A while back, I watched Serenity and really enjoyed it. This was a surprise for me, and the very same day I vowed to get the whole series on DVD. I wanted to see if it was as good as the movie, or if it in fact was better. Most people told me that the latter was true so I was intrigued. Sadly, It took me a bit over two years to get to it. What can I say – I’m really good at what I do best, and what I do best is procrastination. If I cold get paid for procrastinating I would probably have enough money by now to buy Bill Gates and make him mow my lawn. Unfortunately, most people pay you money for the exactly opposite of procrastination – and that is actually doing stuff. I’m not very good at that you see and hence, I have no fabulous wealth.
Every time I decide to start watching a new series it has to sit on my desk, on a shelf or on my hard drive for at least 3-4 months before I get to it. It is really not really something that I came up with, or that I strive for. It just how it works out. I get it, put it away and then forget it. 3-4 months down the road I’m bored and I suddenly remember that I have it there sitting for me and finally start watching. With Firefly the waiting period was slightly over 2 years, but I finally got to it.
Quick aside – I really can’t believe that the Serenity post is dated Sept 06. I could have sworn I have posted it like June or something. Go figure. Can you believe that I’ve been spamming this blog with my incoherent ramblings for almost 4 years now? It’s amazing how the time files these days. It reminds me of that short story that I blogged about in September. Increasing sense of “time compression” just like the example I gave above was the first sign of the approaching hardware meltdown in the virtual world it described. Could it be that The Matrix is experiencing heavy system load right now?
Anyway, I digress. Firefly is an amazing show and officially one of my favorites now. It has everything a jaded, cynical and condescending TV viewer like me could wish for: interesting, well constructed characters, compelling setting, snappy dialog, character driven plot, non-annoying special effects (more about that later), Summer Glau, Jewel Staite and Morena Baccarin. I’m trying to figure how could this show ever receive poor ratings. I watched 3 episodes so far, and I’m hooked. It should have been a smashing success! But alas, Fox fucked it up. If I recall correctly the ended up showing episodes out of order, marketing it to the wrong audience, and continuously trying to push their creative agenda onto the show writers and producers. They had a real gem on their hands and they totally let it slip through their fingers. Then again it is not surprising – after all, almost every single show on Fox that I was ever even remotely interested in was canceled after few episodes. This is why I refuse to watch that station these days.
I approached Serenity and Firefly cautiously. I was skeptical as to the setting of the series. Western and deep space Science Fiction simply did not mesh well in my mind. Not to mention I’m not a huge fan of the Western genre to begin with. Serenity was a pleasant surprise being light on Western elements and heavy on the SciFi and I ended up liking it. People warned me that Firefly is more westerny (is that a word?). This is true, the western elements are more prominent in the show (especially in the pilot) but it is not a pure high-tech-Western (like in Trigun anime) but rather a nicely balanced mix of various themes and influences. The setting is unique and very well designed. The Western flavor just that – a flavor. It adds a little kick, but it is not overpowering. Despite my reservations, I was sold on this quirky universe some 20 minutes into the pilot. Now I want to get the Serenity RPG so I could actually play in that world! That’s how much I like it!
Joss Whedon really has a knack for creating strong character concepts. I noticed that his usual routing is to take fairly straightforward tropes, then combining them into incompatible groups and simply letting them interact and feed of each other. Initially you can understand the characters because they conform to stereotypes you can recognize. You learn about them through the way they interact with each other rather than through convenient exposition or flashback. Their relationships seem emergent and not designed. Thanks to excellent writing and characterization these seemingly one dimensional entities end up with unique personalities, and turbulent past they are usually reluctant to talk about. They become people you can identify with and who you care for. If you put them all in a room a story essentially writes itself – their temperaments clash, they feed of each others backgrounds fueling inside jokes, arguments, teasing and etc. This is one of those things that Joss Whedon excels at and you can clearly see he did hell of a job on the crew of Serenity.
The story itself is great mix too. At least so far. Despite the setting the writers did not end up relying solely on western plot tropes. They are present, but usually with a unique twist that makes them fit with the SF backdrop. It’s not all there is to this show though. Everyone will find something that they like. There is a little bit of space opera, great deal of character driven drama, some mystery, some action and suspense and even little bit of horror (whenever Reavers show up). There is a linear progression to the story, and no magical reset button that makes everything better at the end of the episode. All of this is topped with just the right amount of humor delivered with impeccable timing.
Oh, and this is probably the only show in the known universe that does not use annoying special effects when it shows spaceships passing each other in the vacuum. When you watch a deep space scene you either hear nothing, or some background music. If characters are on a space-walk all you hear are their voices on the radio circuit – even when they use explosives to blow a hatch off a derelict abandoned transport. How awesome is that? Beautifully realistic!
All in all I love it. If you are looking for a really good show, or some really good Sci-fi definitely check it out. Too bad I only have 11 episodes left. I wish there was more. :(
Actually, the RPG is on sales at the shop downstairs from my place… But that might be a bit too far for you, Luke.
