Firefly ep by ep; rewatch and reviews

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by saturn5, Aug 4, 2010.

  1. Mal

    Mal Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2005
    :guffaw: :guffaw: :guffaw: :guffaw: :guffaw: :guffaw: :guffaw: :guffaw:

    to be fair, this review is a HUGE improvement! way to go! but

    well i do care. and,

    so true! look, we know you came into firefly via the other joss whedon shows (Buffy, Angel, Dollhouse). this, of course, is the opposite of my experience: i started with firefly, and then - years later, and only grudgingly - moved onto Angel, which i love! i've enjoyed Dr. Horrible, but gave up quickly on Dollhouse. I'm still very far away from ever giving Buffy a try.

    the point is, firefly is very unique - not only as a whedon creation, but also in the realm of science fiction television in general (compare Star Trek or Babylon 5 or SAaB or Farscape). the guns, the civil war motif, the chinese/asian culture, a Shepard of the Book - these things are wonderful IMNSHO. i love the underdog PoV (like Farscape, but very different from Star Trek or B5).

    but, as Trekker4747 said, you're entering the very best string of firefly episodes, and we have no idea what you think of the show :confused:


    as i said, much better. can always be ever betterer :D

    ugh, the Preview Post button, use it.

    Jayne! the man they call Jayne!

    OMG, is it really him!


    things are going so well!
    oh, well, then.

    i can see how this is important to kids in high school, but don't you think that, at some point, people just stop counting?

    total waste of space.


    agreed.
    Reminds me off
    similar to the conversation the cylons have on the roof of the building on caprica (while stalking Helo), that a child never really grows up until his parents are dead. ok, maybe not exactly the same, but a similar vein.


    should he have paid for the cab? or bought breakfast?


    i love watching them beat him up. must be the Fight Club in me ;)


    [Cordy]Case you haven't been paying attention: Masses - not doing so well.[/Cordy]

    It's my estimation that every man ever got a statue made of him was one kind of sommbitch or another.
    as you said, kinda like saddam.

    d'oh!
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2010
  2. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2001
    Location:
    Trekker4747
    Also off /= of
     
  3. Skellington

    Skellington Part-time poltergeist Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 21, 2009
    Location:
    Dublin, Ireland
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    Hi-res and lo-res screencap albums for Our Mrs Reynolds.
     
    Last edited: Aug 16, 2010
  4. Vendikarr

    Vendikarr Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    May 17, 2001
    Location:
    Vendikarr
    These posts are being copied and pasted from posts on the syfy.com boards.
     
  5. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    Location:
    I said out, dammit!
    AHA!!
     
  6. Mal

    Mal Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2005
    why?
     
  7. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2001
    Location:
    Trekker4747
    When were the posts on the syfy board made? It's possible he's running two threads at the same time and just copying and pasting the post he makes there here.
     
  8. saturn5

    saturn5 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2010
    1. He? (don't worry, you're not the first to assume that)

    2. Yeah I post at a number of sites and sometimes under the name Joxerlives as for some reason some boards can't accept Saturn5 as a posting name

    3. I did use the preview function but then EVERYTHING was in those damn font italics. I think I've figured it out now, the title was in a different font to the rest. I'll try again
     
  9. Jack Bauer

    Jack Bauer Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Jul 12, 1999
    Location:
    Jack Bauer
    Yeah, you need to be careful when you cut and paste. If not you wind up with some nonsense posted. It's happened to me a few times.
     
  10. Skellington

    Skellington Part-time poltergeist Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 21, 2009
    Location:
    Dublin, Ireland
    Re. Our Mrs Reynolds:

    Definitely a nine from me. It's always a pleasure to watch this episode, with Whedon giving us his take on the "light-hearted comedy episode" and pulling a twist halfway through. As Wash says, Saffron humped them hard.

    Dialogue-wise, this is textbook Whedon (if that's not an oxymoron). It may actually be the wittiest episode he's written. The cast is on great form, gelling perfectly and seeming to relish every beat, which helps to make this ep endlessly rewatchable.

