Out of Gas: a masterpiece!
POSTED BY: Delvo
UPDATED: Wednesday, January 29, 2003 18:05
VIEWED: 23910
PAGE 7 of 8
Well as this is my fist post I just want to say that I really do enjoy this show. I haven't watched it on TV yet, as I work on Friday when it airs, however I download them quite religiously :)
I think this was a great episode. I love filling in some of the background on the characters, and this episode does an amazing job of showing how real these characters are.
The only problem I had with the show was Kaylee's scene. Now let me explain, I really don't care that she was boffing the ex-machanic. Hey she likes sex, good for her. The only think I don't like about it, was how out-of-character it seemed. Kaylee comes across as very sweet,innocent and naive, which I think is a part of her charm. Now she my have a "darker" side :) However I really haven't seen anything to show it and for the first time it appears for it to be her acting like quite the little nympho just throws me. Like I said, the sex isn't a big deal, but just how out of left field is what threw me. I think maybe it would have been better if Mal caught them in the engine room making out or even if Bester was showing her around and bragging like he was trying to get in her pants. Ah well, she is still a hottie in my book :)
Undeadlord
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:In other words, you think it would have been better if they weren't having sex. So the sex is a big deal for you. In fact it appears to be the only deal. I suppose it's easy to get caught up on the stereotype of the sweet and innocent, which is probably what Whedon intended. However, many of the sweet and innocent girls I know have proven themselves to be quit the little vixens. The point is that just because someone is sweet and innocent doesn't mean they don't like to have sex. Sometimes the appearance of innocence is just a personality trait. But often the innocence is real. You might not be old enough to understand this or you just might not share my opinion, but people can be innocent and still be little vixens. Sexuality and innocence are two completely different things.
Originally posted by Undeadlord:
I think maybe it would have been better if Mal caught them in the engine room making out or even if Bester was showing her around and bragging like he was trying to get in her pants. Ah well, she is still a hottie in my book :)
The popular assumptions made by society is that sex = bad and innocence = good, and therefore the two cannot exist together, but neither of those assumptions are true. Sex is not necessarily bad and innocence is not necessarily good; it's just the way one is until one has acquired enough experience to understand more about the world. Sex and innocence are related in that they are essentially both about one's trust in humanity to some degree, but that doesn't mean that one excludes the other.
Kaylee may be very innocent and lacking in the experience and that might make her appear to be very trusting. That however has absolutely nothing to do with having sex, contrary to popular opinion. So I don't think the sexuality in that scene was the least bit out of character.
-----------
In the Dark Ages, Romano-Celtic Britannia was over-run by Viking-like cultures collectively called the Anglo-Saxons. They were led by warlords called Drytinns, and the greatest warriors among them were the Thegns.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Thegn:Quote:
Kaylee may be very innocent and lacking in the experience and that might make her appear to be very trusting. That however has absolutely nothing to do with having sex, contrary to popular opinion. So I don't think the sexuality in that scene was the least bit out of character.
I agree completely. Kaylee is obviously very uninhibited, but that doesn't mean she isn't innocent and inexperienced.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Rhea:Quote:
Originally posted by Thegn:Quote:
Kaylee may be very innocent and lacking in the experience and that might make her appear to be very trusting. That however has absolutely nothing to do with having sex, contrary to popular opinion. So I don't think the sexuality in that scene was the least bit out of character.
I agree completely. Kaylee is obviously very uninhibited, but that doesn't mean she isn't innocent and inexperienced.
She figured out how to make the ...do-hickey run. While boinking a good-looking guy. Inexperienced? No. Just young
Sensou
Sweet is love when all is sane
Sweet is death to end the pain
Cruel is death when all is well
Cruel is love when all is hell <-fixed it!
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Undeadlord:
The only problem I had with the show was Kaylee's scene. ... The only think I don't like about it, was how out-of-character it seemed. Kaylee comes across as very sweet,innocent and naive, which I think is a part of her charm.
Just goes to show you that looks can be deceiving. It also depends on your society.
Jeff
Who survived the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's, and is not too fond of his society.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Ok, now firstly I've only read *most* of the posts in this thread. There's just soooo many... But I think I need to say why, loving 'Out of Gas' as I do, I disagree with most peoples opinions on two items.
Kaylee in the engine room... I don't think that this detracts from her innocence in any real way at all... If you look at the old-west that this is based upon, there was a lot of innocent sexual playing around going on between young men and women of the period. Often referred to as 'Rolling around in Haystacks' with a bit of a grope and lots of hormones... It was VERY common way back when between small town farmers daughters and the son of the blacksmith or whatever. That's all Kaylee was up to. Think of her as the youngest child meeting a bit of a cuties and going for a quick knee-trembler behind the barn. After all, sexual attitudes have changed a lot over the years. And as for her leaving in Serenity, it's just like Huckleberry Finn going out into the world to earn his fortune. If Huck was female and cute and in his late teens (I still have trouble with the fact that Jewel Staite is only 20!!! She seems older and is AMAZING! Anyone know how old Summer Glau is?)
