The Onion Reviews Serenity

POSTED BY: SoulOfSerenity
UPDATED: Friday, October 28, 2005 12:23
VIEWED: 6168
PAGE 2 of 2

Yes the Onion is almost entirely a farce... satire and sarcsm abound, but the reviews section tends to be a bit less 'piss-taking'. Anyhow, this is the 2nd time Serenity was reviewed in the Onion. Just find the issue with the lengthy Neil Gaiman and Dave Mckean (sp?) article in it. A few pages past and you will come upon a very positive review of Serenity.

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It just wasn't an interested enough review as to generate future viewers out of onion readers. If he had critized it for

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killing wash

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then it would have been more oniony, but i don't read the column.

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Just to be clear, because people seem to have a misunderstanding. The Onion is satire, and Jackie Harvey is, as was mentioned, supposed to be 100% wrong and clueless about everything, always.

In the back of the Onion print edition, and linked to on the Onion's website, is the AV Club section. This section is not satire, but rather a collection of music/dvds/books/movies/television reviews, interviews, etc. So THAT review (a very positive one) was for real, while the Jackie Harvey review was fake.

Just to clear things up.

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Originally posted by Saffy:
The whole joke behind Jackie Harvey (a fictional personality whose column used to be more appropriately named "On the Outside") is that he is a COMPLETELY UNQUALIFIED entertainment journalist. He misunderstands everything in Hollywood, draws hilariously naive conclusions, gets stars' names wrong, confuses Ingmar Bergman with Ingrid Bergman, etc,

Because irony is the point, I'm willing to bet whoever wrote this column is actually a "Serenity" fan. If they'd hated the film, "Jackie Harvey" would have written it up as a sci-fi masterpiece, underscoring his cluelessness.

The Onion's brand of satire is so deadpan that some folks don't realize it's a joke at first. They once had a headlining article about how Congress was threatening to strike unless they got a swanky new capitol building. A newspaper in China picked it up and ran the story--to their mortification.

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Absolutely, this is Onion's version of a rave review. What their perenially inept reviewer is choosing to complain about is the subtlety and intelligence of the movie, the lack of trite, predictable elements. You guys, speaking as someone who has all the Onion annual compilations, I can tell you that you need to read this like it's in Oppositeland. Two stars is good. A bad review is good. This fictional reviewer is someone you DON'T want liking your movie, believe me! If he likes it, you're doomed!

Vancouver

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Originally posted by Vancouver:

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Absolutely, this is Onion's version of a rave review. What their perenially inept reviewer is choosing to complain about is the subtlety and intelligence of the movie, the lack of trite, predictable elements. You guys, speaking as someone who has all the Onion annual compilations, I can tell you that you need to read this like it's in Oppositeland. Two stars is good. A bad review is good. This fictional reviewer is someone you DON'T want liking your movie, believe me! If he likes it, you're doomed!
Vancouver

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Hmmm.. So he's Bizarro Ebert! That would explain alot.. like why his review sounds like it belongs on "The Daily Show"

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"Serenity NOW!!! ... Insanity later."

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