Anyone here a fan of Firefly?

[The Wormhole]

You know, I'm usually the first guy looking for familiar space opera tropes in a show, in fact it's because of a lack of said tropes that I criticize SGU. But I can admit it is possible for a sci-fi show to be good without these elements, and that's Firefly.

 

[Kegg]

I feel like Firefly is the Arrested Development of Sci Fi. Everyone who watched it loved it, yet not many people watched it.

You know I honestly feel like neither statement there is true.

The second one really depends how you define 'not many people'. Firefly was a series being talked up a lot on these forums before it was even aired; although I was not a Whedon fan I was cajoled into checking out the pilot episode for his new space opera yarn. Whedon was already pretty popular with a lot of Star Trek fans I knew for Buffy and Angel, and the creator of these pieces running off to do a space opera had already sent them into apoplexy. Like The Dark Knight much later, this is the sort of thing where you can actually partially trace the positive fan buzz to well before the title was even released. I even remember a couple of the arguments - notably, for the episode "Our Mrs. Reynolds", some people were down right furious about Book Shepherd's joke that deadpannedly connects people who talk in movie theatres with more serious crimes. The series has recieved continuous attention on these forums ever since and can easily be considered one of the most discussed non-Star Trek space opera titles on these forums.

But let's remove ourselves from the little bubble of space opera fandom for a moment. Is Firefly still so neglected? In general geekdom it's been my experience that more people have seen Firefly then, say, Babylon 5 or Farscape... and often it'll get more recogniton with a geek crowd even then Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica.

The series may have never been some big mainstream hit on the order of Lost, but Firefly is far, far from being one of those perennial unheard and unseen series.

And universally loved, well, I can again look at these boards, which back in the day had plenty of acrimony between Firefly fans and anti-fans, before the show as even cancelled... and all over again when the movie came out. And battled ceaselessly ever since. I dropped the series on its first run after "Our Mrs. Reynolds", subsequently checked the show out on DVD and reluctantly conceded that despite my biases and talking points, it can be considered an excellent series and one of the best space opera titles in recent years (and in general).

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

And universally loved, well, I can again look at these boards, which back in the day had plenty of acrimony between Firefly fans and anti-fans, before the show as even cancelled... and all over again when the movie came out. And battled ceaselessly ever since.

That battle will never be won, and will never end. For *any* show, FF or not, there is always a war between its fans and those who are not fans. Sometimes this war is pleasant, sometimes not. But it must always exist.

To put it another way: No show is so good that somewhere, someone will not hate it; and none is so bad that there's no one who *likes* it. That's one of the few examples of a 'middle ground' that I personally believe in.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

Ha ha! I guess you have no idea how funny your thread title is.

It's like wandering into the Vatican and asking, "So! Anyone here Catholic?"

 

[Kegg]

The whole Browncoats thing was particularly hostile and wordy, although that's probably just marinated in my memory.

I mean I was on the firing lines of the Farscape war that... wasn't, when tha show was cancelled. If there was a big anti-reaction against Farscape other then myself I totally missed that boat.

I think it was the evangelical zeal of the Browncoats that irked me, but I dunno.

 

[tharpdevenport]

hey all, i was a huge fan of BTVS and Angel, but i never really looked into Firefly.

is this a show worth watching?

are there any robots and other sci-fi elements?

thanks

Yes, Firefly is worth watching.
No, there are no aliens or robots or space anomalies or time travel or any of that other sci-fi jazz.

I think a brief line from the first comic trilogy was maybe hinting at some kind of time anomally, which maybe sometime later Whedon might have done something with.


As far as I know, the Bluehand guys were robots/andriods (whatever), and the guards the Operative kills at thye beginning of "Serenity", seem to be as well.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Robots? I didn't get that angle. I don't think there's enough technology in the FF universe to build robots, anyway. I just thought they were weird humans. And probably all gone by the time of the movie anyway.

Ha ha! I guess you have no idea how funny your thread title is.

It's like wandering into the Vatican and asking, "So! Anyone here Catholic?"

Or, using an analogy that I personally just made up, showing up in the bleachers at Fenway Park wearing something like this.

 

[RoJoHen]

As far as I know, the Bluehand guys were robots/andriods (whatever), and the guards the Operative kills at thye beginning of "Serenity", seem to be as well.

Eh?

Pretty sure they were people.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I admit I wonder what "fruity oaty bars" taste like.

 

[zakkrusz]

Firefly is a fantastic, but all too short-lived show killed before it's time by network morons. The movie Serenity also rocks.

 

[Forbin]

It was the best thing since sliced bread.

Seriously.

I loved almost every moment of it, and it sometimes angers me that I'll never get to see more episodes.

 

[tharpdevenport]

As far as I know, the Bluehand guys were robots/andriods (whatever), and the guards the Operative kills at thye beginning of "Serenity", seem to be as well.

