I have loved this film for the longest time and, in fact, I've just remembered that I actually saw it when it first came out in the cinema; when I was a mere ten years old, scandalously sneaked in by my parents. And now I'm actually thinking that my parents are kind of cool... (this has never happened before!) Anyway, I've gone through loving, at various times, Joseph Gordon Levitt who, may I say, whilst always adorable, has blossomed even more of late; and then Heath Ledger who, obviously, I can't discuss at all because doing so will make me way too sad.* One love that has been constant though is my deep and unbreakable love for Kat, who taught me how to be awesome, and probably also made me want to read The Bell Jar quite a lot. 10 Things, you rock my world.
Even though I didn't think I could love it any more, actually reading The Taming of the Shrew made me appreciate what a great film we actually have in the shape of 10 Things. It's the way Shakespeare's play really should have gone, if you ask me- slightly too angry girl meets a boy who's just like her, and in getting to know each other and falling in love, they are both tamed, although they remain themselves entirely and NO ONE GETS TORTURED. And also, you have things like this:
Oh, Heath!
I think we all know just how awesome Kat and Patrick are, just in general, but can we also talk about the soundtrack, because I think it's awesome. Like, I literally can't think of a bad song on it and it constantly bugs me that I don't have it because it's not on itunes and it's really expensive (for a cd) on amazon. But the point is, anyway, that it's great, and it's much better than my imaginary soundtrack to the Shakespeare play, which basically consists of, I don't know, the funeral march, and also all the bad songs.
I also love the whole Bianca and Cameron story. Even though it's awful when Bianca thinks that she fancies Joey even though he's an absolute shit, it all works out ok, and the lovely Cameron gets what he wants, even if he deserves better than Bianca, which he clearly does. Or at least the Bianca at the beginning of the film. Because, and this is yet another reason the film is better than the play, because whilst in the play, Bianca fully conforms and is seen as the much more desirable wife; in 10 Things, her conformity is seen as a bad thing (I assume by everyone who sees it too...) because it makes her silly and shallow, and it is only towards the end, when she becomes more like Kat that we have respect for her and feel like she's the kind of woman Cameron deserves.
There are just so many things that make 10 Things I Hate About You so amazing- a criminally underused Allison Janney (have I ever gone into how much I love her? Because I love her SO MUCH!), Cameron's instant best friend Michael, who is generally just sweet and funny and his girlfriend scoring without any drama makes me so happy, and Kat and Bianca's dad whose overprotectiveness has been brought bang up to date by making him an obstetrician who basically doesn't want either of his daughters to get pregnant, which sounds sane enough, but the way he does it, it's not so much, and it's therefore HILARIOUS. I honestly can't think of a good reason why anyone wouldn't love this film, because there's just so much to love! Especially, may I just add, the torture of two people who really don't understand, or much like each other, living in the same house:
"Bianca: Where do you come from, Planet Loser?
Kat: As opposed to Planet Look at Me, Look at Me?"
And just, you know, the entire film is so damn quotable! I've gotten to the stage where I can almost recite it word for word (I basically can with Grease because I've seen it way, way too many times) which is probably not a good thing, only it is because, and I'll say it again, THIS FILM IS SO GOOD! It really is.
So, I'm sure that big gushfest was really helpful and instructional, and told you many things you didn't already know about 10 Things I Hate About You.** This post, on HelloGiggles, whilst maybe a teeny bit overlong, is also very good at helping one remember all of its highlights (i.e. the entire film) and brings a certain amount of nostalgia that may or may not have contributed to my watching of this film (that, plus Shakespeare month!) And, finally, I know I say this all the time, but really really really- if you haven't seen this film, you're really missing something special, and, let's face it, amazing. Go! Watch! You can see things like this:
Poetry! And crying! And Kat softening up but still retaining her own self and NOT being tortured! What more could you want?!
*Did you know that on Sunday it'll be 4 years since he died?! Crazy!