I did the same thing as you regarding this great (but short lived) Sci-Fi series. I saw Serenity about 1 year ago (not knowing it was based on the Firefly TV show) and was intrigued by its story. I then went out soon after and picked up the series on DVD. I think it took 3 nights for my wife and I to watch the entire series because we were so hooked by halfway through the pilot episode. We were going to bed 2-3 hours later than usual because we didn’t want to turn it off.
The character development and background stories were excellent, and this show easily could have been very successful if Fox hadn’t doomed it from the start.
Anyway, it was possibly the best SciFi series I have ever watched and was killed off long before its time.
Heard it was awesome, did a similar “minimum amount of time between deciding to check out X, and actually watching X” thing, saw all the episodes over the course of about a week (that being around about August) and loved the unholy living crap out of all of it.
Someone really ought to look into how much it would cost to get a second season made, there’s a butt-ton of fans out there who I’m sure could be convinced to pay monies towards a good cause.
I did the same thing – Serenity, then Firefly. The first time I watched all the Firefly episodes I really liked them. The characters are generally quite good, the dialog is snappy, and the plots are clever. The universe was compelling, believable, and very interesting. However my wife didn’t like them much, she thought they were ok, but not great.
The second time through I started to see what she meant. There is a lot of kitschy dialog, music, & situations. At some parts the acting is just bad – it looks like an actor acting, rather than a person responding. Kaylee did this a lot. I also thought Simon got more and more irritating, always flipping out about his sister in a predictable and wooden way. Summer also became somewhat annoying, I wanted to shout “we get you’re disturbed, can you just keep your mouth shut!”
So I’d agree with you on the first go around. Watch them a second or third time and see if they don’t wear thin.
Well, I am with Jambarama on this one. Though I saw Firefly (at least bits of it) first and then the movie, I was never as enthusiastic about both. The movie was ok, but a bit too much “us against the whole universe and we still made it” to be believable. As for Firefly, it was certainly a nice serie and a very good setting, but the acting was a bit disappointing for me. I mean, it is not that I didn’t like them at all (I bought the movie’s DVD after all), but I don’t think it was that amazing.
I’m going to disagree with most of the replies – I absolutely and completely feel in love with Firefly.
It conjoured up a universe fully formed, with a depth going far beyond the screen. The only other tv show I can think of that conjoured such depth are Stephen Poliakoff’s dramas (about as far from Sci-fi as you can get – but I urge each and every one of you to watch his stuff).
I don’t really understand Fox, they don’t want firefly to escape their clutches, but have made their intentions to shelve it permanently very clear.
As an aside – I’ve started using Feedly as my RSS reader (very good BTW), and it displays the comments to your posts, but without the author’s name. I suspect this is their problem, not yours, but thought I’d mention it.
Well, I can kindoff see the acting problem many people mentioned. Some scenes are a bit wooden, but this is not a constant and did not mar my enjoyment on the first viewing – at least not yet.
Kaylee is the designated techno-babble girl so she gets all these dull, meaningless lines that are designed to be indecipherable. These sorts of things can fall flat even at the hands of a seasoned acting veteran.
Interestingly Mal and Inara also have odd moments when they seem to be more reciting to each other rather than talking. This usually happens when they are civil and are making perfectly respectable small-talk. The writing of some of the dialogs between these two is a bit cumbersome at times. I much prefer them in their normal bickering mode – their back and forward is usually spontaneous and amusing.
I pretty much figured that Serenity was the end of the series seeing how they killed off Wash and Brook. Btw, I will need to watch it again once I finish Firefly just to get the full experience. :)
[quote post=”2694″]As an aside – I’ve started using Feedly as my RSS reader (very good BTW), and it displays the comments to your posts, but without the author’s name. I suspect this is their problem, not yours, but thought I’d mention it. [/quote]
Hmm… I actually never used a feed reader that would include and parse comments. No clue why is it skipping the authors though – I haven’t touched the comment feed in any way so I imagine the issue might be on their end.
Actually, I always got the impression that this was part of the characters. The two have latent
sexualromantic:P tension which is usually expressed through arguing. When they’re not arguing, they’re working to avoid expressing or revealing anything so their formalities are just that: formalities. They carefully rehearse their conversations in their heads before they even begin them. Then again, maybe I’m reading way too much into this. :)The only time the conversation really felt wooden to me was when Kaylee was speaking to Simon, but that was due more to her unidentifiable dialect than her actual lines.
As to the ‘Western’ aspect, I didn’t notice it. Maybe I’m the only one who isn’t put off by the notion that rustic lifestyles will continue into the distant future, but superimposing a space setting onto the 19th century feels more natural to me than a lot of those space operas that assume we will somehow achieve some sort of socialist utopia. But that’s just me.
And that was totally Google Chrome on WinXP, not Safari on the Mac. Just FYI.
@astine: Good point. That actually might be the case. :)
As for Kaylee, she really reminds me of Willow from Buffy. It is almost as if Joss Whedon simply transplanted the character to a new show. Even some of their mannerisms are similar.
The actress was born in Canada and grew up in Maui which may explain odd dialect. Or not. Perhaps that too was supposed to be a part of the character.