If Sean's friend thinks the show is juvenile, I'd stay away from Prophecy Girl. I love it with an unholy love, but until you care about these characters, if you think it's a stupid teen show, I don't think watching Buffy fighting in her fluffy white dress, and Cordy and Willow walking in on the rec room slaughter are going to strengthen the, "It's not a teeny bopper show" case.

Becoming - and I refuse to separate it into parts - is the episode that my dh first watched. I finally outed myself as a BtVS fan (I'd been watching when I was feeding an infant-Julia and he was bathing toddler Ben, and then quickly chaning the channel).

He mocked the hell out of me, watched Becoming to humor me, and became an instant, geeky Let's-Go-To-Amazon-And-See if There-Are-Any-Tapes-Or-DVDs-Fan.

It'll spoil the person of course, but that's their problem. :)

See, I think Prophecy Girl is when it went from slightly teenish to Holy Shit, This Show Just Ripped My Heart Out.

Cordy and Willow walking in on the rec room slaughter

Especially Cordy and Willow walking into the A/V room.

I caught my Mom sniffling during the "I Quit" scene. It's powerful stuff.

See, I think Prophecy Girl is when it went from slightly teenish to Holy Shit, This Show Just Ripped My Heart Out.

I think so too, but only because I cared about them by then. (Actually, I started watching in season 3, but by the time I saw PG, I cared about the characters.) I think PG was spectacular. I don't know if it would hook someone who thinks it's a teen show, only because it is still, teen-dance, save-the-world-let's-party-ish. But I didn't mean to deny PG its propers, because it's fanfuckingtastic.

It's a tough request, turning somebody on to the show in one episode.

Part of the problem is that what makes it a great show is how it unfolds across multiple episodes and seasons.

Tell us about your friend, Sean. Maybe that'll help with the recommendations.

I'm asking FE now. He says I made him watch F,I first. And, once he found out it wasn't like the movie he was happy, and he liked the dialogue and the storytelling. So, I dunno, a quotable, strong one off?

What about Lie to Me? Quotable, not too much backstory, plus it makes fun of Vampire wannabes and Angel.

Or possibly Halloween and Band Candy.

While Halloween (or Nightmares) is a good starter ep, Band Candy requires to much pre-knowledge.

Personally, I've found that Welcome to the Hellmouth/The Harvest makes one of the best conversion combos. I think it didn't get seen by a whole lot of people until later, but as far as season one goes, they were as strong as any episode.

Angel's not bad either as a starter.

OK, do ya' think I've been deathmatching too much because I was tempted to just write ...

Go Phases! Choose Phases!

????

"WttH/The Harvest" is pretty good, being the set-up introduction to the series. Personally, I think "Nightmares" and "Lie to Me" are better at giving one a feel for the way the series runs without a lot of backstory being needed. Both start out very creepy, have some good character interactions, and highlight the kind of responsibility Buffy's been chosen for.