'Firefly' rewatch: 'Bushwhacked' by rapacious space cannibals. And Doug Savant. Yes, this is Science Channel.

POSTED BY: HAKEN
UPDATED: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 00:17
VIEWED: 6078
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HAKEN

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 11:04 AM

EW.COM - “Bushwhacked” — the third episode of Firefly’s only, abbreviated season -– contained one of the late, lamented cult classic’s most haunting moments. With his rickety smuggler’s ship about to be boarded and searched by The Alliance, Mal decided to hide fugitive siblings Simon Tam and River from the authorities by sealing them up in spacesuits and stowing them outside. Simon – skeptical that mere “Mylar and glass” could protect him from the “nothing” of space – shuddered in fear. Incapable of even peeking at the infinite star-dotted expanse at his back, the buttoned-up doctor kept his eyes focused on Serenity’s steel hull like a quivering acrophobe terrified of looking down. Not so his sister. Gazing into the abyss, River’s face to lit up with rapt wonder. The “nothing” seemed to quiet the agonizing chaotic riot of her broken internal world. Noting her spacey-mystical bliss, Simon shivered some more and clung harder to Serenity’s battered iron...

http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/03/14/firefly-bushwhacked-science-channel/

PENNAUSAMIKE

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 2:19 PM

Read the article and it was interesting.
Agree with some of it; other parts, not really.
But obviously the writer was interested and entertained.

But THEN:

Read the comments!
Wow, a lot of hatred for "Fireflop".
Terrible this and bad that...
...I don't get it.
And not just because I'm a fan.
I've seen things I didn't like that I thought were well made.
I can see not liking Firefly, but I don't get thinking it was poorly crafted;
hating it for being "bad".

I'm turned off by the way people make a leap from,
"I don't like this" to "If I don't like this, it must be bad",
without ever stopping to consider "I don't like this because it doesn't appeal to my taste".
And because it's about "good" or "bad",
people (who's tastes are different) must also be bad, not just different.
And then the bashing begins.

I see this tendency even on fan boards.
Discussions become arguments when the topic stops being about different tastes and becomes good versus bad.
If folks could separate quality from taste,
things sure would be more peaceful on the internet!

Mike

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 2:36 PM

The hate you see on the article is pretty simple: they're trolls. If you look carefully, you'll notice they don't give a whole lot of justification for their opinions, rather, they're just throwing out a lot of controversial comments. It's not so much they don't like Firefly, but that they like trying to get a rise out of people from behind the anonymous safety of their computer screen. Most of them also slander a number of other fandoms to try to bait them to come out, not realizing the fandoms in question have no real overlap with Firefly. In any case, an online pop culture magazine with high hit counts is going to attract a bunch of trolls.

As for why people in general don't like it... Some of them the sense of humour or the western in space concept didn't jive, but most of them will just shrug and be disappointed by the overhype, not go on the attack. So most of the outspoken haters actually have ulterior reasons for hating the show unrelated to their actual perception of the quality of the show.

Some hate any form of "soft sci-fi," some hate anything that isn't their fandom, some accuse Firefly of being a rip off of other series, and some hate firefly because they were Buffy and Angel fans and thought Firefly was "distracting" Joss.

Incompatibility with the concept or humour style, or overhype disappointment is understandable. But the other reasons or taking it too far qualifies as:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HateDumb

BYTEMITE

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 3:10 PM

As for the article itself, I agree with the author insights on Mal. "I'm only keeping around federal fugitives with frozen bank accounts for their non-existent fare." "The only reason I'm defending her reputation is because she gets us security clearance and pays the rent on time." "I didn't really care about the victims, I just didn't want my crew panicking, that'd be annoying, so I let them put on a little funeral to set their nerves at ease."

Uh huh. Sure Mal. You're a real bad man. 9_9

Don't really agree with his complaints about Book's arc (lots of people have been interested in his backstory, so it clearly wasn't poorly written) or the depiction of Book as a preacher. But then, the author admitted her perception is being coloured by the fact that she knows Joss is actually an existential atheist.

DMI

Tuesday, March 15, 2011 9:10 PM

Good article. I think her comments about Book are a little bit of a personal pet peeve and not all that well-founded (the episode was written by Tim Minear, not Whedon; what religion is MInear?) but still worth noting. I'll pay a little more attention to the quality of Book's lines in the Whedon-written episodes next time I watch the series. However, I have to say that I wasn't entirely pleased with the comic book.

As for the trolls, I think they got sufficiently roasted by the browncoats after they made their comments. My favorite was, "aaaw Megan… did Firefly sleep with your boyfriend?"

-----------------------------
I pray for one last landing,
on the globe that gave me birth.
Let me rest my eyes on the fleecy skies
and the cool, green hills of Earth.

RIONAEIRE

Wednesday, March 16, 2011 12:17 AM

That is one of the great moments (there are many) of Firefly, I love seeing how happy and amazed and at peace River is in space, and its funny to see the contrast between her reaction and Simon's. If I were River's caregiver I would definitely want to take her out there more often because she really enjoys it, I know Simon doesn't fancy it/it scares him, but he could send River out with Kaylee or Wash, someone who doesn't mind sitting out there with her sometimes.

"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya