Firefly / Serenity

[Vanraw]

Dont know if any has been watching the SciFi series FireFly, but its pretty good. I have a dvd f the first season and it a well done show.

Now on September 30th will be a full feature movie opening at theaters called Serenity.

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Fox holds the rights on the show, and ran it for less then one season because of ratings. (I didnt even know it was on, so I think they blew it). Funny thing is the DVD sales have been through the roof to the point that they justified making the film. Looks like its going to be great. I hope they restart of the series.

[Veraphim]

Yeah, PaleBlackness(Grieve) and Zimjin always talked this show up, so I finally borrowed the DvDs from Grieve and watched it through. Definitely a well done show with excellent actors, acting, sets, and CG work.

I can see why the series failed on TV - it was all Fox's fault from the start. The DvD set has 13 episodes, but only 8 of those were aired, and the 5 that FOX didn't show were some of the best. They also didn't use the REAL 2-hour premier as the TV premier(the actual premier that FOX showed was the 2nd episode, which threw the audience into the show without the benefit of introducing the characters). The timeslot it was given probably sucked too. Like you said, I never even knew it was on either, even though I clearly remember seeing the Coming-Next-Season trailers and thinking "that looks like an awesome show". I was a huge Buffy fan, and anything by Joss Whedon I figured had to be good.

They probably canceled the show to free up the slot for shitty_realityTV_show1467. A real shame.

So I'm really looking forward to the feature movie, and I do hope that it is successfull and convinces some network to toss Joss a contract for a season or two so we can all finally get filled in on the plotlines that never got closed before the plug was pulled.

[Grieve]

Great show, we'll definitely be getting the Purge work crew together to go and see the movie on the 30th.

Fan site for the show is here:

http://www.browncoats.com/

[Vanraw]

....

They probably canceled the show to free up the slot for shitty_realityTV_show1467. A real shame....

lol, your right, I didnt think of the priorities.


One note on the trailers. It looks like River is going to step up on the movie, which is cool. I love her line to Jane, "Oh yea, and I can kill you with my brain".

Cant wait.

[Jakensama]

Is the firefly being shown on Scifi right now new episodes or just reruns of the DVD?

[Veraphim]

Reruns of the original series. They are running them again in preparation to the moving coming out.

[Vllad]

I just rewatched the entire series. I love this show but it pisses me off everytime I get to the end. This could have been the best Sci Fi show ever but it just isn't long enough.

[Jakensama]

Especially as the last episode is the best one...

[Slamz]

Blast from the past.

Keep your finger on "Agents of SHIELD". New TV series, starting in September on ABC, based around the Marvel Avengers universe. It's another Joss Whedon venture -- same guy behind Firefly/Serenity. This time maybe he's picked a mythos with enough general popularity that he can keep it flying in the eyes of TV executives.

Incidentally, if you never watched the recent Avengers movie, you should. That was Joss Whedon as well. Probably helps if you saw all the lead-in movies: Hulk, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, but those weren't Joss Whedon. (Although I thought Thor was a pretty good movie.)

[strife]

Agents of Shield looks awesome and appears to be more about non-existent (in the marvel universe) superheros and just about Shield in general. I'm curious if there will be cameo's from the likes of Thor or Ironman or any of those type of heros.

Hopefully it goes well.

[Grieve]

I'll watch Agents of Shield since Joss is doing it, but I always though Shield was a yawn in the comics, and the worst part of the movies (Iron Man, Captain America, etc).

The real mystery, though, is why this is in the political discussion forum.

[Slamz]

This thread is so old, it might actually pre-date the political discussion concept. Moved it out to "Off-Topic" with the rest of the TV/movie threads.


I agree the SHIELD in the superhero movies was mostly just wtf / annoying but I think a show based around them could be awesome. Basically they seem really out of place in movies where the superhero is the main character but their organization itself is probably pretty interesting. And Joss Whedon's specialty, in my mind, is character interactions so an organization like SHIELD should be perfect.

[Snowreap]

my wife and I are fans of the extremely competent Agent Coulson, and he (and Joss Whedon of course) is the big draw of the SHIELD series for us. in case you've missed any of these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDwaqFo4Sjk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAMgkpQYOSQ <-- *especially* this one.

-ken

[Breand]

Just keep in mind it is a Joss Whedon show like Fringe was a J.J. Abrams show, which means he won't be involved much at all. He co-wrote and directed the pilot, but going to series the show is in the hands of his brother Jed (and Jed's wife Maurissa).

[Vllad]

Just keep in mind it is a Joss Whedon show like Fringe was a J.J. Abrams show, which means he won't be involved much at all. He co-wrote and directed the pilot, but going to series the show is in the hands of his brother Jed (and Jed's wife Maurissa).

Joss does outline long term goals better than Abrams does though.


Abrams has serious flaws. He is a good idea guy but his shows die very quickly because their is never a good long term plan.

Their are some things you can always count on with a JJ Abrams show.

