In this week’s video, I react to the 2005 film Serenity and the Firefly series that preceded it. What did it get right? What did it get wrong? Is Serenity the coolest ship in the Galaxy or what? Let’s dive in.
Michael Siegel
Michael Siegel is an astronomer living in Pennsylvania. He blogs at his own site, and has written a novel.
Devcat is watching over, but if you notice any problems contact the editors and Devcat will be notified and deployed immediately.
on The Four Stages of Post-election CrueltyThere are lots of things to argue about, but can we at least have done with the nonsense about Trump…
on Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024Given that upzoning actually increases property values, they'd probably rarely, if ever, actually ha…
on Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024Defense Secretary nominee Hegseth seems to be after Trump's heart: https://www.washingtonpost.com/po…
on Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024Is Chip okay? I'm not saying that he has to come back if he doesn't want to come back or anything. I… on Got a Match?An old episode of What's Happening? had a spot where Shirley brought out some room temperature hot c…
on The Four Stages of Post-election CrueltyAnyway, more on Pete Hegseth: "Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of de… on Subject to Change: The Trump Cabinet So FarMore on Pete Hegseth: "Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for secretary of defense, p…
on Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024The escalation of Ukraine was because of fears over Ukraine joining NATO. This is propaganda. Russia…
on Saturday Morning Gaming: Castlevania (Remembered)Yep, Path of Exile... free to play. It started as a Diablo II successor, but has evolved into a much…
on Saturday Morning Gaming: Castlevania (Remembered)Most of my Castlevania related gaming is playing through the Ode to Castlevania DLC for Vampire Surv…
November 16, 2024
November 15, 2024
November 14, 2024
November 13, 2024
on Saturday Morning Gaming: Castlevania (Remembered)
on Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024 on The Four Stages of Post-election Cruelty
on Weekend Plans Post: Garlic (Specifically Toom) on The Four Stages of Post-election Cruelty
on Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024 on Open Mic for the week of 11/11/2024 on Saturday Morning Gaming: Castlevania (Remembered) on Weekend Plans Post: Garlic (Specifically Toom)
on Weekend Plans Post: Garlic (Specifically Toom) on Weekend Plans Post: Garlic (Specifically Toom)
on Saturday Morning Gaming: Castlevania (Remembered)
I wouldn’t say that the effects built up over time. If I recall correctly people died where they where, losing the will to do anything while sitting in a barber’s chair or whatever. As for anti-depressants making people more depressed and potentially suicidal, I guess it’s possible, but the more common problem is that they can make a person *less* depressed and potentially suicidal. Seriously depressed people can often be suicidal but lack the motivation to do anything. A lessening of their depression can (I hope I don’t say this wrong) give them a feeling of control to take the initiative to end their lives.
Also, I think the show is overrated.Report
Whedon is overrated. I felt this way pre cancelation or whatever the hell happened to him.Report
I had the joy of following the early careers of J.J. Abrams, James Gunn, and Joss Whedon. It was great. The downside was that by the time they made it big, I had their rhythms down. I mean, Abrams’s college romantic drama Felicity ended with time travel and multiple realities. Once you know a creator well enough, there aren’t going to be many surprises. And Whedon probably should have taken a few years’ break after Buffy and Angel before creating a new show.Report
I’m not quite sure how you get from Harold Ford to Donald Trump, but I’m pretty sure it’s surprising.
[NoPolitics. We are discussing Characters, Characterization, and Marketing.]Report
I really enjoyed Firefly as well. I was mostly surprised that it was as… sigh… “Libertarian” as it was. The description of the Alliance as “civilized” was a scathing criticism.
The trick that Whedon uses really well (that I think he said he learned on the writing crew for Roseanne) was that Nobody Gets To Be Happy For More Than One Episode. Once you see it, you can’t stop seeing how religiously he adheres to it. That said, he also does a good job of making sure that people get to be happy pretty regularly anyway.
Just not, you know, for more than one episode.Report
So, if there had been a second film, Kaylee and Simon would have broken up?Report
They would have *BEEN* broken up.
Simon captured by the muckity-mucks and takes a few episodes to return (traumatized). Kaylee receiving an electric shock that gives her amnesia and she doesn’t know who she is or that she likes Simon and the new post-shock Kaylee doesn’t feel it the way the old one did.
Something.Report
I did find it amusing to look back and see how “they’re insured, if we steal this stuff it’ll just be replaced the next day” was used there, given how that turned out.Report
I am willing to say that salvage is different from stealing.
The Alliance should have offered a salvage fee.Report
No, I mean the episode where they clean out the hospital’s drug-storage room.
It would be amusing to run that scene by a self-styled libertarian fan of the show — cleaned of identifiers, just “in one episode the main characters steal drugs from a hospital to sell on the black market” — and see what they think of it in 2023.Report
I’m broadly in favor of black market distribution of legal and illegal drugs. Little less in favor of it when creation and distribution results in active harm to others (like methamphetamines, which lead to a lot of hospital admits).Report
Was that the one where they were hired by the Russian?
I think they really covered that in Firefly where they robbed the bank at the beginning of the movie. Look, we’re not good people. But we’re not *BAD* people!!! Come on! We’re just trying to make a living here!Report
That was where two plotline crossed:
1) The Russian wanted them to rob medicine from a poor colony. Once they realized this, they returned the medicine and his money.
2) They robbed a government-funded hospital for drugs and to give Simon a chance to scan River.
3) The Russian guy got mad that they were selling drugs and tried to kill Mal.Report
Firefly/Serenity is a great object lesson (IMO) that character drives plot. Mike makes the point that the series hit the ground running with well-realized characters and character development throughout, which made viewers fall in love with the series quickly. After seven episodes and one movie, we still react to Wash. I posit that can happen regardless of the setting and maybe regardless of the realism: Star Wars has FTL travel, inconsistent use of gravity, units of measurement used as time, and frickin’ space wizards. Dearly, dearly beloved because we identify with the characters.Report
We like Star Wars because we identify with Han and Leia. We like Firefly because Mal and Inara are copy-and-paste Han and Leia.Report
Inara is MUCH hotter than Leia.Report
It’s funny, I remember watching Stargate SG-1 and being rather beguiled by the Ori prophetess Adria. I looked up the actress to see if she’d been in anything else, and I found out that I’d watched her play Inara on Firefly and never noticed her.Report
IIRC Claudia Black and Ben Browder (Farscape) moved over to one of the Stargate shows…..Report
Truer words have never been written on this site.Report
BTW there’s an excellent Firefly novel by Steven Brust, free to download.
http://dreamcafe.com/downloads/Report