Firefly first-time/rewatch (NO SPOILERS, please)

[teacake]

I used a word I learned in Firefly to communicate with a chinese waiter recently. The word was bao. It was very exciting, LOL

[Miss Lemon]

I think the mixture between the American and Chinese culture is an interesting idea, but I do hope the Chinese influence will go beyond the occasional swearing, cute parasols and tea. From what I've seen until now, I'd say the American culture is pretty dominant on this series.

[teacake]

The impression I got is that there are communities where the chinese are more dominant and they employ western versions of swearing, cute parasols and tea

And really it's about design as far as Firefly goes.. you won't find much in the way of cultural analysis here.

[Miss Lemon]

teacake wrote:

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...you won't find much in the way of cultural analysis here.

That's a vast disappointment...

So what about slashy subtext?

[jespah]

Just finished watching the first half of the pilot, Serenity. Well, well, well.

Queuing up part II.

[teacake]

It's space opera, think about how much cultural analysis you find in Star Wars.

As to slashy subtext, well we all bring to the table what we want to take away

[teacake]

jespah wrote:

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Just finished watching the first half of the pilot, Serenity. Well, well, well.

Queuing up part II.

That's great!!! Looking forward to reading your impressions.

[Carcazoid]

teacake wrote:

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It's space opera, think about how much cultural analysis you find in Star Wars.

I think they accomplished a lot in only 14 episodes. Sometimes people forget that's all there was.

[teacake]

I completely agree. Compare it to other first seasons we accept as being lackluster because they were finding their way. This first season was full of punch.

[jespah]

Looks like our guys have enemies or at least they aren't too interested in making friends. Note - I'm being deliberately vague as I'm not sure who's seen what so far.

Mal is, most decidedly, not nice to some people. I recognize they needed to get a lot of people introduced and rushed them together, but there's little backstory, except for Simon and River. Shepherd is mysterious; Kayla seems a bit underaged. The other two (names escape me) are married (oops, there's a third, Jayne, who's weird, and a fourth, the companion, whose name escapes me). Sparks will fly, I am sure. I bet fan fic writers 'ship about every possible combo out there.

[teacake]

Jespah once the first lurok review is posted (which it is) for an episode you can say whatever you like about that episode. If someone hasn't watched it yet they should avoid the thread until they do. It's all the other episodes which shouldn't be referenced.

There's actually a lot of backstory but it's subtle. When you've watched the whole thing the pilot is quite a different episode!

As to the underaged, gah everyone seems like that to me these days. I guess it's a tv reality. She looks older than Simon who is a doctor.

[jespah]

Ah, okies, was confused (shocker, I know).

I suspect it's age - gaah you kids get off my lawn!

[6079SmithW]

teacake wrote:

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I used a word I learned in Firefly to communicate with a chinese waiter recently. The word was bao. It was very exciting, LOL

The only Chinese I learned from watching was "Shi" (affirmative) and "Ta ma de" (dammit or fuck).

As far as the cultural mixing it really was a shame that it wasn't really explored. They got a little better in Serenity by having actual East Asians on screen.

[teacake]

Well they only got 13 episodes.

That really is the perfect answer to everything

[Shawnster]

teacake wrote:

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There's actually a lot of backstory but it's subtle. When you've watched the whole thing the pilot is quite a different episode!
.

This. Which is why I no longer can tell how the Pilot plays for first-time viewers.

In Serenity we get established backstory elements of the Unification War (is the valley named in this episode or ep. 3?), Mal's loss of religious faith, Reavers, something more with Book than "just a Shepherd" (according to the Lawman), legalized Companions/prostitution, Badger, and the River/Simon overall arch. There is more to come and just about every episode offers some backstory or connects to a later episode.