In honor of Dollhouse’s second season premiere, Entertainment Weekly compiled a list of the 25 best episodes ever from all five of the shows created by Joss Whedon (and Dr. Horrible).
‘‘INNOCENCE’’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2)
‘‘HUSH’’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 4)
‘‘A HOLE IN THE WORLD’’ (Angel, Season 5)
‘‘OUR MRS. REYNOLDS’’ (Firefly, Season 1)
‘‘ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING’’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 6)
‘‘NOT FADE AWAY’’ (Angel, Season 5)
‘‘GRADUATION DAY, PARTS 1 & 2’’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 3)
DR. HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG, ACT TWO
‘‘THE GIFT’’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 5)
‘‘JAYNESTOWN’’ (Firefly, Season 1)
‘‘CHOSEN’’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 7)
‘‘WAR STORIES’’ (Firefly, Season 1)
‘‘I WILL REMEMBER YOU’’ (Angel, Season 1)
‘‘PASSION’’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 2)
‘‘SEEING RED’’/‘‘VILLAINS’’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 6)
‘‘MAN ON THE STREET’’ (Dollhouse, Season 1)
‘‘OUT OF GAS’’ (Firefly, Season 1)
‘‘THE WISH’’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 3)
‘‘RESTLESS’’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 4)
‘‘SMILE TIME’’ (Angel, Season 5)
‘‘EPITAPH ONE’’ (Dollhouse, Season 1)
‘‘THE ZEPPO’’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 3)
‘‘CONVERSATIONS WITH DEAD PEOPLE’’ (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Season 7)
‘‘YOU’RE WELCOME’’ (Angel, Season 5)
Agree? Disagree? EW is (as usual) on crack? What say you?
Personally, I think it’s pretty craptacular. “The Body” was the obvious number one, but I thought after the initial viewing it was a pretty weak attempt at remaking “Hush” (which should have been #1). They also completely ignored the majority of Angel’s run and gave high marks to the season six finale of all episodes. Although I must admit, they hit almost almost every must-include Firefly episode except for “Objects in Space”.
I don’t know- “Objects in Space” is better than many or all of the Firefly episodes they did include. And Act 2 of Dr. Horrible? Strange choice- I thought that was the worst of the episodes.
Their description for “Passions” perfectly sums up why I feel it is the most important Buffy episode ever:
Until this episode, Buffy viewers operated under the assumption that the show would behave like every other genre show before it: No matter how bad things got, no one ‘‘important’’ would actually die. That all changed when the newly evil Angel snapped the neck of Giles’ budding girlfriend Jenny Calendar (Robia LaMorte), and then placed her body on Giles’ bed, surrounded by rose petals and candlelight. Suddenly, all bets were off, and fans were shocked, grief-stricken, and completely riveted.
That episode and “Innocence” is why season two is the best season ever.
I dunno, maybe Selfless or Conversations With Dead People. Those were both brilliant episodes, and if season 7 could have even followed through on their themes, let alone maintained anywhere near that level of quality, it would have been awesome.
Can’t say I’m all that well-versed with the shows (though I never saw an episode of Angel that wasn’t largely cringe-worthy), but the most interesting thing about the list was discovering that Mal’s wife in Firefly’s “Our Mrs. Reynolds” is the same actress who plays va-va-va-voom Joan in Mad Men.
Eh, I guess the list is OK. It’s been a while since I’ve seen Buffy or Angel so the memories of the eps aren’t all there. I remember thinking how I really liked that last season of Angel but Buffy’s was a little too harsh.
I guess that list works, as **Silenus ** said. You could argue endlessly about what episode of which show is the best.
I’m glad to see “Smile Time” on there. I was nowhere near as big a fan of *Angel *as I was of Buffy, but “Smile Time” would be in my Top 5 of such a list.
I suspect they confused “The Wish”, a not all that great episode, with “Doppleganger”, a really excellent episode. The events depicted in “Doppleganger” depended on those in “The Wish”, but “Doppleganger” is a far, far better ep.
Well yeah. They needed to differentiate it from the three other fantastic seasons that followed. None of those episodes made it on the list because it just wouldn’t have been fair to the otherwise mediocre first season and the other Whedon series.
Hush was brilliant. Top episode in my book along with Innocence. I loved how Whedon takes the whole sex-changes-things-keep-your-virginity message and applies it to the Buffy-verse. With Hush, the Gentlemen are fantastically creepy villains.
The Wish, The Gift, The Body are a few of my favorites as well.
Chosen was one of a few episodes that made me a little teary.
I agree these are excellent, but I’m still happy with the list. Given that both Doppelgangerland and The Wish deal with the whole alternative universe thing, I can understand they only chose one. From these I would always prefer The Wish because of how everything we are used to in the ‘normal’ universe falls apart (eventhough Doppelgangerland may actually be a better episode).
I liked Band Candy and Halloween a lot as well, but I can’t see where they would be better than the season finales that are mentioned in the list - better than the Zeppo, sure, but like I said you can’t ask too much from these lists.
All in all everything I personally found special about Buffy is accoounted for, so I can’t be too upset that some of the stand-alone episodes I found fun - not devistatingly brilliant like The Body, Hush and Once More With Feeling - aren’t on the list.
Also, while I liked Firefly and Angel, they take up too many places in the list. I haven’t seen Dollhouse yet - due to it not being on TV and me having somewhat quit with the downloading - so I can’t comment on those.
I dunno. Firefly is Joss refined, after years of working on Buffy. The cast and directing are excellent, better than the cast of Buffy IMO. I won’t go so far as to say it’s the greatest TV series in the history of ever, but almost all the episodes are very strong, and in some cases like Out of Gas, very powerful. That should have been near the top, not Our Mrs. Reynolds, as good as it is. Out of Gas is damn near art.
:eek: After “Hush”, “The Zeppo” is my favorite Buffy episode of all time. I thought they focused too much on finales. “Chosen” and “Villains” were decent enough episodes, but they pale in comparison to the truly great episodes.
QFT. I’d have put OoG at the top, then the rest I’m pretty OK with, although I’d actually prefer more Firefly, less Angel. Not that I don’t like the series, but few of the episodes are individually brilliant, unlike Buffy and Firefly.