Watching Farscape for the first time (limited spoilers please)

[OdoWanKenobi]

I don't know why they call it Farscape.

A better title would be "The John Chriton Show" because that's essentially what it is.

I'm a fan of Farscape, but I can't stand Ben Browder's crappy overacting in this series. It makes me feel very conflicted.

That's funny. Browder's "overacting" as you call it was one of the more memorable things about the series for me. I thought that it was a perfect thing for the character, showing his increasingly unstable mental state. I mean, anyone who was put in his situation would start to come a bit unhinged.

 

[Mr Light]

That's one of the many cool things about Farscape, the slow evolution of Chricton's character. I don't want to spoil where he goes, but he does NOT stay an idealistic peacenik scientific explorer forever!

 

[M'rk son of Mogh]

I don't know why they call it Farscape.

A better title would be "The John Chriton Show" because that's essentially what it is.

That's dumb.

Are all movies and TV shows only supposed to be titled after the main character?

"Why do they call it Star Trek? They should call it "The Captain Kirk" show!"

 

[species5618]

I think once you get past "Jeremiah Crichton" the show really takes off.

Ha! That's the next episode I'm supposed to watch...I've gotten as far as "Rhapsody In Blue" (1x13...though some websites list it as 1x12).

There's a website that ranks tv show episodes by votes cast (www.geos.tv), so I went to check out Farscape--out of 90 episodes (88 episodes + Peacekeeper Wars which they count as 2 episodes), "Jeremiah Crichton" is ranked dead last, at #90.

At least this is the worst the series gets, and they get it out of the way early on in the show's run.

 

[zog]

It offers a unique take on fantasy meets reality.

Someone already mentioned Crichton's personality morph to what they considered overacting, but many fans saw as a rational character evolution.

In fact, Farscape offers a unique take on just about all of the scifi conventions, and as most've said, pretty much gets going around A Bug's Life. But the story arcs never reach the heights of, say, a Babylon 5, when it comes to complexity.

Also, each season is pretty different from what went before (what the creators likened to a 'different flavor'), so a lot of viewers became put off when the flavor continued changing past the point they found sweetest.

It can get pretty "out there" at times, but even the weak ones have worthwhile scenes (Jeremiah Crichton starts with 5 minutes of valuable character interaction, and Crichton and D'Argo later share a decent moment, although in fairness even the devoted find this one mostly shite).

 

[The Borg Queen]

I loved Zhaan, and Chiana, and even Sikozu, but John Chriton and his retarded personality with moronic pop-culture references really dragged down the fun and enjoyability of the show.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

If nobody's bothered to answer yet...It's called Farscape after the spaceship Crichton used to get thru the wormhole in the first place.

 

[stonester1]

Farscape, Babylon 5 and Firefly, three of the absolute must see gems in space opera/science fiction and just damn good TV storytelling, period. All three defy the conventions of their genres and approach their characters as PEOPLE, rather than just plot devices.

Beautiful stuff.

 

[species5618]

I just finished 1X20, 'The Hidden Memory' and whomever upthread said it took till around the last quarter or so of season 1 to get good was absolutely right. Now I'm definitely liking this show.

I was particularly impressed with Scorpius as a villain--he has a quiet menace about him I find pretty chilling.

Going to most assuredly keep watching this...

 

[DS9Continuing]

Scorpius ruleth in the highest.

 

[BigFoot]

Yeah, Scorpy is awesome.

 

[The Borg Queen]

Farscape is essentially a remake of Blake's 7.

 

[James Cole]

Just got done watching the first three episodes. So far the show reminds me of a cross between Firefly (peacekeepers seem a lot like the Alliance), Doctor Who, and Andromeda.

The pilot episode was pretty good. Interesting idea to have someone from our time end up in that type of situation far from home. The next two episodes on the ET encounter on the farm planet and the space bugs were at least serviceable.

It looks like I'll need to watch a couple more episodes to really get an impression of the show.

 

[Mr Light]

If you can stomach "I, E.T." and "Exodus from Genesis", then you're probably going to love the show

 

[Mistral]

I loved Zhaan, and Chiana, and even Sikozu, but John Chriton and his retarded personality with moronic pop-culture references really dragged down the fun and enjoyability of the show.

To each their own-I thought this was a charming aspect of the show. I mean-there is no Coca Cola in Star Trek, no Oreos, no Sanyo-but in Farscape there sure as heck is. It felt more like my buddy John, who got lost in space, rather than Lt. Commander Spock of the United Federation of Planets Starfleet.

 

[OdoWanKenobi]

Oh yeah, I loves me some Scorpius. Easily one of the best villains in all of scii-fi. Even if an episode is a turd, his presence elevates it. I think it was genius what the writers did later on to give him more of a presence on the show (but I won't spoil that.)

And as for John making pop culture references, I see that as him trying to hold on to his life as it was. He's out in the middle of space far far from home and desperately doesn't want to lose the things that he enjoyed in his "previous life"

 

[Alpha_Geek]

After only a few episodes of viewing, one of the funniest scenes in the Stargate:SG1 episode "200" will beome perfectly clear.

Cheers, and enjoy!

AG

 

[species5618]

I finished season 1 last night...

I like the addition of Chianna to the cast. Yay for gender parity on sci fi shows...normally it's such a rarity in this genre. The fact that Gigi Edgley is very cute (particularly out of her monochromatic makeup) doesn't hurt either.

Looking forward to season 2.

 

[chrisspringob]

Looking forward to season 2.

Well, just to warn you, as stated upthread, the momentum of late Season 1 doesn't really carry over in early Season 2. The Season 2 premiere is good, but the batch of episodes after that has a fairly low hit-to-miss ratio. However, things pick up again big time in mid-Season 2.

 

[Mr Light]

Oh yeah, the first half of S2 has some of the worst episodes ever! But also some classics. And the bottom half? Pure gold! "Because humans are.... SUPERIOR!!!"