**An actual fact I do know is that Joseph Gordon Levitt and Larisa Oleynik used to go out in real life, and they were in Third Rock From The Sun together- it actually makes me sad that Larisa isn't really in things anymore, because I used to love all the things she was in- this, as well as The Secret World of Alex Mack and The Babysitters Club Movie!
All the signs were there that I liked Submarine- I read it a few days, was amused by some parts and disturbed by others, and it generally left me wondering, a lot, about teenage boys. I had one vital problem with it though- when it comes to books about mildly mentally disturbed teenage boys, I have a pretty high benchmark to compare them all to, in the form of The Perks of Being A Wallflower. And Oliver, the main character in Submarine, is nowhere near as sweet, or wonderful, or hopelessly naive as Charlie in Perks, and so I just couldn't get along with him anywhere near as well.
I fully realise how unfair it is to compare one book to another (books set, I might add, in completely different times and places) and I seriously wouldn't do it except that all I could do while reading Submarine was compare it to The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and I kept on doing it even as I got annoyed with myself for doing it. I just kept thinking 'Well, Charlie would never have done that', and 'that's not as noble as something Charlie would think' to which, of course, the only suitable response is 'THAT'S BECAUSE THEY'RE DIFFERENT BOOKS YOU MORON!' I really couldn't help it though, and hey, at least I'm not comparing them both to The Catcher in the Rye like EVERY REVIEWER EVER. Because that would just be cruel.
Anyway! I'll try and put my crazy aside for a minute, and actually tell you about the book! As I've said, Oli is our hero, and in a lot of ways he fits the external specifications for teenage boys- he thinks about girls and sex, he's a bit of a bully, and he often does what's expected of him rather than what he thinks is right, at least in front of his mates. All relatively average, except that also, he's extremely strange- he somehow manages to get into extremely odd situations that literally no one else would get into, and he kind of has no feelings for anyone else, although he's highly attuned to what everyone else thinks about him (although, is narcissism really a strange trait for a teenager? Probably not...). Anyway, while I think the author has tried to play these extreme situations for comedic effect, I really didn't find many of the situations very funny, mainly because of the narrative voice behind them.
Because, here's the thing: I don't like Oliver very much (one critic on the back cover describes him as a sociopath, which I don't think is far off the truth) but then I also feel like he's suffering quite a lot, and behind the situations he finds himself in is a lot of anger, and fear, and sadness, and just general badness. So, while the actual situations may be funny, viewing them filtered through his troubling brain makes them much less so. I would actually like to see the film of Submarine (released last year, I think) because I think that, viewed outside of Oliver's brain, a lot of the mishaps would be a lot funnier than I found them when I was reading the book.
In the end, then, I just didn't really like Oliver enough to really love Submarine. I wouldn't wholly un-recommend it, because while I was reading it I was enjoying it enough to want to finish it, but on the whole I don't think it's a book that's going to stay with me for a long time, which is probably a good thing. If you're looking for one that does that, then I don't think you can go wrong with The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which, although I'm doing that totally unfair comparing thing again, is the far better book in my opinion.
Devouring Texts is one year old today you guys! I realise that other people might use another 'b' word to describe this day, but I really can't deal with that word, mainly because it sounds so ugly, but also because, well, it's sort of inaccurate. I mean, an anniversary would suggest that I was married to my blog, but that would be seriously weird- it's more like my little baby, only it can't actually survive without me (well, it can but it wouldn't learn any new things) so actually it's kind of like my little foetus that's still being all parasitical and stuff. Since, 'happy one year of being a foetus!' is sort of, well, gross and weird, I think we can all agree that a blog birthday is the nicest way to put it!
So... should I get all soppy now, or save it for later? I think I'll get it over with out of the way, and then we can all move on with our lives and pretend it didn't happen (or that it did. Whatever.) So, when I started this blog a year ago, I was all miserable and unemployed and I more or less felt worthless and like I literally couldn't do anything. And I didn't really think a blog would do anything about that, and I saw it as more of a hobby then as a shiny beacon of hope and possibilities, but without being too much of a sap about it, that's kind of what it became for me, especially when I was really really miserable. So, a year ago, I couldn't really have imagined what it would come to mean to me, and I really couldn't have imagined all the awesome people I would meet (as yet only internetly, but one day I will find you all and hug you!) because of it. And while I could physically have done it without you, I really really wouldn't have wanted to. At all. So that's a great big THANK YOU to you if you're reading this right now.
