Firefly bores me...

[KaintheSeeker]

Point of fact on the DVD, either in commentary or one of the little interviews, Joss Whedon said the Train Robbery wasn't the orignal pilot.

 

[Mercule]

But realistic technology? In some weird type of future setting that has pistols still as opposed to something else? No DNA scanning? I see that they're going with the outer planets to avoid having the problem real hard sci-fi brings to a setting, but it's just too boring. The technology only does something when it needs to. Otherwise it might as well not exist.

The Alliance/core planets had good tech and all the trimmings of a "real" sci-fi show. I thought the western bit in the outer areas was both an interesting stylistic thing and a reasonable result of humanity over-expanding/over-expending itself.

 

[The Other Librarian]

I love the show, but do agree it starts a little slow. But if you're 2 disks in, the best is ahead. I think it starts hitting it's stride with "Out of Gas" "Ariel" and "War Stories". OOG I think is the first.

 

[KaintheSeeker]

"Out of Gas" is my personal favorite. Without a doubt one of the 3 best in the series.

 

[JoeGKushner]

That's good to hear. I'm not saying that I'm completely disgusted with it, but man, the talk on En World was like, "It's better than Babylon 5 and all the Star Trek series put together!"

 

[reapersaurus]

Yep - very ovverated series, in my opinion.

Just never did anything for me - all those points that were listed are right on, and it's intriguing that noone has attempted to refute them yet.

I guess if those characters are interesting to you, than it's an interesting show (since it's "all about the character development.")

Each to their own, naturally.

 

[Chun-tzu]

That's good to hear. I'm not saying that I'm completely disgusted with it, but man, the talk on En World was like, "It's better than Babylon 5 and all the Star Trek series put together!"

The boards are acting buggy right now (due to the upgrade I'm sure), so I can't read your original post, only the rest of the thread. But from the rest of what's been posted, I have to point out that there are tons of Star Trek TNG and DS9 episodes, Babylon 5 episodes, and Buffy TVS episodes that bore me silly. And I really like all those series. I'd rank Firefly among the best, and the great tragedy was the unfulfilled potential of the show (which, hopefully, will turn around once the movie hits the big screen).

Remember, all of these shows had story arcs that, once things got going, you were hooked. But that can't happen until the groundwork has been properly laid.

 

[mattcolville]

That's good to hear. I'm not saying that I'm completely disgusted with it, but man, the talk on En World was like, "It's better than Babylon 5 and all the Star Trek series put together!"

In my experience, most sci-fi shows get canceled because they're not very good TV, and most fans are uncritical.

 

[Umbran]

Just never did anything for me - all those points that were listed are right on, and it's intriguing that noone has attempted to refute them yet.

Well, one of them can clearly be refuted, but that would constitute a spoiler:

Spoiler

Jayne does betray members of the crew at one point, but he doesn't get away with it, and Mal nearly shoves him out an airlock for it.

As for the rest - why should we refute them? It has been said that in fiction there is nothing new under the sun. And that is largely true. Everything can be reduced to a cliche, if you're of a mind to do that. And if you reduce a character to a single sentence specifically designed to make them sound cliched, of course you'll find what you're looking for.

 

[Lazybones]

Not going to refute your specific critiques, because it basically comes down to being subjective; I liked the characters, you found them cliche. Heck if you want to get into cliches just read any genre fiction (I remember recently posting in the "Farm Boy Saves the World" thread discussing fantasy novels, and I've been thinking about how much drama relies upon repetitive themes). The Firefly characters had enough nuance so that I was usually surprised by what happened in each episode, and I enjoy that.

Ditto with the tech: I found the dichotomy between prosperous high-tech inner worlds and poor outer worlds believable (especially a few years after a major interstellar war), you didn't. I knew I was going to enjoy the show when I saw the first episode and the characters were in space, and it was silent. Sure there was stuff I found annoying, like the deep space flyby of the Reaver ship, but the dialogue and characters caught me up and really drew me into the series.

Apropos of nothing, I'm one of three DMs running groups in Neverwinter Nights campaigns set in the Firefly universe at www.neverwinterconnections.com. Another fan did a total conversion of the game to run in the Firefly universe; if you've played NWN and are interested in something different, check it out at http://nwvault.ign.com/Files/modules/data/1080769905000.shtml (note: it's not a single-player mod, but a campaign requiring a DM).