    Best line? "Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle". There's plenty of stiff competition, though.

    I'm amused by Inara's line about "hundreds of fat children". This brings to mind the Whedon-scripted Buffy episode Amends, where the First (as the ghost of one of Angel's victims) says to Angel "I wanna die in bed surrounded by fat grandchildren, but guess that's off the menu". I guess that he's hearkening back to times when being a little bit chubby was considered a good and even attractive thing, as it was a sign of success.
    Morena Baccarin is just great in this episode, showing spot-on timing and an ability to make one feel for Inara without the appearance of trying too hard. Whedon's confidence in and fondness for the characters and the actors is, in my opinion, evident throughout. A stone-cold classic episode of television.
     
  11. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2001
    Location:
    Trekker4747
    A common default pronoun to use. No offense intended.

    Doing some research I saw that the threads were started at the Skiffy forums as this one so I assumed you were double-posting them here and there, I figured it'd be unlikley you were doing some "property theft."

    Just rember fonts, colors and sizes cannot be changed here and are at fixed settings per the board software.
     
  12. Mal

    Mal Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2005
    isn't it a chinese blessing? that would go with the general chinese motif in firefly (especially the swearing :) ).
     
  13. saturn5

    saturn5 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Apr 2, 2010
    No offence taken, pro-women rather than anti-men

    Out of Gas

    The good;
    Really, really good, a classic 'submarine' story told with comedy and tension yet with wonderful character touches too. Lovely little details like even when they're all freezing to death Jayne stays in his shirtsleeves or Simon mourning the loss of his brithday.

    The bad;
    I'm almost a little disappointed that Mal just bought Serenity at a second hand spaceship sale, I always thought he won her in a card game or stole her from the Alliance (or even the Independents?) in the dying days of the war.

    Best line;
    River (to a frightened Book); "Don't worry preacher, we won't suffocate. We'll freeze to death first"

    Packing heat;
    Mal shot with a Browning 9mm.

    Notches on the Serenity bedpost; Bester gives Kaylee a tour of his engine room
    Inarra;1-a paying customer who wishes to make her his kept woman, 1 possible, Atherton.
    Wash; 1-the missus
    Zoe; 1-the hubby
    Kaylee;1-Bester

    Capt subtext;
    Interestingly Inara says that she loved Serenity the moment she saw her too, just as Mal did. She also says 'I don't want to die at all'. One theory I've heard throughout the series is that she's actually slowly dying (like Darla) and that the syringe we see her with in Serenity was for medecine rather than narcotics or a suicide kit. Here she says that she doesn't want any of the crew just bursting into her room unannounced, she's not bashful of her nudity, could she be hiding something else? Is this part of the 'little clues' they speak of in the commentary?

    How'd they get away with that?
    Never liked needles, bad enough to watch Simon inject Zoe but watching Mal do it to himself is even nastier.

    Total Serenity crew; 9
    Mal, Zoe, Jayne, Wash, Kaylee, Inarra, Book, Simon, River

    Whedon cliches;
    Devoted siblings, haunted charismatic leading man. Teenage girls with superpowers. Hookers. Babbling insane girls with truth in their madness. Fake cockneys. Misguided religious zealots. Numbered t-shirts. Girls with botanical names (Willow, Saffron, Jasmine). Absent fathers. Clever use of extensive flashbacks (Fool for Love, Lies my Parents told me, Are you now or ever have been?)

    Knocked out; Zoe rendered unconscious by the explosion
    Book; 2
    Simon; 1
    Kaylee; 1
    Jayne;1
    Mal; 1
    Wash; 1
    Inara; 1
    Zoe; 1

    Happy high-class hookers in Space;
    We're informed that companions don't kiss and tell, as you would expect of people who listen to the pillow talk of the rich and powerful.

    Whedon alumni- Joss likes to reuse the same actors in his series, let's count up their appearances (let me know if I miss any)
    Nathan Fillon-3; Firefly, Caleb in S7 of Buffy and Dr Horrible
    Gina Torres-2; Firefly and Jasmine in S4 of Angel
    Alan Tudyk-2; Firefly and the villainous/heroic(?) Alpha in Dollhouse (haven't seen season 2 so don't spoil it for me)
    Adam Baldwin-2; Firefly and Marcus Hamilton in S5 of Angel
    Summer Glau-3; Firefly, Dollhouse and the prima ballerina in the LEGENDARY S4 Angel ep 'Waiting in the wings'.
    Carlos Jacott-3; The Fed in Firefly, Ken in the 'Anne' ep of Buffy and Richard Straley in 'The Bachelor Party' ep of Angel.
    Andy Umberger;3-the captain of the Dortmunder in Firefly, D'Hoffryn in Buffy, the psychic surgeon in the Angel ep 'I fall to pieces'.
    Mark Shepherd;2-Badger in Firefly and later turns up as one of Ballard's FBI colleagues in Dollhouse. Also a BSG alumni.
    Jeff Rickets;3- one of the blue handed men in Firefly and Weatherby on Buffy/Angel plus the spiderdemon at the end of Angel season 4
    Gregg Henry; 2- he's one of those faces that occur time and again in TV/movies, the Sherrif in The Train Job and he later recurrs in the Dollhouse ep 'Ghost', one of my favourite eps of season 1.
    Christina Hendricks; 2-Saffron in Firefly and a bar maid in the Angel ep 'The Prodigal'. She'll later star in Mad Men with Whedonverse alumni Vincent Kartheiser.

    Alliance good or bad?;
    Mal talks of the Serenity representing freedom to him, that they can 'live like real people' which he doesn't feel able to do with the Alliance. They're sneaking about under the radar 'the way it should be' even when it takes them hugely out of the way, it hurts the crew. Now of course, flying under the radar and living as an outlaw from civilisation is all very well UNTIL something goes wrong (or to put it another way, even anarchists dial 999/911). Wash lacks Zoe/Mal's antipathy towards the Alliance and resents that Mal's hatred for it has landed them in this mess and may cost Zoe her life. Interestingly Inara was in favour of unification and supported the Alliance in the war, just as River and Simon did.
    Mal's no fool, he's suspicious of the 'rescue' crew, knowing there's no honour or trust in the wilderness.

    Missing scenes;
    Rumoured to be a scene where we see Mal and Zoe meet for the first time during the war, she catches him stealing supplies for his unit and then he realises she's doing the same.

    Firefly speak;
    Gorram=goddam.
    Weak tea=not good
    Back birth=idiot
    Companion=high class courtesan
    Gengish=competent
    Doh-ma=understand/understood?
    Rutting=bloody (or perhaps 'fraking'?)
    Chin-cha-da=hell
    Purple belly=officious bureaucrat
    Ta-gow=Oh god!
    Won-gwa-pee= to urinate or defecate
    Gosa=excrement
    Tien-sha-duh=rubbish
    Los-soh-ret=crap
    Dien-dyododo-chowen=bastard
    Wah=what the hell?
    Mah song=quickly
    Jin-seen-yung=idiot
    Nu-shu-quong=nice going

    Shot; Mal shot by the other captain
    Mal; 2-
    Kaylee;1-
    Jayne;1-
    Book;1-

    Reminds me off;
    The opening with the camera panning around the empty ship is very Alien again. Mal's leadership under pressure is inspired and he reminds me of great Irish Unionist hero Ernest Shackleton (check out Kenneth Brannaghs excellent version of the story) and of Apollo 13. Wash with his moustache and Hawaiin shirt is very Magnum PI. Kaylee is actually very close to her daddy, just like Fred. The whole ep very similar to the Space; Above and Beyond episode 'Who monitors the birds?' which Joss cites as his inspiration for the Buffy ep 'Hush' plus the Babylon 5 ep Walkabout.

