The Mezzanine

...just because.


Buffy

- Spike's arrival.

Because suddenly vampires were not angsty gothic people, but would make ridiculous comments about Woodstock and then go watch telly.


And way before that...
- "They can fly??" "They can drive."

It was just so mundane and common-sense-y.


Farscape

- Crichton's first week in space:
"Get a tractor beam on that shuttle!"
"Tractor beam? What's that?"
"Graviton field. Attracto ray. Superglue. Whatever it is that you yanked me aboard with."
"You mean the docking web?"
"Yeah! Fine! Use it on the shuttle!"

Star Trek really has done a lot for us. Because, despite the fact that none of us have ever seen one in action, anyone who's watched even the slightest bit of television would recognise the draggy laser thing as a "tractor beam".
I loved that Crichton's space-vocabulary was completely different from everyone else's.


Also...
- Frag-cannons.
Specifically, the fact that Crichton reacts to the name "frag-cannons" by grinning and looking around to see who else has noticed the silly; and meanwhile, everyone else it taking it totally seriously because OH NOES THE FRAG CANNONS!


Doctor Who

- "Wait! The Prime Minister's an alien! ...nah, that's never going to work, is it?"

Most shows would have either had him continually insisting that the PM was an alien, with an aggrieved why-does-no-one-believe-me air, or else had him try to conceal it from the get-go. This one made a nice change.


Leverage

- Parker's origin story. With her blowing up her foster family's house to get her soft toy back.
AND IT WAS ALL CUTE AND EVERYTHING.

I've now reached the end of Leverage season 2, and Castle season 3.

Can anyone explain to me why the season ending of one is so much better than the other? Because I'm slightly baffled.

( spoilers within )

I think it's the writing. It must be the writing. But I don't know exactly WHY.