What would be your Buffy "Lite" package?

[collex]

Okay, let's say you have a friend who comes to you and want to know what this "Buffy" show is all about. Problem: he only have time to watch ten episode and read one Season 8 comic. So your job is to make hima "Buffy Lite" selection of episode that would explain to him what is the series and hopefully hook him up.

There is only one rule: you must at least have 1 episode from each season, and the comic must be from Season 8 (no non-cannon stuff)

SO, what would be your package? I'll post mine soon (got a class in a hour, must work)

[lucifurl]

Season One - The Witch
" - Prophecy Girl

Season Two - School Hard
" - Innocence

Season Three - Faith, hope and trick

Season Four - Hush
" - Restless

Season Five - The Body

Season Six - Tabula Rasa

Season Seven - The Killer in Me

Season Eight - Time of your life.

[Skytteflickan88]

Season 1: Propechy girl.

Season 2: Becoming part 2.

Season 3: Graduation day part 2.

Season 4: Hush.
'
Season 5: Family.

Season 6: Wrecked.

Season 7: Him.

Season 8: Issue 12.

I think that's a good mix of humour, grief, action and character development. We see the characters at their best and worst, we laugh and cry with them.

I'm sure there are better episodes, but that's what I got off the top of my head.

[tkts]

Boy, that's hard. The problem is that so many of the best episodes really depend on knowing the back story. It gets especially difficult around Season 5 ... are you allowed to grab your friend between episodes and give him a quick orientation to why Buffy suddenly has a little sister?

My first thought was that I'd have to (a) have a lot of episodes from early seasons, when the show was more serial and less arc-driven; and (b) try to make the later episodes be the more standalone ones. (Even the standalone ones play important roles in the arc, but at least you'd be able to understand the main plot without knowing what came before.)

Oddly, however, after I started adding enough episodes to later seasons to make the arcs kind of make sense, I ended up having to cut all the S1 episodes except the pilot. If it weren't for the requirement of having at least one episode from every season, I probably would have had maybe half be from Season 1 and skipped some seasons entirely.

Season 1:

"Welcome to the Hellmouth / The Harvest." Sure, it wasn't the best episode, but it was good, and it did exactly what a pilot needs to do in terms of establishing the premise and the characters, and that's important for a "lite" package.

Candidates that didn't make it:
-- "The Witch." Originally added because it sets up Amy, but then I didn't end up with any Amy episodes from later seasons.
-- "Angel." Again, I thought it would turn out to be necessary as back story, but didn't end up with any Angel-heavy eps from later.
-- "The Puppet Show" and "Out of Mind, Out of Sight." Both interesting concepts, both well executed, but had to cut to make 10.
-- "The Pack." Rejected because if you're only going to show someone 10 episodes, it would be weird to have 10% of their Buffy introduction consist of Xander acting like an asshole.
-- "Prophecy Girl." Great episode, but had to cut somewhere.


Season 2:

"School Hard." Funny, and a good introduction to Spike.


Season 3:

"Band Candy." A good, funny standalone. It does involve the Mayor's Ascension arc, but not in a heavy way.

"Earshot." A good character episode that, again, stands fairly well on its own.

Candidates that didn't make it:
-- "The Wish" and "Doppelgangland." Although I LOVE Doppelgangland, it doesn't make sense without "The Wish" to set it up. And then it becomes the same problem as with "The Pack": If you're only showing 10 episodes, they need to be episodes that happen in the normal universe and feature all the characters acting like their usual selves, otherwise it'll just get confusing.


Season 4:

"Hush." The easiest choice of the bunch. First, because it's one of the best episodes of the entire series. Second, because even though it involves the Buffy/Riley arc, there's enough setup at the beginning that you could more or less figure out what's going on. Third, because it's basically a Monster-of-the-Week episode, sparing us from needing to get into the back story of the season's main villain. Finally, because it sets up Tara. Normally, jumping straight into Season 5 and seeing Willow and Tara dating would be a weird transition, but if one of the last things you saw was the scene where they move the vending machine, it wouldn't seem that strange.


Season 5:

"I Was Made to Love You." Again, because it's more or less a standalone. There's no way to make the whole Glory/Dawn/Key arc make sense in this limited a framework.

"The Body." I wasn't going to include this at first, even thought it's one of the best episodes, because it's very much not a standalone. But "I Was Made to Love You" leads straight into it, and besides, there isn't that much Glory/Dawn/Key stuff going on.

Candidates that didn't make it:
-- "The Gift." A beautiful episode, but very arc-dependent.


