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peroxidepirateI'm now obsessed with another show. My roommie's mom came to visit, and she brought the Firefly boxed set.
I think I'm in love.
I had to watch every episode, and then all the extras & commentary, during the two weeks she was here (which were also, it just figures, the busiest weeks of the year at work) so she could take the disks back with her when she went home.
And then, yesterday, I went and ordered my own set anyway. Along with the two Serenity graphic novels (and one Buffy omnibus I don't already have, which was available as a half-off nick & dent from TFAW.com). The only reason I didn't get the Serenity movie (yet) is that it's available as a Nexflix instant watch and I seriously shouldn't have been putting any of this stuff on my credit card in the first place. But. Firefly.
I was a sci-fi fan before anything else. As a kid, I watched the three original Star Wars movies way more times than I can count. As a pre-teen, I was obsessed with Star Trek: The Next Generation -- watched it in syndication every single day, planned my week to be sure I was home when new episodes aired, wrote terrible adolescent fanfic, the whole deal. (Haven't watched any of it in many years, so I can't evaluate it with adult eyes. Maybe I should, just to see what I think now.)
But I have always been a feminist (literally -- I don't remember a time before I consciously identified as such), and the relative lack of strong female characters always disappointed me. At least TNG had enough female guest stars, and Tasha Yar, to convince me that it took place in a world where women could do something other than provide nurturing -- it's just that, after Tasha's demise, none of the women on the Enterprise did. (Edit to say the women on TNG were great characters -- but they were disproportionately caretakers, that's all.) My terrible fanfics included a lot of OFCs.
(Based on cast listings from IMDB, I think DS9 and Voyager were better about this. I watched and enjoyed the first couple of seasons of DS9, and I think I had a crush on Dax, but it never got into my brain like TNG did. I didn't watch Voyager at all -- by that time I was in high school, and then college (the first time), not watching a lot of TV, and living very much in the here-and-now.)
So. I'm sure I'm not gonna say anything about Firefly that hasn't been said a zillion times over. But the show has a grubby, space-worn, Millenium Falcon-style ship. Heroes who fought for the rebels (and added realism: this time the rebels lost). A big, interesting, close-knit ensemble cast. Violence, humor, and occasionally romance. Near-parity of male and female cast members, a female mechanic, a female first mate*, and men in the two "nurturing" roles (doctor and preacher). No green-skinned alien babes. And, because Joss Whedon was behind it, great lingo, jargon, and lots of local color.
Also a cranky, stubborn, disillusioned-but-still-going-on captain with whom I'm identifying way more than is healthy. Which might be another story.
I think BtVS has just been surpassed. I think Firefly is now my all-time favorite show.
* Yeah, one of my very few criticisms is that I think Zoe is an awesome character who mostly didn't have a lot to do. I love that she'd show up and rescue Mal when things didn't go the way he planned. I know she's supposed to be pretty taciturn anyway. I know that in a 9-person cast, not everybody gets to do something cool every episode. I still think she should have had a bigger role. Zoestown, anyone??
So it's now been a little more than a week since I finished watching the series, and I'm still thinking about it. Still going "More! More! More!" I did see the Big Damn Movie, which was nice because it tied up the plot-wise loose ends. But I'm still kind of heartbroken by the fact that, other than graphic novels, that's it. It doesn't help that Joss and Tim Minear actually say, in some of the commentaries, that various characters (Inara and Book, for sure) have more backstory that you never get to see.
I think it's massively unfair that Joss got 5 years to dick around with Angel without ever settling into one theme/direction/genre for more than a season and a half and without really knowing who his supporting characters actually were. While Firefly, which he clearly put so much thought & energy into that I can almost taste the way three or four years of character development are laid out, got cancelled after less than a season. Massively unfair. If anything, it should be the other way around.
Also? Any complaint I ever had about S7 of BtVS is now forgiven. Completely. The magical, near-perfect gem that is Firefly makes up for any downfall or inconsistency in Buffy. Hell, I love Firefly so much, I might even forgive my complaints about BtVS S6, too, because Joss was probably planning his new show instead of paying attention to the shows he already had going. (Not saying S3 & S4 of Angel were great, btw -- I just didn't like the show enough to be upset that they weren't.)
