Serenity / Firefly Fans

[Holst]

Originally Posted by soundmotor

Fox desrves far more than a beating for cancelling what may have been the best sci-fi series on TV; ever!

Ditto! After I watched the whole set I found that it's one of those things you can't explain to someone else. You just have to watch it. And it's more than SciFi, it's just great story telling. Like Josh Whedon described it, it's our everyday world, just skewed a bit.

Sadly, thanks to Fox, we don't know how the story ends.

[Texas42]

Hi, I have the movie "Serenity" but haven't watched it yet. Should I get and watch the series first? Is the movie a prequel or is it supposed to be after the series?

[ohskigod]

supposed to be around 6 months after the series end. cant remember where I read it though.

I have the Firefly DVD set as well and have watched half the episodes, great series, stunned it was cancelled. was it just not getting ratings?

[markthefixer]

Originally Posted by Texas42

Hi, I have the movie "Serenity" but haven't watched it yet. Should I get and watch the series first? Is the movie a prequel or is it supposed to be after the series?

My $0.02 worth: watch the series FIRST, while the movie can stand alone, it spoils things in the series if you want to watch the series. I did it that way and I wish I hadn't.

[soundmotor]

Originally Posted by Texas42

Hi, I have the movie "Serenity" but haven't watched it yet. Should I get and watch the series first? Is the movie a prequel or is it supposed to be after the series?

In many ways and taken as a whole, the series is better than the movie! Things are not forced and why things are the way they are have been slowly revealed as they became relevant to the story. The series does not suffer the "Must have conclusion in 90 minutes" dilemma. Don't get me wrong, Serenity is great, just freakin' great. I have not watched it in a few months but plan to once I get through the last few shows of Firefly. But before I say any more,

No Serenity Spoilers!

So now that the series is readily available, I'd say watch it first as you have the option to do so. Serenity absolutely hooked me without knowing much about anything, the series however has blown me away. Seeing it after you have watched the series will likely be a better experience. I wish that was how I had seen it.

As to why it failed, I'll repeat what I've read that makes the most sense. The series was aired out of sequence with an emphasis on action driven episodes coming earlier than they should have. Fox wanted another Buffy and was not willing to let the series unfold sequentially which is how it was designed. Instead, each show had to stand on its own and they don't completely. You need to have the context of an earlier episode where something significant happened. The second inexplicable point is that not only were they shown out of sequence, FOX kept changing the night they were shown on. I saw 1 episode in 2002 and never could find it again. I gave up on it but so many did not and are the ones to thank for the fact that Serenity even got made. Some of this may be folklore but it is pretty much what I've read everywhere the topic is raised.

I've also come to understand that there is a letter writing campaign that may crack open the doors for SciFi to show the complete series in its correct sequence. I'll post the data later if anyone cares to write one. The out the door date for this is 12/30. The thinking is the series would pick up new viewers which may lead to newly produced episodes released to DVD or as a semi-regular mini-series. I've never been much of a letter writer, especially to ask for more of a commercial, ad driven venue. But I have written one as did my wife & 2 kids when I told them about it. You see, on their own they became fans as well. I am actually stunned that I have become a fairly rapid fan without prompting. I'm 45 fer chrissakes! You are a rapid fan of awaking on your own each morning, not a discontinued scifi series.

The Force is strong in this one!

[CJ_S]

I watched the movie first and thought it was pretty good, then i went out and bought the series dvd's. After watching the series the movie did seem better after watching it again but i still enjoy the series episodes more. Shame it didn't last that long but it seems like none of the tv shows i like do. But then ones i can't stand seem to last forever.

[soundmotor]

Here is the sample letter you'd mail by tomorrow. Short, sweet, & to the point. The rationale behind it is to get SciFi to rerun the series which would likely spawn new viewers. In turn, that might spawn.....who knows?

