Anyone here a fan of Firefly?

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by ReadyAndWilling, Dec 19, 2010.

  1. stj

    stj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    ^^^Racists commonly insist that the Civil War was about states' rights, constitutionalism or anything but slavery. Whedon's expunging just embodied the apologetics of groups like the Conservative Citizens' Council (which began in the Sixties as a white citizens' council.
     
  2. Skywalker

    Skywalker Admiral Admiral

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    I think the Browncoats in Firefly had more in common with the American Colonies in the Revolutionary War than they did the Confederate States in the Civil War. They were fighting to keep their planets free from what they viewed as a tyrannical, power-hungry government, not to break free of a pact into which they willingly entered in order to preserve an outdated and inhumane economic system because they were afraid the government was going to take it away from them.
     
  3. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

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    I'm a huge fan of Firefly (anyone who needs proof can just look at my signature, which contains a link to a virtual continuation of the series that myself and several others worked on and are starting to resume work on), and consider it to be one of my top 5 favorite television series of all time.

    Answering the question about robots, they do in fact exist within the FF universe, but we only ever saw one such creature: Mr. Universe's 'lovebot' wife, Lenore, introduced in the series' feature-length film sequel/continuation, 'Serenity'.

    I'd also like to adamantly disagree with the idea that the Alliance itself was meant to be portrayed as 'evil'; there's a distinct difference between an organization or group being set up as the antagonists of a television series or novel, and said organization or group being portrayed as evil. The Alliance is an example of the former, but not the latter, something that Joss himself specifically points out during some of his commentaries for the series, particularly his commentary for what he considers to be the series' finale, 'Objects in Space', in which he explains in great detail his motivations behind creating the series and the ways in which it represents his philosophies about life and the world in general.
     
  4. Myasishchev

    Myasishchev Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Well, after Serenity, there's not much argument that the Alliance isn't evil. I mean, they wiped out a planet (by accident, granted) and then covered it up. That's pretty evil.

    And prior to that, they were still portrayed as being pretty heavily into human experimentation at least as bad as MK-ULTRA.
     
  5. DigificWriter

    DigificWriter Vice Admiral Admiral

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    ^ If you thought the Alliance was evil after the events of Serenity, then you missed the point of what Joss was trying to say, and what I said in my post above yours. The Alliance's actions in covering up their involvement in the creation of the Reavers was misguided, certainly, and caused more harm than it prevented, but it was not inherently evil.
     
  6. C_Miller

    C_Miller Captain Captain

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    Woah, slow down there, Buddy. I'm just going on my experiences, which is all we can ever go on, right? When I say no one watched, it I didn't literally mean no one, but it certainly didn't get enough viewers to finish the season, which is about as low as a show can get. You say that let's step out of our bubble, and I say by all means. Let's step out of our geekdom bubble, not just our Trekbbs bubble. Outside of the typical Whedon-whores such as myself and your average geek made up of Babylon 5 fans, Star Trek fans, Farscape fans and others, it generally went unnoticed in the general public. Which got it canceled. And still the only real people still campaigning for a revival are browncoats (sadly not as strong as Trekkies in the 70s).

    And when I say everyone who watched it loved it, I am again going off of my experiences. I have given the series to so many people since it came out on DVD. And every single person who I have given the show to has loved it (every single one). The only other show I've had that experience with is Arrested Development. Now, I may have sounded like I was speaking in absolute fact, but I wasn't and I don't think I post warranted an essay telling me I was wrong based on semantics.
     
  7. saturn5

    saturn5 Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    My least favourite of all Joss' shows (1. Buffy, 2. Angel, 3. Dollhouse, 4. Firefly) although still very much worth a look
     
  8. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Choice of words can be important here. Firefly went less unnoticed then it did unliked, as in declining viewer share and all that jazz. We're talking about a series that had a fairly high profile release on Fox and had a reasonable ad campaign for it. But 'the general public' never really copped to the program for no doubt a multitude of interesting reasons, and hence, cancellation.

    And frankly after seeing the first three episodes in airing order, as I did at the time they aired - can't blame for those folks at all.
     
  9. Pingfah

    Pingfah Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    My favourite Whedon show. All the others took time to find their footing, but this show was spot on right from the outset.