There, that wasn't too bad, was it? Shit got a bit real, but on the whole I don't think I embarrassed myself too much! Probably more embarrassing was the fact that I made blog birthday cupcakes for myself (see above) but actually, I feel pretty great about them because 1) they took almost no effort to make, especially because I made a ganache instead of frosting (sounds fancy, but really it's just chocolate, milk and golden syrup all heated), and 2) they're vegan which means they have negative calories, and the actual cake bit is sugar free, so they don't give me weird sugar crashes if I eat them on their own (don't ask. It's not pleasant). I was going to post the recipe here, but then I remembered that no one ever really likes my recipe posts (WEEP- and also it's not even my recipe) so I couldn't be bothered! If you would like the recipe though, then you can email me and you SHOULD because they're AWESOME.
Anyway, that was going to be your present, but actually, I've decided to give some things away! What I'm offering is a copy of Little Women and one of Good Wives to one lucky lucky winner who really really wants them (Note: I'm relatively sure this is all published as one book in the US, hence my giving them both away at once. Also, I wouldn't want you to miss out on what happens in Good Wives, because oh my gawd, shit goes down that you wouldn't believe [and I still refuse to]). Anyway, so, if you want them, just leave a comment on this post saying hi and stuff, as well as leaving me an email address to contact you on so I can get your address if you leave the best comment are randomly selected. I will post internationally, so if you live anywhere but the UK you can still ask me for them (and also you are SO LUCKY!) And let's say it closes by, ooh, Sunday? Sunday feels good. Announcement on Monday. Also, if you don't want to win them, feel free to still leave me a comment telling me you love me. Because those are my favourites!
So, I'm heading off now to eat whatever blog birthday cupcakes I have left. Thank you again for reading and commenting, and just generally making a girl feel special. Now, here's to another year of awesome blogging fun and general joyfulness. I hope you'll all be here to share it with me, because it really wouldn't be the same without you.
Well, these were the depressingest chapters that ever depressed their depressingness, and not just because one of them was ONE HUNDRED AND TWO PAGES LONG. Which, I guess, you all already know, but may I just say WHY ARE YOU HURTING MY BRAIN, MURAKAMI?! I have forgiven him already though, because, well, I kind of love him and I sort of fell into the story in a dreamy, druggy kind of way, and emerged only with great difficulty. Partly because I had to (where do you stop?! I can't stop unless it's the end of a chapter, and if the chapter is very very long, I have troubles!) but also because, well, I almost didn't really want to. Naoko and Reiko's retreat from the real world was, even in page form, very very soothing, and a place I kind of didn't want to leave.
But leave it I did (I had to, bloody Toru wouldn't stay there, even though he a bit needs to, or maybe what he needs is to hang out with Midori some more) so I could write some things about it and tell you all my revised opinion on Naoko. Because, well, poor Naoko! I know before I was just relatively bored with her general lacklustreness and limp dishrag qualities, but really, the girl's been through more than anyone could reasonably bear. Retreating from the world as she has her whole life, it would be difficult enough for her to exist and flourish as a part of it, but since her sister and boyfriend left her to it because they decided that the real world really was too much for them to face? I mean, what the hell is she supposed to do with that information? Really though, what got me about Naoko in these two chapters was her selflessness, and self-awareness. She realises that she has the problems that she does, she's trying to cope with them, and at the same time realises that she can't offer much to Toru, and so she wants him to carry on living, and only to remember her, nothing else. It's not asking for a lot, and a much more unreasonable person would ask for a lot more, and so for this, I kind of appreciate her a lot more.
