Mwahahahaha. Okay. I think you definitely need to show her "The Man Who Knew Too Little." I giggled all the way through it. The second part of "Mounty on the Bounty" is awesome like an awesomely awesome thing (not to mention funny as hell), but part one is kind of slow, particularly if you've never seen RayK before, so you may wish to wait on that for a little bit. (It was my third episode and I loved it, but I already knew I was addicted to the show by then, so...)
"The Gift of the Wheelman" is where Bob Fraser's ghost first shows up, and it does a really nice balancing act between comedy, drama, and a certain amount of Christmassy spirit. It's not as ridiculous as the others you've watched, but it makes up for it with a really good story. (And it also shows that the production designers are pretty awesome. There's a car chase set to Sarah McLachlan's "Steaming," and...you know, I'm pretty meh about car chases, but this one is actually gorgeous.)
"The Edge" is a good choice as well. Dief's nightmare is probably the funniest single moment of the series, and the episode is a pretty good look at Fraser's psyche. Oh, and "The Wild Bunch" is a must if she likes Dief. It's funny, at at the same time heartbreaking. "We Are the Eggmen" is a nice Thatcher episode, and has a fairly high ridiculousness quotient. "A Hawk and a Handsaw" is also good, and Fraser is at his most Geoffrey-like here. Of course, he's undercover in a mental institution and quoting Hamlet, so, you know.
I think the best order might be TMWKTL, Wheelman, MOTB, and Handsaw, and then TWB, WATE, and The Edge in any order. Oh, and probably the two-hour pilot should go in there somewhere as well.
If she professes an interest in RayV and likes the dramatic aspects of the show, follow up with "The Deal" and "Juliet Is Bleeding" (they're loosely related, both concerning the same mob family behind the Vecchios' neighborhood). Be prepared to cry starting halfway through JIB. It is so very sad, and David Marciano is incredible in it.
Do NOT show her "Victoria's Secret" or the followup, "Letting Go," until she's well and truly hooked, because they're traumatizing enough that they probably scare away any newbie that runs across them. Besides, you don't get the full masochistic catharsis unless you know Fraser and RayV pretty well. These are trauma on the level of, say, Wonderfalls's "Lying Pig" and "Caged Bird." Only worse. Much, much worse. Yeah. I watched it last week, and this morning when I was grabbing books patrons had requested and saw the name "Victoria," I still twitched rather badly. It's a masterfully written, shot, and acted set of episodes--probably the best of the series--but thing is that they all worked together to cause you pain. *shudders* (Fraser cries in this one. Fraser. Cries. You know it's gotta be painful.)
Anyway. Once you've done those, you don't really need individual recs. On the whole, the first half of season one is not as good as the rest of the series. They don't really hit their stride until "Wheelman," but after that about 3/4 of the eps (at least that I've seen) are golden.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-03-06 12:29 am (UTC)"The Gift of the Wheelman" is where Bob Fraser's ghost first shows up, and it does a really nice balancing act between comedy, drama, and a certain amount of Christmassy spirit. It's not as ridiculous as the others you've watched, but it makes up for it with a really good story. (And it also shows that the production designers are pretty awesome. There's a car chase set to Sarah McLachlan's "Steaming," and...you know, I'm pretty meh about car chases, but this one is actually gorgeous.)
"The Edge" is a good choice as well. Dief's nightmare is probably the funniest single moment of the series, and the episode is a pretty good look at Fraser's psyche. Oh, and "The Wild Bunch" is a must if she likes Dief. It's funny, at at the same time heartbreaking. "We Are the Eggmen" is a nice Thatcher episode, and has a fairly high ridiculousness quotient. "A Hawk and a Handsaw" is also good, and Fraser is at his most Geoffrey-like here. Of course, he's undercover in a mental institution and quoting Hamlet, so, you know.
I think the best order might be TMWKTL, Wheelman, MOTB, and Handsaw, and then TWB, WATE, and The Edge in any order. Oh, and probably the two-hour pilot should go in there somewhere as well.
If she professes an interest in RayV and likes the dramatic aspects of the show, follow up with "The Deal" and "Juliet Is Bleeding" (they're loosely related, both concerning the same mob family behind the Vecchios' neighborhood). Be prepared to cry starting halfway through JIB. It is so very sad, and David Marciano is incredible in it.
Do NOT show her "Victoria's Secret" or the followup, "Letting Go," until she's well and truly hooked, because they're traumatizing enough that they probably scare away any newbie that runs across them. Besides, you don't get the full masochistic catharsis unless you know Fraser and RayV pretty well. These are trauma on the level of, say, Wonderfalls's "Lying Pig" and "Caged Bird." Only worse. Much, much worse. Yeah. I watched it last week, and this morning when I was grabbing books patrons had requested and saw the name "Victoria," I still twitched rather badly. It's a masterfully written, shot, and acted set of episodes--probably the best of the series--but thing is that they all worked together to cause you pain. *shudders* (Fraser cries in this one. Fraser. Cries. You know it's gotta be painful.)
Anyway. Once you've done those, you don't really need individual recs. On the whole, the first half of season one is not as good as the rest of the series. They don't really hit their stride until "Wheelman," but after that about 3/4 of the eps (at least that I've seen) are golden.