I'm sending one, it may be futile, but as SciFi says, "If".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bonnie Hammer, President
NBC Universal | Sci Fi Channel
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY
10020

Subject: Programming Suggestion for Summer, 2007

To the Sci/Fi Programming Staff:

Please consider adding Firefly for the Summer 2007 season.

Sincerely yours,

xxxxxxxxx

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

The follow-up is on January 2nd. Send an e-mail to [email protected] restating that Firefly be added to the Summer 2007 programming.

That's it!

[simplynuts]

I saw Serenitiy awhile back with my 16 year old. We saw Firefly as a a dvd set first. It made sense to see the series first because you lost the identity and interplay of the characters on Serenity.We watched it all on a 7 foot diagonal projector image in a home theater setup we had to run a marathon becuase it was so good. We wqant the series renewed or a few more movies based on the characters. One of the better scifi westerns I have seen in a long time.

[soundmotor]

Originally Posted by simplynuts

We want the series renewed or a few more movies based on the characters. One of the better scifi westerns I have seen in a long time.

Send your letter young man!

[bjarmson]

Ahh yes, "Firefly/Serenity," the Fox network braintrust (and I'm definitely using the term sarcastically) really missed the mark on this one. Here was a series with with a longterm future (penned by a guy, Joss Whedon, who already had two hugely successful series—Buffy and Angel—to his credit). So what did Fox do? First they refused to show the two part introduction (a great episode), because it supposedly didn't have enough action (instead, it was shown at the end of the series run). This forced Joss (and his co-producer/writer Tim Minear) to have to write "The Train Job" in course of a weekend. Then they preempted shows for the baseball playoffs and World Series. At the same time they ran shows out of order. Anyone vaguely familiar with Joss's other series would realize that Joss always writes with a longterm arc in mind, but not the idiots at Fox. So 14 episodes into the series (3 of which were never aired), Fox canceled the series because of low ratings/network incompetency. A true shame since this was a series that hit the ground running; the cast meshed right from the first and was getting better with every episode, the writing was consistently good (with about a half dozen great episodes out of the 14 and a couple that were as good as it gets), and the show was just beginning to delve into the mysteries that permutated within the group and the greater "verse" they inhabited.
A couple of years later, along comes "Serenity," in which Joss tries to wrap up the series arc in 2 hours rather than 10 (or perhaps 100). That the movie is as good as it is (would that any of the Star Wars oeuvre had writing of this caliber or acting this good) is a minor miracle (though perhaps not given someone of Whedon's talents). Since he had only 2 hours to wrap up the story to some degree of satisfaction, certain characters were shorted in screen time and relationships were truncated (Mal and Inara's, Zoe and Wash's, Book's with the crew). Yet for all this it is still a great movie. To get the most out of it watch "Firefly" and then "Serenity."
SPOILER ALERT
As for Wash's death near the end of "Serenity," Joss has never been hesitant to kill characters. It was probably partly to show that anyone could die, and that maybe everyone would, as well as for a real world consideration (I think Alan Tudyk, "Wash," refused to sign a 3 movie commitment). Anyone familiar with Joss's work should know that while his characters inhabit strange "verses," they act like real people (albeit with amazing adventures and sometimes superpowers) and occasionally die for no apparent reason (as happens in life).
A great, if too short, arc of what could have been the best science fiction series ever. Here's hoping we will return to the "verse" sometime in the future (if Joss ever is freed of what is becoming a "vapormovie," the seemingly endless preproduction work/writing on "WonderWoman").

