Day 06 - Favorite episode of your favorite TV show
"It's always sudden." Most people would probably choose Once More, With Feeling, the musical episode. Others choose Hush or Restless. I love all those episodes, but it's really no contest, The Body is not only the best episode of Buffy, it just may be the best episode of television ever broadcasted, period.
Everything about it is pure art: The close-ups and unusual camera angles, the tracking shots and the jump cuts, the realism and the dream sequences, the lack of music and the pauses in the dialogue, the strict four-act-structure with every act unfolding in real-time without any outdoor scenes. But all that is just technical - at its core this episode simply is the greatest and most realistic depiction of loss and death and how we try to cope with it.
There has always been death in Buffy, it is a supernatural show after all, but this was something else entirely - it's a completely natural death, not disguised as a fancy metaphor as usual, leaving Buffy with no enemy to fight. Sure, there's a vampire at the end of the episode and killing him is a carthatic experience for her, but only for a second, and the fight is brutal and ugly, displaying none of the usually impressive and pretty fight choreography the show's known for. There's no relief for Buffy, no funny quips, only another dead body in an episode that's filled with them and their various representations - there are real dead bodies in the morgue, statues in Dawn's art class, the pain relief of Xander's bloodied hand, but most important of all, there's a body in Buffy's living room, on the couch, and the moment when Buffy realizes that the person she loves more than anyone else in the world is now just that - another dead body - is the greatest acting moment in Sara Michelle Gellar's entire career, as is Anya's grief-stricken monologue for Emma Caulfield.
In the end, there's only death. We will never understand it, it will always be sudden, and the only thing that's left for us to do is to remember the good times, like the Christmas dinners we spent together, and hold on close to our loved ones. But even that one glorious kiss shared in this episode feels heartbreaking. The Body is truly devastating. I've never lost someone close to me and it still wrecks me every time I see it. Actually I tear up just thinking about it right now. And that's why I've watched it more times than any other episode of Buffy. It's cathartic, just like finally finding something you can fight and kill, even if it's just another already dead body.
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death
And here are my caps from that episode.
Everything about it is pure art: The close-ups and unusual camera angles, the tracking shots and the jump cuts, the realism and the dream sequences, the lack of music and the pauses in the dialogue, the strict four-act-structure with every act unfolding in real-time without any outdoor scenes. But all that is just technical - at its core this episode simply is the greatest and most realistic depiction of loss and death and how we try to cope with it.
There has always been death in Buffy, it is a supernatural show after all, but this was something else entirely - it's a completely natural death, not disguised as a fancy metaphor as usual, leaving Buffy with no enemy to fight. Sure, there's a vampire at the end of the episode and killing him is a carthatic experience for her, but only for a second, and the fight is brutal and ugly, displaying none of the usually impressive and pretty fight choreography the show's known for. There's no relief for Buffy, no funny quips, only another dead body in an episode that's filled with them and their various representations - there are real dead bodies in the morgue, statues in Dawn's art class, the pain relief of Xander's bloodied hand, but most important of all, there's a body in Buffy's living room, on the couch, and the moment when Buffy realizes that the person she loves more than anyone else in the world is now just that - another dead body - is the greatest acting moment in Sara Michelle Gellar's entire career, as is Anya's grief-stricken monologue for Emma Caulfield.
In the end, there's only death. We will never understand it, it will always be sudden, and the only thing that's left for us to do is to remember the good times, like the Christmas dinners we spent together, and hold on close to our loved ones. But even that one glorious kiss shared in this episode feels heartbreaking. The Body is truly devastating. I've never lost someone close to me and it still wrecks me every time I see it. Actually I tear up just thinking about it right now. And that's why I've watched it more times than any other episode of Buffy. It's cathartic, just like finally finding something you can fight and kill, even if it's just another already dead body.
Day 07 - Least favorite episode of your favorite TV show
Day 08 - A show everyone should watch
Day 09 - Best scene ever
Day 10 - A show you thought you wouldn't like but ended up loving
Day 11 - A show that disappointed you
Day 12 - An episode you've watched more than 5 times
Day 13 - Favorite childhood show
Day 14 - Favorite male character
Day 15 - Favorite female character
Day 16 - Your guilty pleasure show
Day 17 - Favorite mini series
Day 18 - Favorite title sequence
Day 19 - Best TV show cast
Day 20 - Favorite kiss
Day 21 - Favorite ship
Day 22 - Favorite series finale
Day 23 - Most annoying character
Day 24 - Best quote
Day 25 - A show you plan on watching (old or new)
Day 26 - OMG WTF? Season finale
Day 27 - Best pilot episode
Day 28 - First TV show obsession
Day 29 - Current TV show obsession
Day 30 - Saddest character death
And here are my caps from that episode.