November 14 2013
BuzzFeed has ranked every Buffy episode from worst to best.
I'm sure everyone here will agree 100% and this will be a very boring thread.
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WhatsAStevedore | November 14, 07:59 CET
Krusher | November 14, 08:04 CET
Sunfire | November 14, 08:07 CET
I'm in the happy position of never having totally hated any episode of Buffy... or, really, any episode of any Whedon show. I even thought "Beer Bad" worked OK as a fluffy comedy episode.
AndrewCrossett | November 14, 08:13 CET
Krusher | November 14, 08:15 CET
Jjsquid | November 14, 08:20 CET
@Krusher-They combined some episodes like "Yoko Factor/Primeval", "Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest". Plus 2 parters like "What's My Line" are combined into one entry.
Jelly | November 14, 08:25 CET
Krusher | November 14, 08:27 CET
Enisy | November 14, 08:44 CET
napoleon27 | November 14, 08:48 CET
and buffy does have some truly amazing eps so it is hard to choose the best of the best.
I have to say, I don't much see the point of these lists other than to make fans argue. I would've,I don't know,maybe classified them? like myth arc and motwk eps, or holiday eps or world-ending eps or by trope or by mood or something.
okelay | November 14, 09:02 CET
But I would have ranked "Killed by Death" higher and "Normal Again" still freaks me out. And I hate "Empty Places".
Amerdale | November 14, 09:11 CET
And it makes me so happy that Becoming is #1, because it's so mission statement-y. I would put Becoming & Surprise/Innocence at the top every time.
Kiba | November 14, 09:17 CET
alexreager | November 14, 09:19 CET
While there might be a couple of not-great ones, IMO there's only one terrible Buffy episode, which is Normal Again. I feel insulted watching it. I loathe the mere suggestion of 'So, you've just watched 117 episodes, here's where we tell you that it's all in an insane girl's head'. The 'alternate reality' presented there envisions the opposite of the what, and the WHY, I´m watching the series. And the dialogue makes it even worse, when Buffy summarizes the idea behind the show and calls it ridiculous.
The only redeemable aspect of the episode is SMG's amazing acting in it.
Valentijn | November 14, 09:23 CET
Still in that time... Some people considered them awesome
Ghost999 | November 14, 09:54 CET
A lot of my favorite episodes are placed far too low for my taste (Killed by Death and The Pack especially, but also many others that are somewhat further from the bottom of this list, like Life Serial and Lies My Parents Told Me). Conversely I would never rate The Wish or The Gift higher than episodes like Hush, Selfless or Earshot.
Still it's fun to be reminded of all Buffy's episodes once in a while, makes me feel like revisiting the show once again.
the Groosalugg | November 14, 09:57 CET
swanjun | November 14, 10:01 CET
Personally, I'd rank "Bad Eggs" as worst.
Vague That Up | November 14, 10:08 CET
Ronald_SF | November 14, 10:10 CET
And I LOVE "Life Serial." And I might put "Storyteller" higher. Just thinking about it makes me laugh.
And I'd give the top slot to OMWF.
But every episode has things that I like in it. That magic combination of beloved characters + clever dialog always comes through, even when the plot leaves something to be desired.
Now I feel like getting back to that rewatch...
jcs | November 14, 10:14 CET
As usual i disagree for the most part but that's the nature of a list like this.
Mcb | November 14, 10:33 CET
Still, my big 'how can those be ranked so low?' are Flooded and The Weight of the World. I absolutely love The Weight of the World as the prequel to The Gift. It's perfect.
Flooded was the third episode of the show I watched and I loved the loan scene this article complains about. After Flooded, I was already quoting the characters and I knew Buffy was my favourite show.
Bluelark | November 14, 11:39 CET
libradude | November 14, 11:40 CET
MelloMania | November 14, 11:49 CET
This seems like a reasonably uncontroversial list though - obviously we're all going to disagree here and there, but most of the agreed classics seem to be near the top and most of the least popular episodes are near the bottom.
allthingsaverage | November 14, 12:27 CET
In Beer Bad, Buffy's descent into a cavewoman makes for some great physical humor (the swivel chair scene, the lipstick paint scene, the clubbing Parker over the head scene, etc., etc.), and Willow's shutdown of Parker is just fun to watch. It also has some nice foreshadowing to Giles's season arc of inadequacy with him being completely useless in the search for Buffy toward the end of the episode.
