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I thought I'd see what the fuss was all about.
Oh. Holy. Hell.
What kind of moron network executive thought that killing this show was a good idea? How is it that Sci-fi Channel or USA or Showtime or somebody hasn't snatched this show up and started making it again (as USA did when the networks canned Monk)?
Seriously, I'm only on the last show on disk two, and I'm completely hooked. I haven't liked a SF show this well in years. Possibly ever. DS9 is the only show that stands a chance, and honestly...I'm not sure it does. At all.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Just out of curiousity, Noemon, which episode pushed you from "This is pretty darn cool" to "Oh. Holy. Hell."?
In my case, it was "Out of Gas" (which you're probably just finishing up right now). But the combination of "Our Mrs. Reynolds" and "Jaynestown" right before it contributed quite a bit.
Universal actually bought the rights to make a trilogy. They are filming the first movie now (Called Serenity) same actors and everything.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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The sad thing is, with a trilogy and all, I doubt the series will return to TV. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have *some* Firefly in my life, but I miss good TV shows all the same (there are so few).
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Wow, that's really cool. I might be too darn optimistic, but I want to see this come off the movie(s) running and get a nice, long run on a major network that isn't Fox. They had their shot.
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You are right. I watched it in syndication on UPN long after it was canceled. I wish that it did not get canceled. However, I am glad the sci-fi is bringing back Farscape.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Feb 2004
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You know, I think that the moment that the show really grabbed me was in The Train Job, at the very end, when the tatooed russian type guy announces to Mal that he will hunt him to the edges of the universe, and Mal says "Darn.", and kicks him into the intake of the ship's engine.
That was just so completely removed from what they'll usually allow a protagonist to do in a show, you know? In any other show I've watched, the protagonist would have just let the guy go, and then they would have spent several seasons having the bad guy pursue him before dying in a way that was clearly his own fault and not the protagonist's. I hate that. The closest I've seen a SF show come to having this sort of character is DS9, in the episode where Sisco beats the living crap out of Garrik.
Our Mrs. Reynolds solidified my opinion of the show, and did away with any lingering doubts I might have had (although really, I didn't have any by this point), and Jaynestown made me realize that they're going to flesh out every single one of these characters.
Out of gas was even better (although I did wonder why Mal didn't put on a suit. I mean, I know that he thought he was going to die, but I think that it would be human nature to, at the last moment, have one's resolve break down and for one to try to live just a little longer.
Really, the only episode that hasn't impressed me was Bushwacked.
I should really, really go to bed. I do have to work tomorrow. And yet...Shindig awaits. And I am weak.
Luckily, I can only do myself so much harm--I rented these from Blockbuster, and I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get disk 4. Or chew my arms off if somebody else has it checked out.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Noemon, given you liked DS9, also try out Babylon 5. Of course, you're probably already either 1) a fan or 2) convinced you never will be, having not actually seen a representative portion of the show, but I thought I'd recommend it, anyway.
And, given you liked Firefly, definitely try out Farscape.
Edit: And disc 4 of Firefly is definitely the best. Hands down, and those are awfully big hands. Or something.
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Lime and Vána, you are most welcome. I am looking forward to getting them back, though. I've missed them.
I loved the show before I even saw it. Just, everything I heard about it sounded so very cool. But yes, it was probably Out of Gas that really did it for me. That is just one heck of an episode.
Posts: 72 | Registered: Aug 2002
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quote: You know, I think that the moment that the show really grabbed me was in The Train Job, at the very end, when the tatooed russian type guy announces to Mal that he will hunt him to the edges of the universe, and Mal says "Darn.", and kicks him into the intake of the ship's engine.
This is where they got me as well.
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Farscape is actually next on my list. I thought I'd start in on Babylon 5 after that. I've seen an episode of Babylon 5 here and there, but of course the story arc is so strong in that one that I didn't feel able to get into it. Rather than kind of sully it for myself, I thought I'd just wait until a time when I had an opportunity to watch the show from beginning to end, in order.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Firefly can't be on television on any other network for 10 years bgecause of their contractual agreements, and I doubt Whedon would go back to them anyway.
Gotta love FOX. Me, I'm wildly amused that one of the other shows that was misunderstood and treated poorly, Futurama, was nominated for an Emmy last year and nominated for two Emmys this year, two years after it was canceled.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I'm one of the few, apparently, who saw Firefly when it was on the air, and I can tell you that watching them in order makes a huge difference because at the time I blew it off completely. I only watched a few and thought it was pretty cool, but I could never develop the habit of tuning in since the order didn't seem to make sense and it got pre-empted for just about everything.
The last episode ever aired was the pilot, which answered a lot of questions I'd had - duh - and made me wish I'd been more faithful. The DVD set made me wish I had five minutes in a room with the FOX executive(s) in charge. So far I've loaned it out to about seven people, not counting the visiting friends who have been forced to sit down and watch, and I sent a set to a buddy in Minneapolis the day after she finished her book's first draft.
