Learning to hate Serenity

Tuesday, November 8, 2005 9:46 PM

Sucks that I got on board the whole Firefly thing so late. I missed the first airing (and all the pain), I missed the DVD release, I missed the announcement of the movie (I'm sure there was much rejoicing). I almost missed the movie itself because by the time I became a fan it was on its final few days in the theater here.

Which brings me to my point: I'm really coming to hate the movie.

Was it a bad movie? No, it was great!

But I think it was a bad idea.

It took an entire season worth of television, condensed it to 90 minutes, and stripped away most of the elements that made the TV series so unique and charming. It ended up as a very entertaining little sci-fi flick with no obvious hook and no stars.

The box office was what you'd expect to such a film - lukewarm.

Meanwhile the Firefly DVD set continues to fly off shelves at a crazy rate. Amazon recently jacked up the price, and the set's still in their top 10 best-sellers among all DVDs - at $40 a pop, and after all of this time. How many have been sold? Millions? Plus the ratings for the repeats on Sci-Fi continue to be strong.

But all of that momentum has been killed by the movie and seems to mean nothing now. No one in Hollywood is paying attention anymore, and no one cares. The franchise has been branded a two-time failure and a dud because of the movie, no matter how much everyone loves the TV series.

That's the frustrating thing. The series is absolute gold. I have friends who saw the movie and enjoyed it on a visceral popcorn-flick level, then watched the series and were blown away and became as obsessed as me.

Recapping:

-First Fox killed the series by presenting it the way they did.

-Fans of the show and those who were just curious snapped up the DVDs (and are still buying them like crazy), bringing everything back to life

-Then the movie killed the franchise again

I can't help but feel like if everyone involved had just waited a little while, the series would have been back on television for a long run - and would have been welcomed with open arms by all of the fans who own the DVD sets. The franchise just doesn't lend itself to the movie format. This is a tale that only retains that "something special" when it's in serial form.

Instead we get a fun little movie, and we're back to square one, with the franchise taking the blame instead of the format.

The most frustrating thing is to see people hoping for a sequel. "Better than nothing." No it's not because "nothing" eventually builds to something bigger and better. "Nothing" turns into more momentum and objective analysis by someone who matters about what people actually want instead of counting numbers and throwing out scraps.

That's why I'm learning to hate "Serenity." And that's why I pray there's never a sequel. Unless it's after a 10-year TV run.

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