Firefly: the movie

outsider · September 12, 2004 10:29AM

http://www.sixbyte.net/fireflynwn/serenity/

Source from Slashdot. Any other fans of the short-lived sci-fi series? I thought the show was great in an off-beat dark kind of way. It was a realistic sci-fi scenario that de-emphasized 'aliens' and focused on the political, psychological and social aspects of a space faring society. And it was funny with compelling characters IMO. So I'm excited about this movie and i'm keeping my fingers crossed that a cable network (SciFi channel) may choose to revive the series.

Any other closet fans of Firefly? It's no Star Trek.

dmgeist · September 12, 2004 11:11AM

I two liked this show, i also felt it had similarities to a anime that was on cartoon network. Because in the anime the crew found a girl in a case similar to the one firefly. In the anime the girl was part of a grappler ship

that could reach some forgotten place.

But i thought firefly had promise, dont know why they scrapped it.

curiousuburb · September 12, 2004 1:12PM

Quote:

Originally posted by dmgeist

But i thought firefly had promise, dont know why they scrapped it.

TV executives seem to have a chronic inability to 'get' Sci-Fi television until after they've cancelled it.

Reality teevee, Springer and lowbrow wrestling? Some networks can't get enough...

Thought provoking transpositions of societal problems into alien metaphors...

\

Cases in point: Star Trek (Original), Farscape, Firefly, etc...

res · September 12, 2004 4:26PM

Firefly was great! I was terribly disappointed when they canceled it after such a short time. I think that it had the potential to be really big.

Hopefully the movie will do real well and lead to a new series (or at least a bunch of movies).

ebby · September 12, 2004 5:00PM

My entire family was disappointed when they cancelled the show. I am the biggest firefly fan of my family but they are not far behind. I often have trivia challenges with my mom.

Shall we have a trivia competition to determine the top browncoat here?

Anyone care to place a wager? 8)

placebo · September 12, 2004 5:38PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Outsider

http://www.sixbyte.net/fireflynwn/serenity/

Source from Slashdot. Any other fans of the short-lived sci-fi series? I thought the show was great in an off-beat dark kind of way. It was a realistic sci-fi scenario that de-emphasized 'aliens' and focused on the political, psychological and social aspects of a space faring society. And it was funny with compelling characters IMO. So I'm excited about this movie and i'm keeping my fingers crossed that a cable network (SciFi channel) may choose to revive the series.

Any other closet fans of Firefly? It's no Star Trek.

Mummies and spaceships?

scott · September 12, 2004 6:38PM

I didn't get to see enough of it. It seems like a good concept and most of all compelling characters to go on. Too bad SciFi didn't pick it up.

outsider · September 12, 2004 7:22PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Scott

I didn't get to see enough of it. It seems like a good concept and most of all compelling characters to go on. Too bad SciFi didn't pick it up.

They usually like to pick these abandoned series up. I hope they see the strong fan-base and do the same with Firefly.

res · September 12, 2004 7:31PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Scott

I didn't get to see enough of it. It seems like a good concept and most of all compelling characters to go on. Too bad SciFi didn't pick it up.

They have all the firefly episodes (including the ones never broadcast) in a boxed set for only $34.99 at amazon. It is well worth the price.

scott · September 12, 2004 7:51PM

I just put them on my rental queue.

addabox · September 12, 2004 8:22PM

As if Fox didn't have enough to answer for....

I really loved this series. I think Joss Whedon is one of the great auteurs of television, in that he knows how to take the genre stuff and make it profound.

Fox never gave him the chance to even start to build the kind of mythic resonance that only multiple seasons of TV can do, and which so benefited the cumulative effect of Buffy and Angel.

Whedon works long form, allowing the small betrayals, secrets and missed opportunities to work their way through a season or even multiple seasons, until there is a terrible price to pay or a terrible burden to bear or a great revelation that feels really earned and satisfying, instead of the usual short term memory loss of episodic TV. Everything has consequences.

Which is why, although I'm glad the movie is being made, I still mourn the loss of another Joss world fully populated and imagined.

I was so impressed with the relaxed, lived in vibe he achieved in Firefly, the easy conversation around the dinner table, the offhand but revelatory asides, the sense of not entirely honorable people willing to show up and put in a days work. There is really nothing remotely like it on television, and the fact that it couldn't even last a season tells you all you need to know about how the networks are run these days.

I wish he could get a gig on HBO-- that would be some serious bad ass TV.

outsider · September 12, 2004 8:35PM

Quote:

Originally posted by addabox

I wish he could get a gig on HBO-- that would be some serious bad ass TV.

I hope not. That means I would have to pay for HBO.

outsider · September 13, 2004 9:38AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tonton

I had heard rumors of a feature, but I'm really happy to know it's actually being filmed. Thanks for the link!!!