So, uh... if I ever get time to write fanfic again, it's probably gonna be for Firefly. Just sayin.
I think I'm in love.
I had to watch every episode, and then all the extras & commentary, during the two weeks she was here (which were also, it just figures, the busiest weeks of the year at work) so she could take the disks back with her when she went home.
And then, yesterday, I went and ordered my own set anyway. Along with the two Serenity graphic novels (and one Buffy omnibus I don't already have, which was available as a half-off nick & dent from TFAW.com). The only reason I didn't get the Serenity movie (yet) is that it's available as a Nexflix instant watch and I seriously shouldn't have been putting any of this stuff on my credit card in the first place. But. Firefly.
I was a sci-fi fan before anything else. As a kid, I watched the three original Star Wars movies way more times than I can count. As a pre-teen, I was obsessed with Star Trek: The Next Generation -- watched it in syndication every single day, planned my week to be sure I was home when new episodes aired, wrote terrible adolescent fanfic, the whole deal. (Haven't watched any of it in many years, so I can't evaluate it with adult eyes. Maybe I should, just to see what I think now.)
But I have always been a feminist (literally -- I don't remember a time before I consciously identified as such), and the relative lack of strong female characters always disappointed me. At least TNG had enough female guest stars, and Tasha Yar, to convince me that it took place in a world where women could do something other than provide nurturing -- it's just that, after Tasha's demise, none of the women on the Enterprise did. (Edit to say the women on TNG were great characters -- but they were disproportionately caretakers, that's all.) My terrible fanfics included a lot of OFCs.
(Based on cast listings from IMDB, I think DS9 and Voyager were better about this. I watched and enjoyed the first couple of seasons of DS9, and I think I had a crush on Dax, but it never got into my brain like TNG did. I didn't watch Voyager at all -- by that time I was in high school, and then college (the first time), not watching a lot of TV, and living very much in the here-and-now.)
So. I'm sure I'm not gonna say anything about Firefly that hasn't been said a zillion times over. But the show has a grubby, space-worn, Millenium Falcon-style ship. Heroes who fought for the rebels (and added realism: this time the rebels lost). A big, interesting, close-knit ensemble cast. Violence, humor, and occasionally romance. Near-parity of male and female cast members, a female mechanic, a female first mate*, and men in the two "nurturing" roles (doctor and preacher). No green-skinned alien babes. And, because Joss Whedon was behind it, great lingo, jargon, and lots of local color.
Also a cranky, stubborn, disillusioned-but-still-going-on captain with whom I'm identifying way more than is healthy. Which might be another story.
I think BtVS has just been surpassed. I think Firefly is now my all-time favorite show.
* Yeah, one of my very few criticisms is that I think Zoe is an awesome character who mostly didn't have a lot to do. I love that she'd show up and rescue Mal when things didn't go the way he planned. I know she's supposed to be pretty taciturn anyway. I know that in a 9-person cast, not everybody gets to do something cool every episode. I still think she should have had a bigger role. Zoestown, anyone??
So it's now been a little more than a week since I finished watching the series, and I'm still thinking about it. Still going "More! More! More!" I did see the Big Damn Movie, which was nice because it tied up the plot-wise loose ends. But I'm still kind of heartbroken by the fact that, other than graphic novels, that's it. It doesn't help that Joss and Tim Minear actually say, in some of the commentaries, that various characters (Inara and Book, for sure) have more backstory that you never get to see.
I think it's massively unfair that Joss got 5 years to dick around with Angel without ever settling into one theme/direction/genre for more than a season and a half and without really knowing who his supporting characters actually were. While Firefly, which he clearly put so much thought & energy into that I can almost taste the way three or four years of character development are laid out, got cancelled after less than a season. Massively unfair. If anything, it should be the other way around.
Also? Any complaint I ever had about S7 of BtVS is now forgiven. Completely. The magical, near-perfect gem that is Firefly makes up for any downfall or inconsistency in Buffy. Hell, I love Firefly so much, I might even forgive my complaints about BtVS S6, too, because Joss was probably planning his new show instead of paying attention to the shows he already had going. (Not saying S3 & S4 of Angel were great, btw -- I just didn't like the show enough to be upset that they weren't.)
So, uh... if I ever get time to write fanfic again, it's probably gonna be for Firefly. Just sayin.