How does Buffy rate along side of Firefly?
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Tuesday, June 7, 2005 17:40
VIEWED: 13602
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I'd rank Buffy right up there. I have seen every episode (thank you, FX network!) and, like everyone else, have my feelings about various seasons. Some episodes are merely OK, most are good, some are great, and a few re-define what television is capable of. You'll love the dialogue, the writing, and the "Buffy-isms" (you'll understand when you hear them). But it is indeed geared toward a younger crowd. My only advice is to try it.
MAL "You only gotta scare him."
JAYNE "Pain is scary..."
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I love Buffy and Angel. I've seen them all and own Buffy 1-4 and Angel 1. As the crossover stories make it almost necessary to buy them in pairs starting there I have not continued yet. Firefly is still better. It never had time to have a bad episode. Buffy had seven seasons, Angel 5, so sure there were some episodes that were pretty bad. Of course that's only comparing them to the rest. As has already been conveyed, even the worst eps of Buffy or Angel are better than anything else on. Wonderfalls also never had a bad episode. You just can't go wrong with any of them. Though I think the worst was Buffy + the double meat palace, and Angel (Cordy + Conner)
There are far too many great things in Buffy and Angel to not see them.
Visit WWW.Marillion.Com for a better way to live
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I didn't read the thread, so I dunno what's been said...buuut...
The shows are very different. I feel that, even though it did get pretty adult, Buffy is aimed at a 'younger' or very different audience. Firefly has always come off to me as a very mature smart show that needed a completely different viewing public than Buffy.
Having said that, I'm 13 and I believe Firefly is at least slightly better than Buffy. BTVS is chalk-full of Joss brilliance and shouldn't be put down at all, but I think Firefly benefited from Joss having done two shows already. I have to be in a different mood for each, though, so I don't believe one is truly better than the other when taken as wholes. Um, yeah. I'm not making any sense....I can't make up my own mind. *Slowly sneaks away*
"Bwaa...it's kind of a warrior...strikes fear into the hearts of..."
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Buffy, Angel and Firefly are like children. They are all different and special and you love them all equally. Or at least that is what you tell them.
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One of the sadder facets of Firefly's untimely end is that we will never really be able to answer the question. All of Whedon's shows are constructed to work on multiple levels: action and snappy dialog; the episode plots; and the season (or longer) story arcs and mythology. While Firefly did a remarkable job sketching a universe and a mythology, we never really got to see where they would go with a full season (except to the extent it lives on in the BDM and sequels). Buffy and Angel also allowed the characters (and ensembles) to grow and evolve and react to events within the stories to a remarkable degree. The Firefly characters had plenty of room for that kind of growth, but, alas, we will probably never see it in the full detail permitted by a weekly show.
The Firefly episodes that did get made were all excellent. Perhaps, however, our perception of the show benefited from its short life. Some elements of the premise might not have held up. How many dodgy smuggling jobs float around in the 'verse? How long could the sexual tension between Mal and Inara, Simon and Kaylee stay credible? How many times could the gang get rounded up by the authorities and somehow get loose?
The very fact that people are watching episodes over and over is also a potential problem. Firefly may have simply been too dense for network TV. Its quality and cleverness only becomes apparent in multiple viewings. Hopefully, these qualities will succeed on the big screen.
Buffy and Angel were certainly more successful shows than Firefly. They were somewhat different in tone and target audience, but they were where Joss perfected much of the craft he put into Firefly. That alone makes them worth checking out.
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Chisbo, I've read that Buffy came to a perfect end on the last ep, but that Angel's last show was too dark and somehow incomplete. Is this right?
Needs completion Chrisisall
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My three favorite shows of all time, although I'm tempted to include "Wonderfalls" in that group even though it wasn't produced by Joss - OK, Tim Minear as surrogate explains that.
Comparing them is very difficult, as you can tell from the varying opinions that have already been posted. Firefly certainly had a better START than Angel which, in turn, had a better start than BtVS. Unfortunately, to me, the comparability ends there because Firefly ended so soon. What you get from both BtVS and Angel that you don't get from Firefly is Joss' trademark character development. (For instance) You get to see the journey of Wesley Wyndam-Pryce as he starts out as the comic dufus in BtVS' season 3 and gradually evolves into one of the most complex, dark, tragic characters ever shown on tv (or any other medium) by the last episode of Angel (six years later). Firefly started off with nine great characters, but we never got to see what would happen to them over time and how they would change as a result. We were barely introduced to them before the show ended.
So, I guess what I'm trying to say is, even though Firefly got off to a better start than Angel and BtVS, I would still rank them ahead of it overall because of the long-term story arcs and resultant character development that you get to be amazed by on the other two shows. Knowing Joss, Firefly would have followed in their footsteps and likely would have ended up being even better in the long run. But, thanks to the #^*^$*$*@ at F*X, we never got to see what would have happened.
Apathy on the Rise. No One Cares.
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Buffy for me is the better show but only because it got more time to develop its characters and mythos, etc. I'm not a big fan of the final two seasons so when I think of the greatness of Buffy I think Seasons 1-5.
But 6 and 7 happened and they can't be ignored. FIREFLY, because it only lasted one season has a smaller percentage of weak episodes than BUFFY, IMHO. But because it was cut short it didn't the chance for consistent excellence that BUFFY was able to maintain (for a while).
I love both shows and I think they're both great. If FIREFLY had lasted five or more seasons, I don't know how I'd feel.
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Chrisisall, I've heard the same thing, and I'm not a total expert on the shows(I only started watching them after Firefly, and I gradually bought all 7 episodes of Buffy and all 5 of Angel, and just finished Angel like 4 days ago), but I actually feel that the opposite is true. I think that Buffy ended a little too conveniently, and sort of wrapped everything up too quickly (and Willow had basically infinite power in the last episode, as she was able to turn thousands of girls into slayers, with her godlike magical powers, a fact that I just didn't like), whereas Angel ended in Joss Whedon style, with the characters still fighting, with some uncertainty about what's going to happen (although it's tough to bet against Spike and Angel in the last fight, especially with Illyria on their side), and with a complicated, compelling finish. It's hard to explain in any more detail unless you've watched the episodes (which you really should), but I think that Angel ended more like a Joss Whedon show, with lots of layers, with subtlety, and with the viewer partly happy, partly sad, partly inspired. I'm actually jealous of you if you haven't watched Buffy or Angel yet, you should, I would never say that they're as good as Firefly, but they are very good, and the character development is excellent. If you're not convinced to watch them yet, let me tell you that Nathan Fillion plays an awesome priest villain in the last 5 or so episodes of Buffy, Adam Baldwin is a villain in the last 4-5 episodes of Angel, Gina Torres is really the main villain in Season 4 of Angel, and the guy who plays Tracy in The Message is a fairly important character in about 12 episodes of Season 5 of Angel and plays a funny vampire in an episode of Buffy. Also, Joss Whedon writes the dialogue, so you know it's good. I wish I had 12 seasons of Joss Whedon TV that I could look forward to watching, seriously. I know lots of browncoats have watched Buffy and Angel, but for those who haven't, you really should, they're very good, and worth the time, for sure.
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