Badtux the Snarky Penguin

In a time of chimpanzees, I was a penguin.

Religious fundamentalists are motivated by the sneaking suspicion that someone, somewhere, is having fun -- and that this must be stopped.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Firefly/Serenity

I just wasted most of a weekend watching DVD's.

Somehow I missed this sci-fi series when it appeared on TV. Of course, Fox made it easy to miss, running the episodes out of order so that they didn't make any sense and putting it on the air at strange times never two weeks in a row at the same time. It was apparently too intelligent for Fox's executives, who need material dumbed down to their Neolithic level. Hey look! Over there! It's a runaway bride!

Anyhow, Joss Whedon (the Buffy the Vampire Slayer dude) wanted to create a science fiction series that was more about losers than winners, about the kind of people who the haughty captains of the Starship Enterprise would have just soared right over. He also wanted a science fiction future where the good guys fighting the evil empire for their independence lost. So he put together a cast of nobodies, and put together a spaceship that looks more like a pile of junk than something that actually flies and which is totally unarmed when it comes to external weaponry (because, I mean, do you think the evil empire would allow anybody to go around with armed spaceships? Puh-LEEZE!). The results are somewhat uneven, but that is to be expected of the first season of pretty much any science fiction show -- go watch the first season of Babylon 5 or Star Trek.

But while Fox killed the series and refuses to sell the rights back to Joss for further episodes (and Joss refuses to have anything to do with Fox ever again), the one season that did get made is now available, in proper order, on DVD. And while Fox owns the series rights, they don't own the movie rights, so Joss basically made a two-hour episode of Firefly as a movie called Serenity that wraps up a few of the hanging plotlines (and a couple of the characters). Although, given its poor sales and Fox's refusal to let go of series rights, this pretty much is the end of the line for the Firefly franchise.

Too bad. More of Summer Glau's feet would have been a firm antidote to a bad day at work. Given that nobody other than Joss Whedon seems to think Summmer Glau is worthy of a major role, and Joss isn't doing any work in TV nowdays because of his opinions about the scumbags at Fox (Fox apparently has blackballed him in the TV industry, using their influence and Australian moneybags to make him persona non grata), this is likely the only chance we'll ever have of seeing the young lady on the small screen. A firefly, indeed... one chance to shine bright, and the rest is downhill from there.

- Badtux the Movie Penguin

Posted by: BadTux / 3/12/2006 09:10:00 AM

Comments:

Sometimes you just have to kick back and let the world roll on. Sounds like you had that kind of weekend. Good for you :)
# posted by pissed off patricia : 13/3/06 6:05 AM

I, too, have caught the Firefly bug after all the parties were over. :( I LOVE it. I own "Serenity" and I'm buying the series.
# posted by Lab Kat : 13/3/06 7:27 AM

Honor Roll

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"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce." -- Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

"The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men."

-- Plato

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