Bad Eggs is one of a handful of humorous Marti Noxon episodes that are generally underrated, IMO, by the BtVS community at large (Living Conditions, Buffy vs. Dracula, Surprise, the Buffybot scenes in Bargaining, Part 1). While I find much of the episode funny, it also has some of the creepiest villains of the first 3 seasons: spider monsters that hatch from eggs, cover you with tentacles while you sleep, control your mind, and answer to a giant all-consuming blob that lives under the school; that's entering into some serious nightmare territory. The episode also is one of the first to show some friction between Buffy and Joyce resulting from her slayer duties, setting up the arc that culminates in Becoming.
I also take issue with how low The Initiative is ranked; it's probably my favorite comedy of the series, and definitely in my top 10 episodes. There are just so many funny moments in the episode; the one everyone remembers is the Spike/Willow impotence scene, but the entire episode is comedic gold: there's the Xander/Harmony slo-mo slap fight, the cold open where Buffy breaks the soft serve machine, the park bench scene where neither Buffy nor Riley can convince the other one to leave, the several hilarious Willow/Riley conversations about how to woo Buffy... I'd go on, but it would just become a scene-by-scene description of the episode.
It is nice to see Witch ranked so highly for a change; it's incredibly well-put-together (great humor, nice twist at the end) for how early in the series it aired, and it set the stage really well for the Monster-of-the-Week one-off episodes that were such an important counterpoint to the season-arc episodes in the series' structure.
HerbSaunders | November 14, 12:30 CET
roadi | November 14, 13:20 CET
narky | November 14, 14:05 CET
Helpless and Family both made the top fifty, though, which makes me happy since they're both relatively underrated, right? They're both top ten episodes for me.
manbearpig | November 14, 14:14 CET
the Groosalugg | November 14, 14:39 CET
I love the Beer Bad episode, because not only it shows a strong Buffy and a strong female lead despite (or because of it) her neanderthal outwards, she still remains the strong one. With funny! It connects with the first one.
Krusher | November 14, 15:07 CET
Mitrokhin | November 14, 16:02 CET
I won't mention Good episodes placed as bad ones. Truth is I love so many Buffy episodes I would have to put good ones almost all the way up to the end of the list.
But come on? "All the Way" is just a bad episode, What's it doing in number 80?
Anne is a great episode.
“Where the Wild Things Are” has great Spike/Anya scenes that make it great.
“Buffy vs. Dracula” should be lower on the list.
“I, Robot… You, Jane” should also be lower. I know it's already placed as third worst, but it really deserves first place. When people I know watch the show for the first time I beg them to skip it.
Beer Bad and Bad eggs are actually not all bad (despite the bad in their name)
urkonn | November 14, 16:54 CET
[ edited by Ronald_SF on 2013-11-15 03:20 ]
Ronald_SF | November 14, 17:20 CET
ManEnoughToAdmitIt | November 14, 19:45 CET
I disagree more with their picks for the best episodes. I'm a big Anya fan, so I've always loved "Selfless" (they've ranked it at 24) and would've put it much higher. I'm a fan of "The Wish" but it's too high at 4. Also, "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", another one of my all-time favorites is way down at 61. I feel they under-ranked the more comedic episodes. Band Candy is too low at 26. Also, my favorite season premiere "When She Was Bad" is WAY DOWN at 109.
WindTheFrog | November 14, 21:55 CET
I agree that "Beer Bad" is a terrific episode and belongs near the middle rather than the bottom of the list. (Though I agree Bad Eggs should be at the bottom.)
I very much disagree that the season 7 series finale should be near the top. I would place it near the bottom, along with almost all other season 7 episodes.
For me, the number one slot should be shared by Hush and The Body. I might also accept a 3-way tie that includes OMWF, since that was maybe the most ambitious episode.
Squishy | November 15, 12:59 CET
AMCsoldier | November 15, 13:20 CET