Everyone else came up with a top ten list for Buffy, so why can't I?

I'll even tell you how I came up with my top ten, in order to justify the time I spent thinking about it. Okay, there are 34 episodes that I kept on tape. Well, intentionally. And once I got the season 2 DVDs, I had considerably fewer on tape, but the point is that there were 34 episodes I thought were "worth keeping" for one reason or another, and I figured that was a good place to start. Note: 34 worth keeping, out of 154 episodes. Have I mentioned how wildly overrated I think Buffy is? Well, let's move on.

Now, I kept some episodes because Important Things happened in them, or they're set up things that matter in later episodes, but they're not all that great by themselves. "Surprise" leaps to mind. So I quickly dropped those from the list. Similarly, there are some I keep because there are some great scenes, but the story is insane, or the ending is ruined by, say, some kind of divine precipitation, or there's some other problem that keeps me from really thinking that this is the show at its best. Basically, episodes I enjoy watching despite some glaring problems. This is where "Once More, With Feeling" comes in. And "The Wish," which I love, but man, the Master's bloodletting machine is insanely stupid. So those were knocked off as well.

That left me with about 15, and then I just had to stare at the list for a while and decide which ones I liked the best overall. And then I cheated by including a couple of alternates. But here's what I came up with, more or less in order.

10. Innocence

Angelus was so much more interesting than Angel that for a while I thought maybe Boreanaz was a brilliant actor, and his dull-as-dirt portrayal of Angel was intentional. Okay, by "a while," I mean "about 15 minutes," but even so. The scene in Angel's apartment is the Funniest Thing Ever. I'm sure Whedon thinks I was supposed to think, "Poor Buffy!" but that's really not ever going to happen. For some people, I guess it's pathos. For me, it's satire. It's at the bottom mostly because the actual plot is a bit weak.

9. Crush

The last time I really loved Spike. SPIKE N DRU 4EVA! Whoops, sorry. And the source of my deep and abiding love for Fury. Not all of the episodes he writes, but I love the guy. And no, not for the script itself; for the kerfuffle regarding his comments after the episode. Anyway, it's a good, funny, dark episode, only slightly bruised by Buffy's inexplicable failure to stake anyone at the end of it.

8. Lover's Walk

And the first time I really loved Spike. I mean, he was entertaining enough before then, but in this one he really clicked for me. Plus there's the Xander & Willow fiasco. And the "Holy shit!" moment with Cordy. I mean, when she passed out, I knew they wouldn't kill her, really. And then they cut to the funeral, and yeah, it was manipulative, but it worked, and for thirty seconds I really bought it. Manipulation is perfectly fine when it works.

Hey, are you starting to notice a theme in the episodes I liked? (No, not Spike.) It's just your imagination, really.

7. The Zeppo

Meta-jokes are funny. The plot doesn't make much sense (Xander didn't leave the zombies because why?) but this is one where the funny more than makes up for the weakness there.

6. Doppelgangland

Even disliking Willow as much as I do, I always enjoy this episode. Maybe I just like seeing a version of Willow I can respect. And again, there's a complete story that makes a reasonable amount of sense. Which you wouldn't think would be that big a deal, but see above about how I think the show's just a little bit overrated.

5. Bewitched, Bothered, & Bewildered

I started watching mid-season 2. This is the first episode I saw that I completely enjoyed, start-to-finish, without any complaints. And I'm complainy, not that I have to tell you that. I was also enchanted with the message that love is bad and makes people go crazy. What, that wasn't the message?

Okay, so maybe there is a theme to be found.

4. Pangs

I almost want this to be #3. Tough call. I believe this is one of the first episodes I made my family watch. There's a story, there's comedy, there's a lot of fun character interactions, and it's part of an ongoing story without being weighed down by it. Which is really what Buffy did best. Because yeah, you're not thinking, "Wow, what an amazing story -- I was totally surprised and shocked!"

3. Graduation Day pt 2

There's a lot going on; it's a solid, good hour of TV. (Eh, unlike the first part, which got whittled out pretty quickly with "Surprise.") And, okay, that moment when the students throw off their robes and pull weapons out? Chills. Every stupid time. Don't know why, exactly, but what a great moment. The award presentation in "The Prom" didn't work on me originally because the rest of the episode, with Angel dumping Buffy, and the stupid hellhounds, was all pretty irritating. I find it moving now, but only that scene in isolation. Whereas the battle scene really is a climax to, not just the episode, but the show, in a lot of ways.

1 & 2. Becoming pts 1 & 2

These seem to me to be Buffy at its Buffy-est. In terms of characters; the mix of funny, serious, fantastic, and dramatic; the fact that the scenes with the villains are every bit as interesting as the scenes with the good guys; and it's probably the strongest expression of the core idea of Buffy herself, and why the show is about her.

And now, the cheating. I've got two possible alternates, that might move up on this list in time: Selfless, and Smashed.

Because they're more recent, and because by the last two seasons I'd stopped watching the show as regularly, I don't have a good sense of these yet and how much I'd enjoy re-watching them. It'll be easier to judge when I catch them in syndication at some point and either say, "Hey, this is pretty good!" or "...guess not." I suspect the first one will make the cut and the second one won't, but we'll see. In a few years. Or not.

I read Jonathan Lethem's Girl in Landscape this week. Mostly in one night, and paid for it the next day. (And it was a present! From Rosana -- thank you so much!)

Here's something that amused me a lot when I realized it: the book is a western... in space!

You've heard that one before, haven't you? Wait. The thing is, Lethem actually seems to understand both the western and science-fiction genres. And not just on a surface level.

It's a western in that it's about settlers on a frontier; it's about the sort of people who become pioneers, and why; it's about a cultural conflict between pioneers and natives; it's about how a society forms; it's about being an individual and defending Right against Might, and why some people can do that, and why others can't. It's not a western because the characters have southern accents, or because they dress in cowboy outfits.

And it's science fiction in that it's about an alien culture, a dystopian future, how civilizations evolve, and who they leave behind. The characters don't fly around in spaceships (well, I guess they do when they go to the alien planet, but that isn't described in the book), they don't have a lot of high-tech gadgets, there's no technobabble, and the only weapon I recall being mentioned is a shotgun. There is one bit of "magic" tech which is never explained, but it's part of the alien world, and doesn't really need to be explained.

It's other things, too. It's a coming-of-age story; the main character, Pella, is an adolescent girl whose mother has died. The rest of her family moves to another planet, and she's forced to grow up in a lot of ways by the end of the book.

And there are a couple of mysteries as well, and probably other things I'm not thinking of at the moment because it's very, very late. Really good book. Part of the reason I read most of it in one night was that there's a slow creeping tension as Pella's feelings for one character become more and more complicated. She makes some bad decisions during the book, which is great, because it meant that I wasn't sure how it would work out.

I really enjoyed the book a lot. Lethem always does really interesting things, and they're always different. I like that. I can't say "If you liked Gun, With Occasional Music, you'll love Girl in Landscape" because they're so different. It's like he's distinguished by his willingness to do new things, and that's very cool, and especially unusual in SF. Good for him.