Season 6:

"Once More With Feeling." It's a classic. It's the one Buffy episode everyone knows about, even if they've never seen the show. And because Joss Whedon thought he might get some non-regulars tuning in because they'd heard about the episode, he made sure to work in little clues to tell you things about the characters and their relationships.


Season 7:

"Bring on the Night." Because it introduces the Potentials.

"Potential." Because it's a great Dawn episode.

Candidates that didn't make it:
-- Any of the early episodes in the season, because I basically skipped the entire "Dark Willow" arc from Season 6, so they wouldn't make much sense. Otherwise "Lessons" would have been a strong candidate.
-- Any of the later episodes, because the arc was too heavy by then. "Bring on the Night" and "Potential" are just about at the right point for being pulled out in this kind of list -- far enough removed from Season 6 that we're on to Season 7 stuff now, but not so far along that we're right in the thick of everything. Because, really, the last several episodes would be pretty hard to separate from one another -- they're basically one cohesive narrative.


Interesting to note: This list doesn't include a single season finale, largely because they tended to be climaxes of several different threads from throughout the season.

In general, a lot of my favorite episodes aren't on the list.

Also, several major arcs ended up eliminated completely: Angel turning evil, Faith and the Mayor, Adam, Glory and the Key, Dark Willow. There just wouldn't be any way to make them make sense in a "sampler."

(I don't know the comics, so I can't pick a Season 8 installment.)

[HannahSlayer]

Season One: Angel, Prophecy Girl

Season Two: Innocence, Becoming Pt 2.

Season Three: The Wish

Season Four: The Yoko Factor

Season Five: The Gift

Season Six: Bargaining Pt 1., Once More With Feeling

Season Seven: Storyteller

[buffyfan21]

Oh, this is a tough one. Let's see:

Season 1: Angel, Prophecy Girl

Season 2: Surprise, Innocence

Season 3: The Prom

Season 4: Hush, Restless

Season 5: The Gift

Season 6: Once More with Feeling

Season 7: Conversations with Dead People

Season 8: Issue #5 - The Chain

[snizapman6294]

I'm gonna do 2 per season:

Season 1:

"Welcome to the Hellmouth" - Pilot, sets up everything.
"Angel" - Angel. not much else to say...

Season 2:
"Surprise" - Buffy loses her virginity, Angel goes crazy.
"Becoming (Part Two)" - Angel is killed, buffy leaves

Season 3:
"The Wish" - Introduces my fav. Anya!
"Graduation Day (Part One)" - Faith vs. Buffy

Season 4:
"Wild at Heart" - Bye, bye oz!
"Restless" - Tara & Setting up Dawn

Season 5:
"Real Me" - Explains Dawn (kind of)
"The Gift" - Buffy's Death

Season 6:
"Bargaining" - Buffy's alive again...
"Once More With Feeling" - Classic episode, probably the most well known ep.

Season 7:
"Bring on the Night" - Buffy's speech at the end is a personal favorite.
"Chosen" - Series Finale... duh.

Season 8:
"The Chain" - A personal Favorite of mine...

[Angel Beast]

Season 1:
Welcome to the Hellmouth & The Harvest: Sets the story for the friend.
Angel: Introduce the vampire Angel.
Prophecy Girl: cause its awesome.

Season 2:
School Hard: Introductions of Spike and Dru.
Halloween: its a fun episode.
Ted: John Ritter nuff said.
What's my line? Part 1 & 2: great episodes.
Innocence: sets up Angel vs Buffy
Passion: Pivotal moment in the Buffy vs Angel story.
Becoming Part One& Two: Concludes Buffy vs Angel

Season 3:
Faith, Hope, & Trick: Introduces Faith.
Band Candy: Another fun episode.
Amends: All around great episode.
Helpless: Beginning of the distrust in the Buffy/Giles relationship.
Bad Girls: Faith's decent into the darkside.
Earshot: great episode
Graduation Day part 1 & 2: Evil Faith, Angel leaves and school go boom ;D

Season 4:
Hush: Buffy and Riley find out who each other really is. The greatest tv couple is born Willow and Tara.
Goodbye Iowa: Adam.
This Year's Girl: Faith returns.
Primeval: The gang as one defeat Adam.

Season 5:
Buffy vs Dracula: Dawn is introduced.
Family: Shows the bond the Scooby gang has.
I was made to love you: Introduces Warren.
The Body: The greatest tv episode in recent history.
The Gift: great season finale

Season 6:
Bargaining Part 1 & 2: Buffy's resurrection.
Life Serial: the Trio
Once More With Feeling: fun episode
Tabula Rasa: another fun episode
Wrecked: Willow's downward spiral.
Dead things: The Trio's downward spiral.
Seeing Red, Villains, Two to Go, and Grave: Great episodes. Willow is bad. Spike has a soul.

