What's so great about Firefly?

[Gaith]

Great characters, brilliant dialogue, terrific humor . . . .

What's not to like?

Well, going off the first four eps and the movie...

1. A slapdash universe with little coherence.
2. A barely if-at-all explained civil war that means a great deal to the protagonists for unclear reasons.
3. Two will-they-or-won't-they couples who have no compelling reason to won't-they.
4. No discernible sense of purpose or goals amongst the crew other than to stay alive.
5.

Plus I don't expect adults that have just been on the loosing side of a civil war to have such an immature sense of humor.

Lots of gag lines that aren't much more sophisticated than your average Two and a Half Men banter.



I'm not saying there en't stuff to like, but as a non-fan, I can see the other side also.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The mix of characters on Firefly were very well written, acted and selected. You could imagine any two characters being tossed together - Wash and Kaylee, Simon and Inara, Zoe and River, Book and Jayne - and the stories practically write themselves. I've never seen a cast like that. So much potential, never realized.

To paraphrase:


SKIFFY AND SKIFFY! What is skiffy???

Thanks guys! Ok, so skiffy is NOT pejorative? I thought maybe it was.

When applied to the SyFy Channel, it cannot help but be pejorative.

 

[Skellington]

For comedy I think my favorite is "Our Mrs. Reynolds."

"I think my days of not takin' you seriously are comin' to a middle."

Best line from a stone-cold classic episode, imo.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I have very little tolerance for renegades/rebels/rogues, UNLESS the thing that they are rebelling against is obviously evil and definitely deserves to be rebelled against. The Galactic Empire from SW qualifies (although speaking of SW, I thought Han Solo was a complete jackass and couldn't stand him anyway); the Alliance from FF does not. So that's one strike against FF for me. (I actually found myself rooting FOR the Alliance, and so I doubt I'm in FF's target market anyway - I failed, since I don't root for the "right" people. )

The other main thing about this show that really frosts my shorts is that, God help me, I hate, despise, with the fire of a thousand suns, all Joss Whedon dialogue. I hate it worse than TATV, worse than the second season of "War of the Worlds", worse even than the Boston Red Sox. Every character Whedon ever writes is a snarky smartass, and I fucking HATE that. In the Whedonverse, nobody ever takes anything seriously; I, on the other hand, take EVERYTHING seriously, and so you can see the problem.

 

[Bishop76]

You must be a riot at parties.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I admit that I do have one line from FF that I actually liked. (Well, two, if you count "I respect your honesty...not, you know, a LOT" ).

It was from an episode that does not, technically, exist, because it was never filmed. I can't remember the name, but it was where Mal has to hunt down one of his old compadres who is going around blowing shit up and killing innocent people. One of the last things Mal says to the guy is something like "It isn't war when they're not shooting at you...then it's just plain murder".

 

[Too Much Fun]

I liked "Firefly" and "Serenity", but I think the show is a bit overrated. I only really enjoy about half of the episodes, as I find the rest of them boring. The problem is mainly the story lines...it didn't always have the most inspired plots, but like all Whedon shows, it was just tremendously cast. I really love all the actors and their characters, who they truly seem born to play. More than anything else, I think what makes Whedon's shows most special is the perfection of the casting.

The dialog is hit or miss. Sometimes I think it's really funny, clever, and even occasionally insightful, but it can also be too cute for its own good and irritatingly glib. Also, I couldn't stand that lame Chinese profanity gimmick. At times the rabid worship that "Firefly" has accumulated wearies me, but I love how "I'll be in my bunk" seems to have become an Internet meme. It always makes me smile when people say it in response to sexy women.

 

[Vendikarr]

I have very little tolerance for renegades/rebels/rogues, UNLESS the thing that they are rebelling against is obviously evil and definitely deserves to be rebelled against. The Galactic Empire from SW qualifies (although speaking of SW, I thought Han Solo was a complete jackass and couldn't stand him anyway); the Alliance from FF does not. So that's one strike against FF for me. (I actually found myself rooting FOR the Alliance, and so I doubt I'm in FF's target market anyway - I failed, since I don't root for the "right" people. )

If the crew of Serenity were actually rebelling against the Alliance, I could see your complaint. But the rebellion was in the past. Mal Reynolds fought on the losing side of a war with the Alliance, and he still doesn't trust them. If he takes a job that allows him to poke they with a stick, it's a bonus for him.

There are people aboard Serenity who didn't fight in the war, and others who supported the Alliance. They are not the seeds of a new rebellion, they are simply thieves and smugglers trying to make a dishonest buck.

Until the movie Serenity that is.

 

[T'Baio]

I try not to be one who thinks if you don't like something I like then you just don't get it. Some people don't like things, and that's fine.

There are some well reasoned arguments in this thread about why people don't like Firefly. Only problem is...the reasons they're saying for not liking the show are actually complete misinterpretations of the show, as if they've never actually seen it and are basing their arguments on what their friend told them their brother said.

*shrug* Whatever. Some people just don't get it.

 

[Greg Cox]

I try not to be one who thinks if you don't like something I like then you just don't get it. Some people don't like things, and that's fine.

