I hated the musical episode of Buffy at the time but now realise it’s truly amazing
When it was announced the entire world went “well, Buffy just jumped the shark.” But it is an outstanding piece of television for two reasons.
1) It works incredibly well for what it is, a musical. You can buy the soundtrack, cons have singalong sessions. Even self-contained, it’s a masterpiece.
2) It’s probably the most pivotal episode in the entirety of the show’s run, so many plot strands affecting so many characters all come to a head in it. The story arc basically hard-lefts, to do that in a ‘novelty’ episode rather than having OMWF just being an amusing throwaway episode must have taken some testicular fortitude. Arguably it works because of the yin-yang of the seriousness of the plot with the levity the music brings. No-one gets out of that episode unscathed, take away the tunes and it’s dark as a shit after a night on the red wine.