What's the deal with Serenity? (Spoiler Warning!)

POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Friday, July 7, 2006 01:58
VIEWED: 4623
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6IXSTRINGJACK

Monday, June 26, 2006 1:40 AM

Before I start, I know that I may make more than a few enemies with this post. I hope that's not the case. I would simply like to start a discussion and see what other Firefly fans think.

I'm new here, so allow me to introduce myself. Like most of you, I am just a regular guy that feels betrayed by Fox time and time again for cancelling great shows in leiu of airing crap that the brainless masses consume. After they cancelled Arrested Development, I refuse to even vest any of my time on any Fox show ever again. I don't know what they're thinking, and sometimes I think that it's just a big social experiment to see what the rabid fans of these critically acclaimed shows will do.

That being said, my brother has been trying for almost a year to get me to watch Firefly on DVD and I finally watched the first episode about a week ago. I can't believe I never watched this before. I watched all of the episodes in 3 days. I've never been a fan of Buffy or Angel before, though both of my brothers were, but Firefly is simply amazing! This is, bar none, the best show that has ever been on TV... though I think twoards the end some of the story lines were rushed, possibly due to the shows premature demise. I won't pretend to know the history of the show as I've never been fan enough of anything to know all of the behind the scenes details.

The great thing about watching the show was that with all of my brother's talk of another network picking up the rights (I belive it was SiFi channel), I watched with the belief that there would be more episodes in the future. The end of the series certainly left it wide open to be picked up from where it left off.

Then the impossible happened.....

Serenity. Honestly, I liked the movie much better the first time I saw it when it was Escape from New York, and even better the second time I saw it when it was called Escape from LA. The best version of Serenity I ever saw was a little movie called Equilibrium (Starring Christian Bale).

Don't get me wrong... I love the idea of the little guy rising up and standing up to the oppressive government, but it's just that Mal or his crew wouldn't have done that... not yet anyways. There should have been at least 4 more seasons of that show before it took a turn like it did in the movie. Possibly Mal and his crew unifying other independents (possibly even the reavers) in a battle against the Alliance.

I loved the idea of the space cowboy who realizes there's oppressive forces out there, both good and evil, but instead of fighting them, he does his best to live off the grid as a free man with nothing but his ship and his trusted crew, protecting him and his own, while the crew's relationships were changing and growing and solidifying each and every day. The movie rushed the love between certain people, destroyed a beautiful marriage and killed off some great characters for nothing.

This movie took an amazing premise, with some of the greatest characters ever created and squandered them on a Hollywood semi-hit. I almost shut it off in the middle when it started to take itself too seriously. This movie destroyed the chemistry of the ship.

Bottom line, Firefly, if it ever does come back to TV will never be what it once was. If it were to follow the story arc the movie took, we would watch it, but we would never have the show that we once loved. It would be like watching Stargate now as opposed to the first 5 seasons, or watching Sliders after SiFi bought it and killed off the main characters and ruined it.

My belief is that we should do whatever we can to get this show back on the air, but we should demand that it take place after the last episode of Firefly and explain away the movie as some dream that River had, or some dumb story about a parrallel universe or simply ignore the movie alltogether. Pretty lame, I know, but in my opinion the movie was lame and I wish I could erase it from my mind.

Happy Belated Birtday Joss. You're a very talented man and I thank you for brining the wonderful story o

SUZFROMOZ

Monday, June 26, 2006 1:51 AM

Interesting. I have no intention of flaming, but I do find it odd that someone who loved the series so much feels so strongly against the movie. I can feel that there is a different vibe in the movie, its definately darker, but I dont think thats a bad thing. And yes we are really disapointed that wash and book had to go, but I dont think it 'was for nothing'. And I think the story would have been much weaker if for eg Book had survived the attack on Haven. It made the loss much more personal for Mal and the whole crew. Anyway, Im not going to analyse all those details. But, everyone is entitled to their opinion...Im just not gonna agree with it.

ZZETTA13

Monday, June 26, 2006 2:07 AM

Hello 6IX, first of all welcome aboard.

Secondly,I'm not mad at you but I will only give you half a bottle of mudders milk.

Thirdly, I know its your opinion but I strongly disagree. FF could come back as good as its first go round. I give the actors and Joss and crew credit for being able to do it. Now the BDM had to have a BDS(story). Fighting the Alliance is about as big as you can get. Remember Joss and company were trying to generate interest it doing more so thing couldn't just putt along. they had to get moving.

Anyway I've got plenty more to say, but I want to take a step back for now.

