notes on Farscape S1
This is by no means an exhaustive account of my thoughts thus far. It may not even be particularly coherent; I took an antihisthamine this afternoon, and then when it became increasingly clear that said drugs were making me unfit for academic purposes, I decided to finish writing up my notes on Farscape instead.
Well, it made sense at the time. I mentioned the drugs, right?
PLEASE NOTE: I am watching Farscape for the first time, and I am staying resolutely spoiler free. As of this writing, the last episode I've seen is 1x17 Through the Looking Glass. If you've seen more eps than this (and why on earth would you be reading these notes if you haven't?) you're welcome to comment on any eps I've seen, and I won't even mind if you make vague and ominous pronouncements like "just you wait! it's all setup for season three! bwahahahaha!" But: If you spoil me, I will beat you to death with a shovel. (Or, possibly, fry your ass with a qualta blade.) A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend.
the first six episodes: general observations
I'm really glad that this series comes highly recommended, and that I was assured, before starting to watch, that it gets better. I'm not at all sure, if I'd been watching from the beginning, that I would have stuck around through all six of these eps; I'm a tremendously impatient person. There's no particular upswing in ep quality within the first four eps (as there was with Firefly), and the premise alone is not enough to keep me hooked (as was that of BtVS).
I was enticed into Farscape-watching with the promise of big plot arcs, excellent continuity, and complex storytelling; as of the first few eps, the show isn't yet delivering in those areas. I don't expect epic storytelling yet - epics, pretty much by definition, require a lot of time in the telling - but the contrast to Firefly, which did introduce elements right away that could clearly lead to big arcs, is instructive. Farscape's characters are certainly interesting, but they don't yet have much depth or even much history (even the fact that they're recent prisoners, which is theoretically very interesting, doesn't yet have much urgency to it, particularly in the cases of Zhaan and Rygel). This is also true of S1 BtVS, of course; but early BtVS eps are much more tightly structured: multi-layered stories linked by a central metaphor. That structure is fairly typical of both BtVS and Firefly (and possibly of Mutant Enemy shows in general, although I'm not familiar enough with AtS to make that claim), and since that's the only TV I've been watching for the past two years I'm needing some adjustment time.
1x07 PK Tech Girl
This is the first episode that I found really engaging as opposed to merely interesting. It's by far the least exposition-y ep so far, and also less of a standalone: it builds on what we already know rather than merely reiterating it, but it does also introduce new material (Aeryn's interest in John, information about Rygel's past), and it features a non-crew character with some emotional heft, if not a lot of depth.
I like Gilina a lot, with her sweaty face and straggling hair and sweet smile. The courting scenes (as I find myself calling them) between her and John are deftly managed; the two of them do click, as John says. I like that they speak the same language, that we see them having what are clearly only fragments of a wide-ranging conversation as they work together on the defense screen, that she recognizes the action-movie formula. I like that their first kisses are tentative and a little shy at first, and that they can laugh together.
And, best of all, I like that this little storyline isn't just a chance for John to get some smoochin'; it's also used to reveal things about both Aeryn and John: her feelings for him, her feelings about being exiled; his longing for connection, his interest in Aeryn (suspected before, now confirmed), his ability to understand Aeryn much better than she'd expected. I get to be charmed by Gilina and devoted to Aeryn in one episode; there's no bad here.
It's not coincidental, I think, that in some ways this ep reminded me of a certain kind of BtVS ep: the A-plot is a mere macguffin, but the situations in which it places our characters result in actions and information that further the larger stories that are clearly under construction (even if I can't yet see what they are). It's still a type of exposition, looked at that way, but it's exposition with more inherent interest; plus, as a fan of giant complicated story arcs, I'm willing to sit through a goodly amount of this kind of exposition in order to get them.
1x08 That Old Black Magic
I found this ep less satisfying than "PK Tech Girl," but a good pair with it, since it provides new information about heretofore largely unexplored characters. Zhaan's a character with a lot more going on than we've known about up until this point; I've liked Zhaan all along, but I find her much more interesting now. Crais, too, has a lot more depth than we've seen. The staggering-guilt-because-he-failed-to-protect-sibling-as-per-parent's-command feels a bit canned to me (it's handled so much more quickly and played so much more straight here than in, say, S5 of BtVS), and therefore not particularly interesting, but it's at least a gesture in the direction of real characterization. Much more interesting, at least for me, was the revelation that Crais didn't choose to be a Peacekeeper. This information is even more interesting in light of what we know about Aeryn: that being a Peacekeeper is not just a life that she loved but the only life she's ever known. I'm wondering now: does Aeryn really have no ambivalence about that life? Did she choose to be a Peacekeeper, or was she, too, conscripted in some sense? Or did the life suit her in a way it hasn't really suited Crais?
And, of course, there's that wonderfully creepy moment at the end when Crais snaps the neck of his second-in-command. We'd only seen her once before, I think (in the pilot), but it was enough for me to recognize her. Her demonstration of loyalty to Crais was both chilling and touching, which made Crais' casual murder of her all the more disturbing (not least because it looked like we were heading for something sexual and then - nope - death). Yeesh.
1x11 Till the Blood Runs Clear
John and D'Argo are officially allies. Yay! And I really like Furlow. Plus: Butch and Sundance. ::snort::
1x12 Rhapsody in Blue
My favorite thing about this ep, and the element I particularly want to note here, is the friendship - literally the connection - between John and Zhaan. I like the way that John's friendships with D'Argo and Zhaan are being developed; the show's refusing to develop the John/Aeryn relationship at the expense of John's relationships with the other characters, which I appreciate.
1x13 The Flax
Yeah, okay, I am officially sold on Aeryn/John now. I'm such a sucker. I loved the pacing of the A/J part of the story. At first it looked like they were going to stick to slightly sarcastic innuendo ("Comfy? Can I get you a pillow?"), and then I thought they were heading for the CPR-kiss gambit, because you could see that coming a mile away; but no, the CPR was entirely businesslike, no special Sleeping Beauty moments. So to have them go for the big kiss at the end . . . and then to have D'Argo interrupt . . . made for a fun combination. And the final "never gonna happen again" scene was very cute, not least because it was completely transparent - but also, importantly, because Aeryn's whole face changes when she smiles. She looks completely different. Oh yes. I see Aeryn vids in my future.
1x14 Jeremiah Crichton
I really hope that this was the series' nadir in terms of ep quality, because it was one hell of a godawful ep. The beard was hideous all on its own, and was rendered even more absurd by the fact that the locals have clearly worked how to shave; and, you know, so has John, presumably, since I somehow doubt that Moya came with built-in AC adapters for his electric razor. Give me a break. Plus, the pan-color primitivism was incredibly irritating; just once - just for the variety - I'd like to see people of color getting to play the technologically advanced race or species instead of bright-colors-wearing in-tune-with-nature people who dance to exotic drumbeats.
What makes this ep especially frustrating is that the teaser is fantastic. The idea that these people who are clearly developing genuine affections for each other nevertheless have Really Bad Days where they can't stand to be trapped in each other's company another minute . . . I think that makes a lot of sense, and I would much rather have seen the show explore it than defer it by separating the crew and then failing even to show us the reunion scene. Yes, I believe in leaving some things to the imagination, but *come on*.
1x15 Durka Returns
I like Chiana. I have a weak spot for amoral youth resisting mind control. Plus, that haircut is adorable. And she's my favorite color.
I think this episode was probably supposed to be largely about Rygel; certainly Rygel thought it was about Rygel, but that's true for most eps. Admittedly, it was nice to see the little toad showing some spine, but I was more interested in the light the ep sheds on Aeryn. Her initial admiration for Durka, which crumbles when she realizes that he abandoned his ship and his people, snapped some things into focus for me. Aeryn is clearly someone who was deeply integrated into the Peacekeeper system; the show has successfully convinced me (especially through PK Tech Girl) that she loved that life and misses it deeply. But given that, and given Peacekeeper edicts about irreversible contamination etc., she's sometimes seemed to be adapting a little too easily to being aboard a former prison transport in the company of a bunch of aliens; her reaction to D'Argo's marriage to a Sebacean, for example, seems oddly generous. This ep finally illustrates something that has heretofore only been assumed, which is that Aeryn has lost not only her position in the Peacekeeper social and military systems but also her faith in how those systems work; here, we see that loss of faith enacted very specifically in her disillusionment with Durka.
1x16 A Human Reaction
A really remarkable episode. For one thing, it surprised me. I figured out pretty quickly that something was wrong, but I wasn't quite sure what, and I certainly didn't guess the ending correctly. My single favorite thing about this ep is the idea that there is information in John's memory that he can't consciously access but that someone else can, down to the smallest detail (such as covers of magazines that John had presumably seen but not read; I'm curious what would've happened if he'd tried to read one). It makes perfect sense; the brain contains and stores lots of that kind of information. Some of the information is purely physical: how to make the liver function, the geometry and physics calculations necessary for walking, etc. But the body often stores emotion and trauma as well, as any bodyworker who's had somato-emotional training will tell you; muscle-memory is a fascinating phenomenon. The human body is *built* to store information. At any rate, I hope it's an idea the show returns to.
I was very slightly dissatisfied with the ending, but that has to do with the fact that I still have a hard time considering muppets climactic (although I will say that the dissection of Rygel grossed me out in a most un-muppet like way, so I think my disbelief is suspending better in that area).
I'm also curious about the extent to which D'Argo, Rygel, and Aeryn knew what was going on. Apparently they were actually physically there, but presumably they had no more idea than John what the hell was going on; and yet D'Argo and Rygel seemed to, by the end, so apparently they'd been clued in somewhere along the way, and Aeryn hadn't because she'd been with John.
I continue to be really impressed with the way this show handles sexual attraction. The parting scene at the beginning, in which John and Aeryn don't know what to say to each other, is really moving - all the more so because John's goodbyes to D'Argo and Zhaan involve such clear demonstrations of camaraderie and affection (and I do love that allusion back to John and Zhaan's Unity from "Rhapsody in Blue"). John and Aeryn's kiss was pitch-perfect as well: when not under the intense pressure of a we're-about-to-die situation, they don't quite know how to do this. I was quite moved by the realism of that. And of course since their situation this time around was still stressful, and their interaction clearly at least as much about feeling lost and needing comfort as about their attraction to each other, I am still waiting to see what happens when they're feeling a little more free and less damaged. If they ever *get* less damaged. I'm beginning to believe this is a show that's gonna be able to bring the angst. Yay! Well, not yay, because angst, but you know what I mean.
Well, it made sense at the time. I mentioned the drugs, right?
PLEASE NOTE: I am watching Farscape for the first time, and I am staying resolutely spoiler free. As of this writing, the last episode I've seen is 1x17 Through the Looking Glass. If you've seen more eps than this (and why on earth would you be reading these notes if you haven't?) you're welcome to comment on any eps I've seen, and I won't even mind if you make vague and ominous pronouncements like "just you wait! it's all setup for season three! bwahahahaha!" But: If you spoil me, I will beat you to death with a shovel. (Or, possibly, fry your ass with a qualta blade.) A vague disclaimer is nobody's friend.
the first six episodes: general observations
I'm really glad that this series comes highly recommended, and that I was assured, before starting to watch, that it gets better. I'm not at all sure, if I'd been watching from the beginning, that I would have stuck around through all six of these eps; I'm a tremendously impatient person. There's no particular upswing in ep quality within the first four eps (as there was with Firefly), and the premise alone is not enough to keep me hooked (as was that of BtVS).
I was enticed into Farscape-watching with the promise of big plot arcs, excellent continuity, and complex storytelling; as of the first few eps, the show isn't yet delivering in those areas. I don't expect epic storytelling yet - epics, pretty much by definition, require a lot of time in the telling - but the contrast to Firefly, which did introduce elements right away that could clearly lead to big arcs, is instructive. Farscape's characters are certainly interesting, but they don't yet have much depth or even much history (even the fact that they're recent prisoners, which is theoretically very interesting, doesn't yet have much urgency to it, particularly in the cases of Zhaan and Rygel). This is also true of S1 BtVS, of course; but early BtVS eps are much more tightly structured: multi-layered stories linked by a central metaphor. That structure is fairly typical of both BtVS and Firefly (and possibly of Mutant Enemy shows in general, although I'm not familiar enough with AtS to make that claim), and since that's the only TV I've been watching for the past two years I'm needing some adjustment time.