But Naoko and Kizuki's relationship? That shit sounds, well, intense! Like, they were so wrapped up in each other that it was like the whole world didn't exist, or at least didn't matter, and so when they were thrust into the real world and all its rules and social boundaries, they didn't quite know how to deal with it. It is this which Naoko seems to think led Kizuki to commit suicide- the inability to cope with a world that wasn't exactly the way he wanted it, I guess. In moving to the retreat though, Naoko has done pretty much the same thing, so both have checked out from the world in their own ways. It's tempting to think Toru will go the same way- when he leaves the retreat, he doesn't quite know how to react to the outside world, for example, but he also isn't suited to life in the retreat either:
"I was surprised to find myself missing the hum of people shouting for no reason and saying overblown things. That was just the kind of noise I had become weary of in recent months, but sitting here eating fish in this unnaturally quiet room, I couldn't relax."
I actually warmed to Toru quite a lot in these two chapters, and I finally decided that his mental issues weren't quite as bad as Naoko's although I still think he has things to sort out that he hasn't really acknowledged yet to a great degree. But I could be wrong, we'll see!
I greatly missed Midori in these chapters (even though she really, really wouldn't have fit in with the serenity of the retreat because she's simply brimming with life, and is hugely a part of the outside world) but this was offset by the introduction of Reiko who I really really want to be my friend. She's so lovely, but also a kind of deceptive character (Not that she herself is deceptive, but that the way she is described is) because she seems so incredibly sane to begin with, until you find out more about her and realise just how messed up she really is (Wow. Another messed-up character. What a surprise!) I know that she's basically sane now, but still she can't reconcile herself to living out in the world because she's afraid of what might happen to her if she does. All of which I find totally ok because I like her so much and I don't want her to fall apart again because it would make me sad. Basically.
Can we talk about Reiko's piano lesson story for a minute though? Because, I don't know if it was just me, but there was a point in her story when I was wondering if the clearly sociopathic student was actually Midori. I have no firm evidence for this- Midori has shown no signs of being a lesbian, or an incorrigible liar, or, you know, a sociopath; but I've read too many books where seemingly innocuous and not related to anything else events turn out to be related to another character too. All I really have to go on is that the girl said that she couldn't love her parents, or that her parents didn't love her or something, and I kind of got a teeny bit suspicious. Believe me, I'm hoping that I am entirely wrong about this because I LOVE Midori, and I'm probably just being mental. But if we all find out in Chapter 11 that Midori is the evil life ruiner, then I want everyone to remember that I thought of it first. Agreed? Good.
Soooo, these couple of chapters have given me greater insight into Naoko, who I now have a lot more love for, and introduced me to Reiko who is really so awesome although I suspect we might not see a lot more of her (unless Toru checks into the retreat, which, admittedly, is unlikely). I also wrote down an embarrassing number of passages from the book, practically so many that I might as well have just copied it all out... Oooh, and I enjoyed the great number of popular (Western) culture references, especially Reiko liking Simon and Garfunkel, because really, that makes her my kind of woman. What I am looking forward to is some more Midori, and having looked at the first couple of pages of Chapter 7, I can already see she's there. So, yay. Onwards!
Ah, The Taming of the Shrew. Right now, I'm struggling to say anything nice about it at all, but I have just read Kate's speech at the end so I'm more or less just simmering with anger because WHAT THE HELL SHAKESPEARE, I THOUGHT YOU WERE ON MY SIDE! Okay, I just have to remember to breathe and think of Lady Macbeth (who is completely awesome, at least until she goes crazy). I just... it's so... I can't even... ARGH, Shakespeare what have you done?!
Ok, now actual sentences that make sense. The Taming of the Shrew is basically the story of Kate, an extremely angry woman- I'd like to defend her anger as some kind of primitive form of feminism, but really she just seems angry for no real reason; who gets tamed by Petruchio, the only man in town willing to take her on, with all her anger issues and 'difficulties.' He's convinced to do this by Hortensio and Gremio (not to be confused with Grumio, his servant [I never confused them, except for all the time]) both of whom have a vested interest in Kate's marriage because they want to marry Bianca, Kate's sister, who their father will not allow to marry until he's offloaded the difficult one on some sucker.
AND THEN, there's this entire farce around Bianca's marriage that I genuinely don't understand that for some reason requires someone else to dress up like Lucentio (this other guy who likes her) even though her dad totally says she can marry Lucentio, even when he isn't Lucentio. It's probably less confusing on stage, but it seems really unnecessary anyway in terms of the story. I just don't know! But that all turns out ok in the end anyway, everyone forgives who they're supposed to and it's a comedy tralalalala! The height of comedy at that time, unfortunately, seems to have been things like this:
"Baptista: When will he be here?
Biondella: When he stands where I am and sees you there."
I HATE these jokes. Hate them. With a passion. Vom all over them. Stupid Elizabethan lack of humour.
Anyway, besides all of those problems (and I didn't even mention the induction which was highly unnecessary and didn't even get finished off properly- where was my conclusion to that, with Christopher Sly being humiliated, huh?) the main horrorshow is between Kate and Petruchio. At the beginning, I thought he was all sweet and charming, and I was basically going, 'oh go on Kate, marry him!' because, you know, I thought he was nice, and I thought that he would just generally be kind of hot at her, and get her to calm down a bit and be nicer to people. Instead, he kind of starved her and then brainwashed her into being his love slave and general yay-sayer to all his doings. It's literally like, instead of going to live with her husband, she went to some weird cult where she was starved of meat (not that kind of meat, don't be gross) and watched people be shouted at until she thought her husband was the best thing since sliced bread (not that they had sliced bread. Since flushing toilets? Did they have them?) And I can't even... I didn't even like angry Kate, because she seemed angry for no reason, but subservient Kate I really can't stomach. Observe:
"Thy husband is thy lord, thy life, thy keeper,
Thy head, thy sovereign...
I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
Or seek for rule, supremacy and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love and obey."
Dammit Shakespeare, I knew you'd throw those old fashioned wedding vows back in my face! Oh yeah, those stupid women who don't do everything their husbands say as soon as they say it. What fools they are! If they do it, they'll get their meat fed to them! I think Kate might just be suffering some PTSD from having been starved those couple of days, and now she's just saying the right things so Petruchio lets her eat! Except that's definitely not what's going on here, and oh my GOD I could just sob about it!
A final little quirk about The Taming of the Shrew is that, when I was reading it, all I could think about was 10 Things I Hate About You (a review of that will be coming soon. For definite now I've read this.) and I was trying to figure out who was who and stuff, except I pretty much had to give up on that because no one is anyone, except for Kate, Petruchio, Bianca and Lucentio who are basically the four main characters. And you know what? I'm going to have to say that I like the 90s teen movie better than the Shakespeare play, a statement not all that shocking for the average person, but for me it's like a crazy exploding bombshell because I'm a little bit like the girl in 10 Things who is in love with Shakespeare (but mostly I'm just Kat. She was/is my feminist ICON!). But not this time!
It's a great comfort to me that this was one of Shakespeare's earlier plays, and, having read quite a few of his other plays, I know that these views on women are not really the norm. If I'd read this and no other Shakespeare play, I probably would have been so put off by him that I would refuse to read any others, and I am deadly serious about that. So, read this play with caution, and only after quite a few other plays (especially, I'm going to say, Macbeth and Twelfth Night, both of which I know have quite strong female characters). Unless, of course, you're a giant misogynist, in which case, well, I know a play you're really going to love...
So, I don't know about you but I've been pretty bad at reading this January. I've read like a Shakespeare play, and that one biography about him, but apart from that, not a lot has been going down in reading world, and I don't even have the excuse of having to work or anything like that because, well, jobs are in short supply. ANYWAY, that's not the point. The point is, it's been difficult to read, I reckon because I still think it's Christmas, therefore I should be staring at a TV screen stuffing Quality Street into my mouth as fast as I can unwrap them. That's how I roll.
So, to get back into a reading frame of mind, I'm taking part in Sarah Says Read's Winter Mini-Readathon next Sunday! It's a perfect, wholly low/no pressure readathon- the plan is just to read for 12 hours during the day, at whatever time you want, and, you know, just to enjoy yourself! Sarah's Summer Mini-Readathon was the very first one I took part in AND I won a prize (squeep!) and this time there are even more prizes for doing the mini-challenges. Possible prizes for reading and blogging? I think yes!
If you want to take part in this very exciting readathon* (and I know you definitely do) then go over to this post on Sarah's blog now to sign up. And just think, in 9 days we could all be reading together, actually finishing books, and having a jolly old readathon time. Can I get a woohoo, or possibly a yay?
*It just took me the longest time to think of a way to start this paragraph without saying 'so'. Because I'm a smart one!
While I was doing the whole 'Watching Buffy Will Ease My Woes' treatment, I decided to keep a list of my favourite episodes so I could do a post exactly like this one, and thus milk my viewing experience for everything it had. I managed to list 32 episodes (that's just under a quarter of all the episodes, by the way) so narrowing that down has not been an easy task (subtext: Appreciate this post!!) Additionally, in my extremely cool and not-at-all-a-waste-of-time special features watching, I came across Joss Whedon's top ten episodes, which was really really interesting, so I thought I'd share them too and see how they compared with mine.
I realise that this is going to be really boring and irrelevant if you've never seen Buffy (although to this I again say, Why not?!, and also WATCH IT) so if you haven't you're free to leave now and read other things on the internet. Fellow Buffy-ites (and I know there are some of you out there because there were comments on my last Buffy post, oh the JOY because normally everyone ignores it when I talk about TV) it's good to have you with me! So, without any ado at all, my top ten episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
1. Season 2, Episode 17- Passion Why it's great: Anything with Bad Angel in is awesome (I think his transformation is where the series really steps it up a notch) and this episode is where we see him at his most depraved- mentally and physically torturing those who once liked and loved him, and bringing Buffy ever closer to the conclusion that she has to make at the end of the season.
2. Season 3, Episode 1- Anne Why it's great: Most of the seasons begin with Buffy having to find herself again (I don't know what she does over the summer, but it must be pretty bad) and nowhere is this more evident than in the first episode of season 3. Whilst her friends and mother worry about her back in Sunnydale, Buffy has to face dark forces all by herself, and literally has to go to hell and back to rediscover what she wants and who she is again. A dark, but ultimately hopeful episode, that is probably the best start to any of the seasons.
3. Season 3, Episode 6- Band Candy Why it's great: It's one of the funniest episodes there is, and seeing Giles act like Ripper is priceless! Extra points for the revelation that we get in Earshot ('You had SEX with Giles?!') but on its own, it's still one of the best.
4. Season 3, Episode 9- The Wish Why it's great: Answering the question of what would have happened if Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, we get a really brilliant, dystopian answer: Willow and Xander are vampires, Cordelia would be good and dead, and Buffy would be a lot more like Faith than she would ever want to be. Also, Giles gets to be the full on hero, so that's always good.
5. Season 4, Episode 9- Something Blue Why it's great: Willow starts to gain power, even as she's being all whiny and emo. It's also hilarious- Buffy and Spike love each other! Giles is very disturbed by this! Xander is a demon magnet! And no one, not even Willow, knows what's going on! It's great. Another positive, since this is Season 4, is that there's a significant lack of Riley. Always a good thing.
6. Season 4, Episode 10- Hush Why it's great: It's probably the most genuinely scary episode of Buffy, or at least has the villains I'd be most scared to encounter in real life. The best thing about it though is how much can be conveyed even without speaking, the ending is divine, and it is also Tara's introductory episode (Tara is my favourite). All in all, not too shabby!
7. Season 5, Episode 16- The Body Why it's great: This is possibly the best episode of Buffy (although its tied between this and the next one for my absolute favourite) and it's a heartbreaking, honest, and above all real portrayal of what happens when someone close to you dies. Its authenticity comes from the lack of all but ambient noise, as well as the lack of supernatural forces, but what still gets through is that natural death is the scariest thing that anyone can face. It's an absolutely real account of death, and that's what makes it so amazing, and yet so difficult to watch (and probably impossible to watch without crying). Possibly my favourite moment is Anya's inability to understand mortality:
But really the whole thing just makes me weep. Buffy, and just TV, at its absolute best.
8. Season 6, Episode 7- Once More With Feeling Why it's great: um.. It's a MUSICAL episode of Buffy! Musicals are the greatest, Buffy is the other greatest, so together they're almost too much! Additionally, whilst it would have been so easy to make this a throwaway episode, it actually moves the plot of the entire series forward, with revelations like Buffy's (that she was in heaven) but also that Willow used a spell on Tara, that Anya and Xander have relationship issues, and the whole Buffy and Spike kiss thing. Basically, it's a complete wonder of the TV world, and possibly/probably my favourite episode.
9. Season 6, Episode 8- Tabula Rasa Why it's great: Willows unruly spells are generally quite fun (see: Something Blue) and this episode is both fun and not- Fun because you get to see how normal people would react to a gang of vampires chasing them down (screaming and hiding, which is extra funny because its the complete opposite of how they normally react), and because of all the completely wrong guesswork about all their relationships, especially Giles and Spike's father/son rivalry. It's not fun because Willow is clearly going off the rails, magic-wise, and because Tara leaves her! Laughing and crying in the same episode? Perfect.
10. Season 6, Episode 17- Normal Again Why it's great: If neither The Body or Once More With Feeling are my favourite episodes, then this one would be it. It's maybe the most thought-provoking of episodes- is everything in Sunnydale real, or is it all a schizophrenic delusion in mental-patient-Buffy's head? It casts doubt on everything that has gone before, and you just don't know what to believe (even at the end it's still open to doubt.) It's kind of difficult to explain, but if you've seen it then hopefully you know what I mean (and also think it's great!)
So these are clearly the best episodes, because I say they are and I know all! But I suppose Joss Whedon might know something about it too. And this is his top ten, in ascending order (with my helpful accompanying comments):
10. Season 1, Episode 12- Prophecy Girl Hmm- I have kind of ignored Season 1 in my list, probably unfairly, since this is a pretty great epsiode- Buffy's first death! I generally find that the last episodes of all the seasons are pretty great (probably because they're mostly written by Whedon).
9. Season 7, Episode 7- Conversations With Dead People Hmm- I also ignored Season 7, mainly because of all the irritating potentials (too Dawn-ish), and not enough of the old gang! This is a well crafted episode though (although my favourite of the season is probably the last one) and an important one in terms of the whole season.
8. Season 4, Episode 22- Restless Hmm- Dream hauntings? Fun! But the best thing about this episode is all the foreshadowing- "Be back before Dawn" and so on. Still not one of my favourites though.
7. Season 2, Episode 22- Becoming, Part 2 Hmm- Well, yeah, another end of season episode. Wonderful because Buffy finds total self-belief and confidence, horrible because of Xander's betrayal, for which he never gets punished! Bad Xander.
6. Season 3, Episode 9- The Wish Hmm- Yay! Our first correlation!
5. Season 3, Episode 16- Doppelgangland Hmm- This is a sort of continuation of The Wish, and while it was on my long list, I eliminated it from the shortlist for that reason. It's still fun though!
4. Season 5, Episode 16- The Body Hmm- Well, yes. Quite. I feel like this, and the next two, would be on everyone's lists...
3. Season 4, Episode 10- Hush
2. Season 6, Episode 7- Once More With Feeling
1. Season 2, Episode 14- Innocence Hmm- Bad Angel! This is a great episode, and my equivalent of it is Passion, but the whole 9 episodes where Angel is bad are all brilliant, and like I said before, really bring the series into its own, and make it something more. Also, poor Buffy.
So, didn't we all learn a lot? Also, just FYI, my favourite school season is season 3 (or the second half of Season 2... hmm...) and my favourite later season is Season 6, and, while I think that on the whole the show was better while they were at school, the later seasons have the best stand-alone episodes. I have no opinions about Angel because I've only seen the first episode and it's kind of naff, so... can't help you there! Anyway, enough about me, how about you? Do you have any favourite Buffy episodes? Do you just want me to shut up about Buffy? Have at it in the comments!