Season 7:
Lessons: Willow's rehab.
Beneath You: Spike's dialogue at the end.
Selfless: An Anya episode
Storyteller: three words "We Are Gods"
Chosen: Sunnydale is no more.

Season 8:
every comic

Also because they tie into Buffy character story arcs:
Angel episodes, 5 by 5, Sanctuary, Salvage, Release, and Orpheus.

[tkts]

Some of these are getting to be a little bit more than "lite."

[buffyfan21]

Oct 9, 2009 13:42:49 GMT -5 snizapman6294 said:

Season 8:
"The Chain" - A personal Favorite of mine...

I picked this one, too.

[lightandmagic]

My Buffy-lite Package

Season 1

Prophecy Girl - I think it's by far the best episode of the season, and there's not a huge amount of backstory built up in the first season that you can't watch this and not understand.

Season 2

Surprise/Innocence- You get to see the amazing acting potential of many of the actors, tons of character development, awesome plot line, and absolutely hilarious moments (aka rocket launcher).

Season 3

Bad Girls - I think I'm the only person that finds this to be one of the best episodes of the entire series. It's such a good analysis on power, the temptation and abuse of it. I would include it solely as I feel like every story's protagonist needs an "Other", a dark version of themself, and Faith fills this role perfectly. And that last line "No. You don't get it. I don't care." is one of the best moments in the series' history.

Season 4

Living Conditions - Need some element of comedy in there! I think this is one of the funniest episodes of the series and you need little to none series' context in order to understand it.

Restless - To show people who doubt it for its intellectual value how deep and thought-provoking this show can be. It also shows off some of the amazing cinemotagraphy this show had at times. It might be a bit disorienting, but it's disorienting for everyone, and I think people would eventually be able to flow with it.

I really wanted to include Hush because it's such a neat episode. But I feel like that would set their hopes high of Buffy being constantly terrifying, when only several times have I been creeped and/or frightened of something from Buffy. I feel like these episodes better suit the overall mood of the show.

Season 5

This season was so hard to choose cause so much of it depends on the arc, and I honestly would not want to show someone The Gift without them seeing the buildup of the entire season towards it. I would also not want to show Buffy vs. Dracula cause I just don't think it's a good episode. I wouldn't want to show The Body cause I also think that needs a good buildup towards it to feel the emotional impact, if you take it out of context, it just exists in a vacuum where it's not that emotional cause you don't know who Joyce even is. So, I decided upon:

Triangle - Strange choice huh? But I feel like this represents how wacky this show can get. At the same time however, it isn't just a standalone episode, it's a character developing episode between Willow and Anya. It's funny, and I think people can appreciate the oddity of it.

Season 6

Once More With Feeling - It's an iconic Buffy episode. It has to be in here.

Season 7

Selfless - I have to put this in here as Anya is and probably always will be my favourite Buffyverse character. Not only that, I think this is an amazing episode that has tons of drama, comedy, and exploration of self.

Dirty Girls - Episode that introduces Caleb, a really interesting villian and incredibly menacing. Summarizes the idea of the potentials. And re-introduces Faith who my audience will have gotten to know, and would be really interesting to see how she's changed over these four years.

Season 8

I wouldn't show them a comic. I haven't really been impressed by a single one yet. =/ Sorry.

[Angel Beast]

Oct 10, 2009 18:09:23 GMT -5 tkts said:

Some of these are getting to be a little bit more than "lite."

sometimes one or two episode just dont do it. I went with more cause it would give them a better understanding of whats going on in each season.

[magicboxregular]

Season1: Welcome to the Hellmouth
Angel
Nightmares
Season2: Halloween
Season3: The Wish Dopplegangland INTRODUCES ANYA!
Season4: Primeval
Season5: Real Me
Season6: Bargaining P1 and 2
Season7: Chosen
Comics: All, brill

[collex]

Okay, so here is my package. I abided by all the rules I've setted (of course).

Season 1: Welcome to the Hellmouth, The Harvest

Why? Cause it's the beginning, it explains everything and I quite like it. Especially the "the world is doomed" line at the end of The Harvest.

Season 2: Innocence

One of the series best episode. It got a lot of character devellopment and it's quite heart-breaking.

Season 3: Band Candy

A fun stand-alone, it also features one of my favorite "villain-of-the-week", Ethan Rayne.

Season 4: Something Blue

I don't really like Season 4, so I chose this episode because SMG is wonderful playing Buffy as a dumb blonde. It also got a lot of references to earlier episode, which would hook up a viewer.

