Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/10/04/hush-is-the-buffy-the-va.html
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Definitely one of the best episodes. It was pretty uneven in the last two seasons, though.
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I had forgotten about the twirling straitjacketed lackeys. Great episode.
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Yeah, that one is my go-to episode for when I need a hit of buffy. I never watched the show faithfully, just dipping in once in a while for the original run.
I wonder if there are any self contained story arcs that are worth a look?
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Was that this one?
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It’s no Beer Bad, but it’s pretty good.
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As a Spike fan-boy, my favourite is probably “Fool for Love”, where they really let James Marsden show off his acting chops.
(Arguably, Spike upsets the balance of the show, and shoves previously major characters firmly into the background: after he returns as a regular in season 4, he gets a character development arc that lasts for the rest of the show. The very last episode is as much about concluding that arc as it is about saying goodbye to the programme.)
Other favourites: “Band Candy” in season 3, for Giles as a cockney rebel (allowing Tony Head to use something like his real accent); “Doppelgangland”, also season 3, for Goth!Vampire!Willow; and the supremely weird season 4 finale, “Restless”. And “The Gift” (season 5 finale), for obvious reasons.
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We’re about a week into binging the whole series at our house, and just saw ‘Hush’. It’s an excellent episode, but I just love the series overall.
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“Hush” was indeed the high point of the show and the best all around episode. And with a starring role for Doug Jones of The Shape of Water!
If there were any one episode I’d say was the artistic highlight of the show, it would be “The Body”. But that’s not exactly an enjoyable episode to watch.
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The Body is possible the single greatest tv episode, of anything, ever.
If I have to choose a fave, I pick The Zeppo. Because I like the quiet.
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@SheiffFatman: If someone’s going to see “Doppelgangland,” they should watch “the Wish” first. It’s the episode that introduces Vamp!Willow, in a take on what would have happened if Buffy had never come to Sunnydale. It’s one of my favorites.
I also recommend “Prophecy Girl,” “Passion,” “Lie to Me,” “Band Candy” (I love BadBoy!Giles) and of course “Once More With Feeling.”
@nungesser: Agreed on “the Body.” It is one of, if not the, most haunting and powerful episodes of the series… but I don’t think I can ever watch it again. It hits too close to home.
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True. And I will never watch it again.
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For general creepy-as-fuckedness, though, don’t overlook Conversations With Dead People. KeeeeRYST that one got under my skin.
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That’s another good one! It’s more part of an arc than a stand-alone ep, but I remember it fondly.
Now I want to get out my DVDs and go on a binge!
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Yeah, that’s the shame of this episode, and also of eps like e.g. OMWF. You’d love to show them to people who are baffled by the whole Buffy thing, to demonstrate the heights which this show can reach – but they don’t have any impact if you’re not already sold!
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That’s the difficulty with Buffy in general. Episodes like the ones mentioned here are incredibly powerful and well written, but only really reward viewers who’ve been with the show since the beginning (or at least Season 2 or so). It was one of the best shows on TV, but it’s also hard to recommend that much commitment to get to fully enjoy “Hush”.
I’ve had friends who’ve sat me down to show me individual episodes of Dr Who, Breaking Bad, and Life on Mars, and the same issue came up.
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I’d say it’s the best horror episode of Buffy, but other episodes are better in other categories. I find the season finale to be the most inspiring episode, and Tabula Rasa the most heartbreaking, and Smashed to be the hottest (despite being problematic), and Once More With Feeling the best musical episode of an otherwise non-musical show… I could go on.
So Buffy has a lot of “best episodes”, is what I’m saying. Hush is definitely one of those.
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Once upon a time, I had a duplex neighbor that was extremely enthusiastic about Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I found to be a little confusing, as he seemed to be well out of the demographic I imagined the show was targeting and so was I. One evening, we had an extended conversation and I started questioning him about his inexplicable(to me) interest in this television show. I don’t remember what he said now, but I remember thinking that there must be something good about this show for people to be so cultishly into it…So I told him to recommend me an episode to watch and I vowed to give it my full attention. And I forgot about it. Then one evening perhaps not that long after he called me and told me that this episode(“Hush”) was going to be rerun, and I should watch it. So I partook of some leafy green and sat myself down in front of the tv. I thought it was fantastic and surprisingly emotionally moving. And, I now understood what Buffy was about. Even though no one spoke, I got an excellent idea of the dispositions of the different characters and the dynamics between them, and that Buffy was a superhero.
It was few years after this before I actually began watching Buffy. It is not always brilliant like this but it is one of my all-time favorite tv shows.
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