Check out www.fireflyfans.net. Lotsa news, lotsa pictures (including this one) and lotsa insider scoop on the Big Damn Movie.
[ August 12, 2004, 12:02 AM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Glad you've noticed it too. I thought maybe it was just me. Of course, this also means that you have a startling amount in common with CT and Slash, which is definitely a good thing.
Up until now, I haven't been a big fan of buying DVD sets. I kind of wanted the full run of DS9, but there's no *way* I'm paying that kind of money--that would run me almost $800! If I were going to spend that kind of money on a single multi-volume purchase, it would be Smith's Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States. Luckily, I can rent most of what I want from Blockbuster, and once I exhaust their supply I can just switch to Netflix.
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Mary bought the Chinese version of the Babylon 5 DVDs. The discs are the exact same discs as the American version -- they just come in a box with Chinese characters and misspelled english. She bought four seasons on eBay for about $100, and they arrived the next week from China.
About how much are the Firefly DVDs?
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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We met her at DreamCon in Jacksonville - pretty much the reason we went - and it was great. Better still would have been the ComicCon in San Diego that had the whole freaking cast and Josh Whedon, but that was out of my price range. You can listen to the hilarious panel here.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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The problem I have with buying copies of something like that from China is that I'm aware of how likely it is that the DVDs are pirated, and that my money is going to fund organizations like Burma's Wa army. I'd rather just rent the things from Blockbuster, or check them out from the library. Honestly, I kind of like not being weighed down with a bunch of stuff, too. Kind of funny, since I just bought a house, and I own a ridiculous number of books, but I like to keep it to a minimum where I can.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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If you've got friends or relatives with similar tastes who won't be going anywhere any time soon, maybe you can work something out. We go in half on Buffy season sets with my brother-in-law. He keeps 'em, we borrow them whenever we want. Averages $20 a set that way.
[ August 12, 2004, 12:14 AM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Ah, that's okay Chris. I'll just rent them. I've got Blockbuster's version of Netflix, so if I'm paying for that anyway, I might as well use it.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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The Wa are an ethnic group in Burma. Before and during British colonization, and even up into the 1970s, they were feared, apparently with good reason, as head hunters.
Hm. I'll tell you what--rather than summarize, let me quote. This is from Andrew Marshall's The Trouser People, in a section of the book where he's talking about crossing Wa territory to reach a particular lake.
quote:It wouldn't be easy. The Wa weren't headhunters any more--they harvested the last crop of skulls in the 1970s--but their modern reincarnation was just as frightening. Now the opium-rich Wa hills were controlled by one of the world's largest drug-trafficking organizations, the United Wa State Army....
It was impossible to live in Thailand, as I did, and not know about the UWSA. In many ways the 'Red Wa', as the Thais also called them, were public enemy number one. The UWSA was another breakaway faction of the defunct Communist Party of Burma, and in 1989 it had struck a ceasefire agreement with the Burmese government....This peace deal effectively gave the UWSA control of large areas along Burma's border with Thailand and China, and allowed the Wa to concentrate on what they did best: refiningraw opium into heroin for the world's markets.
Then, in 1993, the UWSA also began to produce methamphetamine....
...addicts were not the UWSA's only customers. If you have been on holiday in Thailand and have bought a bootleg CD from a street vendor, then you have unwittingly made the tycoon drug lords of the UWSA a little bit richer: these CDs are believed to be manufactured in Wa-occupied areas of Burma.
p231-232
Sorry I don't have a more academic reference handy, but from other reading I've done, it would seem that Marshall has his facts straight, unfortunately.
So, while there's no guarantee that pirated CDs from China are coming from the Wa Army, I think tht it's possible, and maybe even likely.
These are not good people. I don't want to inadvertently fund them if I can help it.
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ya, a good friend of mine came out of Burma in middle school. He talked some about the stuff that went on there when he was a kid...scary stuff.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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I think "Trash" is my favorite episode. It was NEVER shown on the air.
Don't read the back of the box. There's too many spoilers in the episode synopsies.
I saw them all when they were originally shown, but I have to agree that being shown in Order counts a lot.
Firefly was so sabotaged... shown out of order, pre-empted for the world series and given the "Death Time-Slot"... it's a wonder we got as many episodes as we did (Wonderfalls.)
This could have been my favorite show ever if it had been given half a chance. They took the sky from us.
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Agreed... I also happened to catch a lot of it on the air, but with it shown out of order (when it was even shown at all, as opposed to the tail end of some baseball game), it wasn't enough to keep me watching at the time. The DVD set shows how great this show truly could have been.
Posts: 293 | Registered: Jun 2004
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I first saw Firefly shortly after it was cancelled. Back then, there were no DVDs, and no announcements about DVDs, just a seemingly hopeless (but we plugged along anyway) "save the show" campaign.
So I had to turn to downloading the episodes. My first glimpse of the show was "Jaynestown"--the wit, drama, writing, feel, everything was perfect. Love at first sight.