Season 5: Intervention

Again, an episode where SMG plays a wonderfully dumb Buffy. also, it introduces the concept of the "key", and "Death is your gift" is an awesome line

Season 6: Once more with feeling, Normal again.

OMWF is classic, everyone has heard of it, and it is a good example of how the show can mix comedy and tragedy really well (among all the cherry singing, Buffy almost commit suicide in this episode).

As for Normal Again, it's a wonderfully crafted episode, and the concept is awesome. Really, it's among my favorites. And it also refers to Dawn sudden arrival ina wonderully meta way.

Season 7: Him, Potential

Him is a great Dawn-centric episode, with another round of dumb Buffy (this never gets old) as an added extra.

Potential must be one of the greatest Dawn episode. I love Dawn, and I find she was never develloped enough on the show.

Season 8: Anywhere but here

Again, great Dawn moments, a great inside into new willow and new buffy too, and how their relationship has become strained

[Greer]

Good idea, but it's hard!

Season One: "Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest"- It explains mostly everything in a nutshell, and the viewer will have something to base everything else on. It's pretty much a necessity, in my eyes.

Season Two: Oh man, this one is really hard. S2 is my favorite season, and so many episodes are so great. I'd go with :
-Surprise: We can see the scope of Buffy and Angel's relationship and a lot of Scooby background information. Plus the start of Willow and Oz, and Xander/Cordy rumblings.
-Becoming, Part One: Background, background, background. I feel like a lot of episodes with flashbacks will help fill in the holes that a new viewer to Buffy will have. Great Angel flashback(albeit his horrible Irish accent), great Buffy flashbacks. You get to see Kendra, and the beginning ability of Willow's magic. There's sacrifice and loss, plus the best quote of the series, said by Whistler at the beginning and end of the episode.
Season Three: Hmm...hard one, again. I'll go with...Faith, Hope & Trick because it introduces Faith and addresses a lot of things. Aaaaand...Enemies. I know it's not a big fan fave, but I love it because it brings back the Angel turning into Angelus thing and shows how Faith has turned bad, etc.
Season Four: I'd go with Hush, just due to it being a classic and needs to be seen by a lot of people.
Season Five: This is definitely a toughie. There are so many great episodes, but they are so dependent upon one another in terms of arc and storyline. I'll pick The Body, because the viewer has gotten to know Joyce by now; While it may not be as traumatizing since they haven't seen every episode, it's very emotional and fantastic.
Season Six: OMWF, which so many people have heard of and should be introduced to, but might need some background (i.e. why Buffy is wanting to go back to heaven, what's going on with the couples, Dawn, etc.)
Season Seven: Selfless. Bunnies, Flashbacks, a great episode before everyone gets all muddled with the Potentials.

Comics: I have to say none of them have impressed me like the tv series. Sorry, Joss.

[Hallow Thorn]

Season 1: Welcome to the Hellmouth
Season 2: Reptile Boy
Season 3: The Wish
Season 4: The Freshman
Season 5: Triangle
Season 6: Once More, with Feeling
Season 7: Chosen
Comics: After These Messages ... We'll Be Right Back! or Tales of the Vampires.

[Zombierella]

Season One: Welcome To The Hellmouth
Season Two: School Hard
Season Three: The Prom
Season Four: Something Blue
Season Five: Fool For Love
Season Six: Bargaining Part I & II
Season Seven: Conversations With Dead People
Season Eight: I havent read any accept for "The Long Way Home"

[Johanne]

I think it's hard to pick episodes to show people who've never watched Buffy. Generally, I'd just let them watch the whole series in order, since most episodes in the middle of seasons contains stuff they wouldn't understand, and spoilers. But I'll probably post my list later.

[Xander-Shaped Friend]

I agree with Johanne. Generally it's better in order. Maybe one episode to hook them depending on there tastes can work or even just standalones, but a lot of the lists don't make sense. Like using an episode to introduce Dawn and then showing the Gift, there will be plenty of confusion there. In my list I wouldn't go near such things like Innocence, Passion, Becoming Part Two, Restless, The Gift, Once more with feeling, or Chosen. Not only is it spoiling some of the greatest stuff but it will have no emotional impact on them nor will it until much later after a rewatch or more.

[VampSlayer]

Season One: Welcome to the Hellmouth, The Harvest
Season Two: Halloween, Innocence
Season Three: The Wish
Season Four: Hush
Season Five: The Body
Season Six: Once More, With Feeling, Normal Again
Season Seven: Conversations with Dead People
Season 8: A Beautiful Sunset