I went to see Serenity based on the review that Rob over at
Podcast 411 gave (I laughed for five minutes when he spoke about how much he had to pee and couldn't get up because the movie was so good that he unbuttoned his pants and the guy next to him looked at him like he was Pee Wee Herman).
So, I went to see the movie in glorious UltraScreen Imax format and fell in love with the characters, with the story, and with the cinematic genius of Joss Whedon.
And, I finally broke down last week and bought the entire series of
Firefly
.
I held off for a couple days until I had the time to watch all of them because I knew that if the show was anything like the movie, I wouldn't be able to drag out watching the whole thing.
I started on Wednesday night and finished Friday night after a seven-hour marathon. The prognosis and autopsy on the show is thus:
A Fantastic Tragedy (and I'm not talking about the plot line).
One of the most striking things about the show is the cavalier way that it accepts social solutions to the matters that carry the weight of life and death to us now.
For example:
- Women are given a glorious and prominent role as strong figures that aren't politically motivated. They simply are just strong, even when they're soft like Kaylee. Unfortunately, the subtle brilliance of this seems to be found only in science fiction because other genres seem to want to make a point of the matter ("Look at how strong I am as a woman in a man's world, blah, blah, blah...)
- Homosexuality isn't debated as a matter of choice or genetics or as a moral and spiritual crisis. It simply is and the characters accept it and move on (just like we should)
- The characters use Chinese phrases as a kind of "high" speech similar to the use of proper English in Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. This series takes place hundred of years after our present world, so this is a realistic look at what language will be like after the world's two superpowers collide (and probably destroy the world). I found this facet particularly fascinating because I took three years of Mandarin in college and was able to understand many of the Chinese dialogue.
- I was horrified by looking back on the lack of network support for a producer who had a very popular audience with Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.This is just one more example to me of the death of the television network as we know it.
With the onset of video iPods and the licensing of the sale of individual television episodes, a new venue is opening up for talented writers, directors, and producers. The ability to direct, edit, and produce High Definition work on a decent PC with good software means that anyone can be a studio and produce their work by marketing it on the Internet and using traditional offline techniques.
The fan base for this show did something fantastic--they kept its memory alive and made a loud enough noise that a film studio eventually woke up and put up the means by which
Serenity could be made. They used blogs, podcasts, solid Internet marketing techniques, and the brilliant idea of giving bloggers free sneak preview tickets to generate free buzz that other studio presidents would murder their own children to obtain.
The end result is that
Firefly was a labor of love and it deserves a second chance. If the traditional studio system isn't willing to give the people what they want--perhaps its time to bypass the traditional studio system altogether and hand the microphone and the loudspeaker to the producer, director, writer, special effects person, and actor where it belongs.
I can't wait to see more of this show. I have faith that someone out there in Hollywood is going to do the right thing by Joss...and if they don't, give me a few years and I will!
TAGS:
Firefly,
Serenity,
Joss Whedon
