I have to say S3 was the best in my book, as S3 was the first season I watched, and it hooked me like thing with a big, big hook. My response was something akin to what tina said above.

I follow that with massive S4 love, as I thought it was an awesome follow up to my freshman season. People say there are problems with S4, but I have a really hard time seeing them. I am admittedly biased.

I even liked S5, and don't have a hate-on for CK, but I totally see why she bugs others.

It was only S6 & 7 that I felt much weaker than what had come before, but S6 ended with my all-time favorite ending arc ever, and S7 will never feel the hate from me because despite it's massive problems, it meant that Buffy went off the air before it ever even came close to the "show about a collection of FBI agents hunting the supernatural, one or two of whom actually even met Mulder and Scully once..." phase.

I still have only seen one or two scattered episodes from S1 & S2, so I can't include those in the ranking, but they will eventually find their way on to my DVD shelf, and I will finally be able to rate them properly.

I know the S1 episodes I've seen still don't do a whole lot for me, and they didn't when they first aired. I gave Buffy two seperate shots, but never paid a lot of attention to them at the time, so I almost never got into the show.

Thankfully, I had some friends who, when the first ep of S3 came on the first Tuesday night after I had moved to Los Angeles, forced me to sit down, shut up, and watch the cool TV show.

Now, I also have a friend who by all rights should be a Buffy fan, but he's not, because he did what I did during S1 & S2, didn't pay much attention to the one or two episodes he watched, and wrote off the show as being "stupid teenaged humor."

Now, we all know this is a spectacularly ignorant, and utterly uninformed opinion, and I need to correct his thinking on this. If I were given a challenge to rearrange his thinking on Buffy with just one episode, which one do you think I should use?

I'm thiking OMWF. Yeah, it's not the best introductory episode as far as character and story goes (and will potentially lead to confusion when I show him pre-Dawn episodes), but I'm not sure there's a single better episode for expressing "this show is intelligent, adult, and these are the kinds of things they've been capapble of the whole time, that you have written off without being fully informed."

What do you guys think?

I would say OMWF ONLY if he is a big fan of musicals. Otherwise, I have known several intelligent people who have just seen that one episode and thought that both the show and I were crazy.

I would say Hush.

Sean, I probably have S1 and S2 on tape (from FX), if you want them, since I have DVDs now.

"show about a collection of FBI agents hunting the supernatural, one or two of whom actually even met Mulder and Scully once..." phase.

Doggett is The MAN. t with the Doggett-love

Hush is another one I thought might be good for that sort of thing.

I would vote Passion.

Sean, I probably have S1 and S2 on tape (from FX), if you want them...

Aw, that would be awesome, Tep. As long as it wouldn't be stupid expensive to get them out here.

I think most people would go with "Hush" as the best one-shot. For one thing, it isn't arc-specific, so you don't need a whole lot of backstory to understand what's going on. Since OMWF deals with a lot of the characters' secrets being revealed, its impact would be greatly lessened by someone who wasn't aware of those secrets, as any newbie would. Plus, not everyone can get into musicals.

Good standalone introductory episodes?

S2 Lie To Me
S3 Earshot (although if this was my friend, I'd make him sit down and watch the Amazing S3 Streak, i.e. Lover's Walk, The Wish, The Zeppo, and Doppelgangland, as well as Earshot.)
S4 Hush

I hooked my brother with OMWF, but he loves musical theater. A lot of people I know cannot abide musicals, so this is risky unless you know your friend's taste well.

Yeah, I probably wouldn't start anyone off with OMWF. Hush is a great rec. The funny, the truly creepy, the demonstration of how unique a thing Buffy is. And what Jeff said about not too arc-y.

I still have only seen one or two scattered episodes from S1 & S2, so I can't include those in the ranking, but they will eventually find their way on to my DVD shelf, and I will finally be able to rate them properly.

I am just blinking, mouth open, WHA??? after reading this. Please get Sean these tapes!!! I'll send him my DVDs if I have to...this just must be fixed.

I have a friend who HATES fantasy shows with a big old seething HATRED. Doesn't really watch TV except for reality shows. I forced her to watch OMWF when we were drunk one night and she looooved it. But now I can't get her to watch anything else. Sucks.

I also think Hush is a good one, but then you miss all the wonderful Jossy talk. 144 eps. Just one to convert. So hard. I think Surprise/Innocence is perfect if you can lock em in for two hours.