Eh?

Pretty sure they were people.

Whedon's written/cannon frist trilogy, as I recall, shoes the Bluehands to not be human, when Simon attacks when with -- as I recall -- an exercise bar with weights on it.

And in the film when the Operative stabs one of the guards with a swords, you see it short circuits with sounds (and I think a little spark) and shake like he's malfuctioned.

 

[Trent Roman]

Adore Firefly, despite a rocky start. And having seen all episodes--and in the intended order--even those early episodes sparkle with characterization now. Or perhaps there's just so little of it that every hour is precious. I rewatch the series and the movie about once a year, and am always thrilled when I do so.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[PlainSimpleJoel]

A great series cut short by a stupid network. I love the reference in Big Bang Theory to Firefly.

 

[The Wormhole]

As far as I know, the Bluehand guys were robots/andriods (whatever), and the guards the Operative kills at thye beginning of "Serenity", seem to be as well.

Eh?

Pretty sure they were people.

Whedon's written/cannon frist trilogy, as I recall, shoes the Bluehands to not be human, when Simon attacks when with -- as I recall -- an exercise bar with weights on it.

And in the film when the Operative stabs one of the guards with a swords, you see it short circuits with sounds (and I think a little spark) and shake like he's malfuctioned.

All I remember from that comic is that we find out the Blue Hands in fact wear some sort of blue body suit under their clothes. As for the guy the Operative stabbed in the movie, I thought the sword sliced where he kept his gun holstered, and that's what we saw spark? And indeed, I thought the guy was trying to reach for his gun when he was stabbed.

 

[RoJoHen]

Eh?

Pretty sure they were people.

Whedon's written/cannon frist trilogy, as I recall, shoes the Bluehands to not be human, when Simon attacks when with -- as I recall -- an exercise bar with weights on it.

And in the film when the Operative stabs one of the guards with a swords, you see it short circuits with sounds (and I think a little spark) and shake like he's malfuctioned.

All I remember from that comic is that we find out the Blue Hands in fact wear some sort of blue body suit under their clothes. As for the guy the Operative stabbed in the movie, I thought the sword sliced where he kept his gun holstered, and that's what we saw spark? And indeed, I thought the guy was trying to reach for his gun when he was stabbed.

Yeah, that's what I thought as well. It never even crossed my mind that they were androids.

 

[Cutter John]

To me FF is the closest you're likely to find to 'hard' SF on real tv. The technology and social situation seems perfectly plausible with no evil robots, psychic powers, or aliens. I'm sure Wedon had an arc in mind. He just didn't have a chance to get into it in the time he had.

Personally I don't understand how anyone could hate this show. But thats just me I guess.

 

[Myasishchev]

^Killer robots are probably a lot more "hard" than infantry fighting decisive actions in wars that involves orbital bombardments. I mean, what the hell was that thing in the first episode? A WWII-style AAA emplacement that shot lasers? Though I wonder how crappy contemporary war fiction will get when it really is solely UAVs fighting other UAVs and the occasional orphanage.

Edit: hold on a second! No psychic powers?

Anyway, great show, but really I'm not at all sure how much longevity it could have had if it had stayed on. (The Young Han Solo Chronicles? No way that could get old.) I'm actually pretty happy--from a critical standpoint--with how the movie ended it.

 

[stj]

The characters were mostly Western stereotypes who mostly talked like a Joss Whedon post, including savage Indians. The more educated or urban the characters, the more contemptible or villainous they were. (The only significant exception was a "girl" who spouted the dreariest mad libs imaginable.) The background, social, political or physical, made no sense whatsoever. The characters did not often interact with each other. They gave no hint they existed offscreen. They merely alternated spouting one liners. The hero kicked a prisoner into a jet engine in the first episode, which shows how sophisticated the humor was. Nevertheless, on one level the show was meant to be quite serious!

The series was quite obviously about how a handful of die hard Confederates ended up winning the Civil War after all. The movie Serenity jumped into the first stage of the end game.

 

[Kegg]

You know I like Firefly but in no sense is it the hardest sci-fi TV show ou there. It's just sci-fi that drops a lot of space opera conventions, emphasises grit, has no sound in space and throws in some Western conventions.

The hero kicked a prisoner into a jet engine in the first episode, which shows how sophisticated the humor was.

Mm. It was moments like that and "Our Mrs. Richards" hat caused me to drop it originally. Whedon can get a little too smug for my liking.

The series was quite obviously about how a handful of die hard Confederates ended up winning the Civil War after all. The movie Serenity jumped into the first stage of the end game.

Confederates expunged of all the negative connotations of slavery, that is, recasting the war as a simple statist centrism-versus-individualism.

And boy do Americans love their rugged individualists.