Firefly premiere review (poor - with near total spoilage)

POSTED BY: Hjermsted
UPDATED: Friday, August 23, 2002 04:23
VIEWED: 5130
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HJERMSTED

Tuesday, August 20, 2002 8:44 PM

This guy (Robert A. Black) has been a pretty harsh Whedon/Mutant Enemy critic all summer. I get the feeling that his personal issues with the death of Tara are tainting his opinions of Firefly.

http://www.geocities.com/bbovenguy/Firefly.html

mattro

PS: this geocities site doesn't give you access every time, so you may need to try later.

NOVAGRASS

Tuesday, August 20, 2002 10:03 PM

This about sums up the entire review: "I'm sick and tired of watching Joss Whedon beat up on characters that I like."

I can't take this child's review to heart, not when he is seaking out things to pick apart. He seemed to look past the atrocious Birds of Prey pilot enough to find something to praise, why not give Firefly a chance without being influenced by another, relatively unrelated series?

Oh, that's right... only a mature person would judge something on its own merit.

--Dylan Palmer, aka NoVaGrAsS--

SHUGGIE

Tuesday, August 20, 2002 10:40 PM

I had hoped for a more balanced view. I am interested in negative as well as positive reviews. However I think this review is very definitely coloured by the author's views on Tara's death on Buffy.

Which is a shame. He was at least articulate in his other essays, even when I disagreed, so I had hoped he would try to be even-handed.

Apparently he feels that 'favourite characters' should have some kind of immunity from bad things happening to them. And he describes himself as a writer. Odd.

Shug

NOVAGRASS

Wednesday, August 21, 2002 1:02 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Shuggie:

Apparently he feels that 'favourite characters' should have some kind of immunity from bad things happening to them. And he describes himself as a writer. Odd.

Shug

I am getting increasingly tired of this crap.

I was going to go on a long rant about how immature and unhealthy the I-will-never-forgive-the-writers-for-killing-Tara-people are... but I realize such a rant is pointless. If they can't get over something like this, they shouldn't be watching Buffy. I don't want the stigma of fans disassociated from reality to be tainting the public's view of Buffy fandom, so good ridance, I say.

--Dylan Palmer, aka NoVaGrAsS--

ZICSOFT

Wednesday, August 21, 2002 2:26 PM

I no longer read any Dead Tara rants. Partly because everything worth saying seems to have been said, but mainly because the discussion is dominated by self-important nitwits who can't express themselves, and do so at great length.

Which maybe I shouldn't apply to this guy based on second-hand info. But if his review is full of spoilage, no way am I gonna even look at it.

I do miss all the dead people from Buffy. Even the bad guys. (No, especially the bad guys.) My one, small disappointment with Firefly is that Whedon didn't cast any of the actors he killed off on Buffy. I mean, does anybody here not have a crush on Robia LaMorte?

MOJOECA

Wednesday, August 21, 2002 2:41 PM

While he starts off with a detailed synopsis (which I didn't read), his conclusions at the end are spoiler-free. That's where he goes off about Whedon punishing his favorite characters. It's so sad, it's almost amusing. Joss thinks happy people are not good drama? Shocker.

--- Joe

SHUGGIE

Wednesday, August 21, 2002 5:16 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Zicsoft:
I no longer read any Dead Tara rants. Partly because everything worth saying seems to have been said, but mainly because the discussion is dominated by self-important nitwits who can't express themselves, and do so at great length.

Which maybe I shouldn't apply to this guy based on second-hand info. But if his review is full of spoilage, no way am I gonna even look at it.

If you do want to look at his Tara essays here's a link to one http://www.xtreme-gaming.com/theotherside/themessage.html - which contains links to the other. Assuming you're up to date with Buffy nothing spoilery there.

I keep meaning to write to him and explain how he's shot himself in the foot with the comparison with Nichole Nichols on ST:TOS. His point is that in introducing Uhura Roddenberry was challenging the prejudices of the day, but unlike Whedon he doesn't cop-out and revert to stereotype.

It's an interesting comparison because actually Uhura was a glorified receptionist in space. So it's not like it was an absolute resounding victory for black female actors is it? However it was a major step forward. And this is my problem - that most of the people who criticize Joss for Tara's death are failing to recognize that they are criticizing someone who took one of the biggest steps forward for gay characters in a long time. It's like you crucify the people who help your cause because they don't quite go far enough. They dare to have another agenda - the story - rather than just be pure propagandists.

Quote:
I do miss all the dead people from Buffy. Even the bad guys. (No, especially the bad guys.) My one, small disappointment with Firefly is that Whedon didn't cast any of the actors he killed off on Buffy. I mean, does anybody here not have a crush on Robia LaMorte?

Oh yeah.

Shug

HJERMSTED

Wednesday, August 21, 2002 5:45 PM

Having read all three of Mr. Black's Tara-related essays all I can say is...

Let's not forget that there is still at least one strong lesbian role model on TV and her name is Willow. She just doesn't happen to be in a relationship at the moment (I'm told this happens to lesbians in real life too).

I'm confident Marty and Joss will let the Willow character find a new gal to love (within context of the show and not in some effort to appease the G/L/Bi community). This is what would happen in real life and then we could finally put all of this bogus "controversy" to bed.

Take off those bitterness goggles, Mr. Black! BTVS is still the best show on TV. Firefly is going to rock as well.

Wanna see what happens to a show where all the characters are perpetually safe? Watch Smallville! I guarantee you none of the main characters will ever be killed off on that tepid show.

Mattro

ZICSOFT

Wednesday, August 21, 2002 8:02 PM

Quote:
I keep meaning to write to him and explain how he's shot himself in the foot with the comparison with Nichole Nichols on ST:TOS. His point is that in introducing Uhura Roddenberry was challenging the prejudices of the day, but unlike Whedon he doesn't cop-out and revert to stereotype.

Well, I guess. Uhura was just part of the whole "Internation Crew" thing, of which Sulu was also a part. Uhura was supposed to be from Africa, and Sulu was supposed to be some kind of poly-national Asian. Which was pretty forward for the time (some southern stations refused to carry the ep where Kirk and Uhuru kiss) but not all that enlightened. It would have been a lot more englightened if there had been American characters of African or Asian descent (as there are in real life) and if the central characters and almost all the guest stars (including all the aliens!) had not been conspicuously white Notremericanos.

Quote:

It's an interesting comparison because actually Uhura was a glorified receptionist in space.

Hey, that's not true. She was shown flying the ship and working on the comm hardware -- with a soldering iron! (Very amusing to see those scenes and observe "futuristic" hardware with non-integrated components!) Anyway, it wasn't that big a part, especially when they started dispensing with secondary crew characters in most eps. But it was bigger than that!

Quote:
...they are criticizing someone who took one of the biggest steps forward for gay characters in a long time.

Yeah, except that JW didn't have any such agenda. He just wanted to introduce a new witch character, and it just naturally evolved that she was gay. Which is precisely why the character was so appealing.

Which points out a fact that everybody keeps losing sight of: Whedon is first and last a storyteller. All the high concepts, all the fancy geek stuff, all the special effects, and yes, all the characters are just means to that end. If Tara had been invented for any purpose other than to tell a story, she'd be a lot more boring than she is -- maybe as boring as these silly political arguments.

ZICSOFT

Wednesday, August 21, 2002 8:04 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Hjermsted:

Let's not forget that there is still at least one strong lesbian role model on TV and her name is Willow.

Gawd, I hope not. I do not watch TV shows that feature "role models"!!!

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