Firefly, knitting, To Do List
I'm actually getting things on my To Do list done in a timely manner. That's just freaky and wrong.
Still, who am I to complain? Thanks to that I was able to take it easy today. I cleared out the remaining things that needed to be To Done this weekend and then relaxed with brunch and Firefly. I've given up on my hope of rewatching the series before Serenity this Thursday, but I did finally get a chance to listen to the commentary on Serenity aka the original premiere. (Note to fellow frugal_fans: A good way to restrict your DVD purchases is to slap yourself repeatedly on the wrist and not buy new DVDs until you've actually watched and played with all the extras on the ones you currently own.) (Unless it's a fandom that's your crack, then of course you go all out because you Must. Have.) (Obviously.) (Anyway...)
It really is interesting watching Firefly under its own merit now. As I've mentioned before, it was hard for me to get into it when it was on just on the sheer basis of it taking resources away from Angel (Keeping Joss off the Angel set = good. Keeping Tim off the Angel set = bad.) Plus you had the whole Fox fucking it over thing.
But as somebody said out there in LJ land when a show is more or less over the mistakes do get a little easier to forgive, or at least deal with. And what's good about the show shines a little more, I suspect.
What's most interesting to me is that for some reason it never clicked before that this show actually hits a lot of my kinks for storylines. That's part of the reason why I'm not going to rush it and try to cram it all in amongst the multi-hour season finales that are scattered from here until Thursday. I want to sit and savor and really let it all sink in.
I'm also fascinated to watch it in the light of comparing it to the other shows. The Simon/River Wes/Fred thing still stands out, and most especially stands out in how Joss really should have abandoned any connections between Fred and River once River came around. First off River's character and storyline is much more powerful than what Joss tried to cobble together with Fred. Second, the River/Simon bond is far more interesting than attempting to Jerry-rig the same kind of bond onto A) a boyfriend and B) one who has loved her from afar for longer than he's actually been her boyfriend.
It's one thing to see a character try to comfort another character, it's another thing entirely when that comfort hits the other character on a soul-deep level. River's known Simon all her life. It means something when she reaches out to him. Fred's known Wes for a few years. And much as I'd love to keep the boy as my own personal sex toy, Fred was dating Knox pretty much up until five minutes before she decided to dump him and go for the upgrade. Yeah, it means a thing when Fred turns to Wes for comfort, but not the same thing. I see Simon and River supporting each other and it's a symphony. I see it again with Fred and Wes and it's like somebody trying to play the same song using only a kazoo. Sure you can do it, but why?
Plus let's also give a shout-out to Joss's own comments during the ep, which is that you just do not see brother/sister bonds like that on TV. Though that does make me wonder if this kind of protection from a sibling was something that Joss first tried to put on Buffy with the whole Dawn storyline and then, much like crazy!Fred, tried it again and better once he was given a new canvas to play with. Come to think of it, some of the redone storylines that have echoes in Buffy and Angel kind of make me wonder if those weren't Joss's own form of crack/AU/hyppogryff fic: he's got the idea, these are the characters he's got to play with, ergo he's going to make it happen even if this isn't the best fit for that storyline. I mean come on - Buffy as a mom? That doesn't make sense to me until I hear Joss talking about the idea of a sibling in a parent's place with River and Simon. Then it starts to make a kind of sense.
(It also occurs to me that this would have been the time that the Firefly ideas were percolating in Joss's head. Again, the early rumors about Fred were that by the end of s2 we'd meet Wes's sister. Tie that in with how s2 was the same year as s5 when we got the start of the Buffy as Dawn's mom storyline and it's definitely something that makes you go hmmm. Or it makes me go hmm anyway.)
Though as much as there are similarities between Firefly and the other two shows, I wonder if there isn't some meta-commentary in some of the key differences. Specifically Joss's madonna/whore complex. Sure River is Fred and Fred, for all that she'd had sex, basically died very chastely in Wes's arms (The two of them never having done the deed, as far as we can tell.) But the flip side here is Kaylee and Inara. Kaylee is the "Willow" and the happy bouncy "pure" one, yet we find out in Out of Gas that the first time Mal saw her she was underneath a guy and thoroughly enjoying herself. And Inara, the literal whore, is the one who listens to the others' confessions and even gives absolution to Book. It makes me wonder if somewhere along the line somebody, maybe even Joss or Tim, made the deliberate choice to put those tweaks into both of the stereotypes, either to shut up the audience who complained about it on the other two shows, or to simply tweak the stereotypes.
Who knows?
At any rate, I'm late for dinner. I just wanted to add on a knitting note that I knit a sheep! It's a little sheep, made out of a pattern of purling stuff together and increasing other stuff and ears! There's actually a set of stitches that the pattern has dubbed "Make ear"! How cute is that?
Sure it took me at least 3 frogs and about two and a half hours if not more today to just do one sheep, but if I've done one I can do more! And if I can do more, I can make a baby blanket! Wheee!
Still, who am I to complain? Thanks to that I was able to take it easy today. I cleared out the remaining things that needed to be To Done this weekend and then relaxed with brunch and Firefly. I've given up on my hope of rewatching the series before Serenity this Thursday, but I did finally get a chance to listen to the commentary on Serenity aka the original premiere. (Note to fellow frugal_fans: A good way to restrict your DVD purchases is to slap yourself repeatedly on the wrist and not buy new DVDs until you've actually watched and played with all the extras on the ones you currently own.) (Unless it's a fandom that's your crack, then of course you go all out because you Must. Have.) (Obviously.) (Anyway...)
It really is interesting watching Firefly under its own merit now. As I've mentioned before, it was hard for me to get into it when it was on just on the sheer basis of it taking resources away from Angel (Keeping Joss off the Angel set = good. Keeping Tim off the Angel set = bad.) Plus you had the whole Fox fucking it over thing.
But as somebody said out there in LJ land when a show is more or less over the mistakes do get a little easier to forgive, or at least deal with. And what's good about the show shines a little more, I suspect.
What's most interesting to me is that for some reason it never clicked before that this show actually hits a lot of my kinks for storylines. That's part of the reason why I'm not going to rush it and try to cram it all in amongst the multi-hour season finales that are scattered from here until Thursday. I want to sit and savor and really let it all sink in.
I'm also fascinated to watch it in the light of comparing it to the other shows. The Simon/River Wes/Fred thing still stands out, and most especially stands out in how Joss really should have abandoned any connections between Fred and River once River came around. First off River's character and storyline is much more powerful than what Joss tried to cobble together with Fred. Second, the River/Simon bond is far more interesting than attempting to Jerry-rig the same kind of bond onto A) a boyfriend and B) one who has loved her from afar for longer than he's actually been her boyfriend.
It's one thing to see a character try to comfort another character, it's another thing entirely when that comfort hits the other character on a soul-deep level. River's known Simon all her life. It means something when she reaches out to him. Fred's known Wes for a few years. And much as I'd love to keep the boy as my own personal sex toy, Fred was dating Knox pretty much up until five minutes before she decided to dump him and go for the upgrade. Yeah, it means a thing when Fred turns to Wes for comfort, but not the same thing. I see Simon and River supporting each other and it's a symphony. I see it again with Fred and Wes and it's like somebody trying to play the same song using only a kazoo. Sure you can do it, but why?
Plus let's also give a shout-out to Joss's own comments during the ep, which is that you just do not see brother/sister bonds like that on TV. Though that does make me wonder if this kind of protection from a sibling was something that Joss first tried to put on Buffy with the whole Dawn storyline and then, much like crazy!Fred, tried it again and better once he was given a new canvas to play with. Come to think of it, some of the redone storylines that have echoes in Buffy and Angel kind of make me wonder if those weren't Joss's own form of crack/AU/hyppogryff fic: he's got the idea, these are the characters he's got to play with, ergo he's going to make it happen even if this isn't the best fit for that storyline. I mean come on - Buffy as a mom? That doesn't make sense to me until I hear Joss talking about the idea of a sibling in a parent's place with River and Simon. Then it starts to make a kind of sense.
(It also occurs to me that this would have been the time that the Firefly ideas were percolating in Joss's head. Again, the early rumors about Fred were that by the end of s2 we'd meet Wes's sister. Tie that in with how s2 was the same year as s5 when we got the start of the Buffy as Dawn's mom storyline and it's definitely something that makes you go hmmm. Or it makes me go hmm anyway.)
Though as much as there are similarities between Firefly and the other two shows, I wonder if there isn't some meta-commentary in some of the key differences. Specifically Joss's madonna/whore complex. Sure River is Fred and Fred, for all that she'd had sex, basically died very chastely in Wes's arms (The two of them never having done the deed, as far as we can tell.) But the flip side here is Kaylee and Inara. Kaylee is the "Willow" and the happy bouncy "pure" one, yet we find out in Out of Gas that the first time Mal saw her she was underneath a guy and thoroughly enjoying herself. And Inara, the literal whore, is the one who listens to the others' confessions and even gives absolution to Book. It makes me wonder if somewhere along the line somebody, maybe even Joss or Tim, made the deliberate choice to put those tweaks into both of the stereotypes, either to shut up the audience who complained about it on the other two shows, or to simply tweak the stereotypes.
Who knows?
At any rate, I'm late for dinner. I just wanted to add on a knitting note that I knit a sheep! It's a little sheep, made out of a pattern of purling stuff together and increasing other stuff and ears! There's actually a set of stitches that the pattern has dubbed "Make ear"! How cute is that?
Sure it took me at least 3 frogs and about two and a half hours if not more today to just do one sheep, but if I've done one I can do more! And if I can do more, I can make a baby blanket! Wheee!