Actually i think it's in post-production. Good news.

rok · September 13, 2004 9:59AM

i honestly didn't even know it existed until after it was cancelled.

addabox, you really put it best...

Quote:

Whedon works long form, allowing the small betrayals, secrets and missed opportunities to work their way through a season or even multiple seasons, until there is a terrible price to pay or a terrible burden to bear or a great revelation that feels really earned and satisfying, instead of the usual short term memory loss of episodic TV. Everything has consequences.

you really do not see anyone doing this anymore, at least not for television. sometimes i wish someone would bring back such a a storytelling style to radio, too. the guy has such a gift with dialog that can echo drama and still take the edge off in the next scene. i think whedon would be interested in such a challenge.

i mean, the guy had the balls to make three of the most atypical t.v. episodes ever, ratings-be-damned, in the silent buffy episode, the death of buffy's mom episode, and the infamous "puppet" episode from angel's last season. hell, the silent episode even got an emmy nomination. and i only started watching buffy/angel in their respective last two seasons.

he has also said he is very interested in a buffy/angel movie, but didn't want to even discuss it until he got the firefly movie out of his head and onto the big screen.

p.s. curiousuburb, you know they're doing a farscape movie, right? the trailer's over in apple's quicktime area. another series i never watched but heard great things about constantly.

scott · September 13, 2004 11:34AM

The pay TV channels have the really good serial shows these days. Way back when the TV exec?s said cable would ruin TV with shows with a low production value. Now it turns out the cable shows are much better than the dreck on the big 3.

outsider · September 13, 2004 11:47AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Scott

The pay TV channels have the really good serial shows these days. Way back when the TV exec?s said cable would ruin TV with shows with a low production value. Now it turns out the cable shows are much better than the dreck on the big 3.

That's because they are acting like "reality"-TV is the best thing since sliced bread and insist on cramming it down our throats. I can't stand the stuff personally. I would prefer a good old fashioned sitcom to this reality garbage.

curiousuburb · September 13, 2004 12:05PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rok

p.s. curiousuburb, you know they're doing a farscape movie, right? the trailer's over in apple's quicktime area. another series i never watched but heard great things about constantly.

Don't get me started...

Take a brilliant series acclaimed internationally for writing, fx, and smart style and promise the producers a 5 year run (sound eerily Trek-like). Four years into the run, and just after shooting wraps on season 4 (just after agreeing to a fifth season), kill the series.

After more than a million letters and protest calls to Sci-Fi Network, home of the modern equivalent of Paramount's chronically shortsighted executive, (B Jo Trimble and the original "Save Star Trek" campaign were consulted), what do they do? Rather than let the production company buy back the rights and shoot the final 23 episodes promised, they wimp out and greenlight a mini-series.

While I welcome damn near any change of heart by the bozos at the network (perhaps smarting from the deluge of negative press and submerged in boxes of crackers in protest), the mini-series is a harsh compromise.

Fans of the series through four seasons of character development and plot twists will end up sitting through at least 2 hours of "catch-up" for the non-fans to get the concept and pick up the vibe that 80+ episodes have allowed the cast to weave. So what might have been a 22 hour story arc as Season Five gets shrunken to 6 or 8 hours of miniseries (maybe only 4

).

Figure most of the first episode will be review for the non-Scapers, and it seems like the net output of the "rescued" series will be about 4 new hours.

Better than nothing, but not as good as brighter teevee execs in the first place.

What gem did Sci-Fi replace Farscape with?

Tremors (the series). Giant worms vs rednecks.

crusader · September 13, 2004 4:27PM

Firefly made up my Firday night TV viewing for about as long as it was on the air. I saw the 1st episode (well the one the aired first, I don't think is was the first one) and was hooked. The chick/mechanic on the show was on some Disney Channel back in the day, I had the biggest crush one her

To see her in a kick ass sci-fi show was pretty cool.

I'll have to check out the movie.

ebby · September 13, 2004 4:53PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Crusader

The chick/mechanic on the show was on some Disney Channel back in the day, I had the biggest crush one her To see her in a kick ass sci-fi show was pretty cool.

Get in line Pal. That's probably why "Objects in Space" is my least-liked episode. Lots of browncoats like it though.

My #1 episode is Jaynestown, closely followed by Our Mrs. Reynolds then Shindig.

How 'bout you guy's. What are your top 3 episodes? (If you don't know the names, just describe what happens.)

addabox · September 13, 2004 9:16PM

Quote:

Originally posted by tonton

How could you forget "Once More, With Feeling!"? I love that episode.

Yeah! Best. TV. Evar.

rok · September 14, 2004 11:45AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tonton

How could you forget "Once More, With Feeling!"? I love that episode.

d'oh! *hangs head in shame*

Firefly: the movie

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