I second the idea of a non-grade grade. Actual grades seem to just invite petty arguing, but most people wouldn't argue if you said they should skip Fire and that Darkness Falls was a classic.

IN51P1D - I always assumed he still had all of the desires and instincts of a vampire, which made having a soul suck all the more. Because he would want to do crazy evil shit, but would know it was wrong. At least, it is more interesting to think of it that way…

In that case - yes, there has been some damn good television in the past ten years. Though I might push the start date a little earlier to catch the X-Files when it was in its prime.

Wait - by Angel "went black" do you mean when he went evil in these eps or when his series cut to black at the end? Because I originally interpreted the comment to mean the latter, but that clearly doesn't work if you are including the Angel series in your list of greats.

Another thought -

Though presumably part of it would be the knowledge that if he's too happy, he could literally lose himself. So, no matter how much he might like someone later, he may never be able to reach the same point psychologically.

Also - Revolver probably kept him depressed because it reminded Angel that he owed 200 years of back taxes.

What makes the curse all the lamer is that, even if he happened to be happy for one moment, wouldn't the gypsies want him to be unhappy again after that? I don't really think they went into it saying "we want him to be really unhappy, but if it is happy for some reason, we'll call the whole thing off."

*robot spoilers*

One of my coworkers was singing the Charles in Charge theme song a while back and stopped when she realized how dirty it was.

Jesse.

Noel hinted previously that he knew that evil Angel was coming, so it could not have been nearly as shocking as it would have been for a viewer back in 1998 who saw it fresh. I also knew about evil Angel before I saw the eps (over the summer after Season 2), so I was probably in a similar boat (though I did not know…

Good point re: Joyce - it does get kind of ridiculous here.

Giles' past was actually past. Jenny was literally acting as a spy right up until Surprise/Innocence. So her actions were very much in the present.

I don't know - so much that I've liked the last few years has been cancelled pretty much immediately. Maybe it was the golden age of television writing, but not of actual television…

Below, in a comment that will now, surely, be buried forevermore, I also noted that Treasurer implied that they had income and expenses, not just a group of kids complaining about Cordelia (and possibly taking notes if they have a Secretary).

Treasurer
I think "treasurer" is inherently funnier, as it suggests that they were doing things that needed someone to keep careful track of expenditures and income. Like, they were having bake sales to fund anti-Cordelia activities or something. President, VP, or even Secretary just suggest that they met and…

I think the feelings that Jenny had betrayed them were focused as much at the "well, the least you could have done was *told* us that this was a possibility" as the fact that she was hiding something from them. In a very real sense, she did integrate into their group at least in part to spy on them, even if she did…

Thanks!

Believing
I think you hit on something when you point on that Mulder wants to believe and Scully is afraid to believe. I don't know that I would say that she is afraid - just that she, like so many of the rest of us, want to live in a world where there are rules. If we take the X-Files at face value, the world is…