I downloaded the rest and became as avid a fan as the rest, and when the DVD set came out, I glady forked over my $35 for it as well.
Sadly, our tireless campaign seemed to be getting no results; but Joss was working away on his "baby", trying to get it back in one form or another.
In combination with our efforts, he succeeded. I can't wait until April, when Firefly returns to our 'verse. Here's hoping it succeeds, so it can return a couple more times.
By the way, Whedon's genius in Firefly persuaded me to finally check out his Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, both of which are excellent shows and almost as good as his sci-fi western. If you aren't already a fan, I highly recommend them--ignore the seemingly silly names and premises, beneath that they have writing just as good as that on Firefly.
Posts: 44 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Weeelll... almost as good. One of the things I liked about Firefly was that it had the wit and humor of Buffy and Angel without the pop-culture references and juvenile soap opera situations. 'Course, the soap opera situations might still have been forthcoming, but at least there was no danger of dumb pop culture references.
Posts: 293 | Registered: Jun 2004
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My hero Ben Edlund actually wrote for that Jaynestown episode you mention of Firefly, as well as others. He was also a producer for Firefly and Angel. FYI. Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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You know, one thing that seems a little like a plot hole in Out of Gas--why did the other scavenger ship leave? Why didn't they just wait a bit and force their way in? It was clear from the way that Mal was weaving that he wouldn't have been able to stay on his feet for very long.
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OK, he gets major props for working on The Tick, but I'm not sure if that makes up for having written Titan, A.E..
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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Yeah, Titan A.E. was pretty bad, wasn't it? I remember having an argument about it with pod, back when I was still posting under my original username. He absolutely loved it, for reasons I could never quite fathom.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I enjoyed it, too. Even before I knew it's origins. It certainly isn't the best every but it's enjoyable in a non-Disney way. I remember an interview with Ben later where he said his original writing had been written and re-written, so little of his influence remained. Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Point of order: Ben Edlund didn't work on The Tick. He created The Tick, wrote and drew the comic, way back when. That gets him more props.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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You know, I was wondering if The Tick Ben Edlund was also the guy who wrote "Jaynestown" and I never really got around to checking it out. That's awesome.
And in the same breath: Ben Edlund wrote "Jaynestown", created/wrote/drew The Tick... and somehow managed to write Titan A.E.?! It boggles the mind (though it does also remind me of a certain Penny-Arcade...)
I take an extremely long time to decide if I like something or not. It usually takes me 3 full front to back listening sessions before I decide if I like a new album by one of my favorite bands. I didn't mean to impugne the earlier episodes, 'cause I love 'em all... I sat up and paid attention when Mal kicked scarred Russian dude into Serenity's engine, and I decided it was a great show when I saw "Our Mrs. Reynolds". But "Out of Gas" confirmed that Firefly is Great, not just extremely good.
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Hey, as long as we're all saying thanks to Xnera for introducing us to Firefly, I just thought I'd throw in my two cents. Good, good stuff it is. I still need to find an adequate way of repaying you.
By the way, I'm Speed, but this is a screen name intended to postpone the inevitable landmark.
Posts: 127 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Well, I finished the 4th DVD yesterday. That was an incredible show. I'm still stunned at the treatment it received at FOX's hands.
One thing I didn't quite get--in the deleted scenes portion of the special features, the final "deleted scene" is from the final Episode, Objects in Space, scene #6. The blurb about it says "This scene was actually aired in the orignal broadcast, but has been deleted from the episode's DVD release. All of the episodes on this DVD appear as Joss Whedon originally conceived them so this reference to Inara deciding to leave no longer makes sense".
The thing is, this scene was in the episode, and did make sense in the context of the rest of the episode. So...what am I missing here? Did they intend to put a different version on the DVD and fail to do so? If so, what was Whedon's original conception of this episode? I take it that he didn't intend Inara to leave?
I can't wait to see the movie. Anybody know anything about it? Does it pick up where the show left off, or rehash the pilot, or what?
By the way, I rented Farscape season 1 (well, the best of season 1, anyway) and watched the premier episode. Is that episode indicative of the quality of the rest of the show? I ask because I found it to be...well, pretty bad. Predictable, with really wooden dialog. I didn't find the aliens particularly convincing either. I'm debating whether to watch another episode before returning it to Blockbuster.
My plan for tomorrow is to rerent the first disk of Firefly and rewatch the pilot, now that I'm familiar with the show. It definitely seems like a series that is worth rewatching.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Trust me, the show (Farscape) gets much better. And please don't just watch the "Best Of" collection; it leaves out far too much of season 1. Best to watch it in order, perhaps skipping a couple bad eps here and there.
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I am looking forward to getting them back, though. I've missed them.![[Dont Know]](graemlins/dontknow.gif)
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It certainly isn't the best every but it's enjoyable in a non-Disney way. I remember an interview with Ben later where he said his original writing had been written and re-written, so little of his influence remained. ![[Frown]](frown.gif)
