Do you think I'd like Firefly?

[Leroy]

Justtoyourleft wrote:
Shows I don't like (no particular order):

- Farscape
- ST VOY
- ST ENT

Not to pick on you or anything and you have your opinions and I'm fine with them it's just lumping Farscape in with Ent and Voy just seems wrong somehow.

[Triskelion]

I thought Firefly would suck, boy was I wrong. It's really good. Not as good as SF literature, but a damn sight better than a lot, if not most TV SF. Save Serenity for last.

[DonIago]

FWIW, going into Serenity with a friend who'd never seen the series before I made sure I had time to show him the 2-hour pilot and Out of Gas first. The pilot does a good job of setting up the show (and has elements pertinent to Serenity), plus you get to see howw the "newer" people join the crew. OoG does an awesome job of showing how the original crew was established, plus is often considered the best episode of the series.

If I knew then what I know now, I might have also suggested seeing Bushwhacked prior to Serenity because of certain story elements it either fleshes out or hints at.

[Kegek]

Odd. Even when I hated Farscape, I loved the alien look. It's what eventually got me around to trying the show again. The muppets; the makeup and prosthetics, the weird interior of Moya - all fantastic. It's one of the best looking space opera TV shows around, IMHO. Love the show now; what it's good at it's great at.

Anyway, I don't care for Firefly (or Bebop, while we're on the topic) and was never really a BSG fan of either stripe. So I guess you might like it.

[Ethros]

No I think you'd hate it

No, I don't know. All I can say is try it, you can get the DVD pretty cheap nowadays

[OdoWanKenobi]

To ease your confusion. This is the correct order to watch them in:

Serenity (episode)
The Train Job
Bushwhacked
Shindig
Safe
Our Mrs. Reynolds
Jaynestown
Out of Gas
Ariel
War Stories
Trash
The Message
Heart of Gold
Objects in Space
Those Left Behind (Comic Book Mini-series. Optional)
Serenity(Movie)

Don't go by the order they were aired, and certainly don't watch Out of Gas first. Some character knowledge is needed, and the experience will be ruined.

[auntiehill]

Rent it, Netflix it or watch it on hulu.com. That way, if don't care for it, you're not out any money.

I like BSG, but just mildly, and I really liked DS9, but I never was a huge Buffy fan and only watched the last season of Angel. But I liked Firefly. It took a few episodes to really get me hooked, but by the time I saw "Objects in Space," I was addicted.

It's only one season, so I say give it a try.

[LitmusDragon]

Difficult to say. It's not really similar to any other show except perhaps Buffy or Angel (which I haven't watched). For example one could compare B5 to DS9 as being similar shows but with Firefly you can't really do that. Overall I liked the show and thought the mythology and characters were well though-out but at times it was a bit too "cute" for my tastes. There's this kind of sarcastic self-aware quality to the writing that I was never entirely sold on.

[Ethros]

OdoWanKenobi wrote:

---

...
Heart of Gold
Objects in Space
Those Left Behind (Comic Book Mini-series. Optional)
Serenity(Movie)

Plus now there's the comic "Better Days" to go in between Objects in Space and Those Left Behind (although only 2 of the 3 issues are out yet)

[Mr. Laser Beam]

LitmusDragon wrote:

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There's this kind of sarcastic self-aware quality to the writing that I was never entirely sold on.

That's another thing that turned me off about FF or any other Whedonverse show. I don't like how his characters are all smartasses. I can't stand characters like that. I never did care much for Han Solo in SW - I always thought he was an unlikable jerk. So I'm sure that colored my opinion about FF.

Plus, in general, I don't want my sci-fi to be about rebels. I never have liked characters like that. SW gets a free pass on this, though, because the Empire clearly deserved to be rebelled against. Not so with this (the Alliance is not the Empire - not even close). I cannot like, or sympathize with, the characters on this show. I would not be "on their side", I think. I find rebels to be boring to watch. I like my shows to be like Trek - true heroes who are out to explore the galaxy. Not just a bunch of losers in a junkheap.

[Lindley]

Yeah, darn them for not supporting the government that took over their homes by force and then didn't know what to do with them.

