sarea | Modest much?

So I was watching the special features on BtVS S7, and there's this featurette where Joss Whedon picks his 10 favorite episodes from the series. This is really cool, you know? So I'm watching, and his selections are coming up, and I'm starting to get this sense of ... wait, something's not right.

You know what wasn't right? The fact that, of the 10 episodes he chose, he wrote 8 of them.

Joss -- you are a sad, sad egomaniac.

Here's the thing: I would actually agree that most of Joss's eps are the best of the series. BUT I'M NOT JOSS. I'm allowed to think that, because I don't have the bias of, oh, HAVING WRITTEN THE EPISODES. Sheesh! I mean, especially when you're the only one who gets to make up the list, and you choose 8 of your own? What does that imply to the folks who have been working their asses off on the show all these years? It basically says, "Everything good about this show is all me, me, me, and I don't know what the rest of you bloody idiots have been doing all these years." It's just so. not. cool. That tells your staff that their contributions didn't mean anything, that you couldn't nix a couple more of your own eps in order to at least give props to some other people.

I mean, when the first eps he'd chosen came up, I was glad that he hadn't excluded himself, because I liked seeing that this was his honest opinion of what the best eps were over the years, his own included, no false modesty. But when, at the end, only 2 (TWO!) episodes were ones not written by him, I was just kind of incredulous.

Here were Joss's favorite episodes:

10) Prophecy Girl (S1) (JW)
9) Conversations with Dead People (and get this, Joss says: "I'm very fond of 'Conversations with Dead People.' I just thought structurally and tonally it was very interesting and had a lot to say. And I got to write another song." So it was STILL about him! He doesn't even credit Angie Hart, who cowrote that song.) (S7) (Jane Espenson/Drew Goddard)
8) Restless (S4) (JW)
7) Becoming, Part Two (S2) (JW)
6) The Wish (and Joss ended up writing in this same universe) (S3) (Marti Noxon - probably got named showrunner because she made this top 10 cut!)
5) Doppelgangland (S3) (JW)
4) The Body (S5) (JW)
3) Hush (S4) (JW)
2) Once More, With Feeling (S6) (JW)
1) Innocence (S2) (JW)

There's no question that a lot of those belong on there. And they probably are some of the show's best episodes. But surely there have been other great eps over SEVEN YEARS that weren't written by him. Here's my top 10 list, which consists of 4 Joss episodes:

10) Earshot (S3) (Jane Espenson)
9) Anne (S3) (JW)
8) Intervention (S5) (Jane Espenson)
7) Fool for Love (S5) (Douglas Petrie)
6) Something Blue (S4) (Tracey Forbes)
5) Storyteller (S7) (Jane Espenson)
4) Hush (S4) (JW)
3) Lies My Parents Told Me (S7) (Drew Goddard/David Fury)
2) Lie to Me (S2) (JW)
1) Once More, With Feeling (S6) (JW)

These aren't necessarily the best episodes -- because then The Body and Passion would be on the list -- but my favorites, the ones I enjoy watching multiple times. My interests seem spread across a number of seasons, which is cool.

I've now added in the writers of the other eps, and Jane Espenson is almost up there with Joss in terms of favorite writer -- I have 3 by her. I also consistently like episodes penned by Drew Goddard and Rebecca Rand Kirshner.

What are your top 10 fave BtVS eps? How many are Joss written? It'd really be interesting to see how many of us are as impressed with Joss as he is with himself.