Z

6IXSTRINGJACK

Monday, June 26, 2006 2:21 AM

I know this isn't the 80's and that it would be foolish for me to believe or even want the characters to live forever, like the Thundercats did. Hell, even the bad guys never died on that show. I'm not even saying that the premise of the movie itself was altogether terrible. It's simply that it was a story that's been done before, many times. Firefly in itself was a truly unique creation and following the story arc of the movie, it can never again be what it once was. It will always take itself too seriously now. I'm not saying that Mal and crew should never have opposed the Alliance on such a grand scale someday, it's just that I would have enjoyed a few more seasons of life the way that it was during the first season before it took that turn. Zoe particularly will never be the same as she was before. Is she to just play the cold heartless soldier bitch she was before she married Wash? It's bad enough to have your spouce leave you, but to die so young for something so meaningless? If the show ever comes back, that little plot point in the movie had better have made a real difference and caused major dissention with the people and the Alliance on all worlds, or his death was in vain. Even in today's world, the government would be able to do some pretty good PR to explain away a situation like the death of 30,000,000 innocient people to the mindless sheeple, and after a few years, they would bareley even remember that it even happened. The schoolchildren 30 years later would read about how some foreign force had unleashed poison on a planet and created the reavers or some such nonsence in their Social Studies class.

I just think that it should go back to the Indiana Jones type feel that it had before as opposed to the 1984ish feel that the movie presented. You always knew that the Darkness was there. The scariest part (and possibly the most exciting part) of the series was when those top secret guys killed the Alliance officials with their little death sticks while chasing Jayne, River and Simon at the hospital after Jayne betrayed them. The beautiful thing about space is that they could get away from that for weeks at a time. You can't do that in the real world. There is nowhere to hide from society. And even if you find a place, it's not going to be exciting.

You just have to ask yourself, after we've found out everything that River is and started a huge battle against the Alliance which may cripple them for years, how intersting is it going to be to watch Mal and co. go back to petty theivery?

Thanks for your input. I would love to have some discussion with others on this point.

"The government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned."

DQBABY76

Monday, June 26, 2006 2:36 AM

Welcome! It's always good to see new folk around here.

Although I dont agree with most of what you wrote I did find it intriguing. As for me, I loved the BDM but of course I was asolutely heartbroken by some of the events that occured. I do often wonder what if Firefly gets a chance to come back where will it take off from.

I just figured that the reason why Serenity is that way it is, is because Joss had no way of knowing if he was going to have another opportunity to come back to the story after the BDM so he had to have most of the mysteries solved so us Browncoats could go on with our lives and stop hounding him for more answers. Unfortunately, the one big mystery he didnt solve was Book's past. The box office numbers for Serenity wasn't quite enough for movie executives to call it a hit. It made just enough to cover the budget it was allowed.

I would love to see more adventures of these people but until someone who has the right connections takes notice then we are left to just love what we have. And by the way...no one can unify with Reavers, they eat you first and ask no questions. heheh... you never know Serenity might grow on you. I know when I first saw it as soon as Wash died I vowed to never watch it again because I was so sad. But now its one of my faves, I just close my eyes during that part. Good Luck and Take care!

-------------------------------------------------
Shepard used to tell me...can't do something smart, do something right.

CHRISTHECYNIC

Monday, June 26, 2006 2:45 AM

You know when I watched the movie Alexander, Oliver Stone's telling of the story of Alexander the Great, I couldn't help but feel I'd seen the movie before. And I had, except before it was called Searching for Bobby Fischer.

Both were true stories, of course, but that wasn't what made them the same. What made them the same were that they were both the story of a boy who was pushed into great struggle early in his life and subject to pressures from not just his oppoenets but also his parrents and his mentors. In the end he wins through by using his brain better than his opponents. Oliver Stone's movie went on longer and also showed the conclusion of the story, the fall from grace, but that doesn't change the fact it was the same movie.

Of course there are too many details in this, certainly more details link these two stories than those that link escape from New York, where Snake took no stand agaisnt the oppressive government which took no interest in the way people thought or felt, to Equilibrium, where the entire movie was a stand against an oppressive government that tried to control how people thought and felt. But you are correct in stating that they are, in fact, the same story.

The story is called, "The humble tailor," and is one of only three stories known to exist. The difference is in the details, it always is and it always will be.

The story of Sereneity was, in a nutshell:
A ragtag group of people go on a journey because of a secret in the past, discover a terrible truth, and tell the world.

It's actually two stories, the first is one of discovery, known as, "The man who learned better," and the second is that same old, "The humble tailor."

When have we not heard those? Well the answer is that we've heard those stories almost constantly, they were read to us before we could even understand the words.

The first episode was three parts humble tailor.

The Train Job was more humble tailor and the man who learned better. Bushwacked brought in the man who learned better hard, but it was on the part of the alliance captain. It goes on like that all through the series and only in the second to last episode, Heart of Gold, do we get something that isn;t one of these two plots. We get boy meets girl, how original.

The last episode is humble tailor all the way.

So, for the most part Firefly peddled the same story over and over again. Why do we like it if it's so damn repetitive? Well it's because life is in the details.

