DVDs Seen: Firefly

[shannon_a]

kimberly_a and I finished watching Firefly last night from the complete DVD. I'd never bothered to watch it in its original broadcast because Fox put it in such asinine time slot (not that I'm a big Friday-night partier, mind you, but rather the local FOX affiliate also is the official broadcaster of the San Francisco Giants, and thus any Friday night show is preempted as often as not by Major League Baseball. I had set up the first show to tape, but instead got thirty-minutes of the Giants, and thus only thirty-minutes of the show. Remembering the same very frustrating problem when I used to try and watch The X-Files, I removed the Season Pass from my TiVo and figured it'd eventually be out on DVD, which it is, alas earlier than one would have hoped).

Given the general acclaim for the show and the name of Joss Whedon, I'd purchased the DVD package site unseen with the last of my Christmas money (ironically, I purchased it the day after Kimberly made a similarly Christmas-inspired DVD purchase from a very evil DVD seller called Deep Discount; upon Firefly's arrival from Amazon's slow/free shipping method we watched the show at a moderate pace--usually an episode a night, but sometimes two--and finished it the same day her DVDs finally arrived).

Overall, I was pleased with the purchase. Some spoilers for Firefly beyond this point ...


The pilot set up a fairly interesting world. The combination between SF and Western was much more organic than I'd expected. Some of it felt forced, but the idea of low-technology, barely subsistant colonies is, I think, right in line with what would happen if we ever did colonize the universe.

Where the show really shined right from the pilot, however, was in the characterization. I adored Mal's character in the pilot--alienated, hurt, and unemotional. The scene where he shoots the agent holding a weapon to Simon, all without breaking stride, is priceless. The rest of the cast was great too, but Mal really shone.

Afterward I felt like the regular show was a bit of a let-down. Mal's character was considerably softened. The whole crew became more heroic. THe episodes became much more episodic than I'd originally expected. I was (and am) somewhat confused about how the show could have received such acclaim from people who had seen only the regular episodes, not the pilot.

However, within 5 or 6 episodes I felt like it found its feet again. The stories and the characterization all started rising back up to that level set by the pilot. At the end of the penultimate episode ("Heart of Gold") when Inarra announced that she'd be leaving the crew, I cursed out loud because I realized that I'd never see the resolution to that plot.

Having seen the whole show now, I can see why everyone involved loved it so much, and somewhat 0why it was such a hit among the fans (though that still confuses me a bit, because they didn't get to see the best episodes till the end ... or till this DVD). I can also see how badly Fox television screwed this pooch, in a way that I haven't seen since JMS' ill-fated Crusade. Their "notes" on the pilot considerably hurt the show, though it struggled back afterward, and I really can't imagine how viewers managed to figure everything out starting from "The Train Job", which was essentially episode #3. Then cancelling the show without ever giving it a chance to reach its full stride was a travesty.

The biggest problem, clearly, is that Fox never knew what they were getting. They were expecting Star Trek, and they got the anti-Star Trek instead. Trying to force it into the mold just hurt the series, and never made them happy anyway.

I hope Joss manages to make his movie, and that someone then picks up a TV show based upon it. I'd love to see that cast work together for more than just a couple more hours of time.

Comments

Much agreement

[purchasemonkey.livejournal.com]

   pixiecrack and I watched Firefly in an episodic format, usually on tape, while it was airing; we saw the original pilot (via angrybuffalo's grainy pirate download) before we saw the series, so things were clearer for us.

   I rejoiced in the DVD, as I got to see the unaired episodes and a few key deleted scenes; I also cursed with the realization that I would never get to see the resolution of the Mal-Inara plotline (Inara's desperate cries of "Mal! No! No! Nonononono!" on finding him "dead" in his cabin were on of the most touching moments in the series for me). I, too, hope that the movie does well, and that it even attracts attention for a new series afterwards--but I'm not holding my breath.

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I watched the episodes in the order they were aired (and haven't re-watched them on DVD yet). I thought "The Train Job" and the next couple episodes did a pretty good job of introducing the characters and setting without feeling like the middle of the story; I think it helped that they were episodic, though I was glad when more story arcs started to develop. There were a few things that were subtle or enigmatic that would have been much more obvious had I seen the pilot first-- mainly River and Book, but I remember other things being explained in the pilot that I had only guessed at. On the other hand, much of the suspence of the pilot relies on not knowing who the good guys and bad guys are, so it was a bit annoying to have had that taken away (though it was still interesting to watch, sort of like watching Attack of the Clones knowing that Annakin is Darth Vader. Except that's an intentional spoiler.)

Is there any translation on the DVDs of the various Chinese utterances? Oh, I guess there's a web page, should have figured. But it'd be nice if they were subtitled.