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Lindley wrote:

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Yeah, darn them for not supporting the government that took over their homes by force and then didn't know what to do with them.

I blame the rebels for seceding in the first place.

[MyCylon]

First of all, thanks to everyone for the many comments so far! There's really a lot of interesting points here and I can definitely imagine liking Firefly (plus I just remembered that Whedon is a big nuBSG fan just like myself which could be a good pre-requisite).

Suffice it to say I'll be watching the show one way or another (the DVDs are a likely way for me to go - as some have pointed out they're not that expensive).

Haytil wrote:

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It's available for completely free, legal streaming on hulu.com. Why don't you just watch the pilot episode and judge for yourself?

I hadn't thought of that but it comes with a common problem: US only. Proxies might work but I've found e.g. with SciFi's Rewind that it won't necessarily work.

dragunzng wrote:

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As to the OP's question, really the only way you'll know is to watch the show

I agree completely. Still, I enjoy reading what you people think and what draws you to or repels you from Firefly

Hirogen Alpha wrote:

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Although I love Farscape, I don't really equate it with Firefly. Their styles are very, very different. As for worrying about strange aliens, don't. Firefly is a 'dead' universe similar to nuBSG's--there aren't any aliens to speak of.

I'm happy to hear that. I find I've become more and more uncomfortable with the types of aliens featured on Trek or Farscape for that matter. I usually don't perceive them as very alien anymore but tend to notice all the makeup or puppet work which makes them very artificial to me.

If there's aliens involved they just need to 'feel' alien, I think.

HRHTheKING wrote:

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I don't know.

But I love it.

Watch it and judge for yourself.

Having read the many, many great comments here that's what I will be doing

Leroy wrote:

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Not to pick on you or anything and you have your opinions and I'm fine with them it's just lumping Farscape in with Ent and Voy just seems wrong somehow.

The honest truth is that I probably haven't seen enough of Farscape to really be a judge of that...

Kegek wrote:

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Odd. Even when I hated Farscape, I loved the alien look. It's what eventually got me around to trying the show again. The muppets; the makeup and prosthetics, the weird interior of Moya - all fantastic. It's one of the best looking space opera TV shows around, IMHO. Love the show now; what it's good at it's great at.

That's really interesting. The look of Farscape isn't down my line at all. For me, the best-looking SciFi show right now is nuBSG.

I'm not too fond of the design of the Serenity, mind you, but that's just a minor complaint at this point.

OdoWanKenobi wrote:

---

To ease your confusion. This is the correct order to watch them in:

Serenity (episode)
The Train Job
Bushwhacked
Shindig
Safe
Our Mrs. Reynolds
Jaynestown
Out of Gas
Ariel
War Stories
Trash
The Message
Heart of Gold
Objects in Space
Those Left Behind (Comic Book Mini-series. Optional)
Serenity(Movie)

Don't go by the order they were aired, and certainly don't watch Out of Gas first. Some character knowledge is needed, and the experience will be ruined.

Thanks for that info! That's good to know. It's such a nuisance that they tend to make a mess out of these things when they're airing the shows and/or on the DVDs.

Ethros wrote:

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Plus now there's the comic "Better Days" to go in between Objects in Space and Those Left Behind (although only 2 of the 3 issues are out yet)

I'd have to say I've never been much of a comic or novel reader when it comes to TV shows. I don't really know why but it only feels 'real' to me (for what that's worth where a TV show is concerned ) when it's filmed.
Still, thanks for the hint!

LitmusDragon wrote:

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There's this kind of sarcastic self-aware quality to the writing that I was never entirely sold on.

Interesting. I'll be curious to see how it comes across re. how I'll perceive it.

[Ethros]

Don't worry, you don't have to read the comics AT ALL to understand anything in the movie. Just think of them as little bonuses if you become a big fan

[Lindley]

Babaganoosh wrote:

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I blame the rebels for seceding in the first place.

No such thing occurred in the Firefly universe. They were independent....and then they weren't anymore. That's all.

The Alliance figured they were "bringing civilization", the outer planets figured they were "conquering". It's all a matter of perspective.