    I think history will possibly tell that this was Whedon's creative peak in television, which is a great shame because it's the only one of his shows that wasn't given a fair shake by the network it was on. Not that it would have necessarily blown up into something huge, but it really has a lot of quality that might have helped it pick up some steam over a year or 2.
     
  10. Pauln6

    Pauln6 Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    I'm a huge Firefly fan but I will admit that it wasn't until Mrs Reynolds that the show clicked for me. I think Joss said it had higher ratings than Buffy did during her first season but presumably sci fi shows require bigger budgets so they expect more.

    It took me far less time to warm to the characters than it did on TNG (although River was a bit too slow to develop I understand that her development was intended to be a running theme) and the stories were of much higher quality. The movie is one of my top ten sci fi movies.

    I think the show could have picked up enough momentum to be great. I would have loved another 13 episodes to round out his season two plans but as it is I think it stands up pretty well.
     
  11. Pingfah

    Pingfah Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I had trouble at the start as well, but that was because they didn't show the pilot I think. When you watch it on DVD from the start it all makes much more sense a lot more quickly.
     
  12. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    This is likely it. And Firefly was, if memory serves, more expensive then sci-fi shows like, say, Stargate: Atlantis. This wasn't the kind of show that could subsis for years on a shoestring budget and a loyal cult audience as Babylon 5 did.


    Indeed. "The Train Job" was lousy as a pilot and a decidedly middle of the road episode; I found "Serenity" (the episode, not the movie) a far more engrossing introduction.
     
  13. iguana_tonante

    iguana_tonante Admiral Admiral

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    Big fan of Firefly here. I wouldn't call myself a Browncoat, but I really enjoyed the show, as with most of Whedon's production. As others have said, it took me a couple of episodes to warm up to it, but then I was hooked. Fantastic cast, funny and natural dialogues, and an interesting premise. I would advice anyone to watch it, and see if it's in tune with their tastes. Given the short span, it's well worth the investment.

    Well, at least you are aware of that. :p

    Given that standard, you have to accept that virtually every country on Earth is as evil as the Alliance, if not worse. That said, the Alliance government fucked up pretty bad on Miranda, and it deserved to be exposed to the public for its own misdeeds, but for the rest of the show I agree it wasn't intended to be evil or tyrannical, just conformist, well-ordered, and somewhat dull, at the expenses of individualism and some instances of self-determination. Which, depending on your political position, could be classified as "bad", but certainly not "evil".
     
  14. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    "Our Mrs. Reynolds."
     
  15. Forbin

    Forbin Admiral Admiral

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    In the end, I guess, it's that Joss tried something new, unexpected and unconventional. a lot of people liked it, some people didn't get it. The network was obviously in the latter group.

    Didn't a Fox exec admit, after the fact, that it was a mistake to cancel firefly?
     
  16. Deckerd

    Deckerd Fleet Arse Premium Member

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    Did you really ask that?
     
  17. Kegg

    Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    Because nobody's combined space opera and westerns before. Heck, I've seen people argue that space opera is just a natural outgrowth of the western genre (I'd never go that far, mind.)

    Firefly was a Joss Whedon genre mashup, I enjoyed it for what it was but it was neither new per se nor (given we're talking Whedon here) unexpected.
     
  18. Pemmer Harge

    Pemmer Harge Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

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    It's essentially another "rag-tag bunch of misfits on a spaceship" series, following in the footsteps of Blake's 7. The western trappings give it its own flavour, but I didn't find it radically different from the other sci-fi shows I've seen, well executed though it mostly was.
     
  19. FordSVT

    FordSVT Vice Admiral Admiral

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    Every post in this thread is. Sarcasm meter: set to "ON".

    I liked it well enough, but I think it might be the most overrated series of all time. It's a competition between this and BSG, but at least BSG has multiple seasons going for it. Hell, it has a full season going for it. Firefly never had the chance to descend into shit as so many other shows do.
     
  20. FordSVT

    FordSVT Vice Admiral Admiral

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    The Fox network itself expects a hell of a lot more viewers than the WB/UPN/Whatever the hell "networks" were showing Buffy/Angel for all those years in the US. The expense of a show like Firefly definitely piles up on the equation, but even a cheap show that got the ratings Firefly did would have been cancelled. It was the 98th most watched show of the season.