So Serenity is out on DVD in the States next week so it only seems right to start probably the 50th thread about the Firefly. I only recently discovered Firefly (yesterday to be exact) but this was due to awful airing times in the UK. I can't even remember when it was last on TV. Anyway, I spent the best part of a week downloading both the series and the movie (don't worry yer little heads, I'm getting the DVDs when I have the money - fucking christmas is gonna kill me one day). I bloody well love the show. Probably the most entertaining thing I've seen in a good few years. Hell, I'm a Stargate fan and I must admit that show is getting a tad stale. Firefly was a breath of fresh air to me. What got me sucked in was the fact the show relied on a good story to carry it along with the various characters (I'm admittedly a Jayne Cobb fan - partly because I'm an Adam Baldwin fan. Animal Mother, wooyeah. And that episode of SG-1, he should've been a regular). What got me was how it didn't rely on the kind of stories other SciFi shows today seem to use i.e. time travel (Andromeda, Enterprise and the biggest time whore of all, SG-1 - worst ending to a series ever), aliens, alternate dimensions and what have you. I also like the route SciFi shows are taking as of late, the whole "naturalistic science fiction" approach much like Battlestar: Galactica. It looks like the days of audible and impossible fights of the Star Wars ilk are long gone and realistic physics is coming into play. And I just love the whole Western SciFi approach. Humanity going back to familiar styles. Plus to me, the show is pure gun porn. Lots of familiar weapons (with oddly unfamiliar sounds) and alot of custom jobs but still quite recognisable. And I love the uniforms of the armies that fought in the Unification Wars. The US WW2 style Browncoats with their M1 helmets and the German WW2 Alliance gimps. Possibly used because it looks cool, or it was trying to cnvey the point that Browncoats = Good; Alliance = Bad. Now onto what I don't like. I didn't like the fact that Chinese was used to replace curse words. Sure they used it to get by the censors but it just seems like they've gotten rid of good ol' fashioned family cussing. And the new Alliance troops (in the series) were just Mobile Infantrymen from Starship Troopers and that kinda bugged me a bit. Should've kept with the Wehrmacht look. So, what I'm trying to say is I can't see why it was cancelled. Probably the best show I've seen in a long while and I don't watch much TV cos most of it is a pile of steaming dung. And I'm glad Joss Whedon is crusading to keep it alive, it was a helluva lot better than Buffy and Angel (god I hated those shows). Any thoughts about my insane early morning ramblings anyone would care to offer?
I haven't seen it yet, though I'm going to get the DVD set soon because everyone I know is talking about it but from what I understand it was canceled because Fox (in the States at least) totally dropped the ball on it. They showed it out of order and at random viewing times so that people couldn't actually watch the damned series. Then they wondered why it did so horribly. After I see Firefly/Serenity I'll come back with my 2 coppers on what I think of the series as a whole.
I do like the show a lot too. Very good show. I don't like the country and western music show theme though.
Yep, that was pretty much the whole story. Fox screwed up the airing times and actually missed out a good two episodes AND scraped the intended pilot shortly before it was supposed to air so The Train Job was quickly converted into a pilot (damn good episode though). As for the theme tune, I love it. I was whistling it today while fighting my way through the xmas shoppers. Adds a familiar tone to the show.
Well, since it was never aired in Germany, and I did not see a DVD of it yet, I must admit I am also downloading Firefly after seeing Serenity. Sounds like it is worth waiting, and perhaps I might get a DVD box from the UK or so...
