3 episodes.

And S7? Oh boy. Painful, very, very painful. To the point where I don't own that DVD set, and really don't have any plans to get it. It was very hard to continue to sympathize with and understand the characters after that season, especially since S6 is no picnic either.
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 01:25 pm (UTC)
season three I always see as being so arc-heavy that I rarely re-watch individual episodes from it. I should though, after all this was before the ten minute 'Previouslies' really took off, so although the arc was foremost, it didn't overpower the stories or characters.

Thanks!
[identity profile] valorgrl.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 12:51 pm (UTC)
All the ones I liked have pretty much already been said. The Replacement makes me laugh every time that Xander tries to prove he's Xander. :)

The ones I tell people to watch that might not have seen an episode is Hush, School Hard, The Pack and the Wish. Dang looking back through the episode lists, it's sad to see that I didn't like many past S3. How sad is that?
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 01:26 pm (UTC)
The Replacement, oh how do I love that episode! Despite the bitterness that comes from the fact that the steps forward taken in it were decimated within days on the show... (ooo bitter! *g*)

It will definitely be on my watching list now!
[identity profile] willowmina.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 01:28 pm (UTC)
I've always had a soft spot for Phases (but you know that's just my W/O thing). But The Harvest is one I always remember, probably because it was the first one I ever say. But Choices as well. I don't know what about it makes me like it. There's just something *shrugs*

Jackie
xx
[identity profile] whiskyinmind.livejournal.com on February 28th, 2005 01:30 pm (UTC)
Choices - now there's a good episode. That one is definitely going on the list now!

Thanks!
[identity profile] dimlondeiel.livejournal.com on March 2nd, 2005 08:24 am (UTC)
I understand that feeling, Sho. During the summer I did a Buffy rewatch and stalled at S7, at BOTN or Showtime I think. By the end of the show I had completely lost sympathy with Buffy and was very dissappointed in Chosen.
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