Firefly


log in or register to remove this ad


My take on the various series mentioned here:

Andromeda: syndicated action/sci-fi fast-food. It didn't need huge viewership to survive, and because it was primarily an action show with a sci-fi setting, it didn't really need to be quality. Stations that aired it could choose where it fit best in its lineup.

Farscape: a decent show I found only in rerun after it had been cancelled. Some of it I found to be pretty well done, some of it meh. It was too inconsistently written for my taste, but I thought the cast did pretty well.

BSG: an OK show for its time, it nevertheless lost me as a routine watcher fairly early. I consider it to be a better show than Gil Gerrard's Buck Rodgers, but not by much, especially towards the end of its run.

nBSG: this version of the series struck me as better written and acted than the original, but not without its flaws. I watched from beginning to end, and was rarely disappointed for the first few seasons. I thought the last season and the ending were weak- using All Along the Watchtower as the secret signal revealing the Final 5 was self-indulgent and cutesy and bugged the CENSORED out of me- which meant I had really low expectations for Caprica...which lost me after episode 1. (I saw an interview with the show's creators: they claimed it was the best sci-fi series ever. I disagreed, given the existence of Bab5 and other shows.)

Firefly: a sci-fi Western with Civil War themes and a Blake's 7 vibe. A good, rollicking ride, but again, not consistent enough for me. While its highs were not as high as nBSG at its best its lows were nowhere near as low. Overall, a killer cast top to bottom, including some of the villains 'o' the week.
 

personally I didn't like the movie much - I felt that in an attempt to tie up some plot threads it mishandled them badly. I prefer to live now with my 'might have been' in my head :)

I agree. Serenity is one of those movies I try to pretend does not exist, sort of like the 2nd and 3rd Matrix movies. Serenity was way too rushed. I much prefer the TV series over the movie.
 

personally I didn't like the movie much - I felt that in an attempt to tie up some plot threads it mishandled them badly. I prefer to live now with my 'might have been' in my head :)

I prefer to be able to read stuff on the cortex web about Firefly without tripping over Serenity spoilers myself, having tripped over a handful already. ;)

Reavers. They showed up in what, like two episodes? Or does "Bushwacked" only count as half an episode here because we only saw Reaver aftermath and a proto-Reaver. I thought they'd be more important, but then this is what happens when you only make 14 episodes and only 11 air.

I think that's where some of the lack of consistancy comes in. It seems there were a few long term plot threads being laid down, particularly the whole Simon and River plot, and then the late introduced
Inara decides to leave
thread that got unresolved in the series. Maybe the Reavers as well, and possibly some character growth for Jayne. Even the best sci-fi series tend to have forgettable episodes, and I think because the series was short, they tend to stick out a bit.
 

Andromeda: syndicated action/sci-fi fast-food. It didn't need huge viewership to survive, and because it was primarily an action show with a sci-fi setting, it didn't really need to be quality. Stations that aired it could choose where it fit best in its lineup.

I don't disagree that Andromeda was light watching. However, in any discussion about Andromeda, I have to point out that the creator and executive producer, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, was basically forced out in the middle of the second season. Basically, the producers wanted it dumbed down and all focus on Sorbo, RHW said no and was booted. So there's really two shows here - Season 1/2.0, and seasons 2.5 on.

As an aside, anyone who watched Andromeda may want to read RHW's Coda and related discussion - it basically outlines what RHW was going to do with the series, and then he goes an answers questions about it.
 


I don't disagree that Andromeda was light watching. However, in any discussion about Andromeda, I have to point out that the creator and executive producer, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, was basically forced out in the middle of the second season. Basically, the producers wanted it dumbed down and all focus on Sorbo, RHW said no and was booted. So there's really two shows here - Season 1/2.0, and seasons 2.5 on.

As an aside, anyone who watched Andromeda may want to read RHW's Coda and related discussion - it basically outlines what RHW was going to do with the series, and then he goes an answers questions about it.
Thanks for the info and link...but I didn't find the coda all that impressive. I suspect that the leadup to that ending wouldn't have done much for me either.

However, for me, the series never really clicked and lost me early on, partly because I just didn't buy Sorbo in the role he was cast. That the producers booted the creator explains why I didn't see any improvement in the series in the episodes I caught from time to time afterwards.
 
Last edited:

I really liked the character of Tyr Anasazi, and RHWs "coda" was very interesting, too. Unfortuantely, the show lost me at some point after RHW left.
 
Last edited:


Remove ads

Top