There are some well reasoned arguments in this thread about why people don't like Firefly. Only problem is...the reasons they're saying for not liking the show are actually complete misinterpretations of the show, as if they've never actually seen it and are basing their arguments on what their friend told them their brother said.

*shrug* Whatever. Some people just don't get it.

I know what you mean. It's like when people dismiss Farscape as "that show with the muppets" . . . .

 

[exodus]

I try not to be one who thinks if you don't like something I like then you just don't get it. Some people don't like things, and that's fine.

There are some well reasoned arguments in this thread about why people don't like Firefly. Only problem is...the reasons they're saying for not liking the show are actually complete misinterpretations of the show, as if they've never actually seen it and are basing their arguments on what their friend told them their brother said.

*shrug* Whatever. Some people just don't get it.

I know what you mean. It's like when people dismiss Farscape as "that show with the muppets" . . . .

Well, if you don't like the Muppets or are of the mindset Muppets are for kids, what else would you call it?

Got gotta admit, a show geared for an adult audience is a hard sell. If any other name but Jim Henson studios was behind it, do you think many adults would have given it the time of day? People's ideas of puppetry is divided between Jim Henson or Sid & Marty Krofft.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

Well, if you don't like the Muppets or are of the mindset Muppets are for kids, what else would you call it?

If you don't like the Muppets, who cares what you think about anything?

 

[Bishop76]

Well, if you don't like the Muppets or are of the mindset Muppets are for kids, what else would you call it?

If you don't like the Muppets, who cares what you think about anything?

 

[T'Bonz]

If you don't like the Muppets, who cares what you think about anything?

Never liked the muppets, although on Sesame Street I loved Ernie-n-Bert.

I saw Firefly/Serenity for the first time last fall. I liked it right away. It had a grittier B5 feel to me (and B5 was a grittier DS9).

It's a pity that it didn't get renewed. It was a good show with interesting characters. I liked the idea, the garb and even the Chinese cussing.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

If you don't like the Muppets, who cares what you think about anything?

Never liked the muppets, although

That's what I'm talking about.

 

[Mistral]

You must be a riot at parties.

 

[I Grok Spock]

My Serenity/Firefly story:

I sampled the first aired episode ("The Train Job"?) and it didn't appeal to me. I just didn't care too much for the space opera/western mash-up.

I did go see the movie, which I liked, despite knowing next to nothing about the show.

Fast forward to this past January, and my wife borrows the Firefly bluray from a co-worker. We watch the pilot, and while I enjoyed it, I said to my wife "I can see why they didn't show the pilot first."

By the second episode, ("The Train Job" again!) I'm really enjoying the show. By "Our Mrs. Reynolds" I'm in serious like. We've just finished "Trash" and will probably watch another tonight. I'm bummed to only have a few more episodes left.

I think I'll Netflix Serenity and see what I think of it now that I'm armed with the knowledge of the characters backstories. I may even pick up the comics.

I think most of all I've enjoyed the way the writers take classic cliches and turn them upside down.



In other news, despite my third try, I can't get further than episode 4, season 1 of Babylon 5. Maybe I can skip to season 2?

 

[exodus]

Well, if you don't like the Muppets or are of the mindset Muppets are for kids, what else would you call it?

If you don't like the Muppets, who cares what you think about anything?

I think a Miss Piggy karate chop is needed here.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

In other news, despite my third try, I can't get further than episode 4, season 1 of Babylon 5. Maybe I can skip to season 2?

4 Infection would put quite a few people off.

13 Signs and Portents, 18 and 19 A Voice in the Wilderness, 20 Babylon Squared, and 22 Chrysalis are the essential episodes, although a few plot points will be lost from missing episodes such as 6 Mind War, 8 And the Sky Full of Stars, and 21 The Quality of Mercy .

 

[Lapis Exilis]

I have very little tolerance for renegades/rebels/rogues, UNLESS the thing that they are rebelling against is obviously evil and definitely deserves to be rebelled against. The Galactic Empire from SW qualifies (although speaking of SW, I thought Han Solo was a complete jackass and couldn't stand him anyway); the Alliance from FF does not. So that's one strike against FF for me. (I actually found myself rooting FOR the Alliance, and so I doubt I'm in FF's target market anyway - I failed, since I don't root for the "right" people. )

Honestly, it never occured to me for root for one side of a past civil war when watching Firefly. For one thing, the reasons for the war are murky at best during the series - it seems to mostly be character backstory for Mal and the important things about how it affected him are pretty well delineated - he is a man who lost his faith in god and country, and now wants only to survive. The movie lays out the "political" reasons for the war a little bit better, but I never got the sense that the story was trying to really paint the Alliance as villains. It was more about two societies with different values clashing - without the audience being manipulated into feeling that one set of values was better than the other. Which was one of the things I really liked about Firefly - there was no cliche large scale Evil Empire (or benevolent Federation - Whedon was playing more against the Star Trek trope than anything else), there was a complicated and murky political background out of which many different kinds of villains and heroes could emerge in the small scale of the raggedy edges of the fictional universe that the protagonists inhabited.