[soundmotor]

Originally Posted by bjarmson

Ahh yes, "Firefly/Serenity," the Fox network braintrust (and I'm definitely using the term sarcastically) really missed the mark on this one. Here was a series with with a longterm future (penned by a guy, Joss Whedon, who already had two hugely successful series—Buffy and Angel—to his credit). So what did Fox do? First they refused to show the two part introduction (a great episode), because it supposedly didn't have enough action (instead, it was shown at the end of the series run). This forced Joss (and his co-producer/writer Tim Minear) to have to write "The Train Job" in course of a weekend. Then they preempted shows for the baseball playoffs and World Series. At the same time they ran shows out of order. Anyone vaguely familiar with Joss's other series would realize that Joss always writes with a longterm arc in mind, but not the idiots at Fox. So 14 episodes into the series (3 of which were never aired), Fox canceled the series because of low ratings/network incompetency. A true shame since this was a series that hit the ground running; the cast meshed right from the first and was getting better with every episode, the writing was consistently good (with about a half dozen great episodes out of the 14 and a couple that were as good as it gets), and the show was just beginning to delve into the mysteries that permutated within the group and the greater "verse" they inhabited.
A couple of years later, along comes "Serenity," in which Joss tries to wrap up the series arc in 2 hours rather than 10 (or perhaps 100). That the movie is as good as it is (would that any of the Star Wars oeuvre had writing of this caliber or acting this good) is a minor miracle (though perhaps not given someone of Whedon's talents). Since he had only 2 hours to wrap up the story to some degree of satisfaction, certain characters were shorted in screen time and relationships were truncated (Mal and Inara's, Zoe and Wash's, Book's with the crew). Yet for all this it is still a great movie. To get the most out of it watch "Firefly" and then "Serenity."
SPOILER ALERT
As for Wash's death near the end of "Serenity," Joss has never been hesitant to kill characters. It was probably partly to show that anyone could die, and that maybe everyone would, as well as for a real world consideration (I think Alan Tudyk, "Wash," refused to sign a 3 movie commitment). Anyone familiar with Joss's work should know that while his characters inhabit strange "verses," they act like real people (albeit with amazing adventures and sometimes superpowers) and occasionally die for no apparent reason (as happens in life).
A great, if too short, arc of what could have been the best science fiction series ever. Here's hoping we will return to the "verse" sometime in the future (if Joss ever is freed of what is becoming a "vapormovie," the seemingly endless preproduction work/writing on "WonderWoman").

^^^

Yeah, pretty much.....

[Holst]

I think Alan Tudyk, "Wash," refused to sign a 3 movie commitment

I read that a planned next movie would be about events before "Serenity", starting off with something shocking and then revealing why certain characters had to be killed off.

Somethin like "my guess" Book was on the other side at Serenity Valley and that's why he turned down passage on that other ship and kept walking until he found Serenity in the pilot movie.

[bully]

I did get the movie, and a week or so ago bought the complete series. I really like the show. Amazon.com.

[soundmotor]

Originally Posted by bully

I did get the movie, and a week or so ago bought the complete series. I really like the show. Amazon.com.

The damn shame is when you start watching the show in the order it was intended to air by Whedon. All the trackbacks make sense as things are referenced in later episodes that happened way before. Without the correct chronology none of that makes sense which is pretty much what happened when it was aired originally.

I got the box set for Christmas as I had enjoyed Serenity. After the 5th or 6th epsiode I was saying "Wow, this is really good.". By episode 10 however I was getting depressed that I was coming to the end of them. However, the Firefly box set remains in Amazon's Top 50. Amazing for a series that is 5 years dead! I'm hoping for another movie even if it is straight to DVD. The show had a terrific mix of characters that worked like they'd known each other for years; from the very first show.

[ozmoid]

Originally Posted by soundmotor

By episode 10 however I was getting depressed that I was coming to the end of them. However, the Firefly box set remains in Amazon's Top 50. Amazing for a series that is 5 years dead! I'm hoping for another movie even if it is straight to DVD. The show had a terrific mix of characters that worked like they'd known each other for years; from the very first show.

My sentiments exactly! We were "hooked" from the very first aired episode, and chased the series all over the schedule to try and keep up.

As seems to be the usual network reaction, any show demonstrating exceptional writing, talent, and an intelligent, engaging storyline is doomed. I was surprised it lasted as long as it did.