My second point is Inarra... I don't think she's a whore. Yes, she has sex for money... But it's more than that. She's had extensive training, and I'm willing to bet that 99% of that training concentrated on things other than sex... She's like Counsellor Troi and a Hooker and... Someone motherly and big-sisterly and Wifely all at once. You don't go to Companions just for sex... As Saffron indicated in 'Our Mrs. Reynolds' there are regular Scarlet Women plying a trade of sex for money, but Companions are just that. A companion. You get a listening ear, a pretty smile, someone to listen to your troubles and perhaps offer a little advice... You get a Wife and Mother for a night... or more. To give you a little TLC that is probably sadly missing out on the frontier. Every little boy needs his mother-substitute, and there are lots of little boys in the old west.
Inarra is about as far from being a Whore as it is possible to be. She's more like a Shrink who sleeps with her clients as part of the healing process. I wouldn't be surprised if some men DON'T, in fact, sleep with her but just enjoy the sympathetic ear.
Twelve spheres of unendurable brightness spalled the velvety blackness of space.
The silence on Lester Tourville's flag bridge was absolute
And then the spell was broken as Shannon Foraker looked up from her console from where she had just sent a seemingly innocent command to the main computers of State Security's finest Superdreadnoughts.
"Oops." She said.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
"Mal's already got the most in-demand engineer around, and he just happens to catch that guy screwing the only person who's BETTER? Come on. That's just hopelessly contrived."
Where do you get that from??? Bester was clearly an idiot from the moment he first walked on camera. And Mal knew it, but (it seems implied) hired him anyway because Bester was the best he could come up with. When Mal referred to Bester as "our genius engineer" he was being sarcastic. And to underscore the point, Bester overhears this and says, "Genius? (snicker) Wow, no one's ever called me a genius before!" (duh-huh)
And why are people calling Kaylee "innocent"? She's young, she's sweet, she's tomboyish and she's "boy crazy" (Jewel Staite's own words.) But she's certainly not innocent. If anyone finds finds her sex scene with Bester incongruous, you're clearly not picking up on what Joss Whedon is trying to do with this show in terms of depicting complex, messy, multi-dimensional characters.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:OK, you got me on that detail, but the problem still remains: Just happening to pick up an outstanding engineer because she's screwing aboard the ship with the present one is still obviously just put in there for the sake of throwing in some meaningless sex. So it's still a cheap, lazy, sensationalist, preachy way to fill in a scene by falling back to the tired old you-can-put-it-anywhere-in-the-story default. Sex is the duct tape and caulk of TV; it's used to cobble together and patch over something that wasn't built right in the first place.
Where do you get that from??? Bester was clearly an idiot from the moment he first walked on camera. And Mal knew it, but (it seems implied) hired him anyway because Bester was the best he could come up with.
Quote:Either that, or we're tired of being preached at that throwing sex all over everything equals multidimensional, complex, deep, philosophical character development.
...not picking up on what Joss Whedon is trying to do with this show in terms of depicting complex, messy, multi-dimensional characters.
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Delvo:Quote:OK, you got me on that detail, but the problem still remains: Just happening to pick up an outstanding engineer because she's screwing aboard the ship with the present one is still obviously just put in there for the sake of throwing in some meaningless sex. So it's still a cheap, lazy, sensationalist, preachy way to fill in a scene by falling back to the tired old you-can-put-it-anywhere-in-the-story default. Sex is the duct tape and caulk of TV; it's used to cobble together and patch over something that wasn't built right in the first place.
Where do you get that from??? Bester was clearly an idiot from the moment he first walked on camera. And Mal knew it, but (it seems implied) hired him anyway because Bester was the best he could come up with.Quote:Either that, or we're tired of being preached at that throwing sex all over everything equals multidimensional, complex, deep, philosophical character development.
...not picking up on what Joss Whedon is trying to do with this show in terms of depicting complex, messy, multi-dimensional characters.
While I WILL agree with you that sex is way overused in general on TV, I have to disagree about this particular instance. For me it was an amusing and unexpected way of introducing Kaylee's character. I would also point out that it's the only sex scene we've seen out of eight episodes, which I don't think is that bad. Particularly considering that one of the main characters is a prostitute.
We'll just have to agree to disagree!
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Delvo:
Sex is the duct tape and caulk of TV; it's used to cobble together and patch over something that wasn't built right in the first place.
Either that, or we're tired of being preached at that throwing sex all over everything equals multidimensional, complex, deep, philosophical character development.
BTW- I think for most TV shows, sex is simply a cheap ploy to draw in more viewers, nothing more.
That being the case, I say for the sake of Firefly let'm all start having a whole lotta sex there on Serenity.
NOTIFY: N | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME