So having looked at two different "Best Of" lists, these are the episodes that they have in common. (TWOP had twenty total; EW had 25.) You might say these are the episodes that they agreed on as a Top Twelve Best Joss Whedon Episodes Ever. Just because I could, I went ahead and reordered them according to my own preference.
-
Angel: Smile Time
-
Angel as a puppet? I figured it would be an eye-rolling gimmick, but found a truly funny episode that really worked.
-
Firefly: Jaynestown
-
Fun, but I'm not sure I'd count it as a best ever. Inara's piece was horribly obvious, with her stuttering over Mal at one point in a truly embarrassing way. On the other hand, how can you say no to Jayne's theme song? And the depths Adam Baldwin brought to the character arc were lovely.
-
Buffy: Graduation Day (pt. 1 & 2)
-
The two-parter that wrapped up Buffy's high school career definitely rocked, particularly Buffy and Faith's final battle. It encapsulated everything that was Buffy at the time. I think "Becoming" was gutsier for what it did to Angel, but this brought the goods in other ways.
-
Dollhouse: Man on the Street
-
I think its an important episode, mostly for the way it upends the applecart with the revelation about Mellie. It was the moment when Dollhouse really started moving forward, but I don't know that I buy it as a best Whedonverse episode. The faux interviews screamed "look at me, I'm being meta here." I think any of the episodes that follow, particularly "Briar Rose," have less pretension and more impact.
-
Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog
-
The performances were excellent, particularly Neil Patrick Harris. But we've seen this before: sympathetic bad guys, sudden deaths, and pokes at corporate media manipulations. I suspect, however, that it will have a place in the history of the shifting new media landscape, so I don't drop it completely.
-
Dollhouse: Epitaph One
-
Saw this at Comicon and suddenly went from lukewarm but hopeful about Dollhouse to sincerely interested in what happened next. The performances rocked, particularly poor Topher. The episode drew out the essence of the Dollhouse story in one neatly packaged hour.
-
Buffy: Once More With Feeling
-
Another high concept that worked, but I have to admit I may be more impressed by the fact that they pulled it off than by anything inherent to the episode itself. While I was watching, I was completely engaged, but I've never had any desire to watch it over and over and over and buy the soundtrack or anything.
-
Firefly: Out of Gas
-
One of my favorite episodes. I loved seeing everyone's flashbacks and they were paired with a simple, but powerful, story as Mal struggled on the ship. The non-linear layout of the plot moved well from here to there, from now to then. The whole thing balanced beautifully. And I imagine that can be hard to do in a cast that large.
-
Buffy: Hush
-
This episode (like, "The Body") counts as Just Great Television, plain amazing storytelling and an superlative example of the genre. The Gentlemen were sincerely creepy and the fairy tale structure well-used. Bonus points for Giles' slide-show.
-
Angel: Not Fade Away
-
Loved. Loved. Loved the way the series ended. Over five seasons, it earned everything the characters did here. Absolutely perfect, between Wesley's fate (and Lindsey's), to Angel and Connor at Wolfram & Hart, right up to the last: "I want to slay the dragon." Technically a cliff-hanger, thematically it finished Angel's heroic journey in a way that satisfied and had the guts to stop right there because that was enough.
-
Buffy: Surprise / Innocence
-
Classic television as Buffy and Angel's first time together ends in tragedy and kicks off the second half of the season. (I happen to think Season Two of Buffy is pretty much the tightest, most accomplished season of television out there.) One of those rare stories that works both in the moment and the metaphor.
-
Buffy: The Body
-
A powerful kick in gut. This one rises out of genre and into a story that resonates with anyone. It insists on the characters' humanity and the commonality of experience, even as they live in this uncommon world of demons and magic battles. And there is no "out," no do over or cosmic reset button. There wasn't even a monster Buffy could blame for it and go beat up. Joyce's death had to be dealt with - it was what it was.
So I have to ask, why did Firefly's "The Message" get no love? I bawl my eyes out at the end of that one every time, as the violin picks up and the snow flies around. Ah, well.
I think this list represent the Whedonverse strength in character that layers over strong - but dense - plotting. I think it's a bit of an apples to oranges to include Dr. Horrible, which isn't technically "television," and "Epitaph One," which didn't air. If we get those, we ought to include the film Serenity, which managed the balancing act of tying up the plots from the show, while still being accessible to an audience that hadn't seen the episodes. It paid off as a whole and as part of a series.
That said, my own Best Of List would look very similar to this one. I'd swap in "Briar Rose" or "Spy in the House of Love" for "Man on the Street." Definitely drop "Jaynestown" for "The Message." And I prefer "Shiny Happy People" / "Magic Bullet" to "Smile Time." Finally, though I am impressed in concept with "Once More With Feeling," a really good second season Dollhouse could knock it down without much regret.