have no place I can be since I found Serenity...

[retro_eidas]

I just spent two evenings watching all 13 Firefly episodes consecutively. I have to say it was pretty damn hard....

...To shut off the DVD player that first night and only due to total, falling-over exhaustion (it was about 3am when I finally shut it off). I can't tell you how tempted I was just to call in sick today and watch the whole (big damn) series in one sitting.

Oh. my. god. I've been utterly blind. Utterly hopelessly blind. This show is amazing. Genuinely (sometimes, side-splittingly) funny, yet balanced with genuine moments of tragedy... all wonderfully acted. Awesome (hot) characters (of which nearly all I love... maybe with the exception of Saffron, but even that's a more love-to-hate thing). Joss' striving for perfection (I could go on and on about the symmetry of scenes and placement of characters, objects, colors, lighting, etc etc). Why the hell did Fox cancel this show again?

btw, as of about an hour, I'm also the everso giddy owner of the (show) soundtrack and the Serenity companion book / script. Yup. I'm effing gone.

Also, could anyone point me to any theories at all in regards to Shepherd Book? What are the most popular theories about him? PLEASE do NOT tell me Serenity is the last we're going to hear of Book again! He can't just *be* dead! HIS PAST! We hardly know anything about it and dear GOD those clues were anviliciously nefarious! An Operative (former or persisting)? What was that vision (an interrogation?) River saw from his head in Objects in Space? What did Early mean by Book being "no Shepherd" (I'd presume he *wasn't*... then did Early know him?) Working for the rogue band that helped Simon break River out from the Academy (a - large? - rogue band of former Operatives and the like playing the Yang to the Alliance Operatives / Blue Hands Yin?)? How is it he was on Persephone the same day, so near the same time Simon and River found Serenity? WHAT. is. his. deal?!

If he was a (presumedly) former Alliance Operative, I'd like to know what horrific debaucheries he saw and/or did exactly to make him turn away from that life? Something to do with Miranda maybe? I'd seriously put money down on him having something directly to do with River (pfft... what doesn't have to do with River?!). "Tams no longer a threat" my ass. If the Alliance isn't chasing her anymore (ha! I don't care what Wayne Blady says, I seriously doubt those Blue Hands have just called bygones), methinks someone is still definitely going to have some interest. The dirty, shameful part of me hopes it's Jayne. And no, I can't remotely explain why I like that ship. Maybe because "he looks better in red"? ::hangs head in shame::

Please don't let Serenity be the end, for either Book or anything / anyone else!

Comments

[mrstater.livejournal.com]

Haha. You're addicted. It's a brilliant show, isn't it? I was surprised you didn't like it. I so hope it doesn't die, that maybe the Sci-Fi channel will revive it.

[eido.livejournal.com]

It's bittersweet though. I knew going into it the show only had 13 eps (and a Big Damn Movie), but 13 eps is just far too few. However, there's also that cynical side of me that almost prefers it was so short... as opposed to sit there watching it's own (inevitable?) downfall. However... as much as a show like The X-Files jumped the shark, it still had a whole lot of eps before it really started to suck. Firefly had a whole lot of brilliance to spare yet.

You know what I love most about it? The characterization and dialogue. My GOD the characterization. Of which it totally blows my other (fading) object of fangirlishness, "Lost", out of the water. The show seems so straight foward, space adventures and some Big Damn Heroes... but it isn't just about space cowboys jutting around with the occassional bar brawl or gun fight, it's really, really smart too. Not knocking bar brawls and/or gun-fights (hell, I love every single tussle on that show), but just beyond the surface (as not to scare away the fans solely watching for the tussle)? It's just not all about the brawls or guns... and every single character (and thus every relationship thereof) in the show is complex. There isn't a weak one amongst them.

Jubel Early isn't just a psycho bounty hunter / Boba Fett knock-off in a pretty shade of red (that puts an interesting spin on that character's purpose considering the heavy Chinese / Buddhist overtones of the show), he's a philosophizing psycho bounty hunter. "Man by far is stronger than Woman, yet only Woman can create a child. Does that seem right to you?" And, despite how catalyzing he was, he was almost entirely a throw-away character (unless there are Improbability Drives in "Firefly" 'verse).

[mrstater.livejournal.com]

I said that just the other day -- Firefly would be my favorite show if it were still on the air. The episodic nature (as opposed to Lost's continuous timeline) makes it less likely to jump shark or lose interest so soon. (I'm getting tired of Lost, too. My obsession has definitely caved lately.)

