Mal getting dumber?

2 things I've always felt:

Mal always was smart about some things-- war, violence, crime, the evil intent of other folks-- and always DUMB about some things, especially women. Sometimes the dumb outshone the smarts.

Second, IMHO, the writing got better as the show went along. I think it took Joss and Tim a few eps to really feel and understand what they wanted to do, and what would work. This is a common situation in TV. There are a lot of shows where the first half of the first season was a learning experience, where the writers were discovering what their characters were really all about, what the audiences wanted, what the actors were really capable of, what the studio and network would buy.

The Pilot is the exception- they had longer to think about it, to revise and polish. But that's why the Train Job and Bushwacked are relatively weak, and less favored. It took 'till at least Shindig and JaynesTown for Joss and Tim ( and Jane Espenson, don't wanta leave her out.) to hit their stride.

That's what's wrong with the BDM, too, IMO. Joss and all had been away for years, and they didn't quite get it right when they came back.

But a few more eps in the first season, everything would have started working even better, and the results would have been success, high ratings, Emmys, respect from Fox, and the show would still be running. That's the tragedy of the cancellation- the potential was there, sometimes shining thru like diamonds in the mud. A little more time and it would have been all diamonds.

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Originally posted by NewOldBrownCoat:

That's what's wrong with the BDM, too, IMO. Joss and all had been away for years, and they didn't quite get it right when they came back.

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Them fightin' words....


The laughing Chrisisall

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Originally posted by Channain:
Technically he's the Protagonist.

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THAT's the word I should have used, thank you. :)

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AgentRouka wroute:
Which is, though, the case with all tv shows that have an overarching super-plot. Not many tv shows, these days, can be just watched out of order without impairing the full enjoyment of the show.

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The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Lost. Well, and 24. But I can't watch those because I can't afford to get involved. There's not enough time in the day to watch that much TV.

Oh, and Battlestar Galactica, but I'd have to be pretty tired and busy to stay away from that.

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Farscape is pretty plotty, so only few eps should be viewed out of order. Hell, Gilmore Girls has developing plot arch. House does. Most tv shows that aren't procedural dramas really do. Do you really think that most don't have season-long plots that are being developed?

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AgentRouka wrote:
Except a lot of that frustration is relaed to events within the pilot, or how do you figure Simon and River and Book in there? In terms of chronology, Mal actually goes through an upward arc, mood-wise, during the course of the show. Things go reasonably well, there are several instances where his crew-family connection is confirmed... The acidious darkness of the pilot would seem like a contradiction.

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I did say it was early here, right?

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I see.

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Perhaps it would have been better to say that Mal's anger at the level that it was in the Pilot would have fit in well in a season two episode. How's that?

See, in my pre-second-espresso fog, I'm lost in a fantasy world imagining a full run of 22 episodes in season one and a shiny happy renewal to season 2. *sigh*

That happens sometimes when I haven't had enough sleep or coffee and the barometer around here is down in the 29.8's. Tends to make me all bibbilty.

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Awww. I understand. Lack of coffee is a harsh thing, but having one's coffee-deprivation-induced pleasant halucinations shattered is just cruel.

So what do you see happening in the remaining 8 Season One episodes that would justify Mal's anger? A general development toward the problems that the movie opens with? In that case, it would make sense, but I like to think that Mal's anger is a direct response to stressful conditions, so it makes sense at any point that jobs are scarce and danger is high - like in the pilot and the beginning of the movie, or whenever anyone threatens his ship. :)

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AgentRouka wrote...
Farscape is pretty plotty, so only few eps should be viewed out of order. Hell, Gilmore Girls has developing plot arch. House does. Most tv shows that aren't procedural dramas really do. Do you really think that most don't have season-long plots that are being developed?

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Oh... *sniff* FarScape. I fell for Firefly as hard as I did because I was missing FarScape so bad after it's cancellation. You think Fox is bad? HA! It has nothing on Sci-Fi.

I bet if you take the series you just mentioned, and put them up against all the Reality TV and fluff TV that is on the air right now - filling the gaps between advertising - you will find only a small handful with WORTHY season-long plots being developed. the kind that make you want to sit down and watch them all the way through like a video novel. Firefly was good that way, in fact it's the only thing even remotely good about only having 13 episodes. They can all be watched in one day.

I've done that, actually, on sick days from work. It would probably be classified as my own personal form of Tweaking.

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AgentRouka wrote...
Awww. I understand. Lack of coffee is a harsh thing, but having one's coffee-deprivation-induced pleasant halucinations shattered is just cruel.

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Isn't it? There's days I just can't cut break.

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AgentRouka wrote...
So what do you see happening in the remaining 8 Season One episodes that would justify Mal's anger? A general development toward the problems that the movie opens with? In that case, it would make sense, but I like to think that Mal's anger is a direct response to stressful conditions, so it makes sense at any point that jobs are scarce and danger is high - like in the pilot and the beginning of the movie, or whenever anyone threatens his ship. :)

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You can't have that much anger without some foundations. Stress doesn't create it, it makes it come out.

Inara leaving, Book leaving, losing Wash - those three things wouldn't have happened all at once. They would have happened sequentially over time. I believe Inara gave Mal cause to put on some company manners from time to time that kept him from diving deep into his anger.

Book reminded him of some of what he was angry about - or rather, Whom he was angry with - which would be God. Mal wasn't an aetheist or anything. You can't be as pissed at God as he was without acknowledging there's something to be pissed off at. Having Book around gave him someone to channel his anger at from time to time. Although I think Book was getting to him on some level, if not a spiritual one. Must have, or the two of them wouldn't have shared a friendly cigar in the movie.

Jobs would indeed continue to get scarce as the Alliance began to exert more and more control over the 'verse. Maybe it would have gotten to a point where they had to set down and couldn't even get Serenity off the dirt because they didn't have the coin for fuel.

Maybe Mal would have to compromise his principals to get coin to get back to the black, hate himself for it, and has his own little crash down. I would have liked to have seen if he would hit rock bottom or just blow up and bust.

The main problem with all of this is the use of the word "maybe" in all of it. How it's all so gorram hypothetical. How Firefly ended before its time.


Veteran of the Throes of Cancellation—FFF.net fan since 010703
Doing the impossible makes us mighty
Minnesota Browncoats
http://www.mnfirefly.com/portal/html/index.php

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