1. The bad guy will constantly be able to fool and lie to the good guys repeatedly without repression no matter how many horrible things he/she does.

2. You will end up hating all of the primary characters for being complete idiots.

3. Season 1 will be great and it will quickly go down hill every season afterwards.

4. Time Travel or some other bullshit to give writers an out from lack of vision will be introduced.

[Jakensama]

3. Season 1 will be great and it will quickly go down hill every season afterwards.

Not too sure about that one - both Fringe and Lost peaked after the first seasons IMO. Both shared a same problem with later seasons though, doing Dues Ex Machina garbage that largely rendered the entire earlier seasons practically irrelevant.

[Vllad]

3. Season 1 will be great and it will quickly go down hill every season afterwards.

Not too sure about that one - both Fringe and Lost peaked after the first seasons IMO. Both shared a same problem with later seasons though, doing Dues Ex Machina garbage that largely rendered the entire earlier seasons practically irrelevant.

I can't tell if you are disagreeing or agreeing with me. You are saying two different things I think.

Lost; had a great 1st season and started ok with season 2. As soon as they introduce Ben the entire series went to shit from then on.

Fringe; had a great season 1 (X-files reborn) and went down hill fast starting with season 2. The alternate universe got dull fast.

Alias; great 1st season but starting season 2 with same bad guy (Arvin Sloan) fooling the dumb ass good guys got really old fast.

Arvin Sloan is basically Ben from Lost. You could interchange them both using time travel or an alternate universe and they would be the same character. In-fact William Bell is exactly like Arvin and Ben.

[Jakensama]

Fringe season 1 was pretty weak imo - 2 and 3 were much better, then they reset it. To be fair here, my annoyance with Fringe is my disdain for episodic TV in general - I think shows that don't have an overarching storyline are annoying (unless they are comedies or something) and outdated.

I haven't watched lost in a long time to remember what I liked best, I think it was the 2nd season. Started going downhill fast after 3 (and in the middle of 3 if I recall).

Both were ruined when they fucked up the whole story afterwards by pushing time travel reset buttons (I think thats what we agree on).

Never watched Alias.

[Grieve]

I think most shows (especially in America, where the networks try to milk them as long as possible) run for way too long. Not too many maintain the same quality after the first 2 or 3 seasons. Coming from Britain, the best shows I remember had pretty short runs (Fawlty Towers had two seasons, The Office had 2, Blackadder had 4, Monty Python had 4, etc).

It might be a good thing that Firefly didn't last, so it never got crappy.

[strife]

The best show to come from Britain is still running... and has been since the 70's(granted, it's not a fiction... well mostly).

You're probably right that most shows run too long... but the truly classic shows run for years... Shows like Seinfeld(which I never liked, but still...), Friends(sorry it's true!), The Simpsons, Law and Order etc

[Jakensama]

Ugh.. Hate to say it but grieve is right, in the UK they know when to end it.

Funny you mention Simpsons, perfect example - it has been god awful for over a decade now.

House should have ended after 3 too.. Funny Hugh laurie didn't follow his own countries wisdom.

[Grieve]

grieve is right.

Sorry, can't let that moment slip by!

Some classic shows do run for years, but they rarely keep the quality level up. Strife mentioned Friends, which is my wife's all-time favorite show, but come on...by the end they had stretched those characters and storylines to the limit.

Same goes equally for movies...

[Slamz]

I think it's a question of planning. They plan for 1 season with MAYBE a vague longer term plan, and then wing it as they get renewed.

I thought Babylon 5 was one of the best sci-fi shows ever made, but then, they got it signed for 4 seasons from the start.

They ended up getting an extra season, which wasn't strictly necessary, where they basically filled in some more back-story and side-plots. It was a good season but you'll hit the end of 4 and be content that you had a whole story told.


I'd like to see more of that sort of thing. Execs take a chance and just say "You have 4 seasons." Get a good plan from the start

[Vllad]

I think their are different catagories of success and legnth.


Shows that last but lost their vision or lose a key component:


*X-files should have ended at season 6 (moving to LA they lost the bulk of their old writers)
*Supernatural should have ended at season 5 (Kim Manners died)
*SG1 should have ended at season 8 (Lost the Col O'Neal character)

Sometimes you just get lucky, sometimes you don't

DS9 ran the perfect amount of time while BSG should have ended after season 1 or 2.

Some shows just don't understand their success:

Enterprise season 3 was as good as Star Trek gets. Season 4 was as bad as Star Trek gets. Catch a clue guys!

Shows that never had a chance no matter how good they were:

Firefly, Dead like Me

[Vanraw]

DS9 ran the perfect amount of time

I think DS9 didn't really become good until they were told it was going to be over. They then let them finish with Cardsasian war. It was good stuff but in the beginning it was just Gun Smoke in space.

Shows that never had a chance no matter how good they were:

Firefly, Dead like Me

Couldn't agree more on these 2.