My own self

For the sake of completion, according to imdb.com, here is the episodes he's directed which I threw together under the "Other"-option, as I truly don't expect you to prefer any of these to all the ones listed:

When She Was Bad (BtVS 2x1)
Lie To Me (BtVS 2x7)
Anne (BtVS 3x1)
Amends (BtVS 3x10)
Doppelgangland (BtVS 3x16)
The Freshman (BtVS 4x1)
Who Are You? (BtVS 4x16)
Family (BtVS 5x6)
The Train Job (FF 1x2)
Untouched (A 2x4)
Conviction (A 5x1)
Business School (The Office 3x17)

(For the record: Seeing as I haven't seen The Office beyond the pilot which really didn't impress me at all, I haven't seen the episode Joss guest-directed. But seeing as the poll isn't about which episode is the best DIRECTED one, but rather the best episode which happens to be directed by Mr. Whedon, I'm taking my chances that it won't beat out some of my favourite eps from some of my favourite shows)

Lotta writes:

I can't seem to vote, so I'll just tell you that "The Body" takes it away for me.

That makes us two. Though I must admit, I was hard-pressed in having to not click "A Hole in the World".

Damn you for putting "A Hole in the World" and "Waiting in the Wings" in the same poll!



And yes, one might say I have an unhealthy obsession about "Waiting in the Wings"...

"Waiting in the Wings" is fan-bloody-tastic, but it's no The Body or Hole in the World, not to me anyway. In fact, I'd probably also vote Hush, The Gift, OMWF, Objects in Space or Serenity before I'd vote WitW.

So I'm glad to see you go with Miss Burkle. I hated not getting to vote for that ep.

Anonymous writes:

It's not fair to the other episodes that they have to compete with "The Body"...

But while that episode is most often my favourite, it's not always. If I'm in the mood for something lighter, I might go for "Hush" or "Spin the Bottle"; if I want something different I'd choose "Objects in Space".

But most of the time it's "The Body".

Aha. Who would you be, then? ^^ (Terje?)

Terje writes:

Ah, that was me, yes.

Yeah, you're the only guy I've ever heard call "Hush" or "Spin the Bottle" "light" in any context, so I kinda guessed... ;)

Terje writes:

Really? Because compared to, say, The Body or The Gift or A Hole In The World or Waiting In The Wings, both Spin the Bottle and Hush are delightfully light little things. Of course, Hush has a lot of horror to it, too, and can as such be quite dark, but at the same time I find it light, because of the scene where Giles tries to explain about the Gentlemen, and the scenes where people try to communicate without talking (although not, obviously, the one in which Tara tries to call for help as she's chased through the campus of UCSD), and the little oddnesses in the behaviour of the Gentlemen.

But hey, everything's relative, so in relation to other things, I won't argue with anyone who calls "Hush" or "Spin the Bottle" dark...

Compared to "The Body", "The Gift" and "A Hole in the World", which contain three of the, what, six biggest Slayerverse deaths, of course innocent little bottlespin'aroo and The Gentlemen seem like daffodils and roses. But compared to your average Angel or Buffy-ep, which seems a much more likely grounds for comparison in the context you made that statement, and especially compared to your average Buffy-ep, I'd say they're pretty dark.

Terje writes:

Well, yeah, "Hush" is even kinda scary, which one can't really say of every Buffysode. I still think it's a light little treat, though, mainly because of the reasons I gave in my last comment, but also because each of the Big Three (i.e. Buffy, Willow and Xander) "find love" in it: Buffy finally comes clean with Riley, and they start communicating (a nice little twist of Whedon's there); Willow meets Tara; and Xander realises that he's in love with Anya (he also punches Spike in the nose, and that's always a treat).

But hey, I can understand those who consider this one as "dark", although I disgree with them: Because the characters are happy (mainly), I call the episode "light".

Fair enough. And "Spin the Bottle", despite its dire context, is light due to the unusual amount of comedy for an Angel-ep?