Isn't the dialogue amazing? It's so snappy, delivered so perfectly. Could the actors sound any more natural using the antiquated speech? The cast had tremendous chemistry. Every stinking one of them.

The real-world relavence of the theme of a sinless world in Serenity was pretty compelling, too. It was a subtle commentary, I thought.

And that's what makes any fictional world good, that's what makes the best sci-fi -- it's not about the genre/world it's set in. It's real human beings dealing with real human issues. One reason why Signs is one of my favorite movies, and why I will never grow out of teh Narnia books. The sci-fi/fantasy is just a backdrop for compelling characters.

It doesn't hurt that Mal is so hot. Move over, Han Solo. Can we say brown leather coats need to come back into fashion? Hee.

[eido.livejournal.com]

Isn't the dialogue amazing? It's so snappy, delivered so perfectly.

My God. The scene(s) in the pilot ep where Kaylee's hand falls through Mal's (you're left thinking the worst), Mal then tells Simon Kaylee was dead, we get the (overly) dramatic slo-mo shots of aghast Simon running to the infirmary, only to be faced with a very much alive (and cheery) Kaylee waving at him ... the whole thing was a huge set-up of Mal (and Joss) taking the piss. Beyond the movie, I knew right from that moment I was going to love the show (in defense of my previous, sorry aloofness, I had never seen "Serenity" before, I was under the very mistaken impression right up until I got the DVDs that "The Train Job" was the pilot episode. Had I watched "Serenity" first as I should have, I'd really like to think I would have been on the bandwagon much sooner).

Could the actors sound any more natural using the antiquated speech?

Although it's kind of funny. I remember this stand-up bit David Cross did once about how the redneck accent is inexplicably everywhere (granted, Mal speaks more like southern gentry, but not so much Jayne and Kaylee or the rabble of yokels they tended to run into). Here they are, 500 years in the future in outer space and there are still rednecks everywhere. LOL

The cast had tremendous chemistry. Every stinking one of them.

I've never seen anything like it. It didn't even matter who was talking to who or how much relevance the characters en scene ever had on each other's development. There was chemistry of some kind. Not necessarily always romantic/sexual (as seems to be required in too much network tv), but friendship, camaraderie, filial, paternal/maternal or antagonistic chem is also highly prevalent all over the show. Even with the god damn ship!

And that's what makes any fictional world good, that's what makes the best sci-fi -- it's not about the genre/world it's set in. It's real human beings dealing with real human issues.

ITA. Blasting mutants or aliens across the galaxy means diddly unless there's some kind of meaning behind it.

It doesn't hurt that Mal is so hot. Move over, Han Solo.

Nathan Fillion. *sighs* I used to watch One Life to Live in high school and college and remember him being brutally hot all the way back then... before he took on swash-buckling, southern gentry's answer to Han Solo. It's almost inhumane how sexy he is in Firefly/Serenity.

[profshallowness.livejournal.com]

I'm really belatedly coming to this, but I had a bit of a marathon, so I'm back into the show and reading old links.

I had never seen "Serenity" before, I was under the very mistaken impression right up until I got the DVDs that "The Train Job" was the pilot episode. Had I watched "Serenity" first as I should have, I'd really like to think I would have been on the bandwagon much sooner

This is one of the many reasons to be bitter with Fox, because from watching Serenity as the opener, it's all set up beautifully. I really don't understand the network's objections to it as a pilot. Anyway, just wanted to say that I agree with you, the dialogue, characterisation, cast's chemistry were all wonderful.

Interesting questions in the original post about Book; it would have been great to find out more about his past. That and other threads would and should have taken us into two good seasons.

[eido.livejournal.com]

This is one of the many reasons to be bitter with Fox, because from watching Serenity as the opener, it's all set up beautifully. I really don't understand the network's objections to it as a pilot.

Apparently it was it's length. They wanted a straight one hour pilot, not the two-hour "Serenity"... of which I say to that, they're ridiculously huge idiots. "Serenity" really is the perfect tv pilot. It could play as a movie by itself.

Interesting questions in the original post about Book; it would have been great to find out more about his past. That and other threads would and should have taken us into two good seasons.

I really hope Book's chapter isn't totally closed... mostly in part thanks to all those "former Operative" specs out there which are too intriguing. The impression I get from what I've been reading about Joss is very final unfortunately. *sighs*

[profshallowness.livejournal.com]

I always understoof that 'no, you don't' as being final. well, after the movie ended, anyway. The mysterious past wouldhave come out had there been more TV time, but probably not so much now. The Operative spec is interesting, though I always thought that Book was in a more publically acknowledged military position myself.