1x07 PK Tech Girl
This is the first episode that I found really engaging as opposed to merely interesting. It's by far the least exposition-y ep so far, and also less of a standalone: it builds on what we already know rather than merely reiterating it, but it does also introduce new material (Aeryn's interest in John, information about Rygel's past), and it features a non-crew character with some emotional heft, if not a lot of depth.
I like Gilina a lot, with her sweaty face and straggling hair and sweet smile. The courting scenes (as I find myself calling them) between her and John are deftly managed; the two of them do click, as John says. I like that they speak the same language, that we see them having what are clearly only fragments of a wide-ranging conversation as they work together on the defense screen, that she recognizes the action-movie formula. I like that their first kisses are tentative and a little shy at first, and that they can laugh together.
And, best of all, I like that this little storyline isn't just a chance for John to get some smoochin'; it's also used to reveal things about both Aeryn and John: her feelings for him, her feelings about being exiled; his longing for connection, his interest in Aeryn (suspected before, now confirmed), his ability to understand Aeryn much better than she'd expected. I get to be charmed by Gilina and devoted to Aeryn in one episode; there's no bad here.
It's not coincidental, I think, that in some ways this ep reminded me of a certain kind of BtVS ep: the A-plot is a mere macguffin, but the situations in which it places our characters result in actions and information that further the larger stories that are clearly under construction (even if I can't yet see what they are). It's still a type of exposition, looked at that way, but it's exposition with more inherent interest; plus, as a fan of giant complicated story arcs, I'm willing to sit through a goodly amount of this kind of exposition in order to get them.
1x08 That Old Black Magic
I found this ep less satisfying than "PK Tech Girl," but a good pair with it, since it provides new information about heretofore largely unexplored characters. Zhaan's a character with a lot more going on than we've known about up until this point; I've liked Zhaan all along, but I find her much more interesting now. Crais, too, has a lot more depth than we've seen. The staggering-guilt-because-he-failed-to-protect-sibling-as-per-parent's-command feels a bit canned to me (it's handled so much more quickly and played so much more straight here than in, say, S5 of BtVS), and therefore not particularly interesting, but it's at least a gesture in the direction of real characterization. Much more interesting, at least for me, was the revelation that Crais didn't choose to be a Peacekeeper. This information is even more interesting in light of what we know about Aeryn: that being a Peacekeeper is not just a life that she loved but the only life she's ever known. I'm wondering now: does Aeryn really have no ambivalence about that life? Did she choose to be a Peacekeeper, or was she, too, conscripted in some sense? Or did the life suit her in a way it hasn't really suited Crais?
And, of course, there's that wonderfully creepy moment at the end when Crais snaps the neck of his second-in-command. We'd only seen her once before, I think (in the pilot), but it was enough for me to recognize her. Her demonstration of loyalty to Crais was both chilling and touching, which made Crais' casual murder of her all the more disturbing (not least because it looked like we were heading for something sexual and then - nope - death). Yeesh.
1x11 Till the Blood Runs Clear
John and D'Argo are officially allies. Yay! And I really like Furlow. Plus: Butch and Sundance. ::snort::
1x12 Rhapsody in Blue
My favorite thing about this ep, and the element I particularly want to note here, is the friendship - literally the connection - between John and Zhaan. I like the way that John's friendships with D'Argo and Zhaan are being developed; the show's refusing to develop the John/Aeryn relationship at the expense of John's relationships with the other characters, which I appreciate.
1x13 The Flax
Yeah, okay, I am officially sold on Aeryn/John now. I'm such a sucker. I loved the pacing of the A/J part of the story. At first it looked like they were going to stick to slightly sarcastic innuendo ("Comfy? Can I get you a pillow?"), and then I thought they were heading for the CPR-kiss gambit, because you could see that coming a mile away; but no, the CPR was entirely businesslike, no special Sleeping Beauty moments. So to have them go for the big kiss at the end . . . and then to have D'Argo interrupt . . . made for a fun combination. And the final "never gonna happen again" scene was very cute, not least because it was completely transparent - but also, importantly, because Aeryn's whole face changes when she smiles. She looks completely different. Oh yes. I see Aeryn vids in my future.
1x14 Jeremiah Crichton
I really hope that this was the series' nadir in terms of ep quality, because it was one hell of a godawful ep. The beard was hideous all on its own, and was rendered even more absurd by the fact that the locals have clearly worked how to shave; and, you know, so has John, presumably, since I somehow doubt that Moya came with built-in AC adapters for his electric razor. Give me a break. Plus, the pan-color primitivism was incredibly irritating; just once - just for the variety - I'd like to see people of color getting to play the technologically advanced race or species instead of bright-colors-wearing in-tune-with-nature people who dance to exotic drumbeats.
What makes this ep especially frustrating is that the teaser is fantastic. The idea that these people who are clearly developing genuine affections for each other nevertheless have Really Bad Days where they can't stand to be trapped in each other's company another minute . . . I think that makes a lot of sense, and I would much rather have seen the show explore it than defer it by separating the crew and then failing even to show us the reunion scene. Yes, I believe in leaving some things to the imagination, but *come on*.
1x15 Durka Returns
I like Chiana. I have a weak spot for amoral youth resisting mind control. Plus, that haircut is adorable. And she's my favorite color.
I think this episode was probably supposed to be largely about Rygel; certainly Rygel thought it was about Rygel, but that's true for most eps. Admittedly, it was nice to see the little toad showing some spine, but I was more interested in the light the ep sheds on Aeryn. Her initial admiration for Durka, which crumbles when she realizes that he abandoned his ship and his people, snapped some things into focus for me. Aeryn is clearly someone who was deeply integrated into the Peacekeeper system; the show has successfully convinced me (especially through PK Tech Girl) that she loved that life and misses it deeply. But given that, and given Peacekeeper edicts about irreversible contamination etc., she's sometimes seemed to be adapting a little too easily to being aboard a former prison transport in the company of a bunch of aliens; her reaction to D'Argo's marriage to a Sebacean, for example, seems oddly generous. This ep finally illustrates something that has heretofore only been assumed, which is that Aeryn has lost not only her position in the Peacekeeper social and military systems but also her faith in how those systems work; here, we see that loss of faith enacted very specifically in her disillusionment with Durka.
1x16 A Human Reaction
A really remarkable episode. For one thing, it surprised me. I figured out pretty quickly that something was wrong, but I wasn't quite sure what, and I certainly didn't guess the ending correctly. My single favorite thing about this ep is the idea that there is information in John's memory that he can't consciously access but that someone else can, down to the smallest detail (such as covers of magazines that John had presumably seen but not read; I'm curious what would've happened if he'd tried to read one). It makes perfect sense; the brain contains and stores lots of that kind of information. Some of the information is purely physical: how to make the liver function, the geometry and physics calculations necessary for walking, etc. But the body often stores emotion and trauma as well, as any bodyworker who's had somato-emotional training will tell you; muscle-memory is a fascinating phenomenon. The human body is *built* to store information. At any rate, I hope it's an idea the show returns to.
I was very slightly dissatisfied with the ending, but that has to do with the fact that I still have a hard time considering muppets climactic (although I will say that the dissection of Rygel grossed me out in a most un-muppet like way, so I think my disbelief is suspending better in that area).
I'm also curious about the extent to which D'Argo, Rygel, and Aeryn knew what was going on. Apparently they were actually physically there, but presumably they had no more idea than John what the hell was going on; and yet D'Argo and Rygel seemed to, by the end, so apparently they'd been clued in somewhere along the way, and Aeryn hadn't because she'd been with John.
I continue to be really impressed with the way this show handles sexual attraction. The parting scene at the beginning, in which John and Aeryn don't know what to say to each other, is really moving - all the more so because John's goodbyes to D'Argo and Zhaan involve such clear demonstrations of camaraderie and affection (and I do love that allusion back to John and Zhaan's Unity from "Rhapsody in Blue"). John and Aeryn's kiss was pitch-perfect as well: when not under the intense pressure of a we're-about-to-die situation, they don't quite know how to do this. I was quite moved by the realism of that. And of course since their situation this time around was still stressful, and their interaction clearly at least as much about feeling lost and needing comfort as about their attraction to each other, I am still waiting to see what happens when they're feeling a little more free and less damaged. If they ever *get* less damaged. I'm beginning to believe this is a show that's gonna be able to bring the angst. Yay! Well, not yay, because angst, but you know what I mean.