What's the deal with firefly?

ganesh

ganesh

ganesh

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For many a year I read about how good firefly is and I'm aware that it has a huge cult following. I like a fair bit of sci fi (star trek, bsg etc) so thought it would be right up my street.

So, finally I got around to watching it and I was thoroughly underwhelmed. The plot is fairly unexciting and as there is only one series it doesn't really go anywhere. Some of the characters were interesting (mainly the crazy psychic chick) but they were only just starting to explore their stories, relationships and how they all interact as a group and then it finished never to start again.

Can anyone tell me what I'm missing?
 
Heresy. Burn him.
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One explanation has been that it was axed due to poor ratings, because the network kept moving it's time slot, which resulted in the casual viewer not bothering trying to find it. Fans of the show kept watching, but obviously fans alone are not enough. Another is that the show was expensive to produce, so required many more viewers to make the show continuation viable.

I thought it was very good, but it won't be to everyone's taste.
 
As I think I posted in another thread - a lot of the reason I think people generally regard it fairly highly is that it came out at a time when a lot of similiar sci-fi shows were polarising towards either taking themselves waaaay too seriously or out and out spoofs and it sat somewhere inbetween and was good fun without being too serious/pretentious or too silly.
 
Of course it's not as good as you've heard. By now you've heard it's the second coming.

It's good, but that's all. The network screwed it up, broadcasting episodes out of sequence at stupid times.
 
Vonhelmet said:
Of course it's not as good as you've heard. By now you've heard it's the second coming.

It's good, but that's all. The network screwed it up, broadcasting episodes out of sequence at stupid times.
Click to expand...

^ What he said

The reason why it failed was because the Episodes were indeed broadcast out of order

This is the order Fox broadcast the eps
2 "The Train Job"
3 "Bushwhacked"
6 "Our Mrs. Reynolds"
7 "Jaynestown"
8 "Out of Gas"
4 "Shindig"
5 "Safe"
9 "Ariel"
10 "War Stories"
1 "Serenity"

(these episodes Never aired)
11 "Trash"
12 "The Message"
13 "Heart of Gold"
14 "Objects in Space"

Clearly we had a tard at the helm on choosing what to air and when
The last ep ever aired was the one that set the whole thing up explaining
how it all came together it is hardly suprising people could not work out what was going on.

Op was probably expecting stadard sci-fi show with frickin laser beams and all that
and firefly is more about the characters living in a tough dirty universe
 
I went to see Serenity and I was the one and only person in the cinema. The ticket also cost me £65 due to me getting caught speeding on the way there. All in all, I probably shouldn't have bothered.
 
I love it, it was already hyped beyond belief by the time i watched it but for me it lived up to the hype, i actually watched the movie a couple of years before, and although while i was watching it seemed only to be above average, for a few days after scenes kept popping into my head. Very few movies do that to me (mavity and The Mist being the only others in recent years)
 
Rroff said:
As I think I posted in another thread - a lot of the reason I think people generally regard it fairly highly is that it came out at a time when a lot of similiar sci-fi shows were polarising towards either taking themselves waaaay too seriously or out and out spoofs and it sat somewhere inbetween and was good fun without being too serious/pretentious or too silly.
Click to expand...

Maybe to some small degree though I don't think it is that important. By the time I watched it, as I am sure many others too, it was years later. Personally, I think any show that strikes a balance between a the serious and comedy is worth a watch which is the same reason I enjoy watching Castle and White Collar.

Vonhelmet said:
Of course it's not as good as you've heard. By now you've heard it's the second coming.

It's good, but that's all. The network screwed it up, broadcasting episodes out of sequence at stupid times.
Click to expand...

I think this is the reason for most of the disappointment.

lurkio said:
The reason why it failed was because the Episodes were indeed broadcast out of order

This is the order Fox broadcast the eps
2 "The Train Job"
3 "Bushwhacked"
6 "Our Mrs. Reynolds"
7 "Jaynestown"
8 "Out of Gas"
4 "Shindig"
5 "Safe"
9 "Ariel"
10 "War Stories"
1 "Serenity"

(these episodes Never aired)
11 "Trash"
12 "The Message"
13 "Heart of Gold"
14 "Objects in Space"

Clearly we had a tard at the helm on choosing what to air and when
The last ep ever aired was the one that set the whole thing up explaining
how it all came together it is hardly suprising people could not work out what was going on.

Op was probably expecting stadard sci-fi show with frickin laser beams and all that
and firefly is more about the characters living in a tough dirty universe
Click to expand...

Crazy they did that, though according the Almost Human thread the episode order has been messed up so seems the networks haven't learned.
 
Like a lot of Whedon's stuff, it worked because of the way the characters sparked off each other, and how the dialogue was smart and clever. It's fun to watch what happens to the characters, but it's more fun to watch the characters interact with each other. Whedon is the guy who co-wrote Toy Story, wrote and directed The Avengers, did Buffy The Vampire Slayer, etc. He has a track record of making the characters matter, especially in a series where he can do a lot more than in a two hour movie.

It seems that whoever commissioned the show had second thoughts (or got canned) and so even before Firefly hit the TV screens, someone had decided to kill it off. They showed it out of order, at different times each week with little advertising, skipping weeks for sports events. Even those people that managed to track it down were not counted because they time/device shifted it or watched it with friends. At the time this was not counted as a viewing. Someone high up in the network had a grudge to get rid of Firefly, and they did.
 
Its fantastic. I watched it earlier this year and I concede is a little outdated. If you can get past this you are left with a peach of a TV show.
 
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