TV series+Movie Review: Firefly and Serenity!
It turns it out it's actually a good thing that I waited a day since the good people over at Tor.com have been reviewing the Firefly comics as well as the tv series and it turns out that the comics help bridge between the series and the movie (before I was wondering if I should've done two separate reviews but knowing this stuff now I feel better about doing just one).
So, Firefly. More specifically, ahhhh Joss Whedon, we meet again. I was really, REALLY hesitant to start this series since all of the Whedon stuff I'd encountered before I hadn't liked that much*. But my nerd standing requires me to at least try it once, plus, watching another regular real people show (Doctor Who and Merlin) hadn't killed me so I was thinking that I needed to give the medium a fair shot.
Firefly plus the movie Serenity
Summary: A group of smugglers, their ship, and a few unexpected passengers who are trying to just keep flying and as far away from the all-powerful Alliance government. Each episode can stand on it's own but it's better to view them in order. Likewise, the movie can also stand on it's own and it's much of the same, same crew, same ship, just with a different goal in mind than normal.
The Good: I ended up really enjoying this show, much more than I was hoping since I was expecting a major case of hype backlash. But I did like the concept and I ended up liking most, if not all, of the characters quite a bit. The writing was alright too, most of the weekly situations (hmmm, smuggling-job-of-the-week?) were tense enough to keep me interested and didn't have unbelievable conclusions. But really, if you watch this show you pretty much watch it for the characters and character interactions and, since I have a love for side characters that are awesome, I was pleased with this.
The Bad: Besides the fact that Whedon is evil for putting in a new cliffhanger in the last episode (knowing there would be no second season) the movie feels a bit out of place. Ted told me that it was actually meant to be the finale for the second season and the comics help bridge the gap but the characters still act slightly differently and, without seeing the reason for this (or it could've been that the writers forgot how exactly they should act) it was irritating to no end. And that is my biggest complaint, the characters seem different in the movie for no apparent reason and it really bugs me. There were times when the characters bugged me in the series too but that's more of a bad writing vs that was the point debate and I don't want to have that debate right now. The short of the long of it, the characters both make and break the series, oh and apparently they're swearing in Chinese was done in pretty bad accents which really annoyed some other people.
The Special Effects/Setting: I really liked the designs on the show, from the backgrounds, to the clothing, and to Serenity herself. The ship and the views of the inner planets did look ver early 2000s CGI but nothing horrendous, just a bit dated at this point. And I certianly saw the Asian influences in some of the backgrounds but not all because the designers made a real effort to make each port look slightly different and I really loved all the work they did.
The Music: Oh hey, there are soundtracks for both the tv show and the movie I can actually purchase without having to import! Looking at the listing it's funny to see what tracks were used where (again, I'm used to anime where the fans have to figure it out) and I enjoyed the music. Really loved the OP from the start too, wish there was a longer version of it.
Probably the funniest bit about watching Firefly was seeing where so many tropes/quotes came from (mainly Wash too) and that was pretty surprising. I'd thought that so many of them had spontaneously come into existence on the internet and caught on, not that Firefly had permeated nerd culture even more than I'd realized, and I know feel that much cooler for knowing the origins of them**. And tomorrow/today I'm going to (hopefully) put up a review of something just as nerdy and the creator of even more trope namers, Doctor Who!
*Did Dollhouse ever have a (strong, central-ish) plot? Seriously, I kept watching because people said it would get better but, um, yyeeeaaaahhhh.
**And no I didn't not start freaking out whenever I came across a tvtropes "trope namer," nope nope nope.
So, Firefly. More specifically, ahhhh Joss Whedon, we meet again. I was really, REALLY hesitant to start this series since all of the Whedon stuff I'd encountered before I hadn't liked that much*. But my nerd standing requires me to at least try it once, plus, watching another regular real people show (Doctor Who and Merlin) hadn't killed me so I was thinking that I needed to give the medium a fair shot.
Firefly plus the movie Serenity
Summary: A group of smugglers, their ship, and a few unexpected passengers who are trying to just keep flying and as far away from the all-powerful Alliance government. Each episode can stand on it's own but it's better to view them in order. Likewise, the movie can also stand on it's own and it's much of the same, same crew, same ship, just with a different goal in mind than normal.
The Good: I ended up really enjoying this show, much more than I was hoping since I was expecting a major case of hype backlash. But I did like the concept and I ended up liking most, if not all, of the characters quite a bit. The writing was alright too, most of the weekly situations (hmmm, smuggling-job-of-the-week?) were tense enough to keep me interested and didn't have unbelievable conclusions. But really, if you watch this show you pretty much watch it for the characters and character interactions and, since I have a love for side characters that are awesome, I was pleased with this.
The Bad: Besides the fact that Whedon is evil for putting in a new cliffhanger in the last episode (knowing there would be no second season) the movie feels a bit out of place. Ted told me that it was actually meant to be the finale for the second season and the comics help bridge the gap but the characters still act slightly differently and, without seeing the reason for this (or it could've been that the writers forgot how exactly they should act) it was irritating to no end. And that is my biggest complaint, the characters seem different in the movie for no apparent reason and it really bugs me. There were times when the characters bugged me in the series too but that's more of a bad writing vs that was the point debate and I don't want to have that debate right now. The short of the long of it, the characters both make and break the series, oh and apparently they're swearing in Chinese was done in pretty bad accents which really annoyed some other people.
The Special Effects/Setting: I really liked the designs on the show, from the backgrounds, to the clothing, and to Serenity herself. The ship and the views of the inner planets did look ver early 2000s CGI but nothing horrendous, just a bit dated at this point. And I certianly saw the Asian influences in some of the backgrounds but not all because the designers made a real effort to make each port look slightly different and I really loved all the work they did.
The Music: Oh hey, there are soundtracks for both the tv show and the movie I can actually purchase without having to import! Looking at the listing it's funny to see what tracks were used where (again, I'm used to anime where the fans have to figure it out) and I enjoyed the music. Really loved the OP from the start too, wish there was a longer version of it.
Probably the funniest bit about watching Firefly was seeing where so many tropes/quotes came from (mainly Wash too) and that was pretty surprising. I'd thought that so many of them had spontaneously come into existence on the internet and caught on, not that Firefly had permeated nerd culture even more than I'd realized, and I know feel that much cooler for knowing the origins of them**. And tomorrow/today I'm going to (hopefully) put up a review of something just as nerdy and the creator of even more trope namers, Doctor Who!
*Did Dollhouse ever have a (strong, central-ish) plot? Seriously, I kept watching because people said it would get better but, um, yyeeeaaaahhhh.
**And no I didn't not start freaking out whenever I came across a tvtropes "trope namer," nope nope nope.