    Questions and observations;
    This almost strikes you as a third pilot, we're introduced to the crew one by one and everyone's role on the ship is explained. Bester kinda reminds me of the workman in porn who turns up to fix something at the lonely housewives home. Book seems a lot more scared than everyone else which seems atypical of the character we know. Has he had a similar exeprience to this in the past?
    Is the gun Mal finds something he planted earlier for just such an emergency or one that was left lying around by Jayne or something?

    9/10; eps like this tell me why Firefly has such a devoted fanbase, hope the rest are like this
     
  14. Pemmer Harge

    Pemmer Harge Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

    Joined:
    Jun 19, 2009
    Location:
    Between the candle and the star
    Out of Gas - wow, this is easily the best episode so far. To be honest, I wasn't really sold on Firefly till I saw this one. I liked it, but it had yet to really blow me away. Well this one did the job. It does great stuff with a simple idea and the storytelling, cinematography and music are spot on. I think this one really shows the potential the series had.
     
  15. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2001
    Location:
    I said out, dammit!
    An outstanding episode and a wonderfully told story.

    I had trouble buying that pirate crew would back down from one wounded guy with one little handgun. Mal was unwise to try that stunt in the open, without cover. He'd have been better off behind a packing crate. Only on TV.
     
  16. D Man

    D Man Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Apr 14, 2004
    Location:
    Tropical Wisconsin
    I'd say "Out of Gas" is easily Firefly's best episode. Everything is firing on all cylinders, from the characters to the jeopardy plot (that doesn't feel like a rehash of various other Spaceships In Peril plots we've seen on other shows over the years) to the overall story structure and genius editing. It's also the best episode to re-watch, it definitely gets better every single time. "You buy this ship, treat her proper - she'll be with you for the rest of your life." And Mal is looking at Serenity. Great stuff. The recruitment of Jayne is also a brilliant comic gem.
     
  17. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2001
    Location:
    Trekker4747
    "Out of Gas" is a fantastic episode I mean it's got some great scenes in it, the music and scene of Mal walking his way from the cago bay/catwalks up to bridge/cockpit is just beautiful. This is just one of those episodes that is nearly perfection.

    The next episode, Ariel, is another fan-favorite too and one of the show's top episodes it also gives you a sense of what many of the episodes of the series would've been like as it's one of the two "caper" episodes in the series as it is now.

    It's also interesting to note that the salesman saying "treat this ship, proper", etc isn't even talking about what will become Serenity. That's the beauty of the "structure" of the episode as we learn that through it we're learning how various members of the crew came to be on the ship. So when we get to the final scene it's a bit surprising and actually makes sense that Mal fell in love with Serenity at first sight and it wasn't even the ship he was trying to be sold.
     
  18. Mal

    Mal Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2005
    Out of Gas is my single favorite hour in all of television. Period. I can't watch it without choking up, and I can't help but be in awe of the people who made it. And I can't help but be grateful to FOX for airing it.

    Years after I saw firefly I finally went ahead and saw Angel. That's when I realized that everything Joss had done up till Out of Gas must have been an exercise - a meditation in preparation for what finally became this single singular hour of beauty.

    It is good.
     
  19. Trekker4747

    Trekker4747 Boldly going... Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jul 16, 2001
    Location:
    Trekker4747
    I agree, I think "Out of Gas" is one of the best hours of television.
     
  20. Mal

    Mal Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2005
    What else would you put in your top hours of TV?

    Now that I think about it, for me they'd probably be:

    • TNG's Lessons
    • DS9's Hard Time
    • Angel's Reprise
    and maybe rounding out my top 5

    • Space Above & Beyond's Who Monitors the Birds.
    with, I suppose, an honorable mention for Doctor Who's Blink and for Babylon 5's Intersections in Real Time.

    Seems like a great idea for a thread...