In Escape from New York Snake is blackmailed into preforming a rescue mission and recovering a valuble bit of information, stuff happens and he does one, but, because of indifference to human suffering in the part of the President, not the other. The actual nature of the government is not touched on, nor is the state of the world.

In Escape from LA Snake is again blackmailed, this time into retriving a peice of hardware and killing someone. The state of the government is made clear, it is a corrupt theocracy, politics and religion dominate the movie as we discover that those in the prison city this time are not just murders and theives but instead Muslims and Mormons. The state of the world is also clear, World War Three is starting, invasion forces are moving on the United States and the can be stopped or helped by that bit of hardware.

Snake refuses to do either of the things he was hired to do and instead uses the hardware to more or less end civilization.

The details are a little bit different.

Serenity has the details even more different, no blackmail, never working for the government which means no government no job that sends them into dangerous territory and no one to rescue or kill, no information or hardware to retrive. Unlike Snake they didn't renege on anything and Snake didn't learn anything new about the government's treatment of people, they did.

Snake didn't bring any truth to the world. He stopped the singal, they sent it.

But the story remains the same. Then again Serenity is just as similar to The Pelican Brief than

ZZETTA13

Monday, June 26, 2006 2:53 AM

6IX I can see your argument but I don't see Serenity being the same old story told the same old way. I haven't been here that long myself but there have been many interesting discussions about all manner of topics on the site here.

Not to dig up old bones, but I will. Theres a thread here, somewhere deep in the arch that Book and Wash ain't dead. Original? hows that sound. Well you can say that its been done before, and it has. But until I see Joss and crew do it , or any variation I can't say it will be the same old song and dance. I refuse to can any dream of originality before its even been made.

just how I see it, Z

CHRISTHECYNIC

Monday, June 26, 2006 2:59 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You just have to ask yourself, after we've found out everything that River is and started a huge battle against the Alliance which may cripple them for years, how intersting is it going to be to watch Mal and co. go back to petty theivery?

A hell of a lot more interesting than watching them overthrow the government or some other such nonsense. All they did was send a message, the message was sent, and in the words of Mal (that didn't make it to the screen), "'Verse wakes up a spell. Won't be long 'fore she rolls right over and falls back asleep. T'aint my worry."

He's not out to do anything more, and there's no reason he should.

If you, personally, wouldn't find it interesting to see them going back to petty theivery then why do you feel bad they didn't keep doing it in the first place?

I have trouble believing there is a person on this board, 'cept maybe yourself, who wouldn't be interested in watching them be petty again.

Look at the Series it went from major battle to salvage in the first part of the first episode, it went from all out war on Niska to the wacky fun of Trash in one episode, and from that to the Message in one more.

Changes in scope don't seem to matter and truely the only thing I can think of the crew doing that wouldn't be interesting would be another epic scale adventure, but I'm sure if they did that they'd find a way.

13

Monday, June 26, 2006 3:04 AM

I agree with you on how it was a little rushed, and have always (in my mind) thought of it as the two-hour series finale, last episode of the fourth season.

-------------------------------------------------

'I don't know. He seems kind of peculiar.'

'Maybe he's Canadian!'

JUMPER

Monday, June 26, 2006 5:36 AM

I agree the tone of the movie was very different. Mal isn't himself, well, he is less of himself then usual, now that Inara and Book have left.

One of the things that irks me is the forced way in which the story is introduced. Some of the comments Mal makes about River and Simon just don't jibe with where I felt things left off at the end of the series. He went back for them in Safe, and at that point I always figured they were part of the crew... A lot of the forced-sounding exchanges are required so that the movie can make sense to people who have not seen the series, and I understand that. But if you could Serenity (the pilot) and The Train Job (second pilot, which had many similar forced-sounding reintroductions), I've heard all this twice already. It's annoying.

Watching Serenity crash the first time I saw the BDM was one of the hardest moments of my entire life, and I didn't even know what was coming next. The movie is not for the faint of heart, and I wouldn't expect any less from Joss. I think if you extrapolate how things were going when the series ended, through the comic books, to where the movie is, it's clear that Mal is in a very bad place, and that is projecting on the rest of the crew.... I guess maybe my frustration with the movie stems from watching characters I have become very attached to put in such a bad place with minimal explination, and no chance of next season's season opener fixing everything like in some other sci-fi series..

Of course, all this was followed by Battlestar Galactica's Season 2 finale, which didn't make things much better....

When I was younger, Trek was my favorite. You always knew most things would be resolved, hell, TOS and TNG basically 'reset' between eps. As I have gotten older, shows with actual story arcs have become more appealing... Firefly, BSG, etc. The problem is that with those story arcs, comes real tension and real death...

I guess I just feel cheated, not having 4 seasons of Firefly as we knew it to look back on before things got serious in the BDM, like we always knew they would from the time Mal opened that cryo crate..

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